Yours Clothing

Yours Clothing is a store based out of the UK specializing in sizes 14-32. I must say that I am very pleased with the quality and style of the clothing. I am in love with their leggings and tights, they are the best fit and flattering leggings I've ever purchased. I have also ordered 3 dresses from this website.

As far as fit goes I'd say order a size down from your regular size. So if you are an 18 order a 16, especially in the leggings. Other wise they will send you a size up from what you wanted. This happened to me and I had to take my dresses to a seamstress to get adjusted.

Shipping is $16 but they deliver fast. I ordered dresses on a Monday that I needed by Friday and they were mailed to me by Wed. The only thing is that make sure what you are ordering is something you really want because they don't pay for returns and it cost lots of money to send these items back overseas (which is why I opted to get them adjusted).

Other than that I will say that I plan on ordering more from Yours clothing because the clothes are reasonably priced ($50-$60 for dresses) and well made out of quality material.

Shoes- SE Boutique from DSW.
Dress- Black Lace Gaga Sleeve from Yours Clothing. I had to take this dress to a seamstress to get taken up and in. Make sure you order a size down from the size you want. So if you need an 18 order a 16.
*I'll have better pics in the future*

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Blonde Bombshell

I made a visit to Curltopia last weekend to get my yearly color done. My stylist was Brittany and she did an amazing job, she replaced the girl who did my hair last year, Taylor. We did three layers of colors with the top being a copper blonde, the middle section an auburn color, and the bottom a dark copper brown color. It is so pretty and I love it. Please if you are ever thinking about getting your natural hair colored then Brittany at Curltopia is the girl you need to see.

It's Been Too Long

I'm back and so so sorry for the long absence. My computer was sick and I had to send it away for a while to get fixed. School is also getting in the way of my life...lol. But I am back and have a lot of exciting things to blog about. I want to do more post about clothes, dieting and exercise, make-up, and all that other stuff us girls like to talk about. I've been thinking about adding a outfit of the day series but IDK yet. Anyway sorry for being away and thanks for sticking with me.

Healthy Eating Challenge

My biggest problem with losing weight is eating out. I eat out almost every day of the week sometimes more than once per day. This week I am challenging myself to only eat meals that I've prepared myself from home. This includes homecooking everything and nothing microwaveable. This will take a lot of time because I'll have to plan each meal and snacks but it is worth it because I like to cook and I think my cooking is better than most restaurants. Last night, I made spicy cajun chicken, rice, and green beans wih tomatos and it was delish!!

I think this will cause me to try new recipes and be a little adventurous in the kitchen. I'll keep you all posted on how it goes and new recipes that I try. My hope is to reduce eating out to only twice a month and to add variety to what I can cook.

The Conclusion- June Fitness Challenge

At the end of the June challege I stepped on a scale and found that I lost....drum roll please....5 lbs. I can't say that I am disappointed though because as I've said before it was hard for me to stick to the calorie restrictions so that is probably the main reason I didn't lose as much as I wanted. Welp this is another month and I am full-fledged into getting to my goal weight. I think I'm going to do an 1800 calorie diet instead of 1500, I should be able to stick to that a lot better. It's a shame though to have a love affair with food when you are trying to lose weight...smh but this will not defeat me...lol.

I'll do monthly weigh-ins but you guys have to keep me in check because I don't like to weigh myself. I'd rather just notice weight loss by my pants getting to big and people telling me "oh you look like you lost weight".

Coastal Scents Haul

Yippeee!!! Coastal Scents is having a great sale on some of their best palettes. I have been wanting the 66 lip palette forever and when I heard of this sale and saw that the lip color palette was on it I jumped on. I purchased the 66 lip color palette and the 10 concealer camouflage palette. I use the camo quad concealer palette in dark and I love it. Though I only get use out of the medium color it fits me perfectly and I almost never leave my house without dabbing a bit under my eyes. Well they don't sell the camo quads in the summer which I didn't know so I purchased the concealer palette. The picture on the site looked like there were about 3 shades I could use but in person I think I may be able to use about 4 of the shades which is sooo worth the 11 bucks it cost.

