Tag Archives: Spotlight Saturday

Saturday Spotlight on A Giveaway!

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A regular 24 hour period for me is chocked full of bad timing. Taking just today for an example:

- I had graduate photo, right? Well. I have skin that goes berserk if I put anything delicious in my mouth so I have been prepping all week by avoiding bad things and drinking ridiculous amounts of water. I tell you – my skin was glowing this morning as I happily headed to my photo shoot. However, as I was paying for my parking pass at the university, I was stung by an insect right in the middle of my face. I called my mother (for whom the photos are largely for) and I morosely listened to about three minutes of hysterical laughter. I just want to get this graduating thing over, since I am clearly not navigating it with style nor grace.

-After a long run, I was stretching on the pool deck. I was doing an ambitious back bend for someone with my level of flexibility when someone pulled in our driveway. I quickly snapped to attention, but a little too quickly because I tweaked a back muscle and proceeded to spend the rest of the evening wandering around the house with a bag of frozen corn on my lower right hip.

- Tonight, I was having a leisurely dip in the hot tub with my youngest sister. I was undoubtedly imparting wisdom to her when suddenly and without warning, the hot tub cover launched itself from its post and slammed down on my head, causing me to go from sitting vertically to being underwater horizontally in 0.2 seconds. As I come up sputtering, my sister was turning purple and not making any noise. I was worried until I realized it was because she was laughing so hard at me. It was an epic fail of the highest proportions.

So my theory in life is that the more bad timed moments you have, the more amazingly timed moments you are bound to have. Or at least that is how I felt when I arrived home to see my Anastasia stuff came the night before grad photos. This morning (pre bug bite), I put the products to the test!

As I mentioned in last Saturday’s post, I received the Summer Kit.

The contents:

Shadow

If you ever wear eyeshadow, you know that the poorer the quality, the more you need to put on (never a good thing). I just needed a whisper of this shadow and it went on well and stay put all day (until the hot tub incident, that is). They are the perfect summer colours and can be worn with anything!

Lip gloss

I have a confession. I rarely wear lipgloss because I hate the stickiness that most products have. I tested this stuff out and was incredulous. No stickiness to be found and the colour lasted forever. I have no air conditioning in my car so I was sweating like a beast on the way to school and I was drinking coffee – and it still stayed. This is miracle lip gloss and I am completely in love.

Tinted Brow GelThe brilliant portable version of the amazing brow kit the Anastasia offers. It was one of the first things I ever reviewed for them and I still use it almost every day! This is lovely – so light and you don’t need to worry about eye brows running askew. Success!

The finished product?

Me… pre bug bite and hair brushing.

I really want you to experience this, so if you feel like you specialize in good timing, leave a comment on my webpage and you can win this:

It is the waterproof lash genius I reviewed here and a special gift thrown in because you are awesome. I will make the draw next Saturday! If you want a kit for yourself, head on over to Sephora or Anastasia’s webpage. 

Hope your weekend is full of perfect timing. 

Saturday Spotlight on Olivier de Schutter

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Well…kind of.

It is more a spotlight on the state of Canada’s Food Insecurity.

And before you begin to profile me as a wonderful activist for the proper rights of all mankind, I only wish. Although I do tune into CBC now and then and read the newspaper with my morning coffee to understand what is happening in the world so I do not appear like a completely self absorbed person, I miss a lot of the important things that are going on in the world (to my shame).

Hungry people are a problem. Especially hungry children. And that is something I do care very deeply about which is why I am a blogger for the Waterloo Region Food System Round table. The following article is a piece I wrote for them that will be going up about the same time as this one!

Have a wonderful long weekend. (And for heavens sake, buy local!)

From May 6 – 16th, the United Nations Special Rapporteur, Olivier de Schutter visited Canada to conduct a formal country mission. The purpose of his visit was to examine the way in which the human right to adequate food is being realized in Canada.

His final statements on the state of food insecurity in Canada were shocking as he outlined that a growing number of people across Canada are unable to meet their basic food needs and he called Canada to a constitutional and legal protection to the right to food domestically.

De Schutter stated that:

“Canada has long been seen as a land of plenty. Yet today one in ten families with a child under six is unable to meet their daily food needs. These rates of food insecurity are unacceptable, and it is time for Canada to adopt a national right to food strategy.”

He also discussed the growing food insecurity of First Nation Peoples in Canada as a result of government policies, decreasing access to land, and the lack of proper implementation of the Nutrition North Canada program which offers healthy food to the indigenous peoples.

The lack of available land is not affecting only the indigenous peoples but the rest of Canada as well. De Schutter stated that our agricultural practices have moved from small, local farms to large scale intensive modes of production since the 1950’s which creates unsustainable farming practices and higher greenhouse gas emissions. He calls for Canada to strengthen our local small-scale farming sector to ensure a strong local food system and help combat food insecurity.

De Schutter commented on the gap between the obesity rates and poverty rates in Canada and on his concern with the growing gap between Canada’s international commitments and their implementation domestically. He affirms that Canada has the financial means to address the basic human needs of our most marginalized and disempowered and that we are falling short; poverty affects some 3 million Canadians, of whom more than 600,000 are children.

In conjunction with De Schutter’s visit, Food Secure Canada is calling for a national Food Policy that includes a minimum wage to cover basic living necssities, student nutrition programs, and public promotion of healthy foods to name a few.

Of course there has been criticism to De Schutter’s visit, one example which can be seen here: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/05/16/john-ivison-hypocritical-un-council-sends-envoy-on-kafka-esque-canadian-visit/

Further resources on Olivier de Schutter’s visit can be seen here:

Food Secure Canada: http://foodsecurecanada.org/ (Follow the links at the bottom of the article)

Official Statement: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12159&LangID=E

New Feature: Spotlight Saturday

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I have been brainstorming lately something I can do weekly on the blog that is original and useful to you as my readers. I had a few stipulations: It had to be useful, helpful and have alliteration. I like alliteration almost as much as I love the semicolon. It’s been on the back burner for a while, but last night it was shoved into the spotlight as I had my ‘aha’ moment while driving home from a concert.

Saturday will henceforth, from now till forever be Spotlight Saturdays where I will shine the spotlight on a local artist, musician, author, issue or whatever I think is the most important thing of the week. Ok?

Today’s Spotlight is on Rose Cousins.

Rose is a hilarious human being from P.E.I. whose concerts involve impromptu challenges to audience members to see who can kick the highest and creating tv drama scenarios in which her music would be played. She has her audience doubled over with laughter in between her songs but the moment she starts playing, they are completely captured by her depth and the power of her music. She has been given many awards for her incredible folk music and is in the midst of travelling across Canada, sharing her music and inviting audiences to high kicking contests.

 She has been supportedand advertised by CBC and gives credit to the program for where she is today. She shared that the budget cuts have directly affected her and many other Canadian musicians. Her hope is that we spread the message and can somehow find a way to keep the program alive that has given rise to some of our greatest Canadian musicians.

If you get a chance, please check out her new album. It will feed your soul.