Hi everyone!
I am so thrilled to share our new The Angelman Rally T Shirts in association with the charity we are fundraising for, AngelmanUK.
In fact, 100% of your donation goes directly to the charity!!
All you need to do is visit the website, click on the T-shirt you like, complete the order form, and make your donation to get your T-shirt today!
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.
Be a pineapple,I wanted to write this blog post to address a lot of questions that I have had asking why I add or talk about pineapples with a hashtag or an emoji, when posting about IVF and Infertility. 🍍
Within the trying to conceive (TTC) community, the pineapple has recently become a bit of a symbol of luck and friendship (which you need a ton of when doing IVF).
There is also a theory that pineapple core helps with implantation and you see a lot of people eating it during their two week wait after an IVF embryo transfer, I tried it too. I think I tried everything at one point. I mean, what harm will eating a pineapple do right?
That leads me onto letting you know that IVF BABBLE are selling these cute little pineapple pin badges on amazon! With profits donated to the Fertility Network
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I am excited to share my experiences of having my eyebrows tattooed with Belinda Hayle. I had them done in October 2015 and have been meaning to share this post for a while. lol
They call it ‘Semi permanent makeup’ because it is designed to be topped up so that in years to come when the shape of your face may change for example, that you can change the shape and keep it looking natural. They should follow the natural shape of your brows.
It took me a while to decide on the clinic that I wanted to use. I highly advice doing your research as i have seen some DIRE eyebrows! Far too thick and dark and completely un natural.
Some tattoos turn blue cause of the quality of the products they are using. If anyone has read previous posts you will know that i suffer with image anxiety as it is, so the thought of being left with completely hideous eyebrows scared the crap out of me!
For this reason I chose a clinic who specialise in this type of permanent makeup. Not some tattoo place that ‘has done a few eyebrows too’. I also did not want to go somewhere just because of a lower price or promotional deal. I believe with something like this you get what you pay for. I chose this clinic because they have been featured in the press, various celebrities use it and they have had fantastic reviews. I also went via word of mouth as I know someone who also used the clinic and was happy with the results.
I made my initial enquiry via email and was given a date for my consultation. The only downside was that it was a 2 month wait, and i presume this was because they are hugely popular. The nearer my appointment came, the more excited I was, and i knew that i was definitely going to get them done. So I called a few weeks before my consultation to see if i could book an appointment in advance to have the actual treatment as i didn’t want to wait another two months. Luckily they had a space a week after my consultation! 🙂
Post Consultation Prep:
Well my natural hair colour is Ash Brown/Dark Blonde but I had been dying it for EVER… At least 20 years, to dark brown and sometimes black. With having my eye brows tattooed i was anxious about them choosing the wrong colour. Obviously they know what they are doing and choose a colour to suit your skin tone and not hair colour. I let my dyed hair fade and routes come through long enough and in time for my consultation. I felt better knowing that they had seen the real me lol
My initial consultation was with the company director, Belinda Hayle herself. The clinic is a purpose built building behind her home. She made me feel welcome and ran me through all I needed to know. I had pencilled my eyebrows to an inch of their life as usual, for the appointment so that they could see how i liked to shape my brows. I also made sure she saw my eyebrows without makeup so i used a wipe to take them off… by which time i felt completely naked!
They took 100 deposit and I left excited! I was a little disappointed to be booked in with one of her qualified technicians but Belinda herself cant be expected to work on her own, especially with the business being so popular and the clinic itself is a teaching academy.
What they say:
‘Permanent cosmetic eyebrow enhancement washes any worries away (not your eyebrows). A colour will be custom blended for you, and then I will take great care to design your new brow shape, using my special Arch Angel technique (exclusive to Belinda Hayle Aesthetics) and once you are happy, I will start infusing the colour with delicate hairstrokes into the upper layer of the skin. Discomfort is minimal, and most clients will have a well deserved snooze during the treatment. The whole process takes approximatley 1.5 hours, and you will leave with beautiful, coutured brows that will be the envy of your friends and family’.
The day of treatment:
BEFORE (MY OWN EYEBROW MAKEUP)
MAKEUP OFF (hideous photo! lol)
STAGE 1:
They anaesthetised my eyebrows. I can only describe it as It felt like the tattoo had started already as it was a scratching method. This was to open the skin/pores so that the anaesthetics would get in.
She then measured and drew the desired shape giving me more of a higher arch and adding shape to my flat eyebrows. She was very precise and got me to sit up as well as lay down and turn my face in various angles. I liked that she was being so thorough. Belinda came in just after she had finished and had a look. She gave her opinion and together they made a few further tweeks. I was happy to have her input before the tattoo begun.
At first my eyebrows were darker (than now) and the area a little red. They told me they would lighten by 50% but to be honest i was pretty happy with the colour they were already. I thought that like a normal tattoo, it starts REALLY dark before scabbing, but I could see straight away the difference between the ink. I was given some vaseline type ointment to put on my eyebrows every three hours. I was also given instructions on how to maintain my brows and care for them in the leading weeks. I was not allowed to get them wet, and if i did i had to pat them dry and to smother them with a thick layer of vaseline when washing my hair or showering.
Day 2:
There has been no obvious scabbing
I can honestly say this has changed my life. If i want heavier eyebrows i do still use makeup but on a day to day basis I don’t need to do anything.
I am due for a year top up so will let you know how that turns out
Corinne xx
You don’t need to be physically fit to raise some funds for a very
deserving cause – you can simply… give up a treat for a month!!
I’m sure you’ve all heard by now that today, May 19th, is World IBD Day – a day for the WHOLE WORLD to raise funds and awareness of IBD and to celebrate the community of strong individuals battling Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis.
Back in #IBDSuperHeroes HQ we’ve been working really hard to think of ways to raise the profile of Inflammatory Bowel Disease on this very special day. We’ve arranged dress up days, Twibbons, Thunderclaps, headers and profile pictures and last but by no means least are launching our ‘Your IBD Stories‘ section of the #IBDSuperHeroes blog!
We will be posting a few of your stories today and then drip feeding the rest at regular intervals. These will also be shared across our social media platforms.
If you would like to contribute with your IBD story, just follow the instructions below.
Fill in the following
Calling all Superheroes!!
You may have been wondering how YOU can get involved on Thursday May 19th for World IBD day. Well below are a few of the things you can do to show your support!
We asked you to distribute these posters and get as many friends, colleagues and schools involved is possible. Thank you to all that did this!
You can also JOIN OUR THUNDERCLAP and help get World IBD Day trending on May 19th! We’ve no doubt that some of you will be busy at work or recreationally so this will tweet or post on your Facebook /
Tumblr on your behalf on May 19th! You won’t even have to log in on
the day, just pledge your support on the above link now!
Since launching #IBDSuperHeroes we have raised over £350 for Cure Crohn’s Colitis so far, which is fantastic! Considering we haven’t started our fundraising events.
(click on the image above to take you to our JustGiving page)
This leads me to let you know that we have organised the first fundraiser which we are calling the project Launch event!
We would LOVE IT if you would join us on May 29th!
Come along, meet the team, me, Sahara Fleetwood-beresford, Lisa Cummins, Roger Pasfield, Kelly Tots Pasfield, AJ Mooney and Stephen Gomm, and join in with the fundraisers on the day.
Transport links: Nearest station ‘Stone Crown Street’ Railway Approx 5 minutes walk
Cozzie Corinne 
