The List: Shout Out Your Dreams!

The List: Shout Out Your Dreams is part autobiography, part self-help book. Written by Yuval Abramovitz, the book tells the story of how he used list-writing to help him achieve his goals in life. As a teenager, Abramovitz found himself paralyzed. He decided that he did not want to live his life in a wheelchair so he began making lists of things he wanted to do. This gave him the will to get healed. Now he passes on his secrets to his readers.

I can't say that I completely understand this book. I get that we should all have goals and acknowledge these goals but I don't understand how writing them down will make them happen. Granted, many of the stories in the book are about people willing to drop their entire lives in order to focus on making things happen. (While I have things I would love to do, I am not willing to quit my job in order to pursue things that may not actually feed my family.) Perhaps the book should be more about taking risks than making lists. 

On the plus side, the book is very well written. If you are looking for a little inspiration in your life, this just may help you. Just don't expect any secrets on how to become rich and famous overnight to jump out. This is more about risk everything and be handsomely rewarded.

I received a copy of this book for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

Spencer James "Don't Shake A Baby"

Spencer James was the winner of the 2014 World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas and the Best of the Fest at the 2014 Burbank Comedy Festival. With these sorts of accolades, he has to be pretty darn funny, right? I recently got the opportunity to check out his recent comedy CD, "Don't Shake A Baby."

Growing up, I loved comedy albums. (Of course, I'm so old that these were actual records and not digital downloads.) As I got older, however, comedy albums got pushed aside for bubblegum pop. But I never lost my love of comedy. 

"Don't Shake A Baby" is a decent comedy album. There are some very funny jokes in there. My one complaint is that there are a few times when James makes visual references that we, obviously cannot see. I understand that this is basically just a recording of one of his live shows so there will always be a few things that the audio-only audience won't get. These moments should be kept to a minimum though. Otherwise, this is a very solid comedy album. It makes me want to see James perform live, which is what a good comedy album should do. It should make you want to run out and see the live show. I look forward to seeing James' comedy career explode into the mainstream.

I received a copy of this album for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

Finding The Grain

Finding The Grain by Shulamit Hartal is a bit of a strange story. It is the story of Chani Tavin and how she lived her life despite the emotional abuse she received in her childhood from her mother. However, the entire story is told via journals that she kept shortly before she died. 

Chani is the middle of three daughters. Her older sister, Aliza, and herself were born during their mother's first marriage. Their youngest sister, Chava, was born during their mother's second marriage. All three of them experienced varying types of abuse from their mother. From threats of abandonment to overfeeding to controlling what they wore, the girls lived through their own nightmares. 

As an elderly woman, Chani tripped over some psychology books during a trip to the local recycyling center. She decides to take them home. Over the next few months, with the help of her psychologist friend, Iris, she digs through her past trauma to find the real Chani inside. 

In the beginning, I had a difficult time with the book. It seems like every Jewish mother and father are referred to as "Ima" and "Aba." I was easily confused about who they were talking about, especially since the story is told via journals read by Chani's granddaughter. Ima referred to Chani's own mother, as well as Chani herself when her children were talking about her in the present time. After a few chapters, I managed to get everything sorted out.

Once I figured out all of the relationships, I found myself drawn into the story. Would Chani abuse her children the way her mother abused her? Would she always suppress every emotion so she never had any feelings ever? Would her family find out about her inner turmoil? 

It is definitely a well-told story. If you can get past all of the random words in foreign languages (there's some Hebrew, some German, some Polish...), I think you will enjoy Chani's tale. 

I received a copy of this book for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

Terry Treetop and the Lost Egg

Terry Treetop and The Lost Egg is an environmental education book aimed at preschoolers or beginner readers. The book tells the story of Terry Treetop, a boy who loves to climb trees. One day, Terry finds an egg. However, he does not know whose egg it is. He visits a variety of animals in order to return the egg to its mother. 

