Last month I had the pleasure of visiting Pixar Studios in San Francisco and met Katherine Sarafian, one of the directors of BRAVE, the story of a fiery red-head named Merida who often disobeys her parents, which is a typical characteristic of a girl coming of age.

While I was only able to view the first 30 minutes of Brave, I was very interested in knowing if Merida’s actions would have any consequences. While I appreciated seeing a true to life scenario of what parents like me often deal with, I think it is important for young girls like my daughters to see that Merida’s defiance on screen would show that there is some retribution for her acting out.

Says Katherine, “There are tremendous consequences and we’ve offered up a character who is willful and strong and very sure of herself but also a member of a family, a royal family with huge ripple effects of any decision she makes and any reckless choice she makes. When you see the full movie I think you’ll know what I mean when you see that there are serious consequences for her behavior but without that rift in the beginning you cannot have healing. We really have tried to create something that’s about the relationship of a family and how it grows and develops during a, during a teenager’s coming-of-age.”

Katherine said Brave is an original story and it’s conceived by Brenda Chapman and based on the relationship similar to how Brenda butted heads with her own daughter. I haven’t seen the full movie yet because it comes out June 22^nd. But it will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I’ll keep you posted.

Brave is the story of Merida, a skilled archer and impetuous daughter of King Fergus (voice of Billy Connolly) and Queen Elinor (voice of Emma Thompson). Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the uproarious lords of the land: massive Lord MacGuffin (voice of Kevin McKidd), surly Lord Macintosh (voice of Craig Ferguson) and cantankerous Lord Dingwall (voice of Robbie Coltrane). Merida’s actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric old Wise Woman (voice of Julie Walters) for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to discover the meaning of true bravery in order to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late.

Make sure to like Brave on Facebook for all of the latest news!

Disney/Pixar provided me with an all expenses paid trip to San Francisco for an advance screening of Chimpanzee and select footage from Brave. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Linda for including my family in this wonderful opportunity!

And my dear friend Sojourner Marable Grimmett, a mommy blogger, is standing up so that breast-feeding moms have more options other than having their babies eat inside of dirty bathroom stalls. That’s the only options moms in Atlanta have right now and Sojourner thinks that’s a dirty deal that needs to be re-negotiated.

So she’s taken up the cause to get lactation rooms in Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport, also known as  the “world’s busiest airport.” Hartsfield-Jackson currently does not have designated lactation rooms for employees or customers. Mothers are asked to feed their children in the restroom or to call in advance to arrange a private room to pump or breastfeed. Breastfeeding in the bathroom is synonymous to having your child literally “eat” in the restroom, Sojourner said. (Would you eat in the restroom?) Breastfeeding mothers deserve safe, secure, and comfortable places to pump and nurse, Sojourner said.

Sojourner of Fox 5 Atlanta’s MyAtlantaMoms.com and blog, Married with Two Boys launched a lactation room support campaign, Table for Two, to bring awareness to these challenges and provide help for breastfeeding mothers seeking to transition back into the workplace and community, particularly through the establishment of lactation rooms. The initiative’s first goal is to establish lactation rooms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (HJAIA) in Atlanta, Georgia.

“It’s time to establish designated and convenient lactation rooms at Atlanta’s airport, as well as companies, and organizations across the country,” Sojourner said. The campaign is a resource for anyone looking to build lactation rooms in their community and workplaces.

Sojourner is featured in this month’s Tastemaker Magazine to discuss the importance of breastfeeding.

For more information, please visit www.supporttablefortwo.org and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/supporttablefortwo.

It was a picture perfect ceremony on a picture perfect day. The violins were strumming sweetly by the lakefront and the bride looked ever so lovely and as pretty as a princess as she walked down the aisle and met her prince at the alter.

