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In a world where all aspects of our lives are customized—from our Netflix queues to our coffee orders and Pinterest picks, the mass appeal of “One system for everyone” beauty line just won’t cut it. This is why make-up artist and skin care specialist, Theresa Taylor-Grutzeck, went super-niche with her Fleur Visage Cosmetic Line—a complete collection of products focused on her specialty: Beauty.

This line of cosmetics includes a one-stop-shop of beauty products, full of perfectly selected, trendy, modern products and beauty tools, all customized for women of all ages and backgrounds. This assortment includes custom foundations and powders, trendy tailor made custom compact eye colors, and popular smudge proof lip liner stains. These tools flip the script on how most women apply cosmetics, making the art-of-beauty fun, uncomplicated and easy to apply. “Lots of women are afraid and intimidated to go to beauty counters for fear of looking like a glam queen,” says Theresa.  “Today more women want to look like themselves with a modern sensibility, and I want my line to prove that it’s almost embarrassingly easy, fun and effortless to do makeup,” she adds.

With all the cosmetics Sephora or department stores might have to offer, The Rouge Cosmetics has made it easier for beauty customers, with their full line of expertly hand-picked products that work seamlessly to create a realistic look, customized for each individual. Truly, it’s a one–stop-shop for everyone to enjoy, tailor made to be effective, straight-forward and uncomplicated.

Modern Makeover Expert

When beauty retailer The Rouge Cosmetics asked customers about their beauty influences, they kept hearing the same thing: Women loved watching makeup tutorials online, but were intimidated by the finished looks and had trouble figuring out which vloggers were legit makeup artists. To the rescue: totally legit pro Theresa Taylor and Tia Woodson, are the go-to beauty gurus, who know what’s in and what’s out; what will make you or break you. They will show you what is updated, trendy, and in fashion, not to mention you can see the results in real time in less than 30 minutes!

You don’t need to watch beauty tutorials and endure hours of frustration; and you won’t get the overdone visages that populate the vlogosphere.  As Theresa says, “While I love the creativity shown with all those ultra-perfect doll-looks on YouTube, it’s unattainable in real life and it doesn’t look real. The collection of cosmetics we offer merges trends with wear-ability. I worry about women trying to achieve that version of perfection with their makeup. Instead, I like to bring out the real person, not a fabrication of someone they’re not.”

Fall In Line

“Beauty is a spiritual journey,” says Theresa Taylor, “Like the changing of the seasons the makeup industry is forever changing with them.” With fall approaching it is appropriate to start with a subtle change, especially if you are wearing darker colors or fall’s newest fashion trends. A key color element this season is neutral. Eyes and lips are hyper real, while looking ultra youthful, with skin looking silky smooth as satin.  Brows and lips take center stage in the new era of definition and refinement. Toned down neutral fuller lips, sculpted contours, and eye opening brows usher in a new focus on features. Subtle, natural, sophisticated, or modern—it’s time to get creative and redefine your beauty routine. “The quest for beauty is not vanity, but a ritualistic form of self-love that nourishes the soul,” Theresa says. It’s a philosophy that would have sounded fringe a decade ago, but for today’s juice-amped, gluten free, yoga-fied woman, it only makes sense to do some soul-searching while getting one hell of a updated beauty makeover!

Fall in line with the fall trends and book your make-overs starting at The Rouge Cosmetics September 1^st through October 30^th!  Appointments available Tuesday through Saturday.

Q. How do I go about preserving my pumpkins until Halloween? They have turned a nice orange color.  Should they be left on the plant or do I remove them just before carving?                                   

A. Actually, you could do both. Besides, the orange color, a pumpkin is mature when the rind loses its shine and it’s hard enough that you can’t scratch it with your fingernail. The curly tendrils on the part of the vine near the pumpkin turn brown and die back when it is completely ripe. Personally, I’d remove them and leave them in a sunny location. This allows them to develop a tough, rot-resistant skin and improves their shelf life dramatically. A mature pumpkin can last for months before spoiling, so, you may wish to save a few for Thanksgiving. When you harvest pumpkins, remove them from the vines with a sharp knife or use a pair of pruning shears. You should also leave about three to four inches of the stem attached to the pumpkin. This also extends its shelf life. In addition, harvested pumpkins don’t need to be washed. The dirt can simply be brushed off after a few days of drying.

