Well, it seems Zooomr finally took the rest of my photos down. Everything before Nov 2011. Pissed off. It will take me a while to reupload them on here (if I have the space and still have the pictures). I found another host that gives unlimited storage and bandwhith for about the same price per month we are paying now. So if I can figure out how to switch everything over to a new host while keeping databases and everything in tack… Jeremy and I will be moving over there. Then I won’t have to keep switching photo hosts every time I hit my storage limit or the photo host goes down.

 

I received my next round of free products to test from Influenster.com. I’ve had about a month to try everything out. I’m pretty pleased with everything except the boost energy drink. I received it in my last box, Naturals 2012 voxbox, and really disliked it. So, I wasn’t excited to see I received it again in this box. It has a horrible taste no matter what you mix it into. Orange Juice is the only thing that slightly masked the flavor of it. The items I received were : Black Pepper Candle from Bath and Body Works with a coupon for a 3 wick for $10, Dark Shadows Eye Palette from NYC, Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream from Not Your Mother’s, Ever Pro Lashes from Kiss, Spin Pins from GOODY, and Vitabath Fragrance Mist in the scent “Beach Blossom”.

 

Some of these products I have to do a separate review for but the rest I will review here…

Required disclaimer :  I received all these products complimentary from Influenster.com’s Beauty Blogger 2012 Voxbox. To read my other posts about Influenster and my Naturals 2012 Voxbox products see this post : post.

 

Vitabath in “Beach Blossom” – I received a full sized 8 fl oz. bottle to test. First thing, I checked the ingredients. It has some really great ingredients and some not so great ingredients. I love that it has coffee, green tea, acai berry, goji berry, pomegranate,  aloe, etc. Unfortunately, it also has alcohol, dyes, “fragrance”, and so on. Anyway, on to how it smells stinks! It smells nothing like a beach! Blossom, maybe…Its very musky and heavy. Smells strongly of alcohol. Very, very, overpowering. Stinks like a really strong public bathroom air freshener. Not something you’d want to spray on your body. I considered using it as an air freshener around the house but I don’t think I stand it enough for even that. I use essential oils and candles regularly, this reminded why! If you want to try it for yourself : Vitabath Fragrance Mist on facebook.com/Vitabath

Kiss Ever Pro Lashes – These are 100% human hair. I only wear eyelashes once in a while. Mainly for costume purposes. I did try these out though and they aren’t bad. They are soft since they are made of real hair. They are fairly easy to apply with the included tweezers and latex-free lash glue. They don’t look very natural on their own. You can trim them shorter and/or apply mascara to make them look more natural. I don’t have any complaints about them. Find out more about the brand at : Kiss Ever PRO Lash Starter Kit on facebook.com/KissNails

I’ll be reviewing the rest of the products, minus the boost energy drink mix, on here soon.

If you want to try out Influenster you can do so at : http://influenster.com. I recommend reading their about section before joining : http://influenster.com/about it will tell you everything you need to know about the program.

 

 

Next item I received complimentary from Influenster.com’s Naturals 2012 Voxbox is Desert Essence Coconut Shine & Refine Hair Lotion. To read my post about Influenster and my Naturals 2012 Voxbox see this post HERE.

First thing, this smells amazing. Like coconut candy. A very sweet, almost fruity, coconut. Its has all natural ingredients, which I love. It really is a lotion consistency. I was actually expecting more of a cream. Nope, its just like hand lotion. Which isn’t really that bad unless you use too much. Then your hair gets very greasy and feels funky. Almost sticky and matted. So go easy on it. A quarter sized blob rubbed between your hands should do it. That was still a little bit too much for me though. My hair is naturally pretty dry and frizzy. I need to use quite a bit of this to get my hair feeling normal. I use this to tame frizz after straightening though. I don’t need as much then. And just to make my hair smell nice. Currently I use two products for moisturizing my hair and keeping it healthy/frizz free. One, my favorite, is Lush’s R&B cream. The other is from Sally’s and it is hair cholesterol. Both are great for my hair and keep it soft and straight. If I go a few days without either, my hair gets frizzy, dry, and thick waves. I skipped both of those products for two days and used only Desert Essence Coconut Shine & Refine Hair Lotion. I ended up having to put it in quite a few times over the course of the first day to keep the frizz at bay. Which made my hair greasy and gross feeling. Woke up the next day with horrid waves and 3 inch thick hair. Great! I applied the lotion and brushed it through which calmed it down quite a bit. Unfortunately, it only lasted 2 hours and then the afro crept back. I ended up just washing it all out of my hair that night and applying my R&B and cholesterol, hair came right back to normal. So as I said, I now use it just to make my hair smell nice and tame after straightening fly-aways and frizz.Works great for that and I only need a dime size amount or less. ( like the bottle says)  So my hair gets shiny but not greasy. Again, Just like the bottle says. So my overall opinion is that it works like it says it will. As long as you don’t go overboard and use too much of it. If you end up needing to use a lot throughout the day then find another product to pair with it. Like a leave in conditioner or moisturizer.

