I recently booked a professional makeup artist to come over and do my makeup before a holiday event. It was SUCH an awesome experience. Having your hair and makeup done by a professional makes a HUGE difference. It’s amazing how much you can learn from a couple hours with an expert. I had Rimmel Canada spokesperson Vanessa Jarman over to doll me up and show me some tricks. She lined my eyes with Rimmel waterproof eyeliner before anything else, and told me to squish my eyes together ‘like I mean it’. This lined the inside of my eyes with a waterproof liner protecting my makeup from fading over the course of the night. A friend recommended an eyeliner stamp from Lovoir.com for future use. She also taught me to use an angle brush or small eyeshadow brush to set my liner with something dry (ie. eyeshadow). I learned about colours to wear for my skin, blending and layering makeup, and using different sized brushes for different parts of the face. I’d been using a rather large blush brush and learned a smaller one is better for blending blush or bronzer around my cheekbones. Vanessa blended three shadows to create my look and added a few individual lashes to make my eyes pop. We threw some hot rollers in my hair to glam it all up and she did a side braid to add some style. After my makeup was done, Vanessa asked about my dress and décolletage. What would be showing? She pulled out Burt’s Bees Radiant and rubbed it along my arms. I was glistened with an ever so slight brilliance. I’m picking up a bottle for myself today! One of the other really rad things about having a pro do your makeup is that they really know faces…

Today life game me a lemon. On my way to the office I crossed the road to find one single half lemon, squished, and all alone in the middle of the road. What did it mean, how did it get there?  I don’t know, I’ll never know. I decided to take a photo and have a little laugh to myself. It wasn’t like I was going to make lemonade or anything. Did some research on where this saying came from and many attribute it to Dale Carnegie from his book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Carnegie’s version reads, “If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade.”  BUT, 8 years before Carnegie’s book the phrase made it’s way into the mainstream via this poetic rendition of the phrase entitled The Optimist which appeared in a 1940 edition of The Rotarian: “Life handed him a lemon, As Life sometimes will do. His friends looked on in pity, Assuming he was through. They came upon him later, Reclining in the shade In calm contentment, drinking A glass of lemonade.”[10] I thought this was all quite lovely. I left my little lemon squish and made a wish as I walked away with flowers in my hair.  Many would have missed this little lemon but I, I saw beauty in it’s simplicity and it made me smile. In the spirit of Throwback Thursday, here’s a photo of Jenie and I at the house where we grew up in Cambridge. Did had a hot rod shop called Toys for Boys so really rad cars were always around. We used to play in the garage w/ Dad and pretend to drive the cars around. Ahh, the good ol’ days. Remember, when life gives you lemons, you have lot of options of what to do with them. Do something that will put a smile on someone’s face,…

Oh hey I’m wearing pink. Last Wednesday I wore my ‘you can’t sit with us’ shirt. Not really appropriate for the ‘anti-bullying international Day of Pink’. Beautiful day out. Gap khakis & cardigan Zara pink rose shirt Standing O Accessories bracelet H&M trench coat Toms shoes Glasses from my travels