I still use the Caboodles makeup case my sister bought me when I was 11, in the late '80s. it was the first thing she ever bought for me. She had gone away to boarding school and we went from sharing a bedroom to becoming pen pals. We've been long distance sisters since then because after high school she went on to other schools and only came back home to visit. Back then, I looked forward to slumber parties and overnight road trips just so I could take my black, white and hot pink Caboodles case along. In those days it housed, like, every flavor of Bonne Bell lip gloss, clear mascara (yes clear, because my mom didn't let me start wearing mascara until I was in 9th grade, but even then it was brown--might as well have been clear), and brown lip liner. I used it all through college too. So I'm attached to it for sentimental reasons and because it's awesome. No reason to replace it. I've tried to upgrade to one of those slick, fancy train cases I see everywhere, but this old plastic thing holds SO much more than the newer ones. Over 20 years with the same makeup case...has to be a record.
Bonus Confession: I just parted with the deep lavender lip pencil and gloss duo that I used on my wedding day almost 9 years ago. I haven't used it in years. It's just that every time I cleaned out my stash I held on to it for sentimental reasons, I guess. Finally got rid of it a few days ago. There was something fuzzy growing under the plastic cap on the pencil end, so it was time.
No parking lots and shopping cart gridlock for me today. In between a breakfast and lunch of macaroni pie (my favorite Thanksgiving dinner leftover) and coffee, I spent my morning bundled up at the playground with my toddler and my afternoon napping while he did. Even though there was no Black Friday shopping for me, I did put together a list of black things that I'd be oh so happy to unwrap on any given Friday.
1. Tiered Velvet Trim Dress, Forever21-$28 2. Converse by John Varvatos-$200 3. Kooba cross body bag-$469 4. BlackBerry Tour9630 5. Idris Elba. He's not really on my list per se. This is just one for...um...you single ladies. Mhm.
So yesterday I got an insane amount of traffic on my website. I thought it was because of my video blog post, but the views count was nowhere near what the traffic was. So I took a closer look at my stats. About a third of my traffic came from Google searches.
Question 1: Why does my blog show up number 1 in Google for the search term "neighbor flashing" and for "show my panties", number 5? (Update: Yes, I have committed these acts and blogged about them here, but why I gotta show up so high in the search results? *blushes*)
I hate to disappoint all those people who clicked in and obviously, er, hopefully didn't see what they where hoping to. Which leads me to my next question...
Question 2: Why where so many people searching for those phrases, and on the SAME DAY?!
Maybe yesterday was just a good day for pervyness. *shrugs shoulders*
This is the first of a new round of video blog posts I'll be sharing with my readers and YouTube subscribers. I think it will be fun talking to you guys! This one is for Makeup Monday, but moving forward I'll be chatting with my homegirls (and guys) about books, films, fashion, beauty, crazy run-ins with strangers, anything--whenever the spirit moves me!
And y'all, please subscribe to my YouTube page. I have some cool things planned to share with my YouTube subscribers that won't always make it to HomeGirl. I do sing and play guitar daily and may or may not be planning to pay homage to some of my favorite singer-songwriter acoustic guitarists on film. Just sayin'.
Friday night I went to see New York I Love You. I hadn't heard about the film until I checked our local art house theater to see what was playing. Whenever I have free moments to get out without my son, I like to take in films there. If you are not familiar with my film reviews, I really enjoy films about love and random glimpses into everyday lives, especially ones with multiple stories that are not connected, where characters overlap, you know? Like,one story might be about a couple breaking up over dinner, then the next story would be about their waiter who goes home to an alcoholic wife. The stories are sometimes sad and depressing, but sometimes love is too-- teenage hearts break, spouses cheat, relationships dissolve or carry on in unhappily. Then there are the uplifting ones where relationships start and last forever in spite of seemingly impossible circumstances. I've written about some of my favorite films and HBO shows from writer/director Rodrigo García, Nine Lives, Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her, Tell Me You Love Me and In Treatment. These kinds of films are always PACKED with some of the most amazing actors and are like reminders that everybody has a story.
