Spring Persona

Spring season definitely brings out the ultra femme in women. Case in point , these two.

 VH-1's Lala Vasquez struts to dinner in Hollywood. So where is she going? A. Eva Longoria's restaurant, Besos in Hollywood. She is also currently taping a reality series for her impending nuptials to Basketball star, Carmelo Anthony.

Sexy Amber Rose at the Maxim Hot 100 Party last night in NYC

Janet plays mother to Michael's children

If you've been paying attention to the Michael Jackson Estate battle in court, it appears to be a bit much for most people.Between the ongoing criminal case against Dr. Murray and the Probate case,  Notorious B.I.G. was definitely on to something when he coined the phrase  " Mo Money Mo Problems".

 

While busy penning her autobiography 'True You', she's also become the primary caretaker of her late brother, Michael Jackson's children. Thanks to minor scuffle amongst Katherine Jackson's other grand children with the sheltered scions of Michael Jackson. 

Urban Outfitter's good deal

Only less than a month away from summer, we can only imagine the anxiety most women feel. Summer is a time to bare it as much as much possible. I opt out of air-conditioner during the summer months. Must have something to do with my deep desire to enjoy all that summer offers.

Beaded Strappy Surplice Dress UrbanOutfitters

My list for Sexy for Summer Campaign entail loads and loads of sexy items. And for under $50, Urban Outfitters can contribute to your soon to be closet full of sexy rompers, strappy dresses, short shorts, and you still have money to grab a bite on your Sexy for Summer shopping trip.

Kimchi Blue Hemstitch Camisole Urban Outfitters

Strapless Skirted Romper 

so fab and sexy .

Salma Hayek, sexy mommy

Just last year , Selma Hayek created a major buzz in Sierra Leone when she offered to breastfeed a hungry Sierra Leonian baby. Who,ironically,  was born on the same day as her daughter. wow! Selma is not only beautiful but incredibly grounded.

 Gucci Premier Silk Bourdeaux Georgette gown

It should come as no surprise to us that, after generating yet another buzz , for her choice of Bourdeaux silk red red gown at Cannes Film festival last week, she donated it to the J/P Haitian Relief Organization. Selma is trailing  closely to modern-day Mother Teresa, Angelina Jolie when it comes Goodwill.

We love you Selma!

Shoes! shoes and more shoes!

A shoe can make or break an outfit. Public opinion implies that most women would love to have a closet full of shoes like Imelda Marcos. chin ching! Unless, you are Ivanka Trump, Nicole Richie, Marla Maples ( Mrs Ex Donald Trump), Oprah Winfrey, Kimora Lee Simmons, you do have to keep a close eye on your checkbook. It's the recession. I can almost hear the sighs .

Here's a list of some bad ass shoes , I mark necessaire in every closet.  Recession or not, a woman still needs to feel sexy in her shoes.

 Round Toe Latisse Pumps

 Miu Miu Ankle Strap peep toe

Miu-Miu Snakeskin

Miu Miu peep toe pumps

I love suede and I have no problem with the net design of some of these shoes. It's so carefree and solid.

Miu Miu patchwork sandals. 

Escape to Ibo, Mozambique | Africa - Times Online

  by Christina Lamb

I had been shot at by the Taliban and wanted to go somewhere very far away and quiet.
Ibo island, in northern Mozambique, was both those things. It took almost two days to get there from our doorstep in southwest London, and there were no cars, no banks and, oh bliss, no web cafes. It was so quiet that about the most stressful incident was a standoff with a goat. I had wanted to sit on a stone bench in the shade of the flame trees in the main square, but the billy had got there first and had no intention of moving. Hardly the end of the world.

Ibo felt like a state of mind rather than a place.
It did not seem quite real, particularly in that grassy square of abandoned colonial houses in ice-cream pastels. Their grand size and wrought-iron terraces and lampposts suggested prosperity. But the ironwork was rusted, the walls pitted with black mould, and fig trees growing through them.

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Ibo’s wealth was based on trade in slaves and ivory, and the island’s graves tell how, in centuries past, it attracted the Chinese, Arabs, British and Portuguese. It felt as if time had stopped since the Portuguese left abruptly in 1974. Since then, Ibo’s population has fallen from 37,000 to fewer than 4,000.
That it was once thriving is clear from the large whitewashed church of Nossa Senhora do Rosario in the square. Today, as most of the remaining population is Muslim, its main congregation is a colony of fruit bats. In the vestry, candlesticks and brown-skinned wooden saints gather dust, while its graveyard
 of falling headstones, including those of 15 children, speaks of tragedy and disease far from home.
As yet, Ibo has no written history, but its crumbling walls seemed peopled with the ghosts of grand parties of days gone by; the Sundays when men in tall hats and women in big skirts came out of church and sat gossiping on the benches; the amorous Portuguese bishop driving the only car on the island.


