First Timer Sew In Extensions

 

Yes, the rumors you heard are true. I am a extension virgin….well, until now! I have been wanting to get them done for quit some time now ever since a crazy psycho hair stylist chopped off my hair without really consulting with me first last year. Ummm yea, not gonna go there besides, that was so last year! (geez corny 90’s sitcom slang) Short Hair does not agree with me. Like, at all. hahaha

My friend, Jinaki who if you have been with me on my blog for a while would know I went to hair school together in 2011! She helped me to do my hair.

 

This is from when we first started hair school 2 years ago! wow, how time flies! That was when my hair was so long, I didn’t need extensions! hahahaha

So, here I am before with my really short red hair:

 

And after a couple hours after coloring, braiding and sewing, I transformed to this:

I love it! I feel so much better and back to my ol’ self. I have to admit, this is a whole new experience for me when it comes to hair. Oh the things we do for our hair. lol

What do you think? You like it?

Thanks for stopping by! See you in the next post and I hope you have a great Monday!

When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Roses Without The Thorns

 

I used to have such difficulty in drawing roses or any flowers. When I attended the Art Institute for a few semesters, one of my drawing classes, one of our assignments was that I had to draw an item in different views. I chose a plastic rose I got from Michael's Craft Store and drew it so many times to challenge myself. I still have them too around here somewhere, I wish I could show you.

My assignment from last week from the artist I am working with on my portfolio gave me roses. Traditional, Realistic and New School. Here’s what I illustrated.

I gotta say I am real proud of my shading here, I have come a long way with shading and I still have a long way to go!

I have to redo this one and work on my black and gray shading. But I still wanted to show it so you can see my progress and its easier for me to keep track of my progress as well.

This one above is a special one for me. I may modify it but this is the general idea of what I want to get tattooed on myself, in fact, I want this to go where my shaved side is. It is a bright colored rose with raindrops with the last words spoken by my Grandmother before she lost her battle to lung cancer.

 

I love roses, the smell, the texture of the petals are so soft and velvety,and the way they smell after rain…mmmmmmm. Ok, geek moment. Roses always remind me of my grandmother, she used to have rose bushes in her backyard, and I used to lay out by the pool every summer and look at her roses. When I buy a house, I am planting tons of rose bushes! Now, Ill be the crazy ol’ lady gardening.  At least I wont be a crazy cat lady, although, we are thinking about adopting a kitty. We stopped by an animal shelter and I found a friend!

We didn’t adopt her, but I want to sooooo bad. Maybe we will in a month or two, were still recovering from the holidays!

If you want a custom drawing or something customized, please email me at cecilia@sweetsurrenderart.com

Thanks for stopping by and see ya in the next post!

“Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete? Proving nature's laws wrong, it learned to walk without having feet. Funny, it seems to by keeping it's dreams; it learned to breathe fresh air. Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”
― Tupac Shakur, The Rose That Grew from Concrete

Color Me Rad 5k Coming Soon

Last year, I wanted to participate in this event, but due to my surgery, I couldn’t So, as part of my resolution of wanting to get fit, and wanting to get more involved in community events, I want to participate in this Color Me Rad 5k that is coming to Virginia Beach on May 5th 2013. I am super stoked!

The Color Me Rad takes place all over the US. You wear all white and you can either run or walk and volunteers can throw colored cornstarch at you and you come out looking like lil smurfs threw up all over you. Desirable, huh? Hell yes!

Part of the money raised goes towards to the YMCA, which is awesome. I am trying to get as many people to join and participate as I can!

If you want to run/walk or volunteer you can visit Color Me Rad website

I’m getting ready for it, are you?

If you’re in the area and wanna join me, please leave a comment or send me an email! cecilia@sweetsurrenderart.com

 

Ill see ya there!

Floral Pants and Leggings

While walking around the mall last week, I spied some awesome trends in a few of my favorite stores such as Love Culture, Forever 21 and Charlotte Russe. I’m totally in love with bright pants or leggings. I don’t know why, maybe a crazy phase right now, but I want like every pair I see, or maybe its just I want to go shopping which I haven’t done in a long, long, long time.

I just love bright colors, it instantly makes me feel better! Because sometimes jeans are just boring!

I really love these metallic and floral ones too! I can totally see pairing them with boots or cute heels!

Speaking of crazy pants…..I wore these crazy pair again and couldn’t help but to snap a pic of myself in the mirror at Love Culture!

