No More Puff!

OMG! I love this product.

I have chronic puff under my eyes, which I camoflage with my eyeglasses. However, on a whim, I decided to try this stuff and it totally works! About half an hour after I apply it, my puffs are gone!

I think it runs for about $14, but it's worth it, I say!

Earn prizes!

I have been filling out surveys for HarrisPollsOnline.com for probably about two years now and it's been terrific. Every week or so they invite you to voice your opinions about various things. I remember surveys about my grocery shopping habits, if I liked this new Ben and Jerry's packaging, what I thought about a short commercial for Six Flags. And for every survey you fill out, you get Hi Points, which you can redeem for cool stuff.

The lowest prize you can earn is a $5 Amazon gift card.

For 6000 points you can get a percussion massager, a volleyball/badmintton set, among other things.

At 7500 points, I can get a $50 gift certificate to: Ticketmaster, Sephora, Barnes & Noble.com, Fandango, Cabela's, Shoebuy, Crutchfield, Overstock.com, Dick's Sporting Goods, NASCAR, HBO, L.L.Bean, Lands' End, NFLShop.com, NHL, Nickelodeon, Omaha Steaks, Racing One, Sport Chalet, Sports Authority, Wine.com, Brookstone.

So, if you're interested, click here. (By the way, I get nothing for passing this info on to you. I just like recommending cool stuff.)

Art Books for Kids

Welcome to another Art Friday at my blog. Today I thought I'd share some very cool books I discovered in Real Simple Family magazine. They're published by Sterling Publishing. They're touchable art books. Remember Pat the Bunny? The book that let you pet the bunny's fur and feel Daddy's scratchy cheek? Well, these books are along those lines.

I thought they were pretty neato. They run for about $10 a piece and they're board books.

The various titles are Pop Warhol's Top, Make Van Gogh's Bed, Comb Mona Lisa's Hair, Feed Matisse's Fish, all by Julie Appel and Amy Guglielmo.

My kids are too old for this type of thing, but if you're an art lover and you have toddlers, you might want to check these out. :)

Another Author I Love-Hate

Stephenie Meyer. Dude, I read her book, The Host, and loved it. Tore through it. Stayed up until 2:30 a.m. one night trying to finish, finally turned out the light, and then first thing the next morning, picked it up and didn't get out of bed until I was DONE.

She's that good.

This is one of the best books I've read all year. I so hate her. I so love her. If you're a reader who also writes, you know the feeling.

Recommendation: The Perfect Gift

I'm tired and I want to go to bed, so this is a drive-by blog post.

I love getting gift cards. I love giving them too. Here's a site where you can give someone a card and they get to choose the vendor! Gifts.com

Thursday 3: Lettuce Wraps

There's a popular meme called Thursday 13 in which every Thursday you make a list of thirteen things. I did this for a few months, but I don't have time for thirteen! So, I whittled it down to Thursday 3.

I love lettuce wraps. I'm Chinese, so maybe it's in my genes. Anyway, today I thought I'd list three of the places I like to order them.

1. Chili's (left) offers two different sauces, butter lettuce instead of iceburg, julienne raw carrots, and puffed rice noodles. I never actually stuff the lettuce here because it's too much trouble. I just use a fork for the fillings and my fingers for the lettuce!

2. Hop Li Seafood Restaurant in West Los Angeles (11901 Santa Monica Blvd) has a pretty good chicken version. Sometimes it has a little more cilantro than I can stomach, but if I put enough hoi sin sauce on it, I don't notice it too much.

3. I just had the Elephant Bar's version last night (right.) (DH and I went to see Hancock, and then had a late supper.) And they were delicious. It was a generous portion served with a nice peanut sauce. There were detailed iceburg leaves and a couple of chunks of red cabbage that was nice. I could have used a little less salt, but it was still delish!

Recommendation: COOL PEN!!!

I LOVE pens. There are many of us pen-a-holics out there. If you are one of them, listen up! You must buy some Frixion pens. They have a little rubber tip on the end that can be used to erase the ink. But here's the ultra cool part: the tip is not an eraser. The ink disappears because of the friction, so there aren’t any little eraser bits to brush away. Plus, see that neat tattoo design they have on them?

I'm in love. I have four of them now. If Staples had had all six colors, I'd have six.

Skid No More

My kids aren't so little anymore, but I thought this idea was so clever, I had to pass it on. Adorn the bottom of some socks with puffy paint, let them dry, and voila! Some socks that are a wee bit better for running around the house. :)

In-N-Out Burgers!

I recently bought this book, Eat This, Not That, and found out something that makes me very happy! An In-N-Out hamburger is 100 calories less than a quarter pounder. :D That's great news because the last time I splurged on a quarter pounder, it was horrible, having obviously sat for quite a while in the warmer. In N Out burgers are always made fresh to order. So get out there and eat a burger without guilt. :D

A Decade of Memories

I've tried keeping journals before throughout my life. I've never succeeded. Until now. As of this month, I've written in my journal every day (missing only about 5 days) for an entire year! How did I do it? It really wasn't that hard!

The secret is the Ten Year Journal. Don't freak out about the title because the thing is, the TYJ only requires four lines per day. Four lines! Who can't carve out the time to write four lines about your day? I keep it by my bed and jot down stuff before I hit the hay. It's so easy.

If you have more than four lines of junk that happened, you have a multitude of carry-over pages at the back. Also, it's great because now that I'm on my second year of journaling, every day I can see what I was doing the year before. The four lines I'm filling currently are directly below last year's four lines.

