Can A Blog Change Your Life?

The answer is apparently YES! As I mentioned when I started to blog I did this cause I felt that I had things to say and it may be of interest to people and off I went. I have not held back on any of my blogs I have given my opinion whether it be good or bad. I have opened up about things that I hold near and dear and share stories from my family. This has been a really great experience for me and my creative side, I was always scared I thought I loss that when I gave up hairdressing full time.

I didn’t really know how many people read my little blog as I only officially have 4 followers (Please join up to follow me) but I started getting a huge amount of private messages through Facebook, email and texts. Some people don’t always feel like commenting on a wall post especially some that have been as personal as mine. I have had people who I have known for years that I had no idea had gone through things that I had. I also had a message that a person went and used the Botox place I recommended and loved it. My best friend told me they loved me after my blog about them and Corrine has been at the gym 2 days this week so we can see each other.

These really made me feel good about my blog, but there is 2 people I was to talk about who have meant the most to me by sending me a email. It wasn’t until yesterday I received an email from an American lady (Yes I have gone International) she had gotten onto my blog through a friend of hers who was put onto it by someone else. The one thing with my blog I have no idea who reads it as I don’t have a tracker or who looks at it or not. Anyway back to this amazing girl, she said she has been reading my blog daily and has really touched her. She suffered an eating disorder for years trying to get to a place that she was happy, that place never happen which is a common with people with severe eating disorders. She confessed that she was so bad that she use to stand in the shower and run on the spot to burn calories. She has had Botox to feel younger and to break my heart a little further she and he now husband are on their 4th round of IVF trying to get pregnant the years of damage she did to herself. She goes in and out of depression and beats herself up on how she could have stopped this. Responding to this email was such a hard thing as I’m not a councillor or am able to give her any type of advice. I won’t go into what I responded to her with but it was full of positive information and have told her to email me when she want if she needs to talk.

The second person I wanted to talk about is a lady I actually know! I met this lovely lady through a mutual friend and she sent me a message that she has been trying to lose weight since having her 2nd child and is getting nowhere and feels terrible about talking to people as she feels like a broken record. She needed someone like I needed when I started on my downward spiral into a mild eating disorder. She read my blog and was hoping for some advice on eating and exercise and support. I referred her to read my best friends Lizzie’s FIT blog (You can find this on blog spot) I have been clear that I am no expert on losing weight but am more than happy to give her tips on what works for me and email and text her regularly letting her know that I am here for her and she can call me when she feels like chucking it in. I am more than happy to do this for anyone that needs this.

Everyone’s posts, comments, emails and texts mean the world to me and make writing this blog worth wild. If people can walk away from any of my blogs feeling better about themselves then my job is done.

I would like to end this blog with a quote from the beautiful Emma Pilcher, Believe in yourself (cause I sure do)

Note: Both women who I have written about in this blog have approve of me writing about them. I would like to dedicate this to them as they inspired this blog from me. Xxxx

No Fear!

As I mentioned in my blog yesterday my 2 year old niece Ava has no fear of anything at the moment. I have never seen a child run at things with such little concern for her own safety. I must admit this is one of the things I love so much about Ava, all my nieces and nephew are so different to one another and all have their own little traits. But at the moment this is a the top of my list for Ava. You could not find a more chalk and cheese pair then Ava and her sister Elise, Lisi as she is known is more reserved and cautious and has been for her whole life. When we got our first pug Roxy, Elise was completely freaked out by Roxy even though she was a 100 times bigger than her, Lisi is warming to Roxy now that she is older and a little calmer.
Ava has always been cautious of Roxy as long as she can remember Roxy has been full size and I full size pug is scary to any 2 year old. But now we have added a new edition to the family in the name of a little black pug name Elvis, I am very cautious that the girls know Elvis from a early age so as he grows they are ok with him and he is obviously not threatening at his grand old weight of 850 grams.

