R&S: Small waist, Big booty, Thick thighs

Thick Thigh Problems

I just learned that there is this thing, that's become a thing. Leg gap? Whats that all about? My thighs rub together. In fact, in the summer it creates so much friction that I sweat. I have to make sure to put baby power between my thighs as a precautionary measure. HAHA! No joke...They rub together so much that when I wear pants they turn into a ripped up disaster!

When I was I young and naive I was all about Apple Bottom jeans. They hugged my body in all the right spots! They came at a serious cost to my wallet and ripped at the crotch anyway, but at least they fit. Now I am not even about that life anymore, buying grossly over priced clothing no longer makes sense in my mind or cents to my wallet. So when I started buying cheaper jeans not only did they rip in the crotch, but I had to start buying pants a size bigger because what fits my thighs and booty definitely can not fit my waist. Nothing fit right and I started to think 'Ughh if only my booty wasn't so phat and I lost a little more weight this would look really cute!' Instead of asking 'who were they making this for and who actually fits into this?' I started blaming my own body for something I had no hand in designing. It never crossed my mind that manufactures have a hand at deciding who can wear what and who should fit into what. Looking good started to feel like a luxury, available to me only when I could afford it.

But this is not something that I face everyday, and I would like to acknowledge that. Being able to go into a store and at least find something that fits at a reasonable price is a privilege I had never considered before. This is an issue that is not just particular to body shape, but anyone who's body doesn't fit a standardized norm. Whether it is someone who is fluffy, voluptuous, tall, short, differently shaped, has fewer or more limbs or whatever. We all deserve to look as fabulous as we choose to or choose not to. Choice being the key word here. It is interesting to me how isms have mutated. They have managed to weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life masking them selves as a standardized norm to the point where they are nearly invisible! Just because they no longer exist in their original form, does not at all suggest that they no longer exist! So what did I decide to do? Recycle and save of course! I am soooo over always throwing away my jeans cause the inner thigh ripped, or always having to wear a belt so my booty crack doesn't show then getting that awkward bunched up material at the front. Or looking dumpy and wearing clothes I don't want to wear simply cause I can't afford the ones I actually want. I think learning to sew is an excellent way to resisting the limited bullshit presented to us as consumers, it is also a simple way of challenging industry norms that exclude certain people from wearing certain clothes.

Materials

How to take in jeans at the waist, really helped me in figuring out how to make darts. It is super easy and you can take in as much or as little as you want when trying to get perfectly hip hugging pants! 

Pulling in the Waist of Pants

Making A Dart

I decided to use scrap fabric and sew two patches on the inside of my jeans to cover up the hole created by my rubbing thighs. I like the rips, they tell a reoccurring life story (the first picture at the very top shows how they look flipped right-side out).

Ripped Crotch 'Band-Aid'

Sure clothing designers can make looking good inaccessible for a number of reasons, but that doesn't mean that we can't and shouldn't look good. Why should we rely on them anyway? And why should we try to change our bodies to fit an industry standard? So let your jelly roll, thighs rub, clap your three hands, strut your long ass legs, move your body how ever you can! As people who live outside the box, lets keep up the creativity, keep surviving, and keep resisting all while looking absolutely fabulous doing so!

To quote Jason a character from one of my favorite shows Home Movies 'Am I regular? Because my pants say irregular...' 

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: The Sexy Shero!

Before...

I hate short dresses. To each our own, but I just don't get it y'all! Whenever I walk the dress rides up so high my booty is all kinds of out. Even when my legs are closed there is this insistent gap between the dress and my legs, where no matter how hard I try my underwear (or crotch) always manages to show. And since I don't shave I am greeted by turned up noses and frowning faces at my hairy parts. In my experience, mini dresses have shown me no love. I just don't feel sexy in them despite how hard I have tried to convince myself in the past. I could just shake a rage fist and curse the mini dresses' ambivalence towards my feelings, or go Shero!

