Ok, so due to popular demand, I decided to start a little article on pointe shoes – for the beginner. Well, I figure that the intermediate to professional dancer already knows exactly what they’re looking for so they wouldn’t need any help, so this review is mainly aimed at the dancer looking for their first pairs of pointe shoes. Onwards!

Getting your first pair of pointe shoes or toe shoes is often THE turning pointe (ahaha geddit?) of a dancer’s training. A lot of dancers will decide then if they choose to turn their years of hard ballet training into a career, or perhaps move on to other dance disciplines such as lyrical or contemporary that don’t employ pointe shoes. They’re not for everyone, some people don’t like the feeling and others might not have the ankles for it, etc etc Suffice to say, a perfect pair of first pointe shoes will help you in making an unbiased decision that will not be based on accidentally getting an ill-fitting pair and not knowing how they’re supposed to feel. Enough babbling! Moving on.

One way I’ve found in getting good pointe shoes is to get them online. Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of choice in brand makes or models and even sizes were limited, most dancewear shops catering to the bulk of dancers with foot lengths and widths that fell into the median category. If you had longer or wider feet, getting fitted for pointe shoes wasn’t so fun. Whereas shopping online, you have all the makes, models and sizes at the tips of your fingers! An added bonus, if you shop smart, you will find certain stores willing to shave off 15 – 30 percent off retail prices and most even have a money back policy!

My favourite pointe shoe brands are, in order of favouriteness! – Freed, Bloch and Chacott. I have also used, Grishko, Sansha and Gaynor Minden and will be reviewing all those shoes here today.

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Are you tired of poopy YouTube videos? Where everything is so blurry you can’t even make out anyone’s faces or features?

Well! YouTube is now supporting higher quality videos and you can access them in two ways:

1) Although it will still give you standard crappy quality by default, sometimes and only sometimes, there will be a link that says watch in high quality, like this:

2) Often times however, there won’t be. In which case, you can always go to the end of the video’s url and add &fmt=18 which will give you your high quality fix. Observe:

&fmt=18 has to be added in after the actual video’s address though. If you’re getting strings like &feature=related added onto the end of it from searching videos, then just delete that first.

Let me give you a working example! I shall go to YouTube and super randomly pick out any one video with my eyes closed. I will have no idea as to why and how it turns out to be a Super Junior one, it will just magically happen, because I am no fangirl. I can’t stand fangirls, I scoff at fangirls. AS IF I WOULD BE! Moving on…

With a bit of luck your videos should come out looking like this:

Instead of like this:

See?! First video: delicious and fantastical and not enough Hankyung in it. Second video: poopy and blurry and not enough Hankyung in it. HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED THERE IS NOT ENOUGH HANKYUNG IN ANYTHING, ANYWHERE?!?!?!? Unfair biasness I tells you

Anyhoo… so that’s how that works! Also, if you wish to embed a high quality YouTube video to your blogs or posts or pages or whatevers (like I just did up there), just add &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the end of both bits of url in the code. Like so:

<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/6g54EuHQhl0&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18“></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/6g54EuHQhl0&hl=en&fs=1&ap=%2526fmt%3D18” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>

Geniustic innit? Tis indeed.

Love you all, byebye.

Juls

I have posted a couple of new articles with a lot of information that can help save you from the Hell that is viruses, spyware, and the general crud that can accumulate on a Windows PC.

There are some useful tips that have helped me, and more importantly the friends and family whose computers I also seem to have responsibility for! Best of all, nothing will take more than a few minutes, and NONE of it will cost you a penny, everything is free

Click for part 1 and part 2!

Hi Everyone!

I have uploaded a new post with some really good resources on caring for cats. They were absolute lifesavers for me when I had to look after two very young kittens recently, and I also found a TON of information which made me go “DOH, I wish I had known that!”.

Honestly these are lifesavers. You can find the article here.

Love, Mandy x

I recently got a super short haircut after having had long hair for practically forever. And frankly I love it. I’m seriously contemplating keeping my hair short from now on. So I figured why not make a post for all those people out there who are thinking about making a change but don’t really know if it’s the right move to make. So all you people considering going short, this is for you.

The great thing about short hair is that it’s so versatile, it can be sassy, sweet, sexy or sophisticated; all you need is a little styling product and a little flare and imagination. Slick it back, muss it up, spike it, crimp it, accessorise it with pins and clips or a headband, and suddenly you’ve got a whole new look! Short hair won’t ever get boring either since it’s so easy to change your style, as it grows it will change its shape so you always have the option of getting a different cut or wearing it longer of shorter.

Getting a hair cut is also the fastest and easiest way of changing your image. Cutting long hair short is dramatic and different, and it will defiantly get peoples ‘ attention! Changing your hair is the easiest way of making a personal statement. Cutting your hair short doesn’t mean losing your femininity either, just look at the Hollywood stars such as Reese Witherspoon and Halle Berry who have gone short and still look stunning. I know that I’ve been told that I actually look sexier with short hair. Short hair can help accentuate your neck making it look longer and more elegant as well as helping you look slimmer.

And in this day and age, the one thing we really don’t need to worry about is buyer’s remorse. With extensions, wigs, half wigs, clip on ponytails and other hair add ons there are plenty of ways of changing short hair to long whether you’re tired of waiting for your hair to grow or you want to go long for a day.

So have I convinced you to give short hair a shot?
If I have keep reading to find out how to go about getting that perfect short haircut.

First of all you need to find the cut that you want and that suits your facial shape and hair type. Remember that not all cuts will look the same on everyone! At this site you can view yourself with over 7,000 hairstyles and help you match your physical characteristics to the right haircuts. Look through some hair magazines or find an online hair gallery like this one - you should choose several different potential cuts.

Once you’ve found the cuts that you like, bring the pictures of the cuts to your stylist, remember a picture is worth a thousand words. If you want to dye your hair, bring along a picture of the colour you want as well. Ask your stylist which cut would be most flattering on you and don’t be afraid to discuss what you want with your stylist, be very specific about what you like and don’t like in a hairstyle.

If you find that you have your heart set on a style that might not usually suit your facial characteristics, bring a picture along to your stylist anyway, after all, rules were meant to be broken and you may find that your stylist can modify the style to suit you.

Finally remember that while you should listen to other peoples advice and opinions, at the end of the day, it is your hair and the final decision should rest with you. Then all you’ll have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy all the flattering comments you’ll get about your gorgeous new haircut!