Coco Cola Mugs

Look what I found at the dollar store! Don't you think they look pretty cool? I think they'll be fabulous for some beer, juice, and of course, cola. Ben, don't you think it'll fit my collection of coco cola bottles perfectly? =D

OPI Nail Polish: Green-wich Village

I bought two OPI nail polishes in January, one purple, one green. I'm going to review the Green-wich Village one day since it's near spring and st. patrick's day. =)

The nail polish has a decent formula, it's a little soft compared to those long-wearing nail polishes, but decently long lasting and durable. You need about three coats to achieve the colour on the bottle, or else it looks more like a lighter lime colour. The green is slightly, very slightly, more yellow than blue. It's not super noticeable and the colour does get darker with each layer you put on. The colour is opaque and without any shimmer or glitter. It's just a nice, glossy, and strong colour. It's not a neon, but it is noticeable and nicely bright.

Overall, it's a pleasant nail polish, easy to use and apply. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a green nail polish. It is the true-est green I have found to date. The photos for the nails are below. They were taken by the windows, and there's conveniently some real plants in the background for comparison! =)

Hot Chocolate Days

Today's one of those days that's made better by hot chocolate. It's snowing outside, not the fluffy soft snow, but the almost melted varity with a very strong wind kind. Work is well, work. Got hot chocolate from Tim Horten's, and no prize via roll up the rim. I wasn't expecting anything, so no disappointment. Although a new car would be nice...

Right, found a cool site, Great Canadian Rebates, via the blog Give My Five Bucks Back. I have yet to try out GCR, but of course I'll give a review on how it works once I try it out. Seems like a nifty concept. They offer a rebate on stuff bought thru their site at other online retailers. For example, if you were to buy something off Chapters online, instead of going directly to Chapters.ca, you go thru the GCR site and go to the Chapters site thru them. CGR earns a referral commission on your purchase, which they will then pass part of on to you. Sounds like a good deal to me. I mean, if I am going to buy something anyways, why not get some extra rebate on the side? =) If anyone has used it before, let me know how it goes! I will, of course, tell you how my experience with them goes.

New Mouse!

I got home today......and there were two packages waiting for me! TWO! It was like Christmas, but better because I knew they were stuff I wanted! =)

I got two pairs of jeans from Gap. Black long and lean jeans. I'm really learning to dislike the cut. Maybe I'll return them. Yes, I bought two identical pairs of jeans. Because I'm desperate for black jeans like that. uh huh. I did however get them for about 35 bucks each, which is pretty decent price wise. Not amazing, but decent.

The other package was....A new trackball mouse! It was shipped directly from TigerDirect. It cost about fifty dollars, plus tax plus shipping. I actually don't know how much shipping was since Ben paid for it...maybe he'll leave a comment with the total price shipped to my door. So no, it's not a cheap mouse, but I was looking for something that would give my shoulder and wrist some rest since I am on the computer all day. I can really feel the strain on my wrist when I am doing CAD work, so I hope this mouse help with the wrist pain. Ever time I think of wrist pain and engineering, I think of my old high school science teacher, Mr. Mehic. He is a Waterloo Mechanical engineer, and he ended up getting surgery for carpal tunnel. So yeah, don't want to head down that particular path. I'm going to try my best to reduce injury and strain to my little poor wrist. :)

I got some pictures in case you wanted to see what it looked like. I'll probably do a review on it once I've used it for a while. But so far (it's plugged in and running already!) it seems very easy to use. No major learning curve. I would say the learning curve is smaller than changing from mouse to trackpad (like the thing on laptops). Very easy to get used to in my opinion. Okie, picture time. (now....how do I insert pictures?! oh the journey to html begins....)

(Oh, button with a picture!)

(Uploading takes a VERY long time during the 9pm internet rush hour.)

I am going to comment on my pictures BEFORE the picture. I usually have a dislike for captions that follows underneath a picture. So here goes my first post with pictures! Wahoo! Aren't we moving up in the technology world? =D

It's from Logitech. It is the Wireless Trackball M570.

When you first open it up....

New mouse's backside....

The mouse's innards. Note the little slot to store the USB receiver when not in use. Very cute and clever design.


Muhahahahaha! And the ball pops out! Don't worry, it is supposed to so you can clean it once in a while (like trackball mice, remember them?).

Pretty shiny blue ball..............


That's all for now. I'll give a review of the mouse once I've used it for a while.

