Posts Tagged ‘pictures’

On the road from VA to SC

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , ,
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Panda and I got a chance to go to Myrtle Beach and this is what we encountered along the way!

long stretch of highway in north carolina lined with trees

There were the parts with trees lined on both sides of the road.

large blue water tower in the town of wilson

There were the parts with water towers looming above.

lawn mower vehicle driving along side of freeway mowing grass

There was the part with a bunch of mowers driving around along the freeway.

huge stop sign hanging like street sign over intersection

There was the town with the giant stop sign.

There was the last leg with a quiet neighborly road leading up to the resort.

bridge being supported by metal legs forming triangle shape

There were the parts with bridges supported by triangular metal legs.

unique pointy building structure by quantico

There was the part with a really interesting building near or in Quantico.

Yuzen August 2012 edition

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Wondering about the second Yuzen box?  Never fear!  I’m here to show you what came in it and give you the low-down on each item.  This time around, the color scheme was yellow and there were six fantastic brands included.

Yuzen is $26 per month and comes with around 5 or 6 eco-friendly beauty, skincare, food/snacks, and home products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. Sometimes there’s a waitlist to get the subscription. They do not offer a referral program.

collage of products included in the august 2012 yuzen box

collage of unwrapping of august 2012 yuzen box

Click on the pictures for the full sizes so you can enjoy all the details of each product!  You can even zoom in to read all the messaging.

collage of mrs. meyer's lemon verbena all purpose soap bar included in the august 2012 yuzen boxMrs. Meyer’s Clean Day – Lemon Verbena All Purpose Soap Bar:  As I was opening the box, I got a hint of this soap bar’s clean scent wafting up.  It’s a huge full-size bar that will last me a LONG time!  The wrapping was a nice smooth texture and it wasn’t glued too strongly together, so opening the packaging was actually a pleasant experience.  I’d heard great things about Mrs. Meyer’s products, so I was pretty happy to get a chance to try it out.  The soap suds nicely and gently cleans your entire body.

collage of cowgirl desert recovery cleanser included in the august 2012 yuzen boxCowgirl Skincare – Desert Recovery Cleanser:  This is a fun new brand I hadn’t encountered before!  The smell of the face wash is soothing and slightly sweet – maybe rose?  It’s perfect for washing away whatever managed to accumulate on your face and doesn’t strip your skin of moisture.  It’s meant for dry, aging, or sensitive skin but it’s useful for any type of skin.  The container reminds me of elixirs from a Western (or maybe it’s just because their name is Cowgirl :-P).  Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, anyone?

collage of organic india teas included in the august 2012 yuzen box - tulsi original, tulsi lemon ginger, tulsi sweet rose, and tulsi sleep flavorsOrganic India – Tulsi Original, Lemon Ginger, Sweet Rose, & Sleep teas:  I enjoyed each one of these Tulsi teas!  I’ve never heard of Tulsi before, so I was definitely intrigued by this “holy basil of India” that is incorporated in Ayurvedic practices.  It’s apparently popular as an herbal remedy and has both general health and medicinal values.

collage of organic india tulsi teas included in the august 2012 yuzen box brewing
It didn’t taste much different to me than normal teas, so it’d be easy to substitute them in while still enjoying the taste of tea, yet getting the added (healing) benefits of tulsi.  With a name meaning “the incomparable one” how could you not give it a whirl too?

collage of coola cucumber mineral sunscreen for face included in the august 2012 yuzen boxCoola Suncare – Cucumber Mineral Sunscreen for Face:  Haha!  Funny that just like the first Yuzen box, I happen to already use one of the products included.  This is that particular product from this box and I’m more than happy for another!  In fact, I happen to have one at Panda’s and one at my parents’ now so I can protect my face wherever “home” is.  The cucumber scent is so relaxing and the sunscreen absorbs into the skin well, with no greasy layer to worry about.  It’s perfect for your face and hands.  Don’t forget to apply it to your neck too, if it’ll be exposed!

collage of olomomo nut co chai bliss almonds included in the august 2012 yuzen boxOlomomo Nut Co – Chai Bliss Almonds:  Oh yum!  Talk about wonderfully fragrant and oh so delicious.  These almonds are covered in a sweet layer of vanilla and cardamom flavoring that is just delightful.  I don’t normally like to eat nuts, but if they all came like this, I could definitely incorporate them into my routine!  Plus, who doesn’t want a product made with love?  (See ingredient list, hehe.)

