These four ladies are sisters, also known as “DVs” (V1, V2, V3 & V4).

They share a common passion of cooking and baking and had the genuis idea of starting their own baking business. Click here to visit their baking website where you can place orders for delicious cakes.

The ladies have also started their own blog, where the four of them blog separately about their food obsession and share tips and recipes. They currently have some blogs up and I have enjoyed reading every single one of them. Check them out by clicking here. I can vouch for V3′s cooking because I have tasted her cooking. Her cakes are also simply delish! I am sure she learnt from the best (V1 and V2) and I’m also certain V4 is no different! So you will definitely be in good hands.

That’s all folks!

PS: to those who tried accessing my blog yesterday and had the big ugly sign saying my blog was no longer available, I apologise for the inconvenience. Just a misunderstanding with wordpress which has now been sorted! I am still here, *singing* I’m still standingggggggg….. xxx

To answer your question, yes I still blog! This girl has been so busy, but hey, that is never a good enough excuse. Other than being busy, I have been thinking of what to break my silence with and nothing seemed worth it, but here I am anyway. I have really missed you guys though! I barely have anytime to read the blogs I love any more. The way I see it though is this, very soon, my exams will be over.. in May to be precise, for ever and ever until I decide to qualify in something else. Post exams, I will have a lot of time, and not to forget post wedding too!

Let’s start with he obvious..

Valentine’s day!

Some hate this day, some love it, others couldn’t care less. What category do you fall under and what did you get up to? As for me, I love this day and always have! Even when I was single, I celebrated valentine’s day with my single friends by hosting a party yearly. We cooked, ate, drank, gossiped chatted and played games. This year’s has actually been the first time I have been in a proper relationship on valentine’s day. So we decided to have a low key one. He came over, I cooked, we ate, chatted, I guess like a normal day but just with gifts and cards. It was fun though .

Food

I remember my last post I was confessing about how fat I felt after my shopping escapde and Iwas adviced to stop eating pizza. Well, I stopped eating pizza but I started eating everything else. It is like, I suddenly felt the need to eat and I was always hungry. Eating everything and anything, it became worrying. I have decided finally (like I have a choice) to take a hold of my gut. Take control of my mouth, and relinquish the power food has had over me in the last two weeks especially. Something embarassing happened at work actually which has further encouraged me to curb my gut.

Someone in my department had been planning this meal out for all of us for months. We pre-ordered our food and were meant to go for the pub lunch on Tuesday. An hour before lunch, I happened to have a meeting in the canteen that lasted an hour. I usually have my lunch at 12. So right after the meeting, I just walked to the canteen and got myself grilled salmon, roasted potatoes and lovely vegetables. Took my food to my desk ad started devouring it. As I was eating and working, I was wondering why no one was going for lunch as everyone usually does at 12:00. I kept eating regardless. Ten minutes into my meal, people started getting up to go to the pub for lunch and then it dawned on me that I wasn’t suppose to eat! I had to send a message to the organiser to say I wouldn’t be able to come. You thought I was going to say I went for lunch after lunch right? It isn’t that bad yet, thank God! I told one of my colleagues the real reason why I wasn’t coming and he burst into laughter. I would laugh too if I was him. *sigh*

This incident just made it clear that myself and food and forming a very unhealthy relationship. As such, I have to ask myself a few questions before I put anything in my mouth. Do I really want need this food? When was the last time I put something in my mouth? Can water substitute the need to put something in my mouth? Hopefully, these questions should help and also the longing to stay the same size. *sigh* Why can’t one eat without getting fat *hiss*.

The joy’s of enery providers

There aren’t enough hours in one day!

I have been extremely busy, between work, going to Edinburgh for more studying, having a social life and planning my new life, barely anytime left for anything else.

I decided to leave March blank without any social outings, leaving time for me to chill during the weekends and do nothing, other than maybe study. However, my March weekends are slowly being taken up. I am not complaining, I just wish I had more time to do everything I enjoy doing.

That aside, I hope everyone is doing well! For those in the UK, how about the snow on Saturday? So little snow, so much confusion and disruption. But hey, we can’t deny that the snow makes everywhere look beautiful. Except on that particular day, I decided to wear a pair of heels to spice up my outfit (despite the fact that for the last 2 weeks I have been going everywhere in my hardcore good for snow boots). Let’s just saw, when the white stuff started pouring, I needed to hold on to people to make sure I didn’t fall down. It was a good laugh though.

