December 2012 Favorites - Beauty, Craft, Food and Lifestyle

You might notice that the title of this is different from months past. That's because I've decided to stop doing monthly misses. If you've noticed over the last several months, there isn't always something I tried and disliked in a month. I will probably add things when there is a month when I really do dislike something, but otherwise it will be just things I was loving that month.

Beauty:

Real Techniques Stippling Brush
I got this at the beginning of the month and I love it. I'd previously just used my fingers to apply my makeup and I was looking for a better way to do it. This fits the bill! It makes putting on my foundation and blending everything in a breeze. The only thing I sort of don't like is that I tend to use more makeup when I use this than when I was using just my fingers. However, the overall application is much more smooth and even looking.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in 001 Honey
I freaking love this stuff. It goes on super smooth and easy with a hint of a mint taste. The color payoff is amazing for being a balm stain and it lasts a very long time. This past week or two I've had a super bad cold and while it wipes off after a time or two of blowing my nose, the stain part stays for quite a while after the initial application has been worn/wiped off. I'd really like to get these in more colors.

Hawaiian Tropic Aloha Kiss Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Island Berry
Am I the only one who didn't know Hawaiian Tropic had lip gloss?? I got this baby for free for winning a brand challenge on Influenster, but I think I may have eventually picked it up for myself had I seen it at the store. It's a pretty good lip gloss and I love the flavor. The only down side, I find, is that it tends to wear off quickly. However, at the same time, the perk to that is that I get to taste it again when I reapply. It tastes amazing.

Revlon Colorstay Foundation in 220 Natural Beige
I discovered the Revlon Colorstay foundation line this month and I'm so sad I hadn't done it sooner. Previously I was using Revlon's PhotoReady line and I loved that too, but it was just missing something for me. I found that "something" in this new foundation. Honestly, the color is a bit dark and orange for my skin tone. I could have gone at least a shade lighter and been fine. To get me through until I can justify buying the correct color I've been mixing it with a little of a PhotoReady shade that's way too light. I love the coverage and coupled with the heavy hand I seem to have with my stippling brush, it tends to hide blemishes and acne scars I have pretty well.

Eyeko Skinny Brush Mascara
I feel like I've mentioned this in a favorites before, but I can't help mention it one last time. I say one last time because I'm pretty sure it's going to give out on me here soon. I've had it longer than the recommended for a mascara but it's still good! The formula was pretty wet when it was new and it's drying up quite nicely actually. The wand is a bit funky to work with at first but once you can find an application method that suits your lashes you're golden. I can't tell you how much I really love this stuff and I'm only sad that it will cost so much to replace.

Craft:

Monster Corner Chomper Bookmarks
At the beginning of the month I got a request for a custom order of these babies and I really remembered that I enjoy making them. Plus, people tend to like them and they sell out quite quickly when I have them in stock. They're a great use for scrap paper and I feel like sometime soon I need to sit down and make another stock pile of them. If I have any for sale you'll be able to find them here.

Food:

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
I think that once the cold hits I really want comforting foods and for breakfast, few things are comforting like oatmeal. My favorite flavor is apple cinnamon, but I'm open to trying new flavors every now and then. I also love that when I need to stay full longer, two packets seems to do the trick.

Lifestyle:

I got this bracelet from my BFF. She's an amazing person and so thoughtful. I adore this bracelet as much as I adore her. It's beautiful and I only wish I had more places to wear such a fancy bracelet since I know I won't be able to wear it to work.

Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape Review - Foodie Friday

I'm not even going to waste time on this review - not that I ever really do, but sometimes I've got a back story or other things I want to tell you about first. I'm just going to jump straight to the point. This chocolate bar = amazing.

I know that the whole sea salt thing is kind of a trend in food as of recently and I'll admit that I never really got the fascination especially when it came to desserts and sweets. I mean, salted caramel? But at the same time, I love dipping French fries in my Frosty when I go to Wendy's. But I digress.

At any rate, the combination of sweet milk chocolate, roasted almonds and sea salt is just amazing. I've had my share of chocolate bars with almonds over the years but I have to say this is by far the best one - thus far at least. I really attribute that to the addition of the sea salt. In the back of each bite was a salty little flavor making the milk chocolate taste even sweeter - if that's even possible.

