Homegirl Quel (kel) in Austin

Out With The Toddler, In With The Handbags

My toddler will be starting preschool next month. More importantly, I will no longer have to lug around diapers and kid food, juice boxes and race cars all day in a (quite awesome, you may recall) HUGE tote bag. Finally, during the day at least, my bag will be all about me again! :)

I have always been a fan of huge bags. Pre-baby, I carried around lots of stuff. Back then, I needed a bag that was big enough to hold a bottle of water, 1 or 2 magazines, a makeup pouch a really big wallet, cell, lotion, gum,  yada yada yada you get the picture.  Now that toddler-freedom is upon me, and I have upped my gadget count, I will need an even bigger bag to accommodate all that stuff listed above, plus a netbook and a couple of cameras. But this one does not have to b water/baby-gunk proof. And on days that I am just making quick runs for lunch with friends or (yayee) to see a matinee, I can actually carry something that is small and pretty and has absolutely nothing to do with being a mom-person.

Here are just a few of the bags I'm coveting at the moment. I am seriously hoping to see one or two of these in my future:

Biguns

These bags by Joes Jeans (white) and Olivia Harris (black) are the stuff my dreams are made of. No, really, in my dreams, thanks to their hefty price tags. But, a girl's gotta dream. I found them on piperlime.com and fully intend to stalk them until the prices go down or until they are sold out.   

  Teeny Weenies

   

Behold the Fossil zip clutch and the fabulously long, fabric Aya Morrison clutch in all their ethnic, perfect-everyday-clutch glory. I read about Aya Morrison on Afrobella's spot recently and her bags have been on my must-have-one list ever since. I love both of these clutches not only because of their beautiful prints, but also because they are just large enough to carry my cell phone, money, Chapstick and lip gloss. And what stay at home mom wouldn't love to go out packed that light?

Tony Robbins Is My Homeboy

On a road trip to New Orleans this past weekend, one of my roadies brought along CDs by life coaches. She told me ahead of time that she would be bringing them and I had hoped that my iPod playlists and casual conversation would be enough to occupy us both ways during the 9-hour trip. I told her I wasn't into self-help things and motivational speakers (and by "not into" I meant "hate"), but she said she'd bring them anyway just in case. There was a third person in the car with us who, turns out, likes motivational things. So, subject to the majority rule, I had to listen.

Fashion Friday: Wear a book. Look Awesome! Do good.

In the age of the iPad, who knows what fate lies ahead for the actual paper book cover. I happen to love actual paper books and enjoy the occasional audio book, but draw the line at e-books. I prefer the reading process that includes turning pages and using bookmarks, underlining notables and quotables and housing read books on shelves. I, however, am just one person. Perhaps a day will come when paper books go the way of the cassette tape and become obsolete, rendering actual book covers useless and of no nostalgic significance to future readers. It could happen. If or when that day comes (or now, just to be awesome), we cover lovers can proudly wear the cover of our favorite piece of great literature right on their chests...and...put paper books in the hands of fellow page-turners!

Out of Print is an awesome little company on a mission. Buy one of their comfy tee shirts featuring your favorite book cover from their collection and a book will be donated to a community in need through their partnership with Books For Africa. How cool is that?!

Reason 127 why I love my two-year-old...

Today after I changed his diaper, post "nap" ( The quotation marks are because he actually spent 2.5 hours in his room singing songs to his Thomas The Train singalong book and playing with his Lightning McQueen cars), he stood up on the changing table and said, in the cutest monotone staccato, "I'm. a. ro.bot.  How. 'bout. you. ma.ma?" Oh emm gee, y'all. He keeps me laughing and shaking my head non-stop.

New Alicia Keys "Unthinkable (I'm Ready)"

I saw the debut of the official video for this new single the other day online. It was also my first time hearing the song. I am feeling the song. I prefer this live performance video, however, to the official one. I love how Alicia Keys always does "sexy" without the raunchy.

Fashion Friday: Nappy Rutz

The first time I saw Cherie Huff, owner of Nappy Rutz, was about a year ago at meet-up of a natural hair/lifestyle social group called Do You Austin. When she walked in, my stream of thoughts was something like this: Yay! another tall girl--Wow, she's striking (That's her in the middle in the pic up top, see? Striking.)--those earrings are HUGE--I want them. She's a six-footer like me and wore a floor length canary yellow skirt, a plain white tank top, and the biggest earrings I had ever seen. I learned about her company during a quick chat after the event and we agreed to keep in touch.

A few weeks later I got my earrings: a pair of huge, leather, diamond shaped earrings, and the teal teardrop pair I'm wearing in the photo. I wear the teal ones in my Twitter profile pic, in one of my Youtube videos and in one of my Clinique beauty reviews. I shot all of those on the same afternoon. Since the videos and pics made their debut, a few ladies have asked about the earrings, so I thought I'd introduce the artist here.

 

In her words...

