It is my goal that every reader of TotalLifeProsperityBlog.com experience wholeness in every area of life. Recently, I had a chance to interview rising fashion stylist Apuje Kalu, who was willing to share his story about his journey towards Total Life Prosperity. Without sounding cliche’, Apuje was extremely easy to talk to and down-to-earth. I’ve been following his work with photographer Elton Anderson for some time now and I know he’s going places. When we talked I joked that I was jumping on his bandwagon early before he blows up. I wish him nothing but continued success! *Special thanks to my dear friend Kelle who e-introduced us when I moved to the DC area.

About Apuje

Apuje (A-Pooh-Jay) is a freelance fashion stylist from Washington, DC. As a self proclaimed lover of PORK bacon and connoisseur of Red Velvet cake”, he took a giant step of faith leaving his IT Consulting job in corporate america to pursue his passion which is a career in Fashion.

sidebar: If you’re wondering why PORK bacon, read his Open Letter to Pork Bacon

So why did you leave corporate America?

After 6 years in corporate America I knew I was leaving due to lay offs. I had the option to stay with my IT  Consulting firm but I opted to accept the severance package.  In hopes of mixing my interest in fashion with my Engineering degree, I envisioned a career in luxury goods brand management or marketing. Instead of looking for a job I planned to attend graduate school and get my MBA. In the meantime I made myself available to work on photo shoots with Elton and other photographers. Grad school eventually got postponed and one day I mustered enough guts to say I’m going to really pursue freelance styling and I did it.

Who has been your biggest supporter since leaving corporate America?

My mother has been my supporter since day one. Besides her, making myself available to work with Elton has been rewarding. He has been extremely encouraging and supportive considering we share a similar background…both of us left well paying corporate jobs to pursue our passion. In addition to my mother and Elton, I know I couldn’t do it without the support of my fellow FAMU alums. FAMU has a strong supportive network of people who support the work on their own.

What advice would you give to someone who wanted to follow in your footsteps?

The hardest thing to do is to start.  If you have a dream start to visualize it and put forth a real effort to live your dream. Even with 40-50 shoots under my belt, it still wasn’t a reality until I start saying, “I am a stylist.” Once I visualized it and verbalized it I realized this is what I am. I am living out my dream of being a fashion stylist. I’d also tell people to have a skill set to fall back on. For me its my Engineering background.

What would be your “dream” job ?

Style correspondent on E! or Creative Director for a luxury fashion house like Chanel

What inspires you?

Everyday things and people. I am a people watcher…The airport and South Beach are great places to observe the style of everyday people.There are times I see a person and make up an entire story in my head about them based on how they look. For photo shoots I try to evoke emotion and tell a compelling story by using patterns, texture, and color. I follow a few Fashion blog sites and I pay attention to fashion spreads in GQ , Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen magazines.

Any upcoming projects you’re looking forward to? 

Nothing in particular because projects come up all the time. I have a go-with-the flow kind of attitude so I keep my schedule open to fly to New York, Miami, or LA frequently… but I always have engagement shoots and test shoots with modeling agencies.

What does Total Life Prosperity mean to you?

 My definition of Total Life Prosperity is very similar to the vision of your blog. I attribute my prosperity this year to my faith in God. Instead of worrying and trying to force things, I’m allowing him to move. I have to be honest, some test shoots don’t pay alot of money and times have been hard but my relationship with God has kept me grounded.  when you have a relationship with him he provides totally and everything falls into place; like a domino effect.

Check out more of his work at apujekalu.com and follow his blog

Here are some past shoots that I absolutely LOVED! Whenever the beau decides to put a ring on it I’m hiring Elton & Apuje! iDig their work!

Photo credit: Elton Anderson

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The National Day of Prayer is purposed for us as a nation to recall and to teach the way in which our founding fathers sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical decisions. It stands as a call to us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people. The unanimous passage of the bill establishing the National Day of Prayer as an annual event, signifies that prayer is as important to our nation today as it was in the beginning. Like Thanksgiving or Christmas, this day has become a national observance placed on all Hallmark calendars and observed annually across the nation and in Washington, D.C

Click to watch the LIVE Webcast from here in DC featuring Franklin Graham starting this morning from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon EST

Visit official National Day of Prayer website

Follow them on Twitter www.twitter.com/nationalprayer

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)

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Yesterday here in DC there were several memorial services held in honor of civil rights icon Dorothy Height.  She was laid to rest at the National Cathedral where President Obama gave the eulogy.

The passionate activist was on the podium when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his  “I Have a Dream,” speech at the March on Washington in 1963. Height was the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in 1957 until 1997. She still remained chairman of the organization.

There is something very touching about this photo of President Obama wiping away tears during her funeral service. President Obama said Dr. Height was a constant presence at the White House, having visited 21 times since he took office. “We came to love her as so many loved her,”

At the age of 98 she was still FAB!

