Out and About: Tamarind Hills Antigua

  This Week, My Relatives from America are back home in Antigua on Vacation, and decided to book a week long stay at Tamarind Hills. 

Tamarind Hills offers luxury staycations at beachfront properties which are just amazing. My Aunt Geraldine, being the wonderful person that she is, places my Mom and I on the guest list to stay at the property. 

I made the most of the experience and was sure to photograph some of the decor and landscale that I was lucky enough to enjoy. 

  I woke up on Saturday morning and took a dip in the cerulean blue swimming pool. The pool also has a swith that makes it "infinitize" as my cousin would say giving it the infinity pool affect. 

To give it a local flare, the pool was lined with conch shells. It looks especially wonderful when the sun is shining and it blends with the sea beyond it. 

  The house we stayed in had 4 bedrooms. Each bedroom had its own bathroom, and 2 of them were equipped with outdoor showers in addition to another inside. The bathrooms were spacious and the mirror had lights around it adding to the ambience of the area. 

The facebasin reminded me of a boiled egg. It was a most interesting shape. 

  We had access to about 3 of the houses at Tamarind Hills all of which were occupied by my family members. 

The architechture really amazed me and its really a beautiful property. Its an area surrounded by amazing beach fronts and pristine white sad. 4 beaches are in walking distance of the property and its in an area thats great for shopping ie: Jolly Harbour. 

  If i was building a house, I'd surely model my home after these properties. This post has been mostly taken over by photos to show how nice everything was. 

To rent the houses, you can book online at Tamarindhills.com and the houses have various prices. All the houses are different which adds to the amazement of the peroperties. Each house is different, with different layouts, different furniture, different designs which makes your location unique from all the others and creates a special space just for you.

I'm really enjoying my time here. And i hope you get a glimpse at paradise through my post. 💖

The Creamy Crack Rehab

This year, I found a feed on Instagram that helped me through my natural hair journey called "The Creamy Crack Rehab". Whenever i felt slightly tempted by the luster and sheen of a perm, that feed had multitudes of photos of men and women who embraced their natural hair. The name of the feed was perfect, and it did rehabilitate me from the temptation of the perm.

It provided a better appreciation for natural hair textures and some motivation for how i wish my hair to be in the future. Not only does the gallery focus on hair textures, the curator posts lovely illustrations of everyday issues faced by persons with natural hair. It's highly comforting to come to this space and see that many others faced those same twist out fails and comb breaking days that you have. It also lets you know that if these people have those rough days and haven't given up, that you should still push through.

Once again, when I'm interested in something or someone of interest, i always feel prompted to post it to my blog. I decided to get first had information instead of just my own perspectives and the curator of the wonderful gallery, Beulah Davina, kindly agreed to give me some insight into her inspiration for her masterpiece.

Here We Go:

My name is Beulah Davina and I am 22 years old. My favourite things are music, hair, photography, books and anything that involves acting or performance (theatre, films etc.) I currently live in the UK and I have a degree in Religious Studies and Theology.

I started The Creamy Crack Rehab in September 2012 because I decided to go natural but had no idea how to look after my hair. I used the Internet to research natural hair care and then I shared what I learnt on the Tumblr page. I also used the page to upload and reblog images of men and women with natural hair styles as I realised up until then that a majority of photos I had seen were of people with straight hair. I've always thought representation is important and I knew that people with natural hair weren't being represented or celebrated as much as people with straight hair so I just wanted a platform that naturals could go to to see relatable and inspirational images of women with kinky, curly and coily hair.

I started creating my cartoon illustrations almost accidentally. One evening during the Christmas holidays, I was extremely bored watching YouTube vlogs and doodling with a pen and paper. I remembered my friend had Bantu knots the week before and when she undid them she started walking around like she was Beyonce lol. I drew an extremely basic picture of a girl with Bantu knots and an image of her with curls with the caption: Naturals Be Like: I woke up like this #Flawless| When they really woke up like this.

I decided to upload the cartoon on The Creamy Crack Rehab's Instagram and Tumblr page because I thought my followers deserved a laugh, but honestly, I was worried that some people would be offended. When I uploaded it, I got a crazy amount of love and followers and so I kept creating more and more. Most of my cartoons are inspired by personal experiences or experiences that my natural friends have had.

I'm no artist, I just love to express some of my thoughts with simple illustrations. I draw my cartoons because I enjoy making people laugh and I like it when people can relate to each other. Whenever I upload a cartoon, my aim is to get at least one comment or message from somebody saying, 'this is me lol' or 'this is so true'. I think the natural hair community is amazing and I love to point out the things that make us all similar no matter how different our curl patterns or hair textures are.

Website: TheCreamyCrackRehab

Instagram: TheCreamyCrackRehab

One Week At: Cocobay Resort

This week has been a really fun week for me. I Had the opportunity to take photographs for a 4.5 star hotel in Antigua called Cocobay Resort. The photos are promotional and are to be used on their Instagram and Facebook pages. It's not permanent, as I'm only one of 2 photographers they are screening, but I do hope that I'm the successful candidate. So, I've decided to post some of the photos that I took during my one week at Cocobay Resort.

I created a font to be used for the branding of the hotel, and i put that on all the photos that i produced for the hotel. If I'm chosen, I'd produce 7 photos a week for the hotel, 5 of the guests and 2 of my choice. I'm pretty proud of the work that I've done this week and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Because I really really want this, and the funds would help me finance my law degree, as well as build my professional portfolio.

I never really post much of my photography on my blog, but I've decided to start doing so in an effort to market myself and build my brand. I've been afforded many wonderful opportunities and I'm really glad that I can add Hotel Photographer to my list of accomplishments in my short lifetime. I had to come up with unique and unusual shots of different areas at the hotel. I had to make sure that i was very nice to the guests as well and be friendly with the other staff.

I was not introduced to the photographer who I'm "competing" against for the position which makes it harder as I'm not sure how I'll do against them, but I'm hoping for the best. Hopefully my work brings them a lot more social media credits.

I'll let you guys know how it goes and if i successfully passed the trials. Keep your fingers crossed with me.