Q. Last year, I bought a blooming Gardenia at the grocery store. I have it growing indoors where it gets morning sun and lots of light. This year, I‘ve only had two blooms. All the other buds have turned black and dropped off. What can I do to keep the blooms from falling off?                                                    

A. Gardenias are not the easiest plants to get to bloom. It’s not unusual for gardeners to have issues with the buds turning black and falling off both indoors and in the landscape. The primary cause for bud drop is nighttime temperatures below sixty degrees. With outdoor plants, September through early November is the best blooming period. You have shorter days and warmer nights along with some humidly. Indoors you have better control on the temperature but it can get awfully dry. So, you might want to place it on a saucer with pebbles and add a little water to raise the humidly. The water line should be below the bottom of the pot. Gardenias do not like to be disturbed so this can be the other reason for bud drop. So with container plants, keep them in one location, and move them as little as possible.

 Note: Gardenias found with the blooming plants at supermarkets and other retailers are usually grown under control conditions in a greenhouse while the landscape plants are grown under different conditions outdoors.     

Q. Last fall, we had a problem with raccoons. They tore up the lawn to feast on the grubs. I’d like to avoid the problem this year and discourage the raccoons early on. Is there an easy way to tell if the lawn grubs have returned?

A. There is a simple test for the presence of grubs you can do using detergent and water. Grub damage normally starts next to a hot cement or concrete edge and quickly expands towards the center of the lawn. The grass turns brown and you’ll also notice the lawn thinning out or disappearing, leaving bare spots. To conduct the grub test, you should set up several test sites both in the areas attacked last year and some neutral sites. With stakes and string, mark off several two by two-foot squares in each of the areas. Next, mix two tablespoons of a liquid soap or detergent in a bucket of water and pour the solution evenly over the areas. For the next ten to fifteen minutes, you keep a close eye on the soil surface. The detergent agitates the grubs forcing them to the surface. If grubs are present, you control them by applying Beneficial Nematodes. Beneficial Nematodes are an environmentally friendly method of killing all the soil insects except earthworms. Another option is Bonide Grub Beater. This is a granular product that’s applied with a spreader as early as June to protect the area for the balance of the year. I might apply a grub control solution even if the tests prove to be negative or inconclusive. You don’t want to wait until the raccoon’s return as the controls will take some weeks to work, all the while the damage continues. The raccoons will be a frequent visitor until they are convinced that the grubs are gone.

While recently attending an educational summit in Boulder, Colorado, the question arose, “Are we developing a fear of perfection within our athletes by utilizing too much technology?” It’s a fair question. After all, technology has come a long way in a very short period of time. Heart rate monitors, GPS devices, power meters, software that tracks athlete fatigue levels, isolated and cumulative stress of training sessions, recovery time, number of steps per day, hour, minute, or even seconds, vertical oscillation, swim cadence, time of arm recovery, oxygen saturation levels, muscle mapping, etc. The list of metrics is endless, all with a common goal: to optimize athlete performance.

Endurance (and most other) athletes are either driven or haunted by three common fears: fear of commitment, fear of disappointment, and the fear of the unknown (failure, success, and perfection). Is the advent and growing presence of technology in the endurance world adding to these fears by predicting the level at which athletes are expected to perform based on an algorithm that is calculated on a single session or performance (IE: functional threshold)?  If so, what effect is it having on their psychology? Or, does it provide them with the push they need to dig deep in search of a predicted number, as applied? If an athlete has a “bad” day, and is unable to hit their prescribed numbers calculated by said algorithm on any one (or more) of these fancy metrics, have we set them up for failure (psychologically) by relying on technology to predict human performance? And, what long term effect does this have on an athlete’s confidence level? These are all valid questions.

Many say technology is helping athletes understand and believe in a potential they may have never known they had in the first place. As a coach, that is part of my job: to tap into or find the intrinsic motivation that helps an athlete believe they can achieve beyond what they thought was possible.

Effective coaching is made up of two basic skills regardless of sport. The best coaches possess the ability to create and implement a perfect marriage of sorts, of art and science into an athlete’s training plan. All the metrics in the world will not help a coach or athlete if the implementation and practical application in a training plan is mishandled, mismatched, or misunderstood by athlete or coach.

Technology allows us a deeper understanding of application and physiological adaptation and can serve as a predictor of current and future performance. Numbers rarely, if ever, lie.

