Sweet Pea Chic…Baby Starter Kits for Expecting Mommy’s!

Well here it is! We’ve been open a few months and now it’s time to let my followers know about this new venture! This started of course from my own very LONGGGG journey to expanding my family which is still underway! Creating these bare boxes brings me joy because I want to help give women a platform and a resource for trying to conceive and getting their baby here.

Getting pregnant comes with a host of questions, concerns, ups and downs. I want to help women start the conversation with their doctor and also give them a care box that is personalized and takes away some of the anxiety of trying to get their little one here!

This is how Sweet Pea Chic was born! I have created three levels of care boxes for women. First, the Curious Queen which is first women trying to conceive and need a little motivation and support. Next, the Queen Mommy In Training care box where women can take advantage of this as a monthly subscription so they can receive gifts and resources throughout their nine months to help get them prepared for baby’s arrival. Finally our crown jewel, the Queen Mommy care box that gives Mommy a starter kit for babys birth and first month.

These care boxes are meant to be gifts as well as resources. I talked with so many women over the last few months who love the idea of just ordering this as a baby shower gift and not having to go all over the city to get the perfect gift for a friend or loved one who is expecting.

Well I have created the perfect gift! Visit http://www.sweetpeachic.com and take a look! I would love your feedback and thoughts! Please email us sweetpeachic@outlook.com. I’d love to find some expecting moms that I can send a promo box and get their feedback!

Until next time my friends!!

S.

Trained To Go…Five “Common Sense” rules of survival for all occasions

Okay, so let’s be clear…I am not an extremist when it comes to survival…I need to preface this post with that as it is very easy to be associated with folks who are out here building bunkers preparing for world’s end as if they could survive it anyway…however, I am a realist and believe in being trained to GO…I see things for what they are and the world for what it is…the need to be able to survive out here in the world is necessary. My family were mountain folks and my grandfather still is…running a little farm with a garden that produces an abundance of produce year round. With the current state of our world I feel that its important we all abide what I call “common sense rules”…First of all..having a water supply and plenty of can goods never hurt anyone. You never know when a bad storm is going to come through or someone tries to take over the world and create a real life Hunger Games! LOL…its just good to have resources available at your finger tips.

Secondly, keeping a certain amount of cash at home — now you should do this for NUMEROUS reasons and if you can’t think of least one, there is no need of explaining it to you further. This is just good old fashion COMMON SENSE! Third, be able to protect yourself and your family. Ensure you have a way to start a fire if necessary, have good knife on hand, a flashlight and plenty of batteries. You make the choice on what that means. Fourth, everyone in the house needs a great pair of tennis shoes, PLENTY of socks and a great winter coat, hat and scarf. Finally, create an action plan for your family…in the event of an emergency situation have a safe place everyone can meet and a code word that everyone recognizes that signals the plan.

I know this sounds a little crazy but in a real life situation some of these items could save your life. Being prepared is never NOT a good idea…now this doesn’t mean go out and get ridiculous. If a natural disaster is going to occur there is nothing anyone can do about it, but being prepared will help. Okay, enough of that…I just felt like sharing that…the state our world is in you just never know what the hell to expect these days!!

Until next time!

S.

A Voice To Be Heard…”The Return to Words”

“Well, Well, Well…” you might say! Where have I been? I honestly don’t know myself. Living is the best possible answer I can give…I am like every other writer in the world…we love to write but we leave it for short periods at a time in our life and then we return to words as if we never left their side…as if we have stored up in our minds, (you know that special place in our head where writers store their ideas and thoughts until they can write them down), and the as soon as we get back to our regularly scheduled program, our mind explodes and all of these thoughts and ideas and feelings spill out all over the page, (or keyboard in this matter).

I love blogging so much because it gives everyone an opportunity to read your randomness and relate to it in some way. People are interconnected through words because they evoke emotion. Words can change lives, alter destinies, and create a legacy…I used to ponder, and still do at times, why I have this insatiable appetite for writing and the written word. Everyone in the world has a “thing” they are good at. A programmed talent or talents that they are naturally great at…A talent never goes away…if you think about it, its the one thing that stays with you until you die. I love to sing…I will always love to sing…its in my DNA…its who I am…I live for it…I love to write…it gives me total freedom to express myself and not have to care if anyone can understand my craziness…blogging allows for me to also take a look inside someone else’s mind and discover who and what they see themselves as. We all have a face, or faces that we put on everyday…it is only when we write ourselves down do we see the true face…our true nature.

