..........It's Our Anniversary !!!

We had a spectacular Anniversary Weekend in New Orleans in celebration of our 1st year of marriage !  We have decided to alternate the planning of our wedding anniversary celebrations each year. Since my birthday is on an even day, I will plan the even years and my husband's birthday is on an odd day, so he will plan the the odd years. So this meant that I was up first in 2014 !

We did agree together to rent a house as opposed to staying in a hotel. Since we all rented houses during the wedding planning trips and the wedding week we are pretty much sold on this idea whenever we travel. It is so comfortable, very private and often times much more affordable. We always check VRBO or AirBnB before we do anything. We were able to find a cute &  cozy three bedroom house for our extended weekend Thursday through Sunday and it was very affordable. That is my husbands thing, he is always looking for a deal. I got major points for the house I found for the price paid. Here is a pic of the living area.

Love the hardwood floors and lots of light!

Since this is a "friendly competition" between me and my love, I tried to bring my A game for sure ! LOL He is already looking forward to trying to "out-do" me next year ! He has also admitted that I  will be a tough act to follow. Now, I did put together an itinerary (cause sometimes I can be an over planner, LOL)  but I made it clear to him that I was totally flexible. I just wanted us to have some direction and at the same time there were so many things that I wanted us to do. So we did improvise here and there & go with the flow quite a bit too, but my love was happy that we had so many thought out options to explore.

One other thing is that my husband requested in advance that I minimize the social networking during this trip. So I was definitely " very present " with him and that wasn't hard for me at all. I love him. However, my husband knows that I am a Yelp Elite and he truly appreciates all of the perks, special events & invites that come with that, so he made an exception & said that he  was cool with me checking in on Yelp & taking photos of all the good food we shared, so I could write all my reviews after we got home, LOL.  I made one Facebook post and one Instagram post the entire 4 days & he approved of both, LOL.  If you want to read all my reviews from the trip my Yelp profile is right here. I use my middle name on the site.

I started off with a bang ! Our very first stop was The Ruby Slipper Cafe, where we had an awesome Breakfast at their location on Magazine Street.  It was a great spot and the "Double Mimosa" was on point. We checked out the newly renovated Riverwalk Outlet Collection and of course headed down to the newest location of the Cigar Factory which is further East on Decatur near the French Market area. My husband did NOT know about this new spot, so bonus points for me on this stop!! It's smaller than the other spot, but still nice folks & we enjoyed a Cigar & people watched for a bit. Then we grabbed some "Adult Beverages" and started exploring the French Quarter.  I hit up one of my favorite stores Fluerty Girl and found a nice Fluer de Lis Christmas Ornament.

While walking through the Quarter, we reminisced about the wedding and made our way over to The Montegut House, where our ceremony was held last year. We were not able to get into the courtyard or the actual house because it's a private venue, but we took some photos out front....

We visited the beautiful Art Gallery right next door called Hemmerling Gallery of Southern Art. This is such a sentimental place to us both. Though my husband grew up in Baltimore, his family derives from the deep South where he spent his summers. The work of this artist is very striking and we hope to be able to purchase a piece from here one day soon when our budget allows for it. We met the Curator last year when she allowed me to use the small Gallery as my hiding place where I waited until the ceremony started. She was excited to see us back  in New Orleans & I showed her some of the photos on my phone that our photographer took in the gallery and she was so excited and had me to email them to her. Here are a  couple of my favorites favorites ......

We continued drinking and shopping & kicking it in the Quarter all afternoon and then split up so that I could go get a nice foot massage at Touchpoint Foot Reflexology and my love could have another cigar at his favorite spot Crescent City Cigars. We then reconnected after that. Another highlight of the day while we explored the Quarter that afternoon was we ran right smack dab into a wedding "Second Line Parade"  just like we had last year !!! We were super excited & this just brought a flood of memories back to us both.  Now of course this Second Line was not as "turned up" as ours was.......but it was super fun just the same LOL  ! That was so exciting.


This was them.....

Calm, cool & collected.

And this was us last year........

My husband showing out for  his Mama ! LOL

Laughing our asses off !

We congratulated the new Bride & Groom &  made our way to the next spot for more cocktails and some food. One of my co-workers who loves NOLA too, recommended this place called 801 Royal which is literally a block from our ceremony venue and the drinks & food were really good. I had some seafood nachos that were on point ! Of course later we had some Beignets & Cafe Au Lait which you have to have when you come to New Orleans.

