Drowning!

Yesterday, across my TV screen was a warning that said “don’t drown.” that statement, I knew it would cause me to blog. I live in the “Barbie Doll” state. We have more plastic surgeons here in Utah than any other state, and I might add, they are doing quite well.

On a recent trip to my medical spa for a pedicure, I heard the most interesting conversation between my manicurist and others there that she knew. As is turns out, I was there during a “sale” on laser liposuction. I am glad that I didn’t have a full stomach.

My manicurist had undergone the procedure and was ready to go back. I asked what she had had done. That trip was to work on lower abdomen trimming. She told me that you want to ask for a certain doctor because he won’t give up even when it becomes so painful that you think you can’t endure more. I asked what was the outcome. She said that she was 1/2 inch less around the lower abdominal area.

I asked if she has lost any weight. There was no weight loss, but she could tell that her jeans fit better. It was only $800 right now, so the other 30+ year-old women that were in the room were signing up. She would also go for round two. I asked what happens if you eat some bread and wash it down with a soda? Won’t you blow up again? Yes she said, but it is still worth it. I left horrified, but with a pedicure and much better feet.

She also had botox injections from her eyes up. Her upper face had no more movement. She loved that she would never have wrinkles, if she managed to stay on top of it. She said she always knew immediately when it was time for more injections. She could move her eyebrows again. She is 32.

One of my artistic passions is decorating. I even like decorating me. Everyone knows that when you decorate one room, you see how many other rooms need tweaked. You are always chasing improvement. The same goes for your appearance. Fix your belly and your thighs need fixed. It never stops. Only your plastic surgeon reaps the benefits. (There is only one good thing that I can think of there.) To become a plastic surgeon, you need to be number #1 in your class. They are the smartest, not necessarily the best, doctors that you probably will ever have.

Whatever happened to wanting to be the “best YOU that you can be?” Why aren’t you okay with who you are? Just tweak that a bit. Diet, exercise, some great make- up products, and less sun exposure will help create the better outside package.

Whatever happened to working on the inside of you? I am happy to say that with years of inside work, I doubt that my inside looks like swiss cheese with holes any more. I hope it has begun taking on a bit more of a “holier” appearance now, one that includes loving myself. Don’t you love the Dove campaign, “Love the skin you are in!” I hope that some of those swiss cheese holes have closed up with lessons that I have eventually learned from the school of hard knocks. Not that I am a finished product yet, but I am not chasing “laser lipo” with a masochist physician that works through the moans and cries of his patients. There is something wrong with that picture that at thirty years old, we feel we must endure that to love who we are.

Living a mile up under the Utah sun takes a toll on everything. (And I mean everything!) The bottom of my feet dried up, peeled off, and left years ago. I thought that I would never find them again. At Bed, Bath, and Beyond, they sell a product called Heel Tastic. It works so well that my feet have returned, and I can once again wear shoes. (And I do have shoes........I am not the woman that “lives in the shoe,” but I am the woman that owns them!

My sister, the Avon lady, asked me to try a few products this summer. She knows that I love products! When I grow up, I want to be the make up lady that works at the Chanel counter.

Much to my surprise with their advertising, Avon insists that the cream and gel lifts the eyelids and evens out wrinkles under the eye. It works! The product did what it said and lifted my heavy eyelids up where they used to be. It ten minutes, my eyes were back. I love the stuff! I won’t have to go under the knife, or buy a seeing eye dog to get around! (I have known women who have to have their eyelids repaired because they have drooped low enough to affect their eyesight.) Not this girl.......I ordered a vat of the stuff! It is Avon’s ANEW Clinical Eye Lift Pro. I won’t leave home without it.

If you are going to be a person that “loves the skin you are in,” you will love the product Avon’s ANEW Rejuvenate Glycolic facial treatment. My skin is better than it has ever been. It is used at night, so you get up with glowing skin.

When I first moved here, someone said to me “you can’t believe what living in Utah is going to do to your skin.” Just walking to the mailbox, you can feel the sun burning away at your scalp. It is so very unforgiving. There are many wonderful outdoor activities to do here, and because of that, we have a high incidence of skin cancer. (I had squamous (skin cancer) at 36 years old.) There are people here that have skin that looks like beef jerky.

It isn’t hard to take a few minutes to apply sunscreen. I have found Lubriderm’s Advanced Therapy Lotion with an SPF of 30 works great for every day. Buy a vat of that while you are in a spending mood.

I hope that when I move from Utah, I leave with wonderful memories of all the people and friends that I have made, the activities that I have enjoyed, and that I didn’t drown in the movement of improvement that is $800 a pop. “Don’t drown” is a good rule......glad it brought me back to reality...........Yes, Dove..........”we will love the skin that we are in!”

