Feeling Creative, Make Your Own Pumpkin Face Mask

As soon as your ready to get up in the morning and empty your bladder, why does mother's think it's OK to come into your room and start up a conversation out of the blue like your ready to get up and go to work. At the time, I wasn't ready for work but that didn't stop her, she did give me an idea for something that has never occurred to me. Believe it or not, it was something on TV about pumpkins and as the scariest night of the year approaches, instead of using our pumpkins to make scary, spooky lanterns, why not use the inside remains of the vegetable to better use. 

Pumpkins can be used for various ideas such as a recipe to make a delicious pumpkin pie or if you are feeling experimental, why not use it as a face mask to treat the skin. All women of all ages want to make sure their skin is well nourished, moisturised, smooth and wrinkle-free.

A pumpkin face mask is very easy to make and you would be doing your skin a huge favour. All you need is the following:

• Break up a few pieces of the pumpkin, cook until it goes soft or you could get 1/4 cup of organic pumpkin puree.
• 1 Egg
• 2 teaspoons of raw honey
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of ground coffee

Most of these ingredients as your aware can be bought in your local supermarket or your nearest Holland & Barrett store, but before purchasing the ingredients, let's talk about how a pumpkin face mask will be good for your skin.

Firstly, pumpkins consist of a variety of sources such as nutrients, vitamins, including other minerals like magnesium, manganese, iron, copper and potassium which will help to encourage good healthy skin and can easily be absorbed so you're left with smooth and nourished skin. 

Having done my research, the nutrients in pumpkin also contain anti-inflammatory, antioxidants and anti-ageing properties which can help to improve skin conditions such as spots, wrinkles and help boost circulation. All women want to try and keep those angry spots and wrinkles at bay, so instead of using this vegetable as a scary lantern, explore the benefits of the vegetable that will be useful to you on the inside and well as the outside.

My love for Afrobeats - "One Love, One Family"

When I'm on my travels to work or out socialising with friends, the one genre of music that makes me smile and fills my day on a positive level is listening to the sounds of Afrobeats. There is something about this genre of music that spells happiness, sunshine, history of African culture that fascinates my soul and gives me a buzz. I've been in love with this music for the past several years and each year it has grown and grown into this massive most-talked-about, global genre of mainstream music. Half the time I can not pronounce some of the chanted vocals or don't have the foggiest idea what some of the artists are talking about in their lyrics, but one thing I do understand is the passion and appreciation for West African culture and sharing the energy with everyone in its path.

With its attractive influences and combination between Afropop, R'n'B, Reggae and Jazz music, who would want to put down their earphones and listen to something else. It's a sound you don't want to ignore which leads me to the conversation of last Saturday night when I was at Wizkid Starboy Fest concert at the O2 Arena.

Everyone in the crowd including my cousin and I were in our element watching the amazing performances from various artists such as Eugy, Afro B, Ms Banks, Skiibii, Maleek Berry, Tiwa Savage and many more. All popular classics you can think of were performed such as the amazing Drogba "Joanna" from Afro B, Maleek Berry's "Kontrol" and many other famous tracks we couldn't get enough, but we were all waiting for the glowing, electrifying performance from the Starboy King himself Wizkid and it was incredible.

This was not the concert to be sitting down in your seats, it was the concert to get up, sing, chant, scream but more importantly, dance the night way and oh my lord, we both made sure of that. He played all our favourite tracks such as "Fever", "Ojuelegba", "Come closer", the song "Soco" he left as the last tune to perform and it ended the night smoothly. The crowd was on a high boost of energy and gleaming with extreme excitement, but what did it for me was the ultimate surprise of Burna Boy himself appeared on the glittering stage singing classics such as "Anybody", "Dangote", "Omo" and my personal favourite "Killin Dem". The sound of the percussion instruments, ragging loud beats, thumping drums, the crowd was stunned and amazed all at the same time, it made our night.

One thing Wizkid repeatedly mentioned is "Tonight is not all about Wizkid, it's about African music". It was a celebratory event, highlighting the brilliance of West African culture and even though

the crowd contained different nationalities from all corners of the globe, the music helped us unite as one family and that's how it should be. It was Afronation Portugal all over again, "unite as one love, one family".

Wizkid

Putting Doubts to Rest!

How do you close the book on doubts, how do you lay doubts to rest? A few days ago, I came home from a long day at work and had a detailed chat with my mother about recurring doubts I've been experiencing lately. Everyone handles doubts differently, some people like myself prefer to speak to their loved ones to gain a perspective or share some light on personal experiences. You can understand the term "sharing is caring", but rewind for a second, that doesn't mean we share all. Others prefer to keep their thoughts to themselves  and handle their issues the best way they know-how which can be a challenge at times, but that's not to say they can't overcome and move forward.