So when I called my sister on Saturday and asked to pop round to introduce Elvis to Lisi and Ava I knew we would have to be careful not to freak both of them out. When I walked is Lisi was intrigued by him but didn’t want to hold him as I know this was time thing for Lisi she would hold him in her own time. Ava went running from the room screaming. Where did my no fear girl go I got scared that she was losing that quality all ready, she came running back in 1 minute later to find me sitting on the floor with Elvis and Lisi having a play then all of a sudden plonking herself right next to me pulling Elvis out of my hands and putting him on his lap and turning to me and saying “puppy!” No concern for her safety or if Elvis may hurt her she was wrapped in this little puppy in front of her and I lost my puppy from that moment on had to pry him back out of her hands when it was time to go.

So this got me thinking when did we all become such big scaredy cats! Really we get to an age where we become so cautious of most things and stop taking chances. Now I don’t mean jumping out of planes or playing chicken on a busy road (Well actually I do that most days trying to get across the road to get my coffee) but we don’t take as many chance in life we do things the safe way. I don’t know if it’s cause we become complacent or if it’s because we can’t be bothered. For example I was speaking with a girl in my Attack class who hates her job but is scared to leave. When I asked why she said it’s all I know and I’m secure there. Me any job I have hated I have left, one cause I figure that I spend 40 plus hours there a week and I need to like what I do and the people I work with. But with saying this about this lady in my attack class she goes bungee jumping all the time, now me I will never do bungee jumping I like my spine in place thank you very much. So how are we so fearless in some things but not in others, I know every time I’m called to my big bosses office I run through my head of what could I be getting in trouble and sit nervously until I find out the reason I have been summonsed there. Usually it’s to give an update on what I’m working on.

So what I would like to ask the people who read this is to do something fearless in the next week, it can be as simple as trying some random food or book a trip to a destination that you want to go to but have been holding back on or to approach your boss about a pay rise or a new role that is being advertised internally. I think sometimes we need to take an Ava approach to life and go in no holds bar and give it a go. Remember in life where not here for a long time but a good one so make everyday count.

Things That Make Me Happy!

I was speaking to a girl that I work with and she was saying that when she has a bad day she makes a list of what makes her happy. This acts as a distraction to what is going on in her day and brings her back to reality.
So here is my list.

• My Fiancé, he puts me in my place when I need it and loves me unconditionally
• My puppies, Roxy and Elvis make me laugh and I always have someone to come home to who is happy to see me
• My family, as much as we can drive each other up the wall we love each other non the less
• My nieces and nephew laugh, they all have this crazy cackle and it keeps me in stitches
• My friends, they are always there for me and always fun to have a party with
• Balloons, I have a slightly weird obsession with them I always think people are lucky who get given balloons
• The singing Barista, across the road from my work is this amazing coffee shop and they have a barista that sings while he makes your coffee. I always have a giggle at this
• A good cup of coffee
• My niece Ava has no fear and dives into everything head first. I love watching this as I know that she will grow out of it one day
• Fresh Flowers, there is nothing like fresh flowers I think they can brighten your day and a room
• Running, I love that it clears my head and I am at the point now I can run for an hour and a half and not stop
• New music on my ipod, anyone who runs know that it makes a difference when running
• Trashy TV, Joe hates it but my favourite is The Housewives of NYC, The Kardashians, Pineapple Dance Studio and The Hills just to name a few
• Gelato, any flavour and I will eat it at anytime of the year
• Personal training, I for some dumb reason like getting my ass kicked
• Dancing, I don’t care where there is nothing like shaking what your mother gave you

I would love you all to comment on one or more things that make you happy. You would be amazed what makes people happy sometimes.

What Classifies A Real Friend?

