Makeover Mania!!!

A few months ago my very talented friend Shandi Saito of Tabhair Photography and I were in a mid winter slump... so as girls do, we decided to get together for coffee. This girl never fails to inspire me! She wanted to get her creative juices flowing again, and I wanted to light a fire under my own skinny jeans clad butt! It didn't take much conversation before we realized that what we needed was to get around some inspiring ladies and do what we love to do most... make others feel better about themselves. Shandi by showing them how beautiful they are in photos, and me revealing their beauty with hair/makeup/ and clothes. TA DA!! A makeover was born! A facebook event was created... names, stories and photos were submitted and finally the day came to choose the name! We were both SOOOO excited! There were such fabulous ladies names in that little jar! It was so much fun that we decided we HAD to choose two names!

Well... It took a bit of time to get it all coordinated, 4 busy moms with 4 busy schedules, but last Saturday we finally all made it work!

 And what a fun day it was!! My daughter Katrina made a fantastic assistant and my Charlie was good for comic relief! "Oh Charlie!"
















The 1st gorgeous gal was Heather!
Heather is a busy wife and mom of 8!!!  As if having 4 kids isn't busy enough, they opened their hearts and welcomed 4 adopted children into their family a few years ago. When she isn't chasing one of her toddlers she's off taking one of her teens to a practice or gymnastics class! We all know how rarely moms get to take an afternoon just for themselves to get dolled up, so it was a joy to see her soak in every minute! She is so sweet and kind  and also so very STUNNING (and so are the photos Shandi took of her)!

Heather Before

Heather After

Heather After

Our second great lady of inspiration is an exceptionally cool chic who gets her hands dirty daily and is a force to be reckoned with in her male dominated job all while holding down the role of mom and wife!
And this girl smiles ALL THE TIME! Let me tell you, she is a gracious beauty inside and out! What I loved most about her was every time I gave her a compliment she replied with the most sincere smile and "THANK YOU"! It made me realize that by brushing off compliments that are given to me, I'm wrecking the joy that was intended by the giver! Thanks for reminding me of that Christine!

Christine before

Christine After

Christine After

This day left me with lasting memories...a warmed heart... and a renewed passion for what I love to do...showing ladies how beautiful they are! SHANDI... LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!!

Reduce, Reuse ReSQUISH

You are about to discover a very real truth about me. I may as well just confess... I'm a cheapy. I rarely buy something if it isn't on sale. I LOVE a bargain... like really, REALLY love a good old "Holy Cow...you paid WHAT!?" kinda bargain! And because of this I often have the mentality with my things that if they get ruined, ripped, or broken... "oh well, what the heck, it only cost me_____". Take for example my brand new polka dotted denim shirt from Winners. I was wearing it for the first time the other day, not even noticing it getting a little breezy, when my friend Sue pointed out the the entire back seam had ripped open! She said I should take it back... I couldn't  be bothered for how little I paid for it. I'll just sew it back up, and wear a cardigan over it!

Another fix-it project that I'm SO excited to share with you, starts in that moment we've all had. You're busy in the mornings, rushing to get out the door, and so, while slapping on your daily allotted amount of cosmetic product, it's understandable that you might just be a bit more clumsy that usual. In the chaos, time seems to slow down to the classic television slow motion scene as you watch your favorite eye shadow pot slip gracefully through the air, heading to it's sad demise as it projectiles towards your extremely hard tiled floor. You dive ever so gracefully as though rescuing a falling newborn baby...
 Ok... back to reality. Your attempted rescue mission is a fail and your favorite cake eyeshadow is now a clumpy powdery mess. This is usually the start to a day that continues with a run in your nylons and coffee spilled down your white blouse and ends with a flat tire on your way home.
I used to try to continue to use the broken eyeshadow, while it would ever so slowly leak out into my makeup bag making the rest of my makeup look like it had been in there since 1930. Until, one day, I'd eventually give up on it, and toss it. BUT, the other day, I had a lightbulb moment! What if, I could make that powdery mess solid again!? So I dug out that newly dropped tub of light pink and got to work.


I added a teeny tiny drop of water...

Carefully stirred and mixed until all the powder was all wet...

And then began pressing the powder down as tightly as I could.

I then left it out on the counter to dry over night and VOILA!! Good as new!!

Winter 2012 Stripes

Joe Fresh Black and White Striped Turtleneck!

Winter 2012 Stripes by nicoleruth 

Winter is a time to get cosy  but often I find myself gravitating to browns, greys and blacks, which tend to end up making me feel drab after a while. A way I've found to spice up those warm tones is to add in black and white stripes! This black and white striped sweater from Joe Fresh is my new favourite go to! And the beige one is on my wish list... it comes in 7 different colours and both options are only $19!!

Joe Fresh Sweater comes in 7 colours!

Touché Bouclé !

Oh bouclé  ... I so thought I'd seen the last of you. 8 years ago, I had my very talented Auntie sew me a frayed bouclé  jacket. It was a pretty messy undertaking... she had pink fibers all over her house. Unfortunately, the trend passed very quickly after she'd finished it, and I didn't get many chances to wear it. Fortunately I saved it and the trend is back!

I recently found this picture on Pinterest and I admit it's caused me a bit of a frantic obsession! My biggest pet peave is when Pinterest items don't have a link to find where to purchase the item!

I'm SO in love with this look that I found on Pinterest that I had to hunt it down! 

UniQueen Malang Jacket

I found the original, but they no longer have the color that the model was wearing on Pintrest... so being the hunter that I am I found another one on Ebay for a fraction of the price!

Get this one on ebay!

 You thought you'd gotten the best of me... but Touché Bouclé !

Parent Rap

Parents rap about maintaining their household by videosonlytube

This is so fabulously accurate!

Your Fall 2012 Shopping List

Fall Shopping List...

Zara

1. Chunky sweater. 

Joe Fresh

2. Waxed Jeans

Poppy and Barley

3. Fabulous boots (And why not have them custom made right from Edmonton!!).

BCBG

4. Stunning coat.

5. An "It" Bag

Modalu at Town Shoes

Dynamite

6. Jewel toned scarf

Tada!!! All set to rock fall's cozy socks off! 

What Next

Prada ...photo from style.com

Somehow every time I obsess about something...search for it...attain and adore it... I suddenly see it EVERYWHERE... therefore ruining my excitement about owning one. This happened with my owl necklace... my backless shirt... my sequined miniskirt. So I figured, maybe I have fashion physic abilities? No, not really... if I did I'd be a designer and making millions. So what am I obsessing about right now? Fisherman sweaters. Yup... somehow I feel the old ugly sweater your grandma knitted you is going to make a reappearance....

The Pinterest photo that started my obsession and hunt.

   
Turquoise ring can be bought here and the sweater here

 Here's one I found on ebay

See my last post with a chunky sweater to see how long I've been searching here!