¡Ombligo!

Friday, March 30, 2007

 

Persephone


Talented and humble are two words that come to mind when I think of my friend Sali.

She mentioned that she was a singer when we first became friends...a singer...as if it were nothing big...a singer.

Now, I sing.

I sing in the shower, I sing on the treadmill and I love to sing karaoke.

My sister had a co-worker once who was a karaoke performer and even released an album of herself signing to karaoke tracks. In a delusional world - the two of us (myself and this karaoke performer) could consider ourselves singers.

Seriously, I cringe when I hear my own voice when retrieving the messages on my phone.

Honestly, if I had a voice like Sali's I would brag about it all the time! Humble wouldn't even know my name!

Fast forward to months after become a huge fan of her voice when Sali passingly mentions that she created a fragrance, Pink Manhattan. She even goes as far as mentioning that I may not like it but she would like my feedback on it.

I LOVED IT!

I was not alone as it quickly became a cult favorite and was even picked up by several fragrance sellers.

Fast forward again to last year when Sali sent me a sample of a new fragrance she was tinkering around with. This untitled sample included three notes that I seem to be drawn to in many of my favorite fragrances: blackberry, pomegranate and sandalwood.


Needless to say, I was instantly drawn to this fragrance. The final product was changed only slightly from the prototype I tested.

Sali's new fragrance known as Unreleased Mix aka Persephone is described as a forbidden skin scent: a skinful blend of dark chocolate, blackberry, pomegranate, mysore sandalwood & royal purple flowers.

In the bottle, Persephone smells like those chocolate covered berry creams that you get in a box of chocolates. Very tempting!

I first tested the final product on a very cold night as I was going out to dinner and wanted something that would cling to my skin.

On the skin, the dark chocolate dissipates making room for the blackberries. Not an overly sweet scent but rather one that's subtle and subdued until about an hour and a half after initial application when all of the sudden it becomes this warm, inviting and incredibly sexy fragrance.

This was when the sandalwood kicked in for me and the floral notes rose to the surface. This scent embodied what I liked the most about the prototype and couldn't have been a better fragrance choice for the weather.

The next evening, the weather was much warmer and I had been working out on the treadmill for an hour. I took a shower and applied Persephone, changed into some cozy pajamas and watched a movie.

Minutes later I'm surrounded by this wonderful fragrance that is so different from the night before. The floral bouquet took center stage on this night where it was hidden the night before. The other notes were mere "walk on" characters in this production.

This made me appreciate Persephone even more because it's one of those rare fragrances that has the ability to change. Another example of a fragrance that changes with the weather is Delrae's Bois de Paradis. I much prefer to wear Bois de Paradis in colder weather as it
has that extra sass that's missing with warm weather. The spices and fig seem to pop out more where they are lacking in warmer weather.

With the arrival of spring, the weather out here is very cold early in morning and late at night with warm afternoons. I have been dabbing Persephone all week long and have welcomed every note as the scent changes as the day goes on. It really is a beautiful blend and one that I have proudly added to my collection.

In so many ways, Sali is Persephone. She has the ability to adapt, to change, in the background or to take the lead.

Talented and humble are only two words of the million that can describe who she is, what she does and where she'll go.

Persephone retails for:
$110 USD for 1/4 fl oz. (Full Size)
$66 USD for 1/8 fl oz. (Half Size)

Carded samples $6 each for a half-filled small vial, 2 per customer limit.


Wednesday, March 28, 2007

 

Switchring

Two weeks ago, I made this post about Switchring.

Last week while posting I noticed that Julie from Switchring responded to my post. And yesterday a package arrived from Switchring containing packages of:

Solid Gold &
Gotchies

Wow! I honestly didn't expect any type of response from Switchring at all. Seriously, how many buisinesses would have responded to a complaint from customer who ordered almost six months ago?

Everything arrived perfectly and they were packaged with both bubble wrap and packing peanuts! Nothing smashed this time!

Thank you Julie! Thank you Switchring!

Switchring is now my favorite thing ever from Canada! Well, second only to Degrassi!

I love me some Degrassi!

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

 

Sweet T Original

I was first introduced to Sweet T Original when I was looking for a simple tote bag and ended up purchasing this Rose Tote.

At the time I had no idea that one small search for a simple tote bag would turn me into a tote bag collector!

I then ended up purchasing the following tote bags - all Sweet T Original tote bags!













Hibiscus Tote











Mon Cheri tote










Daisy Tote

These are collaboration tote bags in which Tanja of Sweet T Original collaborated with other artists to create limited edition bags.
The Girl & The Tree tote

Collaboration with Gaia from OtherSuchThings. In fact Gaia still has her collaboration tote up for sale: The Girl & The Tree tote.