I am very fortunate in life that I have 3 best female friends, I have met all of them in different ways. My oldest friend Kristen I met as school, we had a crush on the same boy at school. Now most girls would see this as competition not Kristen and I we saw it as way to spy on him and report back to one another. Tragic I know but if you think this is bad you should have seen the notes we wrote to one another. I then have Corrine, I met Rin at the gym, I use to see her every morning then one day while I was in the process of getting change up walks Corrine and say “Oh wow you have hair extensions, I just got mine last week” now if most people walked up to me while I was half naked and started to talk to me about my hair they would have copped the most dirty of looks but I remember looking at Corrine and thinking I can’t help but like you and that is how our friendship was born. And lastly Lizzie, I must admit I was a little wary of Lizzie when I met her, she had not long started dating my best male friend and like most friends would be prepared to scratch her eyes out if she did anything to hurt him. Over time I realised that Lizzie and I have a lot in common and this girl has come to my rescue on a few occasions, especially when I’m writing work reports, resumes and assignments for Tafe. These are 3 people who are truly special to me hence why they will walk down the aisle with me when it comes to my wedding day.

So you may be wondering why am I writing about these 3 wonderful girls and their friendships to me? Well that’s simple, I received a text from Corrine last week that said “I’m so sorry I haven’t had time for you lately”. Corrine and I have had a huge amount going on in our lives in the last few months and we went from seeing each other every day at the gym to once every 2-3 weeks as Corrine running every morning near home so she can get to work early and while I’m still at the gym. I smiled at this message as it is a very Corrine thing to say and I would probably say it to her as well if she hadn’t beaten me to the punch. Now the reason that this makes me smile as I have a different relationship with all these girls but still very much the same. I regularly can go a few weeks with Corrine and Kristen and not speak to them. Not that I don’t want to but cause were all so busy, this doesn’t mean I love them any less or that they love me any less but that’s our life at the moment. Kristen and I didn’t speak to each other for 2 years after I left high school. This didn’t mean I loved her any less but we needed to do our own things for a while. But I know it is as simple as picking up the phone and saying hi what’s doing and everything is the same. There is no arguments that you haven’t called or that I’m a bad friend, this to me is a great friends. Now you may be wondering here about Lizzie, well she is in own group all together. As I said Lizzie started dating my best male friend and they are still together 5 years on, I see Lizzie every weekend and email and text nearly every day. This is as we are in the same group of friends spend a lot of time together. I know if the situation ever changed if we didn’t speak for a week or so the same rules apply, there would be no arguments that we weren’t in contact with one another, it would just pick up where it had left off.

Now I know that isn’t what always defines friends but for me when it come down to it I would prefer to have a handful of friends like these than a mountain of friends who come and go through my life. I think if you can count you true friends on your hand then you are doing very well for yourself in life. I made the decision many years ago that I didn’t want toxic friends in my life and that for a simple reason. I can do a pretty good job of making myself feel bad on occasion, I don’t need the people around me doing it for me. So I did a bit of a clean out of friends, I also along with half my group got cleaned out from 2 friends that I thought where our good friends. Amazing what a boob job can do for a friendship (not mine, obviously for anyone who knows me) I also think that this has been a great thing as I don’t miss these friends and if they can’t be honest with you about something very obvious then what kind of friends are they right? I also don’t miss the way they made me feel, I was made to feel that I was bellow them, whether this was intentional or not I don’t now but I know I don’t miss it. So I hope this blog make you take a little look at your “friends” and if any of them are making you feel bad about yourself then maybe it’s time to have a clean out. It will guarantee that you will feel better about yourself and I promise that you will be better off without them.

The Blue Parrot

I never thought that I would do a restaurant review but I went to a restaurant on Saturday night that was so good it was hard to not write about it. The restaurant is called The Blue Parrot at its on Surf Rd at Cronulla. My fiancé and I were catching up with another couple and I haven’t been out to dinner with them before but Joe has known Steve since high school. So we wanted to go somewhere really nice and I really wanted to get to know both of them better as Joe speaks so highly of Steve and we are invited to their wedding in January.

Now I left it in Joe and Steve to organise where to go to dinner and being typical boys it was 2pm on Saturday and nowhere had been booked. So I was down at Cronulla and went and had a look around for somewhere for dinner. We had seen some great reviews for the Cooks Table but it was booked out so walking back I walked past The Blue Parrot and saw they had 3 courses of $37.50 so I thought that’s well this is reasonable and they were able to fit us in so it worked out perfect. I have been to the Blue Parrot about 8 years ago and the food was lovely from memory and my parents go there on occasion so I knew it had to be ok.

So we had an early reservation and when we arrived the restaurant was half full which was surprising for 6:30pm, we were seated in at a beautiful table. One of the first things I noticed was it is a really beautiful restaurant, the lighting is really nice it wasn’t to dark and it wasn’t blaring light either. They had a great menu with a really nice mix; they had beautiful salads and light meals for entrées. I had the tempura prawns with lemon aioli; Joe had the prawn and scallop wontons for entrees, both these dishes were amazing and very light. The serves for these were very generous.

For mains I had lamb shanks with vegetables, I can sometimes be very wary of lamb shanks, as they can be a very heavy dish. This wasn’t at all. Joe had the duck, which was great and cooked really well. I’m not a huge duck person but I really enjoyed it. Laura had a stuffed chicken, which looked amazing and she said was great too.

We were tossing up on desert should we or shouldn’t we, Laura and I made the call that the desert was the way to go. I am a bandit for a good gelato, so they have a trio of gelatos. It was fig, pistachio and chocolate. I have to say these were AMAZING! Joe got the fruit platter and Steve and Laura got the sticky date pudding. The fruit platter was really good and had really nice cheeses. Both Steve and Laura said there sticky date pudding was great as well. Only complaint was the ratio of ice cream to pudding wasn’t quiet right but delicious none the less.

So apart from the food there was other things that made the meal so great. The waiters were very attentive and were always there but not in an over annoying way. The meals were all bought out together and were all hot so we knew nothing had been sitting there for a while.

I really recommend this restaurant to anyone as the food is amazing and so was the service. It is also BYO so you can take your favourite bottle wine to have with your meal. Definitely give this place a go as it is not a huge restaurant a go if you like good food and want somewhere you can go and talk to your friends. Phone number is (02) 9523 9109.

Wedding Guests

As I have mentioned in previous blogs I am get married in 7 months time. And who ever said that getting married is the happiest time in your life clearly lied!
Well actually it’s not as bad as that but a wedding is a lot of stress and money. Now I am very lucky both my parents and my fiancés parents have been kind enough to help out with paying for the wedding so that has take a lot of stress of us financially.

Now like most couples we have an idea of what our dream wedding is. I am very lucky Joe and I have very simular tastes in things and when we found our wedding reception we both knew that this was it and that neither one of us had to talk the other into a place we didn’t want. The other big thing is the venue is a great size but realistically it also limits our numbers to about a 100 at the most. So when it came time to sit down and go through who would be there this was a very tough call. I have a very large family and extended family my extended family are family friends who have been in my life since birth and have welcome Joe into their family with welcome arms. Joe on the other hand does not. He has his 5 brothers and sisters 2 of which have partners and his parents and Nanna. (May I say I love Nanna McGloin so much I have never seen such a small woman consume so much champagne but I guess that’s the Irish in her)
So once we put our family down we then had to move onto friends, this is always tricky. You have people that are in your group of friends that you only see when there is an event or your have friends who go through girlfriend or boyfriends faster than I do underwear. So where do you draw the line at people you invite to the wedding.

We made a common rule of no plus ones or no people who we hadn’t seen in 5 years or that each of us hadn’t met. This seems ok in theory but not so? Do we invite bosses? Do we invite work friends? Oh we went to that person wedding but I haven’t seen them in 3 years and only chat occasionally on Facebook. Well as you can imagine when we did the first draft we were at 130 people, this was way too much and we wouldn’t be able to fit. So when we went through the list both Joe and I were saying to each other who is this? And we would then have to decide can we have them or not. It is really hard cutting people off a list as you don’t want to offend anyone but you also need to be realist are they going to be in your life in 5 years time. This is sadly a hard task as you do start thinking about what kind of friendships these are and it sad to think about friends this way too.

