Where has the time Evaporated to!?

               Ladies,ladies,ladies,ladie,ladies! What the hec! thime has gone so fast I cant even say its passed. It has literally evaporated! I mean its been a year since I posted and i come back and see247 veiws! Even though thats not much,its enough for me to want to keep writting! Im inspired! Moving on inspriation is important because the window ofopportunity to grab your destiny is small. Do I havetons to talk about! Its really not even funny! But for right now I just want to say hi and letyou know you will be hearing alotmore from me much more often. God Bless, stay stylish, stay beautiful, stay fabulous, and stay present in your daily life.

Even Barbies fall of the wagon!

Hey dolls,
   Im sooo embarrased. I allowed the entire summer to go by and I shared absolutely nothing with you guys! Jeesh! Im a slacker I know, but the truth is ladies, I havnt had that much to share. I spent my summer working two jobs, so when i wasnt working I was just doing my best to get some rest. All the hanging out and exploring I was doing before had to get cut short because I was too exhausted and busy to do any of it. So I'll just keep you up to date on what has happened so far. Well...school is back in session and thats self explanatory. I got into a mass choir and thats wonderful, first rehearsal was great looking forward to making many friends in that group. Im still hanging with Ms. Erica, that aint fittin-tah change. We just spend most of our time studying now. As for the city...
        Well I cant decieve you ladies, you know I'm a sucker for an interesting evening and a handsome man with a white bright smile! Ha! However, thats neither here nor there, the point is, you know I was able to sneak in a few adventures. We'll start with labor day, for all my brown skin, dipped in chocolate, sea bathing, island breeze Barbies, you know that this is the ultimate party down weekend before the summer is over and we lock in to serious focus mode! The highlight of the weekend was playing mas with the Ramajay band. Their costumes were beautiful and the band leaders always make each section feel liek a family. I wont go into mentiong the disasters that occured when it came time to pick up the costumes becasue i have faith that the intelligent young Barbies who run the band will have that all fixed up for next years masqueraders. For you Barbies who have never done it...do it. Its the ultimate oppportunity to let it all hang out in front of the whole of New York City. WARNING: this is only for my bold Barbies, my more discreete sisters might not enjoy this activity. Overall, the experience was great and I cant wait to be apart of the band again next year.
            A few days later, I decided to take Ms. Samantha on a little date before she headed back up to the boondocks where she attends school. We went to The Lantern, a cute little Thai place on Montague street downtwon Brooklyn. What is there to say about thai food? Its kind of hard to bump into a bad Thai place in NYC. The place was small, quaint, and beyond cute. The food presentation was delightful, the food itself was tasty, and the calamari (my favortite apettizor), was absolutely on point; even the drinks were served in fanciful glasses. Prices were...cheap, exactly the way we like them.
            Lastly but most definitely not the least, I went to the Pc Richard and Son theater in Soho to see the incomparable Mr. John Alowishist Legend. (Is his middle name alowishist? Of course not, I just felt like the intro needed some spice).  Anyway, a friend of mine won two tickets and invited me because she knows I adore him. One word to describe the event, AMAZING. I was so close to John I could see his nose hairs. I had a blast the theater was small, standing room only, and it was just perfect. He performed songs from his last album and new ones from Wake Up his latest album with The Roots. ( By the way Black Thought is extrememly sexy in person!)  John blew my mind, and for the record ladies, he is just as beautiful in person as he is on television, no special effects required!
        Well Barbies thats it, and I promise I will back more often to talk and share and all that wonderful stuff, the way we used to do! But just remember this, when your feeling over worked and underappreciated take time out for yourself. If you wait for your man, or your family, or even your friends to say those words you need to hear, or give you that appreciation you've been missing; you'll be waiting the REST OF YOUR LIFE! Throw your own appreciation party and I guarantee you people will show up!

