Thriftanista in the City

Last Saturday I went to a girl's night out via meetup.com. I had a great time. I was so excited to be out that I forgot to be socially awkward around people I have never met. I am a little obsessed with meetup.com. I've joined sewing groups, girl's night out groups, neighborhood groups, book club groups, fitness groups, and mom groups. I haven't been to a lot of actual meetups. This was my first time attending a non-baby one. The meetup took place at a wonderful Mexican/Cuban restaurant in Ravenswood - Cafe 28.  I only had one drink -- a margarita that was not as good as mine. I firmly believe that I make the best margaritas ever! I ate a ton. The dinner was at 8:30. I didn't get to eat until much later. I was starving. I ordered one of my favorite appetizers - Bacon Wrapped Dates. These were also stuffed with chorizo. Yum-O! I ordered scallops as my entree. Good but not OMyGod good. I did order another drink but it never came. Probably due to the size of the gr...

Hardcore I'm pretty sure this is the source  even though I found it in Google Images. Last week I retrieved my sewing machines from the back of the closet. They were put there in preparation of selling the condo and making space for La Baby. I often wish I could get a little bit of sewing time in AND I dream of doing a back carry with the Queen. Put those 2 wishes together and what do you have? A DIY project! Woot! Woot! I went to Hancock Fabrics and bought 5 yards of Osnaburg muslin for $15. I cut it into 2 pieces. I dragged my sewing machine and serger to the kitchen table. I was able to quickly serge around 1 of the wraps before the Queen signaled that she was bored and needed my full attention. I enjoyed the buzz and now I want more. I'm so inspired by all of the sewing blogs I read (270+ sewing related subscriptions!) and really want to make some time for it. My thinking was that if I could get her nicely wrapped then she would be content while I worked on pr...

Wow, time is flying by! Queen V is officially 7 months. My girl is in crawling mode. Every time I sit her down. Every time I go to her in the middle of the night. She is on all fours. She can go backwards and sideways but hasn't been able to take it forward. At a recent playgroup I noticed she can get better traction on carpet. Maybe I should get a carpet remnant for her instead of the tacky ol' school 90's bed in a bag comforter I plant her on (see below). Her eating habits are iffy. Her absolute favorites are chicken bones. We let her gnaw on them and she loves it. I don't think she's vegetarian. It's crazy. She gets this wild look in her eyes and gnaws away. She cries when we take it away. She will eat the pre-made baby food if she sees us eating too. It's not that interesting for her otherwise. She loves her food feeder  (s/o to changess4 for recommending it) but it is so messy. I like seeing her feed herself and I am thinking about just plo...

The Before - Cousin It Locs I felt like a big ball of hair. This is how I left the salon. Bantu knots hurt. My scalp was pulsating. I think I'll stick with pipe cleaner curls. The After I have bangs and layers. Some locs are really short and I whimper silently when I touch them. The longest ones are just below my shoulders. My hair feels light and airy! I still got some hair pulls but not as many since there aren't so many hanging at her level. When I bend down hair doesn't come rushing to the front of my face and falling all over the Queen's face covering her eyes and getting in her mouth. No hair in my food or drinks either.

The Queen's sleep has been all over the place. Sometime I get up in the middle of the night without complaint and other times I'm stomping my feet and huffing loudly. On one of my disgruntled nights, I decided we needed to share these duties so we agreed He would take over night duties on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On these night I am guaranteed a full night's sleep and vice versa -- Yiipppeee!  The program was rolled out this past weekend and guess what happened? She woke up at midnight and 5a consistently with a wake up time between 6:30 am and 7:00 am. One of those nights she didn't even have a feeding until 5 she took a pacifier, rolled over, and fell asleep. Monday I went to bed expecting the same result. Teach me to have expectations! She was up at midnight, 4:30a, and periodically until 7a (my designated wake time).  Are you effin kidding me? She did the same thing on the night of the party. What is He doing to create this result? Is my milk scented body wakin...

