Things I love doing that are free

A quick list for Friday of things I love doing that are free, with the overall acknowledgement that living in home and having pets and things and existence in general is intrinsically not free but we're going with it.

Taking in public art and murals

Sleeping with the windows open

Watching the world from the window as a passenger in a car or train

Sitting on a bench people watching

Reading library books

Listening to the radio

Exploring on foot

Swimming in the ocean

Sky gazing at all times of day

Walking dogs

Waking up every day

Looking at paint colors

Picking up extraneous information when deep diving on the internet...like traveling along the Don't Worry Darling made me love celebrity drama again path lands me on crossbow packages, or a click here on an exploration of a Glacier National Park/WA trip leads me to something about portable bridges which I continue reading about because honestly how cool, or a click here on multigrain breads leads me to senior services and this is aging I guess and around and around we go

Taking photos I'll never share or use

Writing things no one else will ever see

Wearing lipstick

Staying hydrated

Creating relatively detailed itineraries for trips I might never take

You? 

Happy Friday!

The best things in life are free

Today I turn 39. Whenever I hear that age, I think of the movie To Gillian on her 39th Birthday, which I've never seen but which pops into my head frequently. Titles of books, movies, and songs that I have never personally experienced tend to stick with me if I like the way the title itself flows. When I googled that movie to see what year it came out (1996), I found out the title is actually To Gillian on her 37th Birthday. So my intro about being 19 when that came out, being 39 now like the title of the movie, and how that 20 years passed in the blink of an eye is a loud fart of a failure and I'm two years late to the Gillian birthday game.

Anyway. Good morning. Welcome to my birthday. That's what today is known as throughout the land, right? Right.

To celebrate, I thought I'd talk about what I love that doesn't cost me anything. Of course some of these require things I've already paid for or utilities, but, I mean...stop being a ruiner and let me live. While I am a huge proponent of celebrating my birthday all month and live by the treat yo'self motto in general, some of the things I love the most are free, like

Watching the sunrise on the beach

Going to the library

Talking about future travel destinations with MFD

Planning things. Anything.

Seeing my people succeed or overcome 

Being ridiculous with my friends

Organizing things. Anything.

Reading a book

Cursing

Drinking coffee outside on the weekends

Sleeping in fresh, clean sheets

Having the windows open at home

Popping in to see my niece

Driving with the music loud and the sun roof open

People watching

Cooking

Exploring a city or town on foot

Snapping photos

Walking in the woods with the dogs at Lori's

Laughing

Looking through pre-digital photos

Freshly painted nails using my too big nail polish collection

Sitting out back in my gravity free chair

Talking to my dogs

Perusing Amazon and making wishlists

Celebrate with me! Share your favorite free things in the comments. While you're at it, leave your email in the raffle copter below. I'll donate $25 to the charity of the winner's choice and send you a surprise box of fun as well. As Peters always says, sharing is caring, you guys.

Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid Review

About a month ago, I received Paula's Choice 2% BHA Liquid from BzzAgent for free. My reviews are never influenced by companies because that's not how I roll.

This product is a liquid exfoliant. It's supposed to shrink enlarged pores. I was happy to get it because I've been displeased with my nose pores recently. I didn't expect a lot because I've been down this road before with pore products.

My skin is combination with super oily spots and super dry spots. It's uneven and I have blackheads.

This was my first time using a Paula's Choice product. I've been using it for three weeks and I like it. My pores are less noticeable, my skin seems smoother overall, and most importantly it hasn't caused eruptions of hysteria on my face or interrupted my skin care routine whatsoever. Since I already use a product with retinol in it at night, I use this BHA Liquid every other day in the morning before I put my sunscreen and moisturizer on. I wait a little while from the time I apply this to the time I apply my other products.

IMPORTANT - if you are allergic to asprin or its derivatives, you should not try this. If you do want to try it, use the code PRPAULA20 at www.paulaschoice.com. The price isn't too bad - $23 for four ounces.

If anyone is interested in a little sample, hit me up. I have one left and I'm happy to mail it to you. Those of you that opted to recieve a sample from my facebook post, have you tried it? How do you like it?

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I Feel Like Madge - Palmolive® soft touch™ Review

I received two bottles of Palmolive® soft touch™ from Influenster for free to review. The products were free, the opinions in this post are my own.


I'm a Palmolive user. Palmolive's packaging appeals to me, it's what my Mom Mom used to use, and I loved their old ad lady Madge. Do you remember Madge?

Madge promised no dish pan hands, and by God your manicure would survive dishwashing to boot.

All these years later, is that still the case?

Palmolive® soft touch™ is new to me. While I always buy Palmolive for dish washing (I use Dawn when making my own cleaning products), I nomally pick what type I buy by scent.

So first, the sniff test. Don't be jealous of how I look on Saturday morning after I just woke up.

Both passed, but I liked the Coconut Butter better.

Now the wash test. I used the Vitamin E on the plate and the Coconut Butter on the knife. Hi YAH.

Nice amount of sudsing on both - enough to get the dishes squeaky clean, not too much that I was overwhelmed with bubbles.

And my hands? No chips in my manicure, and they were soft as a baby's butt. Madge would be proud. I'm going to keep a bottle and give a bottle away to share the joy of a good dish liquid.

I also have five $1 off coupons (exp 6/30) that I'm happy to mail out to the first five people who leave a comment or send me an email to lifeaccordingtosteph@gmail.com so you can try it for yourself.

Have a great Saturday!