They also sent me a free eyeshadow sample of Golden moss which is a gorgeous goldish green kinda color along with a small makeup bag for spending over 20 bucks.

**I'll do a few review after I try these out...I am soo excited about the blues.

Mr. Everything Style Chicken over Rice

If you live in Atlanta, especially if you went to school in the AUC I am sure that you have heard of Mr. Everything Cafe. If not then please get yourself over there ASAP---->870 Martin Luther King Junior Drive Southwest, Atlanta, GA 30314-3642

Anyway everytime I go I always get the Healthy Choice Chicken over Yellow Rice. Basically it is grilled chicken, all my fave veggies, and cheese piled high over yellow rice. It is a healthy option when you consider all the veggies involved but the serving size is colossal. So, if you are greedy like me I'd definitly plan on sharing this cause you might end up eating more than you need. You could also get steak, shrimp, salmon, lamb, or no meat at all over rice.

If you can't make it over there then it is really easy to make at home and I have a recipe that I think is a little better than theres because its a little more seasoned. And the beauty of making it at home is that there are no limitations. You can use whatever meat, veggies, cheese, rice, season, whatever...

Veggies- As I said you can use whatever you want but here are my faves
-spinach
-broccoli
-zucchini
-squash
-mushrooms
-tomatos
-cucumbers

Meat- I always use Chicken but you can mix or match whatever
-shrimp
-steak
-salmon
-smoked sausage (turkey is healthier)

Yellow rice- I use Mahatma's spicy yellow rice

Cheese- I use Kraft casserole cheese which is a mix of about 3 or 4 diff cheeses.

*Make the rice according to directions on package
*Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and sautee in olive oil over medium-high heat
*After chicken is done set aside and cook veggies with a little butter and dash of salt and pepper (Make sure not to let your veggies get soggy, but firm with a little crunch still
*Put your rice on a plate and cover with chicken, veggies, and cheese.
*Slice tomatoes and cucumbers over top and serve with a little ranch on the side for dipping


Voila!

**To make this even healthier use brown rice instead of yellow rice and boil rice in diluted Chicken stock instead of regular water for more flavor

June Challenge update

I have lost count of what day I'm on but I am still going at the June Challenge. I workout 6 times a week instead of 5 and I am still having trouble sticking to the 1500 calorie diet but I am eating healthier foods. I guess I just need to plan my meals better so that I'm not so hungry between meals. My workouts consist of running around Morehouses track, running/walking up Morehouses bleachers, and walking long distances (at least 3 miles) around my neighborhood. If the weather is too bad to walk outside I do a workout DVD or play on my Wii. Also this week I plan on adding weight lifting to my workout routine.

I have not weighed myself because I hate the scale but for the sake of the challenge I'll weigh myself at the end of the month to see my progress. I have also decided on a reward to give myself once I get to the halfway point. I've been wanting to color my hair for a while now and so to motivate myself even more I've decided not to color my hair until I've lost 30 lbs. So wish me luck and I wish all of you out there striving to reach a goal much luck also.

Day 3 :-)

So I was going to wait until the end of the week to blog about my workouts but today I was so motivated I couldn't hold it in. Today is Day 3 of my official June challenge but Day 4 of working out. My thoughts so far are that I love the working out part, it feels so good after you've ran up the bleachers or ran a lap, it's a high I can't explain. Like I'm on cloud 9 right now. It's a stress reliever and nothing feels better than coming down from a sprint to realize that life is short and I shouldn't let people or anything bother me.

Anyway with all that being said I am having problems sticking to the 1500 calorie intake (yikes). It is sooo hard but I know I can do it just have to do better tomorrow.

