Category Archives: Lifestyles

Are you an April Fool?

Posted in Communications, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by

April Fool’s Day.

Ever wonder about the history of this day of fools?

FoolOne version is that back in the day, France once celebrated its New Year at the start of the spring, around late March/early April. But in the 1500s they changed it so that it would begin in January to match the Roman calendar. However, word of this change traveled slowly, so many people in rural areas continued to celebrate the New Year in the spring. These people became known as “April fools”, or so the story goes…

Another version is that the day grew from age-old European spring festivals, in which pranks and camouflaging your identity was common. This one makes more sense to me personally, as April Fool’s Day is about pranks.

Pranks bring people closer together. It’s a fact. (It’s also a fact that most facts are made up on the spot.)

If you work in an office with a lot of computers and people who foolishly trust you, go ahead and take this opportunity to create some memories. A great idea from a former co-worker of mine: take a screen shot of their desktop and have it displayed on the screen. Then watch and laugh as your co-worker can’t click on anything. Ha! Classic. You can modernize this one by using a broken screen wallpaper. Your welcome.

Or you can go the high-tech route and using this same idea, download the broken screen app to make someone think you cracked their beloved iPad or iPhone! Yes, there is actually an app for that! And that’s no joke.

 

 

Fashion Fun Fridays: Hair Product Review

Posted in Fashion, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by

Okay so this is really isn’t about “fashion” today, but more about beauty products which are like our fashion accessories.

Last Saturday I finally got my butt to the salon for a long overdue cut and highlight. One of the colourist’s hair had these amazing waves and explained to me that she had curled her hair with the Babyliss Miracurl… 3 days earlier! Whaaaaaat?!  I was intrigued. I’ve seen versions of this curling machine in stores and in ads and I categorize it as a gimmick and somewhat intimidating. I mean the thing sucks your hair into a crazy hot contraption. Nothing about it could possibly be good. I was wrong.

I asked my god of cut and colour, aka Bruce at Silver Scissors, to give me curls. And he obliged. (Before I go any further, I should say that I have fine, stick straight hair. I’m convinced that my hair rebels against hair spray as revenge for the 80s, so I don’t bother to use it.) A little Aveda Smooth Infusion style-prep smoother while my hair was wet and a little OSIS+ Thrill texture fibre gum after it was curled and I was feeling like a rock star!photo 1

It was a crappy rainy humid day and the curls lasted all day. And then the next day! With the rainy weather my hair would normally be flat and pasted to my head, but thanks to the Aveda stuff, I was still rocking bouncy curls.  At this point I was committed to see if the curls would really last four days. And they did.

During these four days I was obviously not washing my hair, so I was using my cult classic Batiste dry shampoo that I picked up from Shoppers Drug Mart. The week started out as a ‘let’s see if these curls will really last four days’, turned into an experiment to push the limits of my dry shampoo to see how many days I could use it before I needed to wash my hair. (Before you all go eeeewwwww, I did shower. Just didn’t wash my hair. And BTW it’s not good to wash your hair every day… so there.)

It’s been six days since I washed my hair and I will shout the praises of my Batiste dry shampoo! (No, they are not paying me to say that… but if they want to, I wouldn’t say no…) I used the XXL Volume and wish it had been around in the 80s to give Final Net hair spray a run for it’s money in volume. I also wish I had taken pics of my hair each day, but sadly I lacked the forethought. Here’s my hair on Day 5, which I think is even better than the first day as it looks fuller:photo 2

Today, Day 6, I think would have been my limit, but thanks to my hair donut I am instead sporting a bun – which works even better with ‘dirty’ hair.

photo 2(1)

Tomorrow it will be one week since I’ve washed my hair. What I’ve learned from this little experiment is that A) I don’t need to wash my hair everyday; and B) it’s time to shake up my day-to-day styling so I’ll be buying that Miracurl thank you very much.  But if you call tomorrow and I can’t come to the phone, it really will be because I am washing my hair.

photo 1(1)

Picture Perfect Tuesday: Frosty Days

Posted in Lifestyle, Lifestyles, photography, Picture Perfect Tuesdays by

Winter is a great time for me to feed my obsession with how stunning frost can be. Did you know that frost crystals are actually translucent, but scatter light in many directions, so that a coating of frost appears white. Also there are many types of frost, such as Hoar Frost, which I discussed in a previous post, Radiation Frost and Window Frost.

For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday, here’s a shot of some Window Frost that was on my car. It caught my eye, when the sunlight caught it…

photo(1)

Fashion Fun Friday: Are you a Hipster?

Posted in Fashion, follow friday, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by

A year ago if you asked me what a Hipster was, I’d have probably replied that is was a style of jeans rather than a subculture people. While they’ve been around for a long time, Hipsters have come into the forefront a style revolution with their distinct fashion – often stereotyped by vintage thrift shop shirts, rolled up jeans and dark rimmed glasses. Love them or hate them, Hipsters have become the pioneers and leaders of our latest cultural and fashion trends. We can thank them for the surge of distressed jeans, leggings, plaid flannel shirts and old concert tees found at H&M, Forever 21 and American Eagle.

tees

For me, not knowing what a Hipster was, had more to do with being unaware of the current label placed on this group. Before the term Hipster was coined, waaay back in the early 90s, the style was simply called “Alternative”.  As in alternative to the mainstream – which at the time was the uniform of Polo shirts and penny loafers. In those days, the smell of teen-spirit had saturated the air thanks to Nirvana and somewhere in between Polo preppy and Seattle-grunge, “Alternative” was born. Which looking back, makes me one of the original Hipsters, what with my fake black-rimmed glasses, unisex plaid shirt and tapered jeans. (Back then they were called tapered. And we ‘tapered’ them ourselves, sometimes just using a shit-ton of safety pins.)

