Today’s Friday music video is thanks to some old high school friends on Facebook.
It’s conversations like this that make Facebook worthwhile …
And if this wasn’t entertaining enough, a fourth person (who I dated in high school) jumped in to the conversation at this point to add:
Now, THAT is a great way to start off a Friday!
I hope you all have a great weekend. Stay safe, laugh lots. Julie xo
This post is a continuation. To read Part 1, click here.
As I was telling you in my post yesterday, I went to an Arbonne party. I had fun. I tried stuff. I bought stuff.
Arbonne is different from a number of other products on the shelves of my drugstore because they are formulated without:
However, what I didn’t do was my own research and label-reading before the party. And it turns out, this would have been a smart thing for me to have done because, although products were passed around the room for us to sample, the ingredients are not listed on the product itself — only on the exterior packaging.
But, like I mentioned yesterday, I happily (naively?) went ahead and ordered two products. These products arrived to my house only a couple of days later and I was particularly pleased with how great the makeup primer was. And then I read the label on the box and felt a tad confused. I didn’t recognize most of the ingredients, let alone know how to pronounce them.
So I started doing some research on the internet …
This post is part of a personal quest to find and use face and body products with fewer toxins. To catch up on this series, you can start here.
So have you heard of ARBONNE? I hadn’t heard of this company until just recently, and now it seems all my girlfriends are mentioning it of late.
Like Tupperware, Stella & Dot, and other direct-to-consumer businesses, Arbonne is sold at parties in people’s homes. I’m sure you’ve been to similar types of parties … a girlfriend invites you over and you get to chit-chat, catch up with friends, have a drink or a coffee and then an consultant will walk you their product line.
Here is how Arbonne self-describes on its website:
“Arbonne is committed to the development of unparalleled products free of harmful ingredients, using a combination of botanical principles and scientific discovery. Our commitment begins with research and testing to ensure that each of our ingredients meets or exceeds industry standards for purity.”
In addition, all of the products are vegan and are never tested on animals.
So, when I received an invite to an Arbonne party recently, I thought the timing couldn’t have been better! I eagerly accepted it, especially knowing that this girlfriend would treat us to great coffee and homemade treats too. What can be better than shopping and hanging out with great girlfriends?
Off I went …
I love piles of books–waiting to be read, half-read, already-read, or just looking pretty. Hubby jokes that the pile get so high on my bedside table that one day he’s worried he’ll find the pile collapsed on top of me. (I figure there are far worse ways to die!)
Because of my book-collecting affliction and the long rectangle shape of the master bedroom, he thought BIG bedside tables were in order. No more tall, toppling piles. These tables will be able to hold stacks and stacks of books!
Like the master bed, he constructed these tables using wenge, a deliciously dark wood.
However, to add some contrast, he choose a really unique wood for the drawer fronts and left a natural edge along the bottom.
The original design didn’t call for any drawer handle or pull. But after all was said and done, both of us felt like something was missing. In the end, Hubby found these perfect finishing pieces at Lee Valley.
Today closes out an international anti-bullying campaign. In schools across our city, kids are shown videos, encouraged to act out skits, and generally work hard not to roll their eyes as they’re told over and over again that bullying is bad — don’t be a bully.
None of it, in my opinion, truly prepares the teachers or the students for how to effectively deal with kids who are bullying and kids who are being bullied. I wish I knew the answers; all I know is that what we’re doing so far isn’t working. But it’s a start.
Let’s keep looking for the answers and working on this complex societal issue. Because everyone deserves to live in a world where their true colors are celebrated.
Welcome to my coffee break!
Here’s where I chat about whatever is percolating in my brain on a given day … silly family anecdotes, travel tips, a new movie or book, or just life in general.
