<![CDATA[CoffeyTalk - Fashion and Trend Articles]]> Sometimes we feel like we need to get away - but there's no time to travel. How can we escape and feel like we’re on a vacation without leaving home? Here are my suggestions!

- Hide your clocks! Don’t wear a watch. Go all day without looking at the time. Sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry – follow your body clock.

- Spend a day in silence. This is a HUGE challenge for most people, so if you need to start small, try going an hour in silence, then two, then more. That means no phone calls, no television and no reading, either! Reading is engaging in conversation with the author – keep this about tuning in to your inner self, connecting with nature.

- Make fancy blended drinks and serve them with little umbrellas and maraschino cherries! Anything with coconut milk will feel festive and tropical.

- Go barefoot.

- Schedule an in-home massage.

- Play world music and dance around the kitchen with abandon!

- Meditate.

- Lay down outside and watch the clouds drift by, maybe even stay there until you can see the stars.

- If you've got a pool, wait until it's dark, light some candles, and go skinny dipping!

]]> <![CDATA[At-Home Vacation]]> Sometimes we feel like we need to get away - but there's no time to travel. How can we escape and feel like we’re on a vacation without leaving home? Here are my suggestions!

- Hide your clocks! Don’t wear a watch. Go all day without looking at the time. Sleep when you’re tired, eat when you’re hungry – follow your body clock.

- Spend a day in silence. This is a HUGE challenge for most people, so if you need to start small, try going an hour in silence, then two, then more. That means no phone calls, no television and no reading, either! Reading is engaging in conversation with the author – keep this about tuning in to your inner self, connecting with nature.

- Make fancy blended drinks and serve them with little umbrellas and maraschino cherries! Anything with coconut milk will feel festive and tropical.

- Go barefoot.

- Schedule an in-home massage.

- Play world music and dance around the kitchen with abandon!

- Meditate.

- Lay down outside and watch the clouds drift by, maybe even stay there until you can see the stars.

- If you've got a pool, wait until it's dark, light some candles, and go skinny dipping!

]]> <![CDATA[Lucky Charms]]> A lucky charm can be anything that you believe will bring you that extra something you need to get you where you want to go. It can be a token (like a coin, a shell, or a rock) or it can be a piece of clothing, a color or a number, or a particular song you sing. Basically, a “charm” creates a kind of magical spell, which brings you confidence and comfort. It’s something familiar, that we can rely on when we feel that our nerves, or circumstances, can get the better of us.

In a way, having a lucky charm is a little bit like leaving the details up to the universe. We admit that we only have so much control, and that there is an element of fate, or luck, involved. When we have our lucky charm with us, we feel like that luck is on our side – and we can give up some of the feeling that it is all up to us alone.

How to choose a lucky charm? Usually it picks you! Maybe you make an outstanding presentation and get a raise all in one day – that outfit might become your “lucky” outfit. Or maybe a favorite aunt gives you one of her bracelets and whenever you wear it good things seem to happen to you – that is now your “lucky” bracelet. If you want to create a lucky charm for yourself, look at what is meaningful to you. You might be attracted to a penny with the year of your birth on it. You may find an unusual stone on a vacation, which will remind you of how happy you were at that time.

Keep your lucky charm in a safe place where you can get to it easily. You might want to carry it with you all the time, like on a key ring, or in your wallet. Keep it private, don’t go telling everyone about it – lucky charms are luckiest when they are yours alone. Too often when other people find out about the charms, they laugh or belittle it. That just takes the magic away.

]]> <![CDATA[Wrap it Up! Creative Gift Wrapping]]>
1. FABRIC! A long-time tradition in Japan, gifts are wrapped in beautiful fabrics, often silk, that are re-used several times over. The fabric itself can be a gift, a useful item: a scarf, a bandana, a lunch bag and tied up with fabric ribbon which can be worn as a belt or hair ornament.

