Beauty

[rnmom]

My darling mother in law got me a BBW gift card for Christmas. She usually does every year. Except that she doesn't know that I'm really not into BBW anymore. Their scents are just too strong for me and a lot of them are downright stinky. Plus I'm knda tired of smelling like food, vanilla, apple, gingerbread, etc. I just want to find a nice, normal scent to wear. Kind of like justbee with her Pure Grace. I went into a store a few weeks ago because I had a coupon for a free item and I wanted to try their new Coconut Mint drop scent. One of the salesladies caught me as soon as I got in the door and slathered a huge blop of it onto my hand. OMG! It was horrible. Smelled nothing like coconut or mint, just this stinky, musky scent. I couldn't wait to get home and wash it off, but it wouldn't even wash off with soap and water. SO glad I tried it before I purchased a bunch of it. 

I know they're having their semi-annual sale so I thought I'd hop online and order some shower gels or handsoaps just to get rid of the gift card. Hand soaps are on "sale" for $3.50 and all the $3 shower gels are already out of stock. I couldn't find anything that I even wanted to waste a gift card on. How sad is that? I will check back because I know they will sometimes add things as things sell out. If I can't find anything I want I will just sit on it until the next semi annual sale, or get some Moonlight Path or Warm Vanilla Sugar. Those are the only 2 scents I like from them anymore but I have a body spray and 2 body creams in the Warm Vanilla Sugar that are brand new that I bought with my last gift card and haven't opened yet. I could get some more Moonlight Path, but I don't need anything right now and would like to use some of what I have here first. I wish we could stop exchanging gifts all together, we've eliminated a lot, but I'd like to eliminate even more. 

[just bee]

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@rnmom wrote:

@just bee
 Ugh, why do I keep doing this????

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@rnmom

That is the question.

P.S. Did space aliens abduct your children and replace them with altruistic minimalists?

I think you might have received the best Christmas gift ever.

[just bee]

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@rnmom wrote:

My darling mother in law got me a BBW gift card for Christmas. She usually does every year. Except that she doesn't know that I'm really not into BBW anymore.

I know they're having their semi-annual sale so I thought I'd hop online and order some shower gels or handsoaps just to get rid of the gift card. Hand soaps are on "sale" for $3.50 and all the $3 shower gels are already out of stock. I couldn't find anything that I even wanted to waste a gift card on. How sad is that?

I wish we could stop exchanging gifts all together, we've eliminated a lot, but I'd like to eliminate even more. 

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@rnmom

I just visited the B&BW website and spent your gift card.

They had all this bee and owl stuff and I could have easily ordered every bit of it.  A hand soap dispenser that looks like one of those bear honey dispensers.  And I was only on the site for a minute.

It was a B&BW gift card from a coworker that started my collection of products that I'm still trying to use up.  I bought shower gels for two bucks and change in 2011 and I'm still working through them.

Like you, I'm all for ditching the gift exchange on holidays.  Better-half and I stopped years ago and it was the best decision we ever made.

[just bee]

I just want to make sure that everyone knows I didn't actually order anything.

[just bee]

[geezerette]

Happy New Year, Everyone—

My new year has started out well.  I had the electronics off for the long weekend and it was amazing how much extra free time I had on my hands, not that I used it productively.  I was reluctant to start them up this morning since my phone had been acting weird since its last update.  But, back to the old grind.  Turned on the phone, and, voila!  Everything was working just fine.  Huh?  I have no idea what happened, and it might not last, but I’ll take it.  Maybe it just needed an extended vacation too.  But it took me over a full hour just to deal with emails, messages, etc. that I hadn’t had to spend time on for the last couple of days.  (Why is it that junk electronic mail takes longer to deal with than junk snail mail?)  That author has the right idea about not starting your day on the internet.  I do have to admit though, often over the weekend I was tempted to just check something “for a minute” on the ‘net.  Nothing important, things I could do without, but were definite time-wasters.  Although it did get easier to resist those urges the longer I stayed off it.

@just bee

Your eyeglass story made me laugh.  The Old Geezer and I have gotten to the age where we talk about how (awful) life would be if, G*d forbid, one of us was no longer here.  Aside from the obvious big things, we both would miss the small details of having had the other around for so long.  Like, “Is it just me, or is it hard to breathe today?”  Or, “Am I going crazy or did you just see the dog do (whatever)?”

