Home for the Holidays with African Pride + $2500 #Giveaway

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is in a few weeks and Christmas is around the corner.  This is time of year to focus on family. We hustle and grind all year without spending time with family.  The holidays are a time when we can slow down and take time to focus on spending quality time with our loved ones. 

Big Hearts + Self-Esteem

After having daughter, you realize how important self-esteem is.  As soon as little girls start school, they start comparing themselves to other girls. We don't want our daughters to feel like they less beautiful than another little girl.  Building self-esteem starts with us moms, aunts, grandmas and tee tees.  I love that Dove is committed to encourage women to pass their positive beauty image down to the next generation.

Oprah's Life You Want Notes +Takeaways

Oprah and her posse took over Atlanta (aka Olanta) last weekend for the Life You Want Weekend.  I’m still all in my feeling after attending Oprah’s Life You Want Weekend.  I just want to hug everybody, well not everybody but you know the feeling.   With work and mommy duties, I wasn't able to attend the kickoff events that Friday.  I got my butt up super early Saturday morning to make my way to hang with Oprah for the day.   I’m not going to go into crazy details about the event other than it was AMAZING.  But I do want to share my some of my “Aha!”  moments with you.  

Lil Rock Star

I hope you all had a great weekend.  Today is Peyton's first day of pre-K!  I hope her day goes well.  A few of her close friends are in her class but she doesn't have a problem making new friends.  I may or may not have shed one thug tear when I dropped her off this morning.  They grow up too fast!  Speaking of growing up, check out this amazing fringe skirt from Posh Peyton that P is rocking.  I want one!  I know some of you are already SMHing, saying this skirt is too grown.  Relax, it's just fringe. Oh...this is not what she wore on the first day of school, you can check out what she wore on Instagram.

Back to School Suitcase

Now is the perfect time to stock up on school supplies for both school and home because there are so many deals.  I try to keep a few boxes of crayons on deck for when Peyton’s stash is depleted because of Mister and I stepping on them all the time.  Crayons, papers and coloring books are everywhere in our house.   Peyton has a desk but her drawing and coloring take place everywhere else.   In an attempt to decrease the mess, I put together this little back to school suitcase to keep all her items.

Mister's Party by Park Avenue Events

Mister's birthday party came and went.  We had such a fabulous time, our friends and family are still talking about it.  I called myself planning early so I wouldn't be overwhelmed.  #WRONG.  A few weeks before the party I started to freak out and have nightmares that people would show up and I would have a bonnet on my head, wearing ratty sweats and a t-shirt.  I started venting on twitter.  After my rant, I got an email from Hester, the owner of Park Avenue Events saying she would like to help me out with the event I was planning.  Look at Gawd! 

Cool Back to School Accessories for Boys+Girls

Remember when you were heading back to school and you would see all the cute Lisa Frank note books, pencils and book bags but your  mom never got them for you.  Were you the only one with plain yellow #2 pencils when other kids had cool ones with designs and characters on them?  Let's not do that to our children.  I picked out a hand full of cute accessories for boys and girl that may help get them a little more excited about going back to school and stand out from the crowd.

Early 60's Birthday Party

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I'm switching things up a bit today.  Instead of Peyton doing her thang, you're getting the whole Baby Shopaholic family today.  Mister's big birthday party was almost 2 weeks ago and I'm still tired.  The party started out with a Mad Men theme but I was afraid it would get to corny and went with an early 60's theme instead. 

The Diet Diaries: Prepare or Prepare to Fail

I figured out the secret to weight loss success!  The secret is to PREPARE!  It’s that simple.  Well, preparing is not that simple but if you do it you will lose weight.  I never realized how important being prepared is when you are trying to lose weight.  It makes all the difference.

The Diet Diaries: What to Eat?

Last week I shared my diet and fitness struggle with you.  The struggle is real out here!  The hardest part for me is eating right.   On top of eating right, I don't like cooking.  Plus, I don't have the time.  I wish I could afford a chef or a fresh meal delivery service.  I would loose this weight in not time.  Unfortunately, I don't have it like that.

The Diet Diaries

A diet can mean two things. The kind of food a person eats or a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.  I need to change my "diet" in order to loose weight and to prevent life threatening diseases.  I figured I would start health and fitness conversation on the blog.  I'm not going to tell you how to lose weight,  what to eat and what workouts to do.  I plan to share what I'm doing to reach my goals and my ups and downs getting there.  I think putting it out there will hold me accountable and maybe help someone else.

