the fresh perspective...

THE BRAID CROWN

Next week is the Academy Road Live festival and Freshair Boutique will be participating by setting up a braid bar. Between 2:30-3:30 we will be braiding hair and giving tips. If your hair is long, and you'd like to learn a little more about braiding then come on down. Braids are amazing and have been around for-ev-er! The new and improved braid is rough, messy, and full of texture. Back in the day we would make sure our braids were tight and secure. Now, we want them to look like they've fallen out a bit...

On June 8th we will be setting up our very first braid bar. The braid crown will be one of the styles and is one of my personal faves. Our receptionist (and Monday blogger) Pascale has taught herself how to do a braid crown. It's not easy, but she practiced, practiced, practiced...

If you are thinking about coming out next Saturday be sure to swing by the bar and maybe get a braid! It would be a good time to ask for some tips and tricks to help get you started. That's the fresh perspective...

**TIP-Braiding is easier to do on dirty hair and hair with a lot of texture. Don't be afraid to use some dry shampoo and toss your hair up with a braid on day three or four. The braid may buy you more time between washings... **

the fresh perspective...

FASHIONISTA Now that it's getting a little bit nicer here I'm excited to try some new styles for summer.  I have a floral print dress I picked up and have never worn yet, some shorty-shorts (short for me), and some sweet minty/blue pumps...  I like to push myself a little bit and like to try different trends and styles.  It doesn't always work out that they suit me, but I do try none the less.

Natalie from the tiny closet has some great taste and knows how to dress her very short frame.  Check out her blog and maybe get inspired!  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...

I sometimes like to read lyrics to songs as poems.  For me, when I read, the meaning is deepened.  This Alicia Keys song is wonderful, but as a poem?  I feel it's even better. [audio http://freshairboutique.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/10-i-need-you.m4a]

Tell someone today, how important they are to you.  Tell someone how much they mean to you.  We shouldn't have to wait for an event like Mother's Day to reach out to the ones we truly love...  That's the fresh perspective...

**"I Need You"

The sand loves when..the waves come The sky can't wait...for the light of the sun So how could you...look me in my eye And not see what, what I feel inside Tell me how could you... doubt the fact that I I love you... I love you

Don't you ever...think like that. Don't you ever...never do that? There will never be two things...that go together better Than you and me....

North needs south east needs west... No needs yes yes yes Up needs down life needs death... No needs yes yes yes

I need you I need you I need you

-Alicia Keys

**an excerpt

the fresh perspective...

Flowers in your hair

With weddings, grads and a butt load of summer functions coming up, flowers are a natural way to change it up!  You can pin one in on the side, or fashion a nifty crown.  Any floral accent will translate to so much more.

For crowns, you'll need thin long stemmed wild flowers that are pliable and easy to twist up.  Bits of twigs and berries are a nice touch as well.  The type of event will dictate the type of flower to use to help accentuate your look.  You may not wear a flower crown as a guest to a wedding, but maybe at a gathering at the lake...  A cluster of roses may work nice in an up do for grad, but not as well to a baby shower...

The type of hair you have will also help you make a decision as to what plant you would place in your hair.  As simple as it is, it's that simple!  Light haired ladies need light weight flowers. Thick haired gals can wear any type because thicker hair can support a thicker or sturdier flower (as well as lighter types).   As you guessed, I would advise you to chat with your stylist about some fun things you could do with your hair this upcoming summer season.  Check out oak & lily sometime and see what they might recommend.  Give it a try, that's the fresh perspective...

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...