ToshaQ

I promise I’m alive. I bought a domain name for the blog that I’m planning on transferring everything to within the next few days, I’m just waiting on my host and the switch to take place! I’ll announce the site name when its ready. I’ve started blogs for the new site based on your requests so thank you!

Do you guys thing I should transfer all the blogs from here to there or only a certain few? I dont want to lose the work I’ve done because from your responses they’ve been helpful.

How should I go about it? All or just certain posts?

So, just about every topic I post on, I am asked to write about a more elaborate topic or something completely random and different. I absolutely love the idea of a request-a-topic type of post. So, here’s your chance. This is your chance to be very specific. Please don’t say, “Post more pictures!” Post more pictures of what? Please don’t say, “Post more about your love life!” What about my love life do you wish to know? This is going to be my official Request-a-Topic post that will be linked on the page some where. If you’re dying to hear my opinion on a specific issue or if you want me to do a makeup look using specific colors/products, this is where I want you guys to ask! This way, I don’t lose requests in other comment threads.

What do you want to read about? I’m going to be writing a lot of back-logs in the next two days since I have them off and would really love some inspiration other than what I have. I am more than willing to do a tutorial for anything you’d want. Please share your ideas with me!

Just so you know, I am one of the many bloggers who have signed up for pay-to-blog type sites. However, I will NEVER post anything dishonest, or compromise my integrity for the sake of making $5. The links you see in this blog will be ones that I truly have checked out and approve for my own morals. If there are opps that I disagree with, in any way, I’ll either skip them or do an entire topic on the subject instead of just inserting a link. If there is a paid topic anywhere on the site, it will always be filed under Uncategorized.

Thanks for everyone’s pimpage for the contest and all of your loyalty! I really appreciate the support, especially since my blog is brand new! The contest ends on the 9th, so be aware. I’ll tally things up this week (I know I said I’d do it last week but I was busy!). I hope you’re ready for next month’s contest It’s going to be so much fun - I’m going to utilize you guys instead of asking for pimpage from my readers.

Don’t forget, give me your topic ideas here!

So, I promised that I would deliver a post about what I brought home from the Heatherette launch. Since it’s been out over a week now, I figure this is the perfect time to post. I absolutely adore this collection! It’s fun, it’s loud, and it’s actually very consumer friendly. Like Fafi, you can wear it bold or you can wear it in a more neutral way. This is important for many people because the regular neutral browns get boring, but in some cases - like work - you don’t want to have to wear neon green eyeshadow. Click the link below to see what I got!

Anyone need any wholesale fashion jewelry? I went out and bought a huge new haul of fashion jewelry for work this week. If only I had known about this website!

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Janet Jackson’s newest album was released this month and I have to say, I was more impressed than I thought I would be. A few of my classic Janet songs are “That’s the Way Love Goes”, “All for You”, “Someone to Call my Lover”, “You”, “Again”, & “Where Are You Now” amongst many others.

Jackson’s last few albums have been a mix between “club”/dance songs & hip hop. I really enjoy Janet’s hip hop side and I think her talents lie mainly in that genre. However, I’m not the biggest fan of the funky beets. I think it over powers her beautiful voice & rhythm.

I remember back in the day, 5-6th grade where I’d hook up three extension cords to each other, plug in my boom box and play my scratched and skipping “Janet” album of hers and listen to it hour after hour with one of my childhood friends. Oh the memories!

Here are some of my favorites on her Discipline album:

• “Feedback” - Her first single, now on radios across the world.
• “Rock With U” - This is the best bump-n-grinding song ever for the club. Grab your honey or that cat you’re eying in the club and move your body!
• “Never Letchu Go” - This is the ballad-type of song that I crave from astounding singers. I think this is why I was so disappointed in DK’s album (review here) - there aren’t enough songs to showcase these amazing singer’s voices.

Another thing that leaves me unsettled: There are nine - YES NINE! - interludes! This is ridiculous, in my mind. Why is there such a need for so many?! Especially since I love the melodies & beats in may of them and they’re like 40 seconds long! I guess these would make great cellphone ring tones, right? Anyone need a cellphone repeater?
Do you enjoy Janet’s music? Who, in your opinion, has had a successful comeback as an artist this year in ‘08?

In the words of Mrs. Jackson, “Strobe lights make everything sexier/Shadows dancin’ on the wall/Our bodies as one”.

