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RapidLash experiment + giveaway!

June 10, 2015 by Farewell Stranger ·

Did I ever tell you about the time I got my eyelashes dyed and it burned my eyes so much I thought I was going to go blind? I lay there with my eyes closed and wondered where the “esthetician” (yes those are air quotes) had gone and how long it would take me to go blind. Not my finest hour, but I didn’t go blind and I did quite like the effect.

I’ve always liked my eyes – regardless of what body part I have a hate-on for at any particular moment I at least appreciate having nice eyes. (Thanks, Mom.) What I don’t like is that my eyelashes are really light and sort of disappear if I’m not wearing makeup (hence the vain attempt at dyeing them). Ethan took this picture of me and I like it mostly because of my eyes.

A woman I work with has eyelash extensions right now, and if you had told me that was an option before I saw them I would have been skeptical, but they are seriously awesome.

It’s possible that I spend too much time thinking about eyelashes.

But I’m still at it because right now I’m giving RapidLash a try. It’s a serum for lashes and brows that promotes the overall health of lash and brow hair (which sounds much better than any vain reason I could give you for trying it). The idea is to strengthen and lengthen brows and lashes (and my brows definitely need some help).

I got it at Shoppers Drug Mart and felt a bit like an idiot because I wasn’t sure where to look for it and asked the clerk right as I noticed where it was, which was totally obvious. She was very nice about it. It has vitamins, minerals and moisturizing agents (which all sounds pretty good) and peptides (I don’t know what those are). You put it on once a day (at night after you’ve washed your face) and should have results in four to six weeks.

I’ve been using it for a few days and don’t notice it at all – it doesn’t bug my eyes in the least, which is big for me. I’m interested to see the results!

Do you want to give RapidLash a try? I’ve got a RapidLash giveaway so you can do just that! (Open to Canadian residents only, including Quebec. You can enter on more than one blog but can only win on one.) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I am part of the RapidLash campaign with Influence Central and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog (and my fabulous eyelashes) are my own.

Filed Under: Stuff I like · Tagged With: I was paid for this but it doesn't mean I'm not genuinely interested, photos

Just as they are

January 14, 2015 by Farewell Stranger ·

I cherish this photo. The photo session that produced it was a total freaking gong show but I barely remember that when I look at this picture. What I see is Connor’s laugh and his sense of humour in this moment that actually captured what he looks like when he thinks something is funny (rather than his goofy photo face). And I see the absolute joy that is Ethan.

I was talking to a colleague and friend at work a couple of weeks ago, and she mentioned that when her kids go to school on picture day she lets them go however they are – messy hair, weird clothes, the whole deal. And if the proofs come back and they have goofy expressions she buys them up, figuring that she’ll have a record of just who her kids were at the time.

I’m not sure I have quite embraced that approach. If we had purchased the proofs from this session that showed just who my kids were as demonstrated by their behaviour at the time, we’d have photos with Connor’s sour expression indicating just how much he didn’t want to be acting nice for the camera and Ethan with a soother in his mouth, probably crying after we tried to remove it for a picture. We’d probably have a photo of Connor hitting me and body-slamming Ethan, and one of Rich sitting with Connor to try to calm him down. We’d have one of me looking frustrated and possibly trying not to cry.

Needless to say, the family photo sessions we have done were nightmares. We did one resulting in the photos above and an earlier one when Ethan was six weeks old, and I remember them both as horrible, barely-worth-it experiences (except for the part where newborn Ethan pooped on Rich). But after both sessions we looked at the proofs (and I mostly looked past how terribly unphotogenic I am) and I saw my kids just as they were at that time. Not the cranky, goofy sides of them but the happy, full-of-joy sides of them and how they look like Rich and sort of like me, and I was glad to have them.

For a while now I’ve wanted a canvas print, so I chose this photo and got one made and hung it on the wall opposite the foot of our bed. Now those joyful faces, already looking younger than they do now, smile back at me every night and, nightmare or not, that’s all I ever really wanted out of those photo sessions anyway.

Disclosure: Canvas Factory gifted me this print but my love for it is my own.

Filed Under: Happy things · Tagged With: family, photos

Hello, Inspiration {1}: Beauty Shots

January 4, 2015 by Farewell Stranger ·

I looked at my WordPress year in review and it told me I had 30 new posts in 2014. Thirty. 30. That seemed a ridiculously low number to me until I realized it was less than one a week and then, frankly, it seemed high. I really didn’t write a lot last year.

I’ve sort of lost my writing mojo. I started feeling vulnerable for reasons I haven’t fully determined (or perhaps have chosen not to fully explore). I would start to write a post in my head and not get past the first sentence. First paragraph, sometimes, but mostly the words just never came together. I wrote a lot of posts in my head that way—far more than 30—but it’s not a terribly productive approach.

I closed out 2014 with a little bit more inspiration than last year, though not my usual, perhaps over-exuberant, dose. As of this fourth day of the new year I have all kinds of goals and plans and no shortage of sources of motivation, because, dammit, I’m ready to get back to feeling inspired. And one thing I’m going to do is create some of that inspiration for myself.