2. WHAT’S COOKING? Kitchen gifts can be wrapped in colorful dish towels, use oven mitts as “pockets” to hold small items. Use tablecloths to wrap large gifts, to pad heavy or breakable items such as dishes and ceramic-ware. Aprons are a great way to wrap gifts for the aspiring chef. A kitchen canister could hold many goodies!

3. HOME GROWN! For the gardener, wrap gifts in a bucket, a planter, or hang them as ornaments on a living tree. Think of “organic” ideas like bird seed and a bird feeder, garden tools, decorative stone. Maybe a gardening book wrapped in a reusable canvas tote that can be used when shopping.

4. KID STUFF! Wrap presents for kids in knit caps, close the hat with a novelty barrette, bracelet or rubber bands. Put stuffed toys or action figures in a cowboy hat and secure with a bright bandana. Use fabric paints to customize a pillowcase and wrap up large gifts in that!

5. BOXING DAY. The day after Christmas is known as “boxing day” in England and Australia because that is the day so many boxes are thrown out! Put your boxes to good use elsewhere… wrap gifts in a hat box, a gift tin, a tool box or an artists case. How about using a pencil box, a card case, or a coffee mug for business people?

6. PAPER, PLEASE. If you must use paper, think of creative ways to re-use it: wrap a travel-related gift in an old road map. Wrap a music related-gift in old sheet music. Make your own wrapping paper from grocery bags, have the kids decorate with crayon, or write a poem or the person’s name right on the paper, or use potato stamps in a holiday design. If you MUST buy wrapping paper, look for recycled paper – avoid wrapping paper with metallic colors, which is often produced in an environmentally unfriendly manner.

7. ACCESSORIZE! Use luggage tags or tree ornaments as gift tags. Instead of ribbon, use natural raffia. Use flowers instead of ribbon.

8. SHIPPING NEWS: When shipping gifts, use real popcorn (popped, no butter!) instead of foam “peanuts” and enclose a note to feed the birds with it!]]> <![CDATA[Never Wear Make-up Again!]]> For years I did the whole traditional make-up thing.  Liquid foundation, applied carefully with a make-up sponge and blended just so, topped with powder, and freshened up as needed.  Add in the blush, eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, lipstick - the whole routine took about half an hour.  And I hated it!  I was constantly breaking out - I felt like my skin couldn't breathe.  I tried so many different brands but they never seemed to be the right color, consistency, or price.

But then, one day, I saw this infomercial.  Now I'm not a big infomercial person - I like to try before I buy, to put my hands on it and see exactly what I'm getting.  But this product sounded like something I had been looking for my entire adult life... Bare Minerals.

Bare Minerals is NOT make-up!  It's minerals, natural, pure, and GOOD for your skin.  It feels great going on, and looks beautiful because it looks like bare, natural, beautiful skin.  I can tell you this honestly because I use Bare Minerals every day and I absolutely LOVE it!  I will never wear liquid foundation ever again - EVER!  It is so simple and quick to put on - my whole routine now takes about 5 minutes start to finish.  My skin is more clear than it has ever been.  I am a walking talking advertisement for this product - it makes me happy!

I have told several of my friends about Bare Minerals and they're all hooked now, too.  My 15 year old niece and her friend wear it, and so do my step-daughters.  It's great for every age.

I wear medium beige as a base, then I love the new soft focus warmth for some color, topped off by tinted mineral veil.  These are "my" colors, and they have several others depending on your complexion.  I have lots of different shadows so I can play around depending on what I'm wearing.  The brushes are great.  Their new product is the nighttime minerals, which are worn over moisturizer at night.  Love it!

When I first started wearing Bare Minerals about 4 years ago I could only get them through mail order.  Now there's a Bare Escentuals store at the Topanga Plaza Mall in Woodland Hills, California, and Sephora carries the whole line.  There's a Sephora store at The Oaks Mall in Thousand Oaks, so I can go anytime I want - and I can also order online with Sephora.  Easy!

I don't recommend products lightly, but this is one that I use myself, and I love - so I recommend it highly!



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