June's Fitness Challege (by Curliebelle) DAY 1

This challenge is not my own but one that I found on Curliebelle's blog "Skinny Chick in the Making. The rules are simple:

1. Workout 5 days a week for at least 35-40 minutes with 2 rest days.

2. Drink at least 8 bottles of water (64 ounces of water) each day.

3. Daily calorie target is 1200-1500 calories.

4. Weigh-ins on Day 1, Day 15, and Day 30.

5. No Excuses

Today is my first day of officially starting and I am off to a good start and I'll go running around Morehouse's track later when the sun goes down. I am taking this one day at a time and I'll stick to 1500 calories of healthy foods.

Swim cute

If and only if I weren't living off of a grad students salary all of these would be mine. Oh well a girl can wish can't she. These swimsuits are the latest in Monif C's swim collection.

HAIR UPDATES

This is my fro as of June 3rd. I washed my hair with Giovannis shampoo, conditioned with Herbal Essences Hello Hydration, and used Kimmay's leave-in conditionar then styled with eco styling gel and voila.

Lately my go-to hairstyle has been two strand twist and twist-out but twisting my hair takes too much time and I just didn't feel like doing it yesterday. However I will have to by the end of the week cause its a great low maintenance hairstyle once its done.

One thing that suprises me about my hair still to this day is the amount of shrinkage I mean sheesh, looking at my fro you would never think that my hair is actually shoulder length. (shrugs) Oh well that is apart of having kinky curly hair.

Dark Girls Preview

Hi girls and guys....soo in 2011 I really wish this weren't an issue but since it still is check out the preview to this documentary about Dark Girls. The scene with the little girl was hard to take in but I've heard my little cousins ranging ages 6-11 say that they thought light skin is better too. I wonder how we could change this ideology that one complexion is better than the other, at the end of the day we are all Black so skin color shouldn't matter.

As far as dating preference it doesn't bother me when a guy says he prefers light skin because, I mean, we all have our preferences. I prefer guys who are tall and thick. I also prefer dark men over light men. Not to say that I exclude men who don't fit that description and also I don't think one is better than the other it's just what I like.

Anyway tell me what you think about the documentary and the issue as a whole.
http://vimeo.com/24155797

Dang!!! All of that though!

This was a typical lunch or dinner for me before I decided to eat out only once a week. Sheesh the polynesian sauce has 110 calories alone, I'd eat this meal probably three times a week at least and the last item that you don't see is a sweet tea. The part that gets me is that this is for the small, don't let me mess around and be hungry and get the medium size version, I don't even wanna face those numbers cause that would call for another 110 calories of polynesian sauce as well. Anyway a lot of restaurants have the calorie calculator tool, I challenge you guys to go to your fave spot and calculate your regular meal...you might be suprised at the numbers I know I sure was.

Concealer vs Non concealer

This is the difference that coastal scents concealer quad makes on my eyes...this is using the medium brown color on the dark concealer quad
Eye on the left is concealed, eye on the right is not concealed

Falsies Mascara

My lashes before and after applying Falsies Mascara in blackish brown. If you like this you'll love the before and after with Falsies Black Drama which I'll have pictures coming soon.


Before

After

NAILZ DID

A few of my favorite nail designs over the last couple years. All of these were done by me

25 Reasons to Celebrate

So my 25th birthday is today and I am just sooo happy about it. I was kinda nervous about turning 25 because to me 25 is the milestone of real adulthood. No longer am I a young adult, I am a full on adult now. So while leaving my childhood behind I can look back on my life and say well done India, well done. I've accomplished a lot in my 25 years, graduated from one of the best schools in the country, went back to work on a PhD, no kids, great family, and great friends. I am truly truly blessed. So I am going to take this 25th year and celebrate my past, the present, and my future because I have so much to be proud of and look forward. I also want to use this year to accomplish 2 goals that I have been wanting to accomplish for a few years now. I don't want to say what they are right now but when I feel I am closer to achieveing them I will reveal what they are. So this 25th year is all about finally accomplishing those goals I've been putting off, traveling (which will start off with a camping trip), and just celebrating life every chance that I get.

Makeup Products I Love!

Hello Girls. So here I am going to show you the makeup products I swear by. Most of these products I use for my daily makeup look, which I'll post pictures of later. Anyway lets get started....

