Golden Birthday

Today my husband and I are celebrating our golden birthday - - 27 on the 27th!

I'm not sure what I was expecting for this day, but it feels good to be surrounded by loved ones and growing older with the love of my life. I'm planning on enjoying the rest of my vacation in Chicago and can't wait to blog about everything that has been going on - - in particular, the craziness that I witnessed at the 

Summer of the Sexy event held @ Sawtooth in the West Loop, along with the scariest boss ever @ Perez Mexican Restaurant.

Summertime in Chicago has a way of luring your back into city life and is making me feel nostalgic. Is a move in my future? Who knows... but for now I hope to see as many people as I can before I head back to South Carolina.

To everyone that has already sent birthday wishes my way, THANK YOU!!! I appreciate being shown so much love... even if Facebook is giving you a reminder and making it super easy lol... it's the thought that counts :)

TGIFresh Friday

I'm on a much needed vacation in Chicago right now and it feels like my social life has been revived!!! Although I'm clearly over the "club" scene (I've been donating $ to the cause since I was 18 lol), it's always refreshing to get together with my girlfriends and have a night out.

I've heard great things about the TGIFresh Friday events and am looking forward to attending Summer Madness next week. Best part? Although an RSVP is required it's free before 1030p! I'm all about fun times on a budget... or better yet, fun times for free.

Sidebar: My birthday is Monday!!! Yay for turning 27... still sounds kinda weird to say that number out loud. Like, what in the hell is 27?? lol... but I'll be using this event which is a few days later as my semi-official b-day outing. If you want to come celebrate with me please click the flyer to send your rsvp. You'll receive an email confirmation with a TICKET that must be printed out... and it has your name on it too!! Very fancy and high tech lol... I love how they're cutting down on craziness at the door.

What to do when your deodorant quits on you...

Today marks the first official day of summer and in South Carolina the humidity is intense!! I'd been a faithful Secret deodorant user for years, but recently felt like it was starting to fail me. I wouldn't even be engaging in strenuous activity, but it felt like my "Secret" was on the loose. There's nothing worse than feeling self-conscious about how you smell, and if anyone else can tell your pits are rebelling it's quite embarrassing.

My mother has sworn by Degree deodorant for years and she never smells bad lol... so I decided to make a switch and give the brand a try. It's been a few days and I can already see, and smell, the difference! Degree deodorant is amazeballs!!


My husband commented that I smelled like baby  powder and I realized it was my pits... I was in heaven! After a ton of activities my pits were smelling super sweet (and not ripe lol) so Degree has been a success so far.


I've heard of people changing their face/body wash or shampoo/conditioner up because it feels like their body got used to it, but it never dawned on me that the same good be true for something like deodorant. Have you had to change up your brand recently?

The Four Agreements

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, is a book that has been on my must-read list the past few months.  As a Mexican Shaman, Ruiz wrote the book as a guide to personal freedom.

In an effort to "expose self-limiting beliefs" Ruiz offers four "simple, yet effective" rules for personal conduct:

1. Be impeccable with your word
2. Don't take anything personally
3. Don't make assumptions
4. Always do your best

These seem easy enough but when faced with living your life by these rules you may realize appearances are deceiving. In my own life I find that I do take things personally from time to time, do not always put forth my best effort, can waver on my word, and sometimes make assumptions. Ruiz believes that by living our lives with these four principles as a guide we can eliminate many of the struggles we encounter. I, for one, am interested in seeing how accurate his theory is.

For the next week I'm going to try living my life by these principles, focusing on one each day for the first four days, then perfecting all of them the remaining seven.

Twitter Crews & Blogging Boos

Recently Clutch Magazine penned an article about cyber-friendships and questioned whether there was a limit to how much value one should place in them. Being someone that values both my real life friends and "blogging boos", I value the cyber friendships I've established via my blog, YouTube page, and other social media sites.

Somewhere in my perfect world I would love to organize a bloggers vacay with all of the wonderful ladies I've been able to meet online,which I hope doesn't sound strange lol... I mean, if people can meet their future spouses online it seems well within reason to find compatible friendships the same way.

Anyways, my top 3 favorite cyber friends I have yet to meet in person...

1. Bajan Beauty @ Curves and Confidence - The fashionable e-friend. I love her personal style and often resort to her blog for fashion inspiration. We're similar sizes so I feel like I get great ideas of how things would look on me by looking at her... although I think she has more booty than me and I have more boobs... but anyways I love her blog and would love to raid her closet in real life.

2. Alisha @ Because I Said So - The "never short of an opinion" e-friend. Alisha is a talented writer and my go-to blogger for literary fun. Reading her opinions on everything from black women in the media, to music and natural hair, she's very opinionated and I'm sure we could talk for hours about everything.

3. Danyelle @ MsDanti1 - "The Makeup and all things Girly" e-friend. Besides the fact that I'm in love with her eyebrows lol, Danyelle is a beast with the makeup brush and I know she could beat my face to perfection! Aside from the obvious perks of having a friend with makeup skills, she radiates good vibes and honestly, though it sounds corny, she looks like my type of girl! lol... she's super photogenic, seems like fun, and just looking at her I think "Wow, we'd totally be best friends".

Also, I have a few blogging "friends in my head" that I don't interact with but still love their blogs. Those honorable mentions:

1. Gabi @ Young, Fat, and Fabulous
2. Taye @ Stuff She Likes


Who tops your list of blogging boos?

Life Without Cable Pt. 3

This post should have been titled: I love Netflix!

The journey my husband and I have been on to downgrade our cable services, all with hopes of living cable-free, has hit a plateau. We were able to get our bill down to a comfortable price and we discovered the joys of Netflix.

I can't say enough positive things about the Netflix service. I'm sure being able to live stream HD quality shows via his Playstation 3 is a huge factor, but I just love the ease of using this service. On top of the convenience the selection is vast and has something for everyone.

We've been able to discover new (to us) shows and watch entire seasons at a time. High on my list of favorites are: 24, Glee, Swamp People .... and my husband's favorites Ancient Aliens and Battlestar Galactica - - which I'll admit can hold my attention though I have no clue what's going on with the storyline lol.

For now Netflix has given me a lot of hope that I could survive life in a household free of cable... but when I think about it, I kinda love TV, I love my DVR even more... so why live life without it? lol...