Under Construction

Hello. My blog is currently under construction. I haven't posted in a while and I'll say why later..but for now, I'm looking for new designs etc. Be back soon.

xo
Amanda

I Love Lassi!

(February 5, 2012)

I have a confession to make..*deep breath* I'm not just a shopaholic; I'm also...a FOODIE! *sobs uncontrollably* lol. I really enjoy food; it's preparation, taste, look, feel, smell. Food is such an essential part of my life, my culture, my being. That being said, I like to try new foods. As an African woman, I feel I kind of owe it to other cultures to be open about trying their foods. Why? Because, if I weren't who I am, I think I'd be a bit intimidated by my national dishes. In my honest opinion, if you're of any nationality, you shouldn't be scared to get out there and try food from other countries. The only thing scary about "American" food is the calories. If you can eat a big mac, you can go out and try something new and authentic.
Now, in the spirit of trying new things, I went to an Indian restaurant called Coromandel with my sister and her friend. We had a great time. I actually sat there and took notes and pictures of the foods we had.

 This was my napkin, very nice. 

Instead of bread (there was bread later, with out actual meals), we had these chip-like wafers called poppadoms. 

I thoroughly enjoy playing with my food =D

The poppadoms were served with (left-to-right) tamarind sauce, diced onions, and mint sauce. All quite yummy.

I'm completely against ordering conventionally when I go to authentic food places, same goes for drinks.

My sister's coconut smoothie, her friend got mango.

Mango Lassi!!! This drink was out of this world. I enjoyed every.last.sip. I even made that completely rude noise while trying to get the last bit at the bottom with my straw *oops*. The waiter described it as a yogurt drink. I'm well aware that Indian cuisine involves a lot of yogurt. I was a bit scared to try this, not sure why, since yogurt is a perfectly mundane ingredient to have in a drink. Anyhow, I will be frequenting them this summer just for a lassi to go. 

After much..MUCH, deliberation, I ordered this. It's called the "Coromandel Platter". Very good. It's an assortment of variously prepared chicken and lamb, with some greens and roots on the side. The picture on the left is a Kheema Samosa, stuffed with ground lamb yum.

My sister ordered the Murgh Shahi Khorma; chicken cooked in an almond&cashew sauce. It was served with rice.

We didn't finish our meals, so we didn't order dessert, but they sounded scrumptious. 

The meal ended with these heated sanitizing wipes. I thought it was a nice touch, since I ended up using my hands while I ate, something I'm very used to doing :). 

We definitely had a great time. The waiters were extremely patient. We took about 40 minutes to finally decide; they came back periodically to check on us and explained some of the items to us. Needless to say, we will go back soon. 

If there's a Coromandel in your area, please stop in, at least for a lassi :).

~Amanda

           

         

(February 11, 2012)

Hey guys! I'm officially on BlogLovin :)

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

~Amanda

           

         

Red Hot Lightening

(February 5, 2012)

This post is strictly photos. I don't have much to say about this outfit. Since I really wanted to wear this skirt, it was the foundation of my look. Then came the jacket, belt and heels :). I love it when a look comes together so easily. At first, I was going to put the belt over the jacket, but it looked too..forced, ya know. I actually love the end result very much. A lot of compliments with this one. I opted for my textured tights instead of the plain ones, just because. 

What's in the drawer?

Jacket: Courtenay (A.J. Wright)

Skirt: The Limited (thrifted)

Tank: owned

Tights: owned

Heels: Charlotte Russe

"Always keep your head held high; even when you feel the weight of the world pulling you down."

~Amanda

           

         

That feeling when...

(February 1, 2012)

Hello all. I haven't posted in a while. I'm in one of those moods..not sure why, but.  I think I'm feeling underwhelmed..and that feeling is overwhelming..hope you caught that. Anywho, here's an artist I stumbled on today, more specifically, here's one of his songs that I particularly like..since it was the first one I heard. 

To be very honest, this song spoke to me. Hope you guys like it.

~Amanda
           

         

Emeralds and Sapphires

(January 22, 2012)

Black and white is a wonderful color combo, classic, clean and refined. I have this skirt..I wouldn't call it polka-dotted, but it has a dot pattern; white skirt, black dots. I've had it for some time, but never found a way to wear it. I also have a green, puff sleeve sweater that I haven't work in literally years, that I wasn't sure how to wear. 

What do these things have to do with my post?? Welllll, the two came together into a wonderful outfit. One that made me feel like a billion dollars :). "I look so expensive!" My exact words before leaving for church with my family. 

Do you love it?! I was kind of iffy about wearing the skirt, but as soon as I threw the sweater in there, I knew. And the heels just #BAM. 

my little cousin, isn't he cute?

