“Chill air and wintery winds! My ear has grown familiar with your song; I hear it in the opening year, I listen, and it cheers me long.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Winter garden
HAPPY FRIDAY!!! We made it through the week of fickle weather. This past week’s snowfall has not been bad as it was last year but it is has been unpredictable. My Viejo and I along with a few of my colleagues were checking weather at least every hour to see if and when it was going to snow only to realize it would change every other minute. In a few group texts with my cousins and girlfriends we checked in comparing or weather conditions. We even shared moments of exhaustion as some of our kids having 2-hour school delays and some home with no school leaving a few of us working from home. It is fascinating how we live 15 minutes, at most 30 minutes away from one another and the amount of snow covering our neighborhoods were so different.
Winter strolls through Pacific Northwest gardens within, around and outside the city brings tranquility to my otherwise busy mind. Just being in the snowy gardens feel almost as if the world has stopped rushing around. Everything is still.
“If you look back in history of the women who are most memorable and most stylish, they were never the followers of fashion. They were the ones who were unique in their style, breakers of the rules. They were authentic, genuine, original. They were not following trends.” ~ Nina Garcia
With her perfect curls and effortless style Golden has always been able to make sequins and sparkle the must to every outfit. Golden is the owner and creative mind behind Paper Dazzle custom event stationary. If you have an event from wedding to graduation she’s a great source of creative energy to set your invitations apart. (She has done the invitations for my wedding and most recently my goddaughter’s quinceañera). A business owner, wife and mother of two wonderful boys it’s amazing how she does it all.
I wanted to do a photoshoot as a gift for my cousin Golden’s milestone birthday. Prepping for the day I looked for inspiration from photos by a few of my favorite photographers James Van Der Zee, Carl Van Vechten, and Seydou Keita. We found dresses in thrift stores but many options came from her very own stylish closet. She had dresses from the 60’s, African dresses it was almost overwhelming. We finally settled on a vintage lavender dress by Diane Freis and an African dress that was so beautiful against her skin almost capturing the sun.
What is your perfect day? My favorite day would involve rain, masala chai and a reason to wear something pretty/sparklier than the sparkly things I wear daily. I love Fridays because I like the anticipation of the weekend.
What is it that you do? I’m a graphic designer. My specialty is event stationery, particularly weddings, but I’ve been doing more digital corporate work recently. I’m also a mom, so I’m constantly feeding my children and teaching them how to be good humans.
Why did you choose this profession? It kind of chose me! One of my first memories of college was meeting with someone about my work-study job. I was slightly interested in psychology, but hadn’t even taken a class yet. The counselor asked me what I was interested in doing and I told her, “I’ve never had an office job. I want to try filing and stuff.” and she goes, “You don’t want an office job. You’re gonna have to deal with huge piles of paper like this…” and she points to this huge stack of files on her desk! Then she wrote down this lady’s number and told me to call her. It was for the Student Activities Director. As her office assistant, I did small office tasks, hung flyers around the campus, and fell into designing the monthly campus events calendar. I faked my way through the software and eventually took a class to make sure I was doing it right. After a few more classes, I decided to I major in Graphics and minor in Studio Art. My graphics classes were in the Technology building, but the moment I stepped in the art building, it just felt right.
What has motherhood taught you? Patience! I’m probably losing it over the years, though! I’m still practicing consistency. Now that I think about it, I realize that it could easily be the foundation of parental success! It applies to discipline, school work, scheduling, building trust. I think kids are most comfortable when you’re consistent. Consistency is what gets your voice nagging in their ears, even when you’re not physically there!
What do you like about you? I like that I’m such an individual. I never got trendy clothes when I was younger, so I convinced myself that I wasn’t into name brands lol. I’ve loved thrift shopping since middle school, and that means I get all the unique things. All the gems. Sometimes, I shop in the kids’ department (because I’m cheap) and I laugh and show a random kid when we’re wearing the same thing. I’m 40 and I still wear glitter almost every day. At the same time, I know how to use power tools and like the satisfaction of dirty work. I also like that when I explore things that I enjoy (like baking, styling hair and random crafts) they tend to turn out well.
In the current climate how to you find your calm? I don’t immerse myself in it. These are upsetting times, but hanging on every dumb word I hear only fuels my personal fire. And the way my sanity is set up… I don’t have room for that in my life. I know that everything happens for a reason and that God always works things out for the good. Our society is in a transition, and change is hard!
So growing up I never realized how great of an artistic vision you have, Who inspires you? I didn’t either! From 4th grade on, my classmates often told me that I was creative; I didn’t know what they were talking about! I’m inspired by other artists. Kehinde Wiley amazes me, and I see strength in Frida Kahlo. I’m just as inspired by local artists and random ones I find on Instagram because they are just out here feeding their passion and expressing themselves. Many of us don’t make the time or are brave enough to put our stuff out there. That keeps me in awe of art, in general.
