Saturday Music – With Pharrell
I love him and will be spending the weekend with him. 😍 Such a cutie. Love those billionaire boys.
Enjoy:
Snapdragon is DANG good
I grew up eating Maruchan Ramen. The saltiness was soooo good to me when I was a kid. I tried so many flavors, but the beef flavor is hard to get over. The way that I make the maruchan ramen is to never use the whole flavor pack and always pour out the water before eating. In my opinion, the only thing that the water (which would be broth with the flavor pack, if only I’d known that then) was good for, was making the noodles consumable (now, as an almost 40 something, break the noodles in the pack and toss them on a salad, akin to croutons).
I, for sure, survived pretty heavily on the microwaveable noodle variety in college before learning to cook. And by that I mean, learning to cook better. I knew how to cook a lot of things already. It is hard to get over the flavor of those at home ramen packs. I’m probably going to review a few Ra Myun (ramen) spots in Atlanta on this blog, but that is for another time. Enough about ramen, in my adulthood, I moved on to pho.
There is an amazing Pho spot out in Smyrna, but now that I use public transport, I can’t make it out there as frequently. In this absence, I have resorted to SNAPDRAGON and PHONOMENAL (a vegetarian option). These could be considered cup pho. I think that their flavors are divine, and though the broth of these two pho leave a bit to be desired, (especially if you have had the pho from Pho Hoang Long on Pat Mell road), they are still quite good and satisfying. If only I could have that lime soda too! IYKYK. Pho Hoang Long is such a hidden gem over in the Marietta/Smyrna area.
The noodles are standard rice noodles, the flavor packs are really quite good, and the bowl size makes it easy to slurp the end of the dish right on up. The pho also comes in packs similar to what many are accustomed to seeing on shelves, almost like the ramen packs but slightly larger. Just so you know, I’ve also tried the Annie Chun flavor and it didn’t rest well with my pho loving soul.
Give these a try to switch up a thrifty lunch, a lazy dinner night (cook up some baked crispy wings and top with garlic chilli crisps), and sip on some bubbly water or a nice cold Pepsi. You will not be disappointed, at all. I love adding some extra cilantro and garlic for flavor. Give it a try and let me know what you think.
This PHO is definitely NELLIEL APPROVED. Thumbs up.
Friday Listen – Lupe Fiasco Catalog Dive
To pay homage to one of my fave rappers, I’m sharing a somewhat random song from his catalog. Enjoy “Dots & Lines ”.
Happy Friday.
Why not give it a listen on new apple headphones? I was trying to wait until they released a new version (these have already been out for 5 years, however, they recently updated them in September of 2024). But I got some for a good deal – once I test them out, I’ll write a review. Here is an affiliate link coming at ya, click here: the starlight color caught my eye.
Renovation Dreams
I am so excited about my continuing renovation. I recently purchased an AKDY tub from Home Depot and I keep imaging what that new tub will look like in my home. I also need to get the updates completed on my kitchen – I’m anticipating a new, large window for the kitchen and I want to update my counters. I’ve been taking my time with looking at items but I still have not found stone counters that I have fallen in love with. I don’t want to do bright white but I might go with that – I have a lovely farmhouse sink to compliment the space. The reflective lighting will be so beautiful.
here is a list of things I’m doing this year:
- Sourcing countertops
- purchasing new windows
- getting pismo door knobs
- add more solar lighting to trees outside of home
- replace my dewalt lawn mower with a robo lawn mower
- knock down some walls in the laundry room and guest bathroom
- install privacy fence
- install parking patio
There is still so much to do but I love the house God gave me 🙂 I think the roses and the natural privacy hedge have turned into my favorites thus far. I have recently requested to join the Amazon Affiliate Program and Home Depot Affiliates. I’ll try to link to the items when I can. 🙂
Coursera – Worth it?
I have taken Coursera.org classes in pursuit of a Coursera certificate in the past. It did not yield great results after certificate completion, but I recently saw one that I think might be better career wise. At least from a programming perspective. I’m going to give it a try. Have any of you gotten their certificates and been able to advance further?
I’d love to hear any stories about how receiving these certifications have changed your lives.
quick aside – why was the data field using mental illness in Atlanta as a marketing tactic? Schizophrenia and data analytics? How does that work?
Bra Upgrades – Bare Necessities
My boobs have gotten so much bigger lately, but not my back. Dang it is hard to find size 30-32 bras in store. I mean, REALLY HARD. Why? Even online, at the major retailers, there are not many options. A while back, I tried Victoria’s Secret but no such luck – I guess that I’m not into their quality. I really am more of a full coverage, t-shirt bra kinda gal for most days (A New York and Company bralette works, too), and I used to be able to find some decent ones at Marshall’s & TJ Maxx (Calvin Klein, Nautica, Polo), but when I tried for my real size there were none to be found. I had to go online. Thankfully, I found Bare Necessities – I finally got my order in the mail a week or so ago. Yess! I think that they fit very well and they aren’t too hard too look at either. Here is a quick link to a sale they’re having right now – I got the Fituitive Bras. Such a good deal. Just wanted to put you all onto something great. 😉
Oh Grande (Cosmetics) – Lashes
Have any of you heard of Grande Cosmetics?
