Got Curls?

 I suffer the bane of schizophrenic  hair. When I was little, I had straight hair that fell into ringlets. When I hit the double digits I started to randomly have days when my hair would air dry in massive ringlets;  sometimes pretty ones, while other times a frizzy mess, especially in the summer! This was new to me, but I really loved it on the good days. My mom always had super thick and wavy hair, in a boy cut, so she was never able to aid me in proper care of the bad hair curly hair days, and I wasn’t always so lucky to have a good hair curly hair day. Then it was recommended that I get a perm so my hair would just stay curly all of the time. Yeah, that was a great idea because it resulted in permanently frizzy and puffy hair that neither I nor anyone around me could help me with.  At that point, all I wanted was the silky hair from my single digit years back and would cry daily. My cousin, who had even curlier curls, was of absolute no help either. She just cried every day too.  The internet wasn’t part of our world in those days either (shush) and all we had were Teen and Sassy magazines. Remember those? Then, it was a matter of convincing our parents to purchase whatever products were recommended, and in turn, they would bring home the dollar store version.  After that failed, you’d then turn to your grandmother who would start to do all sorts of olive oil, egg yolk and avocado treatments that seemed to make no difference in your hair, when all you wanted was a can of Vavoom mousse and call it a day! Can anyone else relate to this?

 

I still have on and off issues with my hair, but by now, between dry hair and oily scalp, I’ve given up on it and normally just straighten it as much as I can to avoid what became my young adult air dry hair sensation; hat head. My hair is now thinner (partially due to lack of proper care and partially due to having prolactinoma…a topic I will eventually touch on this blog) dries straight a couple inches down from the scalp, turns into waves, then ends in curls for the last 5 inches. Sounds "creative" for lack of a better word, but it’s a hot messy mess I’ll tell you. Every once in a while it will dry all in curls, but I don’t know what makes my hair like that and a body wave to correct the situation was unsuccessful. Basically, my hair just may have a life-long identity crisis. But it’s the year 2012 and I have no more excuses, I need to start learning how to take care of my hair and make the most of those luscious curls when they pay me a visit, as well as make the most of the days that call for straightening, while maintaining healthy hair.

Beautiful author of DailyCurlz

These days, we have this little amazing tool called the internet, and this even more amazing thing called Social Media, which allows us to connect, interact and share with people all over the world. I recently came across a blog called DailyCurlz.  Actually, DailyCurlz came across me. The author of the DailyCurlz blog is in the main picture of my recent blarticle on Vakano Clothing. When she commented on my blog post, naturally, I clicked on her blog to see what she wrote about. I’m a curious little feline when it comes to treasure hunting. DailyCurlz offers advice, information, tutorials and tips in both English and Spanish for us curly haired babes! Among the many blarticles in the DailyCurlz archive, you can read about prepping you hair for the coming cold weather here ->HOLA,CLICK ME<-, as well as find tips for preventing static when wearing hats. DailyCurlz also created their own oil mix for the hair. DailyCurlz Oil Mix provides your hair and scalp with a variety  of oils, in which some (oils) contain vitamins that aid in creating healthier, longer, shinier and dandruff free hair. Click on the name to get in on the game; the link will provide you with full details on the mix and have you an expert on the product knowledge in no time! As soon as I can grab a hold of my own bottle I will let you know how it works for me! In the meanwhile, check out DailyCurlz on Blogspot and Facebook and enjoy this video of the author creating flawless curls by way of braids and some pics of my own hair.

Click here for the video on Flawless Curls By Way of Braids ~Sorry, for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to embed videos (bad, bad, BAD Blogger!)

My own "DailyCurlz", when taken care of correctly. Images from my fashion and stylist blog post "La Bruja Buena". Click on the image below to be directed to the post.

Does anyone know what is preventing the two brats below from aligning properly?<--Serious question

Thank you for reading and I hope that you and yours are enjoying Fabulucious curls!

Besos, Beijos, Filakia, MUAH!

