She Who Conceals

Thursday, 14 December 2017

Lost Files

They say pictures never lie

They are a testimony of that divine time

Moments that I can never deny

Life is like a jewel that is sublime

Lost Files

Like a flower I've blossomed

Like Spring I've come alive

Mother Nature has seen me rise

Life is like a jewel that is sublime

Lost files

Like Angelina Jolie,

I am the star to my own movie

I've lived, I've cried, I've smiled, I'm alive...heck I'm alive

God has kept me alive

Lost files

Though life has been sublime, life has also been dark

Times where I've fallen deep into the Sunken Place,

Unable to Get Out, But...

God has kept me alive

Life is like a jewel that is sublime

Life is like a heavy crown you wear with pride

Life is like a wounded smile you try to disguise
But God has kept us alive.

Lost files.

- She Who Conceals

I hope you guys have had an amazing and blessed year as I have

How to Slay University: The Season of Adulting

Hey guys and welcome back to this beautiful space, I hope that you are feeling energised and revitalised because we have work to do! whether we are at college or university, we are on the same road to getting our degrees, obtaining our dream careers and hopefully making a great success of ourselves. As young people, we go through a lot of pressures to stand out of the crowd, to compete against each other and often times we fall into the trap of thinking that life is a "race". As a 20 year old young woman, one of the the things I'm currently learning throughout the process of this unnerving season of 'adulting', is 'How to React to the Journey of life.' Regardless of our income, social status, sex, family upbringing, etc. life is not fair on everyone and it is inevitable that we will go through life-changing obstacles that will probably define us as individuals. Therefore, the main question we should ask ourselves, is how can we still remain in control of life, still be content and most importantly, how to remain happy.

Through experience one of the things I realised is that to remain in control of life, one has to learn how to react to it accordingly. That is how you gain control. For example, college or university assignments are piling up horribly and you don't understand a single thing. So what do you do? You make sure your place of work is tidy and organised and you take the initiative to arrange various meetings with your teachers, friends etc. and you continue to strive to accomplish the assignments with a positive attitude. Remember, it's all about how you react to the stressful situations. Personally, I've formed my own formula on how to succeed during my season of adulting. It's a formula I live by day in and day out and it's a form of discipline that I want to be able to teach my children because I believe that disciplining yourself is so important when you transition from being a child to becoming an adult. I'm guessing you guys want to know a little more about my formula, well I'm here to share it with you guys. Time to take out a notebook and pen!

Rebecca's Guide to Adulting:

A Tidy Room is a Tidy Mind- There is something so therapeutic about having a tidy and organised room that makes you feel like you're above your problem. Personally, I can never begin my day with a messy and an unorganised room because psychologically, it makes me feel like the life I'm living is...well messy and unorganised to simply put it. By this straight-forward routine, I'm constantly disciplining myself that regardless of what life may throw at me, I feel like I am above it. This is great practise when you eventually have your future home that you will look after.
Prayer is key- Prayer can be a form of release when you feel like the stress and pressures of life is getting to you. I always encourage anyone that I talk to, that praying in the morning is a great way to start the day feeling positive, confident and encouraged to take on the day. Moreover, prayer enables you to give the weight that you carry unto God, he knows the pain and struggles that we go through, and all he wants us to do is to involve him in our daily lives and he will see us through it.
Look Fabulous- Although, we sadly have no control over life, we definitely have control over our appearance. I am a believer in presenting yourself in the way you see yourself. For example, I know myself in God and he is the King of kings and therefore, I come from royalty. I am a precious jewel and I will present myself as such. When you understand your worth and calling, branding yourself accordingly is something that you will come to understand when it comes to preparing yourself in line to your destiny. If you want to read more about my philosophy click here!
Positive people equals a positive environment- There is nothing better than having positive people who are like-minded and have the desire to accomplish and amount to great things in life. Evidently, the environment that you end up creating with them is so uplifting for your mind and soul. Cling unto those who will sharpen you like iron, these are the kind of people that you can learn from as they will challenge you, enabling you to reach your full potential. In Proverbs 27:17 it states that "Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend." Enduring relationships that enables you to be sharpened (to be improved) through persistence, support, encouragement, praise and even constructive criticism will be the very thing that will make you a great person. These are the friendships you should aim to have and if you don't, I urge you to leave a toxic environment.
Sit down and self-evaluate- Self-evaluation and having some sort of accountability is key to moving forward! Sit down with yourself and try to understand how and why you seem to be making the same mistakes, how your allowing yourself to stay in toxic environments etc. There is nothing worse than deceiving yourself because even your parents will not always be there to tell you about yourself. This is a quality that will help you to become wiser in life and lets face it, as new adults, we cannot be having the same mistakes time and time again.

Volia! This is the discipline that I use to survive my season of adulting, and it has been working amazingly. I want to encourage you guys to have some form of discipline that you can abide by that will help you through this transition. It is not easy and it will take time, it took me a year to identify the ingredients that would work for me and I thank God that through his help I finally created something that worked for me. I hope that you are blessed and inspired by my formula.

Until the next entry x

Editorial: Fall

To remain in control of life, one must learn how to react to it...

OUTFIT

Outfit Spec:

Sweater- Zara

Culottes- Zara

Mules- Asos

Chateau de Versailles

From Paris, with Love

Ever wondered what the Palace of Versailles is like? or wanted to get a glimpse of the magnificence that surrounds it, well here is an account of my epic experience of The Sun Kings (Louis XIV) most beautiful Palace that the world has ever seen. As a history lover and an admirer of great architecture, going to see the palace that once housed the last french monarch was a bucket list of mine from when I was a young teen. At 20, I finally made it a priority to finally see it for my own eyes and not in a documentary. It was by far the most amazing trip that I made on my travel to Paris. Oh and by the way did I forget to mention that was free!

