Archive for the 'beauty' Category

Big hair: it’s back

Published June 11, 2008 in beauty. 20 Comments

Put away your flattening irons, people.

Say bye bye to shining, shimmering, sleek.

Think big, back combing and bee hive.

Think 80s hair bands, mousse, and heavy-hold spray.

Think Dolly Parton.

Think whatever you want. Big hair is back.

Angelina Jolie, Liz Hurley, Amy Winehouse. They’re all wearing it.

Even the hairdresser of this typist tells me that big hair is beginning to make a comeback in these parts. And that’s saying something in a town where 90s prom-girl up-do’s still rule the wedding circuit - fifteen years after the fact (according to my hair dresser.)

I don’t know. I think I might be ready for big hair again.

Are you?

Sex and the City Part II: they’re really just gay men

Published June 8, 2008 in beauty and culture. 5 Comments

What about the idea that those four women are actually depictions of four gay males?

I’ve been told by a gay friend that this show has a huge following in his “community” because it presents an accurate portrayal of the lives and psyches of gay males.

It’s well known that the writer of the series, Darren Star, is a gay male, and that his interpretation of Candice Bushnell’s columns is loose.

Not to go all post-structural on you here, but isn’t it a good bet that Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha are really Calvin, Matthew, Charlie and Sam?

Spiders ‘n webs

Published April 16, 2008 in Canada, beauty and photos. 17 Comments

Go here to view this set in Flickr.

Early one sunny August morning, I turned off the highway to take a picture of a beautiful still lake. The lake was pretty, but it was in the field next to the lake that I stumbled upon gold.

There were hundreds of spiders’ webs*, their gossamer fibers sparkling with the dew.

It was like entering a fun park with only ferris wheels or walking through a diamond farm. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and for two or three short seconds, I was speechless. (And this speaks volumes.)

I only had my 17-40 wide angle so photographing these webs meant getting close. Many of these shots were zoom cropped for a close-up view of the dew.

Spiders are fantastic engineers, but I never realized they were such gifted artists too.

If I had to make a top-ten list of the best moments in my life, this would be right up there on that list.

* Keen GT followers will recall some of these pictures from previous incarnation of GT.

Waxing Brazilian

Published April 11, 2008 in beauty and slack woman. 22 Comments

Go here for live column.

Women used to wax floors. Now they wax themselves.

I was thinking about this the other day as I was having my brows done.

“Waxing is a rip roarin’ good time,” I said to the esthetician. “You do the rippin’. I do the roaring.”

So she ripped. And I roared.

And that’s just brows. Think full Brazilian. Or for men, the ultimate waxing package: The Back, The Crack and The Sack. Yeeeeoooocccchhhhh!

Can it get more barbaric? I mean, applying hot wax to the skin and then ripping the hair out by its roots?

Someday we will look back on this waxing fest, and wonder what we were thinking? Just like we look back at the floor waxing of the 50s.

Christmas in the Cotswolds

Published January 13, 2008 in beauty, photos and travels. 9 Comments

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A cloudy day burst into flame at the very end as the sun dropped below of line of cloud, casting orange, red and pink hues across the underside of the cloud. These shots were taken in Warwickshire in the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Central England. This is where I spent Christmas.

The colours in the sky were changing before my eyes as the sun sank to the horizon. In one shot, you can see the light shooting sideways across the top of the hedgerows and in another a puddle gives the distinct impression of a ghost.

The low light at the end of December is a photographer’s dream and in a spectacular landscape like the Cotswolds, the beauty is intensified. And to think I almost didn’t brother with the good camera and the good wide angle lens.

Handwritten greetings are the best gift of all

Published December 13, 2007 in beauty and culture. 5 Comments

One of my favourite seasonal activities in sending and receiving Christmas cards.

I love finding an envelope in the mailbox that is not:

a. a bill

b. a pitch from a charity I’ve never heard of

c. a tax-funded newsletter from a politician who wants to let me know all the things she/he is doing in Ottawa.