So today, I made the ‘mistake’ of going shopping… I left every shop I entered feeling fat and without the outfits I desperately need! I eventually consoled myself by going to buy a pair of shoes, afterall, shoes always fit! Then when I got home, I ordered a large pizza from dominos to make myself feel better! LOL I am so going to pay for that decision in the gym this week.

*sigh*

I have so much to say, but I can’t seem to channel my thoughts well enough today. I just feel blah! Yes, there is a feeling called ‘blah’… I feel like I am not quite there yet. Where ‘there’ is, I have no idea! LOL I guess when I figure out where I am going, the ‘blah’ feeling will go away.

Anyway, thanks for reading, for once, you are not reading an epistle!

Have a lovely week.

xoxo

I hope everyone is well and ready to face this new week!

Firstly, my condolence to those who lost loved ones in the Kano blast. I’m afraid, but our country is really becoming out of hands. If a country can continuously be inflicted with such pain and we say we have a guardian (the head of state) who hasn’t shown that he is any close to the bottom of this situation then the country is really in trouble.

If you ask me, one of the prerequisite of being a president if protecting your country or at least making your subjects know that they safe and any unrest is just temporary. Once you can’t do that or you can’t make your people trust you it may be time to stop stuffing your face and gracefully fully step down for someone else who can handle the situation more effectively.

So, it is good to be connected right? How so?! I am very connected thanks to blogsville. My connections came in handy in the form of a lovely lady called Biola aka pretty lashes!

She has been so helpful with this whole wedding planning shenigans, with loads of insights and experiences etc and we met up!!!! She came with me for my dress fitting on Friday! Herself and Versace helped me picked ‘the dress’! Yes we now have a dress!!!

Also, when my mum told me they had booked a hall for the two events and I got slightly worried because I had never heard of the hall before, nor had google, but yours truly, miss pretty lashes had loads of pictures and information about the hall!

So this blog is dedicated to you ma’am. Thanks so much for all your help and banter you have been great!! To many more gists, exploring, catch ups and meetings.

Xxx

Angel

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Let me start by wishing you all a happy new year. I hope (other than the strike in Nigeria), this new year has been splendid for you so far. For me, it has, I am sure you know why.

So my visit to Nigeria was really good. It was good spending quality time with my family and also spending quality time with my in-laws to be. My parents are happy so are his parents and siblings. My junior brother (baby of the house), reminded me that he remembers when I used to bed wet and now I am getting married! LOL imagine that, naughty boy. I guess for both of them and my close cousins it is like OMG she is getting all grown up! They will get used to it.

As you can imagine, everyone who has spoken to me since the engagement has just been talking about the wedding, they want to know the plans the this and the that. At some point I started thinking, I really want to talk about something else! Come on, give me some good gossip! I can’t keep talking about this, they will eventually get bored. I know some of my friends already don’t talk to me as much as they used to before the engagement. I was very certain that would never happen to me, but alas, I am human and so are they. The way my friends have accepted the news has been very mixed.

I will start with the woman race. Very few Some of them have been great (this is amongst the women, the men couldn’t care less really, but I shall elaborate on this a bit more), some of them it comes across like what they are pleased about is the chance to sell me their services (don’t get me wrong, I am all for promoting yourselves and what you do etc), I just felt a bit overwhelmed when the first thing people said when they heard I was engaged is to list the services wedding related they could render me. Some where not even my friend on blackberry messenger added me to their bbm just to do this. I had at least 10 people say they were wedding planners. So now, if I am to choose a friend to be my wedding planner, which one of them would I choose?

Luckily, I have a policy where I do not want to use friends to help with anything, especially if I will be paying them for the service. If I am paying you, I want to be able to shout at you if I don’t like something or get mad at you and if you are a friend, this could ruin our friendship. What makes it even easier is the fact that because my final professional exam is in May and my wedding is a few months after that (yes we have fixed a date!), DT and my parents don’t want me to get too involved in the planning, they just want me to make decisions like the colours I want and sort out my dress and bridesmaids. So my mum and dad are sorting everything out. My dad went as far as saying when I was asking about getting a wedding planner… “you just face you books (:o, imagine that!), we will do the best we can for you, even if it means I will be your wedding planner..” I thought that was the sweetest thing ever.

So I am facing my books. I always knew as the first-born and only girl, I wouldn’t really have much of a say on my wedding planning, but my upcoming exams only gives them more of a valid reason for me not to have much of a say.  I have accepted that as long as DT is present on that day and we say our “I dos” and get blessed by the vicar, I am good to go.

