Alright, where are my golden girls? As our readers who wear yellow gold already know, silver and platinum aren't the only metals showing up this wedding season. Gold is making a strong return. The luxe looks are back, baby!
Gilded leaves for your crown. Dazzling tiaras & combs.
Golden Baubles
- by Erica
If you haven't heard of her yet, you will. New York wedding consultant Charmein Canton is the author of several novels and more recently, Down That Aisle In Style: A Wedding Guide for Full-Figured Women. I had the pleasure of chatting with her this week and she filled me in on some of the top wedding trends for plus-size and full-figured brides.
Quick! What's more important? Your health or your hairstyle? It sounds like a ridiculous question, but according to recent news stories it isn't. The secret is out: too many Black women aren't getting the exercise that could keep them fit because of concerns about the effect of sweat on their hair. Those concerns rule out time-savers like early morning workouts or lunchtime exercise classes while our levels of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease continue to skyrocket. Needless to say, those who cherish their hairdos to the detriment of their hearts are going to have to get over it. But in today's St. Petersburg Times fitness lecturer Antonio Williams has a few of tips:
• Walk for 30 minutes, three times a week to be healthy. To lose weight, walk 60 to 90 minutes, five times a week.
• To get the same health benefits with even less sweating, try several daily 10-minute walks or jogs.
• Wear hair extensions or braids.
• Use headwraps during workouts to help preserve styles.
What do you think? Have you given up on exercise because of concerns about your hair? Or are you someone who has found a way to do it all and is "working it"? Tell us about your experience by clicking on comments.
Tongues are still wagging over CNN's Black in America documentary. If you haven't seen it yet, it was a two-parter hosted by Soledad O'Brien last week. You can read all about it HERE and reruns have been airing every night since.
I've heard from people who thought it was great and taught them things they didn't know, like the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the Black community. But other people felt is was more of the same old stuff about how terrible it is to be African-American. Today, Oneita Jackson of the Detroit Free Press has an interesting take on the controversy in her article Black Experience Doesn't Live On My TV .
Now, what do YOU think? Was the documentary too negative? Did it break stereotypes or reinforce them?
Lion Queen?
OK, the stylist in this case obviously has some artistic talent. But as the old folks say, "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should."
--by Pocahontas
From movies to TV right down to the playground songs we learn as kids, the story is the same. “John and Mary sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First, comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes Mary with the baby carriage!” Yep. And it’s all supposed to happen just as simple as that. But what happens when Mary can’t produce the baby for her carriage that easily? Yes, I know it’s supposed to go like this: Boy meets girl. Boy sweeps girl off her feet and marries her. Then girl starts poppin’ out babies as if she was related to our nursery rhyme matriarch, “The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” But what if girl and boy try for weeks, months and years and still have no baby to show for it despite the fact that their family pesters them about when they are going to hurry up and get pregnant and reminds them often they aren’t getting any younger? Then what?
Although having a baby comes as easily to most couples as saying, “I do”, the book “A Child Is Born” by Lennart Nilsson and Lars Hamberger estimates, “that every seventh or eighth couple has more or less serious difficulty becoming pregnant.” It goes on to say, “in an estimated 40% of cases of childlessness the problem lies with the man only; in another 40% with the woman only; and in about 20 % the problem has to do with the couple.” But with so many different conditions that cause or contribute to infertility, it may be difficult to navigate the explanations especially when emotions are running high. So let’s examine the most common Dxs (diagnosis’s) broken down in simple terms.
First on the male side there is low sperm count. A man may suffer from this for a host of reasons. It could be dietary or too much caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol. It also could be a hormonal deficiency, infection or virus. Sometimes it is a more serious condition like a varicocele (blood pooling in the vein of the testicle overheating the sperm and killing them) which must be corrected surgically. No matter what the issue, it can be easily diagnosed with a simple semen analysis in an urologist office.
