Hey y’all!
I have been under a rock for a minute and that’s going to change at the end of the month when school ends but I thought I’d share some pretty dopesome news.
I was feature on a hair blog!!! 😀 (I know eh! little ol’ me). Karina has an amazing natural hair blog and you should all check it out ^_^
http://www.shesgotnigeriancurls.com/post/116460937181/shesgotnigeriancurls-fro-feature-enang-of
Gathered Skirt
Hey beautiful people!
So I know I make a lot of skirts but I’m really not sorry. Winter has forced me into a rotating schedule of long sleeves, sweaters and pants. While that’s not all together horrible it gets boring after a while you know. I need to stick it to the weather and expand my skirt collection, I shall overcome!
This time I decided to make this gorgeous gathered skirt and I felt it came out really nice! I was inspired by a skirt my sister has and had hoped to make this a midi skirt but the amount of fabric I had wouldn’t have allowed that happen, nevertheless I am satisfied.
Making it was relatively easy, I cut out a rectangle 3 times the circumference of my waist (lessons learned from my first midi skirt). After that I set my sewing machine to the largest straight stitch setting and sewed along the edge so I could gather the skirt. After gathering, the rest was simply putting the ends together. I included a zipper which was a little difficult but not horribly so and I finished it off with a little pearl button. Overall I would rate the difficulty a 4/10.
Ooo, well this is completely unrelated but I’m really loving the flat twist crown in my hair…Made me feel very princessy 🙂
Pictures by Willyverse
Womanhood
I’ve always found the title “woman” troubling. More so in my teens than now, nevertheless it is a concept I am still negotiating. I’ve always felt more like a girl, a girl has minimal responsibilities, a girl can do so much more than a woman can. A woman is tied to social expectations and must conform or she will be shamed. A girl could conform to social expectations but the most she would get for deviating from the norm is a cautioning word, likely from the women around her.
I simply could not understand why people were so quick to thrust that word “woman” on me, and I was even more confused about why some people were so eager to adopt it. Cotton ball boobs does not a woman make! It must be earned, I felt. I still do really. A thirteen year old no matter how mature she may look or act is a G-I-R-L! Maybe one or two people may differ but for the majority I say girl.
She is a girl because she has likely achieved little. A woman is accomplished and has much to be proud of. A girl does not have the burden of making tough decisions (except of course between which teen pop sensation would grace her wall next). A woman must make many difficult decisions and she does so with grace. A woman carries great responsibility and exudes confidence with every step.
Then of course there’s me, straddling this fence. Not quite a woman but slowly leaving the carefree ways of a girl behind. I’m not entirely sure I’m ready to be a woman though, its far too grand. I like these inbetweenities where I can watch both phases and simply exist outside of the trappings of either.
Now as I am not yet a woman I can not speak from experience on what it means but I have had plenty experience being a girl and maybe I am idealizing womanhood. I certainly blame all the women in my life for setting such high standards, however maybe I just don’t know the struggle. Maybe every woman is just a girl in high heels, playing a part for the world’s applause. Maybe this is what I am wobbling towards, greatly unsure but faking it till I make it.
All is well
Holiday Shift Dress
Heya!! and *cough* happy new year!
I know that I have been away for more than a minute but I’m back!!! I needed time to re-energize and come back better than ever 🙂 . Anyhow, before the holiday season was really over I had to sneak in one holiday outfit :D. I felt it was the perfect New Year’s party dress but it would really work for everyday life. I fell in love with the colors and the pattern on this fabric at the store and was a little disappointed because it seemed that it was just a sample size. I was also really disappointed because I had been hunting down a fabric like this for a while. I quickly forgot about it and kept looking for other things in the store when my sister surfaces with the roll of fabric. Excited doesn’t begin to describe how I felt! (in my best new york accent) “It really warmed my heart!”