Love,

Lisa xo

Twitter: Fab_Chitating

Beats Antique Concert Snippet Video!

Ok, well, now that I've gotten you to open up the link I am going to bombard you with the pictures of my entire day out in Park Slope Brooklyn in April. My phone just informed me that its memory is full, therefore I need to document all the "goodies" on it, so here we all have it on a blog post. It also was the eve of my birthday, which wasn't the cause of celebration, but it just sounds like a good reason for you to have to go through all the pics to get to the Beats Antique video conveniently located at the bottom of the page. I also cried a lot that week because my "boyfriend" <--whatever and I broke up that week, so one eye is more crooked than the other. Just letting you know. So here it is...

I always have such great fun when I visit my friend Maria. There's also something about Park Slope that just makes life seem so much more laid back, chill, creative. That's why I wore this during the day:

What, what? I'm walking around Park Slope on the eve of my birthday in a beret. Or whatever this style hat is really called. I'm sooooo "cool"! Park Slope cool that is ;p

This pic is even cooler. Why you ask? Because of the "Made in Park Slope" Artwork  in the background made by the one and only Maria Liebana. Pimple, long face, eff''ed up eyes: compliments of some dum guy.

Then I got to eat lunch on a cool table in an apartment in Park Slope, like this:

Because we're cool like that.

Park Slope couldn't fix my crooked eye, or the fact that I got a cluster of glitter on the crooked eye and couldn't get it off, but just because I was in Park Slope --> crooked eyes and failed attempts at enchanted fairy eyes were just plain COOL. Though I must lament, you'd think the Birthday Gods would have joined forces with the Gods of Broken Heart Side Effects and at least put the glitter chunk on the opposing eye to even it out a bit. Sheesh.

And now ladies and gentlemen, photos of yours truly and some dance friends at the Beats Antique Concert at Brooklyn Bowl on April 23rd, 2012-April 24, 2012 <--My damn uncelebrated birthday. I spoke briefly about this outing in my blarticle on Glorified Fanny Packs and now I'm finally posting what I have available of the full experience!

Glow in the Dark Hula Hoopers. Not sure how I feel about them since that time the Hula Hoop club decided to share space with me and my crew during a Central Park picnic. :p

Glitter clumps and chocolanutty goodness like the Nutella Bourbon Milkshake=Typical Moi.

Maria Liebana and Rebecca Jablonsky&^@*^#*^*$...um,  let's just refer to her as Rebecca J.

Two of the most awesomely artsy fartsy people I know. Multi-media, performance artist, East Coast Tribal Belly Dancing, Pearl Mica Art Extraordinaire (Maria), bloggesses, super duper I can't keep up with smart...you know what I'm thinking. It must be because they live in Park Slope.

Rebecca is also the author of the Arts and Science Lab blog. It's a brilliant, well written and interesting blog, so just go check it out. You won't be disappointed; she writes in Park Slope.

 We saw Amy Raks, Alura, Sahazha (I may have butchered her dance name), Matt & Rebecca T.! I just met Rebecca that night (both Rebecca's actually) but I've known the rest of the crew for years and it was so great to see the familiar faces of people who are dear to me!

Red eye reducing this was not an option since for some reason the new editing system that was put on my laptop by the laptop guy told me it's just not going to do this. I was too lazy to upload it to snapfish to fix it there or anywhere else for that matter.

Eskimo was the opening act for Beats Antique. We really enjoyed his act, he's very expressive and his passion for what he does really shows in his performance. I got a short snippet of him in the video where you can see what I mean towards the end of his snippet. It was a bit difficult to video tape while paying attention to the show, but I tried my best to capture the best moments, and missed a lot. I blame it on the drugged up girl in the blue wig and 3 inch fake lashes who kept purposely bumping into us. She made my life difficult. Especially difficult for a first time smart  phone user (me).

There's not much to say here, except that she's a stunning beauty my Sammy.

