So You Wanna Date a Model? RECAP

Playing cupid has never been so FUN!
If you remember a couple of weeks ago I posted that I was searching for a nice guy to take my model friend out who was having bad luck in the romance department of her otherwise awesome life (see the post here).
I was soon surprised to discover that although men LOVE to ogle models and claim to want a successful woman, most are intimidated about the idea of approaching one. The post got lots of hits but very few applicants, to my dismay and confusion but my man broke it down for me like this: the AVERAGE guy isn't confident enough in himself to go for a woman of this caliber because he doesn't feel he has much to offer her.
Hence, the problem that many a progressive, fly girl faces.So what's a girl to do? STAY FLY AND KEEP PROGRESSING! The dude who finds your grind sexy because it matches his grind will come along, trust me.

Pietra

So, getting back to our covergirl; professional model/designer/makeup artist Pietra of Retrochic Beauty. She was very clear about her type of guy: clean cut, young professional with great manners, solid work ethic, confidence, and is a man of his word. If he just so happens to be at least 6 feet tall with John Legends' good looks, that would be icing on the cake.
Well, I'm happy to report that I did deliver this and more!

Zo

Enter Lorenzo aka Zo Brown of ZoBownSpeaks.com. Motivational Speaker and Development Coach, he is an ambitious, tall, clean-cut, worldly, educated and John-Legend-esque attractive. He graciously took on the quest to have a casual, fun night out with my friend with no hesitations. And not only did he arrive on time but the brother had a luscious bouquet of lilies because he read in the original post that Pietra adores them.  
Nice touch!

I had them meet at The Crop Shop for Date Night, which is an evening of Paint-Your-Own-Pottery (PYOP) among other couples in a mellow setting with wine and candlelight that occurs monthly at this Hoboken arts/crafts boutique.They did a special activity called "bubble plates" that required blowing glaze through a straw to create a "bubble" design effect on the face of the plates that look stunning once fired in the kiln. It was totally hilarious and a lot of fun. Both were great sports about it.

Pietra: As for first impressions, I was surprised by the flowers and immediately thought he was cute. When he smiled, he totally looked like John Legend! And he's tall with facial hair. I LOVE that! I like that I didn't feel nervous with him. It felt like I was talking to an old friend, we even shared a few jokes. We have similar levels of education: he has his Master's and I'm finishing mine now. We have similar interests and work ethics. It was so nice to have a "no-pressure" date. I would like to see him again. Actually, we are texting now about going to the beach together!

Zo: My first impression of Pietra is that she's a true "entrepreneurial go-getter," which I can definitely appreciate. We do plan to get to know each other more, particularly in the business sense. I believe we can make some things happen! 

Making bubble plates

Zo and P chatted all night

A bubble plate before it is glazed and fired

Pietra's finished bubble plate

Zo & Pietra are all smiles. :)

To Zo's surprise, I was sitting only a table away throughout their date on my own date. :) It happened to be my birthday so I invited my man and my closest friends to join my private little PYOP celebration. I got a bird's eye view of Pietra and Zo's interaction and I was impressed to see how naturally they related. They talked and laughed all night. 
My  job is done here friends. Never give up! Good things are always possible when you give them a chance.

Meca xoxo 

So You Wanna Date A Model?

Meet P. 
She's a NJ-based professional model, not an Instagram "model" or a "video vixen" but an employed professional who has been on the cover of best-selling books, in ads throughout Essence and Ebony Magazines and most recently, you can find this hard-working young lady in an episode of Orange Is The New Black on Netflix. Due to her busy career, she could use a little help meeting a good guy. 

P:  "I wear many hats. Working on many projects at once keeps me motivated.  For example during the course of the week, I may jump from designing quilts, doing makeup for a photo shoot, writing short stories or publishing beauty articles, auditioning for a commercial, teaching S.A.T. strategies to high school students for a nonprofit organization, appearing on QVC as a model, developing a marketing strategy, writing chapters of my novel, or going to one of my graduate school classes."