Anyhow, when I got home I wasted no time cranking this baby out. It took a few days and plenty of adjustments but I’m really happy with my results! My main challenges with this outfit were the darts and the sleeves. I’m yet to master this science of darts so its always trial and error for me. If anyone has a formula for them I would really appreciate that! Then  the sleeves. (oh boy!) I had initially planned to have a regular short sleeve but for whatever reason as I started sewing I changed my mind and made it a cap sleeve. Now this shouldn’t have been a problem except I couldn’t get both sleeves to match. I honestly don’t know why these things happen to me. Anyhow after much fiddling, undoing and redoing, I finally got them to a tolerable resemblance. My excuse? sleeves shouldn’t be twins they should be sisters 😀 (same excuse I use when I mess up my cat eye)
I can see my self dressing this up for a semi-formal event or dressing it down for…well something less formal. Also, as I would be entering the workforce soon, is this the kind of dress one would wear to any work related function? I have a few other outfits brewing so expect me to ask this question a couple more times, but I guess I want to make my transition from student to worker as smooth and fashionable as possible.
Pictures by: Willyverse
Edible Conditioning 2
Girrrrrllll! Let me tell you! I’m officially in love with Greek yogurt
First of all, shout out to heramerpersandhim for suggesting this to me in my last post. She said; “I stopped using banana because it was too hard to rinse out. Even when I used the baby formula. I switched to full fat Greek yogurt and never looked back.” For this you the real MVP. I absolutely loved it.
I never thought I’d become a “Kitchen Natural” as I like to call them, so as I went to the grocery store to grab a small tub of Greek yogurt I was saying a silent prayer that it would work or I would have been very upset with myself. With no exact measurements, I mixed Greek yogurt, honey, coconut oil and a few drops of Argan oil. The first thing that stood out to me was that the consistency was smooth unlike my lumpy bumpy banana mix. 
I started off with a week old twist out that was more than a little dry. I left the conditioner in for about 30 minutes and rinsed with hot water. Everything rinsed right out! I wasn’t too confident until I could see my hair for myself though. I partly imagined my hair looking dull for some reason. Anyhow I came out of the shower and BAM! Â Soft shiny hair. Now I was really excited. Detangling was a breeze and I braided my hair into two cornrows as usual.
Normally I would have to do a twist out on my damp hair when I take the cornrows down to get a really delicious fro, but not this time. Instant gorgeousness the minute I let the braids loose. I just had to fluff and move it around to frame my face better.
Overall I was very happy with my results. The only con that I can identify is that the softness was not the same as when I did the banana condition. It was definitely nothing to complain about but the banana seemed to give a lasting softness. That said, I love love love it 🙂
ps. I define a kitchen natural as someone who can operate their entire hair regimen out of their kitchen. Nothing wrong with it, I just never thought I’d be one 🙂
Edible conditioning
Hey guys!
so as promised I have another fro tales story for you! This is actually based on a very recent experience so I thought I’d share while emotions are still high.
I’ve never really been one to go grocery shopping for my hair if you know what I mean. So all the hair tutorials that suggest that you should only use edible products on your hair have never really appealed to me. However, my hair has been feeling a little dry and brittle lately and my regular conditioner just wasn’t cutting it so I decided to ramp it up with a banana deep conditioner.
As they say hind sight is 20-20 so there are several things I ought to have done differently but here’s what I did anyway…I got myself one banana, a few oils and some shea butter. I mashed up the banana with a fork (I don’t have a blender), added my oils and shea butter and whisked with my mixer. I figured that the mixer would make it smoother; which it did. I still expected the one or two lumps that remained but I wasn’t too worried. So I applied the mixture to my hair and left it in for about 30 minutes as instructed.
Everything was fine up until this point. I hopped in the shower to rinse it out, but it wasn’t all coming out so easily. I figured some of those lumps I mentioned earlier had gotten caught in my curls so I washed and rinsed again. Still feeling a few lumps, I decided to give it one final scrub with some conditioner and rinsed out. By this time I was certain I had gotten most if not all of it out. so I walked out of the shower. To my absolute horror my entire head was still very speckled with banana bits.
I remained in denial until I got into my room and tried to comb it out. Alas since I had washed my hair with hot water, the banana bits had cooked on my strands so just combing through wasn’t going to cut it. Two days of brushing through my hair and I finally managed to get most of it out. I currently still have a few pieces here and there that I find when I’m going through my hair.
The highlight of all of this is that my hair really did feel very soft and moisturized afterwards so I will definitely try this again, BUT there are some things I will do differently.