Artistic Expression

Hey there dolls,
         This week my post is dedicated to my starving artists. The Barbies that long for artistic expression, those that paint, draw, write, dance, and sing to live. Those for who music is their heart beat, paint is their blood, and the pen their life line. I mean come on ladies you get what im saying, this post is dedicated to the creative spirit that resides at the core of every Barbie. In the past couple of weeks I've been feeding my own creative spirit, and plan to continue to do so. Just want to share with you guys some of the shows I went to and of course how much I paid (next to nothing)!
            So two huge events these past weeks. First off there was the Drake concert. Where do I even begin with that catastrophe!  When Ms. Erica called to hip me to the goings on of the day,  of course I was ready I jumped up off the breakfast table and ran into the shower. If you've been tuning into the youtube channel (Barbieonabudget), you saw my rant about being ready for adventure especially CHEAP adventures. Nonetheless myself, Ms. Erica, and Ms. Sammie arrived to the concert around 2, we figured we'ld get a head start, a FREE Drake concert, of course we knew the whole of New York was coming. And to our dismay, the whole of New York did come, and ruin the entire show! However,they were not the only ones to blame, the show was poorly organized. But first things first lets discuss the disgusting crowd. There were the few hipster music lovers that admire Drake for his lyricism and skill (i.e. myself and Ms. Erica, we wont include Sammie for 2 reasons, shes not really a hipster and shes not as familiar with Drake as we are, she just likes him and wanted to hear more of his music! Five points to her for explorative spirit!) Then there was the hip hop heads you know, slightly older in there early to mid thirties who grew up in the hip hop generation. But trust me, the true music lovers were few and far between, the crowd was infested with teenie boopers. Long story short, the crowd got rowdy, management didnt provide enough crowd control or enough music to mellow the mood, Drake never performed, I went home vowing to never subject myself to freee hip hop concert again! But no fear, my week was saved by none other than Alvin Ailey.
                   The wonders of Alvin Ailey. I've loved them since I first saw them when I was 13, I was definitely stirred. At that time I was a little aspiring dancer myself, I've since stopped but i still have a dancer's spirit, so when ever I can afford to I check them out, I do. This time they were at BAM tickets were as cheap as $20. However, because Im a student under 25 I got in for $11, and we (Ms. Sammie and I), got orchestra seats which would probably have costed us about $60. My favorite part was the entire performance. HA! However three pieces really stuck out, In/Side which was choreographed to Nina Simone's "Wild is The Wind". I know, you know, that anything presented by Ailey to anything sung by Nina Simone can't help but be a master piece. If you Barbies havnt heard of or listened to Ms. Simone get on it! She's amazing. Uptown, which was a piece focused on the roraring twenties was spectacular with the most vibrant costuming, but what stood out most for me was the section when the dancers danced to the narration of passages written by W.EB Dubois and Zora Neale Huston's. And of course they performed the piece that the Ailey company has become so famous for Revelations. Undoubtedly, my favorite section of that piece is the section choreographed to wade in the water. My spirit wades in that water everytime!  Stay Tune to hear about my venture to get tickets for Shakespeare in the park and my trip to see Ms. Myotis' Bible Camp.
                     Im not gonna go into too much detail cause I want you Barbies to see these things for yourself. Even if your a number pushin' Barbie behind a desk artistic expression is vital to a full life. You just may find that in your numbers as an accountant, or in cells as a biologist, but you should also experience how others find it.  Come on Barbies make me proud and go have your own cheap thrills! (not the ones your thinkin' of lol)  Till next time dolls stay relevant!