Later that evening we enjoyed the back patio at the house, some nice cocktails and music and just relaxing and having a great time laughing and reflecting enjoying some alone time. The house was so peaceful and comfortable. 

The next day we got up early and headed to Jackson Square to do some more exploring and shopping. We have decided that each year that we come to New Orleans to celebrate, we are going to purchase  piece of art to commemorate the trip and add to our collection. We headed over to where the local artists hang out because we had a budget and it was not that high. We found something nice. A piece for our kitchen that involves wine bottles and a Fluer de Lis. I forgot to take a picture and for now it is still wrapped up tight until we complete our kitchen renovation, but we picked it together & were very happy with it.

My Instagram pic near Jackson Square

Where the Artists hang out at 

My love for life !!!

Later that morning we had breakfast at Stanley and I had the best Oysters Benedict ever !!!! Man I almost licked the plate, LOL

That afternoon I had a little surprise for my love that was not on the itinerary. I had discovered this place near Audubon Zoo called  The Fly where you can sit on the Riverfront and watch the ships roll in and we headed out for a little romantic picnic for two. We had our snacks, adult beverages, a blanket, some chairs and music on my tablet. We found a nice shady spot under a tree and then spent quite a bit of time relaxing out there.  The weather was perfect in October with a nice breeze coming off the water, we laid down on the blanket and we both actually fell asleep LOL!

Ships coming through

Relaxed

When the evening came we went home (I mean to the rental home, LOL) to get ready for our official Anniversary Dinner. One of my girlfriends makes beautiful jewelry.  She is on Instagram  as ZEN GALLERY. I asked her a month prior to make me something special to wear for this special weekend using our wedding colors. This is what she came up with......

Hubby loved it !

My dress

My handsome husband

We had reservations at Brigtsen's. The service and food were top notch. This is a cute little house that has been converted. It was super cozy and romantic and we truly enjoyed ourselves. They acknowledged our Anniversary and made us feel special.  They put some confetti on the table (so cute)  and were very attentive to us. You can read all about our dining experience on Yelp,  but I must say that we got off to a good start with an Appetizer called Veal Sweetbreads with Potato Leek Cake,  Crimini Mushrooms, Capers and Lemon Roasted Garlic Butter......YUM !

Capital YUMMY !

We exchanged gifts that night also. I got a beautiful diamond cuff bracelet and matching earrings. I got my love several various items of Cigar Paraphrenalia and a big hardcover book on Scotch,  which he is really getting into these days. We both loved our gifts !  When telling my sister that night about our gifts, she said to me and him on speaker phone " Diamonds ? I think my brother is taking this Anniversary way more seriously than you " ! LOL We both laughed. My husband was really excited about me liking my gift and I was really touched by his present to me. We did not discuss a budget or anything beforehand , but I really was pleasantly surprised. He assures me that he was totally happy with his gifts too.  After dinner we headed out to one of our favorite areas in NOLA, Frenchmen where had a good time listening to great music, dancing, drinking & people watching before making it an early night to get back to the house to err.....uhhmm......celebrate some more LMAO !!!

On our last day in NOLA, we slept in and then headed back to the French Quarter for Brunch at this place I have had bookmarked for a while. Unfortunately I neglected to make a reservation so we had a bit of a wait at Cafe Amelie. To kill some time we headed over to the French Market, did some more shopping on Decatur and Royal Streets and picked up some Pralines to bring back home with us. Then we began to get calls from our parents, siblings and friends, wishing us a Happy Anniversary and had a leisurely time enjoying the perfect weather and just the city we both love so much ! By the time we got finished they sent us a text that our table was ready. I had some Shrimp and Grits that were out of this world ! That have such a beautiful courtyard, that I just had to dine in. It was worth it to me to wait.  It looks very similar to the courtyard we were married in and is actually just a couple of blocks away from our venue.

Shrimp n Corn Grits w Andouille

Pecan Praline French Toast

My husband HATES to wait to eat but he was in good spirits & he totally loved the grits ! He is a grits expert being as he spent his summers in the Low Country and can make the most creamiest, tastiest grits ever. He said the food was worth the wait, LOL. That Sunday was our actual Anniversary date and he was so patient and accomodating with me. I so treasure this man. He does his best to make me happy. We had a great last day to cap off a wonderful weekend in NOLA.