I bought this red mini dress about four years ago and took it around the track twice. Both times I wore it I was absolutely mortified! I felt so self conscious and hideous that I had a hard time actually enjoying myself. Why did I buy it? Well, because I thought that this is what I had to do to be 'sexy', but why did being 'sexy' feel so bad? And despite my distaste towards this dress I just couldn't bring myself throw it away, why? Because I am a crafty hoar[der] that's why. So this hate-hate relationship carried on for years where this dress that I swore to never wear again sat in my closet waiting, inevitably, in vain. Until the other day! After a contemplative face off with this dress, I decided that I really wanted to make it into something that I would actually wear! So after bit of altering and some shoddy work on the sewing machine this is what I came up with! A jumper fit for a Shero!

AFTER!

If anything I have learned that while I am still a horader, recycling and saving has also provided me with the opportunity to make things that are better suited to my bootylicious body and has enabled me to take charge of my own sexiness instead of trying to fit my body into what really doesn't work for me. Like a Shero I save myself from unnecessarily feeling like a hot heap of dog mess.

Yeah, I totally transform into a bootylicious crafty hoar supershero after dark.

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

p.s. I would post the how-to for this, but I am so embarrassed of my tailoring skills that I wouldn't dare. They are far from impressive, and are just good enough to get the job done.

R&S: Takataka an ode to Meja Ngeti

Takataka
[tak-ah-tak-ah]
Bottle cap necklace

When I was in east Africa anytime I went out friends they would always ask with a look of slight disgust "why are you picking garbage up off the floor?" without confidence and shifting eyes I would reply "...I want to make something..."  In reality I had no idea why I was picking bottle caps up off of the floor when I thought no one was looking, but it really did seem right at the time. On my trip back home I was acquainted with a rather strange but charismatic major in the Kenyan air force who we always addressed as Meja Ngeti. Now Meja Ngeti while obnoxious in his own right was whole heatedly generous, when we hadn't eaten and were hungry he fed us, he provided advice to young men and challenged them to think seriously about themselves, he avidly demanded that I was respected as a lady but mostly he bought us drinks...a whole lot of drinks. Now that I think about it, I am actually not sure if his obnoxiousness can be attributed to him having a few too many, but none the less his company was always a pleasure.

On one of our many encounters Meja Ngeti taught me a really cool trick, how to open a bottle of beer with another beer bottle. With every round that would come to our table he would tell the barmaid to leave them all closed and insist that I open everyone's beer. You might wonder why this newly acquired skill mattered so much to me. Well, as soon as I mastered the skill I was from then on able to collect bottle caps in a discreet fashion! I no longer had to pick them up off them floor, I just popped the caps off and put them in my pocket free of disgusted looks. Sadly, not long after I returned to Canada I heard that he had passed away, so to Meja Ngeti, asante sana kwa chaluka tamu, moto ama baridi tutakunyuwi White Cap, Sumit, Tusker, Pilsner na Amarula kwa wewe. I am sure he would be proud to see how far my beer-on-beer opening skills have come.

Yesterday as an ode to Meja Ngeti I felt inspired to make a R&S takataka 'garbage' necklace with all the bottle caps I collected on my many adventures with him, as well as some random ( and delicious) beer drinking adventures I had on my own facilitated with the help of the bottle opening skill he passed down to me. 

Materials!

It was a really simple process! I recycled an old link chain in my box of stuff and used my jewelry making supplies (pliers, jump rings & hole punch) to get this project popping.You can buy all the materials at the dollar store or your local beading store. You can get like me and sneak bottle caps from the floor into your pocket at the pub when no one is looking, or...drink dozens of beers for their caps? You'll have to get creative with that part and figure out what works for you. 

Instructions:
1. Assemble all materials
2. Flatten bottle caps with mini pliers
3. Use one hole punch to punch a hole at the top of the bottle cap
4. Use mini pliers to open jump ring & attach the bottle caps to link chain 
5. Fiddle with it to get it to sit how you want it to
Thats it!

Final Product!

  
I now get to wear all of my favorite beers on my neck! I was told it makes me look like a drunkard, but this simple project that costed me nothing but time to make means so much more than that. To Meja Ngeti, where ever you are thank you for your kindness and welcoming nature. It was a pleasure knowing you and may you have found peace and an abundance of blessings. 

