Happy Mother's Day!

Zebra Stripes

Zebra stripes have always held a fascination for me.  How amazing to have an animal with such bold colours when the majority of the animal world are clad in more muted tones.  

Storybook Children's Art - Zebra Artwork

I can't help looking at Zebra's and admiring them.  They are absolutely magnificent and I can't help thinking they know it.  How can you not think you are totally fabulous wearing such gorgeous stripes.  Watching them they seem to know the zoo guests admire them and hold their heads aloft accordingly.

It seems this confidence is also held by women who wear zebra stripe clothing.  Whether it be a dress, scarf or blouse; it takes a woman with confidence and flair to carry it off.  Without a doubt you stand out in Zebra stripes so it isn't for the wall flowers.  

Zebra print has made a comeback in fashion and interior design.  Incorporate a little into your wardrobe and home! 

Boots No 7 - and we're not talking shoe size...

Every now and then a new beauty product hits the market with much hype and fanfare.  Promising the fountain of youth and proclaiming magic new ingredients that most of us can't even pronounce; like moths to the flame there will be a stampede at the local department store to obtain a bottle.

At times I feel cynical as I part with my hard earned cash.  Even more so when the product fails to work as it was promoted.  And the bottle ends up in my beauty cabinet along with all the others who've been rejected. 

I'm not naive to think it will turn the clock back a decade (though I do hope in the future they can do this), but I do want to look my absolute best and although the nay sayers will declare they are not into fancy products; we all want to look as youthful as we can.  Even if it is just to avoid people asking "Are you ok?  You look tired today". 

Therefore when I read more and more articles about the new wonder cream - "Boots No 7 - Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum", I researched it to find out what everyone is raving about worldwide.   It appears that pharmacists and dermatologists in the UK have actually conceded that No. 7 does indeed work.  And I can't find one bad story about it.  Neither can many women in Britain who have practically bought every available bottle off the shelves. 

At the Boots store in London's Liverpool Street on the day of release, queues formed from 6.30am and more than 400 bottles were sold in the first hour of trading.

Women in the US are now waiting for their release of the product (Target U.S), so they can join in.  Unfortunately there has been no word of an Australian release so I bought some bottles from the UK.

The best part of all?  You can pick up a bottle for only 19 pounds at a Boots Pharmacy.  Hooray to skincare that doesn't take a third of your salary!  And it seems most women in the UK agree. 

The University of Manchester conducted independent research on No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum over a 12 month period, the most rigorous clinical trial carried out on a cosmetic anti-aging product. The research findings were recently published in the British Journal of Dermatology, stating that after using the No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum for a year, 70 per cent of women and men had "significant" improvements to their wrinkles with faces ending up with fewer lines and shallower wrinkles. In fact, the longer No7 Protect & Perfect Intense Beauty Serum is used, the more effective it is. 

Boots states that "the product has been independently proven to restore the skin’s structure, visibly improving deep lines and wrinkles by up to 50% with regular use. The first product proven to restore the skin's structure with prolonged use. So effective that other people can see a significant visible improvement in your deep lines and wrinkles......After 4 weeks, the appearance of lines and wrinkles is reduced by up to 50%.......After 6 months of use, the skin is shown to rebuild and over time elasticity is improved and deep wrinkles are visibly reduced."

Only time will tell whether it does work and whether it lives up to the hype. 
I will post again about No 7 in a couple of months.  It will either be the best find for years or another dud to be added to the reject pile.  I'll keep you posted! 

Karate Kid Revival

Karate Kid 2 will be released at the cinemas in June.  Starring Jackie Chan and Jayden Smith (Will's son), Karate is sure to be all the rage again. 

If you are as old as me and remember the first Karate Kid movie (1984), then you most likely have children of your own and will be feeling very "old" right now.  You know you're getting old when movies you saw in your youth are re-made for the current generation. 

Who wasn't in love with Daniel san and Mr Miyage.  I can't even count the amount of times I've heard people say "wax on, wax off".  It is one of those movie lines that go down in history and everyone can pinpoint the movie.   I seriously hope it is not in the new movie as I don't think I can take my boys saying it every five minutes!

My older sister loved the 1984 movie so much she fell in love with Japan and moved there for a short time to work.  Although she didn't take up Karate, she did take up Kendo.   Kendo, the Way of the Sword is the art of Japanese Samurai Swordsmanship.  Essentially it involves samurai type outfits, hitting each other with large bamboo sticks and much yelling.

She didn't quite find her gentle Mr Miyage type instructor though and was assigned a very large Japanese teacher who was like a drill sergeant.  Like Daniel san, she was not allowed to so much as learn a move until she had mastered the basics. 

The first basic was learning to scream loudly to terrify the opponent.  You would think screaming would be easy for her (I recall this from our childhood), but no, apparently she was not aggressive or terrifying enough.  Although I'm sure her husband would testify differently!  Screaming practice took a couple of weeks, as did learning to run at an opponent to scare them. Seriously!

Anyway, when she was allowed to have her first hit with an opponent using her kendo stick, she was matched up with a 8 year old boy.  When he was presented to her she felt sorry for the small child and was going to go easy on him.  Big mistake!   He let fly and whacked her senseless with his kendo stick.  She also had no idea that such a small child could scream and be so terrifying at that age.  (She has children now and has now changed her opinion on that). 

And to make matters worse, the whole town came out to watch the show.  Foreigners in this little Japanese town were a sight to behold, and even more so one attempting their national sport.  My sister was that nights town entertainment!

So no real sentimental Mr Miyage moments and no alley way Kendo fights in the style of Ninja Turtles for my sister.   Like Daniel san she keeps her Japanese head scarf to remind her of the fighting ways and she only brings it out at times of extreme stress and to remind her children she means business. 

We are both anticipating that with the new movie that our children will become Karate mad and start hitting each other with objects.  Or that catching flies with chopsticks will become a hobby again.  I can only imagine the amount of walls and broken furniture around the world sparked by the movie remake.   And a whole new generation of children learning the crane stance (unless they've come up with a new trick). 

Watch Karate school enrolments go through the roof and school suspensions rise from well placed Karate kicks.  It is 1984 all over again.

Can my house withstand it?  Here we go again.  Start removing all precious objects now!