My doubts are starting a new role and questioning myself if I'm ready to take the plunge and start again, where am I going to be in the next year or even the year after that, am I doing the right thing by leaving my current position and is it the right position for me as I have another field I am passionate about.

I have come to realise it's perfectly normal to have these strong feelings of doubts and natural to admit them out loud. Confronting your fear or doubt is the first stage, the next stage is how to overcome the fear, self-doubt and rise above the problem. When I looked into the full description of doubts, according to google the word Doubts is a feeling of uncertainty or lack of conviction. It can also be an encouraging voice in your head which can awaken those thoughts and force you to address them. However, I've decided to  address my doubts and say them out loud.

The advice my mother gave me was very positive and straightforward, she said "if you show the doubt on your face, the new employer will think twice. You need to go in there and show what you can do, you have already done the hard part, you know your strengths, now it's time to challenge yourself further and expand your knowledge, at the end of the day you have gained a skill. Don't lose it, now is the time to seize the opportunity you have been given".

After the long chat, I felt better and realised I allowed my self-doubt to take over my emotions and instead I should be praising the opportunity that has been given to me, so I said NO, NO, NO, enough is enough. All you can do is your best and I finally feel that I'm making the right decision by starting a new position. Thinking about what is going to happen in a year's time is too far, at this point, it's best to concentrate on what's happening now in front of me and in terms of another field I am passionate about, I've decided to enrol myself into an online course in the subject to gain an inside view of what it entails. 

I've always been a firm believer in pursuing research first before you tackle the project. From what I have mentioned, I feel I have put my doubts to bed and can finally move forward. Don't get me wrong the inner voices may return, but I believe there is a positive outcome which will allow you to change those doubts into positive solutions.

Living My Best Life and Making Time for Interests

Well, it's officially the 2nd day of Septemeber, ask yourselves where has August gone? For me, August has always been an exciting month of the year as we get a hint of an amazing heatwave, your preparing yourself for a summer holiday you've been waiting for months, some of us wear less clothing, I say some of us just in case your fighting with the aircon in your office like myself, but on the upside, there is also a dash of rain to cool us down and lets not forget the plants do need watering lol.

On the other hand, it has not stopped myself and my companion gallivanting across London having fun. We live on the momentum of enjoying one's self and living life to the fullest. Since August began, I have been up and out, such as going on a holiday to Portugal, coming back and throwing myself into work, spending nearly every other waken weekend busy and socialising. It can be a struggle at times, because when does the day of relaxation appear.

Only a week and a half ago we all experienced a glorious bank holiday weekend with my loved ones at Notting Hill Carnival and nothing but the amazing weather to make it perfect. Some people spent the time with their families, went on trips, I attended the event and covered head to toe in watered-down chocolate following a carnival truck (float), living my best life. 

It's not everyone's cup of tea but I believe its always good to experience things and why not dance in the street, its the one time of the year, that's if you can make the time but I wasn't alone my companions were there as well with mixtures of drinks galore in our rucksacks and embracing the joyous sound of Caribbean music from steel pans, various sound systems and the beautiful vibrant colours of the carnival trucks riding along as they pass through the streets of Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove. I couldn't ask for a blessed weekend.

Now that I have the time to relax and put my feet up, I feel its the time to get back to my writing which I love to do. Sometimes I have to ask myself why haven't I made the conscious effort to take an hour or 2 and motivate my time to put my fingers to work on that keyboard, because I thoroughly believe once I get going, I can't stop, I'm on a roll. 

In the past, I have found myself hitting upon the same issue of not having distant material to write about or the motivation has been lost. Why do I find myself asking this question like you can hear the self-doubt in my voice, but what I have realised is it's ok to have doubts but don't let it come between your passion of wanting to do something worth it. 

Take risks and seize the day as people say. You only have one life and I can honestly say I choose to live it. Take the time to make room to fit your interests in your daily schedule, gaining that confidence to say out loud its ok to have doubts, now that I have self-awareness of the issue, the next step for this month is not to give a damn about what I write, just write what I feel and hopefully everything should flow naturally.

Time to get back to doing what I love to do best

It is about time I get back to my own blog, I spent so much time for the last few months writing for someone else that I forgot about writing my own content. It's been an interesting experience to write for someone else and has made me realise this is the field that I want to explore further but hey there is so much to learn and plenty of time.

So far, this bank holiday weekend has been a blast, it has been amazing to hang out with friends and family, eat, drink and have a laugh. It's times like this we should cherish those moments before we get back to what we do best and work our bollocks off until the next bank holiday weekend arises. Thank the heavens, there is one coming up in the next 3 and a half weeks. Do not ask what I have planned for that special weekend, it's so far in advance to think about. 