Review: Crabtree and Evelyn Lip Butter and Hand Cream

If you have ever looked to the blogs I follow, you'll notice I follow a fair bit of fashion blogs. So, with that inspiration in mind, I would like to offer my personal review of beauty products once in a while. I know I myself personally will google a beauty product before buying, because you (at least me) can never fully gauge how some products are at the store, especially when you're being pressured by sales associates, friends, or just time constraints. I'll often buy something, only to realize later its texture wasn't what I remember it to be or that it had a funky smell I couldn't smell fully at the store. So I will attempt to warn and give a review on products that I get or have. I am NOT being paid to do this. I bought everything with my own money and received no discounts or bonuses that is not given to every shopper. Now, onto the review!

Crabtree and Evelyn Hand Cream:

I've been using C&E's hand cream for a couple years now. I got my first tube as a gift from a family friend when she came over to stay in Toronto for a medical residence. I got the Rosewater Hand Therapy, which I continue to love and use to this day.

It's a rich hand cream that smells like roses, not the cheap sweet rose smell, but fresh and fragrant (it really does smell like real roses...just like the ones from my garden during late summer). Another plus for me at least is that it is actually made with rosewater. Using rosewater to wash your hands and such reminds me of a really really good spa or the extravagent and rich European kings and queens of the past. (You know, instead of using lemon water to clean their hands after meals, they use rosewater. Come to think of it, lemons were probably more precious than roses back then.) The shea butter is expected in a hand cream like this, so not much more to say about that. C&E has tons of different scents, and they usually all each have a unique ingredient in them (ie. Rosewater contains...rosewater. Lavender has Lavender oil..etc).

I find this hand cream less oily than other hand creams. It's still very thick and rich, but it's not oily per say. It is absorbed quickly and leaves your hand feeling super mositurized. One thing I did notice was that if I put too much on, it makes my palms kind of damp. It's not an oily feeling, but a slightly damp/moist one. It's nice though in the winter if you're not doing anything with your hands to just let them absorb and be surrounded by moisture.

Overall, this is a nice hand cream that's a nice treat for these harsh winter days. I just got 2 for $25 at Eatons last weekend, so they will cost you about $15 with tax a tube. They last a long time (at least for me), and a tube lasts all winter for me. I usually share the second tube with my best friend or mom....or save it to give away as a present later. The cream has a pretty long shelf life (I found my first tube a while back, and it's still good...and it's 2 years old now), so it can be stored for a while. I don't recommend 2 years though...but they'll easily last half a year or so I'm sure.

Crabtree and Evelyn Lip Butter:

Last weekend, I was at Eatons and I stopped by the store (2nd floor...on the south side (queen station) by the apple store) to pick up a gift for Ben's mom. I ended up getting a Hand Polish, two regular tubes of Hand Therapy (2 for $25....So I got two. They're $18 each normally), and a small travel sized Hand Therapy. They were giving a gift of 2 travel sized Hand Therapy (La Source and Rosewater...my two favourite ones!) and 2 Lip Butter (Vanilla Creme Brulee and the Mint one) for any purchase over $50, thus the extra travel sized hand cream.

I used the Mint one the day of since I'm usually not fond of vanilla or food favoured products. The mint one was really underwhelming. It really was not anything special and I would not spend $7.50 on it (and luckily I didn't). The Creme Brulee on the other hand smells divine. It doesn't have any taste, but it smells SOOOOO good. I feel like I'm eating dessert just by smelling it. YUM.

The texture of the Lip Butter is like....well....butter at room temperature. I honestly feel like I'm just putting butter on my lips. It's a little too liquid for my preference. However, it does leave your lips decently mositurized and shiny for a while. But once again, it's just like putting butter on my lips. It might be just the thing you like, I don't personally like it because I'm more of a lip balm and lipstick kind of girl. But that's my preference. If you're looking for a rich, creamy lip product that smells divine, this might be it for you. Shea butter is listed as its top ingredient, so it's a somewhat natural lip product.

I think I will be using the mint one to treat my cubicles...><" since I'm not super fond of it and I don't really need another lip product. The consistancy and such makes it a good candidate for the cubicles I think. I will continue to use the Creme Brulee one since it just smells so good and is a nice treat for the senses.

Overall, I would not pay $7.50 for a Lip Butter. However, I do recommend you to stop by the Crabtree and Evelyn store and buy some hand cream, soap....etc and get the freebie gift (it's worth $25 if you bought the stuff in it separately). Shelf life wise for the Lip Butter, it doesn't look like it's going to have a long one. So share it if you got two and you're not fond of one, or find some other purpose for it. The tube is 14g, so there's quite a bit of product there to use.

UPDATE: The lip butters go bad after about 10 months to a year. Their consistency changes and you get grain-like particles (size of loose flowing salt) in them (I believe it's the fat in the shea butter). So don't buy a bunch of these thinking they'll last. They won't.