The Supermoon is here. Go take a look!  I love full moon energy.  I honor it with one of my favorite groups - Zap Mama. I love Marie's style, energy, voice, and creativity.  She's one of my fantasy BFFs. The concerts are amazing! This is my favorite song from the album. I can't help dancing when I hear it. Something soft and romantic. Who wants to be a Superstar when you can be a Supermoon?

morphing courtesy of www.yearbookyourself.com I seem to think about my hair a lot on Fridays. Weird. Anyway. Fifteen years ago, I stopped perming my hair. I was never one for sitting in a salon and getting the new fresh hairstyle. My hair was always in a bun (in high school!) or ponytail with a really bad bang. After a year, I decided to cut it all off. It was looking really bad by now with a lot of hair textures. My life was also out of order. Cutting my hair off seemed right. I went to my mom's barber (she wasn't much for salons either) and had the "big chop". It felt good but I don't think I look that great with short hair AND I lived in an area that didn't cater to my hair texture. Maintenance was becoming a problem. It was impossible to keep my lil fro in nice neat freshly done shape. When I washed it, I loved the little coily shapes that formed and couldn't resist the urge to constantly play and twist them so I just kept doing it. Within a few months...

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I love this. It speaks to my pre-teen self. Super sparkly!

After a couple of postponements the Vision Board and Wine Party finally happened. I enjoyed myself and I think my guest did too. Magazines opened! CONFESSION TIME: We did not make 1 vision board! It started with a glass of wine, sangria, or moscato. It ended the same. We noshed on a soul food meal: Bird bought from Windy City's own Harold's. I made Sakuma Wiki (Kenyan greens), and baked mac & cheese. We laughed. We talked men. We talked motherhood. We talked work. We talked total nonsense. (I have got to check out Basketball Wives ; I have the finale episode in the DVR for later when He is not around). He kept watch for Queen V's night time schedule and you know what? She slept 8 friggin hours. I went to bed with full bewb and at 4a I could take it no longer and had to pump. I missed the sweetness of getting a full night's sleep. I hope this is a trend and not a fluke. I woke to a mild hangover and indulged in 2 naps. I finally started feeling "normal" ag...

In my thirsty attempt to capture her crawling for the very first time I recorded this overly long (2 mins) but super cute footage of Queen V looking like a seal on the floor. SPOILER ALERT: She doesn't crawl! She's close though, right? Ignore the messiness in the background like I try to do!

Reading a book is such a rarity over here right now. I'm loving this book and I'm only on the second chapter maybe 3rd by the time this is posted. The old adage never judge a book by its cover is so true. Literally and figuratively!  Hip hop is not one of my top music genres, I have no desire to be a mogul, or be "super rich". Let me rephrase. Of course I want to be filthy stinkin loaded but I'm not on a goal oriented path to become wealthy. This book is more in the realm of achieving what you want out of life using metaphysical  principles. It reminds me of The Secret and the law of attraction. Two chapters in and I'm already thinking about how can I serve (chapter 1). Giving is so rewarding and I have to do more of it. I spend a lot of time wrapped up in my experience being a new mom -- the good and the bad.  I feel like I'm taking so much from other moms (advice and support groups) and I'm not returning the favor. I want to give back. I'm not...

We're participating in the PGRDresses challenge.

The last time I talked about my hair I was thinking about cutting my locs short but worried about the change and letting go. I think I'm past it now. I had a trim about 3 weeks ago. There were pieces hitting the "danger" zone. See how much was cut off? Very little. I missed those little pieces but I got over it. I always do. It is just hair -- I'm holding my breath just a little bit while writing this. A lil trim Today I had a consultation with a stylist. I bit the bullet and took a drive to the land of locticians. We agreed on a layered cut with bangs or shorter hair framing the face in front. I'm going to take some images with me of what my vision is. Below is a small sample of the the pics I've bookmarked. Love the cut and the bangs Source Length and shape is just right Source   Color? That would be new. Source Love the bangs Source This is NOT my inspiration. Wowza that's a lot of hair! Source Have a dramatic hair cha...