I just bought a new deodorant at Sephora – Lavanila – The Healthy Deodorant.  I bought it because I am always looking for something with less chemicals etc…  So when I saw the description for a deodorant with none of the bad stuff that was supposed to actually work I got pretty excited.  I ordered the Vanilla scented one as I am basically a vanilla scented kind of girl and I had to get it online so I couldn’t smell the other scents first.

I have worn it several times now and the smell is really nice and light, definitely not overpowering.  It goes on very smoothly, without feeling cakey or wet.  I find it works quite well.  It isn’t perfect but it works as well as the other stuff  I was using, so I much prefer the healthier option.  I am especially excited as I have a feeling in the next year or two my daughter will want to start wearing deodorant and I would rather start her on something chemical-free…this will definitely be a product I continue to use.

I know it has taken me a while, but I have just discovered Sephora.  I had heard of it, but because there weren’t any local stores, I had never actually been in one.  A friend from Montreal was visiting a couple of months ago and brought me to the new Ottawa store as she was looking for something they didn’t carry at the Montreal store.  We were only there briefly but I knew I had to go back soon.  She told me about the Beauty Insider card and newsletter, and if you sign up they send you a free birthday present.  So of course I signed up and this weekend I went to the Ottawa store to pick up my free lip gloss trio (yum!)  The store was sooo much fun.  I went with a couple of girlfriends and we spent over an hour just browsing and trying out funky products.  I ended up getting some wonderful Makeup Forever false eyelashes, a glimmery eyeshadow also from Makeup Forever, an eye shadow brush and my free lip glosses.  Of course I went back yesterday to look some more and got a sample of Hope In A Jar (Philosophy) and Fudge Cake shower gel (Philosophy).    I also got a gorgeous eyeliner from Sephora.  This place is amazing – you must check it out!!

My daughter had a dance competition this weekend and it was so much fun. This is her fourth year competing and I love it more every year. The whole dance team just matures so much in a year. I find myself teary eyed watching her dance on stage. One of her numbers, which is a lyrical dance called Never Alone, had all of us moms crying while we watched. Afterwards, the judges awarded it a special award for “Poetry in Motion” and said that it brought tears to their eyes. I am always amazed at how she has the energy to hang out for 12-15 hours in that environment and then still give a perfect, energetic performance at the end of the day. I never saw myself as a dance mom, but I have surely become one. Watching my daughter’s grace, beauty and poise onstage never fails to amaze me.

A great new thing I saw at this year’s competition was the Rac n Roll bag. A couple of the moms from our studio saw them last year and ordered them online.  This bag is amazing! It has its own rack for holding costumes (so you aren’t digging around in a bag trying to find things, or trying to find something to hang your garment bag on). It also has enough room and pockets for all your extra tights, hair pieces, make-up etc…It was designed by a dance mom. I just ordered one and am hoping it arrives in time for this weekend’s dance competition.

I use this awesome mascara call Kiss Me made by Blinc.  It is a really cool formula that creates little tubes around each lash, so it never smudges and is completely tear-proof.  It also comes off really easily with just warm water and a bit of rubbing.

The even better thing about this mascara is it comes in terrifically vivid versions of blue, green and purple, as well as the standard black and brown.

It is a bit pricey ($26.50 cdn, $24 US) but I think it is totally worth it.  I found a great website to order it from in Canada – check it out and order more than one tube  for free shipping.   Enjoy!

I have to giggle.  My husband and I have pretty much agreed that I do all the shopping.  I buy the gifts for the kids, both our families and pretty much everyone, but for myself.  He buys the gifts for me.  This year I was done a few weeks ago and it had been quite an easy ride.  I should have known better.

Last week I got two cheques from family members asking me to buy the kids gifts, as well as finding out on Saturday that one set of gifts I shipped never arrived.  Sigh.  I had to go shopping again.

I was feeling quite demoralized about having to fight through all this traffic, so my husband, who of course hadn’t done any shopping yet, offered to get some of the things while he was out getting my gifts.  I was very hesitant to take him up on this offer.  Let me tell you why.

When I get a cheque from someone, I take the amount given and I find the BEST POSSIBLE deal.  I love stretching a dollar.  Yes it can take more time, but I think it is worth it.  So if I know I have $50/kid I shop around and come up with the best ideas I can for that amount.  I squeeze the last dollar out.  I spend exactly $49.99 and not a penny more if I can help it.

My husband’s philosophy is that the cheque amount is really more of a guideline and it is for our kids so why not just get whatever we want no matter how much it costs.  In the past this means he has spent $150.00 for a $50.00 gift.

So when he offered to help out, I initially said, “no, it’s okay.”  But he really insisted, which was very sweet.  I decided to take him up on it for two of the things that were out of the way and harder to get.  I gave him very specific instructions.  I sent him to get a movie and a Klutz book, knowing roughly what they cost and where to get them.  He called me triumphantly to say, “I got the dvd!”  I was happy, as I had been having a hard time finding it.  He then mentioned that even better he had found it in Blu-ray format and it only cost $37.00.  I had to laugh as I had not bought it for $25.99 as I thought that was too expensive for a movie.  I decided to just let it go this time, and say thank you for helping me out.  But really, this is why I do all the shopping.
Happy Holidays everyone!  I probably won’t be on again until after the break…wishing you all health and happiness during this celebratory time.

I am so excited!  I think this will definitely confirm that I am a total shopping nerd, but I am sharing anyhow. I walked down to Chapters today to get one last gift for someone, and was perusing the store while I was in there.  They had this table of 50% off items, and on the table were these very lovely holiday cards.  They didn’t mention Christmas (which is always a plus for me, being Jewish!) and had sparkles (my favourite thing).  I checked to see how much they cost and they were listed at 20 cards for $7.99.  So I bought two different boxes and got 40 cards for $8.  Wow!  Of course, I need to save them until next year and hopefully next December I will remember that I bought these cards and where I put them.  I love this kind of find!  I had the hardest time finding cards  this year that were nice, didn’t say Christmas and didn’t cost a fortune.  I ended up getting them at Costco, but overall the ones I bought today are much nicer.  They even have really pretty envelopes.  This purchase made my whole day!  Here is a link to the website for the cards.

Wow.  I just had THE BEST customer service from Amazon.ca.  I was trying to order a few gifts online and it kept coming back saying it wouldn’t arrive by Dec 25.  I checked the shipping cut-off dates and I was within the specified time.  I checked to make sure the items were in stock.  I even tried changing from free shipping to paying for the shipping.  It still said they wouldn’t arrive in time.

I was getting frustrated so I decided to call customer service.  This usually entails a twenty minute hold at least and then some annoying person who doesn’t really help you at all.  Amazon.ca does it right.  You enter your number on this little pop-up window and your phone immediately rings.  You answer it, select the language you would like and someone immediately answers.  Can I say “wow” again?  I was beyond impressed.  She even answered my question right away (the problem was that one of the things I was ordering was in stock, but said it didn’t ship for 2-3 weeks).    So I removed it from my order and all is shipping in the next couple of days.

It is not often at this time of year that one has something good to say about customer service, so I thought I should give Amazon.ca a little shout out for doing it right!  Everyone, click over and put your orders in!

Post-script – I can’t believe that one day later the shipment arrived at my house! Yea for Amazon.ca!