I'm trying to be more creative with my photo locations.

I love this picture; it's so..fancy lol. That's not the word I want, but it's not coming to me right now. 

What's in the drawer?

Sweater: Candie's (Kohl's)

Skirt: Skirtin Around (thrifted)

Heels: Wild Rose (Burlington Coat Factory)

Jewelry: owned

I loved the color pallet of this outfit, emeralds and sapphires, and of course come pearl studs.

"If you can't speak your mind, no one will ever know what you have to offer."

~Amanda

           

         

Leopardonnne moi ;)

(January 8, 2012)

Happy New Year guys!! This is my first post of the new year, and in the spirit of things, I'm trying something new. I'm a fan of animal print. Cheetah and Leopard are wonderful prints. They're just sexy and bold and chic; when done the right way..hmm. Pause (||) getting ahead of myself. Rewind (<<). 

This post will be devoted to a new combo I never knew would look good. Around the time I first started blogging, I discovered Red&Camel, very nice combo. Now I've found Blue&Leopard ;). Also, very..very nice.

It all started when I saw Ms. Blake Lively wearing this fabulous dress from the Spring 2011 Collection by Tibi ^_^. Instantly fell in love! I mean just look at it. the color is breathtaking, it giggles of spring. Not to mention how well Ms. Lively wears it. I've seen two other celebs donning this fabulous frock, but not like her. She really fills it out. In my opinion, the dress looks much more "made to fit" when it actually..fits, than when you have that "I borrowed my big sister's dress" look that a certain other celeb had *nothing against her*. Anywho, my first though was to try to make a similar dress, in a different print, though. Big fan of basic dresses. However, that vision was no realized; so I forgot about the dress, Until I was looking for a way to style the blue dress here. I didn't want to do black..since I would be wearing black tights. I was stuck. THEN...I remembered this photo.
Seeing that photo again made me curious if anyone else had tried this combo. The hunt brought me to one of my favorite blogs. Karla has great style and an even better closet. I'm currently pining for those Prada Pumps *sigh* but alas, I don't have several hundred dollars for shoes at the moment. Seeing her post really made me want to put a spin on the look. I love the dress she's wearing. Anyone would just pair it with a white espadrille or pump. The leopard actually made the dress stand out instead of just accenting it the way white would have. Plus, look how adorable she is ^_^! At this point I was definitely sold on the idea of pairing my blue dress with a leopard print of some sort; but once again I sought out more confirmation of the daring duo. That brought me Stephanie. I really like her blog, if you don't already follow her, please check her out. Her style is a little bit of everything, but most of all it's full of confidence, love it! This is her rendition of blue and leopard. After seeing that post, I was officially on board. Now..let's talk about the dress that started it all. A few weeks ago I purchased a very cute shirt dress, last seen here. 
My original intentions were to wear it for NYE service, but it was a business casual occasion, needless to say, it was too dressy..so I waited. And waited, and waited, and waited for a week. I didn't want to wear black heels with it, since the dress has black in it and I would be wearing black tights. After throwing around several ideas, I realized this would be a great opportunity to try this look. I already own a pair of leopard print booties. Somehow the shape of the bootie just threw off everything. I'm a recovering shopaholic..so I also didn't want to buy a new pair of heels just for one look..so I made a project out of it. I had a pair of black heels that were tore UP! Literally from the floor up, lol. They were the heels I wore for model practice for my first ASA show. If you guys are interested in how I did the transformation, let me know and I'll do a post about it :). Moving on to the look...
I'm very excited about this outfit. First, because I've really been wanting to wear this dress; and second, because I was really looking forward to trying the leopard/blue combo. 

I received a lot of compliments on this look. Everyone loved the dress, especially paired with the heels. I feel personally obligated to bring some wow the people in my life with my wardrobe..if not wow, at least intrigue and catch off guard. It's just another thing that makes me..well, me.

I opted for textured tights instead of my basic black. They definitely added something to the outfit outfit aside from being more opaque than my basic blacks, the texture was just nice all round.

I think I was really able to pull an element from all the ladies that inspired this look. My only intention was to pair leopard with blue, but it just happened to be a dress (like Blake and Karla) and a similar shade to the skirt Stephanie wore. I also chose a pair of bow studs, I just noticed that Stephanie wore a bow ring. The little details, I tell ya; make the whole look.

What's in the drawer?

Dress: Jonathan Saunders for Target (thrifted)

Heels: Bamboo, DIY-ed by me (Burlington)

Tights: owned

Earrings: Charlotte Russe

"Be that girl who stands out in a room full of people, as if you're the only one there..."

~Amanda