Ginger Garrett

Just a reminder: I’ll be speaking Tuesday night, August 26, at the kick-off event for Church 4 Chicks at Cumberland Community Church.

Visit here for details:

www.church4chicks.com

See you there!

I was in the television studio today (love that EveryDay with Marcus & Lisa! FamilyNet has some of the best programming around) so I’m of course running late getting my guide to mineral makeups up here on the blog. I compared the bestselling brands, whether sold on infomercials or in mass retailers, and we’ve found that price doesn’t have alot to do with quality. Two of the best performing minerals are priced at about $10.

I’ll be working tonight and tomorrow morning to get the listings posted. Meanwhile, enjoy your (hopefully) peaceful summer night….we’re expecting some thunderstorms here from Hurricane Fay. Since I’ll be on the football field and tennis courts with my kids tonight, it could be exciting.

Having multiple kids in multiple sports sure gets hectic this time of year. Last night I was exhausted and threw my purse on the floor when I came through the front door. “Good grief, y’all!” I said. “Why can’t you just watch TV?”

Sigh. In writing, you always get a chance to go back and edit your comments. No such luck for us moms!

Tomorrow I’ll be live with Marcus and Lisa Ryan on their daily talk show, Every Day With Marcus and Lisa. If you haven’t caught the show before, now is a good time to TiVo it. They host a fabulous program. Check your local listings for air time.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing two cool secrets: a guide to mineral makeups and the tricks professionals use. (Including a post later today with a mineral makeup comparison guide. I’ve compared all the leading national brands, and the best ones will surprise you. Hint: high quality doesn’t mean high price.)

We’ll also go over the little-known tips on choosing the perfect perfume. Perfumes have a lot in common with fine wines, but you don’t have to be intimidated by prices, brands, or ad campaigns. You can’t choose the right perfume by spraying it on a paper test strip, so we’ll show you how to do it and find the scent you love.

If you live in the Atlanta area, next Friday night channel 57 will be broadcasting a live event for In The Shadow Of Lions. We’ll be hosting a live on-air bookclub to discuss the issues around Anne Boleyn, whether angels exist, and why history is a tricky business.

Also, I’ve been asked to do an article for a women’s magazine on Anne Boleyn’s life as the wife of a powerful man. Although gossips painted Anne as a harlot, she was in fact a woman of remarkable strength and integrity, remaining a woman of grace even at the point of her death. I think she has some lessons to teach us all, on living in peace when enemies are all around, on loving difficult men, and finding the truth in an age of lies.

If you have any thoughts on Anne, send them to me! One great comment can open a discussion that changes lives.

And that’s it for today–I have to get the October issue of CALLED magazine out the door. As their health & beauty editor (which stems from my expertise in ancient beauty practices and how modern medicine regards them today) I have a lot of interviews to conduct and some thoroughly modern secrets to unveil!

I don’t have my Fall clothes put away yet, so you know I am way behind in my organizing! Now that it’s time to think about storing our summer clothes and getting ready for a cozy Fall, here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. Mothballs have a terrible fragrance and have unhealthy chemicals. As an alternative, you can use cedar blocks sold in home goods stores, or put a few drops of cedar or lavendar essential oil on a cotton ball and place inside the storage container.

2. Don’t put away those sunglasses! Sunglasses with 100 percent UV protection can help prevent wrinkles, cataracts and other eye ailments.

3. Keep up that sunscreen as well. Fall rays can damage the skin even on days when the weather is wonderful. Also, I posted an interview from a dermatologist a few weeks ago which got a lot of interest. I’ve always thought that the higher the SPF, the better the protection. Not so, says the doc. The higher SPFs have more of the active ingredient. For the best protection–and no irritation from strong ingredients–choose a lower SPF, such as 15-30, and reapply every two hours. I keep a mini bottle in my purse and reapply after hand washing.

4. Don’t forget to bring the outdoors in with you this Fall. In the summer, we’re surrounded by beautiful foilage, flowers, and produce. We feel alive and energetic.

You’ll want to make a habit of keeping a few fresh flowers around your house this Fall. Studies show that fresh flowers can reduce your anxiety levels, boost creativity, and help maintain a sense of well-being.  To keep your flowers fresh, change the water every other day to get rid of bacteria that weaken blooms. You can use store-bought flower food, or some swear by adding a tablespoon or so of Listerine to the water.

Enjoy!