I love seeing my name appear in someone’s own handwriting. There is nothing more delicious that opening up the envelope and reading the little note inside. I also love to receive beautiful cards that I can display on my fireplace mantle piece. If the card appeals to me in a certain way it will remain there long after Christmas, sometimes for years.

Sadly, the handwritten Christmas card is one of those traditions in decline. Even handwriting is something you don’t see often these days.

But a handwritten card is the most personalized gift you can give or receive and therefore one of the best presents there is.

If there’s a heaven, let it be London in the swingin’ 60s

Published November 21, 2007 in beauty and culture. 12 Comments

I met Pat in September when I started a weekly art class.

I was the newbie and Pat extended herself to me on the first day, offering a friendly smile and welcoming questions about how long I’d been painting and how I managed to find my way into the popular class.

By the second week, we’d established common ground. We’d both lived in Britain and loved it.

She’d been in London during the swinging 60s. She’d told me about the outrageous Mary Quant miniskirts she used to wear, traipsing up and down the Kings Road and hanging out on Carnaby Street, the epicenter of swinging London.

They were the best years of her life, she told me. And she meant it. You could tell by the smile in her eyes.

She moved back to Canada in the late sixties but she’d never quite got London out of her system. She went back many times to visit old friends and remember the good times they had together in the 60s. She envied my dual citizenship and said she’d move back in a snap, if she could. I got the sense that things weren’t so going great for Pat these days.

The last time I saw her was two weeks ago. She asked me for drive to the next class because she wasn’t sure her usual lift would be available. I offered to pick her up. She gave me her number and said to call first.

When the day of the next class arrived, I called to offer a drive. After four rings, I heard Pat’s voice but it was on the answering machine. I assumed she found a drive with someone else, but she wasn’t in class when I arrived and no one had heard from her. Strange.

The next week she was absent again. The woman who sometimes drove Pat was worried. Pat hadn’t returned her calls or answered the door. Had anyone else heard from her? No one had.

I had a funny lump in my stomach that stayed with me the whole day. I phoned Pat later that day. Her voice answered and told me to leave a message after the beep. I didn’t.

The next morning, I opened the paper and saw her face. In the obituaries.

Pat died on Nov. 6th a few days before I was supposed to drive her to art class. There was no explanation of what happened, no funeral or service. Sometimes obituaries communicate more by what they don’t say.

If there is a heaven, I sincerely hope that it’s heaving with leggy, long-haired Londoners, traipsing up and down the Kings Road dressed in Mary Quant minis and wearing smudgy eye make-up. And I hope Pat will be right middle of it all for all eternity.

Strip trees before me

Published November 13, 2007 in Canada and beauty. 3 Comments

There is a provocative dance taking place outside my window. The tree that refused to turn colour or shed its leaves has decided that today is the day.

It started last night as leaves began to let go and float gently to the ground. When I woke up this morning, the tree was half naked and still disrobing, one, three and ten leaves at a time. Most the leaves are still green, but some are tinged with yellow. The ground below is now carpeted with these colours.

By this time tomorrow, the dance will be over and the tree will be bare like its neighbours who’ve already done the dance.

I’m glad I’ll be working here all day. It should be a good show.

How green was my tree

Published November 7, 2007 in Canada and beauty. 10 Comments

There is a maple tree outside my window. It is green and full of leaves.

On November 7th.

Those green leaves survived a storm the other night. There were gusts of up to 140 kph and many leaves on other trees were taken down by the storm. But not this one.

This green tree has also survived cold nights that have altered the colour of other leaves on other trees. These trees are either naked or half dressed in red, yellow or orange.

But not the tree outside my window. It is fully dressed in green. It refuses to disrobe or change colour like all the other trees on the street.

It will be interesting to see who wins this one: the tree or winter.

RIP Anita Roddick

Published September 10, 2007 in beauty and culture. 6 Comments

You were an inspiration for girl entrepreneurs everywhere.

You showed us that abstract things like ideas, vision, hard work, blind determination, risk and little luck could be turned into something very concrete and great.

And you showed us that the naysayers can be shut down if you just ignore them long enough.