Now, for those who will be getting engaged in the future, especially the ladies, be weary of this other category of friends who just go MIA when they hear you are engaged. Some of them have no hard feelings what soever, but they feel like the have lost you to your fiance, they feel like they cannot be friends with you any more and you are now a different person to the pre engaged you so they stop talking you. It will take a few days to realise that, chill o, you haven’t heard from this babe in a while and when you confront her, she will be very open with why and you will assure her that you guys are friends and being engaged or married will not change that.

The others who you would normally expect to be there for you emotionally (yes you need a lot of support emotional, or maybe it is only me), will simply not be there! Imagine my shock!  It will be a mixture of things of which they will not own up to, or they immediately turn on their defence mechanism and their way to deal with the situation is to point out everything that is wrong with every decision you have made. Just basically not available to you emotionally..only available to make you feel bad. Well, to make me feel bad because I am very emotional! Yes I said it, I am emotional! The thing here is, they may not even know they are doing this, but they are. Please stop!!

The guys on the other hand…. hahaha.. two of them read this blog.. you know yourselves “Mr I live in California” and “Mr I am a Lawyer”.  It took Mr Cali a while to get used to the idea of me getting married. I was even nearly scared to tell him the news but I braced myself and gave him a call and obviously, he did not shriek down the phone in excitement. LOL. We eventually talked about it a couple of weeks later when it had sunk in for him. Now I am tasking him to planning my hen night, only that he doesn’t know what a hen night is! So back to my bridesmaids job.

Mr Lawyer… he like Mr Cali were in from the start, when I met DT etc. Mr Lawyer just can’t get his head around things really. He keeps saying he still can’t believe it.I always call him up at him when he is being sceptical and then he tries to amend his ways by changing his attitude but by then.. it is too late! LOL. I have told him he will cry at the wedding, he doesn’t believe me.

The other guys are either pleased or couldn’t care less, which works well for me.

Now, the bride’s maids!

Me being me, I wanted loads of my friends to be my bridesmaids but realistically, the 13 people I initially wanted on would have been too much. So I have compromised for 9 and we both have 1 person as back up. We are hoping not a lot of people drop out, obviously because it will be in Nigeria, there is the whole buying ticket to naija thing just for our wedding.. *sigh* which can be expensive. I have encouraged them to start buying their tickets if they can now at least it will be a bit cheaper than if they wait to buy. We have been encouraged a few times to change our wedding date by friends and to be honest, I find it a bit insensitive.

Most people know the kind of politics involved in setting the date in the first place, the number of people involved from both families and when we finally set it and booked the church and we were happy that this side of things is over, suggesting subtly or blatantly to change the dates for any reason is not fair on both of us. To be honest, I haven’t aired this view to those who have, I have just explained to them that we are aware not everyone would be able to come and we understand, no hard feelings, but changing the date is not an option.

Even if it is just both of us and our nuclear family, we will be more than pleased! By the grace of God, there will be many more celebrations in life which will be more convenient for people and which they will be able to attend. Plus, there will always be someone or people who the date is not convenient for. How do you decide who to please and who not to?

Finally, and most definitely not the least, my wedding dress!!!!

I found one I really like 2 weeks ago! I need to get my act together, book an appointment to try it on and if it looks as glamorous as it looked online then put down a deposit! How exciting! I hope it those and that would be one less thing to worry about.

So colours for both days have been picked.. lol very erm… interesting colours I must say but if the decorators get it right, it has utmost potential to be super amazing! Bride’s maids and grooms men have been informed and their cooperation noted. Chief bridesmaid and best man have also been informed. My dress is nearly picked and DT is going suit shopping soon…

The rest is over to my folks in Nigeria!

Hope it all goes well.

Anyway folks, have a lovely 2012!

xxx

Here it goes…

DT said he wanted us to have Christmas dinner before I left for Nigeria. So I immediately went into planning mode and asking him questions about when he wanted us to have the dinner so I could organize it but he said no, leave this to me, I will sort this out. Then he goes, you like surprises right, I will surprise you. (we have this thing where any time he asks me what I want, I always say surprise me).

So I think it was the Friday before, he gave me an update on the dinner, told me to keep Thursday night free and I already had plans for Thursday night, usually he would have rescheduled our dinner but he was quite adamant that I cancelled my plans for Thursday and so i did. Then he told me the dress code for the ‘event’ we were going for was black tie. I started asking questions again that is he sure because I immediately assumed we were going to the theatre and the theatre isn’t black tie. I asked him if he was sure i wouldn’t be overdressed, he said i should trust him so I did.

