Product Review: Personal Microderm

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 29, 2010 . 4:02PM

Have I mentioned lately how much my sponsor, SkincareRx.com, rocks? They send me cool stuff to mess around with and then I get to tell you what I think about it. Otherwise, let’s face it, my need for new gadgets would go unfulfilled. They sent me, a Personal Microderm so I could let you know if these things really work or not. I had to promise that I would be truthful and not just say “yes, I like this” which actually makes me like them all the more because I’m a girl who is all about the honesty and it would have made me really uncomfortable to accept an item to review if I couldn’t be honest about it.

I’ve mentioned before that freebies are the way to my heart. However, when I received the box with my Personal Microderm in it, I was very concerned. See, in some ways, I’m like a man. The first thing I saw was a DVD that said I must watch the instructional video before using my Personal Microderm.

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Luckily for them, it was only 6 1/2 minutes long or I may have had to send it back. I really am just that impatient. The kicker that got me to watch is that this is a complex tool that looks like a face dremmel and it’s going to be rubbing and sucking my face. I should probably learn how to use it.

Fine. I decided to watch the video. It wasn’t bad. The perky show-offs actually worked for me and it’s pretty easy to learn how to use the Personal Microderm. I have really sensitive skin, so I use the little blue discs on my face and the big ones on the other skin on my body. I don’t let it suck for long periods of time and keep the skin taunt or my face will blister and I’ll look like The Thing from The Fantastic Four. Got it.

I opened the rest of the items and got to work. I plugged in the Personal Microderm and got it set up. It was only with slight trepidation that I set it to whirring and stuck it on my skin and…

Oh! WOAH! OH MY JELLY BEANS! WHAT THE SNICKERS BAR IS GOING ON HERE?

There was no pain but it felt like someone was trying to give me a hickey on my face. OOOOOH, ok. Too much time spent on one area. Move on more quickly. I did it on my entire face and the time spent? Less than 4 minutes.

My face glowed for a good 6 days after using the Personal Microderm. People noticed it and I didn’t need my makeup. I consider this a very, very good thing. It evened out the redness in my face. And the best part is that I only have to replace the discs every 2-3 months. For $15, this is a great deal after the initial investment. My skin is beyond super sensitive and I’ve seen no ill effects from using Personal Microderm, though everyone’s skin is different.

Thank you Skincarerx.com for an impressive showing and the opportunity to review such an awesome product!

Road Rage and the Infinite Sadness

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 27, 2010 . 8:44PM

When you have a 9-year old in the car, it can sometimes be a necessary thing to be creative with what is clearly a mild case of road rage.

Yes, it’s mild. I didn’t run into someone’s car because he had an Obama sticker on it, though the thought has occurred to me as recently as earlier today. See, we were cruising along at 40mph in a 40mph zone, which is a little slow for me, but it’s the law and I always abide by the law. Ahead of me by about a quarter of mile, I see a stop light and a car that is just sitting there with a green light. Clearly, Chumbass (as her new nautical sounding name was for the ride) was not paying attention to the light and as we began to get closer, I began to panic. Chumbass finally paid attention to the light and inched her way through the green at a solid 10mph.

Did I mention that Chumbass had a huge dent in her left rear backside? Right next to her Obama ’08 sticker. Yep, this was not her first go round on the magic green light debacle.

What happens in this situation?

I say these words slowly, on the off chance that Chumbass has taken her eyes off the cellphone, donut, brisket or pen she has dropped: “Driiiiiiiiivvvvvveeeee Yooooouuuuuuuurrrrrr Caaaaaaarrrrrr Chhhhhuuuuummmmmbbbbbbaaaaasssss.” My goal in this is that she might read my lips and see that I was really concerned that she might not realize that hey, she’s driving a car, and remember to drive her vehicle.

In fact, my biggest comment in the car is “Drive your car” spoken slowly so the the other driver, who clearly cannot discern what I am saying, can understand me when spoken to slowly. From another car. Which may be behind them. Or far enough away that they can’t see.

However, like Obama, I have hope. For all the Chumbasses in the world.

Book Review “The Embers: A Novel” by Hyatt Bass

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 24, 2010 . 1:17AM

If a book has ever surprised me with quiet complexity of character and familiarity with the inner workings of a family, it would be The Embers: A Novel by Hyatt Bass. The story of a nuclear family that seems solid on the outside but rots internally from its very core is one that many will be familiar with either in their own experience or their knowledge of the experiences of other. Characters are dynamic in that their initial perfection is marred with their incredible and humanistic flaws. As the book flashes back throughout the novel to the life-changing scene for the family, you can sense that no one in the family is blameless for the problems within the family and that the only consolation for them is that they can blame one another for their faults.

