The Morning After...

Last night I spent my time back in the Cheeky Fitness Studio for Pole Conditioning, the new Kangoo Jumps, and then Pole Dance.
Back to Back from 7PM to 9:30PM.

Conditioning was fun and tough. I always enjoy myself and we did a lot of arms and abs yesterday. We did alligator races and crunches. We tossed weights with a partner. We need crunches on the pole, pull ups. and  then we switched over to Kangoo Jumps. Guess I didn't quite eat enough cause the jumping on the Kangoo jumps got to me for a bit toward the end but I pulled through.

Sweating like pigs, conditioning class ended and I got to take a breather! Excited for pole reality soon hit me after we stretched and began working on the pole. I had to go back to basics in order to progress, so much time has gone by I even forgot my favorite spin :(
But I got my climbing technique down...even though I only got 1/2way up the pole. My hands feel sweaty but its all in my mind and I don't want to depend on grip. My arms are just not used to holding my weight up and thats what I gotta do.... My arms pull me up the pole and my knees crunching inward lock me into the new position up the pole. I've gotten up there once before so I know I can do it again. My goal for the summer was to be able to do a basic inversion but.... I think I'll save that for an end of the year goal so that I don't disappoint myself. Either way I'm going to fight to get there. Before I can do inversions (which is being upside down on the pole) I gotta master my climb and sitting. And I got my sitting down last night so I was very excited about that and BOY am I feeling it this morning!
Everytime I sit, walk I feel the skin at the top of my inner thighs aching, but it'll get better. Last time I did pole it hurt when I was finally sitting properly lol. And after that it never hurt anymore. My thighs just gotta toughen up to make it happen.
Another thing is my darn split! That is NON-existent! My sister used to give me hope since she was so tall and built legs and she could split but not I. That's something I put in the long term goal pile lol. One day.... I need to constantly stretch that everyday in order to see a difference. The closest I got to a split was in 9th grade when I took Ballet class and we did split stretches everyday. sigh.... Split we shall see, it'll be a While till we meet again!

As for the rest of my body my abs feel tight, which helps me not over eat. People see my body and think I'm super fit and skinny, but I'm just blessed that my metabolism is so fast and that it takes a lot for my tummy to look flabby. Trust me I've had something to pinch before and unfortunately it has been discovered before lol. But I'm coming back to SCAD ripped! And I'm going to the new pole studio in Savannah with experience! For now its the morning and after... and I'm feeling super sleepy as ever, got class in 3hrs, and a math test tomorrow -___- PRAYER!



<3

My Nifty Fifty: Nikon 50mm

The Unboxing of my NEW 50mm Lens!!

 The following are pictures of the unboxing step by step lol. Silly... I know but this moment was very precious for me. Welcome to the family 50!

 I have had my Nikon D5000 since I became a Senior in high school. It was an investment I was going to put my savings to, but my brother Solomon stepped in and invested in me. He invested in my dream and my life as a photographer and bought the camera for me. I knew in my heart he believed in what I was going to encounter and I made the money back by the end of the year with weddings and smaller gigs.

I love my Nikon for all that it has brought to me and taught me. I chose Nikon as my first DSLR because it had the best beginner user-interface to comfort my transition from my Canon powershot to the real deal. I was scared and I needed a DSLR that was going to help me through my fear and excitement. The D5000 did that for me and still is doing that for me. With everything I learned about cameras now I have no bias as to Nikon or Cannon. Photography is an investment and what you start with is more than likely what you will end up with. The kit lens was a mid range lens, 18 to 55mm. Fifty is my first prime(fixed) lens and is also my first additional lens since getting my DSLR. The choice of a 50mm was inspired by Shannon, the wedding photographer I intern for. I am in LOVE with this lens. I slowly took everything out the box taking pictures along the way and then finally put it on my camera. The first thing I did was look through the lens. The vantage point was awesome. It really is like seeing through your own eyes. I'm so close, and having to move my feet and not the zoom is great practice for me I think. Trains me to be mobile like I am with my film cameras. I shot a few things around my house and my room. It was sundown and the light coming in was very blue and dim. Shooting I had minimal changes to make and that wide open aperture is awesome! Its a f/1.8 I could only image a f/1.4 lol. Speaking of a 1.4 I couldn't find one its not on Nikon's website... Anyway, I'm loving everything about this 50! And as my high school photo teacher says, its the perfect lens for my type of shooting. And after 3 days of owning it I couldn't agree anymore!

 

 my new self portrait machine :)

One of my sexy permanent models before we went out for the night!

This is the link that I watched to help me decide and learn more about the Nikon 50mm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZiwizm4TuA&feature=g-like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwmCrGVS3ZQ&feature=g-like

Expect to see alot more work now that I have my new lens!!!

Stephanie's Dry Rub Chicken



 

My oldest sister's husband, Andrew, makes the best jerk pork and grilled chicken and he mostly uses dry rubs that he puts together himself. And on all the food network shows the best grilled items are from a dry rub that's been marinating for hours! So I started looking up various dry rub mixtures and was constantly short an ingredient or two. So Simone, my sista, encouraged me to make my own and be sure to taste it before I apply it to my chicken. lol.

