Labour Pain Distraction Post--Fave Products Part 1.

Hi everyone... So I am still pregnant. My due date was yesterday and nothing happened. I actually had a doctors appointment today, and to spare you any nasty visuals, I won't go into detail with what she did, but she did do something to 'get things going' if you catch my drift. Anyway, tonight I feel like things are definitely starting to 'go', so needless to say I am a huge ball of emotions and fear and nerves! I needed to get my mind off of everything, so I thought I'd do a little El Blogg-o update!

And to keep things light, so that I don't end up bawling all over my keyboard, I am going to blog about superficial shit! Yay! What kind of superficial shit you ask? I am going to talk about some of my favourite Beauty products!

Favourite Mascara:

As I've mentioned before, I worked for Lancome for 5 years, so inevitably there a a gazillion of their products that I absolutely LOVE. One of them is Hypnose Mascara.

http://lancome.ca/Hypn%C3%B4se/990516,default,pd.html?cm_mmc=ppcgoogle-_-Makeup+EN-_-Hypnose-_-lancome%20hypnose%20mascara

Click link to read more about it and to shop online!

I love this mascara, because it gives your lashes awesome volume (up to 6 times), and the more you add, the more awesome your lashes look! Its an easy Mascara to layer... its not a very 'wet' consistency, it's almost mousse-y so it layers nicely. I am a huge fan of thick, black Mascara-y looking lashes, so this one is perfect for that. If you like something more natural and you like a little more separated, then this may not be the one for you.

Favourite Eye Makeup Remover:

Another Lancome product takes the cake here too! Bifacil is the most amazing-est eye makeup remover I have ever used! Even if I am not wearing a lot of eyeshadow (and when I do, it usually is a 'lot'), and I just have on eyeliner and lots of mascara, this remover barely requires any effort to get it off! All you do is shake the bottle, pour some onto a cotton pad, and swipe it over your eye area a couple of times. No hard rubbing, no red eyes... Voila! Makeup is gone.

http://lancome.ca/Bi-Facil/602581,default,pd.html?start=1&cgid=makeup-makeup-remover

Favourite Nail Polish:

I was actually just having this conversation with my sister the other day. We were both agreeing on how much we love the quality of OPI nail polishes. The color choices are outstanding, their color collections are always something interesting, they apply beautifully, and have great lasting power. My sister is like me, she loves to paint her nails! More often than not, we have our nails and toenails painted, so needless to say, we have both tried many, many brands of nail polish. As far as cheapie brands go, the Sally Hansen   Xtreme Wear ones are good for drying time and they have a nice wide brush that you can cover your entire nail in only a couple of strokes.

The Nicki Minaj collection coming in January 2012

The Muppets Collection available in stores now! I love the Green Sparkly Kermit one! (not sure what its called...)

http://www.opi.com/

http://sallyhansen.com/

Favourite Hair Detangler/Leave-in Conditioner:

A friend recommended this to me a while ago. It smells amazing and works really nicely to detangle, dry, knotty hair and moisturize it well. I haven't used it in a while because I tried out some L'Oreal stuff that I got for free, and I think the packaging may have changed, but hopefully the formula is still the same.



This is what the packaging looked like when I used it...





This is what I found when I Googled it, so I think this is what it looks like now...
http://www.kmscalifornia.com/en-US/default.aspx

The L'oreal detangler that I have been using, has been really nice as well. Nice smell and it does a good job detangling. And has a much better price too!

http://www.lorealparis.ca/_en/_ca/home/index.aspx



Favourite Eyeliners:

Although my career at Lise Watier Cosmetics was short lived, the one product that really impressed me was their Eye Shine Eyeliners. The glide on super smooth and easy, are waterproof, last ALL day long, and come in a ton of color choices.

http://www.lisewatier.com/eng/product/eye_shine/eye_shine

Favourite Nail Polish Drying Top Coat:

This is something that I just purchased last week and I love it! They are Drying Drops by Nicole by OPI and they work fabulously! As I mentioned earlier and a million times before, I love to paint my nails. What I don't love, however, is waiting for them to dry. I usually end up dinging them because i am on the impatient side. I used to use an amazing Quick Dry Top Coat by Christian Dior, but they discontinued their Nail line a while ago and I've been searching for a replacement ever since. I've used lots of other products that claim to dry your nails quicker, but they've never been quite as quick as I would've liked.  This product is very easy to use--you just use the dropper to drop 1-2 drops of the liquid onto your nail--and in one minute they are dry to the touch, and in five minutes they are completely dry! AMAZING!

http://www.nicolebyopi.com/

Well, we all know how much of a beauty junkie I am, and so far this blog is no where near exploring ALL of my favourite products, so I will have to write a part 2 to this one day I think. I still have to cover my favourite Skin Care products, Body Care products, and there are still more makeup products that I haven't even included either yet.... Buuuuuuut, as I may be going into labour anytime here and its after midnight, I think I should shut it down and get some rest! 

Goodnight!

Parenthood, Snowboards, and New Age Mind Fucks.

Segment One: PARENTHOOD

You never know what kind of a parent you will be until you are one. And even then, your kids are constantly changing, in turn, making you realize (rather humbly at times), that you don't know SHIT about parenting and thus changing the "type" of parent you are again.
I am also the type of person who has a lot of opinions (hence the blog...), and so with my first pregnancy I had a LOT to say about how I was going to raise my baby, and what I was and wasn't going to do. Buuuuut, as any other parent knows, you can throw all those opinions out the window once your baby shows up.
What I can tell you is that I didn't think I would be so 'mushy' about motherhood as I am. I didn't think that my hard-nosed disciplinarian ways would be worn down quite so damn quickly (my kid is only 2 for Pete's sake!). And I didn't think I would've been able to give up control and just let things be as much as I do.

Examples:

1. Mushy Mother:  Operation Big-Boy Bed has been in full effect for one full week. The first few days were pretty good. Apollo would call me each night to come to his room (the first night it was FOUR times, and then every night thereafter was less and less.) But it seemed that he understood that he was a big boy now and could no longer sleep in mommy and daddy's bed now that he had a nice big bed of his own. And then the last couple of days, everything went to shit. Why, you ask? Hell if I know. All I do know is, that last night he tried to come into our bed in the middle of the night, so Kevin walked him back to his room and of course he started crying. The crying was not 'tantrum-y' anger crying, but full on devastation, river of tears crying. And he was yelling "Mummmmmmmy! Maaammmmaa! Mum! Muuuuuum!". So I went over there... I had to! My poor heart couldn't take it! And he starts patting the pillow beside his little round head saying, in between sobs, "Cozy Mama. Cozy." I felt sooooooooooooo bad telling him that I couldn't because I had my own bed, blah blah blah. I tucked him in nicely and bent in for a kiss. He then wrapped his chubby little arm so tightly around my neck and pulled me in super tight for a hug and wouldn't let me go. This is when my tears started rolling. I felt sooooooooooooooooooooo sad for him! My poor boy just wanted to snuggle with his Mom, and for the sake of "it-will-make-it-better-in-the-long-run", I had to turn him down. After the hug, he asked me for his flashlight, and I tucked him in and said Goodnight. He fell asleep right away. I on the other hand, did not. I sobbed quietly in my bed for the next hour. In the morning I crawled in next to him in his bed to snuggle. See? Pure Mush!!

2. Discipline=Over: My kid used to go to bed at 7:30pm on the dot. Then it was 8:30pm. Now its, anywhere between 8 and friggin midnight! I used to think I was pretty darn smart at having 'mastered' a regimented bedtime. Yeah, I've flushed my smartie pants smugness right down the toilet.

