The monochromatic face for winter...

The makeup style for almost a decade now has been
strong eye, soft lip
or
soft eye strong lip.

If not, we end up looking like the grand dames of the eighties series Dynasty.

This past season, the makeup artists from the runway shows
have reintroduced a modern way to revisit the 80's.

Thus, the monochromatic face is born.

So...

What does this mean, really?

That the eyes and lips are in color synchronicity.

When we wear brown eyeshadow, we can do a little more than the
casual beige or blush pink of the decade past.

It is now very chic to wear a raisin color or even a plum to match the shadow.

A lot of makeup lines from
Chanel to Loreal are putting collections together to reflect this new trend.

And...

Those of us that are not fashionistas pounding the pavement of the big city,
but actually moms in SUV's in the suburbs of middle America
can rejoice in our new found freedom
to stain our lips a darker shade without feeling like clowns....

Start with a clean face, moisturized face.

Put on your usual foundation.

The makeup I chose for this morning
is a wine colored palette; lipstick, lipgloss and eyeshadow.

I start with the concealer.

Then I wet my brush and use
the first eyeshadow color in a neutral white.

Then I layer the lighter color of wine.

Then the darker color of wine on the lash line.

An eyeshadow applicator
dipped in a tad bit of water works best
to create the look of soft eyeliner.

 Dab the small blush brush and...

add it to only the apples of my cheeks.

Next, comes the lips...

First, the lipstick; then the lipgloss to make lips shiny.

After the 'wet' eyeshadows dry, apply two coats of mascara.

...and Voila!

A monochromatic face that is modern and works well with my lifestyle.

Diary of an Outfit Part 1...

An outfit starts with an inspiration piece:

A shirt, a pair of pants, or even a bracelet.

Go to your closet and pick out one item

and then 'work' a whole outfit around it.

I put this outfit together by picking out the shirt.

Snakeskin prints are really in this season.

These kind of bold fashion statements can be tricky to wear

as not to look like we are trying too hard.

This silk buttondown is classic enough for Jackie O, yet still satisfies our desire to follow a trend...  :)

The shirt is 100% silk and buttondown.

Being 100% silk makes it less bulky

as buttondowns usually are.

The pants are black corduroy with a camel color trim and match the shirt really well.

The shirt undreneath is cream and has light colored sequins to add a little whimsy to the outfit.

There is another trendy element in this outfit.

70's inspired shoes are also in style this season so I opted for some clogs with buckles by

Juicy Couture.

The cashmere cardigan is camel colored and 3/4 sleeve to make the masculine pieces like the buttondown shirt and corduroys look more feminine.

Last, the jewelry is also 70's inspired with the clunky wooden bracelet in the

color of soft well worn leather from Anthropologie.

The pendant on the necklace is amber and the earrings are gold diamond studs; kind of unassuming as not to overpower the rest of the jewelry.

 This is a good outfit for a casual day,

out to lunch with a friend,

holiday shopping,

or I wore it to a Sunday brunch after my cousin's wedding.

Chicken Nuggets

Home made chicken nuggets are the ultimate

comfort food...

Recipe:

Serves 2

2 chicken breasts, cut in medium size chunks

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

2 cups Japanese bread crumbs

2 eggs, beaten

Mix all the seasonings in a small bowl.

Sprinkle the chicken with the seasonigs.

Let it sit for 5 minutes to marinate.

Dip the seasoned chicken

first in the egg wash...

then in the bread crumbs...

repeat until all

the pieces are coated...

In a small sauce pan,

 fry the chicken until golden.

Cover plate with a paper towel

to absorb the extra grease.

Serve with buttered green beans,

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and French fries...

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Enjoy...

Meditation Exercise-Watching the Cars Go By...

Makeovers Meditation Exercises.

Watching the Cars Go By.

Life can go along just fine as long as nothing gets thrown out of balance.

However, our lives do not stay on track.

Life brings us unexpected situations and challenges.

When life gets thrown off balance, we learn our lessons. 

When our lives veer off the pavement and take a different direction,

it can be difficult to change course and get our thoughts back on track.

We can easily become frustrated when we don’t know what to do or how to bring our thoughts back into balance.

This exercise is a basic training exercise.

It will helps us towards accomplishing an important goal in meditation: The ability to control our thoughts. 

Watching the Cars Go By helps to train our brains by making us aware of our own emotions and thoughts before acting or reacting. 

Awareness is the key to making conscious and measured choices instead of allowing our thoughts to control us.  

It is often said that “Life is a Highway.” 

Highways are built so that people can travel from

point A to point B more efficiently.

As our thoughts race everyday—like cars on the highway—it is easy to let emotion drive our thoughts.

If we visualize our minds to be a highway itself, we can see how our thoughts are like the cars that travel there.

When our thoughts are driven by emotions, our actions are as well.

Every thought we think is attached in some way to your emotions.  Emotions, if we are not aware of them, can turn into roadblocks that create a downward spiral of out of control thoughts.

Out of control thoughts eventually lead to out of control or thoughtless actions—living life in automatic.

Living  life in automatic is not a place where we want to be!

          In real traffic traveling down an actual highway, if one of the cars went out of control or just stopped completely, there would be a

 traffic jam or an accident.