@aprilskies

While procrastination is something I need to work on, it’s not the worst on my list of changes.  I never used to procrastinate; in fact, I was the opposite—always getting things done ahead of time.  I tried to change on purpose, and apparently ended up going a little bit overboard in the opposite direction!  The things that I procrastinate about now are things that I just no longer care about, that I don’t find important anymore.  So I’m not sure that I actually am procrastinating because I don’t really have any intention of ever doing most of them!

And as far as what about my personality would I most like to change?  My personality!😄

[geezerette]

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@rnmom wrote:

My darling mother in law got me a BBW gift card for Christmas. She usually does every year. Except that she doesn't know that I'm really not into BBW anymore. Their scents are just too strong for me and a lot of them are downright stinky. Plus I'm knda tired of smelling like food, vanilla, apple, gingerbread, etc. I just want to find a nice, normal scent to wear. Kind of like justbee with her Pure Grace. I went into a store a few weeks ago because I had a coupon for a free item and I wanted to try their new Coconut Mint drop scent. One of the salesladies caught me as soon as I got in the door and slathered a huge blop of it onto my hand. OMG! It was horrible. Smelled nothing like coconut or mint, just this stinky, musky scent. I couldn't wait to get home and wash it off, but it wouldn't even wash off with soap and water. SO glad I tried it before I purchased a bunch of it. 

I know they're having their semi-annual sale so I thought I'd hop online and order some shower gels or handsoaps just to get rid of the gift card. Hand soaps are on "sale" for $3.50 and all the $3 shower gels are already out of stock. I couldn't find anything that I even wanted to waste a gift card on. How sad is that? I will check back because I know they will sometimes add things as things sell out. If I can't find anything I want I will just sit on it until the next semi annual sale, or get some Moonlight Path or Warm Vanilla Sugar. Those are the only 2 scents I like from them anymore but I have a body spray and 2 body creams in the Warm Vanilla Sugar that are brand new that I bought with my last gift card and haven't opened yet. I could get some more Moonlight Path, but I don't need anything right now and would like to use some of what I have here first. I wish we could stop exchanging gifts all together, we've eliminated a lot, but I'd like to eliminate even more. 

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@rnmom

Yes, yes, yes!  I can’t even handle going in that store anymore.  It’s one of the few stores we have in our little town and for years I’ve tried to get into their stuff like so many women around here.  But it all just gives me a headache, and I get enough of those on my own without buying more.  For several years I would buy a few of the holiday scents of the plug-in thingies to put in the cat room, but even those have turned yucky lately. So I’ve sworn off them too.  (Guess I’ll just have to clean out the cat box more often instead of trying to mask the odor!)

And the gifts!  That was what was going on in my mind too.  How do you guys deal with gifts that you get and don’t really like, can’t really use, and don’t really want cluttering up your house, but, don’t want to toss for fear of the ‘giftor’ showing up and wondering where their gift ended up?  I would rather not have anyone give me anything than to deal with all that, but people just don’t understand when I tell them it isn’t necessary to give us anything, especially if we have given them a gift.

@rnmom

Don’t question what got into your kids.  Maybe they have absorbed your decluttering attitude by osmosis.  Just accept it as an unexpected Christmas gift—the kind you could use more of, instead of gift cards!  

And besides, it probably won’t last and not ever happen again!😄

[aprilskies]

I feel parts of our thread were deleted because I was going to respond to @just bee this morning but did not have time.  I am not sure if you deleted things Just Bee or I am just missing things on my side. 

Anyway, as far as bad food - none of it is bad. However, in large quantities those "bad" foods are terrible and not healthy. I dont eliminate anything out of my eating wheelhouse, but I do need to reorganize my thinking around food and not use it as a crutch when I am stressed or depressed.  That is a challenge in itself.   You seem like you have good control @just bee, I would like to get there.  Those italian cookies wouldnt of lasted at all.  I would like to get to a place where I can have cookies, chips, ice cream, etc around and not feel like I have to eat it all in one or two days. Unfortunately, I have become an emotional eater and have a 100 different rationalizations.  

@geezerette, wouldn't it be awesome if we could trade and buy personality traits? 

@rnmom, your decluttering stories are inspiring me.  I was going to do some yesterday but got lazy.  But reading your stories is inspiring me to go through everything again.