Endurance athletes are a strange lot. Admittedly, we are “not right.” Many even take pride in it. Often driven by a hundred forms of insecurity stemming from some deep seeded childhood fear, we search for validation through various forms of extreme exercise that often place unthinkable demands on one’s mind and body. Ask any seasoned endurance athlete how many times they’ve been told they were “crazy” or insane and chances are they will tell you, “too many to count.”

For the endurance athlete, good, bad, or indifferent, technology can serve as a useful tool in helping us reach new heights, achieve new goals, and tap into our innermost desire to be the best we can be.

I’ve no doubt that the growing presence of technology and science in the endurance world is imperative to maximizing performance. However, I caution against losing the human element and place a high value on learning what racing/training intensities “feel” like, as we continue to dig into the numbers. But, we can talk more about that next month. After all, what fun would it be, if it were easy?

Summer Break is over and all the kids are heading back to school. While most of our kids are within the spectrum of normal intelligence, once in while a child is born with sheer brilliance; they just see certain subjects from a whole different perspective. Mary Adler (McKenna Grace) was that child. 

Mary’s mother (mom would indicate something different) was a gifted mathematician.  Sheltered her whole life by a mother who herself was gifted, Diane Adler really didn’t get much of an opportunity to truly experience life.

Pregnant and single, she confides in her brother Frank (Chris Evans), who sees her through the birth of Mary. Depressed and confused Diane puts Baby Mary to bed one night and goes into the bathroom and kills herself. Now before you start thinking this is some “downer” movie, let me assure you it’s not. This beautiful film starts with six year old Mary living with her uncle Frank in a loving though not affluent neighborhood in Florida. Frank loves boats and makes his living repairing them in this coastal community. He’s not rich, but he and Mary are happy. 

Frank has been home schooling Mary, but at six years old this former university professor has to admit that she needs to go to a “real” school. He knows she needs friends her age and to live a life as close to normal as a budding genius can—a gift her gifted mother never received.

Things are a little dicey at first but Mary settles in at school until the Principal takes it into her own hands to contact Evelyn Adler (Lindsay Duncan), Mary’s Grandmother. Well, the proverbial “you know what,” hits the fan and Evelyn shows up to do what she feels is right for Mary—as she did with Diane, Mary’s mother.

The amazing Octavia Spencer plays Roberta, Frank’s landlord, neighbor and best friend. She just happens to be Mary’s best friend as well. Roberta loves, protects and fiercely defends the little family. Every Saturday night Mary has a sleepover at Roberta’s. They dance and sing and they do girl things and act silly. For a gifted child, Mary has a fairly normal life.

Bonnie (Jenny Slate) is Mary’s teacher and has a relationship with Frank; you had to see that one coming (Chris Evans is pretty hot!).  She’s okay but not really pivotal to the plot. Oh, yes, there is a plot but I don’t want to spoil it.

Mary is too smart to not see the battle brewing around her that actually started with her mother and before that, her grandmother. She seems to understand intellectually, but is still emotionally devastated. 

I don’t know what it’s like to have a truly “gifted” child, so I can only speculate. I do know that if a child is blessed with brilliance at six, they are still going to be smart at 16 or 26. I believe we have to protect them with as much normalcy as they desire. The problems of this world will still be there for them to solve, when and if they are ready.  Life is meant to be lived, not spent in a room with a board and a marker pen. That is a decision to be made only by the person in the room.

I truly enjoyed Gifted. It was a compelling and intimate story. If you have experienced this dilemma and don’t agree (or do) with me, let me know. I look forward to your comments at chastings@rockcliff.com.

If the rowdy wine-tasting crowds in Napa, Sonoma, or Santa Barbara have you singing the blues, consider California’s OTHER wine production area, just south of the border in Mexico’s Baja California. Valle de Guadalupe is a wonderful and largely undiscovered wine region hosting more than 100 wineries, located just an hour and a half from San Diego, near the Mexican city of Ensenada.

Why Mexico? Why not? While Mexico is known internationally for its fine tequilas, wine production is an up and coming industry and the local wineries in the Baja region are producing some noteworthy wines. Valle de Guadalupe is rustic and rugged, replete with diamond-in-the rough wineries. Come down for the day or make a weekend of it. The many local hotels will welcome you with traditional Mexican hospitality.

If you decide to stay, choose from the refined La Villa del Valle, featuring a swimming pool, spa, horseback riding, and winery right on the property, or try the minimalist and ultra-modern Encuentro Guadalupe with panoramic views of the valley from their hillside Eco-lodges. Check out Cuatro Cuatros and their glamping tents—glamorous camping taken to the highest level of fabulous, or stay just outside the valley at the Hotel Las Rosas where you fall asleep to the sound of the Pacific Ocean crashing on the rocks and wake up to the scent of salty sea air. You can’t go wrong.

Valle de Guadalupe is nowhere near as polished as Napa or other wine regions north of the border. Pitted dirt roads abound and street signs are hard to find.  You may want to consider hiring an English-speaking guide to ensure easy passage through the valley. Knowledge of the Spanish language is a definite plus but the friendly locals are happy to try out their English and assist you in any way. As some wineries offer tastings by appointment only, a guide with knowledge of the area can set your tour up in advance and avoid any scheduling disappointments.

You’ll find that not only wine is crafted in these verdant hills. Look out for spicy, tasty olive oils, artisan-crafted local cheeses, and tangy, sweet orange marmalade. If you’re in the mood for a snack or a meal, options abound. Everything from food trucks with traditional tacos to casual cafes offering burgers and fries, to an upscale Michelin-starred restaurant is at your fingertips. You’ll find delicious and creative fare featuring both meat and seafood. Paired with a selection of local wines, you’ll be in heaven.

So how did vineyards come to be planted in Baja California? Mexico actually has been producing wine since the 1500s when the Spaniards brought their vines over from Spain. Most of what was made was bulk wine for local consumption and quantity was valued over quality. It is only in the past two decades that Mexico has started to dramatically improve the quality of their wines and market them on an international level. Valle de Guadalupe is the center of Mexican wine production and is considered the “Napa Valley” of Mexico.

The hot climate of Baja California offers perfect growing conditions for red grapes from Spain, France, and Italy such as tempranillo, sangiovese, syrah, and cabernet sauvignon. Some white varieties are also cultivated, including palomino, viognier, sauvignon blanc, and chardonnay. Over the years, “Flying Winemakers” from other wine-producing regions of the world have visited the valley, sharing their expertise and winemaking skill with local producers. The result is a grand variety of carefully crafted wines offering elegance and rusticity, reflecting all that is Mexico.

Most of the winemaking families live on their properties. These are small-scale businesses where the very heart and soul of the family goes into each bottle. J.C. Bravo Vinicola is a small, family-run business. The grandfather planted the vines, the father is the winemaker, and the wife and children work full-time in the family business.

Production is small at J.C. Bravo Vinicola, but the wines are crafted with love. All of the grapes are harvested by hand, and only by women, as men are considered “too rough” with the grapes. They make a single white wine—a simple, crisp Palomino, and two red wines: a 100% carignan, and a nebbiolo-malbec blend. The reds are rich and velvety and truly worthy of the many awards they have garnered.

Baron Balché is named for the Mayan word meaning “ceremonial drink.” The Rios family bought their property in 1997 and prides itself in the creation of wines steeped in tradition with an eye on environmental conservation and respect for the nobility of the land. Winemaker Oscar Castillo has created an incredible portfolio ranging from basic, easy-drinking reds and whites to world-class premium wines. His understanding of each variety and how to best showcase its strengths has propelled this winery to well-deserved acclaim and distinction.

Be assured that you won’t want to leave this wine-lover’s paradise but do give it some advance thought. Getting back across the Mexican border can take time. Be sure your tank is full of gas and consider using a Border Wait Time app to plan your return. Keep in mind that only two bottles of wine per person are allowed over the border without making a customs’ declaration. Though it seems inconvenient, consider this regulation a blessing in disguise. Now you have a great excuse to plan yet another visit to beautiful Valle De Guadelupe.

The 37th annual Kings X Trivia Tournament was held July 23 at Magoos Restaurant in Pleasant Hill and a rollicking time was had by all. Darrel Garrison’s team beat John Prokop’s team by 2 points in the nail-biter finish. Rich Berkery, who did a masterful job in pulling the whole thing off, was also the moderator and did a great job as the host. No sense in letting all his material go to waste, so with Rich’s permission, here are some of his questions.

1. From the famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” what was Boo Radley’s first name?

2. What Major Leaguer hit the most home runs in the decade of the 1950s?

3. 1956 was the first year that songs were listed as the top song of the year. What was
the first song in a foreign language to make number one?

4. What was the first animated television series? It lasted from 1950. until the 60’s.

5. In the movie “Who Killed Roger Rabbit,” all of the cartoon characters were in color
except for one. Who was the only cartoon character in black and white?

6. In the classic Abbot and Costello routine “Who’s on First,” what