Bass ends the novel on a promising note, however, and the book was an excellent, clean read that had me savoring every chapter. It was not a book that I wanted to rush through, nor did I have to force myself to read it. I could pick it up at my leisure and continue on and enjoy the book in increments. This is rare in a novel. Well-written and thought-provoking.

*Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in order to review it. Thanks for allowing me to read this book and share my thoughts on it with others!

Instant Smile: Just add water

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 22, 2010 . 10:38PM

Growing up in the mid-80′s, the slip-n-slide was the hot new thing. It really wasn’t much of anything, to be quite honest. It was a small piece of plastic that you put in between your sprinklers. You would run, slide about 4 feet and roll off into the grass while accruing scrapes, cuts, grass burn and the silliest faces and giggles you’d ever seen from your friends. Then you’d jump up and do it again because it. was. awesome.

I wanted one of those little yellow pieces of plastic more than anything.

Luckily, I lived just down the road from my cousins and their parents were much crazier than mine. Or, it’s quite possible they knew that the secret to peace of mind over that particular summer lay in an enlarged water bill and a little piece of yellow plastic. Either way, my cousins got the slip-n-slide and I got to walk the quarter of a mile to their place every day to bust my butt on the plastic and the hard dirt underneath.

Run Run Run Run Sliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide YES I’M FLYING NO NO NO I’m rollling! OUCH!

And back in line I’d go. And don’t think it was a short line. I wasn’t the only kid who knew about my cousin’s slip-n-slide. We lived in the country and the neighbor kids heard. So did their parents, and their parents weren’t going to pony up for a slip-n-slide or a water bill either. We’d dutifully get in line about ten kids back until we bled enough that it just stung too much to go again that day.

Nowadays, oh how old I feel saying nowadays, nowadays, the slip-n-slide has become so fancy! You can slide into a pool! The piece of plastic is HUGE and there are safeguards for those wimpy kids who care about bleeding. On the 4th of July, I found out exactly how intricate the whole slip-n-slide industry had become.

In Nashville on the 4th, our downtown area is amazing. Truly an amazing sight to behold is the area by the river that just lights up with booths of any kind of food you’d like, booths where you can buy the coolest hats on earth and a whole street dedicated to the littlest cowboys and cowgirls in the city.

As jets flew over the city celebrating our Independence, we walked around with bottled water and looked to see what was happening in our fair land. My little sister marveled at the cute boys. My mom wanted to go see what was going on down by the river. And me? I kept getting pulled towards these huge inflatable bouncy things, as all moms do.

After getting a stamp on his hand that made all the rides FREE, AJ was off. One of the first few rides to catch his eye was a large slip-n-slide. When I say slip-n-slide, I don’t mean one close to the ground. This inflatable wonder was about 4 feet off the ground and looked like a long island. Kids would run and jump UP onto it where sprinklers would shoot down onto them for about 20 feet. The line was short, but the joy was long.

I stood by the end and watched as child after child, including my own, jumped onto it and laughed themselves silly. It’s not been a great summer by any standards, but I couldn’t stop laughing along with them. The thing about joy is that it is utterly contagious. Some would jump up there, realize “OH NO THERE IS WATER UP HERE” and try to get down until mom or dad would take their hand and then lead them through the slide. After which, they would cry to go back on. There was a devilish little thing, who couldn’t have been more than three, who would go through the whole thing, slam his body down to the concrete after he got done, like the hulk, and give devil hands. I’m not kidding. Just like the orange ones to the right. He was totally “rock and roll” about the slide. And AJ? AJ would run, jump, slide, fall on his bottom, laugh and do it over and over again. He probably did it 30 times. I laughed just as hard as he did every time.

Yes, children are amazing and sometimes the smallest things in life are a recipe for joy. Just add water.

Giveaway #3: Coveryourhair.com goodies

by Jillian @ http://blueshelled.com . July 22, 2010 . 9:51PM

Congratulations to Ellie W. who has won the haircare from Coveryourhair.com!Please send me an address via email and I’ll get your information over to the fine folks over there. If you didn’t win, don’t dismay, another giveaway begins in a couple of days! Check back then for another sweet summer giveaway from Blueshelled.com!

Edit: My apologies to the winners the last 2 weeks. I haven’t mailed out the prizes due to lack of mailing boxes/envelopes. Those will go out on Monday. Please don’t hate me because I procrastinated.