When Unhappiness Comes Knocking

What do you do when you look in the mirror and all you see id what you used to be not who you are?

What do you do when can't recognize yourself by the things that interest you?
When superficial beliefs and philosophies satisfy you, when before, you searched for a deeper meaning.

What do you do when you're prepared to sacrifice that which you know is right to get what everyone else is hustling for?
When you're prepared to not be that one different person but blend in with the crowd.
What do you do?

What do you do when you're lost in that concrete jungle and because you don't know the way out, you continue walking the way of the zombie, left; right; left; right; left.
What do you do?

What do you do when you wake up in the morning and realize unhappiness is knocking at your front door?

A Look To The Future

It's pretty late right now and I should be sleeping but I managed to open my blog up and glanced to the listing on the left. And it hits me, soon I won't be seeing December 2010 it will be 2011. It is almost one full year since I started this blog. That's pretty exciting!! I mean I haven't gotten quite the response I was hoping for, but I still love my blogs, both of them yes. There are times when I feel like one gets more attention than the other, but then it works out that the other gets attention too later on.

I want to say Thank You to everyone who has supported this venture, those who enjoy reading my blog and follow my activities as well as those who randomly stumble upon it never to look at it again. Thank You to everyone who gives me feedback and say they enjoy reading it.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I have plans to have some interesting things in 2011 on the blog. I might have new tabs or not and might just stick to using the labels (e.g. Wonderful, Baking, Money, Green, Opinion...). I am hoping to do more recreational reading, which I have started, and do a book review. I must say from now that this may not end well, but nothing beats a try.

In closing, I would like to wish for everyone a new year filled with true happiness, success, peace, understanding, respect, financial stability and honesty.

Thank You.

Nothing Beats A Try

So I finally started working on being crafty. I haven't made my nephew and/or niece's gifts yet, but I did complete one of my housemates gifts. It was really simple and easy and looks great.

What I used:
* an old/empty tin (I used a hot chocolate tin and a small Tetley tea tin)
* patterned paper of your choice (this is when you can get really creative and use magazine cut outs, old wrapping paper, nice paper from a chocolate, a map or anything that you think will go well with the person's style and taste)
* hot glue gun and glue sticks
* paint (I used black for mine)
* paint brush
* glue and water mixture (one part white glue to one part water)

How I did it:
* I made sure the tins were clean. Rinsed them with water. If you wanted a specific scent I'm sure if you rinse it with the desired scent that would work.
* Using the paint, which I bought at the Dollar Store, paint the tin. I recommend putting two coats just to make sure it's all covered and even.
* Once tins have dried thoroughly, add a line of glue using the glue gun along the edge of the paper (which I should have said earlier was measured to fit the height of the tin) and stick to the tin.
* Fit the paper around the tin making sure that the bottom is lined up (if that is what style you are going for)
* Add a line of glue to the other end of the paper and stick to the tin.
* Finish off with a coat (or two) of the glue and water mixture.
* Let dry thoroughly (a few hours if not days lol) and TA-DA!! There you have it. Your lovely matching tin set :)


Isn't it lovely?! If you're not too sure how it will turn out, I recommend not using the actual paper unless you have enough to spare. You can test drive the method on another tin until you are comfortable with what you're doing. If my instructions suck, I'm sorry...I'm new to this. Maybe the next time I will try to do a video or something...

Please feel free to comment!

Really Now?!

It's flu/cold season here in Canada, and you would think that after the H1N1 scare/threat/epidemic last year people would have developed good habits regarding anything that can transmit these things. Nope. We still have people who cough with their tongues extended out of their mouths instead of covering their cough with their elbow or shirt or something!

It amazes me that university students have to be educated about being clean and staying healthy in that way, or rather not being nasty in my opinion and sharing germs. It surprised me when we were showed how to wash our hands: that you wash the backs of your hands and inbetween your fingers as well. Granted I did not know it should be for 20 seconds but I did know long enough to build a solid lather.

All of this stuff just makes me wonder what do parents teach their children? If you don't show them how to wash their hands properly, or teach them how to sneeze and cough appropriately, what do you teach them?

I like my Caribbean upbringing. If I have children, they're getting it the same way. Now that self is for another post. Coming soon...

What have you read today??

I was listening to the song below and there is a line in the verse that says "read the books your father read" and my initial response was "yow that's a lot of books" but then it hit me, that I am being a stereotypical black person. The saying is "If you want to hide something from a black person, hide it in a book." I don't read enough. Heck, I don't even read the required readings for my courses. So I am going to challenge myself to read, and not tweets or Facebook statuses, but things of actual substance. I complain about Canada messing up my not so extravagant vocabulary. It is my responsibility to ensure that I have not completely destroyed myself and that I am able to have a good conversation with persons of all educational backgrounds. My challenge is to read more.

Enjoy the song =)



Feel free to comment. Thanks.