If you have normal hair this will probably work much better for you. I do really like it, I just don’t think its works great in my hair unless I use some other products with it.If you have oily hair, this probably isn’t a good product for you unless you use it very sparingly.

Desert Essence Coconut Shine & Refine Hair Lotion retails for around $9.99 and is 6.4 fl. oz.

If you want to find out more about Desert Essence you can go to their website https://www.desertessence.com/

If you want to try out Influenster you can do so at : http://influenster.com. I recommend reading their about section before joining : http://influenster.com/about it will tell you everything you need to know about the program.

Influenster.com sent me a box of complimentary natural products to review. The Naturals 2012 Voxbox. See my post about it HERE.

So the next thing I’ll be reviewing for them is The Original Dish Drying Mat. I was sent the smaller of the two sizes TODDM makes.

 

 

 

 

 

The tomato is just for scale; to show how big the mat is. The tomato is about the size of my palm.  Sorry the picture is terrible, another cellphone shot – taken at night.

 

Now, on to the review.

I do currently have and use a dishwasher. I also use the DRY cycle 90% of the time. Yet, half my dishes still come out wet or damp. Too crowded, maybe. Anyway, I still end up using a towel on the kitchen counter for times when things don’t dry. Not a big deal. Dishes due tend to take the better part of the day to dry that way though. Unless my house is quite warm. The dish towels do tend to get faint mildew smells from being wet so long. No big deal, throw it in the wash, replace with another towel. I never really thought about needing something else to replace the towels. The current set up worked fine. When I got the dish drying mat I though it sounded fine. Not super excited about it but curious if it made any difference. I’ve had it a month now and have yet to use a dish towel again. The Original Dish Drying Mat was an unexpected little surprise. It drys the dishes in about half the time. It doesn’t get soaked and stay soaked like a dish towel does.  It gets slightly damp if you have a lot of dishes on it but drys really fast. Its machine washable so it can go right in the laundry. I haven’t really had a problem with it smelling or anything. Its fairly thick. About an inch or so. I didn’t actually measure it, just a guess. It cushions glassware nicely so I don’t have to worry about setting my wine glasses and other glassware down too hard on it. Which I was always doing with dish cloths.  Overall, its a $5 item and works as it says. I don’t feel its a necessity to own and it won’t “change your life” or anything but its a convenient thing to have around the kitchen. I think I will end up purchasing the larger size in the future, in black. I hate the cream color, which is the one I was sent.

The Original Dish Drying Mat has other uses I really like too. Since its so absorbent its great for cleaning up spills. Jeremy and I go through coffee pots like you would not believe. Our coffee pots get a lot of use everyday as we are both coffee fiends. Our current coffee pot is on its way out and occasionally leaks all over the counter and floor while brewing. Which really pisses me off. I have ceramic tile counter tops. If you’ve ever had to get coffee stains out of white grout before then you’ll understand my severe irritation!  I can now use The Original Dish Drying Mat to clean up all the spilled coffee. Throw it on the counter and let it absorb all the mess and then flip it over, throw it on the floor and let it do its thing there. Since its machine washable, it just gets tossed in the wash and comes out good as new.

I can also use it to cushion my appliances and things to protect my counters. We have a large stone mortar and pestle which makes quite a racket when we’re grinding things. It also slides a bit, no matter how tight you hold it, around the counter while in use. Now I can  plop the dish drying mat down and place the mortar on it. No more “walking” around the counters and no racket aside from the regular noises of whatever we are grinding down.

It makes a good hot pad as well. Though I don’t know how safe that actually is so that’s a use at your own risk deal. No problems so far.

So, there are my thoughts on The Original Dish Drying Mat. Do I recommend it? Yes, if your in need of something like this or don’t have much counter space for a dish drying rack. Its handy and works as advertised.

If you want to read more about The Original Dish Drying Mat you can do so on their website : http://www.the-original-co.com/default.html

First item from the Influenster Naturals 2012 voxbox I’m reviewing happens to be my favorite. LypSyl™ Intense Protection LypMoisturizer.

(* This will be an honest review of the item, not paid to review it, but did receive the item free in order to review it.)

LypSyl Looks like this in the packaging :

 

 

 

I’ve been using this product everyday for a month, instead of my Burt’s Bees Acia Berry Balm. Which is my favorite lip balm. First glance I thought this was huge compared to Burt’s. Turns out its just the casing that’s huge. Which is still nice. I love that its so much bigger. Its nicer to hold not just due to its larger size but, its also oval shaped.Which is nice for applying over the lip in one shot. It also has a little bee clicker for pushing up the product.

