Afrospired Apparel

I should copyright this title, it would make a great name for a Fashion House, which I will open one day in the distant future.

I purchased some African fabrics last month, and I have been searching the interwebs for some cool designs that I can use to make some fashional clothes. I have stumbled upon some awesome outfits and i thought I should share some of them.

I love this shade of green and the bow adds some pinache

Yes, I like green, and bows. Love her bracelets too

I am digging the design, and the vibrant colors

This jacket needs me in it's life

Simple yet elegant

Totally digging the skirt!

Those colors!

I want!

That Angel Girl has wedges similar to these, I hope she knows if I ever find her wearing them I will rob them from her feet.

I think I will take the blazer too

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I like the frilly detail

Another design I am really digging

The fabrics used for this outfit, the design, love it!

The layered fish detail looks gorgeous

If there is a tailor who can make me this jacket, let me know!

Look at that back!

Sources:

Fash-Afrique

AfroChicGist

In a nutshell, whatever I decide to make will have a peplum design, bows and some frills somewhere. I am just crossing my fingers I find a very good tailor. If you know of any kindly comment with their details. Thanks

How Twitter can work for or against you

My relationship with twitter sprung forth in April 2009, next month will be our 2^nd year anniversary, I wonder what that bird will get me? Hmmmm

So if you remember this post, I really played hard to get. Twitter seemed so complicated and difficult to use, despite my newly completed IT degree I was just not feeling it. It took me like a month to understand the twitter nitty gritty. As you will read here, I was very faithful to my then obsession Facebook.

I decided to give Twitter a chance, and I slowly learnt the ropes, got new followers, got over the awe of being able to follow celebrities. That right there was what fascinated me the most. I used to go through peoples followers to see which other new celebrities I could follow. Well I got over it since I do not wish to come off as a groupy, so I unfollowed them after realising they do not tweet anything of value. Apart from Alyssa Milano, her tweets are so cool usually supporting a cause or sharing interesting links. RevRunWisdom was also cool, till everyone on my timeline used to RT him, plus it seemed like he ran outta wise things to say so he started recycling tweets so I unfollowed him.

I now only follow celebs who follow back like Carson Daly (if he is still even considered a celebrity), those who tweet back like Alaine and Cecile, people who have random, crazy, cool rants like Kanye West and most recently Charlie Sheen #winning

Wow, I really digressed. Anyway twitter has grown to become a revolutionary social media platform, which I can honestly say has changed my life.

The following are, in my opinion, the pros and cons of Twitter.

Pros

It puts the S in Social

I have met so many people through twitter, some of whom have become my good friends in real life and in cyber space. It has also brought me closer to people I already knew since it provides an avenue for me to interact with them more often. I also got a chance to interact with people I would normally never attempt to talk to due to my own harsh initial first impressions or sordid opinions.

Cyber GPS

Thanks to applications like Foursquare, I can track you down every time you check into a location.

Online Diary

I can share with the world what is on my mind any time I want in 140 characters and in form of twitpics. In my opinion, it is a place to be heard, RT’s and replies are just added wins which justify whatever statements we make.

Ego Boosters

The more followers you have, the more clout you seem to have. I must confess I check my follower count daily. The day I clock 1000 followers I think I will break into a happy dance of some sort. Last time I checked I had 734 followers, so log in and follow J

It is also a great feeling when people RT your tweets, though people have turned it around and used it as a way to reply to tweets. But either way, the more RT’s you get, the better.

Twitter has also led to the birth of trend setters. Trends on twitter are words, phrases or topics that the entire world is twitting about. If you start a trend and it trends globally, then you definitely have rights to have an inflated ego.

