Today, I (Visionary Bri) want to tell you about this abso-freaking-lutely awesome company, Diva Dreads.
Are you interested in dread falls? I am. I love the look of dreads, but I also love the feeling of running a brush through my hair and massaging my scalp, so I'm just not ready for the dread commitment.
I found those videos on YouTube. You know the ones. "Make your own yarn dreadfalls!" Well, I bought two things of yarn and got to work. For a week, I dilligently made my dread falls, excited that I'd soon have an awesome hair piece to rock.
But I was sorely disappointed. I'm sure that if you're trying to make
them for fun colors, they're okay. But the final product looks less than
stellar.
"But I wanted 'em to be beautiful. . . "
After doing some research, I came across a wonderful company out of
California called Diva Dreads. Looking at their site, I sent them an
inquiry email immediately. I think that this has been one of the
absolute best hair decisions I've ever made. Diva Dreads far surpassed
my expectations, as a company.
All their dreads are hand-made by a
mother and her two daughters. Send them a picture of your hair and they
custom blend colors to match and compliment your real hair. And how
lucky am I? Diva Dreads sent Visionary Bri my very own custom dread falls to
review.
Now I'm one stylin' chicka and I want to wear my new dreadfalls
everywhere!
This is the picture I sent for color matching.
Now, here's a picture of the dread falls Diva Dreads made for me. Notice all the different tones and colors that make these dread falls just *pop*!
See those pretty orange flowers? Those were included!
Somehow, I expected the dreads to be stiff, but these aren't. They feel and move just like my natural hair. Do you see the beads that Diva Dreads put on? Those are handmade limited run beads and all the beads that Diva Dreads uses are. They look like aged brass and they're just so neat! The ends of the dreads taper off like natural hair and look astounding both up close and far away.
I'm a big fan of using faux hair in fashion and I own several pieces. All the top bellydancers in the US are using Diva Dreads for their falls and they're the hands-down best hair accessories I've ever worn.
Another cool thing? When your purchase your own dread falls from Diva Dreads, they're guaranteed for life! If you wear them to a festival, dance with them in or go to Burning Man and they get dirty or become loose? Just send them to Diva Dreads and for $10, they'll clean them, tighten them and send 'em back to you! I have never heard of another company that does this and it's really great to know that Diva Dreads is serious about and helpful with maintaining the beauty and quality of their products.
I can not rave enough about this company. So stop on by their site and get yourself a brand new beauty product that you'll love and will last you for the rest of your life. Heck, get 5 or 6 in different colors (they come in the whole rainbow) and tell 'em that Visionary Bri sent you! I know that I'm going to be getting some brown ones with purple in them, in the future.
Now, for the absolute best part. Go and "like" Diva Dreads on Facebook. Send 'em a message saying where you saw this review. Order from their site and tell 'em Visionary Bri sent you, or even just email them and tell them how awesome they are. Diva Dreads has agreed that, if we get enough of a buzz going, they'll do a giveaway and one lucky reader will a set of CUSTOM dread falls for their very-own-self!
That's right, loves. Now, get out there and spread this post. Put it on Reddit. Tweet it. G+ it. Share it on Facebook. Put it in an appropriate linky. Let's get the buzz of this Visionary Friend going! I really would love to run this giveaway, so get to sharing, my lovelies.
And don't forget that we're all Visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel!
I'm not sure why mandalas and line work have been coming out so much in my art, as of late. Still, I know enough to go with what I'm being "drawn" to create. My visual work is becoming more about enlightenment, earth connection, and the divine feminine with a tribal feel. I love where my visual art is taking me.
Also, since some of my readers have expressed interest in owning some of my visual art, I'll be including PayPal buttons where you can order a framed print of whatever piece you like, to have and be your very own. All prints will be $15 plus a little bit for shipping. All prints are framed when they're send to you!
I also added a "buy a print" button to Medicine Mask Reversal. I hope you enjoy, my lovelies!
My lovelies, I want to share this video with you. This man survived a plane crash. That, in and of itself, is amazing. What's more amazing is what he said that it taught him that we can all learn from.
Dearest ones, in my hometown bar a couple of months ago, I sat across from a man and had a beer with him. This sounds mundane, but it was far from that. This man, I graduated high school with and, in a town with only 3 stoplights, that's big. It means that we grew up our entire lives together. We saw each other grow and change.
In high school, I was very aware of social strata. I was a band geek. This man, he was a jock. In our high school, those two cliques don't talk to each other. They keep their distance because, most of the time, it was bullies vs. bullied.
This man, he'd never done anything to me, personally, but in our entire school lives of knowing each other, I don't think I said more than 3 sentences to him. In the interest of forging a new connection, I greeted him with a smile. We each bought our beers and we sat down to talk.
Conversations like this always come down to, "What are you doing, now?" That question is so hard for me to answer. It's not cut and dry. It's not short and sweet. The answer is long and I never feel like I fully describe what I do and what occupies my days.
"Well, I'm disabled." I tell him. And I tell him all about Systemic Lupus and chronic pain and what all of that entails. I tell him about the days I can't get out of bed. I tell him about all the doctors and how, at 31 years old, they're using phrases like, "the quality of life we can give you." I tell him that there is no fix and my prognosis is uncertain. I tell him about my strokes and all the tests that still need to be done.
Then, I tell him what being sick has taught me.
Life is not all bad. In fact, it's simple and miraculous. It's taught me that I want to spend every single day playing with and reading to my daughter Pookie as much as I can. I want to smell the top of her head and kiss Hubby and help my stepson with his math homework.
