This week was a hard one.  My wonderful uncle passed away and for a family as close as ours it has been a trying time.  I’ve been up and down, sad and happy and very reflective about life and what is important.  Death has a way of bringing you back to reality and focusing on living your life to the fullest.  My uncle had a great life and we will remember him as a strong man who lived the best life he could.

Life is too short to be mad, angry, jealous or mean.  Do unto others as you would have done to you.  I want to be an inspiration to people, give back to those that need it and be a strong role model.  I love that anyone reads my blog and comments on what I have to say and please feel free to share with me privately if you don’t want to post on here.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, here are some great links to take us into the weekend!

• XOJane beauty editor Cat shares her best at-home teeth whitening products.  I’ve been thinking my chompers could use a bit of brightening lately and I want to try them out.
• I think I found this on Mashable and it’s a site that takes you to each profile so you can see what apps you are using via social profiles and clean them up – Start 2012 by Taking 2 Minutes to Clean Your App Permissions 
• I am still loving A Beautiful Mess and in a recent post she shares 5 Ways I Display Photos in my Home which I think it super great because most photos live on your computer or the internet now.  I love my old photo albums and I don’t have nearly enough personal photos displayed.  I remember when I first moved out I had a wall display of photos of friends & family and in the new house I want another one.
• Another A Beautiful Mess find that is going to be very helpful to a novice like me 5 Tips for Food Photography
• I posted last week about Aveda’s Scholarship Contest - if you’re interested in winning tuition to pursue your dream of being a top stylist then ENTER!
• Artist Guy Laramee literally carves mountains out of old books.  Here is an article on him with images and you can check out his website HERE
• Found some really interesting Beauty Tips from All Over the World – from a Brazilian Cellulite Cure to a Chinese Anti-Aging Secret
• Led by the child who simply knew – an amazing story of hope for a young transgender person. Twin boys who were identical in every way but one. Wyatt was a girl to the core, and now lives as one, with the help of a brave, loving family and a path-breaking doctor’s care.
• How much should you tip when out at a restaurant?  This great infographic shows Tipping Etiquette around the world (click image to enlarge)

That’s it for this week.  I want everyone that reads this to make a point of telling the people closest to you that you love them.

Beacause I didn’t upload to the new WordPress version in time.

There is still a lot of work to be done to fix this site so unfortunately I won’t be posting anything new for a bit.

Right now I am typing blindly with white text on a white background and it is ridiculously hard.

Thanks for Michael @ BlogStudio for the first fix and Michael at 26Mondays for the 2nd fix. You guys saved my life over the holidays.

I’ll be back as soon as I get everything up and running again.

Until then check out all the goodies in my archives

ALAINA

“I would absolutely love to do the ballroom/salsa dancing!”

Stella Artois Legere Ultimate Block Party Winners!

There was a great response to this contest and guess what?  I actually have 2 pairs of tickets to giveaway to the Stella Artois Legere Ultimate Block party this Saturday!

1. Each person that entered went onto a list in the order they came in and each entry was numbered starting at 1
2. Then I used the Random.org number generator to pick my winner.

Congratulations Alaina!  Please send me an email so we can get your prize to you carly[at]carlyanne.com

Thank you to everyone who entered and stay tuned for the next contest that will start Wed. Oct. 19

And the neighbourhood that wins the Stella Artois Légère Ultimate Block Party is Downtown! Too bad for us East enders, who really know how to party, but a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Keri for the win. Well played my good woman

And just to let you  all know, the East End came in 2nd Place for votes so a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted, tweeted and shared the contest.  We did awesome!

Soooo that means I’ll have some info about the party to share AND I’ll have some tickets to giveaway to the party, which will be on August 13th.

Stay tuned next week when the contest is announced and you could be partying downtown with Stella Artois Légère, Me, Keri and the rest of the Blondetourage.  Gonna be an awesome night!

Going up to Mom & Dad’s to spend Father’s Day lounging by the pool.

Happy Father’s Day Dad! You’re the best dad EVER.