collage of tilvee healing balm included in the august 2012 yuzen boxTilveeCalendula & Comfrey Healing Balm:  WOW.  Not only do I love the usefulness of this product, it smells wonderful too!  I can hardly get enough of it.  It’s basically what you’d put on for anything adverse that happens to your skin, whether it be cuts and scrapes, rashes or sunburn, even plain old dry patches!  Not long after getting it, I actually got a scratch and I applied it until my skin healed.  Worked great, though it’s not meant for eliminating scars.  Still, my skin would have scarred horribly had it not been for this healing balm.  I’m obsessed and I use it on just about all skin conditions that ail me.  Oh, and I absolutely love that it comes in stick form for easy application and ultimate portability!

Green Festival DC 2012

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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This weekend, Panda and I volunteered for Green Festival and it was a grand old time! It’s the first time I’ve experienced a green conference outside of Opportunity Green and it’s quite the different experience. When we weren’t volunteering, we got a chance to go around to a bunch of the vendors/exhibitors and not only did I learn a lot, we managed to score some sweet freebies too.

panorama of the washington convention center in dc, south side

Our first view of the convention center!

panoramic shot of green festival dc 2012 in hall b of washington convention center

You get a full view of the place before heading down into the festivities.

welcome banner at green festival dc 2012

sample cubes of eco-friendly mattress material

This is what an eco-friendly mattress is made of!

kishu charcoal, the alternative to brita filters

I love this idea, but the price is rather steep. Still, one day I’d like to filter my water with something so natural.

banner for chopstick art exhibit

I wish I had taken a picture of the chopstick art, but you can see their product line for yourself. The folding baskets are so clever!

examples of truly-life's solid lotions in heart shapes

I love solid lotions (I have a strawberry one from LUSH) so I eventually caved and got myself their awesome leaf-shaped ones.

a pile of free things acquired from green festival dc 2012 on day 1

Check out all that we managed to bring back after Day 1.

Day 1 goodies: Bright Green tote bag, Bright Green laundry detergent, Repax water canister, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, Maid Brigade nail file, Maid Brigade small reusable tote, apple sauce, bananas & apple, Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One soaps (baby-mild, peppermint, rose), Yogi Chai Rooibos tea bags, Ford chapstick, Nature’s Path Sunny Hemp trail mix, Clif Kit’s Organic fruit & nut bar in Cashew, Yummy Earth organic pomegranate pucker, O Organics raisins, wood chip for casting Ford Grant vote, Ford keychains, Ford Chicobag, Jarrow formulas supplements (Phosphomega, Jarro-Dophilus EPS, Bone-Up), Pharma GABA tablets, Joyful Bath Co soap Citrus Buzz, Joyful Bath Co pin, Mind Body & Salt soap, Truly-life soap, & of course a cotton Volunteer t-shirt!  The orange Chicobag and pens were actually from a LOHAS event the night before.

a pile of flyers, brochures, and cards acquired from green festival dc 2012

Let’s not forget all the marketing materials we managed to acquire, despite my best efforts to just get pictures and save paper.

gift basket tin pail set of joyful bath co oatsy floatsie soap, sisal pouch, and wooden soap cradle

After browsing tons of booths, this is the cute gift set that really grabbed me. I don’t know why, but I’m a sucker for a nice gift basket (and that includes the “basket” itself).

art installation using dangling water bottles on display

A neat art display of painted bottles.

crowd gathered at repax's bike giveaway

I really wanted to win this super cool bike from Repax! Apparently, so did plenty of other people. 😛

a pile of free things acquired from green festival dc 2012 on day 2

The trappings of my second day. You can tell I got a little crazy with certain samples.

Day 2 goodies: Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, Hemp Hearts hemp seeds, Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One liquid soaps & bars (spearmint peppermint, peppermint, lavender), Yogi Chai Rooibos tea bags, Ford chapstick, Yummy Earth organic puckers (pomegranate, blueberry, sour apple), Bright Green laundry detergent, Truly-life soap, & a The Oink Pad pen.

a collection of free things acquired from green festival dc 2012 on day 2

Panda and I had a little unofficial competition going to see who could bring back the most goods. This was his share of the goods!