1. Coastal Scents Camo Quad dark- I say that I love the quad but really I only use one color and that is the medium brown. It is creamy and blends perfectly with my skin tone. I use it mostly around my eyes to conceal the darkness in that area. If I don't do anything else after my face is washed, I at least apply this concealer. I apply it with my finger and just blend it all around my eye area.


2. Maybelline Falsies mascara in Black Drama- I. LOVE. THIS. PRODUCT. I hate having to fight with false lashes to put them on. With this product I don't have to bother. I wear this daily and it really makes me look like I'm wearing false lashes. Why Black Drama as opposed to the regular falsies, well it truly is dramatic. I think its the blackest black they have and it makes your lashes look really thick. It has a different formula from the regular falsies and I've heard a few people say that it makes their lashes clump. Which I can see why they say that because it is really wet and takes a while to dry compared to regular falsies but the formula is what makes it great to me. I am careful about applying it and if I get clumps I comb them out with a eyebrow comb.


3. NYX eyeshadow base (White)- I have never used a base until I just recently bought this product and I surely did not know what I was missing. This product makes your eyeshadow really pop. The difference between using a base and not is like woah. The only thing about this product is that because it is white it really stands out against brown skin. When I put it all over my lid up the the brow bone the base stands out more than my hi-lite color. Next time I'll get the nude color.


4. NYX mood changing lip gloss- I like this product because it is not too thick and sticky. It gives a nice shine without looking greasy. Last but not least it turns the perfect shade of a pinky red color on my lips.

5. NYX lipstick in Narcissus- I love this color applied over the mood lip gloss. According to other blogs it can be compared to MAC's St. Germaine, I wouldn't know because I rarely purchase MAC products. It is a pretty pink color and applied over the mood changing lip gloss I think it is gorgeous. Yes I apply my lipstick over my lip gloss sometimes.

(repost) "Forget Your Coloring Book, Color by Numbers Approach to Life"

WHEN IT'S ALL SAID AND DONE, REMEMBER THE FEARLESS, REMEMBER THE DREAMERS, REMEMBER THOSE WHO REPRESENT THE GHETTO...THE FAIRY TALE OF NOTHING TO SOMETHING. I'M BRIEFLY SADDENED BY NEGATIVE COMMENTS, BUT I HAVE TO REMEMBER THOSE PEOPLE ARE SCARED, INCAPABLE OR JUST PLAIN IDIOTS. WE ARE THE FUCKING ROCK STARS BABY. NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE MY NIGGAS!! NO COCAINE, JUST LIFE! IT'S FUNNY TO ME WHEN FASHION BLOGGERS DOWN OUR OUFITS AND THEN SUPER JOCK OUTLANDISH SHIT ON THE RUNWAY BUT THEN THEY DRESS MAD PRUDE AND DON'T LIVE FASHION. WE LIVE IT MAN. FUCK THAT, WE LIVE IT!!! WE LIVE IT SO HARD PEOPLE LIVE THROUGH US! WE REPRESENT YOUR INNER SPIRIT!! THE CHILD IN US ALL, THE BRUTAL HONESTY, THE NAIVETY, THE BRAVE WARRIOR, THE ADRENALINE THAT ALLOWS A MOTHER TO LIFT A CAR IF HER CHILD WAS TRAPPED UNDER IT! REMEMBER, THERE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERYBODY DISSED MICHAEL JACKSON EVERY CHANCE THEY COULD. IMAGINE THE PRESSURE OF BEING A TRUE ICON. VERY FEW HUMAN BEINGS ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO TAKE CONSTANT HATE!!! IF WE DON'T DO WHAT YOU FEEL IS THE SHIT, YOU BEAT US UP VERBALLY AND MENTALLY, LIKE A CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER BEATING A CREATIVE STUDENT INTO SUBMISSION. I CAN HEAR YOU SCREAMING 'COLOR INSIDE THE LINES!!!' WELL FUCK YOUR COLORING BOOK, COLOR BY NUMBERS APPROACH TO LIFE. AT THE END OF THE DAY WHO ARE WE HURTING??? OH "THE NEW BLACK???" SINCE BARACK IS PRESIDENT BLACKS DON'T LIKE FUR COATS, RED LEATHER, AND FRIED CHICKEN ANY MORE?! WHEN YOU TRULY UNDERSTAND CULTURAL SETTINGS, BOUNDARIES, AND OUR MODERN DAY CASTE SYSTEMS, THEN YOU CAN FEEL THE GLORY AND PAIN FROM THE DAYS OF KINGS IN AFRICA TO THE NEW KINGS OF THE MEDIA. LET THE BALL PLAYERS DANCE AFTER THEY SCORE! IT'S LIFE MY NIGGAS, IT'S LIFE! REMEMBER CLOTHING IS A CHOICE. WE WERE BORN NAKED!!! FRESH IS AN OPINION, LOVE IS OBJECTIVE, TASTE IS SELECTIVE, AND EXPRESSION IS MY FAVORITE ELECTIVE. NO MORE POLITICS OR APOLOGIES!!!