Lovely French Quarter Architecure and Balconies....

I know I mentioned in my last blog post that there was a question in the air concerning my job. Well literally 4 days before we left on our trip, I got word from my Manager that I was being offered a proximity position here in Houston !!!!! What that means is that early in 2015 I will be transitioning to working from home and I will not be forced to relocate from this area and will keep my current role. Praise God , Hallellujah !  I have been low key and sitting on this information for these few weeks because a few of my friends and colleagues have not been so fortunate and this is a bittersweet victory for me. Needless to say, we had that much more to celebrate and be grateful for on this trip, so it was very special.

It was a wonderful time in celebration of the happiest day of my life !  I still feel so blessed, so fortunate and just grateful for the path the Lord has put before me.

This is the song we danced to at our reception.........

My love singing to me...........

A Couple of Forevers.............



So what do you think, does my husband need to "bring it" next year or what ? 
He is already talking ish  about how he is going to, LOL

How do you celebrate your Anniversary ?

Any big plans for the next one ?

Thoughts?   Comments ?  Questions ?


Beautifully Complex

Musical Monday - " A Night of Love & Soul"

I am a HUGE Lalah Hathaway fan (since day one) and discovered Eric Roberson several years ago.   So I was super excited to hear that they were coming to Houston along with Ruben Studdard. Tweet also performed, but I am not really a fan of her music.

My husband and I had a  really nice time.  I really enjoy dressing up & going out somewhere special such as a concert.  The show was really good. Eric Roberson is a really creative & funny guy.  His set was way to short in my opinion.  My husband is now a fan too.

Lalah & Ruben were basically co-headliners, which surprised me a bit. This was more of a concept tour in which they both sang several remakes of some old school soul standards. They sang several duets and basically tag-teamed, coming back & forth to the stage to perform.  I was only disappointed that Lalah did not perform more of her original music, but this is not that kind of tour. Even though I have seen her several times, I never get tired of her or her music. She is a vocal beast and FINALLY a Grammy winning artist.  If you have not heard the song that won her the Grammy this year. Check it out below. The band Snarky Puppy actually started in Texas where several of the members attended college. What is cool about this song "Something" is that it was actually on her very first album  back in 1990. I remember when she came to my hometown on her promotional tour to perform. This lady is a vocal acrobat. I am amazed by her range. Toward the end of this video, she really shows out, LOL.  I follow her on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram and she is pretty funny/snarky, LOL

Take a listen.....



Honestly, neither of us were impressed with Tweet. She sang a lot of songs that neither of us recognized & I am still puzzled by why she did not open the show instead of Eric Roberson. I am not sure how many shows she is doing with them on this tour, but I just don't think she fits with this tour concept.  She actually complained about having to sing the song " Oops Oh My" stating that she feels like the song is too old & she doesn't want to sing it, but the fans still want to hear it. I can tell you that probably 75% of the Arena that night only knew that ONE song. She did have some rapid fans, that obviously came out to see her & knew the songs, but they were a very small minority that night.

Ruben has a very nice voice. The sound system was not the best on his mic that night, so his voice sounded somewhat different than usual. But I know he can really sing and his new album is really good. Check out the reviews on Amazon. He is getting 4 1/2 stars out of 95 reviews !

Here is the trailer for the concert.







Have you attended any recent concerts ?

Are you a fan of any of these artists ?

Thoughts ? Comments ?  Questions ?


Beautifully Complex

We've Been Blogged !

The title of the email was " Coming Soon" I opened it up and to my delight found the following message.....

I have been trying my best to be patient with our vendors (photographer and videographer) since the wedding, because I don't want to rush them. We want them to take their time and do a great job right ? LOL 

But I was super excited to see this little clip on their website. It's pretty short but we are happy with it & can't wait to see the final product.




They were literally the LAST vendor we hired- about 4 weeks before the wedding & it seems as though we picked a great company. Honestly, we were running out of money in the budget & I had to put my sad eyes on the hubs to express how important this would be in the future & I am soooo glad I did ! I am very impressed with the editing, especially the vintage black & white effect in the courtyard. I am so glad that my hubby was willing to stretch the budget in the final weeks &  after seeing this clip, he admitted to me that he was glad I put the squeeze on him too ! LOL


Thoughts ?

