Our Vintage Glam 40th Birthday Celebration

Hi Beautiful People,

The Best Day of the Year has come and gone and I'm so excited to share it with you.

Remember when I spoke to you in my last Blog "It's My Birthday in 12 Days and I'm on a Mission" and I told you I was extremely stressed out from trying to find a venue to host my birthday party???

Well of course that decision didn't go as planned. My twin sister Keesha was not completely convinced that the Suede Bar and Lounge in The Westin Bonaventure was THE birthday venue for us because it happened to come with a $300 bottle service tab. So she decided she "would take one for the team" and do more research.

Sidebar - We've paid for bottle service at past birthday celebrations and we really haven't been impressed with buying a bottle of liquor with inflated prices when we know we can go get the same bottle out of Costco for way cheaper!!

By this time we only have one week left to pick a venue. It was Friday night and so my sis dragged herself to "Perch" the "Mixing Room" and the J.W. Marriott hotel "Lobby Bar" at downtown L.A. Live, but no such luck! Perch was too small and in her words it wasn't "poppin" enough for the crowd of people we were bringing. The Mixing Room's music wasn't up to par and the Lobby Bar looked like it's purpose was to attract the business casual type. Here we go again...at this point we feel we have no other options and our last resort was Suede Bar & Lounge $$.

Then late that night, I came across an instagram picture of Tisha Campbell performing Live on Friday nights at the Xen Lounge in Studio City. It was perfect! I showed it to Keesha and she said she liked the idea of going to listen to live music instead of getting "turnt up" with a DJ (because we always do that). Since we already had plans to go to the Topanga Canyon Mall on Saturday to look for "birthday shoes" (the birthday outfit was already complete) we agreed to check out Xen Lounge on the way back!

You know me!!! I did my research and got the detailed information I needed off their website.

Live Music details - check,
       Reservations - check,
             Dress Code - check,
Update Facebook Invitation for our Guests - check

Now...Keesha and I knew we wanted to go to dinner for our birthday but didn't know where we should go. So we turned to our younger sister Vanessa (and her husband Q) because they know all the "hot spots" as we consider them the "connoisseurs of good food." Nessa recommended dinner at SUR Restaurant in West Hollywood. I looked up their website and loved everything about it!

I booked our reservation through opentable.com immediately. Keesha made plans to meet some of her closest friends in the Lounge area after dinner. All of my closest friends would meet at Xen Lounge!

The BIG DAY is HERE -

Friday, March 20th -

Keesha and I are finally the BIG 40!!!!

My job gave me the day off from work for my Birthday and so I started it with getting my hair done by the beautiful @majormusthavs! Unfortunately Keesha had to deal with some drama trying to get her hair done a few days before our birthday, but her new hair stylist Thai saved the day!

I picked up the cake from Torrance Bakery and when I get home our MOM is there to wish us a Happy Birthday. Keesha's busy putting the finishing touches on Vanessa's make-up.  Forty-five minutes later it's my turn, then she completes her own make-up...We were Beat for the GAWDSSSS!!

Our escorts for the evening were our two favorite people "Bruce & Davion". We love these two men to infinity and beyond. They are two of the most loving, passionate, honest and supportive men we know...and love to party with!

4:30pm came and we were ready to GO!! Keesha and I slipped into our "custom made" vintage brocade birthday dresses by Belen @moiselleamoureux. Belen is a Vintage inspired Fashion Designer based in Los Angeles. Due to last minute planning on our part, she took our measurements, picked out the material, made our dresses and delivered them in less than 3 weeks. The results were...FLAWLESS! So of course we took lots of pictures before we left the house (you know this made us late for dinner right...black folks can't never be on time, Lol). Our reservation was for 5:30pm and we knew we'd be stuck in traffic trying to get there...it's L.A.!! Thank goodness the restaurant was cool with us being a little late (it was still early). Dinner was delicious and the drinks were tasty!

 ....We kept the liquor flowing and passed out our XOXO cake pops (El Segundo), while mingling in the Lounge area!!

Keesha had a mini-Clean House reunion with ALL her peeps who haven't been together in one room since they last worked together in 2011! We love them all because they are very much like a second family to us. Once 8:30pm rolled around we had to make moves and keep the party going to our next destination!