Not So Haute Chocolat'

Hey Dolls,
              I've been kind of missing for a few I kno, but I've also been very very busy. Being a budgeting Barbie on the go can be extremely hectic as I'm sure you all already know. Now a days I dont know whats going on with me! I leave my house sometimes at 930 in the morning to handle business with intentions of coming STRAIGHT home to get some rest, before I know it, its after 12 the next morning and im on the A train FINALLY headed home. My phone rings all day with requests to hang out, either that or im remembering something I should have done that completely slipped my mind. Today, however, I am spending the entire day in the house and recapping all of the cheap fabulous things that I have done for my fellow Barbies!
            Just to put the word out, June1st was my birthday Barbies. I spent the entire day carryin on with Ms. Erica. First off lets start with my outfit. I wore a great little romper with black tights that I found at none other than the dreaded Rainbow. But, as we've discussed before Rainbow is a diamond in the rough kind of place for fashion, so dont neglect it! The jumper looked phenomenal and it only cost me $14. Moving on, we got manis and pedis at the local nail salon and were feeling quite lovely. As a treat to myself for my birthday I got a tatoo at the craziest hipster central kind of parlor called New York Adorned. They  have two locations, one in Willamsburg Brooklyn, and the other in the Lower Eastside on 2nd Ave. They are very professional and quite reasonably priced. I know you maybe thinking that you'ld rather get your tatoo from the local maddman i.e. the one in the neighborhood that has more tatoo than sking, who charges little more that ten cents and a metro card swipe so he can get home! But stop and think, is he a reputible tatoo artist, how does he sterilize his instruments, does he even sterilize his instruments? Or is he using the left over syringes he found in the hospital garbage!? Hate to be extreme but when it comes to your safety you must assume the worst and think about who you're entrusting your skin too. Trust me it is in your best interest to reserach a good tatoo parlor, visit a few see which places make you the most comforable then compare prices. You'll feel much more comfortable and come out with a more satisfying piece of body art. One more request Barbies, please avoid the frivilous tatoos i.e. stars, hearts, bunnies, your name, nick name, or WORST OF ALL your boyfriend or Barbie Dreamcatcher's name. (By the way I'm coining a new term Barbie Dreamcatcher otherwise known as a sponsor is a man who makes financial contributions to a Barbie's budget, not to exist as the soul origin of Barbie's money, but only as a kind gentelman who is able and willing to contibute.) Anyway, take my advice dolls, this is going to be on your body for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, so pick something that will still mean the world to you 30 years from now.
                             Continuing with my fabulous birthday goings ons, Ms Erica and myself, accompanied by my aunt and uncle headed to Max Brenner in Union Square for dinner. WHAT A MISTAKE. I felt completely bamboozled. Weeks earlier, we had wondered into to this chocolaterie (french for choclate shop) enticed by the rich deliocious smell of chocolate. We went to the take out window, ordered a DELICIOUS cake with a  molten chocolate center that had to be about 4 inches in diameter. Not only did they heat it up for us, they drenched it with sinfully delicious chocolate syrup. One bite of this cake and our bodies were bursting from the inside out with chocolate eruptions! (Yea! I know what I said, and HELL YEA I know how it sounds, and it exactly what your thinking, is EXACTLY how it felt.) From that moment I vowed I would come back on my birthday and actually enjoy the restaurant and stay a while. So, after my tatoo, we walked over to Max Brenner,the wait for a table was only about ten minutes, not bad compared to other places. However, as soon as we sat down the spiral down hill began. The first problem with this place is that the menu is WAY too extensive. It was like reading a book, it was damn near exhausting. The long rectangular book that layed out the food menu was accompanied by a smaller but still packed book with the desert menu. It took us so long to order. At first we couldnt understand the descriptions, then once we asked our waitress, it took us about another thirty  minutes to decide what we wanted, then another ten minutes to track down our waitress again. Even the simplest deserts were over dressed. Honestly, nothing on the menu was really worth the price as the portions were incredibly tiny and the prices were disproportionately large. Bottom line Barbies, Max Brenner is just not in the budget! However I have found another little place for you guys to check out that is a tad above the budget, but definitely worth the stretch.
                          Billie Black's is FABULOUS in more ways than one! It is located in Harlem precisely on 119th st between Fredrick Douglas and St. Nicholas. The place is pretty small, only seating about fifty, however the decor is charming. It has a rustic old school Harlem brownstone kind of feel with exposed red brick walls. Now I will not lie, the food and drinks are kind of pricey with entrees starting at $15 and cocktails starting at $12, but its worth it. The mac and cheese is delicious, the fried catfish melts in your mouth, and the fried chicken is heavenly. On top of all of the good food emerging from the kitchen on steaming hot plates, Billie Black's is also a local stage for many burgeoning stars. P. Murray last night and had the entire restaurant grooving for a cover charge of only $5. Check him out a pmurraymusic.com. So Billie Black's is not exactly in the budget but definitely Barbie worthy!
                             Thats all for right now dolls, go have your own adventures and let me know how they go!
Love Pretty Pretty Princess Barbie.