The chocolate was pretty creamy and the bits of almonds were just the right size. There was some in every bite without being the only thing in every bite. Just typing this is making my mouth water for more. I wish I had put this on my Christmas list!

The Gourmet Milk like also includes Creamy Devotion and Coconut Rendezvous flavors as well. Each bar retails in the $4 - $5 range.

Disclaimer: I received this product complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.

2012 Resolution Review

If you want to read the whole post I wrote about my 2012 resolutions, you can read it here.

Basically I had 2 resolutions for this year:
1. Be a better blogger
2. Be a more organized crafter

So how did I do at keeping them? I'd honestly say I'm 50/50.

I have been a MUCH better blogger this year (in my opinion). While I haven't necessarily tried to have a new post every single day, I've tried to have an update or something to post at least once a week. There were many times when I was posting much, much more often than once a week. As far as my math skills can tell, I've managed to post enough to average a post every other day (weekends included even though I don't usually post on weekends). That's pretty darn good and I'm not sure how, or if, I can even top that in 2013. You'll have to check out January 1st's post to see what I resolve to do in 2013.

As far as being a more organized crafter, I kind of fail. My craft area is almost always in a state of disarray (aren't most craft areas?) and I still don't have enough storage or space for all my goodies. Every couple of months I'd clean everything up because I ended up in a crafting rut. Somehow cleaning up the space and looking at/touching all of my supplies is inspiring to me and I'd get a rush of creativity. Of course this meant that within a few days, sometimes hours, my craft area was once again a mess. It's a vicious cycle. Maybe I'll have to think about a similar resolution for 2013.

So how did you do this year? What did you resolve to do in 2012 and how well did you stick to it? Feel free to post links to your own blog posts about your 2012 resolutions and updates on whether or not you were able to keep them.

Meijer Mounted Photo Review

My sister and I decided this would be a great gift for our parents for Christmas (hence why this blog post is going up so late. Hi mom!). Actually, our family has decided to do Christmas a little later this year and won't be exchanging gifts until this weekend instead of ON Christmas. My mom has promised not to peek here until after she has received her gifts. But at any rate, we thought this would make a great present for our parents so we recruited her boyfriend to go to the park with us on a relatively warm day in November (nearly unheard of in Ohio) and snap a few pictures at a local garden park.

We ended up choosing this picture:

Once we got to Meijer, I asked the clerk behind the photo counter if it mattered which kiosk we used to create our mounted photo. It did not. Sometimes, at other photo places, they have specific kiosks for 1-hour products and specific ones for other products that take longer or need sent out for processing. I'm glad that at Meijer it doesn't matter. Sometimes all of the kiosks are filled up and it would be nice to know that I can go to the first kiosk that opens up the next time I'm shopping for photo products at Meijer.

It took literally less than 5 minutes to click our way through all the on screen prompts and options - choosing and uploading a photo, options to enhance and edit, selecting which product we wanted, etc. There were a lot of options and if you know exactly what you want you should have no problems just clicking your way through everything. If you're a bit undecided on what you're looking for, it will probably be a more time consuming task.

At the end of the ordering process, a ticket was printed by the kiosk and the screen told me it should be ready in about an hour, but to expect it to take a little longer if things were busy. We set off to explore the rest of Meijer in search of some other Christmas gifts my sister needed. We're very familiar with Meijer and regularly get our groceries here, so we weren't really "exploring" as much as wandering around looking for things to catch our eyes.

A little less than an hour later we were done with our other shopping so I went to see if our mounted photo was done yet. It was! We were really happy it was done in less than an hour - they must not have been very busy that day.

This is what we saw when we opened the package:

 
It looks flat in the picture, but I promise it's 3-dimensional. In fact, the sides look like this:

 

It might be hard to tell from the pictures (I couldn't get the lighting to cooperate), but they're actually a brushed silver sort of color on the sides. I don't think there are other options as they weren't presented at the kiosk.