I still don't have any idea what these two were talking about, something about opportunities to work with really cool people, hellooo-Park Slope, and then -->insert some blanks here<---and the environment. I should have focused better, I am kinda sorta unemployed after all. On a serious note, they were cool, so we should just all google the event and see if anyone else wrote about them and whoever they are.

Here it is my peeps, BEATS ANTIQUE! I know that my fabulous photo taking skills are making you feel all kinds of excited inside. Eh hem.

I really love that the drummer has GLITTER drums that match my crooked eye enchanted fairy dust make-up look! *GIRLY SHRIEK KICKING FEETSIES BACK AND FORTH NOW!*

Zoe Jakes in one of her many looks. She's so amazingly theatrical, versatile and diverse in dance. I love watching her perform. You will catch her rocking out on the drums in my snippets and doing a Sheila E-esque style performance at the very end. Yeah, like I said, my  life when in Park Slope is quite cool.

Bye Bye Beats Antique, we wrapped up the night by doing a late night Astoria run and grabbing some Pan de Bono at "La Casa de Pan". Open 24 hours. Astoria is so cool too. :p

And now that you've entertained me by checking out my photo journey, or at least to have pretended to, I now present to you some great Beats Antique concert snippets and iPhone photos. 

For your convenience, I have made sure to take some portions of the video on a side view. This has absolutely nothing to do with my being clueless or thinking that the iPhone has infinite powers and absolutely everything to do with me wanting to make sure you get your daily neck stretches in. I will be accepting "thank you's" and charming little notes of appreciation in the comment box below. You're welcome. My apologies to Eskimo for spelling his name wrong in the video.

Thank you for reading chamacos!

Besos, Beijos, Filakis, MUAH!


Love,


Lisa xo

Fun Find for Salseras!

Tell the boys to keep the hand towels in their back pockets for us, we have additional things to worry about, like the upkeep of our lips and running eye make-up from all of that fun salsa dancing!

Olga Ayala is at it again! As many of you know by now, I'm a huge fan of her work and I just saw this handcrafted "Salsera" pocket mirror in her etsy store. Of course this made me think about more than 50% of my fabulous amigas who you can find occupying the salsa scenes of NYC weekly!

Olga is so incredibly talented (multi-talented I should add), and she puts a lot of work and passion into her products. This mirror is handcrafted and made of polymer clay. Check out the details on the design and colors! Olga also makes beautiful and unique jewelry that will really have you stand out in a crowd; I love one of a kind fashions!

Click on the image below to be lead to the fabulous shop filled with hand crafted jewelry, home decor, Puerto Rican, Latin & Salsa inspired products!

Thanks for checking out this find and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Besos, Beijos, Filakia, MUAH!

Love,

Lisa xo
Twitter: Fab_Chitating

Cluless in the Suburbs-Photo Editing Dramas...HELP!

So, last night I played around some with the header of my blog, and chose this picture from a photo shoot I did not too long ago. Of all my photos, it was most representative of my gypsy life; the big bag, me walking away (yes, in reality, it's more like 5 big bags and me sitting in the middle, legs half in air and flustered, but I don't have a photo of that yet and "flustered" is not the look I'm going for).

Anyway, to my annoyance, once up on the blog it looks blurry! And it's a professional photo :/ I did filter it with "Poprocket" on Instagram for iPhone, which may have altered it a bit and I don't like the black borders, and of course the blurriness. I am going to work on editing the photo again tonight, but in the meanwhile, does anyone have any suggestions? Did I do something wrong? What can I do to make it better? HELP! SAVE MY SHIP! DAMSEL IN DISTRESS!

Here are the pics, in original and edited format.

Love, 

Your overly dramatic friend Lisita (I'm utilizing my Cuban given name today in honor of Nicolita Swimwear and my Abuela bella) 

xo

 PHOTOS TAKEN BY ERIC MAYR OF EM PHOTO SERVICES, STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK

Original Photo

After editing, filtering & cropping<--I imagine this may be why it looks less clear, but why such a huge difference?!?! 

What I want, but with a border that blends better with my current blog template and a pinkier and prettier font.

