Aspiring Mommy Mogul

My son turned 5 on February 28th.  Here are some birthday pictures!

Nothing better than money in the mail from family members! Even Squidward is astonished!

Into Miss Piggy Bank it goes!

Grandma’s babies:

This is what my side of the bed usually looks like when I am not in it:

My mom was here to visit for 18 days, and while she was here she regaled me on old stories of my childhood. Apparently I was one heck of a crybaby (mmmm, I wonder where my son gets it from ;P) I would cry for any little thing. If I dropped a toy, I cried. If someone took something from me, I would cry. I was so spoiled! Which is really bizarre, because it takes a lot to make me cry now. Maybe I cried myself out between age 1 and 5?

I have 2 sisters, Grace and Tola. Today I will tell you about Grace. My big sister Grace, who is almost 2 years older than me was my protector. In fact. my mom said she was a bully. She remembers me being 1 and my sister, 3, beating up a fellow 3 year old. My sis walked into the playroom to find me crying, and the other little girl holding a toy. Immediately my sis started pounding the other 3 year old girl because she thought she had taken the toy from me. Thinking about it, I can totally see it. Because my sister has a very strong personality. Quite frankly, don’t mess with her, lol. But she has an equally strong soft side.

Through the years, we grew apart, well, because while I was brought over from West Africa at age 4, my sister had to stay behind. My parents could not get a Visa for her. Sure, we wrote each other letters 2-3 times a year, and we spoke on the phone. But it was not the same. My sister’s Visa would not be approved until she was 18 years old. So we were apart for 14 years.

You should have seen us in those first few years together again. You would have thought we were mortal enemies. I was used to being the oldest in the house, and I have a strong personality myself, and here comes this equally strong girl who thought she could run the place. No way! We bashed heads many times, me being a Taurus and her being an Aries, it was inevitable. She moved out, I moved out, and then she moved back in, and so did I. I took the room that my mom had explicitly told her she could not have. Which I did not know, and my mom did not say anything. My sis was livid. We did not talk to each other for 2 months, even though our rooms were right across the hallway, and we had to share a bathroom.

Years go by, and we grew further apart. We held grudges against each other that were unexplainable. Not even sure why we were so angry with each other. We said things we never should have said. I dealt my fair share of ugliness and stubbornness. And I never tried to extend an olive branch wholeheartedly like I should have.

Years past, I had my daughter. Then she had her daughter a year and a half later, and I moved to Florida for the first time with a 4 month pregnancy in tow. Things changed during those first few months away. I think we seriously missed each other. We took for granted that we lived in the same city all those years, and never went to the movies together, never had dinner, never had a sister date. Thinking back it makes me sad, so many missed opportunities that we never had. She wrote me an email one day and told me that she wanted us to be best friends. I told her that we had lost so many years, being mad at each other for no apparent reason. I was ready to let go, and I did.

We had a lot of time to make up for.

Now we are on best friend status. She still takes up for me when I am not around, either to our mom, or out dad (sometimes they forget we are all adults now, and still insist on treating us like children every once in awhile.) If my mom says something my sis does not agree with about me, my sis defends me. Always the big protector, and I love her for it.

It is hard being so far away from my family. But the distance seems to bring us closer together. We cherish the times we see each other, and we make the most of it every time.

I was not fortunate to have any brothers, but I do have 2 sisters that mean the world to me. There is nothing on earth that can compare to SISTER LOVE.

I usually style my daughter’s hair the same way everyday: in a ponytail at the top of her head. The one day she begs me to let her wear her gorgeous ringlets down, she gets into trouble for playing with it all day long and getting distracted.  Needless to say we will not be doing that again!

Little known Black History Fact:

Sarah Rector,

Richest black girl in the world 1914,

earned $15,000 per month:

Sarah Rector

Another little known fact is that American Indians also owned slaves.

I have my suspicions that someone probably managed to swindle her out of her land later in life, since we know nothing about whatever happened to her.