The back looks like this:

So now about the quality. To be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I feel that for the money they're a little cheap in construction. For the price I feel either the construction should be better or the size should be larger. They are described as being "mounted on durable, foam core mounting board." Basically this means they're mounted on Styrofoam. That's great for being light weight and all, but I feel that most/many craft-type people would be able to make these at home with very few supplies and time...and less money.

So the big question is: Would I use my own money to purchase one again?

That's a tricky question to answer really. Mostly the answer is probably not. As I'm sure you know by now, I'm a pretty crafty-type person. I feel I could make my own for less money and if I have the time I would probably do so in the future - in fact I'm envisioning the possibilities now. However, DIY projects are not for everyone and this makes a lot of sense for those who are not so crafty or just don't have the time to whip together their own version.

Some other important to know information:

• You can currently only order and purchase these in store. You cannot order them online and pick up at a store. However, in 2013 they will be available on the website as well.
• They cost a little over $6 for a 5x7 and of course increase in price as you increase in size
• Available in three sizes: 5x7, 8x10 and 11x14

Disclaimer: I am a BzzAgent and received coupons to get this product for free

Christmas Cookies Week 4 Sugar Cookies - Foodie Friday

This sugar cookie recipe is a holiday standard at my house. My mom has made them since we were little and we helped her make them since we could stand at the table and push a cookie cutter down. No shortage of memories has been made because of this sugar cookie recipe. It makes a great dough for cut out cookies as well as making great "just plopped" cookies. Icing is optional, but recommended in my opinion!

Ingredients:
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. cooking oil
1 c. sweet or sour milk* (see notation at bottom about milk and baking powder)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder*
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
Flour enough to make stiff dough

*If you use sweet milk,  use 1 tsp. baking powder. If you use sour milk, use 1/2 tsp. baking powder.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Mix ingredients together and bake for 10-15 minutes.

What's in my December 2012 Birchbox

The theme of December's Birchbox is "All Wrapped Up" in honor of the holiday season. I was kind of hoping that because of the holidays this month, Birchbox would step up the game and give us some amazing things - more full sized products or at least more generous samples, etc. We'll see how it pans out.

If you want to hear/see my initial thoughts as I opened the box feel free to check out my YouTube channel.

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo - Full size $32 for 250ml- Sample $6.66

I'm kind of excited to try this because I have really fine hair, but a lot of it. It seems that a lot of shampoos end up weighing it down after a few uses. Hopefully this might be a good every other shampoo type of thing or some sort of pattern to keep my hair from getting too weighed down and heavy.

La Fresh Eco-Beauty Oil-Free Face Cleanser - Full size $9.99 for 30 cloths - Sample $0.67

I have yet to find a face cloth/wipe that I like and can get all my makeup off. I've heard some good things about these and I'm excited to see if they work as well for me as I've heard they do for others. Usually the issue is with my face still feeling gross from still having makeup on it or oily from whatever residue the cloth has left behind.

Apothoderm Firming Serum - Full size $75 for 1oz. - Sample $11.25

As I'm getting older I find myself looking more and more for holy grail anti-aging products that can carry me through my 30s and into my later years. Though a bit pricy at $75 for a full sample, this looks promising. It apparently has a proprietary peptide duo that will firm and brighten skin. Sounds like win to me! Now we'll just have to see how it works on my skin.

Juicy Couture - Juicy Couture - Full size $90 for 3.4oz. - Sample $1.32

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Enough with the perfume samples Birchbox! My fragrance drawer in the bathroom cabinet is starting to become overrun with these tiny vials you insist on sending nearly monthly. While I do like discovering a good perfume every now and again, I might suggest sticking to 1 sample per quarter, perhaps something that may be a good scent for that season? Overall though, I'm not that into this particular scent. I liked the La Fleur version much better.

theBalm cosmetics Mary-Lou Manizer - Full size $24 for 8.5g by weight - Sample $2.82

This is an three-in-one highlighter, eye shadow and shimmer. It's really quite neat and I can't wait to try it out. I personally see myself using it as an eye shadow and/or highlighter most often. It should be a great alternative to the Stila highlighter I got last month.