Photos edited on my iPhone with Instagram and captioned with Captions PM

I won a Havana Honey bikini from the amazing Nicolita Swimwear!

I was too excited to think of taking a picture before I ripped apart the wrapping, so here is my ghetto re-wrap of Nicolita's lovely packaging. I tried to do it justice, really I did!

Last week, I was so excited to find out that I won a beautiful guayabera inspired "Havana Honey" bikini from Nicolita Swimwear (I never win anything). Today I was even more excited when I received my bikini in the mail. It's so beautiful! My mom handed me the package while I was on my way out to work and I couldn't wait...sooo, I pranced around my room in my bikini top for 2 minutes and was in awe of the quality of the material and great fit! The support is amazing and made my itty bitties look very voluptuous (without any padding!). Ooh la la!

My new bikini (perfect body not included, lol)! I especially love the "no pinch fit" design the Nicolita Swimwear line has. Nicole truly thought of the curvy girl's needs when designing her swimwear, which sets this line apart from the rest. Check out her site, I am sure you will be as impressed as I by her creativity and attention to detail. I can't wait to wear this on my first trip ever to Puerto Rico this December. I am so grateful to Nicole and her generosity!

As many of you know, I have a ginormous amount of pride in my Cuban heritage. The most amazing person in my life is my Cuban grandmother, who raised me in my earlier years, and I honestly don't know anyone with more heart than my Cuban mamacita. Therefore, I took great interest in this line when I was introduced to it this summer. It was love at first sight for me, as I especially love vintage pin-up and pretty much anything Vintage Cuba, and there is plenty inspired by that in this line! When I was introduced to Nicolita Swimwear, I had actually been searching for the work of an aspiring swimsuit designer to use in a photo shoot for my upcoming blog project for school, Circle of Art Movement. I had placed a post on Facebook when Alison Mackie of Gypsy Chronicles contacted me about this line. Her exact words were: 

"Maybe you already have seen this...I thought it was wonderful because here she is inspired by the past, but marketing to present day - and so it's a fine line this designer treads - especially when you consider that fashion is a high risk business. The designer had a vision - inspired by her past, and all the love in her heart. Nostalgia...And markets to a very fickle modern market...My kind of lady"

To which I responded:

"Thank you so much for sharing this with me, I am so excited about this information (and did you know I was Cuban?) I'm hoping she will be interested in my project, I will reach out to her today. I really love her work. Thanks again, I always love hearing from you!"

Of course, naturally, I attributed it to (as I do all coincidences) a spiritual moment; a sign from God...geez, I'm so Cuban :p As it turned out, Nicole Di Rocco is no aspiring swimsuit designing sensation...she already is one! No field work of aspiring designers and photo shoot blog of mine was going to surpass the ones I saw on her site. I immediately fell in love with her photos, swimsuits and blog and I urge you to check her out at My Nicolita and on Facebook. Nicolita Swimwear also recently joined forces with another favorite of mine, Cubavera, both on the runway and photo shoots. If you've been following me from the start, one of the first posts I published was on Cubavera's fedora hats, you can check that out by clicking here<---. Back to topic, the shots from their photo shoot were ah-may-zing and remind me of my own fantasies of going to both Cuba and Puerto Rico. As a matter of fact, an incentive to keep practicing dance when I get lazy, is the hope that one day I can have the opportunity to go to Cuba on an artist's permit. Hey, a girl can dream, right?!

Speaking of visiting Cuba, I highly recommend you watch the documentary, Pastport Cuba, where you can follow Nicole's journey to Cuba to find the face of Nicolita Swimwear. I am partway through the documentary now, and am already emotional. Nicole's parents, natives of Cuba, join her and her sister on this journey and are returning to their homeland for the first time in almost 50 years. In this documentary, you will learn a lot about this beautiful family, how Nicole's Cuban heritage inspired her successful career and what it was like growing up Cuban American in a mainly anglo community. Both Nicole and her sister Michelle share stories that other Cubanitas can relate to, like myself, and open the door to a world of understanding and beauty of the Cuban culture; here in the states and in Cuba. I love seeing Cuba through the eyes of the Di Rocco family! Click here-->Me!Me!Me!<--to watch the documentary. 