Mine is the one in the foreground, it's different from the other one as mine has dots framing the face and the other design has clouds and birds.

Green Tote

Collaboration with Annalaura of Annalaura. The collaboration tote bag was exactly the same but hers was sold. I seriously wonder who has the my tote's twin.

Candy Tote

This was a collaboration with Sara from alphabetbandit. If you click on the above link you can see a picture of the this tote's twin.

Tanja also collaborated with Jeff Claassen. I failed to nab myself one of those bags which really sucks and I could kick myself for not having bought one!

Not only are these bags incredibly well made and all out wonderful but Tanja has the best customer service ever! She even included one of her fabulous makeup bags in one of my orders!

Seriously, the best in the industry and she's been featured in German Glamour and other publications!

Anyhow, I hadn't placed an order in a while and I was surprised to receive a package from her recently enclosed was this tote bag and the following note.:











Seriously, how awesome is that! I tell you, Tanja is one of the most fabulous people in the universe!

I am a customer for life!

 

WW: Reflections

Stepped on the scale yesterday morning and discovered I gained five pounds. Ah, don't worry I didn't have an all out binge festival, my cycle started up - fashionably late.

I've been seriously puffy but am not worried about any serious weight gain as I was very good last week and stuck to my exercises routine and took account for everything I ate. In fact, I turned down an invitation to eat out this past weekend because I knew that I'd be tempted to order something unhealthy.

My hormones have been making me rather emotional lately - a slight touch of melancholy but for the most part I've remained rather positive.

Something I forgot to mention in my last WW update was about my mom's progress.

Now we're at the point where we can reflect on how much progress has been made. For a while I was really scared that she would suffer another heart attack. While I had been researching low-sodium foods and healing post-heart attack I came across a statistic that only 1/3 of female heart attack patients make a full recovery. So, during that time I was slowly preparing myself for the worse case scenario.

To see my mom now, you never would have thought that anything ever happened. In so many ways the heart attack changed everything because now she's committed toward being healthy - both for the present (to continue her healing process) and for the future (because we do have so much control over health.)

She was told that a friend of hers has a father-in-law who also had a quadruple bypass around the same time as her surgery and he's currently in awful shape. That he's severely depressed, still incredibly swollen, refusing to eat. I suspect that this man's doesn't have the will to go on.

And then consider that my mom had both thalassemia and diabetes to contend with and she's slightly older than this man.

She offered to speak to this man as she can relate to what he's going through but he's not taken her up on the offer.

Remaining positive has really played such a huge role in her progress. Ugh, things really sucked for a while and then got even worse than we ever could have imagined but then they got better and then even better than imagined.

For now I'm really grateful that things are going really good - almost impossibly good. And I'll reflect on this when things turn bad. This too shall pass.

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

 

A little birdie told me

These are two of my favorite pieces in my glass jewelry collection:




I bought this ring through The Carrotbox. I don't remember the price I paid but it was actually marked down because it was a prototype piece.

I bought this necklace through Broke Down Barn. I first fell in love with this style of necklace when I saw one that was sold on the Crafters for Critters site. I didn't even have a favorite color choice in mind - I just loved the design.

Discovered this piece on sale one day and fell in love. I adore it! Honestly, most people don't understand why I love this necklace so much but I do!
There is currently a Blue Bird necklace up for sale on the site.

 

Sony PSP

Last year my biggest wins were: Two one-year subscriptions to Netflix, and iPod Shuffle and an iPod Nano.

Check out what I won this year: a Sony PSP!

Um, I won a few other things this year as well but this has been the biggest.

I don't even know how this thing works, nor do I have any games for it but it seems cool.

I was rather disappointed to discover that I can't play Tetris on this thing. I could seriously play Tetris for hours!

Hopefully they sell cool games for this thing. Back in the day my sister had the original Nintendo & Gameboy and I had the Sega game system and the portable Sega. I still have that portable Sega but only have two games for it.

I'm so not a gamer - I could never defeat Koomba.
To this day I am in awe of people who are able to defeat Koomba!

 

WW: Yay, I lost!


I have to admit, after last week's weigh-in I felt rather disappointed. It's been hard getting back into my previous routine and I've been watching what I've been eating and exercising so I was incredibly shocked when I gained last week.

Panic starts to set in and I start thinking "What if this is it, what if I never lose weight beyond this point. What if I keep gaining from here on out!."

Then I run over worst case scenarios and think of all the negative solutions I've used before like crash dieting, bulimia, etc...