Box total: $22.72

FriXion by Pilot Pens Review - Influenster Cosmo VoxBox 2012

In case you don't remember, I received these pens in the Fall Cosmo VoxBox from Influenster. It's been a while, a long while actually, since I've used erasable ink. It was probably sometime in the 1990s (yes, that long ago) when I last used it. I have to say that when I had to use erasable ink for school, I was not impressed. The ink seemed really thick and gross. It tended to glob up and if you ever did need to erase it, it tended to smear and create a giant mess. I'm not really sure what the point was if it was such a hassle to use. Using some sort of correcting fluid would have been much easier for sure.

Anyhow, that really isn't the case with these FriXion pens by Pilot.

I'll start by talking about the red pen. As you can see, or I hope you can see, from the photos above, It writes really well. The ink is pigmented and everything you'd expect from a regular red pen. This isn't just an ordinary red pen though. Remember, it's also erasable. In the bottom half of the picture you can see that I erased part of the word to show you how it looks when erased.

Overall it did an ok job of erasing. However, it left behind an orangeish or light red sort of color where the red ink had been. You could also clearly see the indentation from the writing. If you had written something and wanted to erase it to write something over it, you could. I think you'd still see a bit of the original writing underneath though. I would liken the erasability to that of a pencil though. Sometimes when you erase pencil you're still able to see a smudge of it here and there as well as the indentation left by the original writing. This has kind of the same effect, just with ink.

I'd say pretty much everything about the black pen as I did about the red one with a few exceptions. The black ink leaves behind a little bit of a gray cast when erased and it's not quite as noticeable as the orange/red left behind by the red pen.

Both pens were very smooth to write with and I really liked using them. I didn't have to scribble or anything to get the ink going, which was nice.

So the big question is: Would I use my own money to buy these?

Yeah actually I would - but I probably wouldn't erase them much. I like the ink flow and the way the pen wrote more than I cared for the ability to erase it. If I'm writing with pen, I try not to make mistakes anyhow.

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.

How to get products to review - Buy it myself

A few of you have expressed interest in knowing/learning about how I get the things I review and various ways to make money from blogging so I've decided to do a couple of posts about it. I had originally thought I could make it into just two posts but after starting to write this one about how to get products to review, I realized that it's going to need at least 3 or 4 posts, possibly more.

As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I like to review products. What kind of products? Pretty much anything. I don't like doing it to get free stuff, though that is a bonus. I like doing it because I like to share my opinions with others. I give honest feedback about whatever it is I'm reviewing so that others can use that information to decide if it's something they also want to try. Not only do I write reviews about things I enjoy (my favorite reviews to write), but I also write them if I didn't enjoy a product. I think it's important to share my views regardless of what they are.

So on to the big question: How do I get these things in the first place?

There are several ways I get these things and there are various requirements and rules and the like for each place.

1. I buy the stuff myself

Yes, believe it or not, I do buy some of the stuff myself. Sometimes it's something I pick up on a whim and sometimes it's a planned purchase. Generally speaking though, they aren't products I pick up with the intent to review. It's usually a product I've seen around or heard something about or just plain caught my eye at the store. Either way I get it home, try it and if I have some sort of strong feelings either way - love or hate - I tend to want to share that with my readers. If it's something I was kind of meh about, I might share it but it's not as likely unless I feel my meh opinion is really relevant and would help others deciding to purchase that product or not.

Here is where you guys as readers have some influence too. I don't always get a say in exactly what I get sent from some of the other places I get things to review but I always have a say in how I spend my own money. If there's a product you've seen around and want to know my opinion let me know! I'd be happy to purchase it myself, try it out and possibly save you a few dollars - or suggest you spend it!

As I said as the beginning, this is apparently going to be a multi-post miniseries since one post with everything would be insanely long. That said, the next post about another way to get things to review will be out shortly! If you know of any other ways you'd like to share or think I should check out, feel free to comment below!

Weight Loss Update - December 2012

Weight loss is a tricky road to navigate sometimes and this last month was really no different. However, the good thing is that in the last month I've only gained 1 pound. This is especially good since last month included Thanksgiving and all the food and goodies that go along with it.