Thursday quickly came along, the night before, i couldn’t sleep because I was wondering what the surprise was. Anyway, I got to his, we got dressed and set off. He said we had to be there for 7:30pm. I said no problem. We got on the underground and I ask where we were going, he said “I thought you said you like surprises!” so I laughed and kept quiet. Finally, we got off at Embankment station and then he goes, “I can now tell you where we are going”. I said okay, where? He said “we are going for a 5 course dinner on the Thames, the boat is called the symphony etc.. I hope you like it….”.I got so excited! I assured him I would love it. So we got seated on the boat, we were sitting by the window, had complimentary champagne, wines etc. The food started coming, we chatted, took pictures, etc.

I noticed he was getting a bit restless and kept on thinking he was bored because he kept going to the toilet, then to find the front of the boat, then to take pictures outside etc. I really didn’t think much about it than he was bored. I asked him if he was okay and he said yes that he was trying to take it all in. Anyway, he kept on saying that this was all for me and that he wants me to be happy and he hopes I am enjoying myself. I was like, are you kidding me, this is amazing, the food is yum, the ambiance is perfect and the live band is amazing!

When the boat got to tower bridge, he asked if i wanted to take a picture outside and I said yes. So we went outside, everyone else was inside and he started taking pictures.then he asked me if he could make a speech and I am like of course you can. Once again, I didn’t pick up on this because a couple of weeks ago, he was saying about how he was going to start a series of speeches and basically talking about him, us, me,how happy he was, we were etc. At the end of the speech 2 weeks ago, he said that was the end of part 1. So when he asked to give a speech on the boat, I assumed it was part two and then he started talking again…. Lol (private yarns , but amazing words and thoughts as you can imagine). Then he said he got me a token gift and asked me to close my eyes (once again, I did not pick this up, I feel so silly, I mean if it were someone else saying this I would have been like are you kidding, there were loads of tell tale signs. The thing is each time I buy him a gift or buy something new, i tell him to close his eyes before i show him).

He went on to say this gift was very important to him and then he told me to open my eyes. But I opened my eyes and looked straight-ahead but couldn’t see him, then I realized he was down on one knee with the most beautiful ring ever asking me to marry him. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but with no doubt in my mind I said yes! Everyone on the boat then started clapping. Lol I felt like was dreaming, I still feel like that. I keep looking at my finger to make sure it wasn’t an exaggerated fantasy or dream. It isn’t!

We went back into the boat and danced till we got back to Embankment station. Then he told me about the ring story. How one of my best friends, Versace knew and it was her and her fiancé that helped with the ring. Lol I couldn’t believe Versace knew all along! Then I remembered how I was chatting with her on bbm and she said one of her friend’s boyfriend was about to propose and she is helping him pick the ring and i got so excited for the girl,not knowing the girl was me! She said that was the best she could do, that usually when she hears news like that she shares it with me and now she couldn’t.

Long story short, we are both happy and so are our families. Now we have a wedding to plan. It should be exciting lol! I pray as everything else has been smooth between us, it will continue to be. I pray that as our families have been united, they will continue to be. I pray that this wedding and our marriage will open doors to even more blessings for us in Jesus name. I also pray that God will bless our well wishers even more than he has blessed us. Amen

PS: if anyone has any wedding planning tips, please feel free to share.

PPS: Nigeria is HOT!

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How is it that the same people, a man and a woman, that start off being madly in love, can’t do anything without the other, loving everything about each other, get married, look so happy on their wedding day and then afterwards the marriage goes down hill. They become strangers, they hate each other, can’t stand their sight, wondered how they got to the place they currently find themselves, struggle to compliment one another?

I have seriously wondered this for too long and I know some may think the answer is obvious. In this situation, I am not talking about those who go into marriage just to be a Mrs or a Mr or just because the clock is ticking, or pressures from the world. I mean those who are walking into it knowing what they should expect, knowing that life won’t always be rosy but signing up for it anyway because they believe they love each other to weather through it all.

So yea, that has been on my mind. Shared it with DT and he said not to worry about that and reminded me of Jeremiah 29 v 11 which reads:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God does have a plan for me, he has a plan for us, but we need to make sure that whatever we do in life is tuned in to what he has planned for us.

*sigh*

I could only conclude that patience, prayers and both parties making a genuine effort to constantly rekindle the love they once have once it starts cooling off is essential. A ‘I can’t be bothered attitude’ can be costly.

I pray to hear more about happy marriages and less about broken homes.