It makes the unreachable, reachable

You get to ‘interact’ read as stalk, all the famous people that you admire and spam them with tweets at the risk of looking like a groupy (which apparently gets you hoisted up on the stage to dance with said celebrity, mikefromruai and antoneosoul have restored my faith in tweeter groupyness lol. Maybe there is something to it, who is the next celeb slated to come to Kenya I tweet them to death? )

Savvykenya is also an example of how tweeting influential people can work for you as she got to meet the President of Rwanda Mr Paul Kagame after she tweeted him. Big up yourself mami!

Online Directory

Google may be the answer to everything, but twitter is a close second. Ask anything and tweeps will have an answer for you accompanied by links, telephone numbers. Whatever you need, twitter will help you find it.

Tweeps are like CSI investigators, I remember the time there was a very hot lady pictured on the local dailies for robbery and in no time tweeps had already located her on facebook and sent her friend requests. That kind of creeped me out lol.

Twitter has a great searching tool, which enables you to look up a word and it displays all tweets relating to that word.

Diversity

I remember when I first joined twitter, majority of the tweeps were mostly techies and bloggers, but now every Tom, Wanjiru and Ondiek is joining.

You will find students, fashionistas, radio personalities, TV and movie stars, presidents, MDs & CEOs, dead people like Bob Marley, and different people from all over the world that you get the opportunity to interact with via twitter. It truly is a global platform.

Cheap Marketing Tool

Twitter is a great avenue for product placement and is very useful for spreading the word about a company’s products and services, websites and blogs.

If you want to attract more hits on your website and blogs, you can open official twitter accounts for them, or make use of your personal account and tweet the links to encourage your followers to visit your site.

If you want to promote your products and services, tweet about what you have to offer, post twitpics and offer customer service to your clients by responding to customer queries via twitter. I believe many organizations have not tapped into social media as an essential marketing tool which can be utilised to create brand awareness.

Breaking News

One of the fastest avenues to spread breaking news is definitely Twitter. Most major news agencies have twitter accounts which they use to let the world know what’s going on. Once they tweet, word spreads like wild fire.

Window of opportunities

If you make use of Twitter in the right way it can work in your favour in different ways.

Some people have found ‘love’ via twitter, having been wooed by just 140 characters. Okay maybe they weren’t wooed by simply 140 characters, anyhoo those who have found partners from there can tell us how the magic happened

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Companies are now recruiting employees from Twitter and some tweeps have been fortunate enough to actually find jobs now that big shots from successful companies are seriously tweeting.

Twitter provides a platform to exchange ideas with other dynamic individuals’ facilitating the development of new software (yule msee), events (wamathai), and campaigns (Feb 28). Etc.

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Hub of activity

Thousands of tweets are posted per second so there is always action. People share interesting links to blogs, websites, and pictures. Every day there are new trends which not only keep you entertained but give you stuff to tweet about as well like #MusicMonday #FollowFriday (which really needs to be revived) #np etc

Twingo

I get cheap thrills from tweetifying words like peeps = tweeps, fam = twam etc etc I love how it confuses non tweeps.

Cons of Twitter

Perv Central

You know what goes down every Tuesday and on twitter after dark. Not to mention the millions of weird people who join twitter for disgusting reasons yuck!!!

Plagiarism

There are so many creative people out there, who tweet cool things but do not get credited for their ‘work’ despite that clearly labelled Retweet button present on twitter and all other 3^rd party applications.

It totally sucks when you see someone parading tweets that you took time to think up and they fail to accredit you. I immediately block such shameless shady characters or expose them.

More often than not you will discover people have stolen/copied/borrowed (potaytoe, potuhtoe) peoples ideas and implemented them in various other forms like web sites, newspaper articles, blogs etc.

The most irritating bit is when Facebook gets wind of a twitter trend days later, it is so boring and irritating, and the culprits still do not give credit when it’s due. There are some tweeps who also post peoples tweets as their status on Facebook, so not cool!

Spam and Bots

Thanks to that nifty Twitter search engine, people search for words relating to whatever they value and spam you with tweets. This is mostly done by entities and it is really irritating. There are also twitter bots which correct me if I am wrong are twitter profiles which follow you for mentioning certain words that refer to them, then they unfollow you after a certain period of time.