Comments ?

Questions ?


Beautifully Complex

Our Wedding Second Line !

One of the most exciting elements of our wedding was something that we had both been very much looking forward to..... a Second Line. This is a New Orleans Wedding Tradition & we always knew we would have one from the day we decided where we were going to get married.

My husband and I are music fanatics. He is a huge jazz fan, more-so than me, and has exposed me to so much music that is new to me since we have been together. The love of music is one of many things we have in common. I have been traveling to New Orleans, at least once a year for the last 15 years and since we have been together, we have been numerous times. We love the city, the culture, the food, the music, the people. We just can't get enough of it.

Our wedding was 100% destination. None of our wedding guests live in New Orleans & everyone had to travel there. Now we did have about 5 guests that are Louisiana natives, but the large majority of our 130 guests just weren't  aware of this tradition.  They came from all over.... Charleston, New York, Baltimore, Atlanta, Oklahoma & Texas. We decided months ago to keep it a surprise. What that meant was that we did not tell anyone other than the wedding party & they did not find out until the day before the wedding at the rehearsal. We didn't put anything about it on our wedding website & I knew that waiting until the day before the wedding was the best time to tell the bridal party was the right call. I did tell my sister about 2 months before, but only her & I swore her to secrecy. I still remember the look on their faces at rehearsal when our wedding planner explained it to them & what was going to happen. Everyone was so excited ! We told them that people in the Quarter would join in the parade, take pictures, etc, but honestly, they were not ready for response we got on wedding day LOL.

Our ceremony & reception were both in the heart of the  French Quarter just six blocks apart. After the ceremony the planner passed out flip flops for the ladies  and our monogrammed handkerchiefs to waive in the air. The hubby & I grabbed our umbrellas, white for me and black for him. When the Smitty Dee's Brass Band showed up it was on ! They started out with one of our favorite Second Line songs " Feel Like Funkin' it Up" . If you have ever watched the HBO show Treme, then you are probably familiar with the song. Here it is on You Tube...



When I tell you we had a ball, we did that !  I wish I could post the videos my cousin put on his facebook page to the blog, but because they are not public, FB won't let me embed the link here.  Me & my hubby were jamming in the French Quarter, ya heard ? LOL When we arrived at the reception venue, they closed it out with " Do What You Wanna" another favorite Second Line song of ours. It was perfection ! Our families and friends were sooooo hyped & excited, having a ball, while people on the street were taking their pictures, filming them & even joining in the parade & dancing in the street with us !  We had a police escort and the traffic was blocked off just for us. This is just what they do in New Orleans.

**** Small world story
About 5 days after the wedding my husbands dad gets a call from a friend who lives in Atlanta, who he doesn't talk to often(My husbands dad & aunts went to college there & have lifelong friends who live there). Someone had filmed footage from our Second Line Parade & was showing it to some friends, just to say, " Hey we were in New Orleans this weekend, look at this cool wedding parade we saw" type of thing.  The person that they were showing the video to (a friend of my husbands dad) recognized my husbands Aunt's who were dancing in the second line & called his dad to say, hey did someone in your family get married in New Orleans, I saw your sisters on a video & his dad said yes, my son just last weekend. LOL .....

Then a week after that one of my bridesmaids sends me this link that her husband found on You Tube, I have no idea HOW he found this but it is random footage filmed by an unknown person of OUR ACTUAL WEDDING SECOND LINE ! It seems as though they were filming it from their car.

The clip is very short, but if you look closely you can see me and my husband coming around the corner, jammin ! You can hear our guests screaming ! LOL  I love it. This just made me smile & relive the moment all over again.




I love NOLA !


Thoughts ?

Comments ?

Questions ?

Beautifully Complex 

August Already..... **Photo Heavy Post**

Can you believe we are over halfway through the year already ? I know I have been MIA on this blog for quite a minute. I wish I had more hours in the day. With all of this wedding planning, work drama, and family stuff keeping me busy, my social networking has had to take a backseat.  Let's catch up a bit shall we ?  Here's what's been going on with me......


One of my girlfriends turned 40 in April &  we had a really nice Birthday Bash for her.

Party People in the House !

My love picked up another Degree (with honors) &  we had a small gathering to celebrate his graduation. We went to Simone on Sunset. Love this place. If ever in Houston you must check it out.