Which I know are temporary solutions to a permanent problem so all last week I measured everything. I took account for everything I ate, every workout was logged in.

Sometimes I get so lazy about doing so but I really needed to see results.

It still wasn't enough for me so on Monday morning I was on the treadmill for two hours before weighing in. Scale said I lost 4.2 lbs.

Now, I know that some of that fluctuation is caused by the workout but I did it, I lost some weight this week!

My cycle which for the most part is very regular has been wonky lately and I'm very late this month. Last week I was seriously mad puffy and my hormones have been out of control but still - nothing!?!

Maybe stress? The past two weeks have been rather stressful because of the whole IRS thing.

After loads of phone calls and paperwork, I sent the IRS this bulky envelope defending what was submitted on my 2005 tax return. I just hope for a positive resolution to this entire matter as I was not at fault.

So far things are on the up and up this week and I've been sticking to the same routine.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

 

Switchring



Originally uploaded by Atreau.


Did anyone notice yesterday's DailyCandy?

I love me some Switchrings but have to mention that the customer service there is rather sub par.

Back in October I was itching for some new designs to glam up my digits and placed an order for two packages of popularity and one package of USA (which is no longer on the site - but totally reminded me of wonder woman so I had to have it.)

Anyhow, after my order was placed, Switchring contacted me to say there would be a delay in my order as they were having packaging problems and that they'd ship in out in about a week and include an extra for my trouble.

No biggie for me, being rather patient. So I wait, one week - then two. Nothing!

Contact them again and they told me that the delay was longer than expected but they have already been sent out to me.

Meanwhile I've received other packages from Canada (where Switchrings are from) and England. Still no switchrings!

Then, exactly one month after I had placed my original order a package by the postal fairy arrives with a sticker labeled Switchring.

Think I'm done?

Think again!

Open up the package and *sigh* notice that several of the outer bands of my switchring order and smashed and broken - unusable and unwearable!

*sobs* Contact switchring again and this time they sent a speedy replacement package with.....

wait for it....

open it up and *sigh part deux* again, smashed up outer bands!

At that point I didn't have the heart or patience to contact them again because it would totally seem like I one of those hard to please customers - which I'm totally not - but I could imagine them seeing me as one.

Even after all that heartache, I'm totally wanting to buy more! After all they have new collections like Solid Gold! The tiara in that collection looks very WW! I also love the Gotchies collection. And I need to have me some Bling!

 

WW: My body is rejecting my weight loss!



Ugh, stupid blogger changed up on me and now I'm totally confused!

Anyhow, I meant to update this earlier but was a bad cold gave me a serious smack down. Now that I'm feeling better it's back to making myself a priority.

I had one full week of exercise - then slammed down by the cold for two and then one more week of daily exercise. I've not lost any weight and I showed a gain of three pounds this week which upset me at first but my cycle is due - so that could explain the weight gain. That or else my body is rejecting weight loss!

I have to keep on keeping on, hopefully I'll see some results this week!

SI: This is my most vulnerable week as it's right before my cycle. I've been trying to ward of the one big trigger that's been on my mind lately. Last week, the IRS sent me a letter saying I owed over $9000 for unpaid taxes based on my 2005 tax return.

This entire mess is based on the van I won back in 2005. As it's reported as additional income, you're supposed to pay taxes on that additional income. Well, I paid the taxes on the van (actually, my parents paid the taxes on the van because I gave it to my mom.)

But, what happened was that both the advertising agency (who ran the promotion) and the car makers Daimler Chrysler (who awarded the prize) both submitted the same information to the IRS - making it seem as though I received double the additional income (in the form of two vans). So, of course the IRS wants me to pay taxes on this phantom additional income as only one van was awarded and accepted.

I had to unearth all the paperwork I had from two years ago and contact both the ad agency and DaimlerCrysler. Both which blame each other for this fiasco.

I need to put together a response to IRS to explain that a mistake has been made and only one party should have submitted the tax information of additional income in my name. Ugh, by the end of this week - it should all be cleared on my end and hopefully I'll never have to deal with the IRS ever again (at least not in owing crazy amounts with penalties, late fees and crazy taxes that should never have been submitted in my name!)

Mom: Thank you all for your good thoughts and love during this entire obstacle with my mom. She's doing really great! She's back to work full time now and has been exercising 20 minutes a day on treadmill. There have been moments where she wants to venture off her low sodium diet but knows the consequences in doing so.

Her doctors visits have all been really positive and she's healing quite well. I never thought that she would recover so well, but she has and for that we are grateful.

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