Twaddiction

I am a certified twaddict (twitter addict) which is a fact I am totally not ashamed of. But unfortunately it preoccupies a lot of my time leading to procrastination, introvertness?, and my phone battery is lousy as a result.

Tweet Beefs and other Duramas

Maybe this should be a pro coz it is just so entertaining seeing people squabble on my timeline. People with differing opinions choose to fight it out on twitter and then guys get on board, pick sides and RT, okay I really think this should be a pro.

There are also occurrences of those unfortunate events when people’s accounts get hacked and the hackers do all sorts of damage using their accounts.

Difficult for beginners

Despite having studied IT, I found twitter really difficult to use and as a result I was dormant for the 1^st few months after I joined. All these @, #, RT, were syntax that seemed very foreign to me, and I had no idea where to figure it out from. Learning the ropes, and trying to teach them to someone is a very daunting task, I wish it were more user friendly.

Stalking

Twitter provides various avenues for stalking, via unprotected profiles and foursquare.

It’s a small tworld

You would be shocked to discover who some tweeps are in real life if they maintain different personas on twitter. I got one hell of a shocker earlier this year, as a result, catch me dead at a tweetup, I am too young for any more shockers : )

TMI

People tend to over share on twitter be it in 140 characters or in picture form. I will not deny that sometimes I am a culprit, and I feel nothing but some people push it to the limit. Why should you post pictures of the anatomy of your body? People like some mystery, or did things change and I missed the bus?

We also do not need to know what you are doing each and every other umpteenth minute.

Serial Retweeters

There are some people who retweet every single mention they get, and you can imagine how many these mentions are given the fact that their followers have probably surpassed 1000. They just fill your timeline with irrelevant tweets, this really needs to die!

Braggarts

Social networks have basically become an avenue for everyone to brag about how wonderful their life is, the cool stuff they are doing, the amazing places they are going to, and the influential people they meet. Twitter is no different and I am sure it is difficult to resist twitting about the great things happening in your life. For the rest of the tweeps

Rumour Mongering

All sorts of made up stories spring up on Twitter. People keep ‘killing’ famous people like Dj Tiesto who supposedly died in a car accident, Nelson Mandela who died from I do not know what disease, it’s beyond me why people would start such nasty rumours. Justin Bieber is murdered every other day on cyber space as well.

Lack of authenticity

You can create fake RT’s of supposed mentions, trying to manipulate things and make it seem like someone tweeted something they do not. This can really be misused by malicious people.

Wow this has to be like the longest post I have ever written.

Clearly the pros outweigh the cons, feel free to share any good or bad things that I may have left out. If you’re not on that Twitter tip yet, get with it and sign up. If you are already an avid user, make sure you make Twitter work for you.

YGKMO

There are some men out there who put in a lot of time, money and thought into their appearance, and I think I need to appreciate all their hard work and effort to look luscious and gorgeous. You need to know you’re looking hot is not all in vain, my eyes and my vivid imagination really appreciate it

Here are some of the things that men adorn that simply kills me:

Suits

There is nothing hotter than a man in a suit! I do not think it can get any better than that seriously. Men look polished, suave, and very handsome. You can never go wrong with a suit unless you have bought a cheap one, that is not your size, and you keep those labels on the sleeves rather than cutting them off smh. Every man should have a suit in their wardrobe.

Men that drive me mad

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Cardigans and sweaters.

I love the whole collegiate look. Cardigans with a nice shirt, topped with a tie or bow tie always looks snazzy. You can wear it with a t-shirt as well and some fitting jeans, not too snug though.

Cardigan worn with a tie

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For a nice formal look, invest in sweaters especially for the working class men. Be it plain, striped, multi coloured, argyle, you can never go wrong.

