Happy New Year !

Well, here we are heading into yet another New Year. 

I have to say I'm pretty excited ! I know that things here on the blog have been, well, non-existent. Despite my lack of posts, I'd like to thank you for all the views, comments, likes, shares, tweets, and etc that you all show when I do post !

I appreciate all of you so, so much and I promise that I will do a better job of showing just what I am up to and to also be more consistent with posting.

NativeLove (formerly SimplyCare) has undergone many changes, including trying to make the move over to Wordpress. I'd just like to formally announce that it will be taking place in the new year. I can't wait to have a new home, with a new domain name, with awesome new content.

Cheers to all of you and I wish everyone nothing but the very best in the New Year.  Here's to new experiences, chances to learn, grow, and achieve in the New Year !

Do you have any resolutions for the New Year ? 

Blogaversary -- Um, I Forgot.

I missed my Blogaversary.

Happy Belated Birthday Bloggy !

Here I am at 1:15am and I realized that I totally overlooked my Blogaversary! 

October 8, 2013 was the two year anniversary of the blog. It feels like I haven't journeyed very far but looking back I see just how far I've come.

I have no clue how I forgot. Well, actually I do,  I've been less focused on the blog and I just forgot all about it. There are just so many ideas and things cluttering up my mind and I feel like I'm going in a zillion different directions.

Weeks here and there have been difficult of 2013. I've felt confused and torn between where to go and what to do in a few aspects of my life. There were times when I just stopped completely but that didn't do anything but make it worse. When I began to confront those feelings, well that's when those clouds began to clear. I decided to open up a bit on here on the blog as well.

Things were still stagnant though but I was trying to get back into the habit of blogging regularly. My two check in posts (here, and here) helped me to get back into the groove of things.

I remember how excited I was for the very first Blogaversary. I can't believe it's been two years ! How amazing is that ? So much has taken place between October 8, 2012 and October 8, 2013. I think it's high time for a bit of reflection just to see how far this blog has come.

Native Love Company Logo

Evolving in Native Love Company -- Many of you know that I began this journey as Simply Care. There came a point that I felt that Simply Care just wasn't "cutting it" anymore and I made the decision to do a complete rebrand. I realized now that I really didn't dedicate a post to introducing it, it was more tweets and facebook posts. If in fact you would like the backstory, just leave a comment and I'll be sure to post it for you. The shift just seemed right and now I feel like with the change everything just seems to work better.

Ebony Entrepreneurs 

Ebony Entrepreneurs -- My latest endeavor into supporting and showcasing black and brown small businesses. You can read more about that here and view our first feature small business here.









Journey To A Small Business -- I have goals that I have sidestepped while getting in my own way. That's ended. Now I'm focused, I choose to be great. I choose to look at the big picture and not let the small details get in the way. I'm probably forgetting some other important things that have taken place since my last Blogaversary and that's fine. It felt good to take a step back though, reflection is key for growth.

Now, watch me work.

Top 3 Viewed Posts ! 
1. Our 100th Post 1,663 views
2. What Is Your Acne Telling You? 1,256 views
3. Can Kinks Get Love Too? 240 views

Top 2 Pinned/Viral Posts !
1. Let's Make A Conditioner
2. What Is Your Acne Telling You?

Top Views From Around the World ! 

United States 10326     Russia 5997

Germany  461           United Kingdom 347

Ukraine  278               France  194

Canada  167               Kenya  81

China  71                   Netherlands  66

136 posts and over 20,000 views. I remember my hype over 1,000. 

I can't say it enough, so I'll just say it over and over again.

Thank you for your support, tweets, comments and likes, you all are amazing.

Ebony Entrepreneur : Rendevous LLC

Welcome to our first feature of Ebony Entrepreneurs !

Today's spotlight is on Rendevous, a company owned by sisters, Gala Copez-Reaves and Kristaun Copez-Minor located in Northeastern Ohio. Two great women with a simple yet amazing idea. 

"Why not take the stress out of date night and inject the element of adventure and surprise?" 