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: 'Natural'

Over the past few years it's like black women have finally realized how truly funking fly they are and I have been observing how women where I live have been coming into themselves, which is an absolutely beautiful process! From my personal experience I have noticed that this emerging dialogue of self love is deeply rooted in changing the way we talk about, interpret, and experience our natural (unprocessed) hair. As I mentioned in a previous post R&S: Genie Locs the Story of a Queens Crown I have had my crown for around 11 years now, and because of that I have felt very disconnected from this conversation. My crown is no reflection of self realization and I never intended for it to make a statement. Yet I find that more and more people assume that my hair is some political statement of self acceptance:

"I love me a natural sister"

"I am so happy to see a young woman accepting who she is!"

"How long have you been natural?"

So I have been asking myself, for real tho, what is this thing called natural that everybody keeps talking about? If I have a face full of make-up am I still natural? If I daily eat processed foods am I natural? If I clean my house with products that pollute the environment am I still natural just because I have unprocessed hair? Y'all know how I feel about saving money and within this I have come to find that being natural should aim to be a more holistic lifestyle and not just about how we look, present and see our selves. It should aim to include how we treat both our bodies and natural environment and look at the effects of what we put into them. After all the state of our environment greatly affects us and our health, including our hair! So my R&S project is...natural cleaning products!

I have to apologize I didn't mean to build up all that suspense to bore you with cleaning, but I am really serious! Improving the health of your living environment and ridding it of toxic and abrasive chemicals is just as beneficial as cleansing your hair from harmful chemicals such as perms, dyes and products. While admittedly cleaning your house does not have the same social meanings and realities as black women's hair, I would welcome you to think about the parallels between the two.

1. It is far cheaper than buying chemically processed products
2. You reduce the amount of pollutants you use and expose yourself to
3. It is a lifestyle change that forces you to think about how to treat and value your environment/body

I always think, why should I clean my house with highly toxic products that clearly state that if I have had prolonged exposure, have ingested, inhaled, or has caused skin irritation I should call poison control? And then they try to tell me I can cook on and use these surfaces daily? Yeah right. In the same way people have stared to ask why we should use hair products that damage, strip, dry and thin our hair. The only difference between the two is that the outcomes of using toxic products in our hair are more or less visible we can see, feel and touch the damage. As opposed to exposure to toxic cleaning compounds where it is harder to identify tangible negative outcomes. You could alternatively buy all those eco-friendly products, but they make investing in less toxic eco-friendly environments really inaccessible by being grossly over priced. Forget em! I have a 'natural' money saving cleaning method that only requires two products!

1. Baking Soda

2. Vinegar

Vinegar is acidic and acts in the same way as bleach, when you leave it and let it soak it is an effective disinfectant and cuts grease. Baking soda acts like soap and easily scrubs off and lifts any kind of build up of dirt, and can be used as a deodorizer & laundry freshener. You can also use baking soda to cleanse you hair, whiten your teeth, bake, exfoliate your skin, clean fruits and the list goes on. Both are non-toxic, non polluting products that you can find at any dollar store, and are used for purposes beyond cleaning. Each is like a 100-in-1 multi-purpose product! All this 'natural' goodness for just one dollar each! I'm about it! In short changing the way we talk about, interpret and experience our selves should be linked closely to how we do the same to our environment as it also influences and impacts us physically. What ever natural means to you it has the potential to shift towards having a healthier, more respectful and positive relationship with our environment, and just as equally with ourselves. 

love your natural environment, love the natural you and your wallet will love you too!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: No pins no problem, the loc pompadour!

One thing that I am not a fan of making are hair pins and hair ornaments. Why? I simply hate using them. It's normal for me to lose bobby pins and hair ties in my hair for weeks, they are painful, and because of my crown they never seem to be big enough. And by the way, have you always noticed that the pack of bobby pins slowly disappears until there are none left...seriously, where do all of them go? I just got tired and annoyed, so I could never think of inflicting my misery on someone else! To save my self the heartache (and some money) I resolved to do away with them a long time ago....but then I had to start looking for different pin-free ways to style my hair. After trying head ties, hair nets, and string of all sorts I had almost given up, but I found that my own locs were the solution! Either using the spine of foam curlers, pipe cleaners or bantu knots/chiney bumps, curling my locs has been amazing in helping me cut the middle person (i.e pins) out of the styling picture. The curls are able to intertwine and hold together really well to make my favourite hairstyle, the Pompadour! This R&S pin-free hairstyle takes about five minutes to do, looks amazing and requires no tools or money. I leave it to loc and circumstance because it looks different every time I do it. I just play around with it until I get the desired look. I started making this hair style about six years ago and ever since it has become my go to style. Peep the pics below to see the pomp over the years in action!