I stumbled across this website where they sell nothing but leggings! I have been searching for a pair of galaxy leggings..because we all know by now that I am obsessed with stars and galaxies. Check these babies out!

I love the Egyptian style too! Check out their website Here!

 

What are your favorite clothing items right now??

 

See you next time! XoXo, Cecilia

 

"Be weird, be random, be who you are, because you never know who would love the person you hide."

LUSH

 

I am soooooo excited! Just as excited I was when I learned that Love Culture was coming to our area! Guess what I found??? A couple nights ago, I was at Macarthur Mall in downtown Norfolk with my roomie and we came across a new store, called LUSH. It’s actually not a new store for me to see because I used to live in Colorado, and we had those there and I absolutely LOVE this place. So, what is LUSH? I promise you it’s not code for anything crazy, but it’s a cosmetic store. But not just any cosmetic store, its actually an organic, handmade cosmetic store. And they just opened one up here in our neck of the woods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At first glance, you think it’s a candy store, with bright colors everywhere, but no, its everything you need for your body and to keep it nice and clean from sugar scrubs, exfoliates, lotions, cleansers, toners and sooooooo much more. I just told my hubby that this store is here and he is so excited to go. Hey, trust me, guys love this store too. My husband used to steal my sugar scrubs I used to get from Bath & Body Works, but now that I have discovered this place, I go here for our indulgences.

 

You know how everyone is raving about bath bombs, well, they have a very BIG selection for you! They even carry bubble bombs. They make great gifts for your friends, family and loved ones! The staff there at this location were really nice and helped to answer all my questions.

They are having their Grand Opening Party on January 19th, 2013 from Noon to 5pm at MacArther mall where they will have a dj, food and fun! If you can’t make it there or not in this area, check out their website where they are currently having a Buy One Get One Free on select products!

I hope you will make it to the opening, I am gonna be there with hubby and kids in tow! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

You are a crayon, I am a highlighter. You may color the world, but I make it brighter.

Time for a Spot of Tea

 

I have had a lot of attention from the post I wrote about Coffee & Book Shops and it inspired me to blog about the wonderful world of Tea. I love coffee, but I cant drink it all the time. I like to alternate between coffee and tea. I have to say the past couple of months I have been favoring tea, probably because I have been sick on and off and tea is the only thing I like to drink.  I have to watch my caffeine too because of my anxiety and depression and tea also helps take care of that too. I found out online that the passionflower once made into tea is a flower that can take help with those symptoms along with insomnia, which I seem to be having a lot lately. I haven't drank it yet, but I am going to find it next time I go to the store. But isn't this flower unique?

I think it would be cool if I had a little tea/coffee shop along with my bookstore/studio/everything else I love that I can cram into my shop. haha. Drinking tea is not so big out here in the US as it is overseas in Europe, although I cant say that because we did just get a Teavana store in one of our malls, but that is so expensive.

Personally, I like cute little tea shops with mix matched tea cups and cozy couches. I usually like to go to the Heritage Store, or Trader Joes and the new Whole Foods to get my tea because there’s a variety of flavors. I wish there were cute little tea shops I could go to. Maybe there is somewhere around here, but I know there isn’t any near me.  I found these cute shops that I wish I could visit.

 

My sister, Nique and I are planning on getting each other teapots and sending them to each other. She lives in Denver. So, I have been on the hunt for some cool teapots. I tried looking through antique shops and thrift stores, but I had to turn to the vast wide world of the internet to find some really awesome tea pots. Check em out.

I know the cute above is not a teapot, but I just loved it because it has skulls and bats and bugs on it. And you could drink tea out of it. Does that count? I hope so.

Then, this search led me to cute tea diffuser. You know, its like a tea bag without the bag but you put the leaves in a diffuser and then it brews. Some people have come up with very creative ones. I got a good laugh out of a few, I hope you do too.

With tea, comes the tea desserts. Little cakes and cookies and cupcakes, little foods I should probably stay away from since I am trying to lose weight. But I can look at them from a distance, that wont make me gain weight, will it?

I have been on the search for cute containers to hold my tea in.  I think I may have to make my own. But I really am digging these few.

Doesn’t this make you want to have a tea party now? Let’s pretend we are! You can come over for a spot of tea anytime ol’ chap (inset bad english accent)

I hope you enjoyed your tea and cakes! See ya soon!

Technorati Tags: tea time,tea pots,tea shops,tea containers,tea party,cool tea diffusers,passionflower tea,cool tea pots,tea cakes

 

Love, Cecilia