The beauty of Rendezvous is that the owners are in two different spaces in life who had different vantage points. They both realize the importance of keeping the spark alive in a relationship. Whether you are just dating (Kristiaun) or married with 2 young children (Gala), we realize that making your relationship a priority is a must. Keeping romance alive in relationships can be hard work, and Saturday night movies can get boring and expensive. Why not make date night simple, affordable, yet memorable?

Wouldn't it be nice if all the makings for a spectacular date night were shipped directly to you on a regular basis? Everyone loves the thrill of a new adventure, a new place to explore, and a new reason to fall in love. Rendezvous brings that excitement to your doorstep, each and every month.

Dawwwww

Rendevous is the newest approach to the dating life. Rendevouz provides a packaged monthly date experience, delivered to our clients' doorstep - taking the planning out and adding the surprise to our clients' relationships. A main focus of Rendezvous is to not only provide memorable and engaging experiences for couples, but to also do so while highlighting local area businesses and restaurants.
They want each and every clients to enjoy being a Clevelander, and to participate in the things that make this city unique.

Cleveland at night. Beautiful ! 

Rendevous's monthly subscription service will deliver a certificate for a surprise date for you and your partner to enjoy. From exotic restaurants to trendy exhibits, we will be partnering with local area businesses to provide a uniquely "Cleveland" experience that allows you and your loved one to focus on each other, instead of stressing on where to go and what to do.

Whether you venture to a restaurant that is a hidden gem of Cleveland, or you stay home and create the magic for yourselves, our goal is to provide you with a convenient, unique and affordable dating experience that creates memories that last a lifetime.

Participating in a Rendezvous is simple. Our clients will receive a date idea, and the makings of a date to a different Cleveland establishment every month.  Rendezvous will not offer chain restaurants or establishments as we want our clientele to get the authentic Cleveland experience.  Our clients will present the coupon that is enclosed each month to the establishment-which may be buy one get one free, 50% off, free appetizer, and more.

Rendezvous is pro-small business, and will work to make sure that our services highlight the best of what small businesses in Cleveland have to offer. The dates will drive traffic to small businesses across the area, and the referrals from satisfied customers will keep people coming. This isn't your typical coupon service! We at Rendezvous are and will always be looking for business partners to provide our date experiences.

The mission of Rendezvous is to "bring your rendezvous to your door" each month. We will cater to couples of all ages, stages in life, and stages in their relationship. Whether you are in the "getting to know you" stage, married with kids and too busy to plan, or even empty-nesters looking for something new to try - we will make your dates something to remember and cherish.

Rendezvous will launch with their first package January 1, 2014 ! What a great to make sure you and your love start the new year off on the right foot ! Rendezvous recently completed an IndieGoGo Campaign as well to fund the initial start-up. With the campaign now being over,  the rate that will be available per subscription package will be the $25 per month.

If you are local to the Cleveland area, this could definitely be something you may want to look into. If you happen to be like me and are not local, why not join me in waiting for these two gals to expand to a city near you !

Keep Up With Rendezvous !

Instagram: RendezvousLLC

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RendezvousMonthly

Twitter: https://twitter.com/rendezvousllc 

Pinterest: RendezvousLLC

Web: http://www.rendezvousmonthly.com/

What an amazing and innovative idea! I would love to have a date night package mailed to me each month. wouldn't you ? 

Do I have any Cleveland readers ? 

Will you be subscribing to Rendezvous ?

Ebony Entrepreneurs

Happy October curlfriends !

This month I'd like to introduce a series that I have been mulling over for a couple of months now.

I like to begin a series to spotlight small business owner. Supporting Black owned businesses and putting dollars back in our community just makes sense. Embarking on this journey to building my own brand and small business has opened a whole new network for me. I would love to be able to promote and introduce new or maybe not so new businesses.

My goal in this series is to promote healthy competition, a sense of togetherness and a more community-centered mindset of unity. Ultimately, it would be very awesome to have a stronger bond in sisterhood as well. While I want to uplift and promote all small businesses from our fellow Kings and Queens, I can say there will be a strong focus on women owned brown/black businesses.

Girl Power to the max ! (Yes I was a fan of SpiceGirls....Judge me later).

Girl Power ! 