Recently I wrote an article for PrincessDominique.com about the rumored dying art of courtship titled "Terina Nicole's Favorite Date Ideas" because dating is alive and well in my life. My friend "P" commented that she has never really had positive dating experiences so I decided to do something about this travesty! 

P isn't looking for perfection. But she would prefer a guy taller than her, with his own mode of transportation, and for him to be well-mannered, polite, and confident in every way. She wants a man who stands by what he believes to be true and maintains his personal values. She says she wants a man that keeps his word, says what he means, and always keeps promises. He’s the kind of guy that brings flowers ("my favorite are orange tiger lilies") and "compliments me on my dress or hair".  This man isn’t overly forward, he takes the time to get to know me, what I like, what makes me smile. He treasures the art of courtship.

If going out for an evening of casual fun on July 24th, 2014 that will cost you nothing (sponsored by The Lifestyles of The Authentic & Creative and The Crop Shop) with a 5'9" 30-something from NJ with no children who is creative, educated and single as a dollar bill sounds good to you, we'd love to hear from you. Email jypsealeathergoods AT gmail dot com with a photo and a description of yourself in 100 words or less for your opportunity to snag your Mrs. Right, or at the minimum just have a fun-filled date with an amazing, young woman.
Due date: July 20th, 2014.

My 7 Favorite Date Ideas

Feeling totally dismayed by the fact that dating is dying, according to Glamour magazine, and being a bit of a date fanatic myself, I found it necessary to do my part to inspire others to see the value in dating as a foundation for building strong relationships.
Thanks PrincessDominique.com for inviting me to guest blog! See my post here: http://princessdominique.com/terina-nicoles-7-favorite-date-ideas

What has been YOUR favorite date?

Be INSPIRED to Find LOVE

Jessica & Donovan // Wedding Trailer from Merge Studios Social on Vimeo.

Movie Review: 'Eat, Pray, Love' (based on my own personal experiences)

I went to see 'Eat, Pray, Love' on Friday. The premise of the story is a woman (I guess in her 30s like me) who just couldn't live the life she had created for herself anymore so she gets a divorce and takes off and spends a year in Rome, India, and Bali.
Just like her (and many other thirty-somethings), I found myself suffocating...f*%&ing suffocating...in the life I made for myself. I did it all pretty much by the book: met a "good man" (no kids, college-educated, solid work history, handsome, disease-free), married him, had his child a few years later, bought a house in the suburbs, put my dreams on the shelf and became fully preoccupied with being the perfect wife to someone totally wrong for me. Totally wrong for me? How could I have missed that minor detail? How could I have based my life and every detail of my existence around him? How could I have made myself so dreadfully unhappy? No one picked that god-awful husband for me. No one picked the job, the house, the level of education I attained, the car I drove, the places I traveled but ME. I made all the decisions that led to my unhappiness, my sheer misery. Who could I blame? He may have been then nutcase causing me to want to vomit daily but he sure wasn't gonna accept any responsibility for 11 years of misery since he never put a gun to my head demanding my hand in matrimony.
And there you are left to begin the self-loathing and the hard decision-making: You either go thru the rest of your life miserable or you grab the basic necessities you need to survive and you RUN! You run away from it all as fast you can until you are totally out of breath, too far away to consider going back, and can finally get your bearings and just breathe fresh air of freedom. You are left alone with yourself to begin the process of self -forgiveness, self examination and then re-selection.
Re-selection is where I am now.

I've learned that even great decisions sometimes become mundane and temporarily dissatisfying but less-than-great decisions about things we have to do daily (work & love primarily) WILL eat you alive. So now I only do (love/work) the things I truly enjoy and pray God provides the security.

In the 2.5 years on my own, so far so good ;)

Julia Roberts, although a little dry, totally delivers a great lesson about how it is our duty to design our own lives as we see fit by being brave enough to be loyal to our our truth.

Enjoy the movie!