So proud of him !

TiffanyinHouston on the left & Tarsha on the right!

My Girlfriend hosted her annual Crawfish Boil & as usual, we had such a good time, with those mudbugs !

Our Crawfish Cook on the left !

Of course Cigars were involved LOL !

Me & my girl TiffanyinHouston

Of course he found a baby to love on :)

Me & my heartbeat :)

We hosted a Semi-Random Happy Hour with friends ....
We started out at Eighteenth Cocktail Bar  (cool spot) & then did a little bar crawl.

My sister, brother & nieces & nephew came to visit us for a week in July, it was great time. We went to Galveston to the Pleasure Pier (can you believe I left my camera ? ) I was so digusted.LOL The kids had a ball & I was more engaged since I wasn't busy taking pics.   We also did some wedding planning stuff while they were in town. My nieces were having fun trying on dresses for the wedding...

Tickled Pink......

My love surprised me with a trip to New Orleans for my Birthday in July. I wasn't expecting to go back until September, since are on this wedding savings budget, LOL. I didn't find out until about 3 days before we left. He had already booked a Hotel. I was able to bring my veil & make an appointment so that my stylist could do a hair trial for the wedding. I also got to take a lot of new pictures for the photo book I am working on.

The view from our room

Of course I got my seafood fix. This was my dinner one night at Saint Lawrence. I had an awesome drink here called the....yep, Saint Lawrence but I didn't get a pic of it. It was a very well crafted cocktail. It was my favorite Vodka, Titos, along with Champagne, St. Germaine & passionfruit. It was deelish !

Of course I HAD to have a Hurricane at Pat O' Briens.  Is it funny that I have never had a meal there after all of these years of traveling to New Orleans ? LOL

Category 6 Hurricane !

We had taken off work on Friday & were all set to have a wonderful extended 3 day weekend celebrating my birthday & planning for our upcoming wedding. Things were going well until late Saturday night, when the Zimmerman verdict came in & we were out at a bar. We were both in a funk. I tried to shake it off on Sunday (my actual birthday) but the Mister just had a really hard time.  Talk about a buzz kill.

As then to top things off, we got a call later that day from my close girlfriend's husband telling us she had been rushed to the hospital by ambulance so we had to leave NOLA in a hurry to get back home. ( I will try to blog about this more later).


The good news is my friend is on the mend. Praise God !


What's been going on with you ?

Have you done anything fun this summer ? 

Thoughts ? Comment ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Blog Peeps, Weekend Wrap Up & Other Happenings

Eh hem........"Is this thing on" ?  Yes I have been MIA & this little blog is quite dusty, but I am still here.

My camera sucks & malfunctioned this weekend, so I was just left with my phone which never keeps a charge, so I don't have any good photos to share, but I had a great time at the Houston Blogger Meetup in honor of Babs who flew in from Atlanta. You can check out her blog for all of the details & great pics. It was a great time. I have been reading her blog since, at least 2005, so it truly felt like hanging out with an old friend. She is one of the first blogs I started reading regularly & was hooked. I could relate to her in so many ways. She is exactly how I imagined her to be & we would totally be friends that hang out often, if we were in the same city.

I also got to see some local bloggers/commenters that have become my friends in real life, that I  previously met in blog world along with meeting some new people that I only know from commenting.

CBean showed up with a sparkling brand new engagement ring, with her new Fiance' in tow. I am so very happy for her.  Tarsha showed up with some baked goodness especially for Babs, but I somehow ended up with a little sample. LOL She throws down. Believe that. And of course TiffanyinHouson  (Bab's blog wifey) and her husband, who has become a good friend of my soon-to-be husband in real life. We had an awesome time. Lots of laughs, great food & of course cocktails.

My love's brother  who is also from Atlanta, happened to come in the same night  as Bab's which is why Mr. Mixologist didn't get to meet her Friday night.

Saturday, I spent the entire day with my honey & BIL, we had a lazy morning, we cooked breakfast in, my BFF Kim dropped by to eat, but she had a bunch of family events this weekend so she didn't get to hang out with us.