Panda’s Day 2 goodies: Hemp Hearts hemp seeds, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, Clif Kid Z bar crispy rice in Cookies ‘N Cream, Nature’s Path Sunny Hemp trail mix, Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One liquid soaps & bars (spearmint peppermint, peppermint, lavender, baby-mild), Yogi Chai Rooibos tea bags, Ford chapstick, Yummy Earth organic blueberry pucker, Bright Green tote bag, Bright Green laundry detergent, Repax water canister, & Truly-life soap.

a collection of products bought at green festival dc 2012

Oh, and you know, I decided to support some of the businesses there and buy their products.

Products bought: Bumboosa bamboo baby wipes, Hawaiian Moon Aloe cream, Berryplus liquid laundry soap, & Truly-life solid lotion leaves.

Entrees just aren’t my style

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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table overflowing with plates of food including soup, salad, appetizers, breadsticks, and pasta

I love having tons of smaller items to eat!


For a period, Panda and I were eating out consistently (something like 3 times a week).  In that time, I came to a realization after he commented that I seemed to gravitate towards appetizers and desserts.  Indeed it’s true that I tend to prefer appetizer dishes, soups, salads, bread, tapas, dim sum, hors d’oeuvres, finger foods, and desserts.  These are generally things that come in smaller portions, don’t usually include much if any staple items (like pasta or rice), have stronger flavors, and are fun to eat.  All of that make them so much more appealing to me.

Smaller dishes mean you can try out a more varied set of food and it’s all the better when you can get a sampler platter!  This also fits really well into my snacking eating habit, where I can’t seem to eat much in one sitting, but I get hungry again soon after.   I have to eat about 4-5 times a day, just a little each time.  There are probably other reasons I can’t quite pinpoint, but non-entree dishes just feel right to me.  Meanwhile, full-on main courses are over-sized (especially in America), more bland, and generally less exciting.  Don’t you think so?

Cartwheeling panorama

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , , ,
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You know the first thing I thought of when I found out you can do panorama shots within the iPhone’s native camera app?  Cartwheeling.  I was curious how it’d turn out, so this weekend, Panda and I gave it a try and it turned out to be pretty hilarious.  I guess next time I should go for burst mode with a 3rd party app instead.  Click on images to enlarge!

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

cartwheeling stitched together using panorama camera

panoramic shot of potomac river

What I love about AT&T

laelene Posted in general blog,Tags: , , , ,
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at&t website countdown to iphone 5 pre-order launchI did a lot of research leading up to the pre-order of my iPhone 5 (I even wrote a full-on how-to about it).  One of the things that I spent time looking into was whether I should stay with AT&T or move to another carrier.  And you know what?  For all the bad rap that AT&T gets, I really think they’re not that bad.  In fact, they’ve got some great selling points that made it easy for me to decide to stick with them for the foreseeable future.  So while a lot of people may have jumped ship, I’m going to remain a loyal customer… which I’ve been, ever since the Cingular days!

First of all, I got scared when I read that Verizon customers would be losing their grandfathered unlimited plans once they went from 3G to 4G LTE.  It hadn’t occurred to me that this could be an issue, so I quickly set about looking up whether the same thing would happen to AT&T customers.  Some online searches didn’t provide the answer, so I called up customer service and spoke to a very nice lady who assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem.  Whew!  AT&T: 1, other carriers: 0.  (Oh, though she did note that I wouldn’t be able to use FaceTime over cellular since that’s only for people with shared data plans… and shared data plans meant forfeiting grandfathered unlimited data plans.  That doesn’t matter to me since I wasn’t planning on using it anyway.)

Secondly, I’ve been so used to being able to talk and surf at the same time that it didn’t even occur to me that others can’t.  I assumed it would just be something you can do across all devices and carriers, but for iPhones, the only US carrier that supports it is AT&T.  I happen to be a huge multi-tasker so I definitely put this feature high on my list of “needs” for my phone service!  After all, if I can’t look something up while talking to someone on the phone, I end up being very inefficient having to call them back or text them a reply.  If nothing else, I love being efficient.

Also, I find that AT&T has a good balance between 3G and 4G LTE coverage areas and the types of plans offered.  To the first point, Sprint I hear has limited coverage so getting a consistent signal on the move might be more challenging.  I took a look at the AT&T 4G LTE coverage map and found great coverage in all the places I’d spend 99% of my time in.  To the second point, Verizon forces new customers to sign up for a shared data plan, which makes no sense to me… explain to me again why I’d need to share data with myself?  Oh, that’s right – I shouldn’t.  Plus, there was the earlier point that you can keep the unlimited data plan if you have it already.