Not all the stories are in the past – islanders talk of spirits haunting the fort and the small neighbouring island, where an old German widow and her son live alone raising cows.
Apart from the church, the grandest building on the square is the Alfandega, or Customs House, pink-painted with ornate iron lattice along its roof. Inside, in a vague attempt at tourism, it had been turned into a tourist office. The unmanned display consisted of an elephant skull, an old dining chair with a label reading cadeira usada pelos portugueses – chair used by the Portuguese – and a table laid out with a few coffee beans.
Much more interesting was a back room where we found the archive: shelves crammed with large ledgers of ships, yellowing pages, and a rusted old typewriter, which fascinated my seven-year-old son, who’d never seen one except in Tintin books.


Ibo’s heyday was in the late 18th century, but then came the abolition of slavery and, in the 1900s, the development of modern ships that no longer needed to stop off so often for water and supplies. Today, there hasn’t been a postal service for years. There are rumoured to be two television sets, though we never saw them. The island doesn’t have a single high school.

As we came out of the customs building, a woman was wandering up from the beach carrying fish on strings. A dhow had just come in with the morning catch and this was lunch. Life on Ibo is governed by the tides. Boats go out early in the morning at high tide, or what the locals call maji-mwingi. This is when the ocean rises enough for the fishermen to be able to sail their dhows to the fishing grounds and traders to guide their vessels to the mainland through the mangroves.

ILHA DO IBO is one of a string of 32 islands that make up the Quirimbas archipelago. The remoteness that is part of its charm means it is not easy to get there. We flew overnight to Johannesburg then on the next day to Maputo, from where it is another five hours north to Pemba, gateway to the Quirimbas. There, the adventure really begins. We climbed into a rainbow-painted, six-seater aircraft, like a toy plane, for the 30-minute trip. As we headed out over the Indian Ocean, we could see small islands dotted with coconut palms and deserted white beaches, and coral reefs easily visible through clear turquoise waters.

Ibo is tiny, a mere speck in the ocean at two miles long and two miles wide. The airport is miniature, just a small white-stone platform with Ibo painted on it. Our plane could only land on the small grass runway after children had chased away some goats.

We were met by Kevin, a Zimbabwean, who, along with his wife Fiona, runs the only lodge on the island. He loaded us and our bags into a tuk-tuk (there are no cars on Ibo – in fact, there is little of anything except fresh fish) and off we went. Ibo Island Lodge comprises three colonial buildings on a grass strip of palms and frangipani trees overlooking the sea. The houses have been lovingly restored to create a haven with most of the luxuries of modern life and none of the stresses. The rooms have four-poster beds, ceiling fans, power showers and a scattering of silk cushions in calming turquoise and aqua.


Kevin and Fiona met in 1993 in England. They decided to spend a year travelling through Africa in an old Bedford truck and were lured to Mozambique by the Bob Dylan song of the same name: “I like to spend some time in Mozambique/ The sunny sky is aqua blue/And all the couples dancing cheek to cheek./It’s very nice to stay a week or two.”


The sky may have been aqua blue, but the country they found was just coming to the end of a brutal 20-year civil war, and the roads were all broken and full of landmines. However, if you could get to them, the beaches were incredible. I was there at the same time, reporting on peace negotiations, and was so taken by the palm-fringed white sands and the most delicious prawns I had ever tasted that I almost bought a beach with two friends from the UN. It’s a decision I have often regretted.

Shrimp Alexander with Beurre Blanc

Appetizer anyone?

Shrimp Alexander with Beurre Blanc
Excerpt from Morton Cookbook

This can be a main course, an appetizer, or finger food at a cocktail party, with or without the Beurre Blanc. When I went to Germany recently for my sister's birthday, I carried frozen shrimp in my suitcase so that I could make this for the party. Everyone loved it. Make sure the butter is warm when you dip the shrimp in it. Wine recommendation: Chardonnay, Chablis, or Pinot Grigio.

 Morton Cookbook

Serves 6

18 fresh large shrimp (8/11 count), shells on
1 cup warm Clarified Butter
1½ cups Alex's Bread Crumbs
1½ cups Beurre Blanc
3 lemons, halved, for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

2. Peel the shrimp as far as the tail; leave the tail shell intact. Devein the shrimp and rinse well. With a small, sharp knife, cut open the shrimp along the vein line approximately two-thirds of the way through the shrimp.

3. Put the warm melted butter in one shallow bowl or deep plate and the bread crumbs in another. (Glass pie plates also work well.) Dip a shrimp in the butter and let the butter drip off the shrimp. Dip the shrimp in the crumbs and press the crumbs on the shrimp so that it is completely coated. Put the shrimp on a cutting board, cut side down, and press slightly to flatten and form a base so that the shrimp can stand upright. Bring the tail over the shrimp and insert the point between the tail fins into the thick end of the shrimp. Repeat with the remaining shrimp.

4. As each shrimp is prepared, set it, cut side down, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Pour any remaining butter over the shrimp. Bake the shrimp for 12 to 13 minutes, or until cooked through and the bread crumbs are crisp and lightly brown.

5. Spoon ¼ cup of Beurre Blanc on each of six serving plates. Top with three shrimp and garnish each plate with a lemon half.