I still haven't gotten to the part where Nicole finds the face of Nicolita in Cuba, but I think this proud Cuban should be the American Cuban face *bats eyelashes with chin in hands* :p I'll do 1000 sit ups a day to look good, startiiiiiiing NOW tomorrow!

Thank you for reading and thank you again Nicolita Swimwear!

Love,

Lisita <--what my Cuban grandmother nicknamed me and all my grandparents call me :) xo

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Misadventures in Bloggywood

I'm not a mom. I'm not even a wife or a girlfriend. That said, I am a nurturer by nature and have helped raise my fair share of youngsters and can appreciate a good story about motherhood.

Now I have to say, I don't go driving around in the Google Search engine for sites on motherhood and even though I follow and truly enjoy Adventures of a Modern Mom (published by one of my besties amazing big sis, Zulay Fernandez) my time shall come, and I'm cool with that. However, while trying to teach myself a thing or two about navigating around blogspot I stumbled upon this:

Blog Readers Your blog can have up to 100 Readers

I know. I need to slow my roll and chill out, I only have 15 followers on actual Blogspot, 55 publicly following my blog from Facebook, and a handful that e-mail me about them and for some reason aren't following...I'm just not cool enough yet yo, so I need not worry about this. Yet somehow this tid bit of info still managed to put me in a state of frenzy and in "WTF?!?!" mode.

I immediately turned to Google for help and stumbled upon another blog writer who had experienced the same hysteria as I: Jenn of  Misadventures of Motherhood. A random kind gentleman helped Jenn understand what this meant, and this didn't go without some torture in my opinion, as he also accused her of hijacking someone else's question...I mean WTH is that supposed to mean?! I, fellow hijacker, truly did not  comprehend what the "question answerer" was trying to explain (except that, no worries Lisa, you can have more than 100 readers). To me he just went on and on and on--->HERE<---in case you need to know, and my solely hypochondriatic existent A.D.D was not having it. However, I did find an incredibly cute and fun blog out of the question answering boredom. Something special always comes out of most things if you just look for it. I'm happy that I decided to copy and paste the link to Misadventures of Motherhood. I love this blog and Jenn's sense of humor. Even though it's a blog about her life post children, she still writes about things we can all relate to and shares some humorous past times, pre-mommyhood. She seems like a mother that knows how to have fun and doesn't take herself too seriously.

Here is my favorite post, I Pee Myself. Haven't we all experienced a moment when we are sharing funny experiences, laughing and then one person says something only to find themselves laughing solo while the rest are left with blank stares and in total non comprehension of what you shared? Yeah well, this is one of those. I peed myself.

I urge you to check out Misadventures of Motherhood; mommy, mommy in training, or none of the above. And while you're at it, since we are on the mommyhood topic, you'll definitely enjoy the fun and challenges Zulay experiences and is faced with on Adventures of a Modern Mom. My personal fav is Layla goes to Work with Mommy!

Hope you enjoy it!

Love,

Lisa xo

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"40 Seconds, 40 Pics" Video

 While an old dance friend and I were catching up at "La Lotería" Exhibit in the Brooklyn Observatory, we were kindly interrupted by another attendee who offered to take pictures of us. She said that she loved taking pictures, so we gave her the honor of catching our moment (reunions are always nice!). She was everything you'd imagine a fashion photographer to be! The only problem is that she took approximately 40 "snapshots" in video taking mode. However, where there's a will, there's a way, so why not share these shots in picture taking view?

 Thanks to La iPhone, here are some of my favorite screen shots I took to create a few stills

   

Hope you enjoyed my "pics", I have plenty more from the exhibit and my fun filled weekend

to share later this week once I finish editing.

Thanks for looking!

Besos, Beijos, Filakia, MUAH!

Love,

Lisa xo

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone