What's your style?

Lately I've realized that so many of us just want a little change.  Nothing too crazy, just something a bit different.  Something that makes you look twice.  I have what you need folks!  I do!  You don't need to change your haircut EVERY TIME you visit the salon! You can have the same haircut and STYLE it differently day-to-day!  You can!

So I'm sounding very excited right now, but it's because I've discovered something.  Styling your hair can literally be done differently day-to-day!  You can change something very little almost every time you wear you hair!  Part on the left Monday, part on the right Tuesday, pull back hair on the left Wednesday, pony-tail Thursday...ya get me right?  It may seem a little odd but it doesn't take much.  Start feeling bored with your old hair?  POW!  You have a bobby clip accent in your hair!  ....Okay the exclamations are done.

Ask your stylist for tips and tricks on styling your hair.  We just got these styling kits and they are a great place to start (for those of you who are ready for the challenge).  The kit includes bobby pins (available in three color types), 2 combs, and 2 clips (for hot tool styling).  Oh and the canvas sack can be reused to carry anything else that suits your fancy. :)

Do you style your hair?  Why?  Why not?  We'd love to know!

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the fresh perspective...

HERE COMES THE SUN A friend and I read an interesting fact about the sun and your hair.  According to Allure, 100 hours of direct sunlight on your hair is as damaging as having straight bleach on it for 30 minutes.  What?! Can you believe that?  When you really think about it, your skin gets darker in the sun so of course it can affect your hair!

Here are a few tips to protect your locks from the sun:

-try to use products with UV protectors.

-in a pinch, a little sunscreen mixed with water can be sprayed in for extra protection.

-cover it up!  Scarves and hats are quite functional and fashionable.

-make sure you clarify every now and again.  A clarifyer will strip your hair of environmental build up and product build up.  Once clarified, give yourself a treatment to replace the moisture you've washed out.

-braid it up and away!  Braids are the hottest trend right now and will expose less of your hair to the sun.

It doesn't take long to check the ingredients on the products you buy.  Purchasing from a salon will allow you to dialogue with your stylist and he or she can steer you in the right direction.  If you're the type that spends ALL summer in the sun, get yourself some protection!  That's all I need to say, that's the fresh perspective...

the fresh perspective...

HOLIDAZE It's time!  I'm taking some time off and won't be posting till I'm back from vacation.  For the next few days I'll be hanging out at splash pads, eating out, and doing some ultra light reading (I'm traveling with kiddos).

Holidaying with little ones can be interesting and if you're doing it alone, it can be tiring.  While the kids are sleeping I'm going to attempt to read a book and just take it all in.  I'll be looking forward to not cooking and cleaning,  I'll be looking forward to getting browner in the sun and I'll be looking forward to early nights...

Because the girls are with me, I'm planning most of my trip around them.  We will be going to the zoo and some random pools.  We'll be watching the movies of my youth Annie and The Little Rascals.  Along with my light reading, I would like to check out the Patti Smith exhibit at the AGO and cook a meal for my great hosts...

All in all, I'll be offline for ten glorious days.  I hope that all of you have planned some time to get away between now and the end of the summer.  As important as it is to have a job and work, and save, and be practical; it's just as important to take breaks, rest and be silly.  That's the fresh perspective...

the fresh perspective...

MOTIVATION

June is upon us and before we know it the heat and the insects will have us all complaining about cooler times and bug-less nights.  Until then, what are you doing to keep yourself motivated to enjoy the summer?  Are you a runner/outdoors type who is motivated by our longer days? Maybe you're a patio drinker that's motivated by the longer days?  Are you the type that gets the cottage itch and re-locates to the lake for the summer?  You might be the type that takes in all the city's festivals and shows for the summer.

I can't actually decide which category I fall into, but I do know that I'm getting some motivation to get more creative with fashion in general.  I've got a few shoots booked this summer and I'm getting excited about being able to do a little styling on the side.  I'm not sure that the average joe knows how much work, time, and planning actually goes into a proper photo shoot, but I'm ready for the task!

Motivation is a funny thing because we all have the capability to accomplish anything we would like, we just don't always know how to pull the trigger and get things done.  I think the majority of us do need something external to get us to accomplish more.  Something more external that forces us to look internally...  The nice weather and all the stylish people who come in and out of my life are motivating me to be more creative.  By the time you come into the shop in the fall, you will see the fruits of our labor and time.

Country living and lake life are where I'm getting my motivation from and hopefully it'll translate well on camera... That's it.  That's all...that's the fresh perspective...

the fresh perspective...

Manitobans

The long weekend is here and I know a lot of people who are 'going to the lake'.  We're Manitobans, that's what we do.  This long weekend I'd like to tip my hat off to Manitoba and it's people.  Here are some interesting facts about our fair province!

