M’Orange Is it obvious I’ve been loving orange lately? For real, I’ve tried to stay away but I keep going back at the same time. It’s safe to say, the obsession is real. Things have been really interesting so far considering it’s a countdown till finals but that’s just by the way. I like being honest with you so I’ll share some sentiments I have been feeling lately. I’ve been feeling that my outfits are too “basic” and I would beat myself up about it cause I felt the slaying spirit was slapping me left, right, front and center when I finish getting dressed, haha… But seriously, I’ve been feeling really “minimal” lately. Clearly not colour-wise, but wearing less accessories and making my outfits as simple as possible. When I start getting stressed out about deciding what to wear, I just grab for some simple, basic pieces (cause basics are African prints’ best friends) and pull the whole look together with a leather jacket. Bless you leather jackets. These wedges are the most comfortable thing ever. I got them back in Paris and wore it Every. Single. Day. And I walk ALOT. So bringing these babies out came with bursts of joy and nostalgia. I really, really miss France/traveling and these wedges make me feel oh-so-Parisian (minus the colors) even when France is (as on now) a delicious memory… We’ll see what this summer has to offer. Enjoy the rest of your, lover and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Always, Miss LAJA
LAJA Unseen #4 Don’t forget to check out the name of this pose for the picture above on LAJAgram (@miss_laja). Enjoy! LAJA Unseen 1 |LAJA Unseen 2 |LAJA Unseen 3 The “Yeah, I Shouldn’t Have Said That” Pose The Ha! Catch Me If You Can” Pose The “Hold Up, I’m Tryna Be Sleek” Pose The “Slender LAJA” Pose The “What Did I Just See?” Pose The “My Comeback Was Hotter Than Yours” Pose “Just Another Long Hair Problem” Pose The “Stop, You’re Slaying Me Softly” Pose The “Wait, I’m Trying To Think If I Care” Pose The “Cause I Really Sleep In The Sun” Pose Nah, I Just Really Love This Photo. Ha! Always, Miss LAJA
Bloom I hope you’re loving this boubou as much as I am! It’s the perfect “I’m too lazy to pull together an outfit but I still want to look gorgeous” piece. My African maxi dress, I love to call it. Simple and chic. Happy Easter in arrier, I hope you enjoyed your day and it was filled with much love, gratitude and joy. I wore this lovely one to church for the celebration and things were different this Sunday because we held mass outside in the Duke Gardens. It was absolutely amazing and the weather was beautiful. Sunny, warm, basically LAJA weather, hahaha! However, my forehead did get quite burnt. Yup, it was that hot. There were soo many people in the garden and this has to be my most awkward (for obvious reasons) and stressful shoot till date. The photos weren’t coming out right, my camera’s battery was running low, my tripod fell down and broke with my camera mounted to it. I almost passed out. Luckily, it fell on grass so my camera was more that fine. Phew! But, you get the gist. All in all, I hope you enjoy your week and are welcoming Spring with open arms like I’ve been for quite sometime now. I’m so happy and I’m really just praying for strength and perseverance especially in this final lap of the semester. One last this, I am ecstatic that Duke won the NCAAs *sheds multiple tears* #ForeverBlue Gosh, that game had me falling off the chair and rolling on and ignoring homework. It was well worth it! Outfit Details Boubou: Custom Made Sandals: Ralph Lauren Purse: Antonio Melani Always, Miss LAJA
Doing The Most Happy New Month! I hope you had a wonderful end to the month of March. If you didn’t know, Miss LAJA and I celebrated our birthdays on Saturday and Daddy LAJA celebrated his on Monday. Woop woop for Marchian power! It’s officially a countdown till the end of the semester and the weather has finally decided to be warm and have mercy on me so I’m super excited to be styling spring and summer inspired looks on here. I’ll start with this super bright outfit of mine. I was really skeptical of wearing the blue jacket with it cause I thought it’d be too much but then I thought, why not? Orange and blue are a wonderful combo and I have seen it happen many, many times. All in all, I hope you experiment more with colors this Spring to brighten up your mood (and wardrobe) to help transition from the harsh winters. Trust me, implementing colors into your life really helps. I’m pretty pumped for Spring/Summer. I hope you like this look. Have a great rest of the week and I’ll talk to you in a bit! Always, Miss LAJA