Here’s some Hipster inspired fashions that I currently love at Forever 21. Mix them up with some vintage finds for create a look that is unique to you.feminine-cardigan

forever-21-capsule-2.1-04

Resolutions and all that jazz

Posted in Lifestyle, Lifestyles, new years eve, nye2013 by

New_Year_wallpapers_Wishes_for_the_New_Year_2014_047680_Today is the first day of a new year. A fresh beginning. A chance to set a new intention moving forward. You know, the New Year Resolution. Even if we don’t articulate them to others, most of us make these resolutions. Some are pretty common, like “I’m gonna hit the gym every morning”, or “I’m gonna start eating better”… We set out with gusto and the best of intentions only to slip along the way. And if we slipped, we tell ourselves that it’s over and shift back to our previous selves.

According to one of my favourite sites, HowStuffWorks.com, the origin of making New Year’s resolutions rests with the Babylonians, who reportedly made promises to the gods in hopes they’d earn good favor in the coming year. Sound familiar?

My resolution has been the same for the past five years: Drink.More.Water. It’s an easy one and I firmly believe that if you can just drink more water, the rest will follow. Think about it for a minute. We need water to live. When we are properly hydrated we have more energy, think more clearly, we sleep better, our skin looks better, and we eat less – because let’s face it, sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger.

Is your new year resolution to lose weight? Then drink more water. Did you know that drinking a litre of water in a 20 minute period can help you lose weight? The water “floods” your kidneys, allowing them to function better. When your kidneys are functioning at their peek, your liver doesn’t need to help with purification as much so it has more time to do other things… like burn fat. Seriously. The liver is a major fat burning organ in the body and regulates fat metabolism by a complicated set of biochemical pathways. It can also pump excessive fat out of the body through the bile into the small intestines. So if you make your resolution this year to simply drink more water, then you’ve set yourself up for positive changes.

And speaking of positive changes, here are five other resolutions that I found online that I think are worth taking to heart from 20 Things To Let Go Of Before The New Year:

  1. Let go of feeling guilty for doing what you truly want to do.
  2. Let go of “cheating” on your future with your past. It’s time to move on and tell a new story.
  3. Let go of trying to fit in and be accepted by everyone. Your uniqueness is what makes you outstanding.
  4. Let go of the fear of the unknown; take one small step and watch the path reveal itself.
  5. Let go of blaming anyone for anything; be accountable for your own life. If you don’t like something, you have two choices, accept it or change it.

Wanna learn more about the history of New Year’s Eve? Click here to visit History.com

Picture Perfect Tuesday: Happy New Year

Posted in Lifestyle, Lifestyles, new years eve, nye2013, photography, Picture Perfect Tuesdays by

Tonight is New Year’s Eve, the night that we cut loose and celebrate the passing of another year – noting our accomplishments and brushing off our failures as we welcome in a fresh year full of possibilities.

For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday on the eve of the New Year, I give you roots. Take a moment to think about yours.

roots

Fashion Fun Friday: Fun Fashion Sites

Posted in Fashion, follow friday, Lifestyles by

Today for Fashion Fun Friday I wanted share some of my favourite sites for fashion for anyone still looking for ideas for New Year’s Eve.

One place that I LOVE buying stuff from is a site called FashionJunkee.com. I happened upon this site after seeing their small ad in a gossip rag I was reading while getting my hair coloured. (Spoiler alert! I’m not a natural blonde…) The ad featured this winged kimono dress that caught my eye and is now happily living in my closet:

Wing Kimono Dress

Top Shop is another favourite of mine… I learned about this store while on vacation last year in Chicago and fell in love with their cheeky, trendy and low-cost fashions. For this New Year’s Eve, I’m on the hunt for some fringe, so this cute Velvet Fringe Tunic has made the shopping list:

Velvet Fringe Dress

Another great online shopping site is still Zappos. Offering a wide variety of designers for a variety of budgets. How fun this this Parker Allegra Dress!!

Parker Allegra Dress

If all else fails, you can rent a dress from Toronto’s Rent Frock Repeat. You can wear the latest dresses from the hottest designers for around $100! Like this Ivory Beaded Fringe Cocktail Dress:

Ivory Beaded Fringe Cocktail Dress

Picture Perfect Tuesdays: Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

Posted in christmas, Lifestyle, Lifestyles, Picture Perfect Tuesdays by

Is your fridge covered in Christmas photo cards? Mine is! I love getting these because in the age of digital photography we rarely seem to print anything anymore. We now gather around the computer to look at pictures, rather than a photo album.

In honour of Christmas being tomorrow (cue the panicking..) this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday is a Christmas Card that I created for shits and giggles of the hubby and I in front of the White House Christmas Tree…

christmas

Picture Perfect Tuesday: Calm Before the Storm

Posted in Lifestyles, Picture Perfect Tuesdays by

We have all heard the phrase “the calm before the storm.” For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday, I present what that saying actually looks like!

I snapped this on a dog walk this past July. Within minutes the sky turned to black and we were bombarded with rain. Then it was over as quickly as it had begun.

The Calm Before the Storm