• Manitoba basks in more than 2,300 hours of bright sunshine each year.
• Winnipeg has held the "Slurpee Capital of the World" title for six years in a row, gulping 400,000 of the semi-frozen soft drinks per month.
• The Golden Boy, gilded in 24 carat gold, towers 77 m (255 ft) atop the Manitoba Legislative Building. Sculpted and cast in France, the statute spent the First World War in the hold of a ship, crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean after the ship was commandeered for troop transport.
• The Manitoba Legislative Building is a stunning example of Beaux-Arts Classic architecture completed in 1920 out of unique Tyndall limestone quarried in Garson, Manitoba.
• The name Manitoba is believed to come from the words "manitowapow" (Cree) or "manito bau" (Ojibway), which mean "straight of the spirit" and refer to an island in Lake Manitoba Narrows where a "manitou" or "great spirit" beat his drums.
• The beaver is the world's largest rodent and its luxurious pelt fuelled the 19th century fur trade, leading to the exploration and eventual settlement of Manitoba by Europeans.
• At one point in geological history, Manitoba was an alpine province with huge mountain ranges.

• Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba are all that is left of glacial Lake Agassiz that once covered most of the province.
• Churchill, Manitoba, is known as the "Polar Bear Capital of the World" for being the most accessible place to view polar bears in the wild.
• There are more than 120 public and private golf courses in Manitoba, with some of the most scenic found in Hecla, the Whiteshell and Riding Mountain National Park.
• Comedian Bob Hope played his first game of golf in Winnipeg.
• Winnipeg was the first city in Canada to establish a United Way charity.
• The Harlequin Romance publishing empire began in Winnipeg.
• Winnipeg was the first city in the world to develop the 911 emergency phone number.
• Souris, Manitoba, is famous for its 177 m (582 ft) free-suspension footbridge over the Souris River - more than 40 metres longer and reportedly bouncier than the West Coast's famous Capilano Swinging Bridge.
• With its century-old banks and warehouse buildings, Winnipeg's historic Exchange District boasts the best-preserved, largest collection of terra cotta and cut-stone architecture in North America. Hollywood filmmakers love the area as a location setting for period-piece movies, such as "Jesse James" featuring Brad Pitt.
• Winnipeg's Union Station was designed by the same architects responsible for New York's Grand Central Station.

• The Winnipeg Folk Festival, one of North America's largest outdoor folk music festivals, turns Birds Hill Provincial Park into Manitoba's third largest population centre every July. Over 55,000 music lovers from across the continent come together for this four-day celebration.
• As North America's second largest alternative theatre festival, the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival draws more than 130 performing companies into the historic Exchange District each summer for 12 jam-packed days of edgy and comic performances. Theatre companies come from as far afield as Australia, South Africa, France, Scotland and New York.
• Manitoba produces more than 25,000 pounds of gold medal, award-winning golden caviar from Whitefish roe and exports it worldwide.
• The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is Canada's oldest and North America's second oldest dance company.
• The Winnipeg Art Gallery has the world's largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art, including over 9,000 works from sculpture, prints and textiles to paintings.
• The first million-dollar hockey player was Bobby Hull, the "Golden Jet". He played for the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association in 1972 and received his cheque at a public celebration at the famous Winnipeg intersection of Portage and Main.
• In addition to producing coins for Canada, Winnipeg's Royal Canadian Mint has minted currency for 60 countries around the globe.
• The international polling company Angus Reid began in Winnipeg.
• Assiniboine Forest in Winnipeg is the largest urban nature park in Canada and home to 80 species of birds.
• Spruce Woods Provincial Park is home to an ecological rarity in Manitoba - a desert-like area known as Spirit Sands featuring 30 m sand dunes.
• People have been meeting at The Forks in Winnipeg for thousands of years. The famous junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, once a gathering place for Manitoba's first peoples and later a bustling fur trading post, is now a popular 21st century attraction.

Have a great long weekend even if you're not 'going to the lake'... That's the fresh perspective...

***I took this info from here.

the fresh perspective...

Malie Organics Body Wash

I'm back with a product review.  Malie Organics is a skin care line we've been carrying for a few years.   I can honestly say that I've been using the body wash exclusively for over six months and am noticing that it is the real deal.  I LOVE moisturized skin and will stop at nothing to keep it soft, supple and fresh.  The wash is moisturizing and freshly scented.  Koke'e's scent is from the Hawaiian plant the Maile vine. It's a little thin but dissolves and spreads quite easily.  I tend to be an over user but a little less is always better...

Apart from making me fresh, clean and moist, any time you purchase a Malie Organics product that uses the Maile vine, 1% of the proceeds goes back to the Koke'e Resource Conservation Program.  So now you're doing a little more!

With the onslaught of information about the (watch the video if you're okay with images of death) catastrophe in Bangladesh, I have really begun to try to learn where my hard-earned money goes.  Buying a $25 lotion over a department store $10 lotion seems a little extravagant, but let me say that the lotion I buy gives back.  The $10 drug store lotion that's massed produced probably does not give back.  This was meant to be a product review and now has turned into a deeper post.

When you spend your money, what does it do after it leaves your hands?  What support does your money provide?  Think about this every time you swipe your debit or visa card.  Researching how your favorite goods and products are produced may seem foreign to some of you and commonplace for others.  If you want to learn more, just ask.  Once you know what your money does after it leaves you, you might think twice about how you spend it.

That's the fresh perspective...