Granted, I don’t really use my phone for phone calls very often, so I don’t usually run into the issues that people complain about with AT&T calls dropping.  As for poor customer service, I find that when you start off the call on the right note, you can almost always get what you were looking for (assuming you’re being reasonable, of course).  In fact, I had a grand time chatting with my customer service rep the last time I was on a call!  And so it is, AT&T is most definitely the best carrier for me.

Oh yeah – one last thing: bonus points for having their site up 12 minutes before midnight for pre-orders.  If I was going to be at my normal billing address the day the phones were being delivered, I totally could have completed my order with them before the Apple Store was even ready.

Pure Leaf delivery!

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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Today I got an awesome delivery – part 2 of my PureWow & Pure Leaf Pin It to Win It winnings!

large pepsi delivery truck with gatorade g series branding on side parked in residential street

When this huge orange truck pulled up along our curb, I knew my delivery had arrived!

pepsi delivery guy unloads cases of pure leaf tea from his truck

The Pepsi delivery guy isn’t used to delivering to residences, but he took it in stride.

25 cases of pure leaf tea stacked up

I wasn’t expecting 25 cases (?!!) of Pure Leaf tea, so we put it all in the garage until I could figure out what to do.

Crack Caramel

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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Not too long ago, I discovered Crack Caramel, thanks to the PureWow newsletterI got.  Being a sucker for all things caramel, I just had to get my hands on some!  Since they do overnight shipping to ensure the product comes to you fresh, it can get pretty pricey.  Luckily, I was able to get in touch with them and arrange to pick mine up since they’re located in LA.  I’ve gone through and devoured about a quarter of my Crack Batch in the first day.  As promised, their caramel is amazing!  Not only is it fresh, it’s made from such simple, awesome ingredients.  None of that odd stuff you’d find in mass-produced candy.  And boy does it make Crack Caramel divine.  🙂

crack caramel batch, bar, and lollipops on display with bag

They’ve got some really cool packaging that meshes well together!

collage of crack caramel batch in bag, crack caramel bar wrapped up, and crack caramel lollipops wrapped up

I ordered the Crack Batch and Crack Bar. They threw in two lollipops as a bonus!

collage of crack caramel batch detailed photos

The Crack Batch comes with a tag that tells you about their ingredients on the back. Inside the pouch, the caramels come sealed in a plastic bag for freshness. There are over 40 individually-wrapped pieces!

collage of crack caramel bar detailed photos

The Crack Bar also comes wrapped in plastic for freshness. Then there’s this waxy paper so the caramel doesn’t melt into the wrapping! I went ahead and took a big bite.

collage of crack caramel lollipop detailed photos

Adorable little Crack Pop on a nice wooden stick, wrapped in wax paper and tied off with a bit of string.

Ultimate Summer Day, courtesy PureWow & Pure Leaf

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , , ,
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A little while ago, PureWow held a “pin it to win it” contest on Pinterest, where a random follower who pinned his/her favorite picture of the 10 finalists in the “Ultimate Summer Day” competition would also get to win a set of tea party-ready gear!  I, being the eager gal I am, pinned one that I enjoyed, crossed my fingers, and went on my merry way.  Then one day, I got an email saying that I had won!!  How thrilling.  🙂

collage of crate and barrel products as prize sent by purewow for purewow & pure leaf tea ultimate summer day photo contest

I got a wonderful (and huge) surprise at my door! I quickly set about peeling away the layers of packaging inside…

crate and barrel products included in prize sent by purewow for purewow & pure leaf tea ultimate summer day photo contest

What a great set of items to host an iced tea party with!

Included in the set were 8 goblets (or stemless glasses to be more accurate), a pack of 25 orange striped paper straws, a jumbo ice tray (makes 2-oz cubes!), a tray with handles, two stir rods/muddlers (hehe what a funny name), and my personal favorite – a gorgeous pitcher!  I’m just waiting for the Pure Leaf tea to ship to me and then I can have the ultimate (iced) tea party!  I can hardly wait – I feel like this is straight out of a Home & Garden magazine picture or something.  😛

Hoot no evil

laelene Posted in photo blog,Tags: , , , ,
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See no evil, hear no evil, hoot no evil. 😉

set of three white ceramic owls with see no evil hear no evil speak no evil theme

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