WAHM: Ever Thought About Going to Beauty School?
Beauty School or cosmetology school as it’s sometimes called, is a very worthy choice of education.
I’m serious.
Do you realize that in many cases, it’s easier to emigrate to a country with a degree or diploma in beauty therapy than it is to gain entrance as say, an architect? I’m not even remotely close to joking here.
It is a career that is in constant demand, owing to the world at large suddenly within the last decade, sitting up and starting to take care of its collective appearance.
Many, many career opportunities abound if you are qualified as a beautician and these include such awesome placements as cruise ship work (hello see the world!), the opportunity to freelance, be mobile, or work from home.
It’s definitely a career worth looking at, even if you’re unsure about your future career choices, because you will be able to begin earning money straight away if you use your head, and find a niche within the market. Combining your beauty studies with complimentary therapies such as Reiki, Aromatherapy and Massage can also greatly improve your earning potential.
Women are always on the lookout for good beauticians and sometimes in fact they’re such well kept secrets that many popular beauty school graduates are booked up weeks in advance.
read more5 Ways to Cure Those End of Year Blues
Don’t you think that the whole world goes crazy at this time of year?
The jingles, the songs, the music, the food. Aren’t these the exact reasons why people get depressed at this time of year?
Sometimes all the happy faced cheerful people who proclaim “It’s a wonderful, joyful time of year!!” leave you with nothing more than a strong desire to punch them in the guts.
The fact is that all this overboard so-called happiness and cheer is nothing more than hot air, false bravado, and some people would be more believable if they simply cut out a photograph of someone else and pasted it over their faces.
I’m not saying we should drop the whole idea of the holidays (Christmas, Hanukka or whatever you celebrate), but I am saying that we should be realistic about it. Maybe you AREN’T feeling it. You know what? That’s okay.
So often we get so bombarded with it, with the shops building up all their Christmas bling as early as October already. Then it’s the endless round of carols by candlelight and school concerts at the beginning of December. Follow this up with the plethora of celebrity chefs and personalities showing you how to cook better, be better, look better, decorate better.
We mentally bludgeon ourselves if our own efforts do not live up to what the print magazines say they should look and be like.
Frankly I think it’s ludicrous to have one set of china and crockery that only gets hauled out on one occasion a year. Rather donate the money you would have spent on those decorative glittery table stars (that only clog the vacuum anyway) and the silver charger plates (a fancy name for what basically is nothing more than a place mat with delusions of grandeur) to a charity that really needs it.
I am not trying to kill the holiday spirit. Really, I’m not. I just think that humanity would be a lot better off if we could all just GET A GRIP.
People are tired at this time of year. Faced with enormous pressures, financially, physically and mentally. Then we have to go and raise the bar on ourselves and live up to some fairytale expectation that everything should be perfect and *happy* too. Wouldn’t it be nice if everything could be perfect? Or at the very least better?
If you are not feeling the holiday spirit this year, I believe that the following steps could help you to feel better:
1. Gratitude List
Make a list of things for which you are grateful. Even if you’ve just celebrated thanksgiving (I’m looking at my American friends here) this is something that we should all be doing everyday anyway. It doesn’t have to be a physical ‘sit down with a pencil and make notes’ kind of list, but maybe just make a mental list, when you wake up, or in the few minutes before you pass out exhausted in the evenings there are always things to be grateful for. You only have to look.
Doing this simple exercise helps you to really shift your priorities. You may be simply happy to have your immediate family all around you (or away for the holidays, depending on your relationship!). You may be grateful for your health, your kids, your dog, the roof over your head. Kind of makes the silver charger plates that you don’t have pale by comparison immediately right?
2. Make a List of Goals
Whoa there cowboy. Please do not for one minute think I am talking about new years resolutions, because we’ll deal with that ball of wax closer to the time. I mean make a list of goals that you’re hoping to achieve in your lifetime. Break them down into smaller steps. Remember a wise man once said (anybody know who?), “The man who moves a mountain, begins by carrying away the small stones.” Making a list of goals, and the steps required to achieve them, brings your vision for yourself into focus, and provides you with pathway with which to achieve them. Suddenly, they may not seem so impossible.