But what about on the female side of things? One of the most commonly diagnosed fertility problems is endometriosis. In this disorder, the endometrial tissue that typically lines the uterus grows in other parts of the abdominal cavity. It could develop as cysts in the ovary called endometriomas (which you may hear referred to as “chocolate” cysts because of their color) or anywhere else in the pelvis causing adhesions and/ or a toxic environment preventing implantation of a fertilized egg. Strangely enough, endometriosis may have no symptoms in one woman yet may cause excruciating pain in another. Unfortunately, there is no blood test to diagnose endometriosis. A laproscopy is normally used to detect it (more on that in the 2nd part of this series.)
Another prevalent disorder that may cause infertility is PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). According to Toni Weschler, author of Taking Charge of Your Fertility (2002), “what essentially happens with this condition is that the developing follicles that are normally ovulated each cycle actually remain trapped inside the ovary. After awhile they swell with fluid and turn into cysts that develop on the internal ovarian wall. If not treated, a hard shell may also form around the outside of the ovary, which of course will make a successful ovulation even less likely in the future.” There are many ways doctors today are treating PCOS although there unfortunately has not been a cure developed yet.
There are numerous other conditions that contribute to IF including tubal/pelvic issues, ovulatory dysfunction, and immunological problems. But what happens after the Dx? Now that your OB has found something causing your IF what’s next? How will it be “fixed”? Better yet, CAN it be “fixed”? In the next part of this series we will examine these questions more closely.
Although Pocahontas is not a medical professional, she endured 17 months of IF diagnosis’s and treatments before finally conceiving her first born. So she wanted to share the vast amount of information she has learned and compiled in this 3 part series with women who may have to travel the same road to motherhood.
Carla and her fiance, Khris, were married beachside at 7:00 in the morning in Duck, North Carolina. Wow. Here are the glorious pictures that resulted. 
Gorgeous!
Would you like to share your wedding pictures with us? Just let us know by sending us an email!
So, guess which former hip-hopper is now the richest man in Hollywood? According to Forbes magazine, Will Smith is now the man. He reportedly earned $80,000,000 last year. That's thanks to films like I Am Legend, Hancock and The Pursuit of Happyness (which also starred his son).
Eddie Murphy is the third highest paid actor. He made "just" 55 mil.
And don't believe the hype that Oprah Winfrey's star is falling. The self-made billionaire rests at the top of Forbes' Celebrity 100 list for the second year in a row. She made $275 million last year. Next year, she will debut the Oprah Winfrey Network in partnership with Discovery Communications.
Alright, we're just going to say it right off the top. At the risk of stepping on the toes of the "goth" and the "ultra-trendy" crowds, this is one of those trends to avoid. We're talking about the black wedding dress. It's true that several designers are sending black wedding gowns down the runway in their new collections. And yes, we know Jessica Alba did it. Here's a pic: 
But she's a Hollywood star and may have many more weddings to repair the damage. And yes, it may seem avant garde right now but what will you think when you see your wedding pictures 5 or 10 years from now. Save yourself the heartache. There are lots of other ways to show your indie bride (or anti-bride) streak. Don't let your walk down the aisle resemble a walk on the dark side.
Agree? Disagree? Don't just go away mad. Leave us a comment below!
First today, a little bit of housekeeping. Thanks to all our wonderful readers who have been emailing, Twittering (Tweeting?), and IM'ing us about how much you're enjoying the blog. We're enjoying writing it, too! Call us crazy, but we've also just started a new parenting blog called Beautiful Brown Babies. We've had the link up in our blogroll for a while but we finally feel ready to roll out the finished product. We're talking about everything from TTC to pregnancy to parenting to recalls. Drop us a line to let us know what you think! Bookmark us if you like what you see and, as always, feel free to use any of our banners. The one below is the ideal one to use for the new blog. (It looks like it's cut off, but it isn't.)
As we said, we're working on big things! There's much more to come.... 
Our friends at Wedding Things recently celebrated their ninth anniversary by giving some serious savings to brides-to-be. For a very limited time, these popular items are still being offered at a deep discount.
Favors!
