Beauty Icon Wednesday: Are you a Ginger or a Mary Ann?

Names: Mary Ann Summers (above, left) and Ginger Grant (right, obviously)

Known for: All-American girl-next-door and sultry sex kitten starlet, respectively. Both known for not having much like when it comes to three hour boat cruises 

And the love affair with the Sixties continues with one of the decades most iconic television series, Gilligan's Island. Most of my after-school memories are made up from reruns of this, Happy Days, and Scooby Doo cartoons. The other two programs I will get to in due time, because Pinky Tuscadero and Daphne Blake are each deserving of an Icon Wednesday post of their own, but that's neither here nor there. 

Today's is dedicated to that age-old debate: Ginger or Mary Ann? 

I think if you're a regular reader of this blog, you would know my answer to this question. It's modern day equivalent would be Team Aniston or Team Jolie - I think it's fairly clear whose side I'm on in that particular debate. I've never been fond of the saccharin-sweet, wholesome as Mom's apple pie demeanor that 

Mary Ann embodied, even at a young age. I have always preferred the ice queen, man-eater types; they often had the best clothes. And Ginger, swanning around the island in her fur stoles, sequined gowns and kitten heels with her elaborately coiffed hair and flawless makeup, was my hero. Well, it was a more of a cross between her and Miss Piggy...but then again, that is another post entirely. 

What about you? 

Which one would you be, if you had to make the choice?

Change... It's in the air, and I'm not just talking about weather!

I'm not known for being particularly fond of change in my everyday life. I like what I like, most of all the comfort of the familiar. When my routine is disrupted, I'm not happy about it. That's probably why I'm just as prone as anyone else to becoming stuck in a rut. 

Late last year, after a bit of a health scare, I decided that 2011 would be my year for change. Change on my own terms, finally, change that was long overdue. Since then, I think I've made considerable steps toward achieving that. But, as with most things, it hasn't been easy. And it's nowhere near close to being where I would like it to be. There have been times when I've been tempted to just throw in the towel, that I was just kidding myself if I thought I could pull this off, that I should crawl back to the comfortable and familiar - if somewhat soul-crushing in nature - before it's too late. And then I remember that I'm not patient by nature, that I tend to want what I want when I want it, and from there manage to talk myself back from the ledge.

I realize that I'm rambling - I would hope that you'd be used to it by now and just find it 'charming'. 

In March, I found what I was hoping would be the perfect solution. Relatively risk free, I would be able to open my dream retail space and have the luxury of not having to quit my day job to run it. Sounds like a dream come true, am I right? Well unfortunately, as with most of those situations, it didn't turn out all that dreamy. The shop itself was gorgeous, but the area it was in was just not quite right for my particular product at this time. Perhaps in the future that will change, and I hope that it does - that way, I can turn what felt at the time like a failure into a second-time-around success. But for now, I did the only thing that made any economical sense and pulled out of my dream. I closed my beloved shoppette. 

I took it a little harder than I thought I would. For the first part of the week, I felt lost and really uncertain as to what my next move was going to be. I was worried sick - almost literally - about my first Beauty Summit that was held Tuesday with a group of women that, really, I knew nothing about and probably couldn't have had less in common with. I was convinced that it was going to be a complete flop. 

I've never been so happy to admit I was wrong.

My first Beauty Summit was the opposite of a flop. And although I didn't have a whole lot in common with my hostess and the group she'd gathered, that did not prevent us from chatting and laughing and learning a lot from each other. And I think in the end, I may have come away with more than they did. Because it was precisely that evening that all of my ideas for apotheKerri beauty began to come together in a way that I could finally process and understand. 

Now I'm not going to say much more than that, for fear of jinxing myself, but I will leave you with this: there's going to be a lot going on behind the scenes at apotheKerri beauty over the next couple of weeks. So keep an eye on Twitter, Facebook, or wherever you get your aK beauty fix and I will let you know how it goes.