I heard about them via KKFit many years ago, and I’ve been using their products off and on ever since – the twins had such great results but mine seem to be stagnant. Based on my research of the products, they should work pretty well. I know that there are a lot of people that generally have issues with these products, but I didn’t. My eyes didn’t change colors and I do not have a strange line across my eyelid, nor did I develop any strange eye infections. I do believe that it is very important to be careful around the eyes, but I clearly do not have those types of issues.
Have any of you tried any other lash enhancing serums or anything that could aid in the growth of lashes and brows?
I’ve also tried MILK, Absolute New York, Rodan + Fields, Maybelline, and Milani.
I really liked the results I received at first, but is there a reason that they don’t continue to grow? I think it might have something to do with conditioning as well. I do not wear mascara. I’ll have to keep you all posted – might have to go back to using castor oil.
Here is an affiliate link to the product on Amazon. I recommend the 6 month supply – with consistency, the lashes grow very, very quickly. Regardless, I had great success with this product and highly recommend the brand’s products as a whole. Once I have my store up, I’ll link to all the ones I use.
Cain Culto
I’m really into this. I found him on TikTok a few months ago, nice to see that he is doing well. Made it on Colors. The beat is really hittin’. I’m pretty sure that he is a possible super producer in the making. Love the violin. I’ve listened to some of his other work, but it doesn’t resonate as much as this song. He has a really interesting background… I do kind of fear that these lyrics might be somewhat sacrilegious, so I may not continue to listen. I’m very open-minded, however, I do tend to steer away from listening to things like that. Check out some background on the song here.
Interesting that I like Lupe Fiasco so much, isn’t it? He is a well known Muslim…. he tends to be respectful, at least with his lyrics. 😉
Anyways, just wanted to share. I hope that Cain releases more with up beat tempos.
Here are a few more artists I like on Colors.
Btw, I said I would mostly just share about my love of @Lupe Fiasco and @Pharrell and @MichaelBJORDAN
But I do like Cain.
Here is one of my fav one shots from Lupe:
Pharrell just cause – music Sundays.
xo,
Nelliel
PayaThai.
Just spent a portion of my afternoon dining at PayaThai. This restaurant has only been open for a few months and is based in the WestSide Provisions district. I cannot say that I’m a big fan of the food, as of yet, however, I do think that the space itself is beautiful, the waiters friendly, and the Thai tea, decent. The egg fried rice and the blanket wrapped shrimp get a passing ok from me. For the more adventurous eaters, give some of the other items on the menu a try, you might be quite happy with the food.
Lupe Fiasco, I love you.
Over the last two or three years, I’ve been attempting to see Lupe Fiasco live whenever he is making public appearances. I like that he is easy to see, he does shows very frequently. however, he does not make frequent visits to the south, at least for concerts. I’ve been able to fly several times up north to Boston to see him live – in case you are unaware, he is a visiting scholar at MIT. Impressive, yes? I think so, too. (Can you believe that there are now programs emerging at elite collegiate institutions for students to study rap to and learn how to be rappers? WOW. Wow. Yeah, I’m pretty sure most of the rappers I listen to learned by listening to other rappers via the radio, or MTV, BET… the streets. But I’m not really sure… still pretty cool. I know he even visited my alma mater, but I’m not sure as to why.
In early May, MIT + LU did a free to the public concert with some of the students from MIT’s 2025 Jazz Ensemble. It was lovely. No pictures allowed, but here is one from his show with BOB back in 2023. Lupe doesn’t seem to like pictures, hard to get any anyway without the MIC in his face.
Oh well. I’ve seen him plenty.
I got to go to Arizona to see him, even got a hotel upgrade, which has nothing to do with him, but it was nice. 4 days in AZ, was super cool. Nice and relaxing but hot. So hot! I sure do wish that the FashionCitizen was still around, they were so much fun to watch and were based in AZ, at least during their height.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that Lupe often has budget friendly tickets or even free to the public events. If you can’t catch him on a solo tour, you might be able to see him with, funny enough, touring rock bands during the summer. (If you don’t know who he is, he is one of Pharrell‘s close phriends, or was. I tried soooo hard to talk up CRS on Twitter a few years back but I’ll just have to accept that it is now defunct. I don’t want lie though, I’ve done some searches for his events and they don’t always feature him. So if you’re trying to see him for the free, be careful as the event might just be about him. One example is the DMV Festival, Words, Beats, and Life, he was the first honoree to receive the Rap Laureate, but he was not able to attend the event. The program was beautiful nonetheless. Though he was not in attendance, I did have a good time staying at the Capsule Hostel near Howard University. What an experience.
I hope that one day I can get a picture with him and an autograph on sweatshirt I purchased on Mercari – this is a good place to get things if you missed out MERCH from different eras like I did. I even got one of the 1/50 tees from his ITJOTLOD time – check out the Japanese Cartoon (Lupe’s rock bank) album here if you haven’t ever heard it before.
I only have one question to ask him and he has been hard to chat with… but I’ll just pose it here:
Lupe, if you ever read this, how do you come up with your album concepts? They’re really great. As a arts student in undergrad, I struggled with concepts. I’m technical, but having good concepts is essential to making good work.
Good work. <3