I tell him that I see getting and being sick, of having strokes and coming through them, as one of the best things that's ever happened to me because it put me in touch with what really matters.
When a stroke happens, there's no warning. All of a sudden your ordinary Tuesday gets derailed. Your entire week (and sometimes life) is derailed. Strokes don't care that you have to be at work. They don't care if your job might fire you because you can no longer do the work or can't show up because you're on a heart monitor in the hospital.
In an instant, everything that you've worked towards, everything that you think is so important, suddenly isn't anymore. When you can't speak or understand the language you've spoken since birth, when you don't know who your family and friends are, if you're lucky to come out the other side with most of your faculties intact, your entire life is re-prioritized.
In an instant, your life has changed forever and there's no going back.
Then, I tell him about this project. Visionary Bri. I tell him, "I write and do art. I run giveaways and write reviews, I promote and
encourage artists (focusing on women) both locally and worldwide. I am a life coach and a creativity specialist. My
followers and readers include cosplayers, LARPers, rennies, fashionistas, dancers, artists, mamas and gamers as well as other passionate, creative individuals from all walks of life. My audience reach is nearing 7,000 unique viewers each week
with viewership in 79 countries (and counting). My mailing list
subscribers are in the 800-900 range at last count."
"But mostly," I say, "I help people live the kind of life they've always wanted to live. I give them the encouragement and the connections to do so. I want to help people, so that's what I do."
The more I spoke, the more his jaw dropped. And the more his jaw dropped, the more I just wanted to pour out what I'd learned by facing my own mortality. I wanted to wake him up. I wanted to wake everyone in the bar up. I wanted to take everyone's shoulders and shake them a bit and wake the world up.
This is it! This life is short! Plan for tomorrow, but bask in what's important, today! You will never know when tomorrow won't come, for you.
I wanted to throw away all the economic statuses and demographics and ideologies and political views that separate us, as people, and show each of you how we are so alike. So much more alike than we are different.
I guess a simpler idea would be, "I try to wake the world up to the beauty and wonder of today. I try to empower people to chase 'their always wanted to's and 'why didn't I's. And I try to remind them that what's really important is the impact you've made on those that will survive you and carry on in the world after you're gone."
That is the short version of what I do.
I have so much to tell you, my lovelies, about what this life has taught me and I want to share it with you. And it's too long, too much, and too beautiful to give you in little blog post snippets. This is what I want to do, my precious ones. I want to write a book for you.
I'm in the middle of it, now, and it's coming along nicely.
It will be a book filled with love and lessons from my heart and life.
Do you remember when I said that I was going to ask you for help? Well, my dears, this is it. I need funding to put out this book and I'm asking you, my wonderful fans and readers to help me.
On the left, at the top of this blog, I've put a "donate" button from PayPal. If you like my writing and would like it to continue, if you can spare even $5, it would help.
I'm saving up to purchase my own domain and to start my own press and I can't do it alone. Being disabled and on a severely limited income with a family, I can't really get a loan to start projects.
From one soul to another and from the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping me. I adore each and every one of you and look forward to hearing from you.
There are a lot of TED talks I see where my
brain is engaged. The internal brain-wheels spin and I'm given a new idea. I recommend watching every single one of their videos. These cerebrally engaging talks are great, but this talk that I am about to share with you engaged my heart.
"Yes," my heart whispers. I long for this kind of connection between myself and you, my fans and readers.
Brava, Amanda Palmer and brava, Neil Gaiman for supporting her while
she wrote the speech. Enjoy, my lovelies.
This reminds me of my father's sage advice to me. "Ask," he said. "Always ask. The worst that they can say is 'no.'" Because of his advice, I ask. I ask to be on television. I ask businesses, "Would you like me to help promote you?" I ask, "Hubby, do you think you could bathe the Pookie, tonight? My back is really hurting."
But, sometimes, it's hard to get up the gumption to ask.
Within the next week, I'm going to take a big
leap. I'm going to ask you, my fans and my audience, for help. I am
scared to do this. I feel like I should be able to write and to create
and exist in this life and to just do it all . . . without help.
I feel like I should
be strong enough to do it alone, but I can't. I don't exist inside a
vacuum. I don't write in a pocket of space-time where I am not effected by the world. I must live in the world and be a part of it. I drink coffee. I play with my daughter. I am a person, just like you and I have bills to pay.
So, from one human being to another, I see you, my lovelies. I hear you. And I trust you. All I will ask is for some help to keep me creating the work you like to see. And
thank you, in advance, for this help that is so hard for me to ask for that I know you will come through on.
Blessings to each one of you in all that you do and don't forget that we are all visionaries. We just have to figure out where we excel.
An opportunity has landed itself in my lap and, being the loyal readers you are, I wanted to ask if you'd be okay with it.
A company has contacted me to do some marketing for them. This would be a year long marketing plan using an ethical, creative product that I know all of my lady and lady-boy readers out there would just love.
As you know, I'm disabled with Systemic Lupus. I have a daughter and a stepson and I'm on a very limited income. If successful, this marketing campaign could make me some much needed money for my family. But if you, my readers, don't want to see that kind of content on this site, please let me know.
The only thing it would be is 2 - 3 sponsored posts a month with me showing you how to do some really cool artsy-stuff tutorials. (Possibly via video with a giveaway thrown in there for good measure!) The product is vegan and does no animal testing, so I'm okay with them on that level. So I've put together this little survey. Please take a moment to fill it out for me to let me know what you think.
If you feel inspired to leave a comment, too, please feel free to do so. I love you, my gentle readers, and don't want to offend you.