Hello to my “Mirrormirrorstuff friends:

Now that we have all “jingled” away the holiday, it is always back to reality! I don’t know about you, but reality isn’t always what I had in mind.

I decided to “Google” my name last night. I found out a lot of interesting details. We “Christine Walkers” have done many different kinds of things. One has an interesting “baby” business. Christinas have 3,666 others with the same name, and also found an obituary with my name. There are attorneys, doctors, and many other professions with my name. We are so unique! Under my name, I found my dad’s obituary. At least the two of us are connected.

I just attended a gathering of Warren Central graduates. We are doing quite well, of course. Some, I heard, are doing better with the help of plastic surgery. A little nip and tuck, breast augmentation, permanent lip liner and eye liner has helped define a few.

Some of us prefer to go “Au Natural” and add a few more beauty products to our daily ritual. Haven’t seen many of the girls for 40+ years. They are still just as beautiful as ever. The years have been kind! It was so nice to reconnect.

I am a guinea pig for lots of products that are produced to improve the appearance of our skin. I have found some great ones this winter. You will love all of them and it doesn’t require a knife or scalpel, weeks of recovery, and hiding behind a scarf and sunglasses.

How many weeks of your life are wasted staying away from people when you are swelled, red, and grouchy trying to recover from going under the knife to be someone you aren’t? Have you seen Joan Rivers? There was a period of time when her eyes wouldn’t close. She has had a bit of a botox overdose. I have earned my lines and wrinkles and hope to earn some more! I am going to learn to ski…………….need I say more. The Utah sun is so unforgiving! I will smear on the sunscreen and enjoy being scared out of my mind as I pray to stay upright and alive! This could be fun.

The products that I have found this winter work well. My sister is a new Avon lady, so I am trying Avon’s ANEW Rejuvenate. It is a glycolic facial treatment that I love. My skin improved enormously in just one application. It has resurfaced my face in a very short period of time. (Even driveways, your hardwood floors, and ceramic- tile areas need resurfacing every now and then. Just add your face to the list.) It is all about maintenance, girls.

My mom and I used to laugh about how our eyelids were changing. (I used to do her makeup for her when I came home, and we would laugh about how eyelids take on the appearance of corduroy!) Isn’t aging fun? Well, now there is a product that improves the “corduroy appearance” of the eyelids. They are smooth again. I can’t live without it now. I love it, too. It is Elizabeth Arden’s Eye-fix Primer. (Keeps eye shadow from creasing, too! Don’t you love products that fix more than one problem?)

Last, but not least, I found a hand cream that has made my hands look 30 years old again. It is so much better than the 100- year- old appearance that they have had for a few decades! Living on the plains of Nebraska is harsh and destroys the hands fast! Mine are always in water because I love to cook. I am so glad to have my “hands” back. I have wondered wear they have been all these years. They no longer crack and bleed all the time. They are even smooth when I get up in the morning. The product is Neutrogena Moisture Wrap lotion. I gave it to all of my friends this winter. They all have great hands again.

I hope 2011 is a great year for all of you. Isn’t great that we get to start over each and every day? There is so much to learn, starting with being kind to yourself. A little pampering never hurt anyone. Start with pampering “you” and pass it on!

Happy New Year!

Love to all,

Chris

Beauty 4

My sister is new an Avon Lady. In many ways, I think Carla and I have always been Avon ladies. You are either born a girly- girl or not, and we were.

As children, we were given a small amount of money for an allowance. We bought candy bars, lip- gloss and cheap cologne. (It had to be cheap because of our financial situation.) Over the years, not much has changed. I still buy chocolate, lip gloss, and perfume.

A few years ago, I visited Fragonard Perfumeur in Paris. I learned about “super noses” and how to choose a fragrance. A “super nose,” or person who has that title and position, can distinguish between 600 different fragrances or smells. They have two people on their staff at Fragonard with that position. They work 2 days a week and live in the south of France. They are not allowed to eat spicy foods, drink alcohol or smoke. They help develop the new perfumes. I came home with a favorite, that you can only purchase at Fragonard, called Soleil. Just saying the name of it makes me remember the scent. I have come along way from Emeraude and White Shoulders. My two favorites are hard to acquire, one is from London and the other from Paris.

I can honestly say that I love a good "cheap" perfume as well. It is "Strawberries and Champagne." It happens to be Lady Gaga's favorite scent. I read that in a magazine as well. (Don't you love sitting in the beauty shop reading all those magazines and waiting your turn?) It really does smell like strawberries and champagne! Maybe it brings out the "cook" in me. I bought a bottle online and then found out you can purchase it at K-Mart. It sounds so much better when you tell people you found it online! I include it in "my favorite things" gift baskets for my out-of-town guests. (If Oprah can have favorite things, so can you and I!)