One of my very best friends Jenece Bond and her longtime boyfriend and dear friend Will “Spank” Horton, tied the knot on Saturday in a wedding ceremony that looked like a picturesque scene of a fairytale. The ceremony was outdoors at the Brandywine Manor House in Honeybrook, Pa and the exchange of vows took place in front of a lake in front with a few hundred guests looking on, which included some notable celebs in the comedy realm like Kevin Hart, who was a groomsman.

Spank, a comedian and one of the stars of Kevin Hart’s Laugh at my Pain movie, was as dapper as a don in his white tuxedo with black and white polka dot ascot.

Is this the reunion of the plastic cup boys?

Comedian Kevin Hart was one of the groomsmen

The wedding party

This is Spank’s mom…

Jenece’s mom

The bridesmaids and groomsmen

Jenece looked like a true southern belle (even though she lives in the north) with a wedding gown that had a tight-fitting bodice that cascaded outward and flowed out with a train that was adorned with red roses.

Jenece cried as she walked hand in hand with her father Benjamin Bond. So of course I cried too because I was so happy for her. It was a surreal moment, I’m sure for her. I know all of what my friend has endured during the last 10 years and I’ve often been the one on the phone consoling her and talking her through it like good friends do. We have a great relationship and she is one of the people I dearly trust and love.

Jenece father gives away Jenece to Spank. They embrace. There’s nothing more heart-warming than seeing this exchange right here.

They’re MARRIED!! Whoo-Hoo!! Just look at the happy couple!!

Me with Kevin Hart

Once the ceremony was over, the party began inside a beautiful tent adorned with sparking lights above that made it look like stars were shining. And they were: Kev Hart was in the building as well as fellow comedians Toure, Lil Duval, Buckwild, Naim and more.

The wedding and reception was a stellar event and very classy. Spank and Jenece made sure this event was highpost! First we ate  hors de vous that ranged from crab cakes, to chicken, to beef sliders to barbecued shrimp to drinking a special Pineapple Horton Martini, mixed with Hpnotiq. We toasted to the bride and groom with a glass of Cristal ($200 a pop), we dined on moist, succulent salmon and asparagus, while other dined on Steak or Chicken. High Post! Wow. They did it up!

Kevin Hart made a very sincere toast to Spank and talked about his recent divorce saying that he “did not do it right.” Kevin urged Spank and Jenece to show us all what true love is and do it right and stay married for the long haul. The two matrons of honor talked about their longtime relationship with Jenece which stemmed from high school for her friend Shannon. And matron of honor Redis has been knowing Jenece since childhood. Both spoke highly of Jenece and their love for their friend who everyone adores because of her honesty and loyalty.

After that the party began.

Kevin Hart doing the Dookie-Squat dance!

Buckwild getting his JAM on!

Here’s goes the garter…

It was so much fun. The guys battled in a dance competition that was truly hilarious. I couldn’t get good video because of the lighting. But trust me it was fun.
Here’s a bit of it:

Kevin Hart of course was cutting up and keep the fun flowing and kept us laughing.

Me and Toure

Comedians Rich Salter and Naim

I guess I know the wives of a lot of comedians because this is Tracey Salter, Rich’s wife.  Tracey and I are childhood best friends. I don’t know a moment in my childhood that didn’t include Tracey. She’s more like family.

Thank you to Jenece and Spank and letting me share in this wonderful moment with you two. I wish you love and prosperity and continued success and COMMITMENT to one another for a lifetime. Marriage is as easy or as hard as you make it. So choose to make it easy. Just respect one another and all else will fall into place. The hard part is over. Now bask in the joy of now being totally committed as a couple. I love you guys and Jenece you know you can call me to get any marriage advice! It’s always great to have married friends with successful marriages! Enjoy your wonderful honeymoon. Jenece told me they have an all expense paid honeymoon to an exclusive place (I won’t mention), gifted by Kevin Hart!

Here’s to many wonderful years to come! CONGRATULATIONS!

XOXO

Who doesn’t like Dinner and a FREE movie. Especially when you can help a mom keep her baby’s bottom dry.

