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Spiderina Witch…a review

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Prior to last year, this little space had a very small readership and was virtually unknown but then I appeared on “that” list of Mom bloggers and bam! Suddenly my inbox was filled with all sorts of offers to review items and promote products and programs. Initially it was pretty exciting but after receiving items that I wouldn’t suggest to my worst enemy, I quickly realized that just because someone is offering something free is no reason to actually accept it. Then there was the rather practical issue of time, juggling a pretty intense job and family means I need to be pretty selective about what I actually choose to promote because time is money and freebies don’t pay the bills.

That said, a few weeks ago, I received an offer that I couldn’t refuse especially since saving money is the name of my game these days. My seven year old is the holiday queen, she loves em all but Halloween is her high holy day. First, there is all that candy. Candy that mommy and daddy will eventually steal and that she won’t ever eat and then there is the costume. Seven loves to dress up, she is all about the costume, actually she loves to dress up all the time, but Halloween means she can dress up and go outside.

So in BGIM land, planning of the ensemble starts early and this year was no exception, until I told her she could pick out a costume that wasn’t mom and dad made as long as she would give me her opinion on it. It was a deal that she couldn’t refuse. After spending way too much time looking through HalloweenCostumes.com vast supply of costumes, we agreed on the Spiderina Witch costume, which you can view here.

So we placed our order and a few days ago the very nice Spiderina Witch costume arrived and Seven nearly broke her neck trying to open the package…here she is.

 

Seven liked it, her exact words “This is way cool” spoken in her valley girl voice.  We are adding a few homemade accoutrements and if the Frankenstorm that is predicted for the east coast doesn’t ruin Halloween, I think Seven is going to have a fabulous time in her first non-Mommy & Daddy made costume.

Seriously, this is a good site for costumes, wide array to choose from, so 2 thumbs up from BGIM and Seven.

The FTC says I must tell you that I did receive a complimentary item, but as always, my views are my own and longtime readers know I keep it 100% real.

Nope, guess I won’t be a Skinnygirl…a review

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One of the more interesting benefits to blogging is that my inbox is often filled with offers from companies and PR firms looking to get the word out about their products. Truthfully due to the nature of my all-consuming day job and life in general, I tend to say no to reviewing products. It’s hard enough to fit in the work that keeps the bills paid much less offering free promotions that don’t necessarily benefit me. Yet every now and then an offer comes across my inbox that catches my attention that was the case with Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse & Restore.

Spring is here, and it’s clear that I need to get my physical self in order and I had been toying with the idea of doing some type of cleanse and just as I had that thought an offer for one came in my email. Hey, I work in the non-profit sector so I figured why the hell not, a no cost cleanse? What could be better?

I suppose I should have read up a little more before I agreed to offer up my digestive system as a guinea pig, but sometimes reading all the details isn’t my thing especially when I am multitasking. It seems that Skinnygirl is a line of lifestyle & nutrition products developed by Bethenny Frankel of Real Housewives of New York fame. I suppose if I had ever watched an episode of Real Housewives of New York her name may have stood out when I scanned the press release, but hey….

According to the Skinnygirl website, Skinnygirl Daily is “A Daily on the Go solution to promote healthy digestion, detoxification, energy, and overall wellness”. I admit that sounded pretty good, hell I am a working mom, I need all the energy I can get! So I received 5 sample packets, in the Green Lemonade flavor. I followed the directions of adding one packet to 6-8 ounces of water and since I didn’t have a fancy shaker, I stirred and stirred. Ummmm, it was green and frankly not too appetizing to look at, no problem, I figured with a lemonade flavor it would taste better than it looked. Bottoms up! I took a hearty sip and nearly vomited, not sure why this is described as green lemonade, I tasted not a hint of lemonade; frankly it tasted vile, very vile. I suspect that taste should have been the tip off of things to come. I eventually drank my whole serving and went about my day. No extra energy, all seems well.

Fast forward to the early evening hours when my stomach started cramping, let me just cut to the chase without getting to graphic and say that it cleaned me out all right. I spent a good chunk of the evening being intimate with my porcelain throne. I wasn’t quite expecting that and maybe it’s because I tend to have a lot of fiber in my diet naturally but all I will say is I spent the next 24 hours frankly feeling bad. I decided to repeat this experiment with a second packet and had the same results, no added energy, but a lot of time emptying myself out. In some ways in reminded me of over the counter products used to deal with constipation, harsh and uncomfortable.

I wanted to like this product especially after I finally did get around to looking at the Skinny Girls website and later on discovered there is even a Skinny Girl line of cocktails; I had thought maybe I could become a skinny girl once again using Skinny Girl products. Sad to say I was a slightly fluffy girl with a jumpy stomach for several days after using Skinnygirl Daily Cleanse & Restore, so it looks like my relationship with Skinnygirl is over.

Disclosure: In keeping with FTC rules, while I was not paid for this post, I did receive free samples to review.

Resurrection, transformation and oh yeah sex!

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It’s Easter Sunday and as a practicing Christian (yep, yogi’s can be Christian too) who heads a faith based agency; one might expect me to blog about the day. Of course being me, why ever would I do that? I always march to my own drum regardless of what day it is. Instead last night as I was headed to bed, I realized it’s been a while since I wrote anything racy, so why not pick today? Resurrection, transformation and oh…sex.

Seriously though all jokes aside, I have noticed something both in my offline and online life, people especially women (not all but enough) tend to get squeamish when talk turns to sex. I mean it’s 2012 and we all like to consider ourselves enlightened and many of us will now even we say we are sex positive but considering how many of us refuse to utter anything more than vagina (hello it’s not just a vagina, it has parts!) and heaven forbid talk turns to things like adult sex toys, we start blushing like crazy. Yet we are sexual beings, hell if you have kids chances are you stripped down to your birthday suit and did the horizontal mambo, so why the discomfort?

I think ultimately the reason we are uncomfortable truly acknowledging and embracing our sexual selves is fear of judgment. Old societal messages say a woman who enjoys sex is “bad” and despite attempts to dismantle such thinking for many of us those messages are deep at our core. It’s why despite the increase or at least increased media attention to things such as open marriages or polyamory, most of us when we hear of people participating in such relationships, still raise our eyebrows in shock.

Old messages about what is proper for a woman create situations where women struggle to own their sexual identity instead hiding it. If you call yourself sex positive but struggle with the idea of walking into a store to buy yourself a toy or two, you might not quite be sex positive, since according to the Center for Sex Positive Culture: “The sex-positive movement is a social and philosophical movement that regards all consensual sexual activities as fundamentally healthy and pleasurable, and encourages sexual pleasure and experimentation.”  Sure it’s entirely possible you have a partner that sexually rocks your world every single day and maybe you truly have no need for anything extra, but considering what stats say about female orgasms, chances are a little help from a friend every now and there is no shame in that. Hell, men embrace those little pills that keep em going like the Energizer Bunny.

I admit as a woman and mother I truly look forward to a day when women will be comfortable declaring themselves heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual and even pansexual without any fear of judgment or backlash. Until such time, we can start taking baby steps and places like EdenFantasys is a great place to test the waters from the comfort of our homes. Life is too short to be anything other than who you are in all your amazing being!

This post is sponsored by EdenFantasys