Cutural Attache

                     According to the most conventional definition, a Cultural Attache is someone who acts as an ambassador of the culture of their homeland to other nations. However, for Barbie purposes a cutural attache is a Barbie who invests her time and energy into immersing herself into several different cultures. Living in New York, especially, we are constantly surrounded by different cultures, the diversity is part of the city's charm; therefore, Barbies must embrace these differences. A cultural attache is genuine in her attempts to learn other cultures and not interested in critizing or judging, just in learning and respecting. No one likes a, shall we say, old world colonist attitude. In other words, no one appreciates when people come gawk at their traditions and rituals as if they are aliens or animals on the discovery channel. Your way - my oh so loveable, slightly narcissitic Barbie,- is not the only way to live. The main goal must be to listen, learn, abosorb, and most of all, if nothing else, you must respect the life style choices of others. Needless to say this week I'm gonna hip you Barbies to some of the wonderful possibilities when it comes to experienceing different cutures all over New York.
        Every year there are a myriad of cutural festivals. This weekend Ms. Erica and myself checked out the African Bazaar at BAM. For all of you who are not familiar with Brooklyn, BAM is the Brooklyn Academy of Brooklyn located downtown Brooklyn on Lafyette St. This is a wonderful place to go and see a movie, or a live performance. Yearly they host Dance Africa, the African Film Festival, and all sorts of art exhibits and other events and performances. Alvin Ailey will be performing there form June10th to June 20th with tickets starting at only $20. (Wink Wink to all the fellas looking to impress a Barbie).

      Anyways, back to the festival. It was absolutely wonderful! There were so many vendors selling their own personal creations. It was like a  breeding ground for entrepenurship, talent, and creativity. Yet, there was one stand out product that we must absolutely mention. We ran into two sisters who were in the clothing and jewelry business. The jewelry was innovative, offbeat, and spirited, and so were the clothes. Now this Barbie is packing, so i wasnt able to fit the dresses that she had there, HOWEVER, she offered to take my measurements and allow me to leave my name and number with her so I could have something tailored to my size! Their products can be found at thegiftshopbyosa.bigcartel.com. Her dresses $79 and shorts $69  are somewhat pricey but definitely worth it. You get the opportunity to support another Barbie and her burgeoning business and look amazing in the process.The fabrics are rich and the colors are vibrant! You never know what you'll find dolls. Leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding a deal or showstopping fashion! Go to all the festivals, don't just go the African festival because you're black or the Indian festival because you're Indian, go every where every culture is worth exploring and respecting. Untill next time Barbies, get out there and enjoy it all, have your own adventures and let me know how it turns out!

Product Palooza: The Great Visage

                 Picture this:

               Pretty Pretty Princess Barbie wakes up to more mother daugther arguments. Her and her mother are sitting in the bedroom with Good Day New York playing in the background as they "discuss" some alleged incedent of disrespect! Anyway all of a sudden, there's a break in conversation and Barbie vaguely hears over the television one of the most important words in the english language to a Budgeting Barbie, FREE! She reaches over and frantically grabs the remote and turns up the television only to learn of a free product sample giveaway in the city sponsored by Beauty.com. Immediately she calls and wakes Ms. Erica and they head out to explore! The giveaway was good, they had a wealth of interesting and Barbie worthy products. Although they were a little stingy it was well worth the trip! This incident inspired me for this weeks edition of Product Palooza: The Great Visage!