I hope that whoever reads this knows how powerful you are…to understand the power of the pen is to understand the history of the world. Not everyone has the luxury of understanding the significance of what words have meant to our world and our existence…I don’t mean to get all spaced out or weird, but it is truly a pleasure to be able to take advantage of this platform…to be able to share my thoughts, wishes, ambitions, bad days and good days with all here. I created this universe of mine for this purpose and I nowhere near done creating…

Until next Time…

S.

Dealing With The Cards You’re Dealt…

You know…I stepped away from my blogging…well…because life just has a way of taking you away from things, however, like with everything else in life we travel in circles. I always come back around to things I start and believe me I am trying to change that. It occurs to me that life is made extremely complex by 85% (if not more) of the actions and decisions that we make. I’m not sure how to explain that further, other than I am just at a place where it is time to start accepting accountability for my choices and dealing with the hand those choices dealt me…There are not many explanations in life relative to why things just “must” go wrong every now and then other than the Almighty testing my faith…let me just say that I have not been too great in that department either…more than likely because I am on a spiritual journey and learning and discovering more about myself and what I believe in, but that’s another topic altogether! It’s been a wild year so far, but I’ll tell you what I have taken away from it as we reach the halfway point on 2015…I have learned that one, I am the only one stopping me from being everything and anything that I want to be…no one else has the power to destroy my dreams. That saying that “you are the maker and the baker or the piece of your pie”…so true! Secondly, that gaining discipline when you are extremely undisciplined is one of the hardest things to do in LIFE…and that’s OK. I have been struggling to get my hands around certain aspects of my life so that I can continue to grow and be prosperous, like my health, finances, education, career, family, etc.; the basic areas of life where everyone struggles. I had been watching everyone else do it…even my own husband, and at some point you’ve got to throw your hands up and say, “You know what…enough is enough!” I have all of the knowledge and capability to be an independently wealthy entrepreneur doing all the things that I want to do in this life…but I just lack the discipline to accomplish that goal. I was sick of placing completely attainable goals on my bucket list because I was either too lazy or too afraid to take the steps necessary to go after my dreams! Yes, there have been several times in my life when I have been dealt crappy hands…like having kids wayyy to early, my son dying of SIDS at 5 months, my nephew being shot and killed at 16, out of work for almost a year at one point, struggling to make ends meet and take care of myself and my daughter, 2 miscarriages, and yet…..in all that darkness…the Almighty looked down on me, a little speck of nothing on this Earth and said, you know what…you deserve the blessings…so in the middle of that crazy, I was blessed with a beautiful daughter who is now 13, a husband and best friend, a great job, wonderful friends who support me, and the knowledge that I am at all times greater than my circumstances and that I have the power to control them…I have lost so much of myself over the years, but I continue to be filled with hope and with life. I am not completely sure what the Universe has in store for me, but I do know that until you actually deal with what is right in front of you, you can never move past it.

When I started blogging, it was my hope to give life and support to someone who was in need of it — to use my words to convey feeling and emotion and to create a world where I could share an unveiled soul and experience the deepest words of others…This world that I have created has become an outlet for my creativity and a check and balance of my world and the life that I am living. It helps to keep me sane within reason…and sometimes, even allows me to be a little crazy. I invite you to think on this — think about this life…your life. I have read blogs written by individuals who are plagued with terrible diseases and dying, but they still find the words to spread hope and to speak life into their circumstances. We are all dealt a hand from time to time that we are unsatisfied with…it may not turn out the way we want…but that is LIFE…you win some and you lose some…the important thing is that you control the circumstances…don’t let them control you…you make a decision…the decision…one of the few we make in our life that will change our course forever…you decide to persevere…you decide to progress…you decide to take the bad with the good…you decide confront it…and you decide to LIVE…

Unfinished Business…

In my effort regain control over my life and all the things that I have going on, I had to face some real hard facts that regarding my habits. The simple fact of the matter is….is that I start things and never finish them. It is what it is…I started writing my book 4 years ago and I have not been able to complete it for one reason or another. One thing about people I do know is that we EXCEL in making excuses…especially for things that will help enhance our lives, and if you’ve been following my blog, you know that I have DECIDED to NOT live that way any longer. So, now I have to start prioritizing my goals and dreams and put them in perspective. Now that’s not always easy…I mean, take it from me…I have so many things that I need to complete. However, if we sit back and take a look at all the things that we begin, who knows what we could accomplish — so get back in the swing of things and finish those projects — maybe just one of them will change someone’s life forever…S.