 Get inspired by your frustrations and exercise a little creativity! You'll see how easy it is to turn your problems into solutions you can definitely take to the bank. 

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

By The Way: Would you like to know how to curl your locs? Drop me a line and I can write up a step by step how to post!

R&S: Moisturizing Face Mask!

 I remember when I was a child my mom would always have some type of face mask on, and I was always afraid to go near her because she used to get a kick out of scaring me. She'd hide then jump out with her eyes opened really wide making some kinda noise...I guess you have to find the simple pleasures in parenting at your children's emotional expense? While quite traumatic at the time, to my benefit it had no lasting negative effects. Recently after reflecting on that period of my childhood I decided to bring back the face mask at a fraction of the cost and with all natural goodness! This weeks recycle and save (r&s) project is the.. 

Turmeric and Henna Moisturizing Face Mask!

I came about this beautiful mask new years eve of 2009, a friend of mine was over and had brought a container full of turmeric and she said that she uses it mixed with some water on her skin to get this beautiful glow. So I decided to building on that with a few extra ingredients I happened to have sitting around the house. Where to get the ingredients? Firstly, I don't even deal with the health food store, they are too over priced for no reason. Check any food store and you'll find everything you need. As the for the green henna I buy it at the Somali market, but if you aren't lucky enough to have access to one, any Indian food stuffs place will for sure have some. Either way, look around its a great way to get to know your neighbourhood!
DISCLAIMER: If you have lighter skin or are white the turmeric and henna will stain your skin a visible reddish yellow...do this at your own risk!

Ingredients:
1 tbs Turmeric

1 tbs Curry Powder
1 tbs Green Henna
2 tsp Almond Oil
1 tsp Glycerin
1 tbs Lemon Juice

Instructions:

1. First you want to prep your face by putting some lemon juice on a cotton pad to clean off your face. Lemon juice acts like an astringent or toner, and cleans the dirt and oils off your skin. Here is what mine looked interesting after a wipe down...

Cotton pad after cleaning my face

NOTE: Lemon juice is also used as a natural bleaching agent so avoid using it too often! If you have sensitive skin add a bit of water on the cotton pad to lessen the sting.

2. Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl until it reaches a consistency like the picture above. You can add water if it is still too thick.

3. Apply on your face and keep it on until it starts to dry and crack (about 1 hour or so)

4. Wash mask off with soap & water

NOTE: if it is a bit hard to wash off I like to get some brown sugar and GENTLY rub in circular motions to exfoliate the rest of it off

Your skin will be feeling soft, supple and have a healthy glow to it! I use this once a week along with the brown sugar and honey body scrub I shared with y'all earlier to keep my skin game on point. Because of the glycerin and almond oil in the mix you don't even have to moisturize your face afterwards. Your kitchen cupboard and fridge provide some wonderful beauty secrets if you're willing to check em out, giving dual purpose to so many readily available and cheap goods! I haven't bought products in years simply because I don't really have to, in recycling you save some dollars in new ways! Now I have a way to scare my own children while keeping a full wallet and looking good in the process!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Mchele: Rice Bag Purse

I have come to the conclusion that yes, I am naturally a hoarder. Apparently that is a bad thing, so a means of consoling myself I simply define it as "seeing endless possibilities, where others do not"....okay yes my work space is beyond crowed, but you learn to work within organized mess! You can't force inspiration, so until it hits you you'll just have to learn to see the beauty in your pile of junk. This idea finally came to me after wondering what to do with a couple of rice bags that I could not bring myself to throw away, they just look so fly! So before this beautifully designed bag could find its way to a landfill I snatched it up and got to work. It's a good size, light weight and has just the right amount of "where'd you get that?". 