When you move to Utah, one of the first things that happens is that your lips dry up and fall off and so do your heels. On my quest to find cures for these to maladies, I have tried many things. I finally found something for both problems. In an article in IN STYLE magazine, and I found the cure for my lips. (I have tried lots of lipsticks, pencils, glosses, and balms over the past five years.) This one is sooooo simple and inexpensive. Use your favorite lip liner and line your lips. Fill it in with Cherry Chapstick. (The 98 cent Chapstick- brand product that you find in the check- out isle of Wal Mart.) It is a trick from makeup artists. They suggested using Cherry because it is tinted a rose color and it works on everyone. I love the products that everyone can afford and are easy to find.

I also found a product in Indiana that works on dry heels. It is called “Heel Tastic” by Earth and you can find it at Bed Bath and Beyond. I am happy to say that my lips and heels are no longer peeling off in layers. Buff off the dead skin on your heels and apply Heel Tastic. They will be smooth in no time.

I have always said that I am a “work in progress” and that I love a great project or a problem to solve. God chose to make me “ordinary” so that I would “give it everything I’ve got” and try harder. I love that about me. I am always trying to improve something.

Mostly I work on the “inside” of me, always trying to polish who I am and who I want to become. I recently saw an Irma Bombeck quote that went something like this, “I hope when I am meeting my Maker someday, that I can say I used all of the talents You gave me and I have no more left. I used all of them wherever I could on anyone who needed them and they are all gone.”

She certainly lived her life well. (She died waiting for a kidney transplant. She wouldn’t put herself in front of the line even though people tried to encourage her to do so with her celebrity position. She said “she wasn’t better than anyone else and she wasn’t going to the head of the line.”

If you are not “beautiful” on the inside, there is no amount of lip gloss or beauty aid that’s going to make you shine! Beauty is still about the inner you. It isn’t a dress size, a certain weight on the scale, or plastic surgery. No one understands that more than me. I just love passing on all this “useless information” and trying to be the best that I can be.

Susan and I were talking about our Utah “purpose” yesterday as we were scaling “Mt Everest” on our walk. Actually, that topic was a bit “deep” for such an early morning conversation. Yesterday, I told her that she already had a purpose. She was helping me stay a reasonable size! We will eventually understand our “Utah purpose.” It may take many trips up and down the mountain. I’ll let you know when we’ve found it.

More mirror stuff! Happy 4th!

Today is July 2, 2010, and I find myself wishing I were preparing for the fireworks bash that would be at my house in Nebraska tomorrow. Norfolk has an amazing fireworks display (about $45,000 worth,) that they so generously light in what used to be my front yard. About 50 of my closest friends would come for dinner and bring lawn chairs and blankets and bug spray, and we would stare at the sky and laugh until we hurt. (I insisted they stand for the Star Spangled Banner even though they were only at my house.)

Two of those friends have since passed, and there is never a day that I don’t think about them. One of those fire -works events ended with lightning and thunder while they sat in metal lawn chairs, and ignored my warning about being struck by lightning! I am amazing that the two of them lived through that horrific storm. (They said they were enjoying the breeze.)

I always floated a beautiful hibiscus from my neighbor's garden in the toilet of the guest bathroom. (It makes a beautiful vase!) I always wondered which one of them would come to tell me about it. Anyway, my Norfolk friends, I will be there with you in thought! Happy 4^th!

On to beauty…….I have found some wonderful things while traveling this year for you to try. My friend, Treby, introduced me to a powdered sunscreen. In comes in a container with a brush and you can dust it in places, like ears and scalp, where sticky sunscreen is hard to apply. It is “Peter Thomas Roth” Instant Mineral Sunscreen and has an of SPF 45. I think it costs $40. Treby generously dusted us before the pink jeep tour of Sedona. (Personally, I thought our danger was driving off the cliffs, but we wouldn’t have been sunburned, thanks to Treby, when we got to the bottom!)

For my fine-haired friends, I found a great product for your hair. It is “Fekkai” Advanced Full Blown Volume spray. Spray it on damp hair to lift the roots and deliver fullness. It isn’t sticky and doesn’t weigh down hair. It is $20. I love it!

For those of us over 40, and I know that isn’t you, the new rule about lipstick is to wear colors only one shade darker that your lips. Lip liner should be the color of your lips. Don’t you just love my wealth of useless information? Don’t you remember one of your elderly relatives that always had red lipstick outside the lines of her lips? I am not going to let you get that reputation!

