Crop Over in Barbados!

Hey all! This is a post on Crop Over. A bit late considering the big events are going to be taking place all this weekend, but I really wanted to write this post to give you a bit of insight into Crop Over, The Sweetest Summer Festival!

Crop Over is a month long festival celebrated from 1^st July until 1^st or 2^nd of August. Traditionally a harvest festival, Crop Over dates back to the colonial period when Barbados’ main industry was  Sugar cane production.  At the end of the sugar season, there was always a huge celebration to mark the end of another successful sugar cane harvest, hence the name Crop Over. The festival featured singing and dancing and other traditions included climbing a greased pole, feasting and drinking competitions.

As the sugar industry in Barbados declined, Crop Over also lost its splendour and by the 1940’s, the festival was terminated completely. However, Crop Over was revived in 1974 and other elements of Barbadian culture were infused to make the extravaganza that exists today.  A festival that now attracts thousands of people from across the globe and is the main event of any Bajan calendar. Crop Over- The Sweetest Summer Festival!

The festival begins with the Ceremonial Delivery of the Last Canes. The final sugarcane crops are blessed and a special Gala accompanies this event, where the Crop Over season is officially deemed open. Local performances by singers, musicians and dancers are showcased at this event. Queen’s Park where it usually takes place, is also prepared for local vendors to show off and retail their craft.

Some of the notable events are:

·         Pan Pun De Sand

·          Pan in the City

·          Junior Calypso Monarch

·         Kiddies Kadooment

·         Folk Heritage Concert

·         Gospel Concert

·          Sweet Soca Monarch and Party Monarch (collectively known as Soca Royale)

·         Pic-o-de-Crop Finals

·         Cohobblopot

·         Bridgetown Market

·         Foreday Morning Jam

·         Grand Kadooment

Grand Kadooment is the biggest, most colourful street party in Barbados and signals the end of the Crop Over season until the next year.

Photo is courtesy of http://www.carnaval2010.org/.

A day of unbridled merriment played out in costumes depicting the fantasies of the world. The ‘jump’ is the final activity of a season that makes Crop Over, The Sweetest Summer Festival!

Photos:

Crop Over Opening Gala & Ceremonial Delievery of Last Canes 2011

Junior Kadooment 2011

Grand Kadooment 2010

For more Information you can read more on these websites:

Official Website of Crop Over

Festival’s Calendar of Events

Barbados.org Crop Over Info

Like Crop Over on Facebook!

Coming Soon to this blog and more!

Hey all, I feel like I have posted on my blog for a good while! Hope you’re all doing lovely and enjoying your summer!
Recently I have had some ideas to keep my blog and YouTube channel more creative and consistent. Here are a couple of the ideas I came up with.

• Asian Drama of the Month: I had actually started this on my channel but I had forgot.. and then I couldnt pick a drama each month I did remember. BUT I promise I will try to keep this consistent starting in August. Still trying to figure out if I should do it on my blog or on my YouTube channel.

• Nails of the Week or Month: This I am really going to try for because I like seeing nail polish on my nails, but I’m lazy to paint it on my nails because I have such a hard time painting -__-. Anyway, I’ll try what I can.

• Celebrity-Inspired Make up looks: I have always loved to watch these kind of videos and I would really like to try them as well. It’s amazing how gurus are able to create such a close look to the original. I definitely need suggestions for looks to try out, so don’t hestitate to send me some pictures or links.

• Current Festivals in Barbados: I would like to highlight the happens in Barbados so people know what my island has to offer, I also think its fun to watch vlogs, so this should be interesting. I was going to make a blogpost on Crop Over soon, that should be up by the end of the week and should be a really long post giving a taste of the festival, the music, some basic information etc.

• Favourites of the Month: This one basically speaks for itself, I’m going to try to have new products that I liked to use during that month. Sometimes I’m sure the products will be the same, but we’ll see how it goes.

Think that’s all for now everyone, any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thank you all!

XOXO

Green with Envy! The Green Smokey

Hey everone, I filmed this make up tutorial and would love for you to check it out when it finally uloads to YouTube! Here’s a bit of a preview!

I woke up on Sunday with this idea in my head and I decided to try it out before I made a video on it. It actually came out pretty good considering it is green, not one of my favourite colours, but I really do think it looks beautiful here.