Mchele
[Mm-che-leh]
Rice Bag Purse
13.3" x 11.5"
Material:100% Hemp
Inner lining:100% Cotton

Inner lining & inside pocket

Take some time out of your day to imagine, and you'll see endless possibilities too.

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

R&S: Genie Locs: The Story of A Queens Crown

I have had my locs - which I call my crown- for roughly eleven (11) years now I used to dye my crown different colours, do wild hair styles, shave some off, reattach em you name it and over the past decade I have had some crazy conversation that often leave me wondering (and praying) for the fate of the human race.

"You know when the rapture comes you won't ascend to heaven with those things on your head..."

"We have to look like respectable and professional black women, that style doesn't say that"

"Oh my gosh I could never get locs it is such a huge commitment!"
"You're just rocking em for fashion...rent-a-dread"
"You are so exotic"

I would like to say that never have I invited these conversations, and they happen in everyday life, on the bus, street, work, parties you name it...and sadly I end up walking right into them. Outright undeserved criticism, perverse notions of my assumed 'otherness' and other peoples insecurities...I promise you these conversations got tired a long time ago, but at last as with many things in life you win some and you inevitably lose some. It happens. I can assure you that no one can ever tell me I don't look hella sexy! My crown asserts my presence in a room without me even having to say a thing, I enter and leave rooms feeling like a queen in my own right, and I can not be dethroned unless I lay my crown to rest. 

So how does all of this = a recycle and save project? Well, I cut my locs shoulder length about a year ago, and started missing the length I used to have. I tried adding braids multiple times, mistake. It was so heavy my neck hurt...plus my head looked so big! Not cute. Anyway,  I met up with a friend of mine who I had not seen in a while she had these beautiful long locs, and I was shocked cause the last time I saw her she didn't have em. she simply told me "Girl, its just yarn!"

Yarn is a simple way to add length to existing locs, or can be added to non-loc'd hair as a substitute for the synthetic hair bought at the hair store. I remember when I started loc'ing I hated it, they just looked nerdy to me poking out all over the place. So for anyone looking to avoid the awkward stage of locs this is the perfect style! Most importantly its a pocket friendly lengthening en devour! It took about three days on and off to complete (with some help of course), looks %100 like my kinky hair, its light weight and super fly. By recycling some black yarn I had lying around the house from various projects and some free time, I got to work and the final outcome was sexier than I could have imagined.

 

Genie Locs - half up, half down

Genie Locs - Up do

Materials:
1. Yarn Needle
2. Worsted Yarn (that matches your hair colour)
3. Scissors
Where do I get em?: If you don't have any of these materials you can most def find them at any store similar to Wal-Mart

Instructions:
1. Insert and pull the yarn though the eye of the needle
2. Pull through eye of needle until desired additional length of loc
3. Use scissors to cut yarn
4. Thread through the tip of loc (with about 1 cm from the tip to work with) until both ends of the yarn starnd are even
5. Use scissors to cut yarn again (to remove the needle)
(You should now have the yarn threaded through your loc and have two pieces of yarn on opposite sides of it)
6. Fold one of the two pieces in half and hold (this is where you decided the thickness to match your loc)
7. Use the opposite (unfolded) yarn to begin braiding (making sure to keep the other piece folded)
8. Braid part way down, then start to twist all the way to the bottom
9. Tie in a knot & cut

Thats it! Now you have another use for yarn!

Tips:
1.The more times you fold the yarn in half, the thicker the loc will be. (to match the size of my individual locs I folded the piece in half twice)
2. You can choose to burn the end to make sure it doesn't unravel, but it doesn't look too good, or real...I tried -_-
3. If you run out of yarn to braid/twist with DON'T WORRY just cut some more and continue
4. Braiding and twisting give slightly different looks. Twisting looking more loc like and braiding less loc like (not visible from far, but more so up close)

 Who says you can't look cute just cause you're broke?

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna

Have any questions? Something not clear? Just ask!

R&S: Brown Sugar & Honey Skin Care!