If I had unlimited…..I would…..

It’s always interesting to ask this question and hear the answers…to listen to people unlock their dreams and inspirations with no boundaries and obstacles. I suggest that if you are attempting to determine what you want in and out of life, that you sit down and make this list…it helped me a great deal to be able to determine what it is that is important to me and what I need to do in order to get those things accomplished. Make the list and see where your imagination takes you…Good Luck…

My K-Drama Obsession…Randomajigee

Ok, so in an effort to not watch as much reality TV crap on television, I shifted my focus to my cell phone (like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are better uses of that time) and about 6 or 7 months ago I stumbled across VIKI. Now I know what you’re thinking…who is she? Unfortunately, it’s not a she…it’s an APP/Website. It is my soul destination for fulfilling my Korean Drama fix…needless to say after watching one K-Drama (Boys Over Flowers), I was hooked…now let me say they are very much different that American Soaps — I mean when they say DRAMA it is truly a DRAMA…There are a few irritating things that I find ever present in the K-Drama scripts that the writers seem to have an obsession with — and that is killing off the main characters and giving them amnesia — these two elements usually make them pretty predictable, however, for whatever reason I remained hooked…as I become more entrenched in them, I began to become curious about the Korean culture and found myself fascinated — Now, my husband finds it a little strange my new curiousity but he knows me and he is not surprised considering that I also have an obsession with Japanese Culture and Japanimation films — those are my fav — (Yes, indeed…I’m a 32 year old kid), however, this is ok — it reminds me that its ok to like and try different things and that sometimes life will surprise you with the little things that you would have never thought to give a second look, but once you do, your imagination is set free again…

Discipline in business & Life…Why is it so hard?

Sometimes in business, even though its out passion, we lose the drive that we initially had to get our business started. We wait on life to present an opportunity or obstacle that reignites our entreprenuerial spirit and makes us go harder than we ever had…but how do you maintain that passion and fire? How do you continue that drive day in and day out? Well…I am a prime suspect in this arena. I could blame it on my inconsistent Gemini behavior, but at the end of the day, it’s my own fault. We, as people, have the power to place levels of priority on things in our lives. We do it everyday….How bad do I want to lose wait? How bad do I want to start this business? How important is it to pay this bill right now? We make this type of decisions everyday and we place levels of importance on these tasks. It is in our power to change and coures correct our lives based upon our priority levels, but what I realized is that I have to make it important to me. It doesn’t matter what anyone else see’s or believe’s. It is up to me to decide my own priorities and decide what I want my legacy to be and how much effort I am willing to place into it.

I am discovering that I want to run a business, that I have to operate my life as a business owner and be dedicated to that life. I have to prove that through my daily actions and be about growing and sustaining my business. If I am not going to do that then what is the use of being self employed. I might as well continue working my 9 to 5 job nad never enjoy the true benefits of being self employed…financial stability, building a legacy, and being able to live my life the way I choose, and not the way my situation dictates based upon my financial circumstances.

This life is our own…God gave us this world full of wonder and beauty for us to be able to admire it and be in awe of it’s majesty. We cannot do that if we are bound by the negative circumstances that we ourselves create. How will we ever be able to appreciate this world and all that it has to offer, if we are never able to see it for ourselves. That is what I hope being self employed with allow me to do; to show my family the world and create a legacy that my children can be proud of.

Well, anyway…off my soapbox…the bottomline of this rant is that I have decided….that is a powerful statement…I have decided…that in this life with the guidance of my Lord and Savior, that I will be the master of my destiny…that I will let my free will lead me in the direction of my dreams. You know, my husband said “Life is a stage and I am looking for a better part…” I said, ” I’m not looking…I’m choosing,” and that’s because it’s our choice to live as we decide. I want more for my life…I see people everyday that have taken their lives into their own hands…living the way they choose. And so…my life begins at 32…standby.

Marriage and Business…Is it possible?