I grew up watching war documentaries with my Dad. Every Sunday we’d sit on the couch and watch old black and white footage of Americans and Brits storming beaches, fighting Nazis, carrying the wounded to safety. (I watched so many hours of these films that when I landed in Germany as a teenager years later, I walked off the plane and exclaimed, “Oh my gosh! It’s in color now!”)

I was unwittingly taught that men were heroes. I saw men as capable of great deeds, and great suffering. That profoundly impacted my life–I certainly wasn’t the cutest girl in my dating years, but I had a lot of beaus, probably only because I held men in such respect. I saw the hero inside. I believed he was there. I felt safe.

But I’ve broken down in recent years, so weary and wounded by those among you who are aggressive with your stares and attentions. Do you know how vunerable, how violated, a woman feels when you stare at her and refuse to look away?

When I’m not on display, making a public appearance as a public figure, I wear baggy, oversized clothes. I don’t advertise my body because it’s not for sale. I feel safe, because I know you can’t see my curves. I think it makes me more invisible.

But there’s always some man willing to work a little harder than the others, willing to stare until he’s deciphered every angle, every wiggle, every last hidden inch of flesh. I want you to know that you spoil me, in the worst sense. After you’ve stared at me, followed me down the aisle of a store, or grunted as I walked by, I detest being a woman. I wish I was anything but. I want to hide, to vomit, to shroud my face in shame.

I’ve worked for years to love myself as I am, to celebrate beauty in all its glorious diversity, to help my sisters hold their heads up high, and be at peace with how God created them. We fight a daily battle to believe that we are so much more than our bodies, so much more than a product to be judged. And then we step out of our homes and you consume us, your eyes taking our measure and your stares letting us know our score.

I want to be free. I want to thank God that I am a woman, and offer the men in my life the very best I have to offer. I want to bring to them all the best of what God has given me, and all women: beautiful hearts, discerning spirits, gentle words of respect. Please don’t push me back into my prison, reminding me that it’s not safe to be vunerable, that to be soft is to be unsafe.

I need you to be the hero. I want to believe in you. Please be the man that every woman wants to find, wants  to know is always ready to protect, to keep safe, and to honor. I need you to be that man, because without you, I don’t want to be a woman worth saving.

I just returned from Indianapolis, where I spoke at the prayer breakfast for the Women of Destiny, a very special group of women who attend the Women of Faith events. (If you’re reading this, girls, you know I miss you!)

In August, I’ll be visiting book clubs who were chosen to receive advance copies of the new novel, In The Shadow of Lions. All book clubs will be eligible for a free book club pack starting next month, so stay tuned!

I’ll be in Kentucky in early September hosting a wonderful Spa Day. (More info is online at the Fulton paper: www.fultonkynews.org 

I’m booking dates for 2009, so if you want to host an event where women are encouraged, body image issues are put to rest, and diversity is celebrated, send me an email. It’s been such a joy this year to share laughter, embarrassing stories from the dressing room, and the truth about beauty.

Want to recession-proof your closet? Read on…. 

When I was in Orlando last week introducing my new book to retail stores, I ran into a friend who shares my same passion for fashion–but we put a twist on it. You see, we both love designer labels and unique pieces, but neither of us pay fullprice. We both buy our clothes at thrift stores such as Goodwill. My friend Candis was wearing $60 shoes that she bought for $2 when they were new with the tags still hanging on them. I was wearing a $300 suede skirt that I had paid $4 for. But it’s not good fortune that brings us these deals: it’s having a few insider tips.

Here’s how we do it:

1. When you see an item that appeals to you, check the label. The label will tell you several things: not only will you get a rough idea of the size (more on that later) but how the label is constructed will tell you how expensive the garment originally was. Labels that have been printed are generally from inexpensive brands. Labels that have sewn or embroidered lettering represent expensive items. Having the label’s lettering sewn on adds cost to a garment, and this cost reflects a designer brand that knows it will recoup its investment from consumers.

2. Don’t put down an item because it is one or even two sizes off from what you normally wear. Every designer sizes garments differently. Some designers go for “prestige” sizes–as in, their garments are sized quite small, so even if you’re a size eight, you have to buy a size twelve. It creates a mystique around the brand, as if only very special women can get into a size six in that label.

Strange, but true.

3. Check for fatal flaws: tears in the fabric that cannot be repaired without obvious damage and stretched stitching on the seams.

Some experts will tell you that you shouldn’t buy garments with broken zippers, missing buttons, or stains. They’re wrong. Thanks to the internet, you can learn how to treat almost any stain. I once bought a high-end designer business jacket for $2 because there was a grease stain on the lapel. For $2, I was willing to take a chance–so I tried the old trick of using WD-40 on the grease stain. It worked perfectly. I still own the jacket–it’s gorgeous!