We had lunch at Onion Creek in the Heights, which has great food, and a nice patio for the beautiful spring day on Saturday. We had some drinks & laughs there, enjoying the beautiful weather and then picked up a couple of bottles of wine & headed to Stogie's Cigar Lounge, we hung out there for several hours, I brought my laptop & did some wedding planning, in between laughing & chilling with they guys.  We discussed our upcoming wedding in New Orleans & all that we plan to do. My BIL is a complete fool, he is such a fun person to hang out with, we always have blast & he keeps me laughing. I got to hear all the details of Mr. Mixologist's upcoming Bachelor party which sounds like it's going to be epic, LOL. It's going to be  very small, close knit group of guys & the plan is to head to Miami. I am really excited and happy for him.

Lastly, Saturday night, we all headed out to listen to some jazz at Cezanne. My BIL absolutely loved it ! It is truly for jazz lovers. It is all.about.the.music. It is a very small, intimate, place, where the musicians are the focus and given the utmost respect and full attention by the patrons. There are no distractions, no one talks during the performances and it's as if the musicians are sitting in your living room. It is a great date spot for music lovers if you are ever in Houston & this sounds like your scene, you should check it out.

My BIL left this morning after Mr. Mixologist cooked us a big breakfast & let me sleep in until his brother was leaving. I love to see how happy, being around his people makes him. It makes me happy to see him happy.

We have just 6 months till the big day & I am fine tuning right now. I hired a wedding planner who has been an absolute dream to work with so far. She is helping me to tie up everything that we have done on our own so far & has made some great suggestions.  Also, I don't want to get into the details right now, but I have had a bit more stress at work as of late & I am really trying not to let that distract me from the happiness and joy of planning to wed this wonderful man who loves me, but honestly it has been challenging. I know that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord. (Romans 8:28) I may not blog as often because I have a full plate right now, but I will be back periodically with updates on the wedding planning and other happenings.


Have a wonderful week !


Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Holiday Cheer !

I love all the parties, gatherings, and socials the holiday season brings. Last weekend, we went to a party at the home of a good friend and had great food, laughs, and plenty libations. We watched the fight and had a really good time mixing and mingling.  I love the decorations, the festive mood and just the overall Spirit of the season. I try not to get caught up in the pressure of gifts and all of the commercialism and just focus on trying to have a good time where ever I go and enjoying the blessing of a good life, health, friends, love and peace in my life. Here are some pics from the party.......

My girlfriends

Another good friend

My BFF & her daughter's 

Me & my girl "Golden" 

That little one in the middle is such a funny kid ! 

Mr & my love

Have you been to any holiday parties this season ?

Have you finished all of your shopping ?

What are your plans for the holiday ?  Will you be traveling ?


Thoughts ? Comments? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Musical Monday - Unusual Music Video

Have you guys seen this video on Yo.u Tu.be ?

What a creative way to break up. I have so many thoughts and emotions after watching this video. It was sad....mature...honest....refreshing.....odd.....interesting.


Take a look .....






What do you think ?   The comments got kind of crazy.

I think it's brave to assert what you want & deal with the consequences no matter what.  For the record, I feel like it will be a whole lot easier for this guy to find a woman who wants to have babies with him,  than it would be if it were her who had spent 5 years of  "prime baby making years"  wanting him to change his mind about having kids ?

Another thing, why are people so invested in what OTHER people want for their lives. This is so amazing to me, all the insults and accusations in the comments about this girl (saying things like she must be gay, etc). It is utterly ridiculous.

Feel free to weigh in.

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex 

Musical Monday " Dwele"

I have been a true fan of Dwele for a long time now. I have seen him live at Essence, and look forward to catching him again.  This is his 5th studio Album and his growth is evident. The new CD is called, "Greater than One"  and it is, in my opinion greater than most. If you are a  Dwele fan, this will not disappoint, if you are new to him or his music, then this will be a nice surprise. He tackles love and commitment on this album...what else ? Of course love makes for the most interesting and universal type of music right ? There is awesome instrumentation, his melodies are sick and his lyrics are complex. The vibe is mellow, sexy, artistic, soulful, jazzy, among other things. I have been wearing this CD out recently. You can preview all the tracks right here.

Some of my favorite tracks are: "Going,Leaving" a warning to all the guys who can lose true love by being commitment phobic."What You Gotta Do", the bass line breakdown in this song is so sick & Raheem DeVaughn is a nice surprise guest on this song. "What Profit"  is the albums first single and "Special", a nice party anthem for the true lovers !

Take a listen of the links I dropped below.....