Waist coats

Every guy should have at least one waist coat in their closet. It is a cool piece of apparel which goes with almost anything and still looks cool.

It’s an easy way to jazz up your plain shirts and tees.

I am not a fan of 3 piece suits though, I dunno why it just looks a bit strange when the blazer comes off..

Slurp

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Leather jackets

First up, I am personally on the hunt for a leather jacket. Those things are like uber cool! And how hot do men wearing them look? Especially when they pop their collars??

Usherrr

Sunglasses

These handy accessories not only shield our eyes from the violent rays of the sun, but they make anyone stand out and look stunning!

I find avatars particularly look very nice on men, and old school shades as well. The key thing is to find appropriate sunglasses which suit the shape of your face in order to frame it well.

Ian Mugoya that is all!

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Watch

Last year, I noticed that this guy who really used to jazz me had a nice watch. Ever since then, I am no longer jazzed by him, but I am now kinda obsessed with men’s watches. After I have sufficiently surveyed a man’s physical appearance, the next place I will look at is his wrist. I like watches with big faces, and classy straps, it just tells me a lot about the man. Do not ask me what

Tag Heuer Watch

Hair

I love hair, playing with it, stroking it, styling it, be it my own or other people’s hair. I like men with long hair, be it cornrowed or a big fro that just makes you want to dig your fingers into it. I think men with dreadlocks look really cool, I also dig the whole shaggy hair thing. The clean shaven look is also hot and I usually cant help but want to rub such heads. This depends though, on if the guy has a nicely shaped head or not.

Beckham, one of the most stylish dudes ever!

Suspenders

We’ve always viewed them as fuddy duddy and urkelish, but recently suspenders are suddenly cool and fashionable! I love how men look in them, and I would like to think of them as a modern day leash which you can use to steer or punish the man wearing them. I can’t explain, I can only demonstrate

Chuck Bass can gerrit!

Hats

Not every one can pull off hats. I like baseball caps, marvins, fedoras, beenies, it looks really cool.

Kid Cudi

Shoes

I am one of those rare girls who do not first look at a man’s feet to check out his shoes. I will only notice them if they are very nice, or very wack.

And yes, I like supras I do not know what people have against them, maybe the guys they’ve seen just aint wearing them right..

Even Stevens has really come a long way

I like the loafers. Is it me, or is there like a Gucci explosion in Kenya right now??

Tunics

Tunics

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I really dig the whole tunic look, open chested with some african necklaces and the sandals, looks very swanky!

So for now those are some of the things that kill me when I see them on men, so if your reading this, just conform already and give my eyes a treat

If you’re a dude looking for some fashion advice check out The Urban Gentleman

Dance-O-Mania

Remember when dancing was simple and fun,  when it was all about this

The running man

A month or two ago, Oyunga Pala wrote an interesting article on the Saturday Magazine about women today and how they dance. It really cracked me up because he was spot on. Dancing has become so provocative and sensual to put it politely.

It’s all about shaking, grinding, gyrating, daggering, wibble wobbling, jerking, migingo, Lord knows what else. I blame Jamaica and their negative influence on us Kenyans who do not know any better. Damn their great music and awesome but outrageous dance moves. Visiting Jamaica is on my bucket list.

The phenomenon that is known as bend over is the one that has caused the most ripples in the Kenyan club scene. I am sure you have noticed the euphoria that song elicits whenever any DJ plays it.

I was in shock when I first saw the video on you tube, I doubt any mainstream television station here has played it, correct me if I am wrong. But if the cleavage of the women in this maphilipino soaps are blurred, and words like gay, condom are censored, I doubt they can air this video where people are emulating the missionary position as a form of dance.

I must say I have succumbed to all the hype of that song bend over. The excitement it creates is just insane, especially women, it seems to drive them wild. They just automatically bend over and shake. It’s very entertaining to watch; soon Bendover Thursdays will become a tourist attraction I believe. And it’s getting crazier as weeks go by.

