Since it's Father's Day I figured I'd take the time to remember all the wonderful memories I have of my Dad.  He died when I was 13 but there's many great things that come to mind that I remember about him.  All of my friends, as well as my brother's, loved him.  I don't think he had an enemy in the world.  I know I hated seeing him upset or angry because it wasn't a frequent occurrence and he was much more fun when he was smiling (which is did often).  I can remember falling asleep to music coming from the basement just about every night.  He was a drummer/musician and he let anybody who needed a place to jam to come into his studio to use any of his equipment.  At the calling hours after his death, there were so many people there to pay respects that the line was just about out the door of the funeral home.  There were plenty of people I didn't even know but it was amazing to see (even if it was a very sad day).  To know that many people loved my dad was something special to learn.  I knew he had many friends and he loved his family, so it was a tiny bit of reassurance when I knew that he wouldn't be with us anymore.  I can remember all the times he'd take us to the beach to swim in Lake Erie or we'd go crayfish hunting in a river close to home with our dog, Thor.  My dad was a goofball.  He loved when he had the chance to do things with us.  He was always excited when he could afford to take us places or buy us something cool for our birthday or Christmas.  Even though he didn't have much money, he managed to make our childhood pretty awesome.  Even after my mom and dad divorced and my mom moved out, I never heard him say anything bad about her.  In fact, he completely ignored the whole "every other weekend" rule the court gave for us to see our mom.  If we wanted to go see her, it was done.  He never thought it was right to keep us from seeing her.  For that, even now I have so much love and respect for him.  I see so many people have such ill feelings toward their ex spouses.  It's nice to look back and not see that in my memory of my dad.    I also recall the last movie that my brother and I saw in the theater with my dad was the movie, The Lion King.  It's little memories like that which keep him alive even after all these years without him.   To this day he's still my hero.
    So make sure you take the time to appreciate your father while you can and cherish those memories if they're no longer living just like I find myself doing on a daily basis.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!!

You ever feel like screaming?  I'm sure just about everyone has at one point in their life. Unfortunately, that doesn't go over well when you live with other people (or have neighbors).  Stress seems to permeate into every possible aspect of life anymore.  There's all kinds of suggestions for dealing with it online, or in books.  I wonder why it is there has to be books on it in the first place.  When there's a whole section in bookstores for self help and how to deal with things like stress it says a lot about the culture we live in.          

Here is a list of my top 6 favorite authors as of this posting.  Some of these I've loved for many years, while a couple I recently got into because, of course, my best friend told me I'd be stupid not to read them....she was right.  Most of these are either fantasy/sci-fi, some have a little bit of paranormal romance or something like that.  I'm a woman, I like romance.  Ok, actually I find some "romance" cheesy and corny to the point where it almost makes me uncomfortable but some of it it still fun to read ;).  So here's the list :)  Oh, and these are in no particular order (I don't think I could do that if I wanted to.  I like them all too much lol).

So check out that handsome dude on the cover huh? That would be Julius Caesar...you know, the crazy Roman dude that decided it would be a good idea to make himself Emperor for Life?  Yeah, that one.  This book gives you some wonderful information regarding some of the craziest bastards to ever rule the Roman Empire.  Suetonius was kind enough to write for us some information regarding the wonderful Julio-Claudian rulers, including Julius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero...and a few more that probably not many people remember.   So, if you ever want to read something about some of the most seriously screwed up individuals who managed to rule Rome, get this book.  If you happened to already watch Rome, the television series, you could read this and then impress some of your friends when you can tell them things that might not be correct in the show. Or you could just be a geek like me and read it because you actually like reading history related books for fun instead of going out on Saturday night.


So that concludes my "Off the Bookshelf" segment for now.  I hope to post more in the future and I truly hope anybody who reads this seriously considers reading some of the books I've suggested (If you haven't read them already, that is.)

Hugs,
Tiff















**Disclaimer:  All material listed was purchased by me.  I am in no way affiliated with anyone representing these books, nor am I being paid or influenced in any way to suggest these materials.**

I've been thinking almost since I first started to do the whole blog thing (which has only been a very recent thing for me) that, while I love all things beauty/makeup related, I know there are so many blogs already out there and established that have great material.  I feel that mine would not be adding much to the beauty world that people couldn't already find on countless other blogs where many readers already turn to.  So I've decided that I would like to move my blog in a different direction.  I only have 4 "followers" at the moment anyway but I still wanted to make sure everyone knew what was happening and why the content and subject matter is changing.  If I do come across something cool dealing with cosmetics or beauty I will definitely be sure to post something.  However, I'm thinking of writing about more day to day, inspirational type stuff.  I've seen a lot in my 28 years and I've gone through many transformations.  I've learned a great deal about both myself and those close to me in ways that only growing up can teach you.  I'd like to share some of that with whoever feels like reading this blog.  I'm hoping that some of the things I share over the course of this blog, that people can take something away from it to help in their own lives if they are dealing with something I've already gone through.   I thank those few of you who have started out as my very first readers and I hope that many others will find their way here and gain some insight that I hope I can provide.

So in the last few weeks I've been trying out some different products to see if I liked them or not.  While a few were great, I wanted to blog about a couple of products that I did not find all that great.

The first product is a dry shampoo by Beyond The Zone Pro Formula, Rock On Dry Shampoo.  I can't wash my hair daily (due to psoriasis) and my hair tends to be on the oily side so I figured I'd give this product a try to help freshen up my hair on the days I don't wash it.  It claims that it soaks up some of the oils but I didn't notice any difference at all in that regard.  Also, I can't stand the smell of it.  I don't know how to describe it but it's not a fresh smell that'd I'd like my hair to smell like.  It claims it will keep your hair looking and smelling fresh and neither of these were true for me.  Maybe it's just me, but I feel like it was a waste of money.


The other product, unfortunately, is the Neutrogena Spectrum+ Face SPF 100+ sunscreen.  It burns my eyes no matter what I do, even though I'm careful to keep it away from that part of my face.  Just having it on my face makes my eyes water and burn.  Also, one of the ingredients it contains is Oxybenzone which has shown in some studies to actually damage DNA in your skin cells.  Considering the use of sunscreen is supposed to help PREVENT that, I did not think that was good to have in a product that I need to apply daily to my face.  Regardless of that ingredient, which I recommend avoiding if possible (even though many name brand sunscreens/sunblocks contain it in the U.S.) I did not like how it felt on my face.  It made my face shiny and more oily than it already is to begin with.  I definitely broke out more while using it.  So sadly, I'm in need of a good sunscreen for my face yet again.


Anyway, I hope this information is useful in some way.  These are my own opinions based on my experiences using both of these products regularly for several weeks.  Some of you may have better luck with them but unfortunately I did not like them.

Thanks for reading :)

Hugs,
Tiff

**Disclaimer** These products were not sent to me and were purchased with my own money.  My opinion is solely my own and I am not influenced in any way by the companies that make the above mentioned products.  I do not work for these companies and am in no way affiliated with them.

So I haven't posted a product of the week but I am trying a few different products out in the mean time while I'm preparing for final exams next week.  Once that's done I plan on spending the summer searching for great products to post reviews, etc. about.  I'm also going to post products that I didn't find all that helpful or that were disappointing in terms of the hype around them and what results I actually got.  If there's anything anybody wants to suggest, feel free to leave a comment as I'm always willing to try new things when it comes to the world of cosmetics and beauty products :)  Anyway, I hope everyone has a great day/week and I will post when I get the chance after I test out some more stuff :)

Hugs,
Tiff