Does your kitchen counter, desk, and dressers become consumed with envelopes? More bills than anyone knows what to do with, Netflix DVDs (though these usually go straight to the living room, right?!), ValuPak coupon junk mail packages, & magazines. I know I get super overwhelmed with mail every few days and sometimes I find a certain spot on my desk that is completely piled up with the aforementioned. When I was a child, my father used to throw the mail on the desk, and not go through it for months. Such a bad habit! Here are a couple ways to reduce the mailbox clutters:

• After bringing your mail inside and setting your things down/putting away your things from the day, take your handful of paper to the garbage/recycling pail and chuck anything unwanted RIGHT AWAY! Even if you’re not planning on going through the contents until later, get rid of that junk ASAP.
• Don’t put off going through your bills. Not only will this make it a pain in the booty to do later in the week, but it could potentially make things hard when it comes to paying your debts if you’re unaware of them.
• Keep a system. Stay consistent and make sure your significant other (if you have one is aware of the same system so you’re not doing different things with your mail. Here are a few ways!
  • Filing Folders. Be it in a filing cabinet or a letter tray, this is a good way to separate your mail into bills, cards/invites, magazines, etc.
  • Notice Boards. I like to keep my most current bills tacked to a notice board and within eye’s reach so I can remember that it’s there.
  • Calendar. I do most of my bills either online or over the phone. So, I write what bills are due on which day, file the bills and keep a system on an excel spreadsheet to keep me organized and be sure that I am budgeting right every pay period.
• After your expenses are paid for & the next month has come, file your older bills in a filing system either in your filing cabinet that you used for your file folders or an expandable organizer. This is my favorite thing to do. I have two of these: one for my bills and one for receipts. I label my expenses one by company and my receipts by month.

Do you guys have any other tips? Do you find yourself overwhelmed with mailbox clutters?

PS: Anyone need some airtools?

A lot of girls like to carry some essentials in their makeup bags for touch-ups throughout the day. I, personally, usually don’t touch up anything besides my skin & lips but I figured I would give a touch-up essential guide for those who may not know what is needed and what is not.

Many times, I see girls with a huge makeup bag loaded with things that they really don’t need to carry around. If you’re using all of the right bases for your makeup, you shouldn’t have to touch up your foundation, mascara, or eyeshadow. In fact, please don’t. Thrice-applied foundation isn’t attractive and neither is seven coats of mascara. However, powder touch-ups are perfectly acceptable and often encouraged.

Here are a few items you’ll need for touch-ups during the day:

• If you’re oily, blot films & blot powder. You more than likely won’t need to add any coverage, just a powder to soak up any excess oil
• The lip liner, lip stick, & lip gloss that you’ve chosen for your look that day. I often keep my staples in my bag, and usually all of my lip liners.
• If you MUST touch up your mascara, use one that has fibres in it like Fibre Rich mascara from MAC. The fibres will just grab onto what you’ve already got instead of clumping and making a huge mess. It’s the best touch up mascara I’ve ever used.
• Your black signature liner & some q-tips. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but black liner on the waterline runs. No matter what kind you use. Waterproof ones are best for staying power… but in all reality, it’s not “natural” for there to be liner there, so it’s only realistic that it’d smudge. Just be sure to glance at yourself a few times turning the day to wipe away smudges and prevent raccoon eyes.
• A compact mirror. Find yourself a cute one and splurge. When you pull it out you’ll feel dainty and cute!
• A travel size brush for your powder. Remember sponges are the devil!
• A travel bottle of your signature scent. Careful, not too strong!

Unless you’re traveling, there’s really no need for eye shadows, blushes, or other items to be in your bag day to day. In fact, this is how things shatter. Too much product in a bag and not enough room.

Do you touch-up your makeup on a day to day basis?

Long curly locks have been a trend for years. Hollywood’s finest stylists sure know how to make the women in the industry’s manes look perfect. So, what do you do? Be it loose curls like Beyonce’s, tight curls like Katie’s, or waves like Jessica’s here are a few tips!

Be sure to deep condition your hair at least once a week, depending on if your scalp is dry, normal, or oily. This will keep your mane looking sleek and healthy. Use a serum help keep your hair moisturized. If possible, let your hair air-dry instead of blowing it dry with a hair-dryer.

There are some great tools out on the market to use for curly locks as well! Hot rollers like the Conair Ion Shine Instant Heat Hair Setter will give you a variety of big & little curls. I’ve also had better experience with staying-power when using hot rollers rather than a curling iron. However, this takes a bit more patience and time. Learning how your hair works with rollers can be frustrating, so practice before your even to avoid a time crunch and having to figure out something else.