Shout out to our contact person JB at Xen Lounge who realized quickly, when he started getting phone calls for reservations, that I had a lot of people coming to celebrate my birthday so he gave Keesha & I the VIP Room and outdoor patio access, so we could keep some of our party guests together. Can you say "Let me #upgrade you!!" 

Lucas was the host for the night and he was real handsome, fun and flirty and attentive in making sure we were well taken care of!

Also, big shout out to @KSDGPhotography for taking photos of our birthday celebration. The pictures turned out GREAT!!

Although All of Our Friends weren't able to attend, we were happy with the friends that were able to come out and celebrate with us!!

Special Thanks to our longtime college friend Erica and her husband Michael for coming to celebrate out special day!! Although we don't get the chance to speak all the time... we always pick up where we left off! Here's to 22 years of friendship.

Although we didn't get to see Tisha Campbell perform (due to health issues) we were thoroughly entertained by the performers who showed up for "Open Mic Night"...you know anything goes when you give someone the microphone!

My boy Dana couldn't stop "clownin" and he had us dying at the table! In that moment I realized I've been friends with him for at least 18 years...down since Day One.

Comedian Cedric The Entertainer just happened to come through that night to relax and enjoy the ambiance and hang out with Duane Martin (co-owner of Xen Lounge).

And of course my beautiful co-workers from the Boys & Girls Club came out to celebrate with me!!

This day was PERFECT!! I was so happy that nothing went wrong!!

We drank, we ate, I danced (smile), we cut the cake!

It was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!!

But you know we couldn't stop celebrating on Friday night...We had to keep the party going into the weekend...LAS VEGAS here we come!!!!

Saturday morning we were up at 7am (and not by choice) I think we all know that I am NOT a morning person! With my sister Vanessa riding shot gun and my brother-in-law Q behind the wheel (we had sure Q didn't make any new friends with Highway Patrol (smile), Fortunately we arrived in Vegas safe and sound. The plan was to go shopping but we were so tired it just didn't happen. First stop was Margaritaville we were starving!

Keesha and I had plans to go see Michael Jackson's ONE by Cirque de Soleil Saturday night so we didn't have a whole lot of free time. We checked into the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, changed clothes and went to the show. It was GREAT!! Speakers in our seats, aerial tricks, a pole dancer, trampoline acrobats, etc...all to the beat of Michael Jackson's greatest hits! It was a really cool show.

Sunday "Daybed @ Rehab"

After sleeping in a little because I refused to get up that early, breakfast was by the pool. We thought we were going to be on the Daybed deck but we ended up right by the pool in front of the DJ booth. Can you say "Let me #upgrade you". To get the day started we had a brotha spinning on the 1s and 2s and he had me up and out of my seat groovin to the beat. Then a female, DJ Kitty, got on the stage and she had skillz too. Pool side massages and a little R&B and Hip Hop to keep the party going. The daybed was Keesha's idea and we were so happy she made the reservation.  Food and Drinks were included and the weather was perfect, but that pool temperature was freezing! It really didn't matter because we got in it anyway and we had a Blast!! 7 hours later we retired from the pool as the crowd  changed and became "ratchet" real quick and we knew then it was time to go!

 

A few hours later it was time for a late night dinner at the Grand Lux. We had to make an appearance here since we no longer have one in the Beverly Center. We didn't go out partying that night because the sun wore us out! We also knew that we wanted to go shopping early in the morning, before we headed back to L.A., so we called it a night.

Monday morning breakfast at our #1 spot - Hash House A Go Go...then on to the Outlet and the Mall. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do a whole lot of shopping for clothes because I didn't find anything I really liked but...My birthday present to myself were a new pair of UGGs with Free Swarovski Crystal Customization! #crown #40

Finally we got on the road and made it home to L.A. safe and sound. We had a great relaxing and fun weekend in Las Vegas. Was I ready to go back to work??...uh no...but it was back to the real world!

Sorry for the delay in writing this blog Fab Followers, but as you can see it was really long and as soon as I went back to work I became really busy. Unfortunately, it took me getting sick and being forced to stay at home this weekend that allowed me to sit down and finally put the finishing touches on this blog.

Although I didn't make any love connections during this Birthday Weekend Adventure I'm still hopeful that there's someone out there for me! This is just a great excuse for me to keep going out to meet new people...

So of course, The Adventures of SingleNFabulous must go on!!  Stay Tuned...Smooches!!