It's That Time Again

The Christmas season officially began whenever. For me it began as my Saint Lucian tradition has (and should continue) to be on November 23rd, the day after Saint Cecilia's Day. Anyway, everyone loves getting the presents and if you're like me, you adore well wrapped presents. For the past 4 or 5 years I have wrapped all my presents in either newspaper or wrapping paper from previous years or other paper that I am reusing. You think this is so trashy or the present does not look good when wrapped in newspaper but here's my trick to add a little umph to it.

Instead of just using newspaper alone and a bow or some festive ribbon, or even just plain coloured ribbon to the gift. If you want to continue an Earthy recycled theme for the entire gift you can use twine or some organic material instead of the ribbon. Maybe wrap the gift in newspaper, and a few sticks of cinnamon on the top and secure with twine or something like that. Photo taken from http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/gifts/wrapping/creative-wrapping-ideas-10000001137821/page4.html.

Another idea I saw was wrapping the gift in fabric. I would suggest if you have left over fabric from some project, use that. To me the options are endless!!

I think this is the time to be frugal and creative. To me there's absolutely nothing wrong with not spending money in getting wrapping paper.

Happy Holidays!

Baron : Christmas Medley

This is by far my favourite track for the Christmas season. For me Christmas begins with Baron's Medley of Christmas songs. They range from your traditional tunes sang worldwide to Caribbean specific tunes. Enjoy.

Joe Boxers

I love well dressed men. It pleasures me to see a man that knows how to dress and carries himself well. I honestly don't have a problem with boxers showing. My thing is how much of the boxer should be showing? The waistband is fine, and maybe 1 inch below that. If I'm seeing half the boxer what the bleep!! You might as well not have pants on! Geez guys. Pull up your pants. I can't even say wear a belt because they wear a belt to hold it up half way down their thighs. Sigh. I can't deal with this. I really can't. It's a good thing the men in my family do not dress like that. I just had to put that out today. What are your views on the matter? Please feel free to share.

Like, I Don't Get It...

Maybe it's my simplistic mentality but why is it necessary for persons and/or organisations to take millions of years pointing fingers and laying blame instead of addressing the real issue? I'm not saying just overlook who is responsible for something, but it seems like it's always a back and forth event of calling names and pointing fingers when all involved can spend less time doing so and more time solving whatever issue it was that is causing the finger pointing. What do you think?

New Years Resolutions

I've never been a fan of having New Years resolutions, but somehow I think this new year I will internally have a few things I want myself to work on.

1. My health: As of recent I have developed a loss in my appetite. I just haven't been craving food as I usually do, and anyone who knows me knows I love food. So my resolution would be to make sure that if not every day at least every week I ate and I eat things I need to eat. Not only starch and dairy but fiber, vegetables, fruits, and drink plenty of water. Drinking water is a bit difficult to do because it's so cold they body doesn't require that much water to cool itself, so I feel thirsty less, but I still need to drink more water. Sometimes days go by and I don't drink water by itself. I might get water fro my food, but to have one glass of water no. Also in the health department - taking multivitamins and cod liver oil and other supplements. A discussion in my Environmental Ethics lecture had me thinking that even if I eat the recommended amounts of everything I probably will still be lacking minerals and vitamins simply because the soils on which our food is being grown has less nutrients in it and hence there are less nutrients in the food itself. So to ensure that at least I will have a little something in me I will take multivits and cod liver oil. And the last thing in regards to health is exercise. Afrobana is done and it seems like my exercise regime is too. I need to continue going to the gym and working out. I think I've plateaued because I saw pictures of myself and thought oh wow my body looks great. So in my mind it's not necessary for me to work out and get a rocking body because I already have one. What I think I'm going to do is get another reason, another motivation. Maybe to tone my body even more. Or to gain strength - do more push ups or whatever. Or for more stamina by doing my cardio. Whatever it is I need to get back into the gym. I noticed a relationship between time spent in the gym and time spent studying/doing homework. The more times per week I worked out the more hours I put into doing school work. And trust me I love that. So I need to get back on that. Now this talk of school has lead me to my second resolution...

2. My academic development: An email from my dad kinda shook me [then again most of them tend to do that lol]. But it was that my love for performing has everyone worried about my academics. Yes this makes me wonder why is it that no one will think maybe I'm aiming to work in the wrong profession instead of worrying about how my academic standing is. I don't want to go much further on that last statement but instead want to say that next semester I am going to continue the hard work and dedication to my academics much further. I know it's going to be tough seeing as I am organising the largest show at my university, but I'm not giving up hope on myself. Where there's a will there's a way, right? I believe that combined with the gym I shall be rather satisfied with the level of work I shall put out. I have faith in my abilities to work. Most of the time I don't feel like I have anything to prove to anyone lol. Oh well. Make myself happy and everyone else around me will be happy too.

3. I just thought I'd add this lol...enjoy life. I want to not be afraid of doing what I want, especially if it doesn't hurt anyone else or any other creature/non-human. Do what I want to do.

Yea so my New Years resolutions: Take care of myself. Handle my business. Live life to the fullest.

Love Rain - Jill Scott && Mos Def