[caption id="attachment_19707" align="alignleft" width="200"]Sky and Joel Ovadia Sky and Joel Ovadia[/caption] When my son, Aidan, was about 10, he started asking for drum lessons. My response was somewhere along the lines of, “No freaking way!”. The mere thought of having a drum kit in my house was enough to give me a massive headache. Also, we’d had a previous unsuccessful stint at piano lessons that required the purchase of a keyboard - which now serves as a musical dust collector.

We've all been caught at some point in our lives with our fingers in our mouth, either nipping at a hang nail with our teeth or tearing at the skin on our fingers. Well next time, think before you put those fingers near your lips. Biting your nails or skin is just asking for germs and bacteria. Not only does it look awful and embarrassing (coming from a former nail biter) but it is hazardous to our health.

It can be intimidating to walk into a beauty store to pick out brushes. With so many options you may be feeling a little lost. Maybe you’re someone who has a ton of makeup brushes sitting in a drawer somewhere with no clue how to use them. Or maybe you apply all of you makeup with your fingers? If so keep reading!

logan_self_esteem1When I look at my son, I see a lot of myself in him.  And for the most part, that fills me with an immense sense of pride.   He’s got my eyes.  He’s shy around strangers, but is a serious show-man/entertainer around the people he trusts.  He’s gentle and a bit passive. He’s super smart and retains everything. He’s an observer.  I love that he has inherited these parts of me.  These are things I didn’t necessarily teach him, they are just an inevitable part of his DNA, of who he is.

I cannot begin to tell you how many people have come up to me over the last 15 years and told me they think they have Alzheimer's Disease. People of all different ages, young and old, will say, "Trish, I can't remember where I put my keys, I think I am losing it"; "Trish, I walked into the kitchen and forgot why I went there";  "Trish, I lost my phone twice this week, but thank goodness I found it"; "Trish, what is wrong with me, do I have Alzheimer's Disease?"  The answer is 99.99% of the time "No".  I don't take these comments lightly, but lets not confuse what is normal memory loss with Alzheimer's Disease.

In a few weeks I will be celebrating a birthday,  a big one!! I’m not gonna lie… I’m dreading it!!! I know it’s just a number.  I know it shouldn’t define me.  No I don’t feel older, as a matter of fact most of the time I feel like I’m nineteen years old and that’s part of the problem… Where did the last twenty years go?
In a blink of an eye I went from adolescent to middle aged!!! Somewhere along the way I picked up a husband, two kids, a mortgage etc… What freaks me out is what if the next twenty years go by just as quickly???

Shellac-ManicureShellac manicures have taken over the market in recent years . Shellac nail polish is a cross between gel nails and traditional nail polish. It gets applied like regular nail polish but dries like gel. Shellac gives your manicure a little more stability than the usual manicure, allowing longer lasting results. These manicures take slightly more time than the regular because of the UV curing process between each coat. The result is 45 minutes to an hour of your time every 2 weeks to have beautiful , mirror-like , chip free nails . 

As a sexologist, I have been teaching about bondage, dominance, sadism, submission and masochism since the beginning of my career. To be clear we are talking about binding someone or being bound, dominating someone either psychologically or physically, submitting to someone fully, and the receiving of or giving of pain.

At this time of year, with summer camp only a few short days away, I always find myself reflecting upon my own experiences at camp.  I started my camping career at the very young age of 2 years old.  One could say that I was very young to be a camper, but with my older sister and cousin to watch over me, I boarded the yellow school bus which took me to day camp every morning.   After 6 years of day camp I felt ready to conquer the world of sleep-away camp.  My older sister had started going to sleep-away camp and I wanted to follow in her foot-steps.
So, the summer after I finished the third grade, knowing NO ONE (except for my sister), I hopped onto yet another yellow school bus which took me off to sleep-away camp for 4 very long weeks.

This month it will be two years that my grandmother passed away.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her.  I can honestly say my grandmother was one of my closest friends and her passing has left a big void in my heart. My grandmother was 93 years old when she passed away.  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and as her disease progressed my love for her grew even more.  I felt the need to protect her.  Truthfully, I am not sure if she ever realized the impact she had on me but I do know that the bond we shared was mutual.

Breathing is something we do automatically, no thought required, it’s one less thing to worry about while exercising…well actually you should think about your breathing when training. While breathing is something our body does on it’s own when working out there are breathing techniques that will improve your workout and safeguard your health.

Teens on the bike pathLast week my husband and I got all three girls to go biking with us. This is a much more difficult undertaking than it used to be, when their social lives were completely under our oversight. I didn't appreciate it at the time, but it's been a while, and our twin almost 15-year-olds are constantly busy with friends, school and extra-curricular commitments. And while I like to think they do still enjoy hanging out with mom and dad and their younger sister, it's probably not as high on their list as it used to be.

Post secondary education in Canada has always been was pretty inexpensive compared to our neighbours south of the border. Historically, the provincial governments across Canada subsidized schooling to such an extent that there wasn’t much need for our parents to worry about college tuition from the time we were babies. Fast forward 20-30 years and things have changed – big time.

Finding the right people to hire can be challenging.
  I have recently spent the last couple of months looking at resourcing plans and preparing to bring on-board new talent for a big initiative at work.  On one hand, it is reassuring that you have support to help do the work, and that it is not expected that you do it all yourself.  On the other hand, it is a tremendous responsibility to make the right decision.  0013A poor decision can significantly delay the progress of a project and upset the dynamic within your already established team.  Both talent and inter-personal skills need to be carefully assessed.  Most often, there is a lot at stake.

Every day as a manicurist is an adventure. With every day comes new surprises.
What we have come to learn is that being in the beauty industry is not only about practicing a craft but also learning the dynamics of people and relationships.
This is not something that they taught us at school. We studied hard at learning about body systems, bacterias, products and applications just to name a few. But seldom did we speak of the amazing connections we would have with the special people coming in for their beauty treatments. We were only told that people would speak of many things but to never talk about politics or religion as this could be a very touchy subject for some.