In my very early blogging days, I used to do regular posts under the Hello, Inspiration heading. They featured things that inspired me, like the ones that seemed to appear when I needed them or those that came up in several different places as if to say pay attention. After a while I just randomly tagged things with that category when it seemed to fit, but I’d like to go back to deliberately sharing things that inspire me. So here’s the first in the official series of my sources of inspiration, which I’m hoping to update weekly.

One thing I love is amazing photography. Not long ago I found the Facebook page for a photographer named Neil Zeller who is local to me, and his shots are amazing. Breathtaking in the most literal sense of the word. He photographs things I love, like mountains…

…and cityscapes…

…and our tower, which I have such sentimental, childhood feelings about. I have to get a copy of this print:

He also shoots trains (oh my heart):

…and scenes that are so stunning it’s hard to believe they are from this same planet where we do mundane things like buy groceries:

Neil’s images fill up my Facebook feed, and I like them all so he knows they’re appreciated (and so Facebook’s fancy algorithm will keep showing them to me). Seeing them creates the sort of pause in my day—the deep-breath, contented-sigh kind—that I so desperately need. The first shot above is one from his Aurora series, which might be my favourite. Seeing that is on my life list, and I’m inspired at how often he manages to catch this sight. Maybe one day soon I will as well.

All images © Neil Zeller Photography

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: gratitude, photos, spreading the love

Automagic photo sharing (+giveaway)

December 3, 2014 by Farewell Stranger ·

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Locket app and how I’ve been using it to collect memories and photos of the boys. I filled up the fall months and already have some tree-decorating pictures in there for December.

The other piece to this is a frame that will display those photos to a family member or friend who’s far away (or near by, I suppose – I don’t know about you but I don’t do a very good job of visiting people in the next community over…).

I sent this frame to my sister and her husband, who live in another city and don’t get to see the boys all that often. The photos I’ve added to the app appear (automagically, as Connor would say) on their frame and lets them stay up to date on what we’ve been doing.

Ethan bowling

It’s pretty cool, actually. Once my sister turned it on and connected to WiFi, that was it. I just add photos and they get all the new ones on their frame. She also set it up so that it comes on automatically when it detects motion and goes off if it detects no movement for 5 minutes.

Connor with his new cousin

We haven’t done this yet, but you can sync up to 10 users on one account, so my sister could get photos of my nephews and new niece as well if my other sister and brother used the Locket app (available on iTunes). Photo sharing made super easy – I love it.

Want to give it a go? The Locket app is free (and it develops an e-timeline and a photo book as you go – visit www.lifelocket.net for more information), and I’m giving away a Locket frame, which is designed by NixPlay. The Locket Frame is available in three different sizes: 8”, 12” and 15” and if you want to get straight to it (Christmas present, perhaps?) you can find those through the shop section of the Locket app.

Disclosure: I am part of the Timewyse Locket blogger program with Mom Central and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Photos, Stuff I like · Tagged With: family, I was paid for this but it doesn't mean I'm not genuinely interested, photos

Locket Full of Sunshine

November 19, 2014 by Farewell Stranger ·

Every day for the first year of Connor’s life, I jotted a little note in a calendar we had made with pictures of him as a newborn. (Well, not EVERY day – I started when he was a few weeks old and we had the calendar done, but you get the idea.) I noted what we had done that day, his firsts, what he had started eating – all the usual new-mom stuff. We took lots of pictures too, and at that point my husband was still using our real camera. Of course when Ethan was born things were different.

Ethan, as loved as he is, has suffered the second-child baby-book fate. I think I actually got a baby book for him, but I couldn’t tell you where it is and I’m pretty sure there’s not much in it. Like his brother though, he does have a special keepsake box where I put things I want to save – pictures he draws, his boarding pass from his first flight, a snip of hair from his first haircut.

I love those boxes and will continue pulling them down from the top shelves of the boys’ closets to add to their contents (even if, in the end, I’m the only one who will appreciate the memories they bring back). But I haven’t been very good at doing anything with pictures and the day-to-day memories (which, thanks to iPhones, we have a lot of). Until now.

I’ve been using the Locket app, which I really like. I wasn’t sure if I would, since so many memory-capturing solutions seem to be great in theory but not so easy to use in practice. Locket lets you collect photo, audio, video and written memories and then presents them as an e-timeline or a photo book.

Here’s part of Ethan’s photo book. In this timeframe alone, he’s gone from his second birthday to having a Star Wars movie night with the big kids.

Some of those are just pictures I’ve taken and added to Locket later, and some of them are based on prompts in cards in the system.

They’re based on yours kids’ ages, so the ones for Ethan are appropriate for toddlers, while the ones that pop up for Connor have more options. Here are a few pages from Connor’s photo book.

We played with the questions one day and he loved answering them and seeing the book about him come together.

I appreciate an app with personality, and Locket includes little messages along the bottom or while saving new content that make me smile (“Did you take time for yourself today? Just curious.” or “1000 figurative words being saved.”) as well as tips for taking photos and videos.

If you’re trying to figure out how to collect memories for your kids and electronically save all those masterpieces they bring home from school, Locket is definitely one to check out. And it’s free!

The usual disclosure: I am part of the Timewyse Locket blogger program with Mom Central and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Filed Under: Stuff I like · Tagged With: I was paid for this but it doesn't mean I'm not genuinely interested, moments, photos