I am sorry ladies and gents! It has been awhile since I posted, mainly because the beginning of the year is always so busy around here. I have also been working on the business blog http://www.thebeersoapcompanyblog.com, trying to separate business from leisure and all.

I am so happy its Friday!  Does not mean much besides not having to wake up early tomorrow andtake Bella to school. She will of course still awake at 7, so will her brother.  But at least no driving.

Its time to go and workout, so I will chat with you later!

Here is a little known black history fact for you:

Molly Williams, First African American Firefighter

100% of all profit made from our sales from now until January 14th at 7 pm
EST will go toward donations for Haiti. We will be splitting our donation between Unicef.org, Yele.org and Habitat.org.

http://thebeersoapcompany.etsy.com

Our goal is to sell every single bar in the store. This will help generate over $600 in relief for Haiti. Please stop by and show your support.

Here is a list of other Etsy sellers helping:

Viadellarosa.Etsy.com Donating 50% of sales
papermenagerie.etsy.com Donating ALL PROCEEDS. WOW!!!!!
CharitableCreations.Etsy.com Purchase and they will donate 10% to Haiti Relief Mention HaitiRelief when purchasing!
SugarandSpiceSoapCo.Etsy.com Donating 50% of proceeds to UNICEF!
ShaggyChic.Etsy.com – 50% of Sales 1/13 – 1/18
Midnightandlulu.Etsy.com – 50% of proceeds
bohoLUXEaccessories.Etsy.com – 50% of proceeds
prettylulubridal.Etsy.com – 20% through Sunday
Gleeza.Etsy.com – All Proceeds going to Save the Children for Haiti Relief
ElisabethSpace.Etsy.com – 50% to American Red Cross or Yele Haiti Organization
VintageTreasury.Etsy.Com – 10% of proceeds – NEW SHOP!
BeeBeeBee.etsy.com – 100% of proceeds
Yummyandcompany.etsy.com – 10% of Proceeds
Handjstarcreations.etsy.com – 10% of proceeds through Jan. 18
Delacy.etsy.com – 50% of proceeds
Thebeersoapcompany.etsy.com – 100% Proceeds

50% of all profits go to Haiti through Sunday
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Chuletindesigns

1000Markets is a gorgeous marketplace full of talented artists that just blow me away. Since it is juried, all the members are sort of hand selected. A lot of people have mixed feelings about juried sites, but I like them.

There have been a lot of merchants from 1000Markets in the press this past year (us included) and a quick look at the feature will let you see exactly why people are taking note.   Here is a nice splash of those merchants:

Sometimes I wish other sites were juried, it would save a lot of copying and commotion.  I also like the fact that 1000Markets accepts Amazon payments.  NO more chasing down people for money days after they place an order.  No fighting for fee refunds after a buyer fails to pay.   And no monthly listing fees and bills, fees are automatically taken out of the payment when a buyer pays via Amazon.

This chosen payment method has not been without scrutiny. Many who are used to using Paypal as their preferred payment gateway are upset that 1000Markets does not offer Paypal. However, most do not know that if they have ever shopped on Amazon (which most of us have) then they already have an Amazon account, with a payment option attached to it. So paying on 1000Markets is actually a snap, no account to set up, no emails to verify.  I actually prefer Amazon Payments over Paypal and will be adding it as a payment module on the website shortly.

I have been on 1000Markets for quite a while, and business picked up on there during the holidays. I am really looking forward to expanding our range by adding more to the site in both of our stores there, The Beer Soap Company and ZAJA Natural Handmade Confections.

When Susan Boyle sings, I get tears in my eyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

I have been busy taking some new pictures for ZAJA Natural with my new Kodak Z980 and the lightbox I bought on Ebay so long ago but never used. I also grabbed a tripod on Amazon.  I am loving the pictures this cam shoots! Still working on the lighting (I think I will put it on Tungsten instead of Fluorescent tomorrow.) Gave my HP M60 to my mom, she is enjoying it up north.

I have a few examples of the pics below, with the Charcoal soap and the Dead Sea Scrub. The shop should be somewhat restocked by this weekend. There are so many new fragrances, its hard to decide which to bring out first!