Spend some time daydreaming what it will feel like, when you’ve achieved that goal. Want to climb Kilimanjaro? Imagine yourself standing at the summit, raising your arms in joy at your achievement. Want to start your own business from home? Why not imagine making your first sale, or receiving your first payment? How exciting!
You’re feeling better already aren’t you?
3. De-clutter your home and your life
A tidy room, equals peace and contentment. Take your old newspapers and magazines to the recycling centre, donate old books to a library, or an underprivileged school. Go through your email inbox and clear out the junk and read messages. Do your operating system a favour and clear your temporary internet folder and recycle bin out. Clear out your old clothes and either donate them to charity, or sell them to a second hand shop, you will be amazed by how clearing out old ‘stuff’ makes room in your life to let bigger and better things in.
4. Volunteer
Yes, I’m talking to you. No need to look over your shoulder to see if I’m talking to the person behind you. There are few greater ways to be grateful for the things in your life, by spending a few hours volunteering to make things better for people (or animals) who have less than you. Find a soup kitchen to help at. Take some cupcakes to an orphanage, visit some old folks whose family have forgotten them, go and walk dogs at an animal shelter. The fastest way to feel happy, is to give other people happiness.
5. If all else fails, seek humour
Laughter is the best medicine. So go and read the lolcats blog if you’re adamantly down in the dumps, because there is something on there for everyone. Cats, dogs, fails, celebs. You will absolutely find something funny enough for you to at least crack a smile.
Now, share your thoughts with me in that comments box below. What are you grateful for? How do you help yourself get into the swing of the crazy season?
An Exercise Bike: Game vs Makro
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I worked in retail, for about 18 months. I learned something vitally important. Well actually 2 things. First off, I learned that I never *ever* wanted to work in retail again, but more importantly, I learned how important customer service is.
It’s not rocket science.
It’s not even difficult, but it requires, a degree of energy, a modicum of patience (this does not apply to twenty something computer store clerks of course), and most of all a burning desire to succeed (hit your weekly/monthly target).
As a result of this short time in the retail industry, I am surprisingly sympathetic with store clerks. They spend long hours on their feet, have ridiculous targets to meet, and are often not incentivised to do so.
However, it has also made me increasingly dissatisfied with bad service. Because as I said earlier, it’s not rocket science, and a lack of service is not only careless and unnecessary, it just plain PISSES ME OFF.
Take this weekend for example. Thanks to an unexpected tax rebate, after paying off some bills, the husband and I decided that it was time to add to our home gym set up, and to speed up the recovery of the husbands knee after surgery, and so we set off on a Sunday morning with both kids in tow to check out some exercise bikes.
Our first stop was Sportsmans Warehouse.
Pros: Nice selection of really high end equipment, and had we not decided to stick to a smallish pre-determined budget, we could have really set ourselves up with a really good bicycle.
Cons: Had to seek out a sales assistant as they were all chatting at the back of the store. The one who did eventually reluctantly come over to help us was not knowledgeable enough to answer our questions (about tension/resistance/magnetisation etc) and frankly I didn’t like his attitude, which was one of ‘Oh this is such a waste of my time, because no one ever buys an exercise bike on a Sunday morning when they have their kids with them.” HAH.
Also: we asked about getting the battery in my Polar Heart Rate Monitor replaced, and we were advised by the guys at the service desk to send it to Polar ourselves, because they would take too long to do it. Which to me translates as, “We’re lazy bastards, do your own work, why the hell should we service your watch, for a measly battery?” Nice. Management, it might be time to chat to your peons about customer service, and brand management, and oh yes, vision.
Our Second Stop on our quest was Game.
Pros: A fairly good selection of bikes, with a good price range.
