Pretty Baby a la EsteeLauder.com
To abate any thoughts that I may have contracted myself into motherhood over the weekend, I’m posting something NOT about the baby that I hope will keep you busy while I spend the next few hours sputtering around like a deflating ballon because it’s my last Monday at work until the spring and I still haven’t unpacked moving boxes from September! Yipes!
***
A few weeks ago I got an email from Jenny at BlogHer that included the sentence, “Now, let’s get out there and get pretty!” Boy, was that ever the right thing to say to me! I’m feeling spectacularly unpretty rather often these days (thirty extra pounds and rampant flatulence will do that to a girl), so of course I jumped on the offer to do a site review for the new esteelauder.com in exchange for $100 to spend on some frou-frou girly makeupy stuff. Click here for the scoop.
Second Chances
Not too long ago, I wrote about some of the tribulations, trials, and happy accidents (some environmental and contextual and some very much self-inflicted) that brought and then finally allowed Simon and I to be together. I’m posting that entry again as part of BlogHer‘s promotion, with Warner Brothers, of the new Diane Lane/Richard Gere movie, Nights in Rodanthe, which I will no doubt be seeing with my beau at some point, since Simon’s first true love just so happens to be Diane Lane, albeit circa 1979, when she played a precocious thirteen-year-old in the sweet film A Little Romance. I forgive him for betraying our relationship thusly oh so many years ago but only because the film was released on April 27 of that year and I wasn’t born until four days later. (Go rent this movie. It’s so good it overshadows even my powerful aversion to all things Laurence Olivier. Look, I know thespianism meant something different during your heyday, Sir, but that’s NOT how Shakespeare would have wanted it, trust me.)
You can learn more about BlogHer’s involvement with Nights in Rodanthe here, and for a second chance to read about my own second chance, click here.
Life on Linden Street
A few weeks ago I was asked if I’d review some products from JCPenney‘s new home collection called Linden Street, which, hi, yeah, of course I will accept an offer to bring more pretty things into my living space (especially if JCP and BlogHer give me a $500 gift card with which to do it!), for I am nesting like a whole host of sparrows here as I slide into the end of pregnancy week twenty (halfway there! halfway there!).
When I returned to my office after a few days off work for what is known to my coworkers as my “*mumble mumble* writing conference,” I found my desk a fortress of large cardboard boxes containing some of the stuff I’d ordered online for review just a week prior. Now, before I actually talk about the products, let me say up front that if you’re having a housewares emergency and need a decorative mirror or a retro clock or a set of lamby-soft towels in a variety of neutral colors NOW NOW NOW, JCPenney online is a good way to go because they ship FAST. (I ordered on a Sunday and had my merch by Thursday!) I should also say that what follows is a compensated but honest review, which includes the part about no animals having been permanently damaged in the researching of this article. (They liked it, I swear!)
And now, follow the link for my first official product review–with pictures! pictures of cats! pictures of cats in no actual physical danger!
(There was some drama involved in getting an ad-free page to work with my five-year-old MT template (I KNOW), so if you want to comment, you have to do so from the link below as there is no comments link on the page you are about to click to.) Okay, scratch that. The brilliant Liz Henry has solved my template issues (yet again), so you can comment here or on the linked page, if you are so inclined.)