There needs to be more money put back into our communities instead of spending our dollars to enhance the wealth of other communities.

So with all that being said;  please welcome and enjoy Native Love Company's newest Blog Feature Series, Ebony Entrepreneurs !

Designed by me! What do you think ? 

I'm so excited to finally share this with you all ! The very first feature will be going live in two days
So make sure you come visit Friday October 11th to check out the who will be the first feature in our Ebony Entrepreneurs !

What are your thoughts, are you excited for the upcoming features ? 

Is there a company you would like to see featured ?

 Leave a comment telling me everything ! 

In Between The Posts #2

Took me long enough right ?  Yes, I completely agree. Be prepared, this post is going to be all over the place.

So, if you aren't completely caught up with what's been going on here on the blog read this post first. 

All finished ? Okay, let's move on.

Along with getting back in the swing of things, blogging on a more frequent basis, and driving myself halfway crazy over a new website I have been experimenting and creating in my little lab.

Yes, you read that correctly !

Taking action and taking notes.

In Between The Posts

Blogging is interesting. A Complicated and time-consuming process, but interesting.

I've gone a long time without blogging so the only proper place to start is in between the posts. What have I been up to since I last posted, where are the updates, What, if anything is happening with the blog series (What The Fuss and So You Want To Go Natural).

All valid questions, all which I intend to answer. Let's get started shall we ?

What Have I Been Up To?

When I last left, I had great expectations for a new home after fully revamping and re-branding my company. I decided that sticking with blogger was the final decision and that this would be the most amazing blogger-turned-website that I had ever designed. So I announced the site, I set a launch date and alluded to continuing updates. I even began a test blog, designing headers, hero images, and all sorts of cool things. I bought up domains and starting figuring out how to build my mailing list. It was fun deciding on how to best advertise and market this new launch.

Check out that snazzy email sign up floaty !

Spring Revamping

Native Love Logo Design and New Web Banner Design. 

Hello curlies !

I know I've been gone for a couple of months, but it's all for the greater good. If you aren't filled in with all the updates going on right now, check out this post.

This blog is the last of the social media bunch to receive it's make-over. I've been through site after site trying to find the best, but without forking over some major coins or losing your mind over code; I've resigned to just stick with blogger for now. There are some amazing things you can do with blogger, it just takes a little bit more time. I might be sharing a few process photos and screenshots this week.

So be ready for a BRAND NEW Blog, with a new domain, new features, links and everything! The So You Want To Go Natural Series and the What The Fuss series will be restarted as well. I also have some new posts and some oldies yet goodies that are good to review heading into the warmer months.

Thanks so much for sticking with me. I really do appreciate it. Right now the new blog is going live June 28, 2013 unless I hit a few snags. Also, if you are subscribed using Google Reader, it is going bye-bye as of July, so it might be a good time to subscribe via email !

This way you won't miss a beat !

What do you think of the new web banner ? 

Are you excited to see the new website ?  

Are there things you would like to see here that you don't see now ? 

Moment of Transparency

Daily dose of motivation

SimplyCare.

I began this journey skeptically. Excited and enthusiastic, but extremely skeptical. I felt as if I was entirely too late to bring myself into the natural hair community. So I sat on the idea, for about two years. Every now and again I would think about starting, but never did. Then a year ago I began this blog as a means of saying " Ok self, I am going to do this.

It's time" I threw myself into blogging and to introducing myself to the natural hair community. It was great. I had things that I wanted to achieve and ideas for this company.

The thing is my foundation was shaky, so as I would climb and progress things began to get a little wobbly. A foundation built on skepticism and "I think I can do this" is like eating soup with a fork. You're not really going to get anywhere. I felt that this market was so oversaturated I didn't know if there would be room for one more.

I began to drift away from blogging and I would touch base on twitter every now again. There were a lot of things going on in the natural hair community that I just was not a fan of. I began to think, do I really want to be apart of this. I am such a creative person and hair was beginning to take over my life. So much so that I began to do less of other things because I was so wrapped up. So I stopped.