On Tuesday, I filmed the tutorial but my camera did something wonky and deleted the file from the computer, when I was adding importing another video (which you’ll actually see quite soon). I wore Boots Botanics lipstick in Comfrey during the first video, however when I came to refilm on Wednesday, I could not find that lipstick, so I used a more red lip colour. For this look, I think a more subdued and natural lipcolour is better as it leaves room for the  eyes to be admired. So if you try this out I suggest a natural or nude colour.

I realised this look also looks a lot more smokey in real life than on camera, but it might be my camera settings, so I’ll have to figure that out.

What I used for this look: 

• Botanics Soothing and Calming Eye Base
• Boots No. 7 Eye Mousse- Lilac
• BH Cosmetics 88 Matte Palette
• KleanColor Shimmery eye palette- moss green
• Starry eye shadow palette- bright shimmery green
• Black Kohl liner
• Botanics Lash Defining Mascara- Black Brown
• Avon automatic brow pencil- Tawny
• e.l.f Radiance Blusher- Flushed
• e.l.f. Luscious Liquid Lipstick- Ruby Slipper

Seriously my brows…

XOXO

30 Day Song Challenge 25-30! Final DAYS!

Finally, I’m at the end of this series, it took me forever, I’m sorry, but I hope you enjoyed it!

Day 25: A song that makes you laugh
For Trinidad Carnival 2011, there was this song called “Wine to the Side” and the story told by Benji is hilarious. I cannot help singing, dancing and laughing along with this song.

Another one is actually from Barbados, Crop Over 2011 “I carry my Sheep in Town”. Totally hilarious story, the guy (Stiffy) didn’t know his girl friend was a sheep! HAHAHAHA!

Day 26: A song that you can play on an instrument
I can actually play piano, but I don’t know any really fun songs. I can play parts of Asian drama themes and I know a bit of classical music that I had learnt for exams. This classical piece is one of my favourites.

Day 27: A song that you wish you could play

I always wished I could play Alicia Keys’ “No One”. I had actually started to learn it, but it’s pretty hard, or I’m a noob.

Day 28: A song that makes you feel guilty
I think this is a hilarious question actually. I had to think hard on this one. I don’t think is this all the relatable to me, but I really like Rihanna’s “Unfaithful”.

Day 29: A song from your childhood
I remember the days of Primary school dancehalls and hearing this, Lil Rick’s “Dollar Wine”.

Day 30: Your favourite song at this time last year
There’s a lot of Lil Rick mentioned in these song posts, and here’s another one to add to that list. “guh Down” by Lil Rick.

Saturday Shopping Trip

Saturday Shopping Trip by ChrisAmor featuring floral scarves

 Hey all a quick post before I go to bed. For those going shopping in the morning here’s a quick outfit to keep you comfy and cool throughout the day!

XOXO

Minty Nails (NOTW)

Hey all, I painted my nails today and I liked the outcome much more than usual, so I decided I’d post some pictures of them. It’s really nothing fancy, but I really liked the colours. I can barely try out designs  furthermore paint my nails, usually I’d try something and it would fail and I’d just remove all of the polish and be depressed about it for a bit. Then I wouldnt actually paint my nails for the next week or two.

When I paint my nails, I usually get lazy about taking off the polish and keep putting it off until it looks so bad I have to take it off. I cannot say this kind of post will be a regular one because I really suck at nails. ANYWAY, enough babbling on my horrid nail artistry on to the actual post.

I was inspried to do this by juicystar07( youtube), Blair Fowler who had been wearing some Essie nail polishes from the Brazilliant collection and I really liked the combination. Luckily enough I had very similar colours!

On My Nails:
e.l.f. Nail Polish in Mint Cream and Navy Blue (on bling finger)

I can honestly say that this came out well, though it’s nothing fancy. I am pleased with the pigmentation of the navy blue polish, but the mint green is a bit sheer so 2-3 coats were needed. Anyway the end result is nice and I really like it.

Tell me what you think!

XOXO

30 Day Song Challenge 20- 24

Day 20: A song that you listen to when you’re angry

I really can’t think of many songs when I get angry, but I’ll choose “Ring the Alarm” by Beyonce because it’s just one of those angry songs. Strangely enough Beyonce has tons of these angry woman songs hahah.