1. rinse with cold water
2. strain the crushed banana to get rid of the bigger lumps
3. find a way to blend the mixture to an even smoother consistency.
I hope this is a more successful experience on my next try 🙂 wish me luck!
picture by: Willyverse
  I’ve missed blogging so much!
Hey Guys!
I know I haven’t been on here for a while, but lets just go ahead and blame school for that. That being said, I’m happy to be done with midterms for a little while and to be able to blog and sew and just live again. The second reason I haven’t been here though is because I haven’t really known what to blog about, but that’s okay I guess. Anyhu I’m here now and I figured I’d talk about my hair routine.
So I have condensed this process over the years and I’m hoping to condense it further so if you have any suggestions please comment below 🙂
1. Pre-poo
Okay I won’t even lie I don’t do this all the time, but if I feel like my hair needs a little more tlc I will saturate it with conditioner and detangle about 30 minutes before I head into the shower. Detangling before I shower makes my in shower routine go by a lot faster. My current conditioner is the Herbal Essences Hello Hydration. It does the job, but I still feel like I might need a deep conditioner. I section my hair off into manageable twists
2. Shower.
On the days that I shampoo my hair, I rinse out the conditioner, go in with my Shea Moisture (shea butter) shampoo and scrub. I only go in once with the shampoo unless I really need it. Other times, I simply co-wash my hair. I take the twists down and further detangle with the help of the water pressure. I generally recondition my hair  for a few minutes, then rinse with cold water. I don’t know how true this is but cold water is supposed to help you lock in the goodness from your conditioner. I also make sure to rinse my hair by tugging and smoothing down sections under the water. This keeps it detangled and helps my curls clump better
3. Post-wash
I can no longer be bothered to style my hair from its soaking wet state because it simply takes to long. Now I coat my hair with the Auntie Jackie’s curling custard and a Shea butter+coconut oil mix and braid my hair into two large cornrows. I find that its easier to style my already stretched hair or to at least work with damp hair because it more likely to dry. 
As far as products go I generally do what works best or what I can afford 🙂 (student life). I really liked the shea moisture deep conditioner but I ran out and haven’t repurchased because its pretty scarce in Canada and also rather pricy. I also really like the smell of the Aunt Jackie’s curling custard. This is really awesome to me because some natural hair products smell too “earthy”.
Hope this was helpful/interesting for my sistas…peace out!
ps. I have a new “fro-tales” story coming soon so look out 🙂
Reflecting on Nigeria
I couldn’t count the number of times I rolled my eyes while listening to this young man mouth off about the demerits of Nigeria. By the time he described Nigerians as narcissistic I had just about had it. In his opinion, Nigerians are always quick to remind the world that we’re the “giants of Africa” but what do we have to be proud of? The smug look on his face spoke volumes to me. He was either trying to annoy somebody (eg. Me) or he honestly believed what he was saying and was daring the audience to disagree. I would not honor his desires then simply to spite him but I will speak my mind here.
As Nigerians we love to complain. Its a natural talent that we seem to possess. If we do well, we ask why didn’t we do better? If we fail, we ask why didn’t someone else stop us from failing. We complain about the corruption in our country like we invented corruption. We complain about our diversity like its the greatest curse. We would complain about anything as long as you give us the chance. What we fail to do however, after all this complaining is 1) look at what caused the problem  and 2)work to make it better.
Every time a Nigerian stands before me and tells me that we have no national identity all I see is a lack of understanding for where we as a country have come from. The country we now call Nigeria was a colonial construct that was set to ensure ease of colonial rule. The way Nigeria is set up was not for Nigerians to govern. It is a perfect representation of divide and rule because the people from one place to the next are so culturally different. It is hard to believe, with the sheer diversity of the nation that our people would mobilize to fight for independence; but we did. Our national identity should come in our shared history. We do not have to be Nigerian in the way that Americans are American to claim our national identity.
