Sofia Vergara Hair

Temperatures are rising, the days are lasting longer and more and more weekend trips are being booked with pool days or beach trips. Beyond making sure you have a fabulous swimsuit, ensure you are accessorizing your beach wear with the right accessories to both flatter and look stylish.

To fully prepare for the ultimate look-at-me look by the water this summer, make sure you're decked out head-to-toe:

Hair: Depending on your waterside activity, you'll want to fix your hair in the appropriate way. If you're planning on a day of lounging and soaking up the sun, let your hair down with soft, beach-inspired waves. If you have a laid-back, boho style, opt for a fun headscarf; if you're more glam, get a floppy hat. Beyond looking fashionable, both of these accessories will protect your hair from sun damage

Light hair looks best with bolder colors, like hot pink, blue or green jewelry

Dark hair looks great with most colors, but really is accentuated by light (but bright!) colors like yellow jewelry

In general, the bigger the hair, the bigger the accessories should be (think studs with short hair and statement earrings with long hair)

Sofia Vergara Legs

Toning shoes are all the rage lately. They've been popularized by famous folk and footwear fanatics all across the globe have united in their obsession to tone muscles while they walk. Toning shoes are great - you don't even have to do anything but walk and you end up strengthening your muscles. Celebrities have been singing their praises for years; at this year's Golden Globes, Modern Family's Sofia Vergara said she wears her Easy Tone shoes whenever she gets the chance to keep that famous backside in check. Wear them to the grocery store, to pick up the kids at school, to take a walk with the dogs in the morning, and voila, you're working out without even adding any extra effort into your day! While toning shoes should by no means replace a regular workout routine, they're a great supplement to the fitness plan you already have in place, as they offer you an opportunity to tone your muscles while you're walking, which, let's face it, you do all day, every day. Toning shoes are especially great for city dwel

lers who spend more time on their feet than your average suburbanite.

In the past few years, toning shoes have come pretty far - previously, toning footwear was unattractive and ultra-obvious, meaning that people who wore toning shoes looked positively ridiculous out and about. These days, however, the toning technology has been refined and perfected, so toning shoes look just like regular shoes - whether you're looking for sneakers or sandals, there's a pair for you that looks just like regular shoes. Here are some of our favorite styles.

Sofia Vergara

How did Sofia Vergara get on Modern Family without an American accent? Do Americans have a double standard when it comes to accepting foreign accents?

Why are accents sexy and appealing coming from movie or TV stars, but aggravating or unacceptable coming from our co-workers or professors?

In an interview on Regis and Kelly, Sofia Vergara admitted her own surprise at being so successful on American television in spite of her Colombian accent. When asked if she was disappointed not to have won an Emmy, she replied, "I won already just to be there with this accent! I never thought I was going to be part of a show like Modern Family or have a role that was going to be able to be nominated for anything with this accent!"

Despite her beauty and acting talent, she still believed that her accent would prevent her from being truly successful. So, why did it work for her? Are Americans more forgiving of her accent because she is famous, or is there something different about her accent compared to, for example, the teachers in Arizona being forced to reduce their accent to stay in the classroom?

I believe that it is because some individuals' accents are easier to understand than others. Some people have mastered the ability to speak English clearly while still retaining parts of the intonation and pronunciation of their native language. Sofia has studied English long enough to master the necessary pronunciation while still revealing her Colombian heritage. So, even though we clearly hear the accent, we also easily understand what she says.

And this is, or should be, the goal of accent reduction training: to learn to speak English clearly enough to be easily understood, without losing all traces of your heritage.

Exactly what that looks like will be very different to different people. As an accent reduction specialist and speech coach, my job is to help non-native English speakers achieve their personal goals in American English pronunciation. For some, that means sounding "as American as possible." For others, it means being easily understood but still having an "accent" from their home country.

Neither one is right or wrong; the important goals are being easily understood by others and feeling comfortable and confident when you speak.

So whether your dream is to be as successful as Sofia Vergara on Modern Family, to blend in inconspicuously with your American neighbors, or something in between, if you take the steps to work on your American English pronunciation, you are headed towards your dream.