It has been a rather long time since I have read a young children's book. But children don't change all that much through the ages. They want a fun book that will keep them entertained and is easy enough that they can start to read the words along with you. The Lost Egg mostly fulfills those requirements. There are a few words that are a little out of place in a beginning reader book, like "vowed" or " patiently." I'm not sure that young children will understand the meaning of these words, much less figure out how to read them. Also, the book is laid out in a weird rhyming scheme. It seems like phrases are written just to force the rhyme instead of getting an idea across to the reader. 

The Lost Egg isn't a terrible book, by far. I'm just not sure how interested children will find it. Perhaps if there were fewer animals with a  little more interaction with each or if the author dropped the rhyming scheme in order to pass on more information, the book might be a little more captivating. As it is, I don't think a child would read the book more than once or twice before putting it away for good. 

I received a copy of this book for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

Out of the Shoebox

I recently got the chance to review Out of the Shoebox by Yaron Reshef. This is the story of a son tasked with finding long lost information about family members who have been long gone themselves. What will he find out about family members he barely knew?

One day, Reshef's sister receives a phone call about a mysterious parcel of land that their father may have once owned. Unfortunately, their father passed away many years earlier. As a result, she passed the call onto her brother. Shoebox tells Reshef's tale of trying to find the pertinent information required to claim the land parcel and the difficulties he comes across when so many of the people involved are deceased.

I found it very difficult to keep myself interested in the story. Reshef's story-telling style drags on with inner thoughts and too many details. Instead of getting to the point, he gives minute details that are completely unnecessary to the story. And just when you are getting into the mystery of the land parcel, he switches over to find information about family members lost in the Holocaust. I really wanted to like the book but I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I only got about halfway through before I gave up. Maybe one day I will go back to find out what happened with the long lost lot. 

I received a copy of this book for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

 

Foxbrim's Natural Refresh Toner

December is always a very difficult month for me. This is the busiest time of year at my "real" job and it drains all of the creativity out of me. I will continue to write blog posts and post YouTube videos but they might not be as frequent as they are the rest of the year. Please bear with me while I slog through the month.

On the plus side, I do have a review for you! I tested Foxbrim's Natural Refresh Toner. I haven't used toner in a really long time. Mostly because it seems to burn my face off every time I use it. (Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.) A lot of toners have an alcohol base and it burns a bit when it touches my skin. Since there is no alcohol in Foxbrim's toner, there was no burning sensation. It actually felt nice and calming instead. 

As I've said before, I occasionally suffer from facial redness in the cheek area. Thanks to the witch hazel in the toner, the redness has started to fade. It's also helped with the wintry dryness in my T-Zone area. I don't know that the toner will completely solve both of these issues but it's nice to know that I can turn to it if issues arise.

This was probably one of the best toners that I have ever used. I love that it is all natural ingredients and that it helps calm all of my facial skin issues. I'm looking forward to see what will happen in the long term with this. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

One Direction Makeup Palette

In addition to the One Direction Makeup Kits, the boys have also come out with a set of makeup palettes. Each of the five tins contains 6 eye shadows, 4 lip glosses, 2 nail polishes, an eye pencil, and a lip top coat. You can find these tins at KMart, Sears USA, Target, and Walmart Canada. 

While there are five different tins, each of them has the same exact makeup on the inside. I received two "Louis" palettes and one "Liam." It was a little disappointing to find out that the makeup for both sets were exactly the same. Unless you are a major 1D fan, there is no incentive to buy every set. 