I know plenty of people who have invited everyone to their wedding and within 12 months have never seen them again and have paid $150 a head for them to be at the wedding. That’s the last thing we want, weddings and engagements are a very personal thing and I do believe that you have the people you love there. We had the great experience of a girl who Joe and I are not close with and we know has an issue with us show up at our engagement party, as you can imagine it went down really well with me when she comes into your parents home and helps herself to food and alcohol you have paid for. Not cool!

So for anyone who is planning a wedding take the time to think about who you want to invite to your wedding, this day is about you and you fiancé. And sharing it with the people you love. People should understand that weddings are expensive and that sometimes there just isn’t enough space or money to have everyone.

Moroccanoil

So today I thought I would give a review of Moroccan oil for all the people who are a little curious about this product. Well when I say all of you I mean the ladies not so much the men.

The luxury brand, Moroccanoil®, is the originator and leading manufacturer of professional Argan Oil in recent years there has been many competitors come out releasing their own version of this product.

A powerful antioxidant and UV protector, Moroccanoil’s proprietary Argan oil blend is rich in vitamins and natural elements that fortify the hair, including Vitamin F (Omega 6), Vitamin A to improve elasticity, Vitamin E to protect against free-radicals, and Phenols to shield against environmental stressors.

Moroccanoil® products have a strong following among leading runway, film, television and celebrity stylists who search for the very finest for their A-list clients. Moroccanoil® is a backstage fixture frequently used to create hair for major magazine covers, fashion editorial spreads, as well as for award shows.
There is many Moroccanoil®’s Argan oil is harvested under a fair trade program which provides substantial socio-economic support to thousands of families in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. Revenue from this project provides income to families and helps improve the working conditions of rural women. It is also used for reading, writing and management classes, as well as for modern infrastructure and technology that help make harvesting easier and more efficient, ensuring long-term management of the Argan forest.

First of all I liked what the company stands for any company that is under the fair trade program I am will to give sometime to. So I bought a small bottle to try out on not just myself but on my clients as well. The usual thing with a product is that it will work great on some hair but not others. I have extensions in my hair and being human hair I need to treat them like normal hair. I find the ends of my extensions can sometimes get a little dry so I make sure that I use good shampoo’s and conditioner, I also find most oils work well on the end of them as well. So I wash and conditioned my hair and added a small amount to the ends. Firstly this stuff smells amazing! Secondly it glided on my hair and when I combed my hair it detangled and I could feel the smoothness where I had placed the oil.

So I did two tests, one letting my hair dry naturally into a curl and blow dried straight. Like most hair when dried naturally it is frizz central, not with the oil. My girls were very defined and smooth and not sticky or felt like I rubbed a bottle of oil in my head.

Next the blow dry test. I find most of my clients can dry their roots to mid lengths really well but they can’t seem to smooth out their ends. So I decided to give my hair a very unprofessional blow dry. Not drying in sections and just a shake, brush, dry. Thanks Sue for her description of how she dries her hair. Even at my most rubbish attempt at a blow dry my hair look really reasonable, can you imagine what it would look like if I did it properly.

So I then moved onto my next test my mum anyone who has seen my mum knows she has a huge amount of hair and the texture is coarse. When I used the oil it was so smooth and felt amazing nice and smooth and took the very coarse feeling off it.

I have now been using this on all my clients with amazing results. Moroccanoil is not a cheap product a large on will set you back about $45 or a small $25. This product does last a long period of time and a little goes a long way. I recommend that if you would like to purchase SA hair and Beauty suppliers on level 7 the Gowing Building sell this product a reasonable cost or you can go online and order from http://www.hairbodyskin.com.au/hair1/moroccan-oil/?gclid=CKmyvrLAraMCFQMjbgodBF4K3w