Personally I prefer daggering than bending over, it’s way more fun and less degrading, especially if your daggering a guy :p Daggering is being the person at the back while someone else is bending over.

Guys have gotten really good at shaking by the way, you would be surprised at how low some men can go ; ) So if you are a dude, do not feel shy, make like nike and just do it! Bend over  as long as it’s for a girl not a guy because as much as I get extremely jazzed at seeing guy on guy, two men dancing to bendover would just be wrong!

Despite the immorality this bendover song elicits, I still think it’s a fun song, if danced responsibly, so always remember:

Deuces,

Nairobi dating scene

Hot date

Last week I decided to accompany my friend to a surprise birthday party in the outskirts of kilimani. So we went there wit a couple of dudes, and it turned out that we had gotten the day wrong, there was no party at all imagine!

Anyhu we decided to sit and have a couple of drinks and we ended up having a great time and awesome conversation. The dudes we were with had some very interesting stories and points of view about women and dating.

Apparently women have this really bad habit of dragging their friends to their dates, and as a result the dude has to cater to his date plus her entourage. even though he had only budgeted for two. The guy really does not have an option because the way to a woman’s heart is through impressing her friends. So if he finds her at a club he may have to buy all her friends a round, or drop her and all her friends home even though they all live in different corners of Nairobi lol.

Okay personally, I have never pulled such a stunt. I already get weirded out when the bill comes and the dude has to pay for me, now include my other friends as well? My conscience would not be able to handle it, and I’d feel like I owe him a whole lot.

But I get why some women do this, they may want their friends to check the guy out, or just back up incase the date goes wrong, I dunno. But I do  think it is not fair pulling such stunts on your date, so if your a chic who does this a lot, just reduce. Go for the date solo as was intended, and pick out some other time for your friends to check the guy out.

So one of the guys we were chatting with said how he hates it when he takes a girl out for lunch or dinner and she barely eats. Well, I must confess I am one of those girls. Dates totally freak me out, I get nervous and I loose my appetite so I rarely ask for much. I am satisfied with a soda yes I am a cheap date

The latest dating trend in Nairobi according to those guys is taking a girl out to Westlands and buying her drinks at  Bacchus! Is this really what dating has become? Going to Westy and getting drunk? okay both of you will most likely fool around after getting smashed but what happened to originality?!

People like going on movie dates but can those really be classified as dates? Listening to other people talk from the big screen? Feeling uncomfortable during sex scenes? Squirming while the couple next to you make out like mad? Not really getting to speak?

Java, Dormans, The Mug, and various other coffee shops and food courts are making a killing because that seems to be the ideal spot for dates. They are cool places, kinda pricey though, and predictable.

Creativity is what is lacking in the dating game. It is always the rhumba, Java, the movies. People need to do more picnics. Speaking of, have you noticed how packed Uhuru Gardens gets, even on weekdays? I heard guys go there to do the nasty, I must go confirm those suspicions lol.

Anyway here are a few dating ideas.

• Why not go GP Karting in Langatta next to splash? It costs 1000 Kshs for like 15 minutes which is like 10 laps on the tracks.
• You can go to the shooting range at the Yatch Club after Langatta shopping Centre. 20 rounds bullets costs 200 Kshs.
• There is ice skating at Panari Centre for I think 800 Kshs for an hour.
• If you feel like embracing your inner youth, you can go to amusement parks like Rims Club in langatta, Lunar Park, Rock City in Kiambu where a ride is only 50 to 100 Kshs.
• If you need some time to talk, why not take a walk at the national park Safari Walk? I think it goes for 100 – 200 Kshs.
• Why not go on a group date and go paintballing at Rolf’s Place off Kitengela? 100 pellets cost 1000 Kshs
• Organise a trip to Sagana and go white water rafting or bunjee jumping if you dare (dont have the prices for that though)
• Bowling at Cosmic’s at the Village Market.
• Go for a boat ride at Mamba Village, or go feed crocodiles and look at Ostriches there. There are also giraffes ate Giraffe Centre in Karen.
• All you can eat buffet at Spurs Holiday Inn Westlands and Village Market at 1200 Kshs per person.
• This Sunday 28th November, you can pack up a picnic basket and go for Blankets & Wine at Teyana stables somewhere near Windsor. I think a ticket goes for 1000 Kshs