Have a lovely week!

Yesterday was DT’s birthday and I had an amazing time planning a plan B surprise for him as he ruined all the other surprises I had in store for him. He knew I was up to something but I am sure he couldn’t guess. Long story short, we both had an amazing time and my baby is a year older!

Back to the reasons I am blogging today. Let’s address them one at a time.

Air ‘freshner’

Do these things really freshen the air? I mean, they are more of a nuisance to my nose than the smell I am trying to cover up. I don’t use them that often, but when I do I am disappointed at the result. I stopped buying them for a while because I concluded they are just a waste of money.  Then I stumbled on the brand febreeze which seemed to work for a while but now it is just as annoying and nose invasive as the others. Well to me. They make me sneeze and irritate my nose. Does any one have a better experience with air fresheners? If yes, please what brand is it?

Holiday body (NOT!)

So off to Nigeria next week and my body is far from in shape. Not like I will be swooning around in a bikini or anything, but a girl got to feel light mehn. I made the beautiful mistake of checking out 9jafoodie blog and boy it made my mouth water! I mean, girl can cook!!! She has added to my to do list… i am suppose to be writing about how I want a holiday body and I am already thinking about the next thing to cook! Someone help me! All the christmas dinners and lunch have not been helping. I tell you last week alone, I went for 3 christmas meals! I have another tomorrow and then a party on Saturday and then another christmas meal upper Wednesday. Kai!!!! All I want for christmas is a flat tummy!!

“I am not my hair”

So, after a lot of deliberation, I have decided to give ‘my’ Brazilian hair a break for the holidays and concentrate on my hair. I guess other than motivating myself to do this, my on and off hair dresser’s reaction to my hair was enough to seal the deal. She made such a dramatic reaction to my hair to the extent that the lady at the nail bar had to come and have a look at what she was oohhing and laing about. I mean.. there isn’t anything special or too worrying about my hair. It has just broken into pieces because I haven’t been treating it right. But that stops here and NOW! It’s time to show you love dear hair. Other than the fact the lady just assumed I was going to cut my hair and was telling me pick hair cut styles (that woman get liver sha – does she know how long it took for my hair to grow as short as it is now?!).  I politely told her not to raise her hopes. I came here to relax my hair and that is all I will be doing thank you (the devil is a liar). Of course she took offence and told me never to reject a professional’s advice. *sigh* At this point, I had to caveat my statement so that she won’t take her anger out on my non-existent hair. So I explained that I am not cutting my hair at this point in time, but I will think about it and get back to her. Even if I decide to cut it, I am not going back to her, she sounds too scissors happy for my liking before I leave the salon bald!

So dear hair.. I shall do the cringing walk of shame to the hair shop to buy a wig… *yes a wig!* so I can take care of you properly. Wish me luck!

Pregnant females

I wrote sometime ago how pregnancy and childbirth scared me. I can gladly say I am overcoming that fear and I am actually looking forward to it more and more. What baffles me however it the way some pregnant women, ladies, girls, females carry themselves, especially the ones that wear ill-fitting clothes or have the skin of their tummy out there. I just feel like the baby is not protected. I love seeing pregnant women carry themselves gracefully. I am fully aware that carrying the weight of another person doesn’t exactly help on the graceful side of things, but women should have a code of conduct which is –  ’make pregnancy look sexy!’.

I mean, I saw this pregnant girl standing in front of this Thai restaurant by my house, her hair not combed, standing at akimbo, and I had to look at the expression on her face to make sure she isn’t about to drop the child right there because I couldn’t think of any other reason why any lady would be looking like that outside her bathroom. There is also this lady I see often that walks with her two legs apart as if the head of the baby is already coming out. She is about 4/5 months pregnant. *sigh* I know sometimes they can’t help it or they are just tired, but seeing graceful pregnant women just makes me smile. In fact sometimes I bbm my good friend Versace (graceful pregnant woman spotting) to let her know I have just seen a beautiful pregnant woman that makes me want to have babies! I promise, I am normal!

AOB

Last but not the least, I just found out my family friend got engaged! Mega excited! He won’t give me details but I shall be scouting for them tomorrow as it is now past midnight! Good news all over! Wohoooo

Goodnight lovelies!

Angel

xxx

I thought I could help by broadcasting the blog.

Please click on the link below for more information.

I do not know the person personally but if you have any question I’m sure they can be answered on the blog in the link below.

I pray she is found soon in good health.

http://www.helpbringtosinhome.com/

Angel

xx