Let's talk about lashes...

 

There are so many reasons to love lashes and brows... The latter frame your face and shaped correctly will bring all your features to their best. Bad brows whether too thick (yes dear fashion trends there is such thing) or too thin, too arched, round or straight can easily be disastrous. Just like a good haircut good brows require shaped even just once in a while by a trained specialist who can advise on the best shape for your face. I know the trend towards very thick brows has been raging lately but for any one pulling it I have seen at least three disasters. Notwithstanding that pulling thicker and darker than nature brows doesn't mean they still are the best for your features. 

   I am a huge fan of the billion dollar brows system, specialists in finding the most flattering brows and shade of brows for every one they are definitely a little brow miracle to try if you have a specialist near you.  

Another little beauty secret I am partial to are lashes extensions. From individual to Russian there is a fit for every one. I would greatly urge anyone looking for a lash artist to make sure they are fully qualified and insured. Read reviews and ask to see photographs of their work. Feel free to ask them any questions to make sure you are comfortable and get the look you are looking for from bold to natural looking. Lashes extensions are great if you are very busy and don't lays want to put mascara on every day. They are a lovely option if simple tinting still is not enough for thin and pale lashes. They are perfect for straight eyelashes as the extensions add a gentle curl that will save you the need for curlers or perm.

One important thing to remember is to always follow your specialist 's care advice to keep your lashes lasting (around 8 weeks or more with top ups depending on care and lash cycle) and not damage your lashes. Brush them twice a day, don't get them wet for 48 hours after top ups or placements, and lee a pair of sunglasses handy to protect them from rain and wind. 

If you ever are in Glasgow a place to try are Love those Lashes near Charing Cross where the brows and lashes artists are so good you might find yourself feeling comfortable enough to fall asleep while getting your brows waxed! The decor is warm and the ambiance will make you feel like you are in a trendy Californian salon about to step in the sun. A perfect little pick me up place from the Scottish weather to feel a little bit better. 

If you have one, I would love to hear about your favourite brow or lash salon :-)  give your artist a shoutout in the comment section and feel free to share your brow and lashes secrets!

Goodbye dear old sofa.

This past week has marked quite an important step in our home. After nearly three years of good and loyal service we had to part ways with the sofa that saw both our daughters sitting for the first time, that held all of us like a warm, cosy and familiar hug, that endured Lilly's exercises, that was turned into a fort or castle so many times and that most importantly was the place where Kaede was birthed.

We will miss it and it was a sad goodbye. Lilly bounced on it one last time to see it go and we are so very grateful for having been given it and for the years of memories it gave us. We now have a smaller corner sofa that we are getting used to.

 Baby Kaede already claimed the corner spot and Lilly is deciding if she likes it or not but definitely misses the old sofa. This is the first step in reorganising our flat to make it more space efficient and easier to keep tidy as we are getting busier every day and really need a more efficient space to live in. I will put some pictures once we are done by the end of the month!

Home is with my family.

This morning I caught up on a very interesting little article that did sum up a few feelings about how I feel most of the time. The article was about people who grew up in different countries, you can have a wee read here , and I can agree and relate with every single point described.
Growing up in different countries has deeply influenced my identity and how my husband and I are raising our family. I have met wonderful people from all over the world, and I have the best of friends that I may not have  seen for years yet can chat to as if I had only gone out with them the day before. I have had the chance to learn so much about so many different cultures and I love languages. But I will never have the chance to feel at home in any country, which in turns might be why my family and close friends whether they live nearby or on the other side of the world matter so much to me.

Every time I meet someone I know I will be asked where I am from, I will be asked this question all my life, and I have heard it since I was 7 and moved away from my birth country. Being old enough to remember differences between both my home and my new country means that I did struggle a lot when it came to make friends, Primary kids tend to single you out when you have a different accent, words you use don't have the same meaning, some just don't plain exist or the cartoons you enjoyed only a week ago have never aired in this country. It took me over two years to lose my accent and by then any hope and will of fitting in had long left. So it did sting a little when years later I had the opportunity to move back only to be asked once more about where I was from and know that while I will always be Canadian at heart, I will never be able to buy my groceries in Canada without the till assistant asking where I'm from or what brought me there. I have been mistaken for Russian, French, Polish, Swedish, Irish, Lithuanian, Australian.... (and anyone from these countries who know me will be thinking "What? She doesn't sound like....") because my accent is hard to place but I can also change it if required and sometimes I adapt it without knowing but never enough for it to sound just right to whomever I am speaking with.

As Fate would have it I now live in Scotland which I never ever thought I would, and my husband and both my daughters were born here. My immediate family of course doesn't live near, and I can go for over a year without seeing them, but I have no desire to move where they live. I crave little things like maple cream cookies or V8 or Mountain Dew, coming in more than one edited flavour, but we will not move to Canada either. I have had dreamt for a long time of living in Ireland but we will not do that either. We will visit, because I do want my children to experience as much world culture as possible, but no matter how much I miss my family or my beautiful birth country, Scotland is where my children have made friends, this is where we have experienced the most love and hurt and despite some part of me feels at time like turning a new page, I have also learnt that providing shared cultural roots might be one of the best gifts I can give my children and so Scotland is where we will stay and come back to from all our future holidays.

I am lucky or maybe it simply is that foreigners living abroad somehow almost always end up making friends with other expatriates because we tacitly understand each other as I have made great friends who do come from many different countries and all somehow married, met someone and/or started a family in Scotland and settled there. Some have children the age of mine and they will grow, speaking different languages but English with a Scottish accent, other friends at school will be secretly jealous of their multilingual ability when they let it out but having grown in the same culture they will fit in and probably never have to answer the question "where are you from?" in their home country. They will get the best of both worlds.

I will always be countrysick but thanks to my family I will never be homesick because now, my husband and children are my home.