Thanks to Studio Movie Grill on Holcomb Bridge Road, everyone can see the newly released movie, What to Expect When You’re Expecting on May 22nd, anytime between 11am and 6pm in exchange for a pack of diapers donated to Atlanta Diaper Relief.

The local non-profit Atlanta Diaper Relief give diapers out for free to low income families in need. Right now they serve Douglas, Cobb and Fulton County families and are rapidly expanding services throughout Atlanta because the diapers are in demand.

Now Studio Movie Grill is helping the non-profit boost their diaper donations by joining in the effort and offering a FREE movie in exchange for a diaper donation.

Now that’s a diaper deal parents can be proud of.

So on Tuesday, if a date night is in the plans, grab a pack of diapers or pullups and head on over to Studio Movie Grill to help a great cause.

Studio Movie Grill

2880 Holcomb Bridge Road Alpharetta, GA 30022

Diaper Drive Tuesday May 22nd, Anytime between 11am to 6p.m.

Bring a pack of diapers and see What to Expect When You’re Expecting for FREE.

I had the pleasure of meeting the skilled team behind dressing the Royal Family in the upcoming Disney/Pixar (soon-to-be blockbuster) Brave, during a visit to San Francisco for a press event!

Dressing characters is not about drawing some clothes on a screen and calling it a day. That’s probably how most people think it’s done. It’s so much more than that. They dress the characters just like we dress in layers when it’s cold! The characters are dressed and clothes are layered to get an idea of how they will move and swag and perform on the characters body. Claudia Chung, the Simulation Supervisor said Merida has over twenty-two costume changes and wears  five dresses throughout the film.

“She likes her accessories, so her accessories are her quiver, her bow, she has a necklace,” said Claudia during the briefing. “She has an arm wrap for when she does her archery.  So all these things combine together make  about twenty-two costume changes.  So it’s our jobs to make sure she has the right outfit on for the scene that she’s in,” Claudia said.

So how they build a dress like this to get it from the page to the screen?

“So we first start with art, ” Claudia said. “  So it’s kind of their (the art department) idea, a conceptual idea, of what Merida’s dress should look like.  And basically those are the- the fullness of the skirt, the length as well, the tightness of the bodice, and how those two layers, there’s a shift underneath and then there’s a blue wool dress on top.  But there’s other key features that we want to make sure we hit, and that’s- that’s what’s happening on her elbows and shoulders,” she explains.

According to Claudia: ……the length of her dress, I have to hit that. The fullness of the skirt and the tightness of the bodice and other key features that we want to make sure we address.

So in this case, for this reference, what we notice is what’s happening on her elbows and shoulders, right? There’s these breaks there. And what you realize is that doesn’t look like the typical, fine dresses of that era where they’re like these poufy material. It’s actually something Merida cut into the dress herself. Merida cut it up in order to do the archery she’s so fond of. The reason why we know this is because the back of the elbows are a lot looser than the front. As a tailor we want to make sure we get that look right. For those of you who know sewing, you know that to do gathers or to get frills you take a really long piece of fabric and you sew it onto a much tighter, smaller piece and that’s why you see this strange halo up here. It’s sewn onto her collar. And then the last step is actually to put it on the character, right? So it’s not like in real life where I can go, “Merida, let’s go into the dressing room. Let’s put your dress on, your costume, you’re all set to go.” No. There’s no way. She’s animated. So instead we actually built the dress on the character. So you don’t see her there, but she is.

Then they pull and push on the computer and get it just right. Making sure that it moves with the characters. Now what about the boys? The men wear kilts and it’s a similar process.

……the other process that we use is draping. With the kilts, because of the complexity of the fold and stuff, we do actually more draping techniques of putting the pieces of fabric around the character and then relaxing it on. So here we have Fergus. He’s actually the most complicated costume we had to build on Brave because he has eight layers of fabric. On top of that, on his drape, that’s folded six, six to eight times. So it’s actually sixteen layers of cloth. The skirt really is a long piece of tartan, it really is just a flat piece of cloth like this. There’s no magic going on there. So we gather that all up and then we get to see how everything comes together. ….. we can say, “Action,” and he starts being animated and we make the cloth follow him.