 

 

 

 

 

* I know the pictures look awful. They were taken with my cellphone in poor lighting. Sorry.

 

Its .10 ounces compared to Burt’s Bees .15 ounces. As much as I love Burt’s Bees, LypSyl lasts much longer. It goes on much thicker, which may be a con for some, but I like that after an hour I can still feel it. Its completely gotten rid of my constant chapped lip problem. Which is amazing considering I chew my lips on and off throughout the day.Burt’s works to fix the problem only if I stopped chewing my lips. I do chew my lips less often though since an hour or two after applying LypSyl its still there. Its has a minty tingle when you apply it, similar to a plumping lip gloss. Its not necessary but it doesn’t bother me.

As for ingredients in LypSyl I’ll list them below. Its mostly all natural but there are a few questionable ingredients such as petroleum jelly.

Ingredients in LypSyl :

Mineral Oil, Petrolatum, Paraffin, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Ceresin, Pure Swedish Beeswax, Flavor, Certified Organic Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Acetate), Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A Palmitate), Bixa Orellana Seed Extract.

 

Overall, its a great product. I really love it. LypSyl Intense Protection LypMoisture retails for around $2.89. (Price Drugstore.com sells it for) They also make a small tin thats .03 ounces, as well as the one I reviewed but with SPF 15 added in. That retails around $2.99 on drugstore.com. Its has a slight peppermint smell to it. Nice, not strong. Its basically “tasteless”. Same “waxy” taste plain Burt’s Bees also has. It lasts for hours depending on how much you drink, eat, smoke, kiss, etc after applying. I’ve found it lasts at least two hours on me and I’m a moderate smoking with a heavy morning til bed coffee habit. So that’s pretty damn good! I’m really torn as to whether I like it BETTER than Burt’s Bees Lipbalm. I think I just might but Burt’s as been my favorite for so long its feels weird to say that. Like I’m cheating on Burt’s or tossing them aside.   So, I will say I like it just as much as Burt’s Bees Balm.

 

If you want to check LypSyl out you can do so on facebook or twitter. LypSyl on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/LypSyl-lipbalm/166628636689762
@LypSylLipBalm on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LypSylLipBalm Or on their website : http://www.lypsylhome.com/

If you want to try out Influenster you can do so at : http://influenster.com. I recommend reading their about section before joining : http://influenster.com/about it will tell you everything you need to know about the program.

So, I decided to try out a sample program recently. I think I signed up around June of this year. I ended up qualifying for a box of all natural product samples, called a voxbox, around August. I received the box a few weeks later. Here is a picture of everything I received.

 

 

 

 

 

Product List :Left to Right

EBOOST Natural Energy Drink
GEODEO Deodorant in Island scent
Desert Essence Coconut Shine & Refine Hair Lotion
CleanWell Individual Hand Sanitizer Wipes
2 Packets NECTRESSE Sweetener
LypSyl™ Intense Protection LypMoisturizer
The Original Dish Drying Mat

 

A little information on how Influenster.com works. First its a place to share opinions and talk about favorite products and introduce others to new products. Today, they unveiled a new website complete with new style of doing things, more interaction between members, as well as how to get these boxes of free products to test. So, I am still figuring out all the new  things. But here goes..and if I’m wrong about something, sorry.

First, go to Influenster.com/about to learn more about the requirements and the program. Then request an invite. You used to be able to just sign up and get right to it so I’m not sure how long it will take to receive your email link allowing you to join. Once you do get the email, I am sure they will ask you a few questions during sign up. Be honest. The point of this is to discuss products you actually use and like. Once your in click on BADGES in the upper right corner of the screen. Connect your facebook, blog, twitter, etc. You used to just fill out quick little surverys to earn a badge. The survey was usually 10 or so questions about where you shop, what you buy, etc and that was what qualified you for the voxboxes. Now, you earn points by performing tasks both on and off Influenster.com. For example, you earn a certain badge you may be asked to post a picture on facebook, like a company on facebook, post a tweet about the company or Influenster, share your pinterest URL. Things like that. Its all easy and quick, except maybe the blog posting. Basically, it comes down to interaction. The more willing you are to be active on the website, and other social media websites, the more you’ll get out the experience. And yes, the more you MAY qualify for testing some great products. You don’t have to test products to use the website though. Also, if you don’t like something, be honest. If you like something, rave about. Its pretty much that easy.