The newest, hippest way to curl your hair is with a round-edged flat iron. It basically is convenient and quick, combining straightening & curling. My all-time favorite tool to use for this is the T-3 Medium Duality iron. It’s quite complicated to learn the motions, especially doing it “backwards” in the mirror but the great thing is you can get wavy, curly, or tight curls from this method! The T-3 is probably the best flat iron I’ve ever used and that was even when I only used it on my short hair. I couldn’t imagine having long hair and living without this!

Thirdly, the old fashion method is to use a plain’ole curling iron. The size of the curls depends on the barrel size of the curling iron. You could have really tight, big curls by using a 1&1/2″ curling iron and 1/2″ sections of hair. Or you could have really tight, tiny curls by using a 1/2″ curling iron and 1″ sections of hair. For hair like Carrie’s a 1&1/2-2″ iron was probably used with maybe 1-1&1/2″ sections of hair. My biggest tip when using a curling iron for your barrel curls: slide the barrel out of the curl as gently as possible and move on without touching or moving the curl. Wait at least 3-4 minutes after your curl is perfect and the way you want it before running your hands through it or moving it around. The hair needs to be completely cooled down before being messed with so that it stays curly and doesn’t instantly go flat.

My favorite thing to do to my hair is curl half of it (the longest part) in these very small pin curls like Taylor Swift has here. My secret? To use a TINY curling iron with a track wrapped around it. I got this curling iron when I had really long hair my sophomore year of high school to do my own hair for Homecoming. I’ve had it since and I’ve loved every minute that I’ve used it. Since having short hair I don’t get much of a chance to use it anymore, it’s fun to use on other people.

For my best friend wedding last September, this was my main tool doing her hair on her big day. All you have to do is curl the hair in little 1/2″ sections and wrap it around the track. There are two ways to wrap it for two different looks. If you want separated, bouncy curls like Taylor has, follow the track perfectly, not overlapping any hairs on the track. If you want more intertwined curls, take a bigger chunk, maybe 1″ sections and overlap the hair on the tracks. You can find these curling irons basically anywhere, I got mine at Ulta.

Curly locks are popular on the runway, in Hollywood, and in every day life. I can’t wait to grow my hair out for the wedding so I can have beautiful curly locks! Do you have any curly locks secrets?

Like I’ve been saying, the biggest trends this season is about that pop of color. Be it in your makeup, accessories, or handbags it’s super important to turn a normal every day outfit into something completely fashionable with your selected color choice. Tashina recently wrote a post on an outfit she created using a punch of teal. I also wrote a post on my yellow punch of color - which to my surprise many many people weren’t fond of the color!

Many of times though, have I gotten a bag home (be it designer or otherwise) and thought, “what was I thinking, this totally isn’t practical!” Just because it’s cute, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you. Whether you spend $15 or $500 on a bag, you need to be sure the organization of the bag is suitable to your needs. Do you carry your phone in your bag? Is there a place quickly accessible to it? Are you going to be able to throw it over your shoulder while shopping and have 10 bags in your hands (haha I wish I had 10 shopping bags!)? Don’t waste your money, even if only a few dollars, on something just because it’s pretty to look at. You need to be sure you’ll carry it for a good amount of time and it isn’t just a “must have” because it’s trendy.

What a coincidence that Crystal just recently posted about colorful bags for Spring! But, two great minds think alike, right?

I love the feeling of new themes! This one is my favorite so far. I customized it as much as I could… made my own background. I also added my Last.FM & Twitter feeds. I also added the MyBlogLog reader feed, please join my community I’d really appreciate it! There are links on the black feed towards the bottom of the sidebar.

I want to do a “Best of The Best” section in the sidebar with links to my readers favorite posts. The ones that are most helpful that you think others would love. Basically the must-reads on the site. So I’d love your input on which entries are the greatest, in your opinion. I’m hoping to leave picture posts like The FOTD/Looks posts out, just because people can search for those.

Also! I finally put together a real ABOUT ME section. Anyone have any idea how to add other pages that aren’t included in the blog like the About Me part? I have a few neat ideas but need to know how to add more.

I’ve started tallying points for this months contest. Things are so close! Next week sometime I’ll make an update on whos in the lead and by how much. I’ve put together four packages of samples & other treats for winners of the next few contests. I’m thinking of doing a scavenger hunt of some sort for April. That should be fun, right?!

One more question: is it easy to transfer blogs? I’ve been thinking of buying a domain name to be more rememberable, I have ToshaQ.com but it’s more professional and I don’t want to lose all the work I’ve done here, can it be transfered?

Thanks to everyone who’s been reading. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you all. I’ll be updating my Blogroll tonight as well!