Now your Body Shop is in every mall everywhere. You showed those naysayers and in the process, you inspired the rest of us.

And now you’re gone.

RIP Anita. You were one of the good ones.

Mirror mirror on the wall

Published August 30, 2007 in beauty. 12 Comments

I may have a dishwasher at the dacha, but for the past week I’ve had no mirror.

And this is sort of interesting. With no mirror, you don’t see what your hair looks like. You don’t notice the slow tan (that gets through the 30-block sun screen) building on your face. And make-up? Whassa?

It’s not that vanity has gone away. It’s just that it’s gone on a little holiday.

And this is sort of nice until you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror at the grocery store as I did yesterday. Eek!

My unstyled hair was blown over to one side and sticking up at the top making me look vaguely like Pud from the Bazooka Joe bubblegum comics. I had two untanned ovals around my eyes from the sunglasses. And there was a layer of white salt building up on my face.

I’m glad I have no mirror in the dacha. It’s more fun not knowing. And not caring.

Food porn and pushme-pullyou lobster

Published August 22, 2007 in beauty and food. 6 Comments

As someone close to me always says: “Food is life.”

[flickr 7156526@N06 72157601594439670].

Victoria Beckham: does anyone get it?

Published August 21, 2007 in beauty and culture. 15 Comments

I get Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and even Paris Hilton. I don’t particularly admire these celebrities or their antics but I get it.

They are 21st-century post-modern celebs feeding off media attention. Like plants in the jungle, they opportunistically exploit their environments to enhance their survival. It could be argued that LiLo and BriSpo possess more talent that ParHo, but lately their staged life-dramas and not their talent have been the mainstay of their currency.

I get that. Begrudgingly

But Posh Spice, aka Victoria Beckham I don’t get. Yes, she is married to a beautiful and talented footballer who has successfully leveraged his image to sell brands. Yes, she was once in a girlie pop group that had a hit or two. Yes, she’s a British working-class girl done good. Yes, she feeds off the teat of the celebrity-adoring cow.

But I don’t get the appeal. Why do people go for PoSpo with her crushed-in cheeks and the over-sized head on the stick-insect body? Does the word “mutant” come to mind?

She hasn’t said or done anything particularly interesting or outrageous since her Spice Girl days. Spice sista Ginger Spice became a representative for the UN Population fund and travelled the world advocating women’s rights.

And the image of her on that book squatting in the sky-scraper high heels and flashing the gusset of her black underpants. Ugh! Where was her agent when that abomination was created?

I appreciate female beauty and I understand the bad-girl antics of pop stars. But no matter how hard I try, I just don’t get Victoria Beckham.

Please explain. Someone.

Enchanted PEI

Published July 24, 2007 in Uncategorized, beauty and photos. 9 Comments

Here are some images taken during a trip to majestic Prince Edward Island.

It is the land of Anne of Green Gables, but there is so much more to this island. The coastal scenery and the seafood beat the heck out of Anne, although I was loyal follower of the trouble-making red-head.

These shots were taken on the Northumberland shore of the island during a visit to the cottage of friends. The scenery and food were accompanied by much hilarity.

Hint: if you move the mouse over the top part of the pic, you should get a slider to make the slide show go faster or slower.

[flickr 7156526@N06 72157600980455760].

Ossy Osbourne’s first wife’s first cousin.

Published July 11, 2007 in beauty, travels and typist & typewriter. 10 Comments

Is visiting this week.

It’s true. She’s a lovely girl from Wales now living in a mill conversion in the south of France.

I attended her wedding in Shropshire a few years ago. It was held on a medieval estate with bride, groom and guests dressed in full Victorian period costume. A stunning sight to behold. Ossy didn’t show.

But one guest - and I won’t say who, other than to indicate that she was a fairly gifted typist - got her periods mixed up and showed up in Elizabethan (the first) costume, proving that one can show up at these things looking so three-centuries ago.

Fashion crimes were forgiven by bride and groom who lived happily ever after.

Elizabethan typist went on to greatness.