I thought when I stopped that maybe I would start picking up other things, which I did. Honestly, not like I should have though. That was a big issue with me feeling like in order to succeed at one thing, I could only concentrate on just that. I saw my artistic side falling behind and I did not approve. What I didn't understand was why, because I had great ways to merge art and hair with SimplyCare, but it never left my notebook or my sketchbooks.

I became too much of a thinker, too much planning and not enough action. My boyfriend told me that I have too many great ideas and that I just need to do them. Sometimes I spend so much time
thinking about the whys, hows, and whats that I never really get anywhere.

Work. Beast Mode. Grind Time. Just Do It.

I was beginning to just go in circles.. new idea, plan, didn't execute, new idea, plan, didn't execute...

I began to think about SimplyCare and it's future. I didn't really see it going anywhere. I felt like as a brand it was stuck in the mud. It didn't stand out like it should, it didn't really show my creative capacity.

I wasn't happy with two of the things in my life that are supposed to make me the happiest.

So even though I blogged a couple of times here, I decided to concentrate of picking up the pieces on the art side of things. I went over to my personal art portfolio website and I was just completely disgusted. I said "Self, why did I think that this ever looked good ?" I completely trashed the old design and started from scratch.

I came up with an awesome new way to brand myself, bought the domain name and stayed up all night redesigning my website. I kept on working on it throughout that week as well.

The finished product ? www.thisartistworks.com

This artist works ? Check!

I am completely in love. I was so proud of myself. I had an idea and I executed it from start to finish. No breaks, no "I'll come to this later's".. Just plain beast mode work. This really helped to re-center my equilibrium. I now had a new home for my artwork. Plus a brand new space for something else that I am cooking up! Let's just say it is the perfect marriage of hair and art.

I feel myself less stressed now. Once I did this, I definitely knew that rebranding SimplyCare was the
right thing to do. I decided that I needed to do a complete overhaul. From the rooter to the tooter. I began to look at my brand and what needed to be done to revitalize it. I began doing research, reading, and brainstorming ways to bring my brand back to life.

How it all began.

I can't really explain how except the feeling you get when you do something so important to you that it validates the reasoning for other changes. Does that make
sense? I hope it does. While  reading Tory Johnson's book Spark and Hustle, this one sentence put it all into perspective for me. "Like yours, my businesses aren't exempt from competition. There's no shortage of books on small business, but you're reading this one." So simpl and so powerful. This statement  really gave me the extra boost that I needed.

On my book list and also my mantra.

There's definitely no shortage of personal and hair care companies, natural hair based or not. Yet, you're reading this blog, you're interested in what I have to say. So the same goes for my products. There are too many heads in this world(7 billion I believe) and probably 3x that amount of cosmetics companies. Maybe I'm exaggerating but new companies are sprouting up every day!


Rebranding SimplyCare and reworking my personal art site was really weighing on me and I had no idea.  I feel such a huge relief.

Rebuilding my foundation starting with a rebranding. I feel stronger already.


So on April 20, 2013 I will introduce you to Native Love. A place where I intend to pamper your hair and body while enriching your mind. Artistic and educational. It's more than just hair.

Thanks for sticking me with this long.

You Mad Bro ?

Quick question. 

Where did this hate all stem from?

How come we began to hate and degrade certain ingredients and or products ? Was there proper research and review involved, or was it just following a new natural trend? (Which leads me to another question, How natural is natural ? Ah, another blog post for another day.)

Well, maybe hate is a strong word. There is definitely a strong negative emotion to what goes into a product and how it will affect our skin, hair, and health.

When did we all become so enlightened. Who is driving this Ban on Certain Ingredients Bus?

BOCI Bus ! Are you on the right Bus ?

Where were you when you first read that you should NOT be using silicones in your products ?

How did you feel when you turned a product onto its back while standing in the middle of product junkie heaven and parabens or minerals screamed out as you skim the ingredients.

HOT POTATO, you slap that big bad product back onto the shelf before someone sees you and thinks you don't care about ANYTHING, ever in life.


You know that feeling when you've felt so negatively about something for so long you forget what originally caused the rift ?

Well if not now, maybe you will after we get through with this series.

