Ello Lovies!! Ask me why for almost 6 weeks I’d had it in my head that I was turning 33 years old only to realize 2 days before my actual birthday I was indeed entering the big 34?!!? Blaming it on short term memory loss but the truth is I wasn’t paying attention with life happening & furthermore my 33rd year has been so amazeballs I unconsciously wanted to relieve it again.☺

Turning 3.4 has its advantages though & I’ve broken them down in 5 points of self realisation like self confidence, time management, priorities, self purpose & lastly happiness.

  1. Self confidence – Feeling comfortable in my own skin has taken me forever to get too but after actually turning 33 I found my way to accepting my body & realizing that I am a happy & healthy size 10. Working out a few times a week for my hereditary Type one diabectic condition & blood monitoring is mandatory (for myself) & so is eating healthily but also having cheat days is a must for my sanity!????
  2. Time Management- Wasting my time with people who aren’t reciprocal of the effort put in to maintain friendships are a no no unless their family or live across another continent. Its important to surround yourself with happy, warm & genuine people who inspire you & help lift you up. Those unhappy, miserable debbie downers are a waist of time so drop the dead weight!
  3. Priorities- This is a given but creating lists that help me prioritize my responsibilities in an orderly fashion is so important. My family come before anything else, my health, friends & work all in that order.
  4. Self Purpose- After letting go of my dream to be the next Beyoncé, (Joke! No really) Actually letting go of the fact that I wasn’t going to be a famous singer I found my second calling in fashion styling & now with the world establishing influencers as their “leaders” in generating business I’ve jumped on that band wagon & found my true path as a Style & Lifestyle blogger! It’s a lot of work but so much fun!??
  5. Happiness- is the key to leading my best life & we all want to be happy. You have to actively think about being happy & stay that way as its so easy to be sad or mad so unless there’s a reason BE HAPPY!!

I hope these pointers have helped you in some way as they have me. They pertain to every age group to a certain extent & are certainly something to consider…

The next chapter brings us to fashion & this week I’m portraying another spring trend that is called CheckMate. This trend is literally gingham, a reinvented geometric pattern that looks like a chess board however in fashion there are a myriad of colors in conjunction with the checkmate trend. I personally can’t get enough of this trend so here are some fun ways to style the CheckMate trend.

LOOK 1:

Look 1 is all about portraying the business side of the checkmate trend & giving it a little edge. We have this suiting by Sara Battaglia checked double breasted jacket $1110.00, Valentine Garavani rockstud polka dot leather ankle strap pumps $1045.00, Saint Laurent medium leather crossbody bag $1790.00, Majorca pearl and silver stud earrings $75.00 & Celine 56mm exaggerated cat eye black sunglasses $460.00. We call need that power red lip color to compliment suiting so I added Laura Mercier velor extreme lippie $28.00 & lastly Givenchy noir nail polish no.4 $24.00.

LOOK 2:

Look 2 has this delicious Tartan “checkmate” skirt by Johanna Ortiz $1650.00, Cotton citizen classic v-neck t-shirt, Aquazurra all tied up floral sandals $725.00, Alice & Olivia Sally rainbow Pom Pom tote $325.00 ?? I paired that with Roberto Coin diamond 18K yellow gold ring $1900.00 & everyone needs a little color so I added Clarins limited edition bronzing which is to-die-for, Dolce & Gabbana 63mm round sunglasses $590.00 & lastly Vita Fede mini titan cuff in rose gold $2400.00.

LOOK 3:

Look 3 is a more playful daytime look! I teamed this off-the-shoulder checkmate blouse by Petersyn $288.00 with Cotton citizen high rise split skinny white denim $295.00. A.L.C baby Charlie leather fanny pack $595.00, Rebecca Minkoff Arden wrapped silk floral slides (on my wish list!?) $125.00. All paired with the Gucci fashion show dark Havana crystal mask sunglasses $1380.00, John Hardy chain diamond & blue topaz stud earrings $1300.00 & David Yurman silver cuff bracelet with diamonds $2400.00.

For my curvy ladies look 2 would be my option as it’s more flattering, caters to the curves whilst being playful at the same time. Both looks 1 & 3 are like night & day catering to business with one look & pleasure with the next. For my Diabectic pump/medical device users both looks have pockets so there is storage for your devices however with look 2 it may be a bra storage or an alternate way to store your medical device deal!

Cheers for checking out my blog post & stay tuned for more spring trends in the upcoming weeks!

Cheers & Best Wishes,

Afi Like Taffy A.L.T.