It is the same with our thoughts.

When emotion stops the thought process,

our lives can turns into a traffic jam of thoughts. 

When that happens, our brains no longer have the power to control reaction. Whenever you have a thought that spurs on more thoughts of the same topic, just stop.

Label these thoughts, "cars on the highway".

Let them pass.

Don’t let yourself get more involved in any one of them than you need to.

Let all thoughts just pass by with no emotional charge.

This exercise—Watching the Cars Go By—is just that.

Watching.

Cultivating a sense of awareness in your own thought process builds an important bridge between your emotions, thoughts, and actions.

You can build this bridge by simply

watching your thoughts go by

without attaching emotion or action. 

Awareness creates a very useful place for us to rest before we act or react to a situation based on pure emotion.  

When we create the bridge of awareness, 

we create a choice for yourselves. 

The choice is whether or not to involve ourselves in a situation

or to just stand back and watch. 

Once we’ve made the choice to just watch, our minds begin a different process than they would have taken if we chose to jump right into a situation.  

When simply watching our thoughts go by, 

our minds takes on the role of the observer.

Observation enables an awareness where emotions are not on high alert and will not be driving the thought process. 

Watching the Cars Go By is an exercise that serves as a bridge between the rapid thoughts in your mind and your ability to control them. 

When our brains become aware and find the power of thought control,

we become empowered.

This is why meditation is so important.

Controlled thoughts mean controlled actions.

It is that simple.

Training our minds in this way will help us gain control of the chaos of our daily thoughts.

We will be more likely to stay in a peaceful state no matter what life throws in our direction.

Take your time with this exercise.

It is one of the most important in the Makeoverslife program.

Exercise:

1.      Find a quiet spot. Close your eyes.

2.    Quiet your mind.

3.    Visualize your mind as a highway. Label your thoughts as cars and visualize them, too. Stay with the theme of every thought as a car on the highway—one absolutely no different than the rest.

4.    Think of nothing but the cars on the highway.

5.     Let your thoughts come up one at a time and watch them pass. Make no emotional attachments to your thoughts as you visualize them traveling down the road.

6.    Stay with this exercise as long as you wish.

7.     When you are finished, say to yourself, “I am done now. Peace.”



What is meditation?

What is meditation?

Simply put, meditation is the ability to clear our minds

in times of quiet so that

we can act and react more deliberately to

daily life in action.

Make some time to learn and manage

reactions to daily life by creating pockets of peace

in your brain through meditation.

 The exercises are simple and

yet profound when practiced.

Meditation is designed to show you

 how to create pockets of peace

throughout the day by meditating.

When we set aside time to meditate,

we give our brains new coping tools

on how to act and react to life’s actions.

Meditation is designed to
create pockets of time

in our daily lives.

Meditation and psychology have a lot in common: 

They are both ways to cope with

life’s ebbs and flows—the ups and downs of everyday experiences. 

Their similarities parallel on many levels, but there are very important differences between psychology and meditation. 

The most obvious is the different ways they can help a person reach a point of understanding and contentment:

While psychology and psychotherapy can be a long process

of mapping out the many details of your memories and past experiences

to figure out what events make you who you are today,

meditation does not take into consideration the details of your past.

It does not need to.

Meditation focuses on the process of creating new pathways in your mind to understanding and contentment.

Come as you are.

Psychology deals with the details of how we came to be the way we are today.

Meditation on the other hand deals with the process.

Meditation assumes that we all feel with a rainbow of emotions
and we all have different emotional blueprints.

Things come at us at 100 miles per hour.

The most important thing to remember is
how we react to them.

Meditation helps that process along and
it takes you to the super highway
towards your spirit.

Our minds race all day long.

The key to meditation is to learn how to

slow our thoughts way down.

 In that process, we begin learning to build

a new relationship between us and our brains.

Learning to slow thoughts way down is

an amazing ability of self-empowerment.

With practice,
meditation becomes a wonderful new companion
that helps us out with our daily events.

Meditation
gives out a
feeling of
peace,
surrender,

and connects us
to all the positive
forces in the
Universe.

Once we connect to that higher force, we begin to

 see our lives heading in a new direction.

    Take a look at the Makeoverslife meditation exercises on Facebook...

The link is:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.176177755176.243904.175447350176&type=1

Some examples:

Sitting quiet-listen to your inner voice.

Recreate your inner dialog

Release judgment and opt for observation

Create neutral relationships with family and friends despite each other's shortcomings

Improve your image at work with the 'Professional Face' exercise

Learn to get the job at hand done without procrastinating

Slowly and gently let go of old habits rooted in the past

Create an 'ocean of infinite patience' in your mind

Life lessons present themselves repeatedly until we learn them- 'Brick Walls' and
'There is no right or wrong; only lessons' exercises

'Mind the edges of your drama' exercise

Learn to choose your response with with the 'yin yang' and 'practice no response' exercise.

Take a walk and 'count your blessings' exercise

Find the joy in the moment with the 'freebies' and 'elelment of surprise' exercises.

Learn to connect to your center-that flicker of light in each of us that remains untouched by fate's choices and time's circumstance.

  Please join us at our Makeovers Meditation Section of our program and

anchor your spirit

to the positive force in the Universe.