Motherhood is… love
Art is… passion
Happiness is… love
Women are… love lol Second choice: Strength. We’re like the world’s glue
Love is… patient
Marriage is… 100/100, not 50/50
Being a black woman is… empowering
Beauty is… a glow
Coffee to me is… meh. It’s a treat (with a ton of cream and sugar), but I don’t need it.
The summer warmth made it so easy for a quick midnight stroll through Pike Place Market. Seeing Seattle this late at night was a first for my daughter, we decided to make an adventure of it.
Before our late night adventure we made our way downtown to a surprise birthday party for my cousin Golden. Not only was it her birthday weekend but also our cousin Chey was celebrating hers. It has become somewhat of a tradition in celebrating them together as they are a day apart. With my camera in hand I attempted to capture many moments and do an impromptu photoshoot.
E and Jay beauty of a tattoo against the vintage glam birthday ladiescustomized Jones soda
Already in the swing of the afternoon time keeps whisking by and I am so behind on posting. Sorry I have missed sharing a few past weekends in images. It has been a goal to be more current and present although who can tell, right? As they say better late than never.
Well, life being so busy time escapes us I am seeing that more than ever. My attempt at being more spontaneous with early morning and even afternoon adventures has come to a brief pause as mi Viejo recovers from surgery (I shall spare you the details at this time). Current entertainment has been a lot of HGTV House Hunters International, movies (many we’ve already seen), board games and photo editing. Our not so little has become an excellent and attentive nurse to her papa making him smoothies and soups. She’s even helped me in keeping an eye out at his attempts being mister “do it himself.” But cabin fever aside we’ve been writing down some places to escape to once he’s feeling better. There are a few local towns I’ve been longing to revisit and a garden I’ve never seen.
Although life is busy I try to take a drive by a lake or a river for the calm it provides. We need that now and then.
There aren’t enough days in the weekend. ~ Rod Schmidt
Our weekend started Friday night having a bar-b-que with a few of our neighbors. We brought out our grill, marinated shrimp, andouille sausage, chorizo and our neighbors brought more food from burgers to a few sides. We gathered for a few hours cracking jokes and sharing stores then the three of us headed inside for our Friday film night. After staying up late watching Captain Marvel and Always Be My Maybe we actually woke up naturally at 8 a.m. ready to prepare for our day with friends. By the way if you have not seen either I think they are a must see. I am a huge fan of Ali Wong and Randall Park and the hilarious surprise of Keanu Reeves, it was AMAZING!
Although we woke up perfect that did not last too long. I was several blocks away from our house before I realized I left my cell phone behind. So of course I had to turn around which was frustrating because we ordered two dozen tamales from this amazing spot in White Center and I was worried they would not hold the order if we were late. After trying to refrain from speeding and being too fast and too furious we made it only 15 minutes later that our expected time.
golden afternoon, Alki Beach
It was a beginning of summer party with our friends at their home just two blocks down from Alki beach. I miss living by the beach hearing the rolling water and waves reaching the shore. It was calming listening to the waves and even the smell of the seaside took any stress I felt earlier that day away.
Bremerton FerryAlkiAlki Beach Pub
We continued our weekend with friends meeting them at Round1 for bowling celebrating JB’s (son of our friend) 12th birthday. The kids did pretty well leaving the adults in the dust. I had never been to Round1 and did not know what to expect. It had karaoke and arcade games. It was a bit pricey. We bowled for several hours before letting the kids loose in the arcade while us parents hung around to discuss all the things our kids are doing and the people they currently are. Although sometimes we miss those toddler days it’s so wonderful to see them become these beautiful preteens, with attitude. Ha!
Round 1
watching tío strikearcademy Cuyana tote
Here are a few links I found interesting this weekend. Enjoy!
There is something about bargain hunting that brings out joy amongst complete strangers. Frequenting my favorite hunting ground Value Village (where I have indeed been mistaken for an employee on numerous occasions by current employees) I almost always walk out with something that I’ve been thinking about. I guess it’s the saying when you put the thought into the universe you will be rewarded. Although they seem to come in small doses I am very thankful for these amazing ‘happenings.’
Rattan Charger
Back to what I was saying. The bargain “hunter gatherer” in us finds other bargain “hunter gatherers” and with a rush of excitement cheering them on their find. That very thing happened to me. I went to my favorite Value Village revisiting the same shelves for a new surprise. I was so thrilled to find the rattan serving tray I had been eyeing for a week was still there. Not only that a few day prior I had passed on a set of wicker charges to then be surprised with a few that I liked much more.
At the check out I shared my excitement about the serving tray to which the cashier shared in my joy. Exiting with my arms full a gentleman stopped to ask “did you find any bargains?” To which I replied’ “well I actually grabbed this tray I’d been eyeing for a week!” He in astonishment walked closer to say “you mean to tell me you’d been here for a week and it’s still been here?” “Yes!” I replied, “can you believe it?” He shared in my joy, gave me a side hug with praise at my finds and told me he was happy for my find.
I had also spotted this bowl and waited nearly two weeks before giving in.
So yes, I indeed walked out with my arms full but my heart was as well. This was not the first time I was met with that bargain enthusiasm and I am sure it will not be my last.
Othello Forty Eight 