                I have so many GREAT products to share with you. As you have probably already gathered from the title, this weeks Product Palooza is focused on all the wonderful things we put on our visage! Our face is our trademark. Of course our style is incredibly important, but  our faces let everyone know who we are! The great battle of a fabulous stand out look can all be won and lost in the make up. The name of the game is illusion; its all about enhancing and emphasizing whats great about you and hiding what's not until AFTER the wedding. (Lmao, so to speak). But truthfully ladies make up is an amazing treat, but its pointless unless you do it right and use the right products. Im going to run down some special products and product lines for my fellow Barbies.

                Facial Cleansers : Can't paint a beautiful picture without a clear clean canvas!

We'll start with something simple, Tea Tree Oil Soap. This soap is inexpensive and does wonders! It will have your face baby booty soft and it is great for clearin up mild acne or any other facial bumps such as bites or rashes. A double bar at Trader Joes is about $3.95.

 

Lip Cooling Scrub (Laura Geller) $19 Feels wonderful and helps to get all the dead dr skin off of your lip so you have that kissable look and feel.

Moisturizer: Dry skin is the fastest way to look ten years older!

It is imperative that you moisturize your face everyday whether you plan to wear make up for the day or not.  Dont put things like natural African Shea Butter or CoCo Butter on your face. Those products are to thick and will clog your pore and give you micro bumps i.e. not cute. Here are some facial moisturizers and their prices.

$13  Radiance Solutions (Avon)

Bring in the Moisture ( Carol's Daughter) $25

Morning Glow Moisturizer (Clean&Clear) $6.49

Foundations: this is where you begin your look with killer coverage

Studio Fix Liquid Foundation(MAC) $26

Studio Fix Powder (MAC) $ 26

Undercover HD Foundation (Coastal Scents)$16.49

HD Liquid Foundation (Makeup Forever) $40

The Windows to the Soul: No more expliniation needed

Lash Blast Luxe (Covergirl) $8.99

(Coastal Scents) Palette of 88 shimmer or matte shadows $20.00 This paltte will keep a make up obessed Barbie happy for months at a time

Well ladies those are all of the wonderful products that I think are absolute must haves for mugg beating. Think carefully about the products you use, be good to your face and she'll reward you with years of beauty!

Barbie tip of the week:  keep your ears to the streets, you never know what great sales and opportunities will present themself if you keep a lookout. Also search the web for sites that give you discounts on doing the fabulous things you love to do. I've joined quite a few and you'll be reading about those adventures in the very near future. Smooches Barbies stay beautiful, stay focused, stay empowered!

Product Palooza!

Hey Dolls,

              This week, we're gonna do something a tad different, but its gonna be good so get used to it. I know we usually discuss Barbie worthy places to strut your stuff; however, this week lets discuss all the hard work that goes into being a Barbie. People think being a Barbie is the simplest thing ever. I guess we should take that as a compliment because that means we make it look easy! They dont really understand the amount of hard work it takes to keep it together on a daily basis. Even if you're not the kind of Barbie that beats her mug daily(does her make-up), there is so much that goes into the daily Bedazzling of a Barbie. First, there's affirmations, this is our psychological armor. Then theres the shower, of course there are tons and tons of wonderful exotic smelling bath products that Barbies have to rub and scrub and wash themselves with before they greet the world. Once we're out of the shower, next come the outfit choice... lets not even go there! Finally theres the myriad of hair products and heat styling tools and lastly the two ton makeup bag. So let's do a product discussion. I'm gonna share with my Bevy of Barbies the products that give me my sexy edge. I'm sure you've got your own, so maybe we can share and exchange. Welcome to Product Palooza's first edition!

               Smelling Sweetly!