That really shouldn't be an excuse though. Lots, and I mean lots, of people can make it through Thanksgiving and actually lose weight. I can't blame the whole pound on Thanksgiving though because if I broke it down on a week by week basis, I think I lost weight the week after Thanksgiving.

Going forward into the rest of December and January I want to do a better job at staying away from pop. Pop seems to be a fairly big part of my weight gain weeks versus my weight loss weeks. It's amazing how many calories we can just drink away and how if it's something we're used to, doesn't even being to fill us up. I could see drinking a smoothie with more calories than pop if the smoothie was a solid meal replacement type thing, but to just drink away between 100 and 200 calories (if not more!) on pop? It's starting to seem just a bit too insane to me.

I also want to try to have healthier options on hand to eat. That's an even trickier goal than the pop one since there are only so many ways you can stretch a dollar at the grocery store. Coupons help but at the end of the day, the average person isn't getting oodles and oodles of things for free - and really, most of what they walk away with for free is toothpaste, sports drinks and the like.

Are you on a weight loss journey? How is yours going?

Christmas Cookies Week 3 - Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies - Foodie Friday

I know that these cookies don't photograph the best - but really, does it matter if they taste yummy??

These are yet another holiday staple cookie for my family. We have them nearly every year and this was the first year I made them by myself. By "myself" I mean without the help of my mom. This year I had the help of my husband. We only goofed on one thing, which wasn't really our fault.

The recipe, as originally written, called for the mixture to boil for 1 1/2 minutes. Apparently it needs to boil for 2 minutes. Our end product tastes just fine but they didn't really set up right, even after sitting in the fridge for a while. They're very soft and floppy, for lack of a better word. I've adjusted the recipe below to reflect a 2 minute boil time so hopefully your cookies won't be floppy.

Ingredients
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 stick butter or margarine
2 1/2 c. quick cooking oatmeal
1 - 2 T. vanilla
1/2 c. peanut butter
3 - 4 T cocoa

Directions

• Boil sugar, milk, butter and cocoa for 2 minutes - start timing after the mixture reaches a boil.
• Remove from heat and add peanut butter, oatmeal and vanilla.
• Stir until blended, then drop on wax paper by teaspoonfuls.
• Coconut or dates may be added if desired.

Gillette Venus Embrace Razor Review - Influenster Cosmo VoxBox

I would really like to know how I didn't know about these Gillette Venus Embrace razors sooner! I mean, as I said in my initial thoughts/unboxing of the Cosmo VoxBox from Influenster, I'm usually a disposable razor gal so that's probably how, but really. I feel like had I known just how awesome these razors are I would have made the switch sooner.

Quite possibly one of the best things about the Venus line of razors from Gillette is that all of the blade cartridges are interchangeable on the same handle! That means that if you try one type of blade and decide it's not for you, you don't have to buy a whole new razor system to try out a different one. All you need to do is purchase new blade cartridge refills!

Here's a little information about this particular blade cartridge before we get into all my thoughts:

• 5 blades to get just about every hair
• Approved for the bikini area
• Soft grip handle
• Ribbon of moisture
• Does also come in disposable form
• Retails in the $8 - $9 range (1 handle and 2 blade cartridges) at Walmart and about the same on Amazon
• Original refill packs (4 per pack) retail for $15 - $16 at Walmart and Amazon

I kind of wish I had thought to take before and after pictures but at the same time, I feel the Internet is a better place without pictures of my hairy legs (agree?). At any rate, once the weather cools down, the time between leg shaves tends to increase - much to my husband's dismay. This happens for 2 major reasons:

1. There's no need to show off my legs in any way shape or form once the temperature decides to stay below 60
2. My skin tends to dry out much, much faster in the cooler weather and shaving sometimes exacerbates this problem

So the other day I decided to try this bad boy out. I was given two blade cartridges - an original and one by Olay - to test out. I started with the original.

First, I love, love, LOVE the design of the cartridge. The way it looks, the way the blades are close together and most especially the way it's fairly flat - yet curved at the right spots. I am a notorious knee nicker when I shave and yet somehow, this time, no nicks! The blades just hugged the curves around my knees and gave me an amazingly smooth shave instead of banging things up and making the shower look like a crime scene.