 You know…7 years ago when I met my husband I never thought that we would share a business together, let alone our lives. I guess I had another thing coming…or God had another coming. Even I met him I knew that being an Entrepreneur was in my blood. I always wanted to be that person who needed to be in control of what mark I wanted to leave in this world. A few weeks ago I was at my Family Reunion in Williamsburg, Virginia. My family and I went up and stayed a week and had a fabulous time, but outside of the fun, there were a couple of very memorable moments. This year the committee asked that some of the older and more experienced members of the family give their “Pearls of Wisdom”. My Aunt was selected and she said something that I will never forget…and that is that if you want to do something in this world, no matter how long it takes you, keep at it. Even if you fail over and over…keep at it because eventually you will make it. That sound advice rejuvenated me…Just before my husband and I got married, I decided that I needed a little help…a partner if you will. He seemed like the most likely candidate…lol…outside of him being very intelligent and having out of this world marketing knowledge and know how.

It was a no-brainer…Now, where does it go down hill you ask? Well, I will tell you…that being partners with your husband is not always what it’s cracked up to be, but in my marriage my husband is my best friend. I have never been someone to follow…I have always been more of a leader…but I have learned that sometimes in order to lead, you need to follow. He is what you say the piece to our puzzle that balances everything out. I am the risk taker…him…not so much! I am the hot blooded…creative, brainstormer who has ideas that I want to execute now and sometimes too quickly. He is my parachute. He slows me down and that allows me to clearly think my decisions through. Now, there are times when I feel that he is being a little conservative, but usually…h’s right! He has a keen sense when it comes to business and that is what makes Sofistiq Concierge is even greater. It takes great leaders to mold and grow a business.

Being married is so much like running a business. You have a President and VP…Someone has to be the secretary and finance person to make sure all the admin tasks are complete and bills are paid. Someone has to be the Advisor — or I guess both husband and wife act in that role. Someone has to manage the marriage and keep it running…keep it operational, fresh and new…that’s normally the wife’s department if you get my drift! And so, here we are…3 years later and still working the business together. I’ve known my husband for the better part of a decade and there is no one I trust more than him. Key word there…trust…absolutely necessary if your husband is going to be your partner. You have to have complete trust, honesty, communication, and be willing to negotiate and compromise. Otherwise, it’s a no go! Trust me! Now, being a woman and an African American woman in business I am very independent in my decision making…but I am growing to see that it’s necessary to discuss my decisions with my husband…even if they will not affect him. I value his opinion and his suggestions and it helps me to see the other side…where there may be hidden consequences I have not considered.

So, is Marriage and Business possible…yes. It is possible. It is something you must work at everyday and know that when you do step into that arena…the health of your marriage will dictate that health of your business. It is a tie…a bond…and it can be beautiful if you let it be.

So, with that…Good Luck to you all who are attempting this new and brave challenge…

And remember…

“Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy”
― Phyllis McGinley 

Until next post kids….

S.

Farenheit Review — Uptown Charlotte’s Newest Spot — (Rooftop – Hyatt Place)

Ok, let me start by saying that this is officially one of my favorite venues now…the staff at Farenheit, located in the heart of Charlotte, NC atop the new Hyatt Place Hotel’s 21st floor, has created an ambiance worthy of the Elite social scene in Charlotte. It’s great for cocktail hour with friends or colleagues or for that romantic dinner for two. Outside of the ambiance and killer panoramic views of the Charlotte skyline and great drinks, there are the amazing staff and prompt service that would put Jimmy Johns to shame!

Although its super spectacular and awesome, there are a few things that could stand just a little tweak. First off…this venue is gorgeous, but I feel its missing the effect of live music. You can hear live music at most upscale bars and lounges in the city, but not at this venue…at least not now! It’s missing that energy…now of course it doesn’t have to have live music all the time, but a light jazz set or some r and b wouldn’t hurt the scene. Next, the food…the menu looks delicious, but did not jump out at me. There are a couple of great options but it to me seemed limited. Of course, I seemed to see things coming out that I did not see on the menu, which also was a little disturbing. It may take me a couple of more visits to dive into their entire delicious repetoire, however, what I did have was awesome! I munched down on the sausage pizza made from flatbread. On my next visit I will be trying the pecan encrusted pork chops…the General Manager is a colleague of mine and told me they are to die for!

Although there is still more to come I’m sure from this venue being so new to our fair city, I was impressed overall by my first visit. It is a beautiful venue that you can see that the developers took every care to create a relaxing and plush atmosphere. I will definitely be back and will send a few of my clients in that direction as well.

Until next reveiw!

S.

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