"The tees came first. I’ve always admired nappy tees but had the hardest time finding tees long enough for me. I have the longest torso, EVER!! My hair is in its natural state, so I immediately thought Nappy Roots but with a twist spelled Rutz instead. The lack of large affordable earrings that made a bold statement were hard to come by, so I created my own. The rest is history. Nappy Rutz will be moving to Atlanta in the next few months. In the near future I plan to implement cuffs made of leather, clutches, belts and skirts. This means lots of work to look forward to."

The latest addition to her collection is the feather line! Peacock feathers, anyone?

Nappy Rutz tees and jewelry make a BIG statement. The pieces are designed with the natural girl in mind, but many of her fans rock Nappy Rutz pieces with their straight hair too. Check out her photo gallery of satisfied customers HERE.

Nappy Rutz tee-shirts and earrings can be viewed and purchased online at http://www.nappyrutz.com.

Whaling Around

     

 

Fun times at Champion Park in Round Rock, TX. The whale's spout water park is the coolest thing about this park. When the water's off,  the giant dinosaur bone playscapes and sand dig keep little people pretty happy.

5 Things I Learned Over 18 Holes

 

1. Diving into the deep end can be fun--even if you've never been swimming!
   Figuratively, of course. Do NOT literally dive into the deep end or the shallow end of any pool if you cannot swim. What I'm saying is, if it's something that couldn't potentially kill you, and you want to try it, do it! Sunday was my first time playing golf and it was fun! I actually had some pretty good strokes too. The thought of playing 18 holes of golf was intimidating, especially when all the other teams were experienced men, but once we got out there the guys were supportive and we shared some laughs and it was awesome. In my swag bag I got another free 18 holes of golf and I cannot wait to play!
2. Sun visors are stupid.
   But they are highly functional. That is all.
3. Golf is hard!
   I ended up with some pretty good strokes, but it's a tricky sport. Only if you're scoring fairly though. I missed on almost every first, second and third attempt to hit every ball. The difficulty made me appreciate the sport though. I intend to spend some time practicing hitting whenever I can. Golf's really good for personal challenges like that.
4. Men really do have it all figured out.
   After spending four hours rolling around in a golf cart with friends on a beautiful course laughing, talking, breathing fresh air, and challenging myself mentally, I totally get why golf is such a popular sport. And the animals! There were cranes and some other bird I'd never seen before, turtles... I would choose playing 18 holes of golf in the afternoon over dinner and a movie with my girls any day--as long as the weather is good.
5. Golf is an incredible workout. I haven't googled it or anything, but I'm guessing there was some serious calorie burning going on Sunday. I woke up Monday morning feeling like I had done Body Pump the day before. Muscles in my back that I didn't even know I had were sore, and I wasn't even using proper form. And we had carts. I imagine that playing 18 holes of golf using proper form and walking is a pretty decent workout. It's like an added bonus to #4.

Ain't this about a......

So I'm in the middle of (what I think is) a really good blog post, when I hear knocking coming from my son's room. I know he can't be awake, because he's only been sleeping (quietly) for like 45 minutes. So I jump up from my chair and run to his door. I hesitate to open it to be sure the sound is indeed coming from his room, because what I do NOT want to do is wake him up by storming in there. He turned 2 in February and is every bit of a textbook two-year-old. If you have or know a two-year-old, you know that they can be pretty unawesome at times. Today is one of those times. It's a no TV day, which means we're super buddies all day. Which is fun most days, but not today when he has replaced his normal words with crying and/or whining. Not awesome. So I needed him to get all 3.5 hours of his nap time in so I could have 3.5 hours of peace. So 45 minutes into his "nap", I hear knocking in his room and when I get to his door, I hear him whimpering like he's struggling. So of course, in my mind's eye, I see somebody taking him out of his bedroom window. Mhm. I simultaneously open his door and  jump forward assuming ninja warrior/karate chop stance. When his bedroom door opens and my feet hit the floor, he is wedged into the corner of his room between the sitting chair and the bookshelf. He had squeezed in over there to turn the  usually-out-of-his-reach-and-blocked-off-on-purpose lamp. He had also turned the red dragon humidifier all the way up , so the room was full of a misty haze. I make my way over to the humidifier to turn it off and as the smokey mist clears, all I see is cheeks and teeth and a little fat hand gripping the power chord, thumb on the switch to the lamp . Then I hear a chipmunk say, "Mama? I wake up!" 

I'm writing this post while he's drinking his post-"nap" apple juice. And that's an old picture reused from an older post.

So I'm off to go engage my son in the learning through play activities, which I quit my job two years ago to commit my days to doing. He starts preschool full time in June and that glorious month cannot come fast enough. I won't be returning to work, but I will at least have more time to become reacquainted with myself during the day. Do some me-sans-baby things for a bit, before getting to work on sprouting offspring number two. I'm having a moment. Stay at home moms are entitled to a few of those, right?

There is currently a juice box being held up in my face, so...duty calls. *le sigh*