Chocolate for the Whole Body

Cooking Light magazine is one of the only magazines I still get. It's also one that I read shortly after it comes and I can usually find something in it each month to add to the stash of recipes that I'll never make or make once and then wonder what I was thinking when I thought this sounded good.

Every month, they spotlight some fruit or vegetable or grain or other plant material that is "all the rage" in cosmetics or other preparations designed to "take years off our frames". My opinion on that is a blog post in and of itself. In February, they, of course, featured chocolate. One of the products they featured is at the upper right, Premium Dark Chocolate body scrub by a company named Shea Terra. The blurb in Cooking Light described the body scrub as smelling like "ultra-rich brownies". Well, that alone sold me on at least trying it. Plus, if you check out their web site, they also sell organic chocolate and the white chocolate with strawberries bar caught my eye. Here is the contents of the box.

I've used the body scrub twice now and would recommend this. When you open the jar, which took one of the rubber discs Meredith sent me last year, man was it on tight, this is what you see.

Too bad I can't do a scratch and sniff because this smells exactly as advertised, ultra-rich brownie batter. The ingredient list reads like something you'd throw together in the kitchen; organic sugar, chocolate liqueur, shea butter and pumice. It is really dense and the only quarrel I have with the product is that it's hard to get a handful out of the jar and to get it working. Part of the top had dried a bit when I opened the jar this past weekend, but I added about a teaspoon of water and that got the consistency back to spreading quality.

I used this on my legs and elbows. The aroma filled the bathroom with chocolate. You can do a lot worse if you love chocolate. It takes a bit to rub on and I had chunks of the amount I scooped out on the tub floor. But once you get going with it, it spreads very evenly and rinses off cleanly. My dry skin instantly felt softer and that softness lingers for a couple of days. It's wonderful to use before shaving but it's not for use on the face. They have other products for that area.

This jar is going to last a long time. You don't need much. It was reminiscent of the hand made coffee grounds exfoliant Melody gave me several years ago. Hers was a bit messier than this but made with the same sense of responsibility towards the earth.

And you're wondering about the candy bar. Here is the shocker, it was so rich, I couldn't eat the whole bar in one sitting. I know. I know. You have just fainted. It was wonderful. Organic chocolate marketed by corporations and, let's face it, no matter how Shea Terra bills itself, it's still a corporation, can be somewhat tainted in the drive to expand market share. Corners get cut and, really, I have only what I can scrounge about the Internet to go on. Shea Terra seems to do exactly what it says, provide quality products using sustainable resources and give people the chance to better themselves through that sustainability. I'm paying for an easing of my conscience, but, I feel I've received an exceptional value for the price.

I have not tried the Argan and Ghassol bar sample they sent. This is a product for use on skin and hair in the bath. I also have not tried the African Blue Calming oil, again for the bath. I don't really take baths so it probably won't get used. If one of my readers would like to try it, let me know. I'm happy to send it to you.

If you're looking for something exotic as a gift, go here. Although I've only tried the body scrub and a chocolate bar, I feel confident the other products offered will be just as good.

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold tea

Deb

Maybe Zombies?

It was probably silly of me to think the squirrels would leave the pumpkins alone. It's one thing for them to be in a pile with hundreds of other pumpkins and lots of people.

It's quite another thing for them to be alone on my front steps.

Hence, I shouldn't have been that surprised when they chewed into one and then the other. Over the weekend, I heard a noise and when I looked outside, there was one of the fattest red squirrels I have ever seen with his head in the north side pumpkin.

He filled the entire hole they had chewed. They love pumpkin seeds and I don't really blame them but the squirrel doing the eating looked like he needed Weight Watchers. Opportunistic buggers.

I posted this photo to Facebook and several people suggested it looked like the spider had dug the hole. "You know, zombie spiders bursting out of pumpkins..." or as Melody called it, "pumpkin zombie apocalypse".