Birthday Behavior Hey, stunner! I’m feeling on top of the world today not only because today is my 19th birthday but my site, Miss LAJA turns 2 today. I am eternally grateful to God for keeping me this far and his unrelenting mercies in my life, family, friends and projects. I’m so, so happy with where I am now especially compared to where I’m coming from. 18 was a special year, I achieved so much that I would sometimes think I was in a dream. I keep saying this but it’s crazy how time flies and how things change so quickly. All in all, I’m grateful. I went to an Italian restaurant for with my girlfriends and we ate and talked for hours. Good food (AKA pasta) and good company are two of my favorite things in this life. Starting from today, I would say turning 19, I want to be more comfortable with my body image and fully embrace myself as a woman. It sounds so serious when I use “woman” because I still consider myself a kid but loh and behold, it is the truth. I am no longer a child and for me, 18 was more about finding my way around since I started college. Things fell apart and I had to build myself back up. I learnt a lot of things about myself thanks to the college and my site, Miss LAJA. 18 was more finding out who I am, knowing my worth, learning about my strengths and weaknesses, like and dislikes etc. I feel like I have a fuller grasp of who I am as an individual thanks to the things I’ve been through and the people I surround myself with and I’m happy for this. It was a bumpy ride but it’s a great feeling. I want 19 to be a year of accepting myself, flaws, strengths and all, wholly and unapologetically; physically, emotionally, personality-wise, mentally, spiritually and the list goes on. On this journey onto a new chapter in my life, I hope this spills over in Miss LAJA and it touches you in ways that will encourage you to do the same, whether you’re a boy or girl. I wasn’t as excited about turning 19 not because I’m afraid of getting old or anything but 19 is a weird age. However, this outfit made me think twice. I loveee this outfit so much and when I was picking it out, I knew I wanted something a little more risqué and out there than usual. Yes, hun, there are days when I don’t wear ankara. My goal for my ensemble was sleek and chic. What do you think? I’ll be saving looks like these for special occasions, haha. I just had to channel my inner Beyoncé and Rihanna then add a touch of Miss LAJA. Love, love, love it! Cheers to a new chapter for Miss LAJA and Miss LAJA. Hope you’ll continue this ride with me. Happy Birthday, I’ll Always Be, Always and Forever, Miss LAJA
Spring Forth Helllloo, Spring! I can happily say I shot these photos without half freezing to death. Woop woop! Progress is being made. It’s officially Spring and it’s about time for real but I’m not going to blab about the weather like I usually do. Just know I’m happy about it. First thing first, is my hair. Yes, I have reverted back to braids. I had missed it so much and yes, it’s the same a similar style as what I had previously done (notice the braided base of the pony tail? Love it!). Honestly, I feel like this particular style of braids reflects where I am at this point in my life. Where that is exactly? Yeah, I don’t know either but I find myself going back to it so I will be wearing it till I can’t stand it anymore. I love it so much because it’s just so sleek and polished. And of course, it’s blue. *wink* Speaking of life, this is the last post I’ll be writing as an 18 year old *sheds tear*. Yes, hunnay, Miss LAJA and Miss LAJA’s birthday this Saturday! Miss LAJA turns 19… and 2! My baby will be 2 years, oh ma gasshh! *runs around like a proud mother duck* You don’t understand how happy I am. I’ve learnt so, so much. More for this site than the fact that I’m turning 19 because to be honest I’m not as excited as I’d like to be (working on that though). My friends say 19 is a weird age because you’re not 18 or 20 so you’re in the final year of being a teen and while you’re legally an adult, you’re still a teenage. Ha! I’ll save my spiel for the next post so wait for me at tha doe *tilts head* Finally onto the outfit, need I say more? Yellows, oranges, no tights and ankara? It’s quite obvious I’m ready for warm weather and of course, the countdown. Let’s hope the weather allows me. Countdown to LAJA Day, lovah and enjoy the rest of your week! Outfit Details Ankara skirt: Custom made (similar here) Top: Body Central Shoes: Charlotte Russe Bag: Dooney&Bourke Earrings/Bracelet/Ring: thrifted I’ll Always Be, Miss LAJA
Take A Break Some photos from my Spring Break last week. I don’t know where to start. First thing first, I went on beach retreat with my campus Christian ministry where we stayed in rented beach houses. It was absolutely amazing and exactly what I needed. It was a great week of chilling and sleeping and eating and not sleeping and beaching. In short, It was absolutely stunning. One of my biggest highlights was paying a visiting to this 93 year old lady who still lived independently. She does the basics like cooking, light cleaning (she has someone who comes in to do heavy cleaning each week) and she still drives! Of course within the town to places like church and the post office but being able to drive at that age is still INSANE. I was inspired beyond words. That’s some #oldpeoplegoals right there. Another one of my highlights was just staying up super late watching movies, playing games and just chatting with friends about random stuff like silly characters cartoons to relationships. Playing Jenga and cards really pushed my heart rate to its limits. Talk about tension, geez! I definitely appreciated late night or shall I say early morning conversations. It’s probably a mixture of the delirium you feel from staying up too late and just really good company. I already accepted the fact