VLOG: September City Life 2020 - Officially Fall...Fitness, Natural Hair Updates, Fashion, and Gluten Free Cooking

September went by within the blink of an eye for me. I was so happy on the first day of Autumn and went to one of our local parks- this would be my first time venturing out from my home/neighborhood in about 7 months. This park is always empty, but since everyone is so tired of being indoors there were a few people there. Anyhow, even though I was only there for a few minutes a lot of inner peace was restored. I love this park in particular because of the old oak trees (I love old trees in general).

Now that Summer is officially over I am wondering what my Autumn project will be. Summer was really busy, but I picked up an unexpected project which was learning more Spanish as well as grammar and sentence structure. My husband has been learning Spanish for the last 2 years and just being around him it became really apparent that I picked up an accent as well as more words. I always watch shows that are in Spanish, but its better now because it helps him learn and retain what he is learning. It became something that we can do together and it was fun. I actually actively watched all five seasons of Jane the Virgin and learned a lot of new words (and he did too).

These are some photos that did not make it to my regular blog posts. It has been the rainiest most overcast couple of months I have ever experienced. All the way into Fall its still raining and overcast. I am amazed at how odd the weather is where I live now and its only five minutes from where I was. I am everyday, still amazed at my new home, that I moved, that we did it on our own. I am amazed that I haven't even had a chance to see what is in a small circumference of where I live now (outside of what I already knew). I am in the heart of the city of South Tampa, but we have all these back streets that I love to walk down and I cant really do that very much right now because I rarely see anyone with masks on outside. So, I started taking some car rides just to get out of the house (baby steps). I got out to do some Fall decor shopping at some point just to Trader Joe's (I did not go inside). I am definitely worried about the Fall/Winter season because I always catch a cold everyone at least one time despite all my efforts.

I took these photos right when I finally trimmed my hair. Right now we are all walking around with Covid hair". My hair has been in a bun almost the entire last 7 months with exception of a few days like when I went to my house closing. My hair is ridiculously thick now, like thicker than its been in years. I can see how doing low manipulation wash and goes and twists had thinned out my hair looking at what has grown out. I think it has probably grown out about 7 or 8 inches (my hair always grows a lot in the Summer and Fall). I trimmed two, maybe two and a half inches off of my hair and its still hip length in the front, the back is almost to the lowest part of my back now and the shape is much better. I am actually considering along layer in the front because it is naturally so straight.

On most days now, it is a lot to handle with all of the new thickness. I don't know if its the new growth and thickness or just that I needed a hair cut OR that hair has not been a priority this year, but I have not wanted to deal with it at all (and no I don't wear wigs or weaves or extensions so that isn't an option). Anyhow, the humidity affects my hair the most and it has been more humid this year, like higher than 70% most days and on the worst days higher than 86%. I am looking forward to Fall because the humidity is a lot lower and I can finally get my hairstyles to last more than 3 days.

HAULS & COLLABORATIONS:

C/O Ettika

Products C/O Avon Isa Knox Anew LX Ultimate made with peonies. Shown is a cleanser, a day cream, eye serum and night cream.

DATE NIGHTS AT HOME:

Arroz con Pollo (the rice is packaged separately).

This month I got to get a few feel good cravings out of my system. La Teresita is one of my favorite (staple) restaurants for Latin food. Its been a while since we have ordered from there and I had a taste for the Arroz con pollo and Perco Asada

Perco Asada

Frijoles

Next, we have take out from Terra Gaucha a Brazilian Churrascoria. I personally don't eat a lot of meat so when we used to do the all you can eat buffet and meat service I really was not eating enough food while my husband devoured everything in sight. Doing takeout was a good option because I just ordered what protein I wanted (the salmon) and you pay 25.00 and get two sides vrs if you dine in its 50.00$ for all you can eat service. The only downside is the food tastes a little different from sitting in a container building up condensation.

Not gluten free- polenta fries

Picanha

Salmon

Gluten free Brazilian cheese bread

FITNESS: I am very happy to say I have worked out (yoga) constantly despite the lack of motivation. I did get glutened twice this month unfortunately which affected my working out and overall diet. I will update this post with some photos. It seems like every Fall I kind of go through this two month period where I am not in the mood to do fitness photos. I noticed this last year, its one thing to be motivated to work out, but another to be motivated to do photos while working out; its tedious.

GLUTEN FREE MEALS COOKED BY MYSELF- RECIPES AVAILABLE BY REQUEST IF NOT POSTED.