At first, I was going to get new pumpkins, but, the more I think about it, the more I could use these as they are. I have to sweep the detritus off the steps which probably means volunteer pumpkins in the front come spring. Then, I could spray paint 4 more of the balls black, cut short legs and they could be hatchlings coming out of the pumpkins. We got 2 inches of rain over the weekend and other than the webbing looking a bit beaten down, the spiders survived the deluge just fine. I was a touch upset by the chewing but, now that I step back to think about this, it could be really funny.

So, the next step, spray paint more balls and make more spiders!

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Unbelievable

The phone bills provide me with monthly stress. They come due at a time of the month when what's available won't always cover what's being charged.

I get two bills. AT&T provides my Internet and local phone service. I have a land line, and understand, it's what I want, and DSL. If I were to go to cell service only, I would probably have more choices in phone service, but AT&T seems to provide the only land line service available. There was a time when others tried to compete, but they withdrew. Plus, I don't want three separate bills nor do I want "bundled" service that includes cable TV which I will not watch. It's not that I boycott TV, as appealing as that is sometimes. I just don't watch TV so why pay for a service I don't use?

Anyway, this is my long-distance bill for December. Now, the company that provides my long-distance is very inexpensive and provides very good service. When I call them, I get a live person. I've had to call them, in the, probably 10+ years I've had them, exactly 3 times. The company is Working Assets. My friend, Melody Eastman, suggested I look into them. I have been so very pleased with them over the years.

I have no idea how the bill came to be a whole 67 cents. I know I was late with November's bill, thanks to the alternator mess so I must have overpaid. While that's probably not a good payment strategy when one is trying to reign in expenditures, this month, it worked in my favor.

What's also unbelievable is that I will pay this online, quickly and easily. Carole has probably fainted. "My mom is living in the 21st Century?"

Unbelievable.

Beverage:  Scottish Blend tea

Deb

May be the TMI post.

Doesn't look very interesting or appetizing, does it? It's a skin scrub I received from my friend, Melody. She made it. It's used coffee grounds and baby oil and probably other stuff that I've forgotten. She listed the ingredients the year she gave several of us this for Christmas. She said it was the most delicious exfoliant she'd ever used, plus, it was all natural.

I've had this for a couple years. I put it under the bathroom sink, intending to use it once I had finished with the exfoliant currently in the tub.

Well, as things usually go, it got shoved behind things under the sink. In the summer, I did a clean out of everything in the bathroom and tossed a bunch of things that were way beyond expiration dates, the ear cleaning solution for Penney who went over the Rainbow Bridge in 2007, is a for instance. I found this and moved it to the front of the cupboard intending to give it a try.

It's time to perform the female ritual of leg shaving. I remember reading that although guys shave more often unless they are bearded, women shave more surface area. I find it helps to rub the gams with exfoliant before taking a razor to the skin. There is less chance I am going to nick or cut myself. I usually use this, but at $20, it seems kind of extravagant, particularly when I'm trying to save money any way I can.

I had a small container of lavender scented exfoliant that I used up and then I dug into the coffee grounds. It was a bit solidified, after being under the sink for a couple years. I added a bit of water to it to make the consistency easier for spreading.

Whew! It did smell like coffee. And was it gritty! It felt almost like rubbing sand on my skin. But the result was absolutely wonderful, soft, smooth skin.

This leads to the fact that it's Clinique Bonus Time, the time when I can get a bunch of sampler-size freebies by buying Clinique skin care or make-up items. I was looking through my stash and I actually don't need anything this go round of Bonus Time. Plus, this stuff is expensive. I used up the facial moisturizer they make that I like, but I bought some at Target that is proving to be just as nice for, well, this means math so give me a second.

9/47 = n/100, I think is the formula.

Doing the math says that the new stuff is 19% of the price of the old. I can live with that. In fact, I can live with all my skin care being 19% of the price of what I currently use. That extra change in my pocket means I am closer to being back on my feet. That those feet would be nicely exfoliated is an extra bonus.

Beverage: Blackberry Sage Tea

Deb