Every time a Nigerian suggests that secession of either the north or the south of Nigeria would solve all of our problems, I wonder how quickly we have forgotten the pain of the civil war. The lives of many people thrown in complete jeopardy because some people did what “seemed” to make the most sense. The north and the south of Nigeria have become very co-dependent irrespective of what some southern people might think. One would find it very difficult to survive without the other. The lives of civilians living in both parts would be horribly affected, and for what reason? Tribalism is our problem in the way some other countries have to deal with racism. As much as I hate to compare sites of inequity, I find this necessary in order to put things in context. Yes managing the power relations between multiple tribes is an incredibly difficult task but I don’t believe that it is impossible.
I am not naive. I know that there are many issues with Nigeria. I am often disappointed and frustrated with the people who lead us. I want more from and for the citizens. I expect so much from this country and it repeatedly falls below my expectations but I am not ashamed. I see potential in Nigeria. I am hopeful for a brighter day. Most importantly, I believe we have plenty to be proud of. There are Nigerians within the country and all over the world who are positively impacting the lives of millions. We are a resilient people who still find something to laugh about even in the darkest situations. We are smart, strong and we have such rich cultures. I don’t think that’s being narcissistic, it is choosing to acknowledge the positives when everyone insists on reminding you of the negatives.
picture by willyverse
I can’t believe I’m 20!
This was the age I looked up to when I was little and I imagined I would be so grown. I imagined I would have done so much with my life and everybody would know my name. Well 20 doesn’t quite look like that 
. I have spent the past few days/weeks leading up to today reflecting on what I have achieved. What I’m learning is that everybody has their own path in life. Of course you determine what that path looks like through the choices that you make or don’t make but each person’s journey through life is uniquely theirs. Yes I’ve felt a bit anxious about this birthday, what it means, the next phase of my life but I’m happy still. I’m happy to have made it this far. Happy for growth and the people I have met along the way who have helped me grow. I’m happy for the moments; big or small that have made me smile, cry or just feel. I’m grateful for who I have become and who I am becoming. I don’t know if I’m any wiser than I was a couple of hours ago as a 19 year old but hey! I’m ready for 20, ready to move forward and ready to be “grown”. This doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of all the “childish” things in my life (for those of you that had hoped for that :p ) but I’ve been working on being a responsible member of society so that should be sufficient for now.
#tanapp
Picture by Willyverse
   First shot at making a shift dress
So as promised I’m here again with another post this week! I just might keep this up… Mightt
Anyhow a couple of weeks ago I saw  Ona’s DIY shift dress and I instantly fell in love! I messaged her immediately to send me a pattern for the dress but here’s the thing, I’m a teensy bit impatient when it comes to new projects so I started to research how to make a shift dress. I finally decided on what I wanted and went ahead.
She sent me the pattern not long after, and while I don’t regret making the one I did I’m even more excited to give her’s a whirl! On another note, this was the first time the finished product actually looked just like my drawing!!! I guess this is a definite sign of progress so yayyy!
This project however was not without hiccups. So since I was out of the country and away from my sewing machine for quite some time, Sally (my sewing machine) wasn’t quite moving like she ought to…okay to be perfectly honest, she wasn’t moving at all and I was freaking out!! In my panic I thought it might be a good idea to take my needle out but alas I clearly wasn’t focusing because I didn’t hold on to the needle and it fell into the bobbin part of my sewing machine (not sure what the real technical names are but basically the bottom half). My panic increased at this point because I wanted to get the needle out without breaking it seeing as I didn’t have a spare. Then I made yet another foolish decision and turned my machine upside down to get the needle out, this time it fell into the top part and that’s the last I have seen of that particular needle. That was when this happened..
You know that feeling you get when everything is going wrong and you keep thinking; “well could this possibly be any worse”? Yup that’s exactly how I felt.
Fast forward a few days later when I managed to get new needles, I finally cranked this baby out! This was also my first attempt at lining. I think I did a pretty decent job and I was thoroughly pleased with the finishing!! not a raw edge in sight.I added in a side zipper and a red border and tah dahhhh!!.
I’ve worn this out a number of times now and it’s so ridiculously comfortable:D I guess this is yet another post where all things worked together in the end. Also had a lot of fun taking pictures for this post! After an amazing lunch at Harlem Underground with my awesome sauce brother, we walked around taking pictures…perfect end to a rocky start.
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