3. Letting go of Control: When I was pregnant I read an awesome book about raising your children Diaper Free (meaning, starting potty training from birth pretty much) and I vowed I would have my son out of diapers by a year and a half. My mom says she did it with my sister and I, and a lot of Europeans are able to train their children early. Now that Apollo is at the age where we could do a hardcore potty training routine, I see that it is way more up to the child than I initially thought. And now, I am just letting go of the idea that I am a crap parent because my kid still uses diapers, and that his time will come. As my one friend says, "No man walked down the aisle at his wedding wearing a diaper." (In theory, anyway...)


Segment Two: SNOWBOARDS

For those that don't know, I live in Canada. I live in a northerly city in Canada. One that has cold, and usually long winters. Most people hate it, and complain ALL winter long about how much. Every day. Year after year. I used to be more of a complainer, so about 8 years ago or so, some girlfriends and I decided that we would take up snowboarding to give us something to look forward to in the winter. We didn't take any lessons--we taught ourselves, which believe me, a lesson or two would have cut down on a lot of ass-meets-ice time. For anyone who snowboards, I can tell you the obvious: I fell in love with it! It's so much fun! And I LOVE being in the mountains! It is such an amazing feeling knowing that you are ON A MOUNTAIN! The peacefulness and serenity and pure beauty of nature is awe-inspiring up there--it's like God is talking to you. And not to mention, the pure fun, adrenaline rush of carving through the snow, going fast with bits of snow flying at you, and breathing in the cool fresh air.... SO fun! Well, needless to say, with becoming a mother in the last couple of years, and about to pop out another baby in TWO WEEKS (yikes!), I can tell you that I haven't been much in the last few years. And that is probably precisely why I am craving it sooooo massive! The other day I was wearing my Viva Burton sweatshirt - A. because it's warm, B. more importantly, it fits - and it inspired me to do some online browsing at some cool stuff...

Check out these FRESH bindings by TokiDoki for Ride:

http://www.tokidoki.it/

And some super cool decks I found on Burton's website:

http://www.burton.com/

And of course, some wicked videos to live vicariously through: *sigh*

(this video looks like the boarder is being 'pulled' by something, like a snowmoblie etc., but he's not... he's actually holding onto a camera mounted on a stick. Go to http://www.gopro.com/ for details...)

Segment Three: NEW AGE MIND FUCK.

My hubby was just watching the movie "What the Bleep do we know." until he passed out about a half hour ago and I stopped to listen to something that BLEW my MIND!

For any of you who have watched "The Secret" or any kind of 'manifesting' type show or read any books on those subjects, this movie is one of those. They were saying how the mind only sees and accepts things it 'knows' or believes are real (that is why we keep on attracting the same type of realities to us--the same type of shit jobs, the same type of shit boyfriends, etc). Anyway, they were saying that as legend has it, when Christopher Columbus' boats showed up, the natives didn't see them. The boats were right there on the water, but the natives could not see them. They had never seen any before, nor did they know that boats existed, so their minds did not believe in them, therefore they could not see them with their eyes! The Shaman Preist dude of the tribe noticed ripples in the water that the boats were causing, and eventually after studying this for days, (because he knew there had to be something causing the ripples) he was able to see the ships. And because he was a trusted member of the tribe, and his tribesmen believed in what he said, when he told them they of course believed him and then were able to see the ships. Isn't that a COMPLETE mind fuck?????? That means that there is soooooooooooooo much out there that we probably don't physically SEE because we don't believe in it! There are probably a bajillion Aliens and fucking UFO space ships parked all around us, but because we've never seen them before our brains and eyes don't accept them therefore causing us not to see them! That's only one example, but if you really think about that concept, its really mind blowing.

Well, I will leave you with that little doozie to ponder while you hit the hay, and other wise I want to warn you that if I don't fit in another blog post in the next 2 weeks, you may be waiting a while.... I am due to give birth on November 22... so my life is gonna get a little mushier, and lot more out of control and hectic after that I'm sure!

Buuuuuuut, as always, I will try my best! Goodnight friends! xoxoxoxoxo