What’s training like for tailoring clothes in a computer?

“My training is in computer science. I went to Berkeley and computer science.  I was very technical when I came to Pixar,” said Claudia. When I started on Ratatouille that’s when I went over to the tailoring side of things and it was actually a really hard process, a leap for me. It looked terrible when I started. And I got to the point, …..I was like, “Claudia, it’s time for you to take a sewing class.”.

Then we were off to hear tales of epic battles and mystical legends with Louis Gonzales, a Story Artist with Pixar. We explored the rugged and mysterious highlands of Scotland with Steve Pilcher, Production Designer and Tia Kratter Shading Art Designer. These two and their team worked extremely hard at making sure Brave had the true  look and feel of Scotland. They even took a research trip there and took more than 10,000 photos of the landscape.

BRAVE arrives in theaters everywhere on June 22nd!

“Like” BRAVE on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PixarBrave

photos courtesy of Disney

I took an all expense paid trip to Disney/Pixar studios but all opinions expressed are mine.

DeShai Cole, Atlanta’s fierce “Grown Ass Woman” sex talk show host is planning a day for the ladies to play.

On Friday May 11th, Deshai is hosting an Ultimate Girl’s Night Out event, ripe with ripped sexy men of A Pampered Touch.

The event will be held at the Aqua Bistro is Atlanta and door will open at 10 with a free cocktail hour until 11p.m.

I am definitely planning to attend. Deshai is a great hostess and I had the pleasure of attending another one of her events and it was fun and informative.

You can catch DeShai on www.grownwomantalk.net every Wednesday at 9p.m.

DeShai also has a clothing line, Nubia Clothing that is as cute as can be. Check her out at NubiaClothing.com

Nubia Clothing Company was founded in 2011 by DeShai  and her husband, Timothy Davidson.  The clothing line was birthed in Houston, Texas. Shortly after, the founders moved to Atlanta, Georgia to expand the brand.

If you need any sex advice, tips or counseling, reach out to DeShai and she will help you put the sparkle back into your love life. Now that’s the kind of sparkle you need to get those love flames flaring!

Check out Deshai acting in a PSA about AIDS/HIV awareness. Very touching and emotional…

1. Yes, I like guys ripped with six-pack abs.
2. Yes, but I prefer a lean, wiry look.
3. Yes, an athletic build goes a long way with me but please don’t look like a body builder.
4. I couldn’t care less.
5. Compact and efficient bodies turn me on.

1. I’m old fashioned. I like a guy to do the thinking.
2. I date guys who are intellectually stimulating. Challenge me!
3. The guy needs to be smart enough to keep up, but not smarter than me.
4. I like a guy to lead in the brains department, but not be arrogant about it.
5. I like a guy with street smarts.

1. The more charm the better. Give me a smooth operator!
2. I’m comfortable with a levelheaded, down-to-earth guy.
3. I’m attracted to guys with an air of mystery.
4. I like a guy who can laugh at himself and have fun.
5. I’m really into the strong, silent type.

1. Go to the movies and then out for burgers and shakes.
2. A romantic rooftop dinner under the stars.
3. Attend a gallery opening and have wine and dinner at a small, intimate bistro.
4. Dinner at his place.
5. A late dinner at a swanky restaurant, then all-night club-hopping.

If you could choose one topic of conversation, what would it be?

1. Me…I only want to talk about me!
2. I’m into personal details…tell me the story of your life.
3. The menu.
4. Aliens and what’s out there in the universe.
5. Politics and the state of the world. I have opinions!

1. He prefers T-shirts but looks awesome in a tux.
2. He’s scruffy and slouchy.
3. He looks great in vintage clothes.
4. He loves black tight-fitting clothes…and so do I!
5. He likes bright colors and a bit of glam.