One thing that I have to state is that having no money really forces you to be innovative in the ways you approach different aspects of your life, for example: I normally drive to school, BUT since parking is really expensive I park at a friends house and walk or Rollerblade 3km to and from school everyday. You have to look at the positive side here, I am forced to do exercise I would otherwise never do. Health benefits! So I started to think..."humm, how else can I apply this?" I came to the conclusion that whether you are refurbishing some old jewelry or reworking some old clothes recycling and saving can really be a beneficial holistic approach to bettering yourself how ever you feel fit doing so.

Now to the point! It is still winter...and my skin has been getting real dry which is terribly unflattering....and far from cute! So how did I deal with this? Well first I hit up the dollar store! Any dollar store can EASILY be your best friend if you give it a chance, or any bargain or family discount store to be honest. You can find everything at a fraction of the price! All I needed was two all natural ingredients to make...

The Brown Sugar and Honey Exfoliating Scrub!

Ingredients:
4 Tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of Honey

Instructions:

1. Measure out and mix the brown sugar & honey together in a small bowl
2. You want a thick and hard consistency (NOT liquid)

3. Hit the shower
4. Wet skin
5. Exfoliate
6. Rinse

What's great about brown sugar is that it has larger granules than white sugar so it makes a great exfoliant! Additionally I spend under $4. Plus I feel real sexy when I say "Yeah I just rubbed myself down with brown sugar and honey" Hehe. Personally I only use oils as a moisturiser, specifically a mix of; olive, Castor, almond, & grapeseed oils with glycerin. But whatever moisturiser you use stick with it if it works for you, but after the scrub I promise your skin will be feeling and looking as luscious as butter! I do it once every week or two cause like on your face, you don't want to over exfoliate. Summer is almost here and I can't be rocking ashy cobble stone skin when that time comes!

FYI: If you choose to use this mix on your face be careful and rub gently!

Smiles:)

Tuly Maimouna

Broke? R&S!

     I've been thinking about this idea that the way you start your year dictates the following events throughout the course of the year. Does that include being broke? Almost two months into the year, my bank account still isn't saying much, and the dent I made in my savings running all over the world is still very real. I swear every time I open or close my wallet I hear an echo...therefore, my swahili phrase of the year thus far has been 'Ah la! Mimi sina pesa!' meaning 'Oh gosh! I don`t have any money!' So I've resolved as a means of saving and decreasing debt, to not spend a single cent (Can I say that? Canada stopped producing cents Feb. 4th of this year) on buying clothes, shoes or jewelry. Now I know you're asking, 'Guuurrrrllll how you gonna do that?' Easy!

Broke+Imagination = Recycle & Save

     So here is what happened, my favourite faux gold earrings started to rust (LOL) so I had to get rid of them, right? So wrong! Coupled with being too broke to afford a new pair I decided to make entirely new ones! It is a really simple do it yourself project (DIY) or what I like to call recycle and save (R&S) project.

Materials:

1. Hoop earrings

2. Cloth of choice (I used Kente)

3. Hemp string (Optional)

4. Hot glue gun OR crazy glue

Instructions
1. Cut a length of cloth long enough to wrap around the entire hoop

2. Dab a wee bit of glue on the hoop (near the backing of the earring), press and hold the end of the cloth there and ensure it sticks!

3. Begin to wrap the length of cloth around the hoop (If you are using cloth with a pattern remember to make sure you are wrapping it in a way the the pattern is visible!)

4. Once you get to the other end of the hoop, again, dab a bit of glue on the end, press and hold the cloth and ensure it sticks!
5. Wear and look fly

END!

Optional: If you choose to use hemp as i did follow the exact same procedure

     Remember to be creative and make em as extraordinary as you like! Add beads, things that dangle...whatever! Then you can be as obnoxious as you'd like when someone asks you where you got em from! Who cares? Well think of it this way;

 1. You saved your wallet about $10,
2. You (to a very small degree) reduced your ecological footprint by recycling

3. You now have your own customized jewelry

4. You saved your wallet about $10!!!

So whether you're broke (like me) or you're simply looking for some new swag remember, anything can be an R&S project you just have to add some imaginative flavour.

My R&S Hoop Earrings

Happy crafting & saving!

Smiles :)

Tuly Maimouna