-Kanye West

I Love Me!!!

I looked at myself in the mirror with a bathing suit on and thought, "not bad, not bad at all". #Thatisall #Esteemofyourself

5 Things I Won't Be Doing Until I Get Married

Soooo I know I don't keep up with this thing as often as I should or would like to but I do have a lot of ideas for this year that I want to blog about and stuff like that so please don't leave me and stay tuned but right now it is 8:13 am January 13th and I have not slept...I have literally been up since 1:00 January 12th....ok anywho sorry I am rambling but this post really has nothing to do with what this blog is about but I was on this website called "Until I Get Married" basically about a single guy and his take on relationships, very interesting check it out, . Okay so there was a post there called five things I won't be doing until I am married and I felt inspired to write my own little list. I was going to do this privately but I thought hey why not post it on my blog. Anyway this list of his got me thinking we really do too much too soon in relationships...I mean sheesh by the time we are married we've done everything there is to do...where is the excitement (perhaps a reason the divorce rate is so high? I'm just saying). Ok so here goes my list:

1. No going away on trips together- This is a rule that I've been had for myself. I just want to save my first trip away with my husband on our honeymoon. Going away for a trip can be very very intimate and I just don't want to share that with someone who is just a boyfriend. At this point in my life I realize boyfriends will come and go and no matter what we think while in a relationship a boyfriend is not really that stable of a situation, shoot here today gone tmrw. Besides one of my favorite places is the mountains and I'd like to share that with one person. Imagine you are married and you and your hubby are going to the same resort you used to have one or many of your exes take you.

2. Shacking up- I've made this mistake in the past and I will not repeat it. I will not, mark my words, ever move in with a man until I have a ring on my left ring finger and a wedding date set. Been there done that, never again. I honestly and whole-heartedly believe that shacking up will curse your relationship. This is not a relationship blogspot so I will not go into it anymore than that. #Thatisall

3. No changing of the facebook relationship status- I took this from the original blog but it is such a great idea. I mean do they really even matter. How many guys have tried to talk to you with his status as in a relationship? I think that little status thing is childish anyway. Me and my homegirl joked that if the status is changed on facebook that is how you know its serious but nowadays I don't think so. I mean plus how tacky does it look when every few months your relationship status toggles back and forth from single, it's complicated, in a relationship, in and open relationship....just, I'm not going to bother anymore when I am married I will put I am married and leave it at that.

4. No sharing pets- Also taken from original. I am the type of person to really get attached to an animal, especially a dog. So if I were to get a pet with my boo and we broke up it'd be like a custody battle over who gets to keep it. So I'll never go in on a pet with my boyfriend.

5. Alright so last but not least, I will not make a big life decision based on my boyfriend- This means moving to a new city, turning down opportunites, missing big events etc..


Okay sorry this will be my last relationship post because this is not a relationship blogspot and I don't want it to be but I would like to hear y'alls list.