Day 21: A song that you listen to when you’re happy

“Lollipop” by Mika Bomb, that’s as much as I can say. When you hear it, you’ll understand.

Day 22: A song that you listen to when you’re sad

“Invisible Man” by Son Dam Bi. It’s a song of how she feels without him in her life because he is Love. The song is slow and beautiful, I can’t help but to listen to it when I’m sad and sing/hum along.

In coffee it’s sugar
And with computers, it’s keyboards
When it rains, it’s umbrellas
And to me, it’s you

Lyrics

Day 23: A song that you want to play at your wedding

This is actually really hard, there are plenty of songs I’d probably want to hear on my wedding day, and by the time I actually get married there’ll be tons more. At the moment, I’m loving “Love Song” by Adele. It’s so sweet 🙂

Day 24: A song that you want to play at your funeral

I would like to play “Any Other World” by Mika Bomb at my funeral because it is a reflective solemn song and I think you could listen to it with hope.

Nauty Business

Nauty Business by ChrisAmor featuring slimming tops

Hey all, once again I’ve been outfit making haha.
I showed this outfit to Ashley and she asked me if the skirt is fitted. Now if this skirt is anything what I think it to be, it is somewhat fitted but with room to manoeuvre, not exactly a pencil skirt. So that it gives a little flow without being too “woah I have to hold my skirt down all day” and yet still fitted enough not to keep you steamed during the humid summer days.

This is a nautical-inspired business outfit. I chose to tuck this bright red flowy blouse into this gorgeous striped pencil skirt for very put together look. The dark handbag accentuates the skirt while the nude pumps keep this look from being too dark and extend the legs for days! For the business woman who wants to look professional yet chic and cool in the summer, this look is perfect.
I really like the nude platform pumps featured here, Louboutins, I could probably never afford them, but they’re great too look at aren’t they?

What do you think of this outfit? Love it? Leave it? Change those shoes? Would you wear it? Tell me what you think below in the comments!

XOXO

30 Day Song Challenge 15- 19

Goodness me, I completely forgot this… So I will try to finish it as quickly as possible. 4 or more songs a days sounds good to finish this up.

Day 15: A song that describes you
A song which describes me, that’s hard because I don’t exactly know how to describe myself. Ke$ha’s “We R who We R” will have to suffice. That’s really fun too, because I got Jesus on my neck-a-lace and that glitter on my eye!

Day 16: A song that you used to love but now hate

I remember when I was younger and really like Kissed by a Rose by Seal, then as I got older I realised I really didn’t like the lyrics. They really sucked to me. The beat is still nice and I can still find myself singing it. But I actually don’t like this song.

Day 17: A song that you hear often on the radio

Since it is currently Crop Over in Barbados, this would have to be WORK by Lil Rick. The song speaks for itself, it’s addictive and I understand why they play it so often.

Day 18: A song that you wish you heard on the radio

Ring Ding Ding by SHINee, but the only way it’s hear that is if I was in some Asian country like korea, because they’re a South Korean Boy band. This song is so addictive as is the dance.

Day 19: A song from your favorite album

Definitely a Lady Gaga song from her second album, the Fame Monster, TELEPHONE! I absolutely love that, I could see myself playing that if I were annoyed and getting super happy afterwards because it’s about something bad (being ignored) but it’s very funny the way she points out to him that she just doesn’t want to talk, she’s busy doing things that make her happy such as dancing.

Breezy Summer Day

Breezy Summer Day by ChrisAmor featuring chiffon tops

Hey all, I’m trying out Polyvore, and  putting together a few outfits that I’ve thought up. I think this is quite an easy option to test out looks with out actually buying clothes, or having the hassle of not liking an outfit when it’s finally put together.
This is the first outfit I’ve put together and I’m calling it a Breezy Summer day as it is a very easy and effortless look. I got my inspiration from a few clothing items I stumbled upon while shopping recently. These are the closest things I can find to them. The top is flowy and light-weight for the hot summer, and the patterned shorts is the perfect summer punch. I added peach Espadrilles for a more summery feeling and a wicker basket styled bag to tone down all the colours. Sunglasses are definitely essentials for summer, so I added those as well.

Don’t forget to tell me what you think of this outfit in the comments, what would you change about it? Would you even wear it? Try your hand at creating some outfits too, I’d love to see them!

XOXO