If you do end up qualifing for a voxbox they will let me know. Its up to you if you want to except it or not. You may get one right away like I did, others I’ve heard had to wait months. Some are still waiting. It all depends on your demographics, shopping habits, and online social activity. But none of that will guarantee you to get anything. Its not really the point of the website, its more of an awesome perk for a few lucky members. Anyway, Once you receive the box, if selected, you must use and review the products. So make sure you review everything. They will tell you how to do it on the website. Its under “Fun File” on your profile/homepage area. Can’t remember which, may be both. Anyway, it will says voxbox (which ever you got) and tasks. Click it and you’ll be taken to a page listing different tasks for you to complete. When you complete them, you also earn a chance to win extra goodies from the companies that participated in your voxbox. Good incentive! For instance, for my Naturals 2012 Voxbox my incentive is a $70 value gift set of these products :

• Reusable Microfiber Cloths
• 10 pack Microfiber Cleaning Cloths
• Veggie Mat
• Pet Bowl Mat
• Cookware Guards
• Down To Earth Tote
• Almond Soy Hand Wash & Hand Lotion

Nice! So, one of my tasks is to blog. Ta-da. Done. However, since I need to review each product, I’m going to make a separate blog post for each one. This post is long enough!

So if you want to try out Influenster go HERE and request an invite! (When your a member, you’ll get to invite 5 friends. Be careful with that though, they need to be active! Website says Choose Carefully! Their activity will increase your score/points.) Its a great program if your into sharing your favorite products, writing reviews, learning about new products, and so on. But don’t join just to get freebies.

First thing I’ll be reviewing is LypSyl™ Intense Protection LypMoisturizer because its my favorite product from the Naturals Voxbox.

It was near 60 degrees on Sunday so I took Viktor for a walk around the garden. He had a lot of fun and behaved quite well. I think I’ll be able to take him outside on a semi-regular basis now. Finally found a harness/leash that he can’t wiggle out of.

 

Planting season is almost here. Just a few more weeks until we can get the gardens up and running again. We have prepped 6 beds for planting so far. 6 more still to go. Plus, we intent to double the size of 4 of the beds. So 4 to dig yet.

We have quite a list of things we are planting this year. Not counting all the stuff that will come back from previous years. Like beans, tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and etc.

So far we have bought these to plant:

Scarlet Runner Beans
Cylindra Beet
Romanesco Broccoli
Long Island Improved Brussel Sprout
Michihili Chinese Cabbage
Perfection Drumhead Savoy Cabbage
Cosmic Purple Carrot
White Wonder Cucumber
Bibb Lettuce
Sugar Baby Watermelon
Small Sugar Pumpkin
Harris Model Parsnip
Sugar Ann Snap Pea
Cayenne Long Red Thin Pepper
Poblano Pepper    
White Icicle Radish
Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach
Striped German Tomato     
Comfrey     
Lemon balm
German Chamomile
Mammoth Dill
Caraway
Alfalfa
Hungarian black seeded Sunflower
Borage
Heirloom Tomato (Variety)
Cilantro
Radish
Marquesa Onion
Organic Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans
Fenugreek
Snowball Califlower
Purple Top Turnips
Red Cabbage
Organic Bloomdale Spinach
Organic Dark Green Zucchini
Organic Delicata Winter Squash
Cucumbers (Variety)
Marketmore 76 Organic Cucumbers
Brussels Sprouts (From local Nursury)
Sugar Peas (From Local Nursury)
Strawberries
Camellia Sinensis (Tea plant)
Red Onions
White Onions
Yellow Onions
Shallots
Garlic

I’m sure we will end up buying more. We always do. We also have a large stock of containers now. (For when we overfill our beds and need to keep planting things.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viktor is now 5 months old. This was his first snow experience and he loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/365686/november-15-2010/tsa-full-body-scanners—jeffrey-goldberg

I want this to be a joke but, I know better.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/patriotapp/id390563133?mt=8

Want to rat your neighbors out for smoking pot? Report the nice Muslim couple down the street for “looking suspicious”? Yep, there’s an app for that.

Enter totalitarianism.
Walmart teams up with homeland security to install telescreens in 600 walmarts, in 27 states in order to broadcast homeland security public service announcements like this one:

Homeland Security Walmart Public Service Announcement

“It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself–anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face…; was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime…”
- George Orwell, 1984

“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”
- George Orwell, 1984

“WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.”
- Big Brother Slogan
- – George Orwell, 1984

TSA makes a 4-year-old disabled boy remove his leg braces to walk through body scanner. (Even though the little boy needs the braces to walk.)

All passengers flying within or to the United States are now being screened against government watch lists.

From CNN:

CNN All Passengers Now Screened

I want to highlight a comment posted on this vidoe by user 4sanity: “So what the TSA is saying is that 1 % of flyers are going to be hassled for being potential terrorists. So in 2010, there were 620 million airline passengers in the US –> 6.2 million “terrorist” threats. And they think this “false positive rate” is acceptable. But they admit they wouldn’t have caught any of the actual terrorists because they hadn’t yet aroused suspicion. This creates nothing but a false sense of security and only alienates the flying public.”

What scares me is how many of those 6.2 million “threats” are innocent children being subjected to this bullshit.

http://www.angryalien.com/0705/rhpsbuns.asp