MY EXPERIENCE

For some odd reason, I believed that the Palace of Versailles was within Paris...(I know, what kind of foolishness) Having realised that it was outside of Paris, I knew it was really essential to understand the metro as I understood it was going to be a very long journey. From the reviews I had seen online, a visit to Versailles is a whole day trip, therefore It was imperative for me to prepare and these are the things that I brought with me!

Essential Travel Kit:

Comfortable slides (Wore heeled mules)
Packed lunch (Chicken wings and fries honey *laughs)
Water
DSLR Camera
Sunglasses (essential!)
Compact powder
Lipgloss
Portable charger (essential!!!)
Earphones (essential!!!)
Perfume (optional)

With my travel kit prepared, my Mother, Sister and I were ready to take on Versailles and our trip officially began around 11 am. Surprisingly, the journey was very straight-forward, all I had to do was follow our trustee Google Maps and with a click of a finger, we were in Versailles by 1 o'clock. With the sun shining bright, my makeup and outfit popping heavily, my mood was on a high and nothing could stop me because I was now going to live my dream. However, one thing that cut my joy abruptly was the sight of the que! YES, ALWAYS THE DAMN QUES! I want to advise you guys from now, if you want to be a tourist and see the most sought after attractions, get a Paris Pass because these ques will end you before you've even gotten inside the building. (You have been warned.)

THE PALACE

After standing under the scorching, hot sun for 3 hours which basically consisted of me eating and finishing off my chicken wings and fries and rinsing my mobile battery to about 50% (mind you, I had used up all my power from my portable charger) it was finally our turn to enter the Palace. As we passed through the usual security checks and got given a map, we were off to wonder for our own amusement and what a show stopper it was.

With my camera in hand, I was lost in my own imagination, lost in the architectural beauty that made its stamp on the world. It was truly breath-taking. We went from seeing the palace art gallery, to the late Kings bedroom and with all its splendor and glory, you could envision the lifestyle of the french court and how much they really enjoyed living in the palace. I feel like I've spoken to you guys for some time now, instead of going on and rambling, please take a chance to look through the pictures I captured! I hope you guys consider visiting the Palace of Versailles.

Until the next entry x

Editorial: The Sun King

Hall of Mirrors

Can you find me?

Palace Gardens

The Louvre Vs Dior

From Paris, With Love

Hello loves, and welcome back! I am so excited to write this post because it all revolves around my 4 day trip to Paris and what I experienced during my short time there. A new series called 'From Paris,With Love' will consist of a 3 part series which will contain reviews that I would personally recommend, if you was to travel to Paris too. If you missed my last series click here and here and keep yourself updated!

Now to start things off, Paris has always been a dream city for me to travel to and I knew that I wanted to immerse myself in the city culture and of course, dress up to the nines! Since it was my first time in the city, I decided I wanted to be the typical tourist that visits The Mona Lisa, capture those annoying pictures that tourists take by the Louvre Pyramid (I'm sure you know it!) and witness the architectural beauty of The Eiffel Tower in person. You name it, I wanted to do everything and see everything!

The Louvre vs Dior

Day 2 of my holiday was dedicated to The Louvre and guys, I woke up early, my outfit was ironed and ready, breakfast...well to be honest I didn't even have breakfast. It was either breakfast or sacrifice my makeup application. Makeup won, but I digress. After being too lazy to understand the metro the night before, Uber was a God send and brought my mum and I to our destination at a speedy pace of 10 minutes. However, that didn't matter because at 11:00 am we were welcomed to a que that spiraled into infinity, we didn't even see the beginning nor the end to this appalling sight of a que. Furthermore, out of nowhere, my belly began to rumble in the most embarrassing way and that was when I believed that my day was over. (Hunger can be the worst enemy)

As we hurried out of the main square of the Louvre, trying to open our hungry eyes to any sight of food, (*coughs*) affordable food of course, my mum and I were greeted by the sweet sight of a MacDonald's sign, almost waiting for us to make our arrival. All I can remember is speed walking for my life and in my head, my stomach was screaming out 'FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!' as if it was angry at me. It was unfortunate. Long story short, my mum and I ordered our signature Big Mac Meals and we sat in pleasurable silence, taking in each heavenly bite for our renewal. After our meal, we were ready to face the que in all its glory. However, just as we were about to head back to the direction we came from, my 'Fashionista Senses' allowed me to notice a Christian Dior exhibition across the road and I was squealing like an innocent child had just seen Santa! All of a sudden the force of the universe began to redirect my feet and I made a spontaneous decision to forget the Louvre and follow Dior and honey! I did not regret it.

Dior

Stepping into the exhibition was like stepping into my own idea of heaven, a building filled with art and inspiration. It was expressed in so many ways, in the music, the aroma and even in the clothes themselves. Everything complimented each other and it really showcased Christian Dior's life and his timeless work. As a fashion enthusiast, It was an honour to witness his work in person and to step inside an environment purposely created to travel to Dior's magical interpretation of Parisian Couture. It was a day that I'll treasure forever.

Rating (10/10) : The Christian Dior Exhibition is opened to the public till the 7th of January 2018, so if you're interested, you have plenty of time to book your tickets from now! If you're a fashion enthusiast, a lover of art and Parisian couture, then this exhibition is for you. I had such an amazing experience, I left feeling so fulfilled and inspired to continue with building my own empire just like Dior did.

Forgive me for the lack of pictures, I was far too overwhelmed by the beautiful environment that I was in to think about my camera. However, I hope you appreciate the pictures I did capture. Until the next entry x (*bisous)