Every Blushing Barbie must own a bottle of a designated ridiculously expensive signature fragrance. For example, I'm a CoCo Mademoiselle kind of girl! But, that bottle stays in the back of my closet hidden from all other possible users. I only wear it on special occasions and dates. Far be it from me to dictate to my fellow Barbies what their signature fragrance should be; however, because these bottles are so expensive, lets talk about some everyday wear fragrances that will still help you stand out amoungst the pack.

Carols Daughter

                                           Now you are going to hear mention of Carol's Daughter countless times during these posts. This company makes a myriad of products that are Barbie worthy, while they may be on the more expensive side of a Barbie's budget, they are all very much so worth it. Lets start with her amazing scents. These scents smell wonderful and will have you smelling unusally enticing. My favorite is Jamaican Punch, it smells like a sweet spicey juice. This bottle costs about $29 and has lasted me about four months. (Would have lasted longer had it not been for my female family members wanting to be Barbies on MY BUDGET!) The perfume also comes in scents like Melon Malenge, Almond Cookie and a few other to die for fragrances. And if that wasnt enough, many of them also come as body butters and sea salt scrubs. The scrubs are amazing because they leave your skin feeling like butter.Don't forget Barbie's summer is coming and an even complexion and porcelain smooth skin are must haves! Many of the fragrances come in discount duos for $33 or less.

Now on to our next company. Avon is usually associated with older Barbies. While there is abosolutely nothing wrong with that, Mark is the newer, hipper version of the company that caters to younger Barbies. All of the products are extremely resonably priced and definitely Barbie worthy. Fragrance wise their self sanctuary products are amazing. Their lemon sugar mist is only $12 and smells quite heavenly, this product also comes as a $6 bath wash and a $8 body butter. For now this product only comes in two scents, lemon sugar (AMAZING!) and berry cranberry. The one thing that I hate about product lines like Avon and Mark is that many products are here today and gone tomorrow. They used to carry self sanctuary in a sinfully aromatic chocolate scent, but it is now DISCONTINUED! So if you find a product you like at these prices, stock up on it before you NEVER SEE IT AGAIN!

This is Mark's newest fragrance Rio priced at $18. While I've never smelled it, it looks like something that's light, airy, and  made with summer days in mind; maybe even  a few summer nights. So try it out and let a Barbie know what its all about.

One way to smell wonderful all day long without spending exhorbitant amounts of money are body splashes. These splashes are made by most all Barbie worthy companies that sell fragrances and they usually accompany some other more expensive fragrance. So, if the fragrance is out of your budget, the body splash might not be. They are also much lighter and more fruity smelling so they are wonderful for the summer and spring day time use. P.S. body splashes should be cheap, if you're buying one for more than $12, put it down! You can do much better. The final place I'm going to take on this week's edition of Product Palooza: Smelling Sweetly, is THE DRUGSTORE, Duane Reade to be exact. Myself and Ms. Erica spend an awful lot of time in Duane Reade (for whatever reason), so we know our way around the store quite well. In fact, we know it well enough to say that when you see something at an expensive cosmetic store that you cant afford, its more than likely duane reade will have a less expensive and surprisingly satisfactory alternative.

In the section of bath products Duane Reade has tons of products that are designer (the ones we've never heard of, but designers none the less) products that are amazing. I bought a chocolate sugar scrub that i adored for only $14. While i love Carol's Daughter, their scrub was $30 and it was not in the budget. I must say, I was equally satisfied with Duane Reade's product. Im not gonna lie though, im a big fat label whore! So as soon as i could afford the more expensive option I ran out and got it. BUT! There's really no need for that since Duane Reade products do not often disappoint!

I hope you enjoyed my first edition of Product Palooza. Comment on this post and let me know about some of the produts that live on your Barbie Vanity. Until next week, Im off to have more adventures and share them with all of you! You should go have some of your own too.

Love, Pretty Pretty Princess  Barbie.