Purple is my favorite color! (Along with Pink, Aqua & Black.)

My glasses are purplish:

My customized Converse have purple in them:


I have a lot of purple clothing:


Purple Jewelry, almost all of it came from the Philippines.


I wore purple on my wedding day. (F.B.'s barong was light purple.)


I had a silky soft purple pashmina in case it got chilly in the evening on our wedding day:


My wonderful in-laws & sister in law who put our wedding together included purple in our wedding decor- even our wedding invitations had purple on them.

  
1. Suave: Rosemary & Mint Shampoo

I was using another mint shampoo that cost $6 before. This is more affordable and I love the scent. It also has lavender and lemongrass in it.












2. Dial: Cranberry Body Wash

This is something new I decided to try after seeing it at Walmart. Love it! The scent is sweet but there's also something citrusy about it. It also comes in bar form.










3. Baking Soda

Yep! Good old fashioned, baking soda! I've been using it on my toothbrush before I use regular toothpaste. And I've started using it to exfoliate my face 2x's a week. If you click the link it also gives you some other beauty tips for baking soda!














I've heard this powder has been around for many many years. I just started using it last year to set my foundation. It's nice & light and has a slight perfume scent to it. The container is huge so it lasts a long long time!










5. Yardley English Lavender Soap

I'm lucky enough our local Dollar Tree carries this. I love the strong scent of lavender. I also like L'Occitane's lavender soap, but this is more affordable!













6. Tom's of Maine Natural Lavender Deodorant 

I haven't really found a good deodorant that works like my Secret vanilla does. Unfortunately I've grown tired of that scent and I've gone through quite a few new ones lately that just didn't do it. I'm loving Tom's of Maine though. It actually lasts through the day and I absolutely love the scent of lavender!










7. Carmex Lip Balm

Can't go wrong with Carmex! I buy the one in the little jar, only because I've had 2 tubes destroyed by little rattie teeth! I definitely love using this in the winter for chapped lips.


(Nope, not getting paid to recommend these products! I just wanted to share them, because I love them!)

Other Articles:

Bath & Beauty Products 1

Bath & Beauty Products 2

L'Occitane Verbena Products

More L'Occitane Products

Headed to Pennypack Park today and ended up at Peddler's Village later in the day. Got some nice shots with my new camera! (Click for bigger version of the photos.)

Hazelnut

Rosie

Lily

Pepper

There are better quality versions of some of these photos in my Flickr album here.

And all of today's pictures in my Photobucket album.

I took a bunch of random books out from the library this time. There are quite a few new ones I want to read but the wait is just too long. Maybe in a few months I'll be able to take them out when they aren't so popular.

What I want to read:

1. Room : a novel- Emma Donoghue

2. Fly away home- Jennier Weiner

3. The red queen- Philippa Gregory

4. Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine- Alison Weir

5. The world is bigger now : an American journalist's rescue from captivity in North Korea- Euna Lee

Here are the random books I picked out to read for the time being. I did online key word searches in our library and found some interesting reads. The Elizabeth Smart one I picked because they are about to begin the trial and the story interested me.

1. Bringing Elizabeth home : a journey of faith and hope- Ed Smart (Pretty good.)

2. In a gilded cage- Rhys Bowen (I liked this- a good mystery book!)

3. Annexed- Sharon Dogar (It was okay- not very descriptive.)

4. Wicked girls : a novel of the Salem witch trials- Stephanie Hemphill (The whole book is written in verse with not enough details. Hard to read.)

5. Revolution- Jennifer Donnelly (Didn't love it, but wasn't bad either.)

6. The world I live in- Helen Keller (Very interesting read.)

I discovered a mammary tumor on Pepper yesterday. Those suckers just pop up overnight it seems, because almost every day I am checking the girls for lumps. I'm not having it removed. Pepper has too many other health issues. She's always been smaller and weaker than her sister Poppy. Pepper is around 10 months old but she's as small as a 3 month old rat.

The pet store I got her from (Same place I got Basil & Sage from.) had her and Poppy in cedar chips, which are toxic to rats. It can cause long term respiratory issues, which Pepper has. They were selling the rats as feeders. She's always had breathing issues, wheezy lungs. She had a few episodes back in September where she would be struggling to breath and getting cold all over. She's been on antibiotics and now she's also on Prednisolone. It is an anti-inflammatory so it helps with her lungs. We call her my "asthma" rat. Hopefully the prednisolone will also slow the growth of her tumor as well.


My Basil boy!  He is getting older. I'm not sure of Basil's age. I would say he is some where past a year already. He's starting to show signs of Degenerative Osteoarthritis. His back legs are weaker and sometimes stiff when he walks. He doesn't lift his tail when he walks anymore either, he drags it. He's having trouble climbing, some times he will slip a bit because of his back legs. Poor guy. Hopefully he doesn't get paralysis. He doesn't seem to be in any pain right now. If he shows signs I'll have to take him to the vet so he can be prescribed a pain killer. I've also started treating him with the prednisolone since it's a corticosteroid and can help with inflammation.

Everyone else *crosses fingers* is healthy and doing well. I'm hopefully going to take Pepper and a few others to the park with me tomorrow.

My prizes from NYC Girl at Heart & Kodak arrived today! Yay!

Basil my old guy was my first subject after I figured out how to set the Macro setting and how to focus the camera before taking a shot!


The digital picture frame is pretty neat. You can even select to view photos from your friends Facebook albums or your own! It has wi-fi but you can also upload photos from your computer to the frame through the Kodak Pulse website. The first picture I added was my Manila Bay sunset photo!


Thank you so much Patty & Kodak! I love it! I can't wait to head to the park later this week and get some pretty fall shots with my new camera!

I can't believe it's already November. I'm excited for Thanksgiving this year! Why? Well, I've spent the last 2 years in the Philippines during Thanksgiving. While it was wonderful being with my husband, I have also missed being at home for Thanksgiving with my family.

F.B. and I always set that day aside to go out and have dinner, since Thanksgiving is an American holiday and not celebrated in the Philippines. We would pick up Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider, which we always have at every holiday meal with my family (Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years). I was so happy they sell it in the Philippines!

Thanksgiving 2008 in the Philippines


Thanksgiving 2009 in the Philippines

Hopefully next year F.B. will be here in the USA to celebrate his first Thanksgiving. I'm excited to share that with him and have him some taste pumpkin pie, hehehe!