 And this is the Remix of the first Single,




Are you a Dwele fan ?   What do you think of the new CD ?

What interesting new music are you listening to currently  ?

Beautifully Complex 

Middle of America

Am I lame for wanting a copy of the TimeLife  Singers & Songwriters CD collection ? LOL  I remember when I was young & those music commercials would come on TV and all my aunts & uncles & older cousins would be jammin'.  Now I get it. Music can really take me back &  make me feel really warm & fuzzy inside, especially when its the music you grew up on.

Me & my sister spent our summers literally in the " middle of America " in a little small town that my mother had to drive 7 hours to get to so she could drop us off to stay with my great-grandmother & great aunt. It's the place where she grew up and I have so many funny stories from that time that I just may blog about since I'm doing this 30 day blog challenge.

Anyway the purpose of this post was to highlight the band "America" which I discovered during these lazy summers in the 70's & early 80's. Since they had no "urban" radio station, we had to listen to what we could get on our little transistor radios (remember those?)& their tiny antennas. We spent so may lazy summer days having picnics (sandwiches and a bunch of junk food, chips, candy & soda) laying on our blankets under the trees reading, talking, laughing & listening to the radio.  I think there was a lot of really great music from that time.




We used to sing this one at the top of our lungs......





I had no idea what was going on with all the symbolism in this song, but sang it loud and strong just the same. LOL




I bet it was fun to be in a band in the 70's.....like I said all the imagery was beyond me as a child but it is definitely interesting to listen to it now and put some of the themes together in the music.




What is some of your favorite music from your youth ?   Do you like America ?

Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?

Beautifully Complex

Birthday Weekend The Finale

On Saturday my actual birthday, I had to get up & head BACK to the Salon to get my hair tightened up so I could hang out with my guy later that evening. My stylist was cracking up when I called her because one of my girlfriends who also goes to her too had already sent her a text trying to squeeze in too. She had been "patio parlaying" with all of us the night before and the Houston humidity did her in as well.  Luckily she did not charge me anything to basically re-curl my hair.

After leaving the Salon, I went and used a couple of gift cards I had received to pick up a few things & then spent the day hanging with Mr. Mixologist. He surprised me with the restaurant choice and he always makes the best decisions. We went to Backstreet Cafe  and I absolutely loved it !

Can I get a window seat ?

The restaurant looks like a converted two story house with lovely patios in the front and the back. We got to sit in the window seat with views of the outside and inside. I was not trying to be back in that humidity ! LOL

I started off with this refreshing libation........

Fresh Raspberry Mojito

It was really good. For an appetizer we decided to share the Lump Crab-cakes. Mr. Mixologist actually grew up in  Baltimore,  so he knows his way around a crab cake. He was thoroughly impressed and I was too. 

Delicious ! 

I decided to stick with seafood for my entree and selected the Shrimp and Stone Ground Cheese Grits.

Heaven in a bowl ! 

One word. Phenomenal.
For his choice, Mr. Mixologist decided to go with comfort food and ordered the Meatloaf Tower......

Nice presentation 

It was a simple dish but I tasted it and it was was very good. It had fresh spinach, fresh mushrooms in the gravy with mashed potatoes on top. We loved all the food, the drinks, the service, the ambiance. I looked at the Brunch Menu which was pretty extensive & determined that we will most definitely be back.

After dinner we headed over to one of my love's favorite places, Downing Street which is Bar/Cigar Lounge. He mainly likes it for the ambiance and the location because it sits in the heart of the city close to other places that we like to hang out. For any cigar aficionados reading this, if you ever come to Houston, just know that their prices are not that great and the selection is even worse. If you really want a great selection and price, you must go to Serious Cigars. My love never leaves the house without his traveling humidor so he was all good. We ordered some drinks and he smoked from his own private stash LOL.

After that we headed over to a new spot that one of his friends recommended for some live music, The Fedora Lounge. We stayed for a couple of hours. There were not a lot of people there, but they did have a live saxophonist, the place is very nice and the drinks were on point. Hopefully they can build a nice following.

Sunday was spent sleeping in during yet another rain storm & getting the best sleep ever !  Later after it cleared up, I did some grocery shopping, a few chores around the house and just lazed around recovering from an exciting weekend.  I had a wonderful Birthday weekend and am so grateful for the many blessings in my life. So thankful for another year of life.


Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?


Beautifully Complex