There is a new nail product out this summer. It is Shellac nails. You have to have them professionally done at a salon. The product is an OPI product. It is applied like polish and stays on for 2 week. It is removed and reapplied every two weeks. It is much easier on your nails than acrylic nails. It is a gel and gives strength to your nails. It won’t scratch or peel. It is amazing, but expensive! It costs about $40 every two weeks.

For those of you, like me, who like to do your own nails, there is a wonderful new inexpensive product by Sally Hansen. It is called “14 Day Nail Shield.” It is pre-treated strips of sheer color that instantly bond like polish to your nails. They nourish your nails with protein for 14 days. It looks like polish. You just press on this little pieces of tape and file off the excess. They work beautifully! They are dry so they can be done in just a few minutes.

I hope each and everyone is having a great summer! Love, Chris

To Pack or Not to Pack?

To pack or not to pack?

It is no secret that I love fashion! I watch and take note of everything around me. Why would you want to go out there looking your worst? There is enough ugliness around us. Doesn’t your day go better when you are at your best?

I have a friend that is getting ready to go to a wedding in India. She is using her guest room to organize clothes for the four-day-event. She is a gemologist and studied in Italy. She knows her stuff!

The wedding invitation came in the form of a book. She was surprised and excited to see what she will be doing. (The groom will ride through town on an elephant in a parade.) What do you wear to that?

I am getting ready to go to Scottsdale. It doesn’t entail anything like that, but I do have to have clothes for warm climate and I live with snow! It is hard for me to switch gears.

Do you remember when people used to dress up a bit to fly? Now anything goes. I remember the girls from the east coast that changed into their pajamas to fly with us to Australia. My friend Richard, who recently passed away and had a career in men’s clothing, used to remind me that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

I travel wearing jeans a white t-shirt and a black blazer. (That is an old Whoopie Goldberg idea.) I then have a jacket that I can dress up or down, and a pair of jeans that are heavy to pack. It has worked in all my travels no matter where I am going.

I recently read a tip from model Heidi Klum. She buys her t-shirts in the boys’ departments. I have found great, white t-shirts with a pocket in the boys’ department at Wal Mart for $5.00 They are a nice, heavy knit fabric.

If the boy’s sizes are smaller than you would need, then buy them in the men’s department. They are perfect for pairing with a blazer or wearing solo with jeans.

When we travel out of the country, we are limited on what we can take. I always pack with the same plan. I add to the jeans, t-shirt, and black blazer.

I take one black skirt, one black pair of slacks, and one pair of comfortable walking shoes. (Being a shoe person, that just about kills me! Anything comfortable rarely has the style that I like.) I usually get phone calls from friends to remind me to pack comfortable shoes. They hate pain!

I take t-shirts and tops that will coordinate with everything. I take a waterproof jacket and umbrella. I also take a dressy shoe and a little, black dress. I mix and match all through my journey.

It makes packing much easier and I don’t dread it so much. It varies a bit depending on where I am going. (It is sometimes damp and chilly in England and Scotland, so I take a wool black blazer.)

Remember…….if you are a shopper, the more you pack, the less you can bring back with you! I once bought a pair of shoes in Florence, Italy and when I got to Rome and wanted to wear them, I found two left shoes in the box! I have always wondered who got the right shoes?

Have fun with your upcoming travels. The anticipation is half the fun!

Love, Chris

You Go, Girls!

I am acutely aware of all that is happening in this world around us. I hesitated to write such a "light and frilly" blog, but decided maybe we could use a laugh or two. I am dedicating this blog to my dear friend Bernie, who passed away of cancer in December. In spite of the changes that were happening to her physically, she found a way to adapt. She embraced the wigs, the false eyelashes, the removal of her acrylic nails and still remained the beautiful lady that she was on the inside and out. I can hear her telling me, “you go, girl!”

So some of us have just began to assess the damage of Thanksgiving, and Christmas of 2009. That would be me. I spent four weeks away from Utah and any routine schedule, and have been in denial since arriving back to my home. I can weigh myself in many ways at my house. I have a professional scale like those that used to be in doctor’s offices. I have a digital scale that weighs two pounds light that I love, and I can weigh in stone from the scale I brought home from Norfolk, England. (Yes, it was back when you could actually carry things onto planes.) No one ever asks me what is wrong with that scale when they come out of that bathroom, but I can tell it has been used and moved! Weighing only 12 is not a bad thing! I was brave enough to finally use the one that weighs 2 lbs. light. Denial is a beautiful thing. It is time to get started again, girls. Remember we are not about to go down with the ship. We may cruise on them, but that is it!