The only thing that went even a little awry were these little tiny red dots that cropped up shortly after I got out of the shower. These little red dots - that were usually little red bumps aka razor burn - were the reason I switched to disposable razors. For some reason I tended not to get them with certain disposable razors, but almost always got them with non-disposable razors. But anyhow, this time they weren't full blown razor burn. The dots didn't hurt or itch and they certainly didn't develop into bumps. They were also gone by morning, which was a great thing.

After using the razor again, I've decided that it may have been the body wash I was using for shaving that may have been the culprit of the red dots. I don't use shaving cream to shave because it's just not practical for shaving in the shower and I've found that I have an allergic reaction of sorts or something when I use many of them. It's almost like they guarantee I'll have razor burn. But anyhow, another use of the razor with a different body wash revealed amazingly smooth legs with no red dots or bumps!

A couple of days after using it to shave my legs, I decided to test out my arm pits. If I'm going to get razor burn from a razor, that's where it will show up for sure. I picked a day when I didn't really have much to do in case I ended up with razor burn and couldn't put on deodorant. However, I really could have picked any old day with a ton to do if I had wanted. Yet again, no razor burn!

Disclaimer: I received this product complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster. 

Life Update - December 2012

I've decided to make at least monthly life update posts so that everyone can kind of know what's going on in my life outside of things I post like Foodie Friday, reviews, Birchbox, etc. Since I plan to do them at least monthly, they'll be mostly updates on what's been going on since the last update. If something happens or I want to write more posts like this I will.

So we made it through Thanksgiving! It was a hectic day since my mom and aunt ate lunch with my grandma at the nursing home and we typically have our big meal for lunch. We had to shift things around to accommodate that and the in-laws who also changed their meal time this year. It meant I got to do more of the cooking on my own, which I LOVED. I really do love cooking big meals for lots of people, but really that only applies when I'm not necessarily expected to do so. If it's expected of me or I feel it's not appreciated, I'm not so fond of it.

Thanksgiving Dinner

In blog related things, I'm knee deep in products that need my attention in some way - tested/tried and reviewed mostly. I love being able to try products and share my opinions with others, but sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming when several things come at once. PLUS, I don't want this blog to be just about reviews and products like that so sometimes it's a bit difficult to find a balance so that I can get the information out in a timely manner while still having posts about other things on the blog.

Influenster Cosmo VoxBox awaiting reviews

Also competing for my time is my new job. I had one week of training and I'm now in week two of training. This is my last week of formally scheduled training and then I can get into some other aspects and learn about those. Due to the nature of my job - and all the HIPPA privacy stuff that goes along with it - I won't be mentioning it often. All you guys need to know is that even though I'll be working full time starting soonish, I will still make time for blogging and sharing. I may not be able to do it every day as I have been, but some sort of balance will settle out.

Christmas is almost here! *cue jingle bells and carolers* I have most of the shopping done for my side of the family and I'm VERY proud to say that I don't think I've yet spent a penny of my own cash to pay for any of it. I've done a great job at saving up points for gift cards and such and used those to pay for all the gifts! If you'd like to know more about the sites I use for this and the like let me know and I'll get to it!

I'm not sure much else has been going on in the last month or so, which I suppose is good.

30 Days of Pinspiration

By now many of you know what Pinterest is. If you don't, consider yourself lucky and enjoy the hours of free time you have not spent saving things you "might" want to do later. And just in case you REALLY don't know what it is, it's basically a gigantic bulletin board where you can "pin," aka organize and save, ideas for really anything - food, beauty, craft, fashion, the list is just about endless.

So now that we're clear on what Pinterest is, I bet you're wondering what 30 Days of Pinspiration means. It can mean many things to many people, but for my purposes it means that I'd like to do 30 projects from Pinterest. Will these all be done in one month? No way Jose. I don't have that kind of time or money. However, my goal is to do a combination of craft and food ideas found on Pinterest - 30 of them to be exact - over the next several months. I figure I can probably do 1 or 2 each week for a total of 4-8 each month. At that rate, it should take me around 6 months, give or take a few on each side, to complete.