Cons: Spent nearly 10 minutes looking at bikes, without being greeted even ONCE by staff. Had to ask someone, to find someone to help in that area.
Notes: However, once that sales clerk turned up, he was extremely helpful, knew his products, and went and found one that was not on display, and offered to set it up for us. However, and this is what really annoyed me, we asked the sales guy if we could get a cash discount. In this current economic climate, with stores going out of business left right and centre. I reckon that stores should be hungry to make sales. It is a big ticket item, and it would barely dent their margin. Good for the sales guy, and he went to ‘get authorisation’. Management said, “No.” So I said, “Okay, then we’re not taking it.” Sales guy then said that the store was putting this particular bike on promotion on Thursday (down from ZAR 2699, to R2499 – a discount of approx 7%). So we asked why they can’t give it to us for a 5 % discount, and let us buy it today, given that we were standing right there, and willing to take it.
The answer came back, “No.”
So we left.
I just WILL NOT buy an item of that expense without getting a good deal. It’s not even like I was asking for the promotional price. Sorry Game, but you missed out on a nice sale, on a quiet Sunday morning. Sucks to be you!
So we then drove to our third stop, Makro.
Pros: Busy, exciting promotions going on, in store. Time between us looking at an exercise bike, and getting attention from a sales guy? Approximately 5.6423 seconds. Even though he was demonstrating a treadmill to another couple at the same time.
Price? ZAR R2499.00
Deal? Done.
Here’s the one we bought:
It was fairly easy to assemble, given that it came in a box, although it did require two people to do this – one to hold stuff in position, and the other to turn the screws in the right place.
Time to assemble from start to finish: About 20 minutes.
How does it work? Really, really well. My top three points about this exercise bike, are:
- It is seriously quiet. I mean my very light sleeping children to do not wake up, when I stumble out of bed at 05h30am and have a work out.
- The seat is easily adjustable (same as the ones at a Gym), and its comfortable. Yeah, why should my butt take strain just because it’s exercising right?
- It has a built in heart rate sensor, so I don’t have the added shlep of putting my polar heart rate monitor on (plus it needs a new battery anyway).
What are your experiences with buying big ticket items like this? Did you get good service? Bad service? Send us your thoughts! Leave a comment with your experiences!
Beauty Product Buy: L’Oreal Eye Contour Cream with Pro-Xylane
The Editor of NessWorld donned the hat of Health and Beauty Editor for the day and went shopping.
Her mission: To acquire new eye cream, that would defy countless sleepless nights and rapidly advancing age. To disperse multiple bags and dark circles from too many nights hunched over the computer instead of sleeping.
So basically miracle cream.
She came back with this…
Then dispensing with the third person whilst compiling her review, I decided to share my experience of L’Oreal Derma Genesis Eye Contouring Cream 
I see in America, they’re calling it ‘Skin Genesis‘. Must be because they don’t speak Latin like the rest of the world. Hah.
I am assured by spokespersons (spokespeople? I can’t afford to hire a copy editor yet, so you’ll have to forgive me any major grammatical blunders – sorry Mrs Crutchley!) such as Eva Longoria, and other very boring, and in fact merely average looking American women such as Scarlett Johansson, that simply applying this to the contours of my eyes will instantly lift and tone this area, as well as diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, with use over time.
How much time exactly, is probably dependent on how much money one has because, after forking out ZAR159.00 for the tiniest pot of cream known to humankind (but it’s pure magic, so surely I won’t need a lot?) I’m going to need a whole different set of creams for tending to the new crease on my forehead thanks to worrying about the cost of maintaining my new Scarlett Johansson look.
This will of course be the line of defense that I use with my husband…and of course, because I’m worth it.
On a realistic note, after the first application, I experienced a very pleasant tingling sensation in my eye contour area, and even though I’m operating today, on about 3 hours of sleep, it certainly FEELS as though my eyes look as good as Scarlett’s.
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