Within/Without

I am out of perfume. That is a huge accomplishment for me because I don’t ‘run’ out of anything. Last year I looked at my fragrance shelf and thought, “My, I have a lot of fragrances.” I don’t want you to think me excessive, but if you did, I couldn’t dispute that. Anyway… Since I only smell like the scented shea butter, I decided to go get some more perfume. I have some essential oils that I could mix, but I have no medium to dissolve it in. I dissolve EO’s in vodka This joker came through and drank everything that I have. And I keep a stocked bar! At least I did. The nigga promised that he was gonna replace what he drank. But after a year, I suppose he’s not gonna keep his word. Plus that would take at least 2 weeks for the scent to develop in vodka. So…. I went off to the hood Beauty Supply Store. Why a hood BSS and not Sally’s? Because hood stores have hood needs. And I wanted oils. Not oils that smell like popular blends like Dior, Glow and White Linen. Nope. I wanted...

If you follow this blog regularly, you know that I have been in the process of giving up milk products and eventually eggs. I say it's a process because I have to find all the milk I have been consuming. You also know that I have this crunchy vibe going on where I avoid processed foods and synthetic fibers. I try to keep a small garden, recycle and have a problem with GMO’s. Stuff like that. Well since I’ve been giving up milk, I realized that maybe the sour cream and cheddar potato chips might be off limits. Hmmm? Well what about the buffalo blue cheese chips? And the cappuccino latte smoothie? I have begun to read labels…. In earnest. I have come to a startling conclusion. Not only is there a lot of unsuspecting milk in a lot of products, but there are fillers too. Follow me on this… One of my favorite snack chips right now are salt and pepper chips. I never thought that potato chips could ever have any more ingredients than potatos, salt, pepper and oil. Apparently not. These c...

This is just a mild update…. My milk cessation is moving right along…. Literally. When I remove something from my diet, my body always makes an adjustment. Removing milk is no different. Which was a little weird since I didn’t think that I ingested that much milk/cheese/butter? Well maybe I did, but I have had a bit of withdrawal… (1) I have the bubble guts! Y’all know what that is without me having to explain it. (2) This is interesting… My iron levels seem to be staying up with out my added attention. Hmmmm…..? Could milk be playing a role in my chronic iron deficient anemia? My anemia has been so bad in the past that I had to postpone emergency surgery because it would have required 3 transfusions. (3) The last thing I have noticed, which is not really surprising to probably anyone but me, is that I'm reading labels regularly and asking the question, "Is this vegan?". There is milk hidden in all kinds of food. Candy, chips, salad dressing… All the stuff that I ...

I had this small piece of fabric in my stash that I have had for years. It is really pretty. That’s why I bought it. I shouldn’t have. It’s made of polyester. I purchased it before I made the decision to cease and desist with synthetic fibers. Actually, I purchased it before KOS! I originally intended to use it for a skirt, then a lining, then a blouse. I keep seeing this fabric when I view my stash and decided to just whip something up. I decided on a top. It wasn’t really enough to do anything else; plus it is that slippery type of material and it’s hard to work with. I wasn’t in the mood to do hardcore sewing I decided on an easy top. I know there has to be a name for the garment I made but I don’t know what it is. It’s like one of those African women’s outfits where the fabric is folded in half and 2 seams are sewn to contain the arms and separate the torso. Anyway….. After the garment was all finished and I really liked how it turned out, I had enough to make a headwrap...

Yesterday I bought a salad. One of those salads that you make in a store in one of those plastic containers and they charge you by the pound. A salad bar. Yes, that’s the name for it. Anyway… I ate what I wanted and brought the rest home. I plan to eat the rest of it for lunch today. I had a few salad fixins left over from the last grocery shopping I did. It wasn’t enough to make my own salad at home (plus I was out and had to eat something), but it was enough to augment the left over salad I had and bring it up to a full meal. I tried my hand at gardening this summer and was able to grow a total of 7 big cucumbers. (Hell, I’m proud) I had one on the counter that I cut up and added to the salad. The entire time I was driving to work, I smelled cucumbers and that’s it. Not cucumbers and onions, or onions and beets or any combination of what was in the salad. Only cucumbers. That got me thinking…. When I was a shorty (teehee) my mother used to fry chicken for Sunday breakfast....

I have made the difficult personal decision to slowly move from my vegetarian diet to a more vegan diet. ***silence*** I ain’t happy about it. I love cheese. All kinds of cheese. But I can no longer deny that dairy is dangerous. Grown folks should not do dairy because it’s un-natural for any mammal to consume dairy after weaning. It messes with the body and animals should not have to be subject to our proclivities especially when globally, there are so many more alternatives to consume. These aren’t Paleolithic times. We can import food from all over the world. At the farmer’s market there is food I’d never even heard of. This can be done, and be done in style. I’m not going cold turkey. Probably because I enjoy food so. You don’t get how much I enjoy it. It is a sensual experience for me and I apply all the tools at my disposal to make it an enjoyable experience. Also I don’t want to be discouraged by huge limitations. I know me. If it is too aggravating and it doesn’t make me sick I’...