that I talk a lot a long time ago but I actually surprised myself some nights. I’d say to myself “Dayumm, Ashan-wa you actually need to shut up and chill”. I’ll just take it as evidence of a good time so no complaints here, haha. One last thing was definitely the weather because… Well, because. The odds were in our favor and it was gorgeous despite the grim weather forecasts. The sky and sunsets were magnifique I can’t explain how much I enjoyed waking up to crashing waves and a bright sunny day in the morning… actually more like 1:30pm cause that’s when I actually opened my eyes. Sorry not sorry. It was definitely a blessed week and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Now I want a house on the beach, haha! I can’t wait to share the pictures from the DukeAfrica show and talk about the experience. Gosh, it was crazy, crazy fun but till then, the interview I did with Duke a while back is finally out so check it out here! This is official my first video interview. Talk about #BlueDevilLove. Cheers to many more! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fQ-Wjp_888%5D Always, Miss LAJA
Beyond The Skyline With Spring Break coming to an end, I truly, truly feel refreshed. This week felt like a dream. There are so many things I’ll miss from waking up at 1:30pm to sleeping at 5am because I’m playing games with friends or just chatting about all sorts of things for hours. The weather was beyond stunning this week despite the dim forecasts and I can actually feel my energy coming up, for real. I know some say the sun drains them and call me crazy but I actually draw energy from the sun. Could this mean I’m secretly a plant? *snickers at science joke* Anyways, I kept things really minimal by sticking to basics, few accessories and spiced it up with my flared LAJA ankara skirt (I styled the other one here) with these lovely, lady killer, booties. Simple and chic. Really reflecting how I’ve been feeling these past few days. As the temperatures rise, I hope to soak up enough sun to zap my creativity out of hibernation. It’s happening. Slowly but surely. Have a great weekend! Always, Miss LAJA
Halters On The Beach Greetings, I hope you’re having a good week whether you’re on Spring break or not. I’m on Spring break and I couldn’t be any happier. It feels great to leave campus. I must confess, creative-wise, I’ve been soo burnt out lately mostly due to the the bi-polar weather and school but like all things, this too will pass. I’m currently on a beach retreat with my campus ministry and this is EXACTLY what I needed. Just escaping school/work to a different and more tolerable climate. I’ve been taking things easy these past few days to catch up on lost sleep and genuinely relax meaning chilling out with great people, laughing A LOT, deepening my faith and just enjoying the moment. Notice I didn’t sport my usual bold lips or flicked liner and that’s all part chilling process but I’m not sure how long I can do without the lipstick though. I already miss it, haha! The waves are gorgeous and I love falling asleep and waking up to them. Oh, there are trees everywhere and well, I really like trees. Keeping that in mind, I paired this stunning ankara halter top with matching shorts and I basically hopped around the beach much to my friend’s delight since she took most of these photos. I wore a mini dress in the same print a while back and though the water was too chilly to get in, it was nice dipping my feet and running out because they hurt for the cold, haha. I don’t like forcing the creative juices to flow because I feel my work isn’t as quality or authentic and the well’s pretty dry now but it will come back. Giving you guys my best makes me really happy so if you’re on a break, do make the most of it and relax. If not, then take some time out this weekend for you and you alone. Have a great rest of the week and I’ll talk to you in a bit. Always, Miss LAJA
Ankara Bandeau So, I took some of the extra ankara material from my different skirts (available for sale here) and I played around with it. I have so many little scraps so I joined them together and made this little ankara belt. I also used the bigger piece as a headband. Yes, the creative juices were flowing and I like to think of it as recycling. Stylish recycling. I decided to match it with this sweater turtle neck dress and my fire booties. Honestly, the fact that I could bare my arms had me crying tears of joy (no, the wind wasn’t involved this time). It was still cold (around 5-6 degrees Celsius) but with how low the temperature had been, this felt quite warm. I know it sounds crazy but I feel like Mother Nature was trying to makeup for the brutal weather last week. Some people were even in shorts, hahaha. It actually snowed again and I’m hoping this winter craze ends cause Spring Break is fast approaching and I want need my warm weather! Speaking of Spring Break, what are your plans? Mine’s at the beginning of March (aka Miss LAJA/Miss LAJA’s month) so the school workload is getting crazyy but I believe it’ll work out. I’m going of campus and I really can’t wait! There will be more info as it draws closer but till then, hang in there. Have a great rest of the week, loverr! Always, Miss LAJA