New York I Love You features more than 20 awesome actors including Andy Garcia and Ethan Hawk (yow.za!). This film is reminder that everybody has a love story--whether it's new love, love lost, familial love, everlasting love, unrequited love, forbidden love,or love only hoped for. The one story this film was missing was black love. I know there's some black lovin' goin' on in NYC--just sayin'. Still, it was an awesome theater experience. I highly recommend this film. Watch the trailer:
Ok. So here's the short of it (pun intended): I'm into cropped leather jackets right now. And by "into", I mean admire them on people who have the body type to wear them and who do so well. As I've mentioned before, I'm very busty and since I have no desire to look like a lampshade, I'm steering clear of these for the moment. However, should I shed the remaining 30ish pounds that are currently still working with and achieve a little more proportion, I'm all over this style. So feminine and slightly bad-ass. If I where to ever literally get into cropped leather jackets, I would wear them with a plain tank, skinny jeans and heels like Ciara, Beyonce and Rihanna 'nem...sans the sunglasses, a few inches on the heels and the extra pointy shoulder pads.
These picks are pricey, but pretty. Fortunately, this style is very
trendy,so your favorite shop is likely to have them at more reasonable
prices.
Items in this set: Preen jacket, $749; DAY Birger et Mikkelsen jacket, $700; Rock & Republic jacket, $658;Arden B jacket, $58
When it comes to wearing makeup, I rarely emphasize my eyes and lips at the same time. Personally, I think one should always choose one or the other to play up. My lips are very full, and don't need much help in the emphasis department. So I almost always choose to play up my eyes.
Enter Lancôme Hypnôse Mascara ($24). Y'all, this stuff has changed my mascara life. It was in a swag bag at the National Mocha Moms conference this year. I only recently started wearing it.
One layer=baby-doll
lashes, you know, the ones that look like mini paint brushes? Two layers="are you wearing falsies?" I have it in waterproof
and usually wear it with nothing else on my face but mineral powder, sheer, pink lip gloss and eyebrow gel.
I saw this at the neighborhood grocery store tonight. I was standing in line and the lights went out. I was terrified (Confession: I am afraid of the dark. Deathly. No exaggeration), but just before I belted out a scream, they came back on. While we where waiting for the cash register to reboot, I checked the magazine rack and saw her. She's the first Mrs. President to ever cover the magazine, but it's not just because she's pretty. She's being honored for devotion to mentoring young girls. Some people are saying that Michelle is getting too much exposure. I, however, could SO get use to seeing her on magazine covers. She's all long and brown and Mrs. Presidential. And those arms!
I have been trying to wear green eyeshadow for a couple of years now. I have tried green shadows by several drugstore brands, but either the color came out too loud and showgirly or didn't show up enough to matter. On a recent trip to Target (honestly, on any given day I have made a "recent" trip to Target), I discovered Loreal's Hip High Intensity Eye Pencil in Green ($8). It is a pencil, so it goes on with way less effort and with way more precision than a shadow with as much pigment.
These pics are of my first time wearing it and I.Am.Hooked. In the pics, the green pencil shades my upper and lower lids, a black liner by Stila rims my entire eye and a bit of Lancome Hypnose mascara finishes the look. This eye like two minutes. The green is so subtle and complementary to brown skin that I feel as comfortable wearing this on a regular day of play dates and errands with my toddler as I would at a party or night out playing with grown-ups. It is SO my new everyday liner ( I will avoid saying something along the lines of my black eyeliner being "green with envy" because it is such as obvious play on words...even though I totally want to because it's just the perfect measure of wit and cheese for me, but I will spare you guys this time...OK...nope...I can't take it...I have to say it...). My black eyeliner is officially green with envy.
There's also a deep purple pencil in this line that is just screaming my name. Purple is my favorite color, you know.
Homegirls, if you want a special eye, with a pop of on-trend color without all the fuss of dealing with an eyeshadow, definitely check out Loreal's Hip line.