Father's Day Finds at Neimans

I still don't believe it's June already and Father's Day is next week!  Father's Day has crept up on me.  Why is it so tough to shop for men?  I really feel they don't care what you get them as long as you let them play golf that day.  Any who... I found a few things that Mister may be excited about from Neiman Marcus for well under $200!

1. | 2. | 3. | 4. | 5. | 6. | 7.

What Maya Angelou Taught Me

Maya Angelou, a phenomenal woman, passed on this week.  Reading all the beautiful posts and quotes on Instagram had me all in my feelings this week.  This amazing women lived like twenty different lives.  Maya Angelou was a poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor and who knows what other things she did.  She is a perfect example of the American Dream!  If you fall down, you can get back up, and start over.  

Minted Baby Announcements + Giveaway

When I had Peyton, I only knew of a few places to go to get birth announcements.  I mean, they were cute because they had Peyton's newborn picture on them but other than that, it looks like I just sent out a 4x6 print with some writing.  Being the crazy shopping mama that I am, I would have liked to send out announcements that say "Yas Honey! I have arrived!"  Too bad I wasn't familiar with Minted at time because their announcements will help your baby make a grand entrance.

Mothers living with HIV #StopHIVTogether

Becoming a mother is a beautiful thing.  But it may not feel so beautiful if you found you were pregnant and HIV positive at the same time.  Both Michelle and Masonia share their story of living with HIV and being a mother.  Please listen to these brave mother's stories on they live their lives with HIV.

Becoming a Mompreneur Part II

A friend shared a powerful quote with me on Facebook last week that stuck with me.  The picture read "If you don't take risks, you will always work for someone who does" - author unknown.  If that ain't the truth!  I had to get my girl Tasha from Imperfect Concepts to come back and drop some gems about following your dreams and becoming a Mompreneur.  

Cherokee Queen

If you have a little girl age 2 and up, I'm pretty sure she is obsessed with Frozen or Queen Elsa.  Don't shoot me but I never watched Disney movies growing up so I'm not into these princess movies.  I may have saw one or two in my life.  But my little Miss Peyton, Obsessed!  She watches the movie almost every day and has the Let it Go song down loaded on every device, including Mister's phone.   She called my mom yesterday and song her the WHOLE song and would not give me the phone until she was done.  At the end, my mom was like, "What was she singing?" LOL!  With that being said, Peyton is back on the princess kick.  She only wants to wear princess dresses like Queen Elsa and of course a crown.  Peyton has been begging to wear this beautiful dress she recently received from Cherokee line from Target.

Cherokee dress c/o Target | Cherokee shoes, Target | Crown, H+M | Bangles c/o LoveMyAlannah

My Motivation for Grinding #McCafeGrind

This post is brought to you by McDonald’s®. I have partnered with them to spread the word about McCafé® Coffee.

People don’t grind for no reason at all.  No one just wakes up and say, I’m going to “Go hard today” with no motivation behind it.  Yeah, we got bills to pay, gotta keep the lights on and eat.  But what is the real motivation?  I could easily say Peyton motivates me to keep grinding.  She does motivate me to a certain extent, because I want her to have the best life possible.  But person that motivates me the most is my Mom. 

Becoming an Mompreneur by Imperfect Concepts

After starting this blog, I have been blessed to connect with some amazing women that are beautiful, smart, driven and just good people.  Being in the in the company of these awesome women is nothing short of inspiring.  Even though I'm getting close to *clears throat* to forty, I know I can still peruse my dreams.  Some of y'all may not know I used to have my own jewelry line, clothing company, and styling (I still do).  After having a Peyton, my attention was focused on her.  

God put the thought of starting a blog with her in my head, even though I didn't really know what a blog was.  And here we are!  I'm saying all this to say, we can be moms and still go after our dreams.  While I head to the "West Side" *in my Ice Cube voice* for LuckFabb, one of my genius friends and business consultant, Tasha from Imperfect Concepts is going to drop some gems on working your way to becoming an Momprenuer. 

Rise + Grind with Free Coffee #McCafeGrind

Some driven people say “You’re never too busy.  You can make time”.  I am too busy! And I don’t have time.  In addition to running this beautiful blog that you love : ), I work full-time outside the home, take care of my amazing daughter, attend and host events, cook (on occasion) and try to look put together while doing it.  Oh wait, I have a husband too!  Mister needs his quality time and “medicine”.  I’m tired just thinking about it.  Every day is a grind!