Those are just a few of my suggestions, some may sound corny but it’s good to make an effort and you may get rewarded

Something else that seemed to trouble these boys was this new notion of how all women are now gold diggers.

I will marry the woman who offers to pay the bill!!

I thought one of the main roles of a man was to provide?? according to Steve Harvey Personally I would not mind splitting the bill or paying for it  but not all the time. I think men just need to be sure when they are selecting the venue of the date, and women should also be aware of the guys current financial status and be considerate of their pockets So women woiye just treat your men sometimes but dont make them zoea lol

photo credits and food for thought from here

How to succeed on a first date

xxx V xxx

 

 

Amber Rose

Amber Rose is the real definition of true beauty, just look at her!!! Girl crush exact!  She just makes you want to shave your head bald, slap on some scarlet red lipstick, and pray you will look as gorgeous as she does.

Okay she may be a bit psycho like sunbathing topless in a g-string, or these weird contacts she tried pulling, but the thing about her is she has her own unique style, which I am sure enough women will try and duplicate.

Despite being Kanye’s new flame, I know for sure she will make a name for herself and become even more famous in her own right.

Check out Amber on Complex Magazine

 

xxx V xxx

Baby boom

Forget Fendi, Gucci, Louis V, babies are the new handbags this season. So many women are preggers right now!! I think its something in the water, or people get really randy during Christmas. That explains the extremely large number of people born in September.
A friend of mine gave birth this week, and we went to see her baby, he is such a cutie, no wonder they are called bundles of joy. Is it just me who calls babys ‘it’ even after they are born?
I held the baby for like ten minutes and my hands were already tired, and I started wondering how the hell women hack carrying almost 4 kgs of baby in their womb. It must be so exhausting!
I remember as a kid, from like standard 2, I was deathly afraid of pregnancy after witnessing labour on tv, I was so traumatised. I remember one scene from E.R when a women walked into the emergency room, and her baby just ponyokad from her womb and fell to the floor so she was just standing their with her baby on the floor still connected to her by the umbilical cord (I heard someone on radio calling it um-by-lical)
This year I know a couple of women who gave birth or are still preggers, and I think I have learnt to appreciate and kinda look forward to the whole experience.
Pregnant woman look so beautiful, I finally see the whole glow people talk about, it does exist. I witnessed the weird cravings, did you know Nakumat actually sells baked clay? thus reducing the need for pregnant women picking and eating stones from the ground. The baked clay still tastes wack, but if you witness someone munching on it you would think it is like the nyummiest candy ever NOT!!
My friend was adviced to eat plenty of dates by her doctor, and thanks to her, I love the stuff and before I could not even finish a single date!! You should see her baby, he has a full head of hair. When i’m preggers i’ll be eating like a packet a day!
I really wonder how it feels when a baby kicks in your womb, that is one thing I would love to experience. But I am still deathly afraid of labor labour? and from what I heard, it can go on for days even no thank you!
I want me some Ceasarian Section please.
I also wonder, for those women with navel piercings, what happens when they are pregnant? and what happens if they need a C-section?
I do not know how much truth their is to this, but I heard it is not advisable for women to get tattoos on their abdomens, because if they get pregnant, their skin streches, and after giving birth, the loose skin ruins the tattoo, is their any truth to it?
To be honest, all these women and all the adorable babies I have been seeing lately are really making me want one not now, but in good time.

Peep my new hits counter on your left, that is exactly how elated I feel every time I discover some one has read my blog

xxx V xxx