Dorothy Irene Height (March 24, 1912 – April 20, 2010)

[Photos via Essence]

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God/Faith

Why Am I So Thankful For The Things That God Hasn’t Blessed Me With As of Yet

Moving Foward, No Matter What

God Told Me, Really?…

Powerful Sermons by Isaac Pitre

Love & Relationships

Why Japanese Singles Don’t Want to Marry

Why Did He Marry Her & Not Me

Beauty/Fashion/Style

Instant Mascara with Eyelash Extensions

How to Transition to a Spring/Summer Wardrobe

Natural Intervention 101: What to do when the perm box is calling

10 Things You Shouldn’t Buy New

Men’s Style

How to Start a Watch Collection

How to Wear Jeans to Work

Life in the District

The National Cherry Blossom Festival is just around the corner.  This year it’s going to be running from March 27th-April 11th, and there’s plenty of stuff to do, and even better, plenty of stuff to eat!  Tons of area restaurants are getting festive and offering cherry blossom-themed dishes, drinks, and desserts!

FREE in DC! Full listing of free events going on in DC

The Fab Empire Presents DC Fab! All FAB things in the DC, Baltimore, Boston, and NY

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Immediately after passage, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation’s most vociferous opponent of gay marriage, broadcast an appeal to members to contact lawmakers on the issue. 

Passage in the District might give efforts to approve a gay marriage bill in New Jersey a much needed boost. If Congress fails to intervene, the measure is expected to take effect in February.

sources: Fenty Signs Bill legalizing same sex marriage and  DC Gay Marriage Bill signed

Signing a same sex marriage bill at a church?!  This is my response:

Did we not learn from Sodom and Gomorah? If you’re not familar here is the story…

Genesis 19 (New International Version)

 ¹ The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. ² “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning. “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.” ³ But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.

4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”

 6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said,

“No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them.

But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

 9 “Get out of our way,”

they replied. And they said, “This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door. ¹⁰ But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. ¹¹ Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door. ¹² The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here,

 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”

 ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry  his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. ¹⁵ With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” ¹⁶ When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. ¹⁷ As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”

 ¹⁸ But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! ¹⁹ Your servant has found favor in your yes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. ²⁰ Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.” ²¹ He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. ²² But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar. )

 23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

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Story of 29 year old Helena Andrews , a young, successful, Black, “mean” girl living in DC desperately in search of love in the city. Her book “Bitch Is the New Black,”is set to be published in June. BITNB is a satirical look at successful young black women living in the District… and some are calling it the “Black Sex and the City.” {side eye} Andrews says her book attempts to reveal what’s behind the veneer. In a series of essays, Andrews documents the lives of so many young black women who appear to have everything: looks, charm, Ivy League degrees, great jobs, closets packed full of fabulous clothes; fabulous condos in fabulous gentrified neighborhoods; fabulous vacations, fabulous friends. And yet they are lonely: Their lives are repetitive, desperate and empty. Andrews writes about what it is like for a young, black woman dating in D.C., trying to find a mate who seems ever elusive.

About the author:

Andrews’ bio is interesting to say the least. Born in California, grew up on Catalina Island and in Los Angeles. Her mother is a lesbian. She has seen her father once, when she was 6 months old. When Helena was 7, her mother decided to move to Spain, but the girl’s grandmother kidnapped her. She graduated from Columbia University, majoring in English literature and creative writing, worked at O Magazine, attended Northwestern for Grad school for Journalism, and in 2005 landed as a news assistant in the New York Times Washington bureau.

WHAT?! Yes, you read all of that correctly! CLEARLY SHE HAS SOME DEEPER ISSUES that go beyond finding a man. Straight from her mouth:

“Love is much too hard to find and when these women do, it may go all wrong because of issues that are too complicated for statistics”

 “I’m a mean woman. I don’t date nice people. That’s why I’ll be alone for the rest of my life. I will always have to settle.”

In reference to a man she’s dating “I don’t find him attractive. If he was funny, that would go a long way. He could be my winter boo. I need a boo. My life sucks. When your life sucks, a winter boo with his own apartment would be awesome to have.”

Sounds like another bitter black women scorned by men. I’ll still be interested to read what she has to say.

Read the Washington Post Article HERE 

All my young, black, successful readers tell me how you feel…Is Bitch the New Black?

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Trick or Treat Obama Style

Trick or Treat Obama Style

Trick or Treat Obama Style

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Nearly 180 DC’s finest restaurants will offer multi-course meals prepared especially for this gourmet event.

Lunch: $20.09 for a three-course fixed-price meal
Dinner: $35.09 for a three-course fixed-price meal
Beverages, gratuity and tax are not included.

Reserve your table online @ OPEN TABLE

No related posts.

A special thank you to all my friends and family who contacted me to make sure I was ok. By the grace of God I, nor any of my close friends were on the Red Line yesterday evening.  I will keep all those affected by this accident in my prayers. GOD BLESS

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In response to the alarming news of the DC HIV/AIDS rate rising to 3% -HIV positive District residents, members of DC Fights Back , Campaign To End AIDS, along with local allies will conduct a press conference and protest in front of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on March 20 at 12 noon. They will be protesting the District’s lack of vision and effective crisis management in response to the HIV & AIDS epidemic

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