I can't recommend this journal enough. It's perfect for people who want to journal but were always intimidated by the WHOLE BLANK PAGE per day set up. Buy the Ten Year Journal here.

Ah-choo! Popcorn

OMG! This is the most awesome snack. Buttery Salt and Cracked Pepper Popcorn by Orville Redenbacher. It comes in mini-bags and it kicks ass! Try it. You won't be sorry.

Grammatical Mental Block

I consider myself to be a smart girl. However, I have quite a few mental blocks that I can't seem to overcome. For example, I can't seem to understand the complexities of lay vs. lie. Sometimes, I'm so flummoxed that I just choose a completely different verb and avoid all the confusion. Sometimes, though, it's The Right Word and I have to try to figure out which permutation to use.

In the hope that I'm not the only doofus out there with this grammar syndrome, I'm posting this fabulous webpage that does a great job of explaining which word is correct for your situation. I hope it comes in handy for you.

Artist: Unknown

I don't know who photographed this picture. I got it from pixdaus.com. But I thought it was beautiful and reminded me of that movie, Brigadoon. It's such a romantic movie. If you've never heard of it, here's the blurb.

A mysterious Scottish village appears for only one day every hundred years, though to the villagers, the passing of each century seems no longer than one night. The enchantment is viewed by them as a blessing rather than a curse, for it saved the village from destruction. According to their covenant with God, no one from Brigadoon may ever leave, or the enchantment will be broken and the site and all its inhabitants will disappear into the mist forever. Two American tourists, lost in the Highlands, stumble upon the village just as a wedding is about to be celebrated, and their arrival has serious implications for the village's inhabitants.

If you like romance, rent this movie. Watching Cyd Charisse and Gene Kelly dance together (even if it's on pretty cheesy looking sets) is magical.

Chocolate That's Good for You!

I have been told by my doctors I need to take more calcium and vitamin D. My mother recommended these vitamins to me and they're fantastic! I don't taste anything vitamin-like at all when I eat one. They're like eating a tiny little dessert, but it's filled with all the stuff your bones need. I plan on needing my bones for a long time, so I want to keep them healthy. You can get a coupon for a dollar off at Viactiv's website.

Girly Girl Site

I don't wear that much make-up, but when I saw this Beauty Addict blog featured in Real Simple magazine, I had to check it out. I ended up browsing its various pages for a good twenty minutes.

Okay, correction. I just went back and cruised for another ten and now I want to go shop for nail polish. LOL

Check this blog out for all things beauty.

Recommendation: The Tongue Untied

Recently, I needed to find out what you call those "ing" phrases. For example,

He pointed at her, laughing at the whipped cream on her nose.

I was trying to explain to another author that they had too many of these types of phrases, but really hated the idea of calling them "ing" phrases. I come to find out at this fabulous website, The Tongue Untied, they're called participial phrases. If you ever have a grammar question, this site is fantastic.

A Novel of Epic Proportions

If you are a regular visitor to my blog, you know I was recently hit with a nasty flu bug. While I was down, I passed the time reading this massive book, World Without End, by Ken Follett. It's a sequel to The Pillars of the Earth, which I enjoyed very much over a decade ago. This book is similar in scope and takes place two hundred years later, but in the same setting: a cathedral in a town called Kingsbridge.

If you like heavy books, medieval times, intrigue, compelling characters and historical accuracy, you'll like both these books.

Thursday 3: Blog, Buy, or Knit

There's a popular meme called Thursday 13 in which every Thursday you make a list of thirteen things. I did this for a few months, but I don't have time for thirteen! So, I whittled it down to Thursday 3.

I wanted to bring to your attention a little girl whom I admire. Katelyn Mulcahy is only ten years old, but unlike other ten year olds, she thinks a great deal about people other than herself.

When she saw a knitting device at a craft store, she got an idea and, with the help of her parents, created Caps for Cuties.

Here's Katelyn's mission statement:

I want to save as many premature babies as I can by knitting caps for them. The babies need heat to grow and the hats help stop any heat that escapes from their heads.

To date, she's donated (Holy Toledo!) 91 caps to the neo-natal ICU at her local hospital. I think that's so amazing.

Here are three ways you can help her out:
1. Donate yarn.
2. Knit caps.
3. Spread the word. List her in your blogroll and/or blog about her.

Check out her website for more information.

Good to the Last Drop

I haven't recommended a product in a long time, but I'm excited about this one. It's the Krups Burr Coffee Grinder. I've had a regular blade coffee grinder that has done its job, but I have since become a professional barista and am a little more demanding of my coffee grinder. I want to be able to control the coarseness of my grind so that if I want coffee for a french press instead of for my drip coffee maker, I can have it.

This model does that easily. It also has this handy feature that allows me to fill the hopper with whole beans, and then just choose the number of cups I want coffee for. It will then measure out the amount automatically. How cool is that?! In addition, it's real slick looking and compact. There was a more expensive model for sale at Starbucks, but it was huge and loud. This Krups is fairly quiet.

So, if you're looking for a coffee grinder, look no further.

Music Mindreader

A friend of mine turned me on to this amazing music website--Pandora.com. A group of musicians got together and classified songs according to a gazillion attributes. The result? Personalized radio discovery.

Go to Pandora.com. Type in a song or artist you like. The website creates a "radio station" of music that is similar to the song or artist you chose. It is SO COOL.