The six eye shadows are: "I Would," "Nobody Compares," "Summer Love," "Tell Me A Lie," "Everything About You," and "Same Mistakes." Starting at the top, "I Would" is listed as a smoky brown shimmer shadow. However, when swatched, it looks more like a dark grey than a brown. There is some shimmer there, making this an ideal color for a smoky eye. "Nothing Compares" is a metallic silver color. There is a little bit of shimmer to it, though I'm not sure how many people really wear silver eye shadow. "Summer Love" is listed as a smoky purple haze color. This particular shadow isn't very pigmented, leaving it looking more like a bruise than an eyeshadow. "Tell Me A Lie" is supposed to be a metallic nude pink color. I guess that is one way to describe it. When I swatched it, it was very difficult to see any color. There was definitely some shimmer but not much else. "Everything About You" is a smoky black shimmer shade. Unfortunately, it doesn't look all that different from "I Would." Finally, "Same Mistakes" is a mint green shimmer shadow. This is my favorite of the six. The color is nice and light with just the right about of shimmer to it. The rest of the colors are really dark. When I swatched them all together, it looked like I was in a fight and bruised the back of my hand. Considering the age demographic of One Direction fans, these colors are way too dark for them. They should have stayed with lighter colors in order to brighten up young girls' faces. 

Onto the lip gloss! The four shades are titled "Loved You First," "One Thing," "Irresistable," and "Heart Attack." (Yes, they misspelled 'irresistible.') "Loved You First" is a bright pink color, even though they call it bubblegum pink. The misspelled "Irresistable" is still pink but not as bright as the previous version.  "One Thing" is a very light pink shade. They call this one pink ice. The last gloss, "Heart Attack," is more of a nude color. All of these glosses require a ton of product in order to show any color. While all of them are very smooth and nice to apply, I'm not sure they have any lasting power. These are much more disappointing compared to the eye shadows.

The last pieces in the set are two nail polishes, an eye liner, and a lip top coat. "Stole My Heart" and "Alive" are the names of the two polishes. "Heart" is a pinkish red glitter, while "Alive" is a multi-color glitter. These aren't my favorite nail polishes but they aren't completely awful. The eye liner is called "I Want" and it is a very nice black liner. Despite being a pencil, it goes on very smoothly. "Over Again" is the name of the lip top coat. It is a sheer glitter gloss that adds no color, just glitter. 

As a whole, this makeup kit wasn't terrible. A lot of the colors are way too dark for the teenage girl target audience. I would have loved to see each One Direction member have their own makeup kit. That way each fan could not only "buy" their favorite band member, they could also choose what colors they liked the best. This seemed like a very cheap way to force girls to buy makeup that isn't particularly suited for them. 

Want to try your own makeup kit? Win it below!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free. Regardless, all opinions contained within are solely my own. 

One Direction Makeup Kits - Mascara, Lip Gloss, Nail Polish

Even though my daughter is not a One Direction fan, I had to try their new makeup. I mean, when I was her age, I had the Debbie Gibson perfume (which I would still wear if they still made it!) but I don't remember if any celebrities made actual makeup products. Since there are gobs of One Direction fans out there, I needed to make sure this stuff was at least decent makeup. 

First up is the mascara. It comes in three colors - "Why Don't We Go There?" is blue, "Does He Know?" is pink, and "Story Of My Life" is yellow. Personally, I think yellow is a weird color for mascara but I'm not the one that has to wear it. Back when I was in my early 20s, I used to wear blue mascara. Never tried pink though. The cool thing about these is that they also double as a "hair mascara." If you want to add a stripe of color too your hair, you just swipe the brush through the strands. Since my hair is dyed, I'm not going to try that. I will, however, put this stuff on my eyelashes!

All three of the colors came out spectacularly bright. While the yellow is not  my favorite, it still looked nice. Both the blue and the pink looked fabulous! And it is pretty easy to put the colors together for a new look. Say, do your entire lash blue but then put some pink on the very ends. I love it!

Of course, there is also a lip gloss set. This one also has three colors - "Through The Dark" is red, "Taken" is pink, and "Kiss You" is an orange. These glosses supposedly change colors under UV light. However, I don't have a UV light to test that theory. According to the box, the red turns neon red-orange, the pink turns neon pink-orange, and the orange turns neon yellow. I'm not sure how many teenage girls have UV lights in order to take advantage of this "feature." 