I will be needing your help though. I've created a board that I'm encouraging people to add project ideas to. All of the 30 projects will be chosen from this board - and only this board - so pin wisely and often! You can check out all the ideas currently on the board here. To be added as someone able to pin to the board I'll need your email address.

I'm looking to start this project in January, so get those pins in place! I can't wait to see what great ideas you all have for me to try!

Christmas Cookies Week 2 - Chocolate Chip Cookies - Foodie Friday

In preparation for making chocolate chip cookies I purchased a bag of chocolate chips a couple of weeks ago. My sister and her boyfriend decided they wanted to make chocolate chip cookies and I gladly lent them my chocolate chips to use on the condition that they shared their recipe and I was able to photograph the cookies to share with all of you. These are the cookies they made and the recipe they followed.

It's worth noting that instead of using pecans they used chopped walnuts. This was better for me as I prefer walnuts to pecans, but feel free to choose your own favorite.

Ingredients
3/4 c. butter flavor Crisco shortening
1 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 T. milk
1 T. vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
 1 t. salt
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. coarsley chopped pecans (optional, though if omitted, add another 1/2 c. chocolate chips)

Directions

• Heat oven to 375*F.
• Combine Crisco, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat egg into creamed mixture.
• Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into creamed mixture just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and pecan pieces.
• Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake one baking sheet at a time at 375*F for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11-13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Cosmo VoxBox 2012 - First Impressions/Unboxing

I was beyond excited when this came in the mail the other day! I LOVE getting new products from Influenster! The products are ALWAYS great products to start with and the sample sizes never disappoint - in fact I've found that many are full sized products or travel sized products. That's a bonus for everyone since I get more product to test out it means you guys get a better review!

I did film an unboxing video the day I got it and before I peeked inside. You can find it on my YouTube channel, which I will link here or at the bottom of the post. The rest of this blog will be basically the same things but may have a bit more information since I'm not just typing this on the fly.

Ok, so what IS the Cosmo VoxBox? According to the info card it came with, it's full of products that a modern gal needs. Great! Let's see what's inside!

Gillette Venus Embrace - Razor and Venus and Olay blade refills
I'd just like to start by saying that I forgot to snap a picture of the Olay refill. If you're interested in seeing what it looks like, check out the YouTube unboxing video.

I'm not typically one to use razors that have refills. Yes, I'm a disposable girl. However, I've heard great things about these razors and I'm excited to see if they can get me to change my mind. According to the info card, the refills cost $3.50-$4.50 per month - I have no idea how they figured that up but that's not too awfully expensive. However, it is more than I currently spend per month for my disposables and I don't buy the cheapest disposables either.

FriXion by Pilot Pens
These are erasable gel ink pens. I can honestly say that I haven't really used erasable ink pens since I was required to in late elementary school/Jr. High - and then they only came in blue I think. Obviously there are more color choices here. They actually come in 8 different colors according to the website, which is pretty impressive!

I'll just post a couple of pictures showing how they write and erase and save my thoughts on how they do both until I've had a chance to use them more.

Top row: Left - writing, right - erasing
Bottom row: Left - erasing, right - writing

Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk Sea Salt Escape
You can hardly go wrong sending this lady chocolate - and Ghirardelli chocolate to boot! According to the info card, this particular flavor has sea salt and roasted almonds in Ghirardelli Gourmet Milk chocolate. I'm so excited to try this and my only wish is that they had sent two!

Forever Red Eau de Parfume from Bath & Body Works
According to the info card, this fragrance has a blend of pomegranate and red osmanthus with a bit of vanilla rum. First, I'm not sure what red osmanthus is or what it should/does smell like. While I'm being honest, I'm not even sure what a pomegranate smells like - it's been years since I've had one. On first whiff, and even second and third, I just smell my mom. It's very much a fragrance she would wear and I'm not sure if it's something I would wear. I tend to lean more toward fruity, floraly scents but sometimes warmer smelling ones grow on me. We'll have to see where this one goes.

So that's all that came in my Cosmo VoxBox 2012. It's a pretty diverse mix of products I think - everything from pens to razors. I can't wait to test everything out and see what I think. Keep checking back for individual product reviews!

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary for testing purposes from Influenster.