Hi. My name is Raquel. I'm 31 (or 32? I honestly can't remember), and I still love butterflies. Can't help it. I have butterfly jewelry, hoodies, tops, hair clips...I'm even contemplating a new butterfly tattoo! I fell in love with them as a girl, like most girls do. Back then, I loved them just because they're pretty. Now, I think I'm drawn to them more because of what they represent: beauty, transformation, freedom. A few years ago, I blogged about listening to a song by Corinne Bailey Rae (note to self--find her album on iPod and hit play/repeat during my drive today) called "Butterfly" and simultaneously seeing and hearing "butterfly" and how I felt it was a sign of some kind. When I have moments like that, I feel like such a twelve year-old. In some ways I feel like that's a good thing. Twelve year-olds dream with a kind of hopeful naivety that I miss sometimes. Although I'm in my 30's now and have traded doodling butterflies on my notebooks in school for sketching potential butterflies tattoos, I still wear them whenever I can. My favorite everyday butterfly thing is a gold pendant necklace like the one pictured below. My favorite special butterfly thing is a diamond and sapphire pendant necklace my husband gave me on my 30th birthday (one or two years ago--seriously, I need to check the dates to figure out how old I am). Here are some sweet butterfly things for my fellow butterfly-loving homegirls.
1. "Oh, Jesus!" From my 20 month old son as he was finishing his breakfast. He was trying to get that last scoop of oatmeal from the bottom of the bowl and belted the words out. He also says, "Oh boy" at times...and once he said, "Oh shit." These are phrases that, apparently, are used way too frequently by the grown-ups in this house. We really need to work on better phrases.
2. "Your dog is in my garage." 3. "I have your dog." 4. "I found your dogs." 5. "I have your dogs, please call me."
Phrases 2-5 all came from four different neighbors, who live on four different blocks, on the same day. We never check our voice mail on our house phone. I'm not even sure why we still have a house phone. This morning I decided to check the 29 calls we had missed over the past month or so and got all the dog messages, one after the other. Okie and Stella, are huge, black Labrador-Newfoundland mutts, which could seem threatening if seen running towards you at top speed, which they totally do when they're out. I'm glad we live in a dog-happy neighborhood and that we have their names, address and phone number on their tags. I recall coming home one day--weeks ago--to find one of our dogs lounging under the tree in our front yard and the other balled up on the welcome mat at the front door. We forgot to lock the back fence and they know how to open it. I knew they must have run around the neighborhood like crazy dogs when they got out, because they where way to laid back for my taste. Guess I was right.
I am slowly making my way through the November 2009 issue of Essence Magazine. GREAT articles. I recommend The Root of the Issue starting on page 137. On their website, Essence describes this conversation between singer
Solange Knowles; singer Ledisi; TV host Tanika Ray; celebrity
hairstylist Ursula Stephen; and writer and producer Tonya Lewis Lee as
provocative, hilarious and heartbreaking at moments, and I could not
agree more. Essence Magazine, can we please have more of these
conversation pieces? At one point when Ledisi was talking about how she
reacted to seeing herself as beautiful for the first time, I was nodding
and cosigning as if I where right there on the sofa next to her. A
friend of mine reacted the same way as she read some of Nia Long's
comments. And Solange is so smart and funny!
I already knew that since she's one of the few celebrities that I follow on Twitter. Getting to "hear" her in a conversation like this was like confirmation. We could totally be friends in real life. I mean that. *hoping I don't sound like a crazy stalker or whatever because it's SO not like that.* Moving on. Readers get to be a fly on the wall as these smart, beautiful black women
discuss their relationships with their hair with insights into the
broader topic of our standards of beauty. There is laughter and there are tears--y'all know we can turn on the waterworks when we get into these types of discussions. I really enjoyed reading it and was disappointed when it was over. Have you read it? You should.
Today, one red balloon. Tomorrow, The Universe! Hehe.
My baby loved being Super Zack this weekend. He handed his costume to me this morning and said, "Super Zack? Thank you." So I'm going to let him be Super Zack today too. I think everybody will feel much safer on the playground and in the grocery store with Super Z around.
Amy Chua: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother I'm reading this one as part of a Mocha Moms book club. Amy Chua was the keynote speaker at our National Conference in Las Vegas last year. She made a great impression on me. Cannot wait to read her book and discuss with other moms. I'll also review it here on Homegirl.
Tad Hills: How Rocket Learned to Read My son loves this book! He's learning to read now, so he relates to Rocket. At night, he says he wants to wake up with a waggy tail, ready for class. :-)
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Clinique Beauty Reviews!
During 2009 and 2010, I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of 20 U.S. Clinique Insiders. As a Clinique Beauty Insider, I did monthly videos and written reviews of Clinique cosmetics and skincare products. There are new Insiders now, but my 2010 reviews are still over there. A few of the best ones from my 2 years with them can be found on Clinique's Youtube and Facebook pages. Enjoy!