All three of these lip glosses have glitter in them. Quite a bit of glitter, to be honest. Considering the target audience, I don't blame them. I think the teenage girls will love glittery lips. The orange one is probably the worst. It barely shows up on the skin. It's basically a lot of glitter with a little color. The pink one isn't too awful. It does have a nice candy pink color, again, with tons of glitter. My favorite is the red one. (OK, they call it "poppy." It's red.) It has some really nice color to it with just the right amount of glitter to make your lips sparkle without looking like you tried to eat a craft store. 

The last piece of the puzzle is a nail polish kit. This kit has three polish colors and three different colored glitter bottles. "Happily" is the blue nail polish, "Moments" is the pink, and "Diana" is a silver glitter polish. The glitter bottles consist of "Kicks" (blue), "Not Afraid" (pink),  and "Star" (purple?). Supposedly all of these also react to UV light.

These things are just weird. The best of the three is "Diana." Even though it is basically a clear nail polish with glitter, it still looks much better than the other two. "Happily" is so sheer that you can see your nail right through the blue. You would need at least three coats for this to have any real effect. "Moments" isn't terrible but it is a very neon pink. Like 80s neon pink. I'm not sure 2014 girls would even want to wear this color. 

I will admit that I did not try to add-on glitter. One, it looks super messy. They come in these tiny little pots and, in order to use the glitter, you would need to pour it out onto a plate or buy a separate brush or something. Two, there isn't a whole lot there. Since I don't particularly want glitter nails, I decided to save it for someone who would want to use it. You might be able to get one whole hand out of each pot. I'm not sure why they made them so small. The nail polish is definitely my least favorite of the three kits.

As a whole, I am kinda impressed with these kits. I figured that, since they are celebrity endorsed products, that they would be complete crap. Just another product made to drain the teenager's money. However, they aren't half bad. The nail polish sucks a bit but it can be pretty hard to find decent nail polish that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. If I were a younger woman, I would definitely use the mascara and probably the lip gloss. They would be absolutely awesome for costumes though. Very bright colors that can be seen from far away. Good job, One Direction!

Want to win your own set of One Direction makeup? Here you go!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free. Regardless, all opinions contained within are solely my own. 

Majestic Bombay Tweezers

I have a tweezer....thing. While we have multiple sets of tweezers in the house, there is only one that I really like and my husband keeps stealing it to use on his fishtank. So, when the opportunity arose to try these tweezers by Majestic Bombay, I got rather excited. If they were awesome, I would have a new set of amazing tweezers. If they were awful, my husband could use those for his fishtank instead of my good tweezers. 

This set of tweezers arrived in a cute little plastic sleeve. I've never had a holder for my tweezers so I thought this was cool and the tweezers are pink, which is my daughter's favorite color, so that makes these cool times two. The tweezers, themselves, are lightweight and the tip has a really nice sharp edge. Impressive!

Time to try them out! I have these annoying little hairs on my jawline. There are three hairs that stick out like a sore thumb. (At least they do to me. I bet no one else even notices them.) I frequently pluck these hairs so I don't feel like some sort of warty evil witch with chin hairs. (OK, they aren't on my chin, they are on my jaw. Don't judge me!) I need my tweezers to get a firm grip on these hairs to make them easier to remove. Even with my "good" tweezers, I have to attempt the plucking a few times before the hairs actually come out. 

The Majestic Bombay tweezers were amazing. They actually grabbed onto the hair the very first try and pulled it right out. I didn't have to try two or three times! I don't think I have ever had a pair of tweezers that worked like that. The only "downside" is that these tweezers are pretty sharp. You need to be careful that you aren't scraping your skin too hard with them or you'll end up with a little cut. However, that isn't very much of a down side for me. I like that the tweezers are on the sharper side so I can get really close to the base of the hair I am plucking. 

That was probably way too much information about my face, right? Anyway, I love these tweezers. It looks like my "good" tweezers weren't all that good. These will be a great replacement. 

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.