I seriously want to know what the big deal is. I need to know the who's, what's, when's, where's, why's and how's to my question.

Quick Question. What is all the fuss about ?

Our Big List of No-No's 
1. Silicones
2. Parabens
3. Sulfates
4. Petrolatum
5. Mineral Oil
6. Alcohol
7. Lanolin

 Well, let's dive in and school ourselves. We're going to get to the bottom of these and see which one really does huff and puff and blow our house in.

Pencils up ! 

We're tackling Silicones first !

So, You Want To Go Natural... A Series.

So, you've decided to go natural... now what ?

What is the next step ?

What are some things you should know ?

What are some items that you might need ?

How do you take care of this hair ?

Where can you can go for inspiration, guidance, tips, tutorials, advice, reassurance ?

Look no further ! I present to you a long overdue series to answer any questions or concerns you might have!

This is a big step that you have decided to take, so hat's off to you for beginning a new journey.

One of the first things when going natural is deciding whether or not you will do the Big Chop (BC) or journey through a Transition first then a Chop.

Transitioning Hair

Big Choppin' and fabulous !

 A well known stylist has stated that any transition lasting longer than 6 months is just encouraging breakage. Although there are plenty of people who have completed transitions as long as two years. Some may have had breakage, some might have not. In my own personal opinion, I feel that a transition should last around 6-8 months for a few reasons.

1. 6-8 months of transitioning gives natural hair time to grow out if one isn't  comfortable with a TWA or even a medium TWA.

 

 

Beautiful transition !

2. Dealing with two or more textures for longer than that time frame may bring about stress and frustration. All of that frustration is stemming from dealing with the straight permed ends and the coily roots. These feelings of frustration, disappointment and stress could cause a transitioner to make the decision to relax again.

3. Opting for a short term transition could help to avoid the "relapse". (Deciding to cut your journey to natural short and reach for a relaxer.)

Although styling options are not limited for longer transitional periods, sometimes they might look different on relaxed/natural transitioner than on a head of a full natural. Sometimes that leads to discouragement or more frustration. This only reinforces why when transitioning, opt for a shorter timeframe.

I believe that one needs to learn what their natural hair needs to thrive instead of having to worry about how to match those relaxed ends with your fluffy natural hair. Learning with your hair as it grows and playing in it is a great way to educate yourself. There could be a case of getting fed up with those stringy ends around ruining the frolicious party. They aren't really welcome in the first place, so give them the axe !

Tamiko is so gorgeous !!

Once that decision is made, it's really half of the battle!

Some things that you; the transitioner (and newly natural) should know is that this is a journey and should be treated as such. It's not a race, it's a marathon, so please pace yourself accordingly and drink plenty of water.

You should also know while it's okay to love another natural's curls/coils/kinks, it's not okay to covet them. Be in love with your hair ! It's your crowning glory, especially made for you.

Still a little confused about Transitioning and the all too feared Big Chop ? It's cool, I'm going to break it down for you in the upcoming posts !

Have any questions?

 Leave them below and I will do my best to answer you ! 

Fan Big Chop Photos

*(I would like to say THANK YOU to all of your for being so patient with me! I apologize for my lack of posting!) *

Sweeping Away the Cobwebs..

*Sweeps cobwebs and dust out of the way*

Hi curlfriends ! I've been gone for so long ! It's tough getting back onto the blogging wagon after being gone for so long. I never know which blog post to lead with or how to "break back in".

So I figured I lead with something cute and funny.

Where have I been ? Well, I re-entered the 9-5 world to raise capital a whole lot quicker. I started working my new job on November 19. (As you can see my previous post was dated for Nov. 19)

 So while adjusting to that schedule, a few things social media wise fell to the wayside. So, now that I have had time to right myself and get my life, I can now post more regularly.

I'm excited, because I have a lot of new and fun ideas to let you all in on, I really have some plans for myself, my company, and this blog in 2013.  Also I left the blog before beginning the two series that I had planned. So those are up next ! 

I hope you all are just as excited as I am ? I'm so glad to be back. I missed my curlfriends !

In other news it's February, have you set any New Years goals for yourself ? How are you doing so far ?