Goodbye March! :-)

It excites me when days come and go, because I can't wait to celebrate my daughter's first birthday, which will be on June the 23rd! Aah! I know by then she'll be walking too. If you have any awesome 1st birthday ideas please share them with me or if you know someone who makes great cake, please hit me up (Email: yvonnewaluvengo@gmail.com) . I'll organize the birthday on my own, haven't settled on Zain's birthday theme yet though, hope I'll have figured out what I need to by June.

My personal life aside, let's talk blogging. In terms of blogging 2017 is a year of experimenting; with new topics, designs, social platforms, companies and everything in between. You notice that I've changed my blog's header and theme, the whole purpose behind tweaking stuff here and there is to alllow my blog to grow with me and make it easier to branch out into new blogging territory.

Since the beginning of the year and now I've learnt a number of thing, the first lesson being that not having a super focused niche is totally okay! I blog about everything from beauty to fashion to motherhood to travel to random thoughts (Bloom Notes) and surprisingly, people who want to read about each topic seem to find them just fine without getting turned away by the other posts.

Second thing I've learnt is that most times you have to take the initiative of approaching companies for blog collaborations, marketing of products or giveaways. I have sent proposals to quite a number of companies, I'm happy with the feedback and looking forward to working with them.

Finally, I have learnt that taking blogging breaks is absolutely okay and even beneficial for my blog. You all know I can go for daaaays without posting, but when I finally have time to write, I am so much more motivated and inspired to create good content. I keep a master list of post ideas, so during these breaks I just fill that list up with ideas I want to try but too occupied or lazy to write at the time. Almost all of my popular posts come right after these long breaks, so I really need to stop feeling guilty when I haven’t had a post up in a while.

Trying to build a successful blog is both a nerve-wracking and exciting experience, I’m so thankful for all my readers that support me, I'm so grateful, you are appreciated.

Among my blogging goals in 2017 is to be more open and connected with my readers, so if you're interested in connecting, you should definitely hit me up or just follow along on any of these platforms (link attached) :-

~ Facebook

~ Twitter

~ Instagram

Thanks a lot for stopping by! I wish you lots of blessings as we start a new month.

Love & Light! ❤

Don't you love how lip gloss works wonderfully by giving an attractive pampered look to your lips? Especially when you properly use it on a lipstick or directly on lips?

For about a month now I have been using Pauline Cosmetics lip glosses which I received from the company as a Valentine's Day gift. To say the least, I'm impressed! I always have one of the glosses in my handbag.

My sister and I went picnicking last Sunday. It was nice for a change because we mostly end up watching movies or TV shows when we spend time together.


She threw together a quick lunch of potato wedges and peanut butter sandwiches. The potato wedges were really yummy and surprisingly filling, I'll share a recipe on how to make them soon, I know they look like french fries, but Dorothy used a totally different method to prepare them.

With all necessities, important accessories and food packed, we set out to find a picturesque spot where we could enjoy some fresh air and sunshine. My sister lives in a suburban area, it wasn't much of a task to find a decent picnic location, I didn't like the first spot we found  though, so we walked some more and eventually found a better spot within a stone's throw of a pretty little waterfall.

I spread out our Maasai shuka and set what we had brought along.

We really had a nice afternoon, in fact it was one of the nicest afternoon's I've had in a long time, it was made extra special by being spent with my beloved sister and daughter. We ate, drank, played scrabble and took lots of pictures. It was a fun afternoon.


Picnic lunches can be one of life's simplest pleasures. It's a great way to enjoy a beautiful day even if your budget is tight. Have you got any picnics planned? I'm always on the look out for new picnic spots, so I wouldn't  mind an invite!

Hope you had a beautiful weekend! As always, thanks for reading and see you in the next post!

Xx

When you're a lady and you cut your hair, a lot of people ask why, so I'll do y'all a favor by giving a proper explanation as to why I decided to cut my hair... Happy?! Lol!

I experienced a pretty bad case of postpartum hair loss, roughly three months after giving birth to my baby I started noticing my hair strands come out when I combed and brushed my hair. My once healthy, thick hair became brittle, dull and pretty much lifeless. What devastated me most was when I developed bald spots, that was it for me.

After much thought I decided to shave all my hair and start over afresh. I did the "BIG CHOP!"
There was no point in holding onto hair that was destroyed and far from causes of postpartum hair loss was damaged anyway from heat/straightening and coloring.

Let me throw it back a little, when I was sixteen I shaved all my gorgeous hair, my friends in high school were not pleased, at all, one of them (name withheld) went to the extent of instructing me never to shave my hair again! Haha! Smh!... Going bald doesn't feel all that weird to me because I've done it before. I sorta kinda missed my hair the following morning though and posted this on Instagram ha!

A couple of days passed and thank goodness! I got used to my new look.

I absolutely love the fact that I don't have to go to the salon anymore, I find so much joy in that! You have no idea!... I especially used to hate siting for 3 to 4 hours straight at the salon when getting a protective hairstyle like braids! Sheesh!

I'm currently on a mission to find a way to feel more comfortable and love my hair until it reaches the length I've always been aiming to have. I need to figure out what works and what doesn't work for my hair as well. Once I've established a regimen that works 100% for my hair I'll be sure to share it here.

It honestly feels good wearing my hair short. It feels like freedom guys, it's like having a clean slate and getting a chance to take care of my hair the proper way from the beginning. Shaving my hair was the best decision I ever made.

I realize now that when I cut all my hair, I didn't just let go of my beloved hair, I also let go of so much more... My emotional baggage, disappointments, insecurities, betrayals, rejections and so much more. I learnt about letting go. Letting go requires you to surrender and surrendering requires faith. Surrendering doesn't mean you lose control, it means  you are in control, balanced and at peace with any outcome. Letting go means you place value on what's important to you and what's not. Letting go brings you closer to new and better things.

I'm sure most of you are familiar with Coco Chanel's quote that says, "A woman who cuts her hair, is about to change her life."

A woman's hair truly holds so much more meaning than we are actually aware of, I mean our hair can tell someone who we are without having us to utter a single word. Crazy!


I want to end by mentioning this, If you're thinking about cutting your hair or if you've recently cut your hair like myself, regardless of anyone's opinion, your hair shouldn't be a representation of your beauty... I know, I know, for most women, hair is a large part of what defines their beauty and they'd even be more than ready to pay for countless products to have it healthy and bouncy, but really, as I was saying you shouldn't allow anyone to define your beauty, besides it's you who has to look in the mirror to see yourself and more focus should definitely be put on inner beauty as equally as it's put on outer beauty.

Special thanks to my sister Dorothy for taking my photos, thanks a lot sis, you can make a great photographer! :)

I hope the new year started off well for y'all! Thanks a lot for reading.


xx