One thing I am sure about there is so many events coming up on my social calendar, I suppose that's a sign of Summer is creeping up on us and it is time to put away my winter wardrobe. This definitely makes me smile. Looking out of the window at the moment, all I see is doom and gloom weather, not even a hint of sun in the horizon. I'm having to turn on the heater just to keep warm but isn't this suppose to be Spring. You would think, right! 

Well, it's not all doom and gloom, apparently, I hear on the grapevine we have a heatwave coming up which is always a good sign, not so much for the hayfever sufferers like myself, but make sure you all take your allergy tablets and hopefully everything should be ok. 

On the other hand I aim to enjoy what is left of my bank holiday and do more relaxing but try and stay productive as well as things in the house need to be done such as tidying, food shopping, last minute washing and hoovering, you know what I'm talking about the normal house chores we all have to do but sometimes can't even be bothered, so I guess I'm procrastinating a little bit, however I haven't forgotten about my writing. At least I have the 80's Sci-Fi Marathon to keep me company. Talk about going back to my childhood.

Why don't we all have a tidy Sunday!

As you know Sunday is always a day of rest and recuperating from the week before. Our bodies tells us it's the time to relax, calm down the senses and the mind and have some quality time to yourself, do what you wanna do.What I've been doing for the past few months is staying in bed till a ridiculous time, as well surfing on social media, checking emails sent during the week or relaxing under the covers watching Netflix. Good ol, Netflix on a Sunday morning is the best, but today that was definitely not the attitude to take.
After my mum left for Church, I decided to do a bit of spring cleaning of my own which I find very therapeutic and satisfying. Lets say after feeling inspired from Marie Kondo's tidying up Netflix docu, I decided to take the advice from the organised expert and treat the shelves in my wardrobe the same way. It was nice to take a few minutes out of my usual Sunday routine and just spend a little time organising my clothes with a touch of neatness.
I managed to roll up my clothes as much as I could, not only was it neat but it was more organised and I realised I had more space than I thought which allowed me to add in more clothes into my draws and free up the hangers.

Check out one of my draws which has my basic tops, vests, going out tops, printed tops and more.

 In the end I have come to the conclusion, all this time, I've had trouble finding what to wear and thinking I need new tops for work or going out. Turns out, I don't need a damn thing, I have more than enough clothes. The fact that I spent half the day organising my wardrobe, I feel happy to say I think tomorrow morning there will not be any problems. Instead of delaying things, I have handled my time wisely and achieved some satisfaction and clarity in the end. All in a day's work.

Thank you Marie Kondo.

Reflections of 2018

As I approached the last few days of the 2018, I find myself reflecting on past thoughts within the year, could I have done things better, have I succeeded to achieve my goals and what goals do I want to focus on for the New Year? All these thoughts scrambled around in my head. There was two things I wanted to achieve and I feel blessed to succeeded them both. One is passing my probation in my current job, the second is finally passing my driving test.

It wasn't all difficult, there is more I could mention but the list goes on. Overall, 2018 was a very good year, visited a few places such as Rzeszow, Poland for my friend's wedding, Amsterdam and Barcelona for myself and sister's birthday in July, but that's not all, I also attended a few concerts such as the African Orchestra and seeing R&B singer Raheem Devaughn at the Jazz Cafe, socialising with friends at Garage Nation, Matt's Barbecue festival, 51st State fest, taking a weekend trip to Paris to attend Afro Punk fest, meeting up with close friends, meeting new friends, seeing multiple artists such as Damien Marley, Davido, Maxwell, Sza and many more. Lets not forget the pre-celebrations for Carnival at Southbank Centre and Notting Hill Carnival to end the summer nicely. Got to see my favourite comedians of 2018 Yvonne Orji and MotheComedian live in concert. Can not wait to see new material from these two for 2019 and finally seeing Kaytranada at Koko in Camden. I cant get enough of this musician, I love his music and the pulsating beats just makes you wanna move and don't stop moving. lol.

As I sit on the couch and continue you typing I realise I was quite busy last year and not all has been mentioned. I mean lets not forget I've had a great Christmas and spending quality time with friends and family who I haven't seen in a while and just enjoying the smiles on everyone's faces, but one of my biggest highlights of the last few weeks of 2018 is finally realising what I want to do with my career and that is going into Editorial Writing. You could say the correct word is Journalism.
Journalism has never uttered my lips before but it possesses a certain creativity that I crave. I feel free when I write, it's a release to write down all my thoughts, experiences and opinions.

I like to be true to myself and follow my dreams just like everyone else but making sure I make time for me and have fun and that's what I have done for 2018 and I'm bringing that positivity to 2019. I hope you all do the same.

Happy New Year to all.