So that's what I did! Brown Sugar was my main ingredient since I love my chicken to have a sweet taste to it and then get cut off my a pinch of salt or some other flavor. Ironically I used no salt because the other ingredients had enough sodium in them.

After the preparing the rub I tasted it, smelt it and was satisfied. I cleaned the chicken with lime and little cooking wine. Then I seasoned up the meat.

I cooked the chicken WHOLE in the Nuwave oven and then I cut them AFTER they were done to seal in the natural juices. I brought some to my sister and her husband to taste and His opinion was like money to me since I see him like a meat master on the grill.

He sliced a piece, ate it....and said TASTY!!

I was stoked lol. Seems odd but you just don't understand this guy does some gourmet stuff on the grill!

CRAB CAKES

So I'm behind a few recipes so I'm getting caught up. Surprise surprise I'm late with my blog posts :P Thats the one consistent thing with me and this blog hehe :)



Anywho! Perry and I tasted these KUNG-PAO Crab Cakes at a green Publix in Boca and they were delicious! So I got the receipe and made them once I got all the ingrediants.
The receipe looks easy enough, and the last thing I got was the crab. On the recipe list it says to buy "Crab stuffing" from the seafood department in publix. I went there and found no "crab stuffing just crab. I even asked the Aprons Publix sample chef and instead of helping me he tried to tell me that the receipe is old and they haven't served that in years and he's been doing this chef thing for 15 years now -__- I was highly fustrated. How are you going to tell me what I ate a week ago?!
In my fustration he finally came and tried to assist me.

What the recipe failed to tell me was that the "crab stuffing" was a combination of the crab and crushed crispy onions. So I got flaky crab which was Buy 1 Get 1 at the moment and went along my way.
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In the kitchen hell went down lol. I had Perry in my living room and this quick dinner went sour for a moment but my sister( on the phone) and my dad came to my aide. I mixed the crab stuffing together but it was not sticking together it just looked like a pasta dish!

We tried an egg to be a stronger sticking agent and it was no use!

Then Simone suggested I use all the moist ingredients. They were meant for the sauce and were not listed under the crab portion of the recipe but I added them anyway, that's what you see in the small bowl above. And that helped, things for sticky especially with the sweet chilli sauce. But it was not enough to ball up on its own! I even added panko brad crumbs to give it weight but still nothing.

Then DADDY came to the rescue and he said get the flour! The flour sucked up the excess moisture and allowed me to shape my crab! Simple but genius! These are the things you learn by experience not the books.

Now the my little crab cakes were finally taking shape They were ready to FRY!

My dad took the first bite and it was yummy! All that hard work paid off.

As they fried, I worked on my scallion noodles which had the multigrain pasta noodles, lots of scallion, carrots, and low fat low sodium garlic herb spreadable cheese. These noodles were delicious and were used later in the week with my DRY RUB CHICKEN ;)

With the noodles complete, I made more sauce to top the crab cakes and OMG that was very spicy! So spicy I couldn't

FINALLY DINNER TIME!

Natural Hair Do's

My speech teach Mr. Campbell announced from the first day of class how fascinating my hair is. I've been washing my hair every two weeks or so now and I have been trying my best NOT to tie it down into one style.
Each day is a new style and says something toward my outfit. I love this experimentation cause with my hair out on its own I'm challenged every day not to do the same thing I did yesterday! My mom hates when I do this but I love it! She says my hair own in its all mighty natural state is how "Mad Women" in Jamaica wear their hair... lol. Whatever!
The most I've gotten her to do is China Bump my hair or what you hair professionals call Bantu Knots. In the country, us Jamaicans refer to them as China Bumps and pronounce China "Chi-knee" lol. My late Grandma use to part her white hair and twist it and roll it into these bumps on her head. Its something I found funny before but the next morning when she took it down her hair was all wavy. Well for me Bantu Knots provide a thick coil that's springy and even tighter when I do it Jamaican style by twisting it first.

The best thing about my mom doing my China Bumps in my hair is that she got to use another Black Earth Product. She is stubborn and she has to use something before she believes in it. OR she'll believe in it if it was on one of her shows like Dr. Oz or the Doctors -__-
Anywaay she also thinks I ruined my hair...So now! She was combing my hair and praising how beautiful and long my hair still is and how I should show off my length and how no one knows how long and pretty my hair is because I wear it like rasta mad woman. lol.

The thing is that I'm happy with my hair and I no longer feel the need to show off my length like I used to. People who KNOW hair can look at my hair once and praise my length and bucket me with compliments. And if they don't know hair they'll think I cut it or I'm going natural, unbeknownst to them I've been natural all my life. I like keeping people guessing. As long as I'm loving my hair that's all what matters.
To me I have the best of both worlds. Long hair when I choose and short hair when I choose. And medium when I choose. Without cutting a strand! Wet/or Dry! Thats the POWER and CONTROL I have with my hair being natural! Do you have that authority with your hair?

Lots of my other styles come from the use of lots and lots of hair pins.
The products I use mostly are Curly Curl Cream and style N shine for my Bantu Knots.

The great thing is that I don't use this stuff daily. Once its in my hair I reactivate it by moistening my hair with water. It saves on the product too!

Enjoy the Pictures!!!!
(The Last Style is how my hair is currently)
I also enlarged the final style since I have some process images in here as well :)