1. He lets me lead; doesn’t like the limelight.
2. When he enters a room, all heads turn. Gasps are audible.
3. He is used to fame and being in the spotlight but not into the big entrance.
4. He slips in unnoticed.
5. He’s a regular Joe and blends in with the crowd.

1. Limo
2. American-made pickup truck
3. Red muscle car
4. Japanese Hybrid
5. Black SUV

1. Honesty
2. Empathy
3. Faithfulness
4. Loyalty
5. Courage

1. Polite and gentlemanly. A handshake at the end of night.
2. Party hardy but be watching out for me all the time.
3. Gentle and attentive; hold my hand, a kiss on the cheek goodnight.
4. Pull out all the charm and put the moves on me; but knows when to back off.

1. a. T, b. S, c. C, d. B, e. H
2. a. C, b. S, c. T, d. B, e. H
3. a. S, b. C, c. B, d. T, e. H
4. a. C, b. S, c. B, d., H, e. T
5. a. B, b. C, c. H, d. T, e. S
6. a. S, b. B, c. C, d. H, e. T
7. a. B, b. T, c. S, d., H, e. C
8. a. S, b. C, c. T, d. B, e. H
9. a. H, b. B, c. T, d. C, e. S
10. a. B, b. T, c. C, d. S, e. H

School’s almost out and parents are in a frenzy trying to decide exactly what their kids will do this summer. As for many of the parents who I come in contact with as clients of Atlanta Diaper Relief, paying for summer camp is hardly an option for them.

Whether you have one child, or five like me and celebrity mom Tameka Raymond, you’ve gotta deal with parenting issues of some sort whether it’s financial or custodial. Tameka clearly understands both sides. The dedicated mom of five, who is as present with her kids as a Soccer mom on the field on Sundays, takes an active role in her kids lives and doesn’t leave her motherly duties to a nanny like many celebrities could and would.

Now Tameka is using her influence as an involved mom and philanthropist to help further our cause at Atlanta Diaper Relief.

Tameka is hosting a Diaper Drive Summer Jam at her play center Kangazoom in Alpharetta! We are partnering with Tameka and her Lost Ones Foundation to help collect more diapers for families in need. Since school will be out, it will be a great time for parents to come out and let their kids jump to their little hearts content! And Kangazoom is quite a beautiful facility.

This spacious indoor children’s play center in Alpharetta, features four party rooms, inflatable jumps, arcade games, a clothing boutique, a snack/gift corner, parents lounge, computer corner, and more assorted fun for children ages two to twelve.
And for parents, each morning is an ode to you as you can drop your kids off for a Mom’s Morning Out from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m!

Go have a latte at Starbucks or do some much-needed shoe shopping while your kids jump around and have a ball in a safe, secure and fun environment.
Not only that, but Kangazoom Alpharetta can boast that it is one of the cleanest play facilities you’ve ever seen. Tameka takes great pride in operating a clean facility. As a mom she wants a center that she can be proud of and one that she would allow her own kids to play in.

Tameka cares deeply about issues affecting kids and teens and it’s evident in her role as Founder of the Lost Ones Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 2009 which helps uplift and motivate at risk girls ages 12-18. Lost Ones strives to help young girls understand the ramifications of negative behavior and encourage them to seek another way of life by exposing them to new environments. Each summer and winter Lost Ones chooses a select number of girls to join us on a 5-day extravagant and life altering retreat filled with motivational workshops, presenters, fun outings and a complete make-over and photo shoot.

We are so delighted to partner with Tameka, the Lost Ones Foundation and Kangazoom Alpharetta! Please bring a box of diapers and join us for a fun-filled day for a great cause. It’s all about the babies.

PLEASE RSVP at http://kangazoomdiaperdrive.eventbrite.com

Visit www.kangazoomparty.com/alpharetta