I would love to preach to you the benefits of exercise and diet, but you already know all of that stuff. Pick something that motivates you. I have been exercising forever and I do try to eat healthy. (Except for the carrot cake that Grant, Betsy, and I shared many times this holiday season. And then there was the peanut butter fudge……………..My sister shared the recipe, but made me promise to take it with me to my grave. If I keep making it, there won’t be room to put it in with me!

Here are the things that I like to start the year doing. It is time to throw out old makeup and to try new things. (Bernie actually cleaned out her makeup drawer before she passed away.) Proves you are always a woman clear to the end.

Take a look at your wardrobe. Do you need to donate some of the things that you are not wearing? Do you need to eat healthy and exercise before you try to wear the spring things? I do!!

I found some wonderful new products for you to try. One is “C.O. Bigelow Rose Salve” for your dry lips. It is $6 at Bath and Body Works. It even smells amazing! (I clear up my dry Utah skin by leaving town!) It is usually back to healthy after a trip to Nebraska or Indiana! The climate in Utah is very unforgiving.

For those of you that have fine hair, try “Fekkai Full Blown Volume” Lifting hairspray. It isn’t sticky and it adds lots of volume. Fakkai.com $20

If you need Valentine gifts for your daughters or granddaughters, Ulta has the most wonderful eye shadows that are in little round boxes that have pictures of Parisian landmarks on them. Ulta $14

Try Givenchy Phenomen’ Eyes mascara. It makes lashes look very long! For those of us using Rapidlash, ours are very long! (Rapidlash.com……..amazing stuff….$49 and lasts about 4 months.)

I got one of the greatest compliments this summer while I was floating around on a “noodle” on a friend’s private lake in Nebraska. We were covered with sunscreen, sun hats, sunglasses and anything else we could use to prevent sun damage while the teenagers looked at us horrified! We said “wish we hadn’t baked in the sun with iodine and baby oil," but each generation needs to learn it themselves! Those were the days. (I once bought a bikini in Florida that fit like a second skin. I also got sun poisoning wearing it!) Loved that suit………I wonder whatever happened to it?

Oh, and back to the compliment, she said, “You are high maintenance, but you know how to do all this stuff yourself, so you never have to leave the house to have anything done.” I take pride in that…..and that I teach others to be self sufficient too!

Have a wonderful journey! It is in the journey, you know……."you go, girls!"

Beauty 911

I always knew that I would never be a "woman of few words!" Blogging was designed for me! I have been sending out, via e-mail, information on fashion and beauty products. I have gotten such favorable reviews that I decided to blog.

This is part of the e-mail letter I sent to friends and family yesterday.

My sister and I were talking the other day about our faces and complexions. She and I have the same skin color, same color eyes, and hair....Well, that is another story. While we are aging at the same lightning speed, she got beautiful, platinum hair and I got (let's just say something different.)

We had, growing up, Dad's acne, oily skin. Mom looked like a porcelain doll and we had minefields of volatile zits! And a mere 45 years later, we get compliments on our complexions! Go figure......

We had to learn how to care for our raging skin. That is for another day.

Today, brings me to the subject of lines and wrinkles. Not that any of us is there yet, but when they come we need to face them head on....Just like any other fear. This is really staring fear in the face!

I love all the lines on my face! I am not kidding. Each of them I have earned in some way. Every one of them has a story. I earned some of the water skiing, sunbathing, snow skiing, (if you can call what I do, skiing), laughing until I hurt, squinting because I only buy sunglasses, but don't wear them, running outside in the frigid, Nebraska climate, crying over hurts and disappointments, and the list goes on and on......I hope to earn more and more of them as life continues.

What is your beautiful face telling you? What wonderful experiences have you had that might have given you a line or two on your face? Only you have had your experiences. They are unique to you!

I live in Utah and it has been declared the most "vain" state. We have more plastic surgeons here than any other state. It has the most amount of depressed people here as well. Maybe we need an attitude adjustment. It is always about attitude, isn't it?

Did you know that a smile is the greatest face lift? Its affect is passed on and on from person to person. Take another look at your beautiful face and be thankful for every line and experience you have been blessed to have! Be the best you, you can be and don't try to compare yourself with anyone else. There will always be someone smarter, taller, thinner, more talented, etc...There is no one like me and there is no one like you. Enjoy the journey!

I will be passing on all the info on beauty products and fashions that I have in my curious mind. I will share what works and what doesn't. Have fun with it! We are not going down with the ship anytime soon, but we might cruise on them, and we are certainly works in progress!

Stay tuned.............