Broken zippers can be fixed by any dry cleaners that does alterations. Buttons can be easily replaced, especially if you remove a button from somewhere on the garment where it won’t be missed.  (Many shirts have extra buttons at the bottom, where the shirt will be tucked into the pants.)

4. For children’s clothing, the most frequent reason a garment ends up at a thrift store is that the child never wore it, or grew so fast that (s)he never got to wear it much. Kid’s clothes are a great buy.

There are two times when you can get great deals on kid’s clothes:

After major holidays, check for fancy dresses and outfits which were worn once for a photo. These outfits can’t be saved for the next season, since the child will grow during the year, so they often end up at thrift stores.

As school gets closer in July and August, the children’s racks are often overflowing. Moms have gone through the closets and realized there are clothes the kid has outgrown and will never get a chance to wear. They need to make room for new items, so great clothes get sent to thrift stores. Jeans are often the best buy. I can buy new, unworn jeans for under $3 a pair. (and with boys, you know the jeans were unworn….because if a boy ever wore them, they are typically destroyed!)

5. Men’s clothes are also a great deal. The most frequent reason for a man’s shirt to end up at a thrift store is that the man never wore it. Think of it this way: a lot of men never choose their own clothes. They get clothes as gifts and their wives do the shopping at other times. A lot of expensive clothes get sent to thrift stores just because the man didn’t like it, and didn’t want to hurt his mother in law’s feelings by asking for a return receipt. So do your part and make everyone happy: give the designer shirt a loving home.

And finally, you can visit a thrift store at any time during the week for great deals, but the best days are often mid-week. Donations come in all weekend, and often a store will have its employees put out the large, space-eating pieces first: furniture, household accessories, etc. Clothing takes more time to get ready for the floor, as it must be pressed, put on a hanger, and a price tag attached with a pricing gun.  

And before I close, I know there are some of you who might be a little shy about putting these ideas into practice. The best tip I ever received about learning the fun of thrift store shopping came from a local church. Before an overseas church mission, every participant was asked to go to a thrift store and purchase their whole wardrobe for the trip. They were asked to pack only 1 outfit of their own clothes. At the end of the trip, every member donated all their “new” clothes to the local people, and wore their last outfit–their own clothes–home. I’ll never forget the joy of the women tearing through the racks at Goodwill, delighted every time they found a great bargain, because they knew someone around the world was going to be blessed.

So even if you only buy a few items at a thrift store, you can save enough money to make the rest of your budget stretch much further. And if you have a heart for blessing others, you can stretch that budget to include those in need.

Happy shopping!

The day before my triathlon, I went to a seminar presented by Polar Heart Monitors. The company rep had me convinced that I needed a heart monitor for my training. He said it would revolutionize my workouts. I’d see faster progress than ever before. I’m a sucker for a great salesman and a slick new gadget.

I began wearing a Polar heart monitor that very night. And you know what?

He was right. In fact, he might have understated the benefits. I’d been training since January for the triathlon, but still hadn’t broken through my final “baby weight” plateau. A bad thyroid made it worse. But I had packed on muscle and felt great, so I was patient. And then I discovered Polar. Within three weeks of working out with my monitor, I had smashed through the plateau. I felt even better than when I was working out harder, and more often. So I am sold: Polar heart monitors will revolutionize your workouts. You’ll always know how to give your body exactly what it needs in order to feel your best.

The next trend I adopted was switching from sipping plain water throughout the day to mixing in a little whey protein. (I buy mine at Wal-Mart. Vanilla flavor tastes great when mixed with a packet of EmergenC vitamin powder.) The benefits of whey include:

1. Protects lean muscle, which boosts metabolism

2. Encourages your body to burn fat as a fuel source

3. Satifies your hunger pangs, stabilizes your blood sugar, and turns off the enzyme that fuels fat cells

Plus, drinking a whey protein powder shake before exercising will help signal your body to burn fat as fuel during the workout, leading to a leaner body with more muscle. The research coming in on whey now is really encouraging. We’ve all thought that eating right meant lots of preparation and hassle. Now we can make one small change at a time and get great results.

Hi friends,

The link to my how-to video has changed. You’ll find the new link below. Whether you’re teaching history, hosting a party, or looking for a fun bookclub party after reading In The Shadow of Lions, this video will show you how to host a medieval feast that’s fun and easy.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbq4uB_8T_s

 Enjoy!