I Can Vouch for That

So Seth asked me this morning what I was writing about this time and I told him it was another post about my favorite things. He promptly raised his arms over his head complete with 'jazz hands' and yelled in his best Oprah voice:

"MY FAAAVORITE THIIINGS!!!!"

*snickering*

Ok on with the goods....

L'Oreal HiP Color Truth Cream Eyeliner- I bought this stuff last Christmas to use as a dark base under my eyeshadow for a party. While it worked well, for some reason I never thought to use it as intended until recently. I have used eyeliner pencils in the past, but like all my other eye makeup, it tends to melt off during the day because of my oily skin. So I got this out again the other day and tried it and it was awesome! In fact, Seth asked me if I'd done something different with my makeup when I got home from work that day because he said I "looked really good." When a dude notices your makeup is different, you know it must be good, right?

Now, this eyeliner does come with its own brush, but I thought it was a little stabby and a bit too skinny, so I just used an eyeliner brush I already had. A little goes a long way, so I just barely dab the end of the brush in the pot. It does dry fast so it's not super forgiving of mistakes, but I got the hang of it after a couple tries. After each use I wipe the brush off on a piece of tissue to get rid of any extra pigment because otherwise it will dry on your brush and make it stiff.

I just bought the black eyeliner, but they have several other colors available including midnight blue, brown, turquoise, and purple. I really love L'Oreal makeup overall... they generally have good quality products. And they have several products available in their HiP line now... including eyeshadows of which I recently bought several. We'll see how it goes with those...

Clean & Clear Advantage Acne Spot Treatment- I'd been using some prescription topical ointment for my skin which was working pretty good, but then I ran out of stuff and didn't want to go back to the dermatologist to get a new prescription. I noticed even while using the prescription stuff I'd gotten some little bumps on my forehead that wouldn't go away. Long story short as soon as I started using this stuff, the bumps went away. And I could actually see an overall improvement in my skin which NEVER happens with anything I buy. My skin is smoother and more evenly toned. Anyway, I put this on my whole face every morning and I really love it. It's keeping me away from the dermatologist so that's even better!

Unicorn 6" Keytop Peppermill- My life changed the day I started using fresh ground pepper in my cooking. Ok, not really, but I refuse to use the pre-ground stuff in my food now. Mainly because it has no taste. So I've had a small salt and pepper set that I've used forever, and it's great and all, but the peppermill is way too small. This means that it takes forever to grind any significant amount of pepper and it also means I have to refill the thing every two days. So trying to find a better solution, I bought a pepperball. I thought it would be more convenient for cooking to have a one hand operation. It was the worst purchase I've made for a long time. It took probably three times longer to grind any amount of pepper and it made my hand tired. Plus I could never get the slot open to refill it (after I actually FOUND the refill slot). So the pepperball got relegated to the camping supplies.

So this year for my birthday Seth's awesome brother and sis-in-law, Scott & Amanda, gave me a gift certificate to Amazon. I used the opportunity to spend the money on something I wouldn't normally justify and bought a nice peppermill. I was really tempted by the Unicorn Magnum Plus 9 Inch Peppermill just because of the name alone. But, ultimately I thought it would be a bit too large (you can get too big you know) and would tip over more easily on the stovetop where I normally keep my peppermill. I was about to get the 6" Unicorn Magnum Peppermill, but then I saw they had a 6" Keytop Peppermill and I ultimately chose that one as it looked easier to turn (even though I wanted one called Magnum).

I have been using this peppermill for a couple months now and it's awesome! It's very easy to refill, holds a lot of peppercorns, grinds quickly, and has a very solid build. I can't say how it compares to the regular Magnum design, but I would buy the keytop version again given the choice, mainly because it seems like it would be easier to turn if your hands were slippery or something. So, if you've got an extra $30 laying around and need a really good peppermill, give this little guy a shot... or go straight for the 9" Magnum... I'm sure you wouldn't be disappointed by that either...

Frabill Wood Handle Rubber Landing Net- My first landing net was your standard nylon netting cheap landing net. Problem is, I'm a two-fly kind of girl. This meant whenever I actually used my landing net, I'd end up with my flies tangled up in the nylon and 10 minutes of fighting to get them out. I rarely ever used my landing net unless I had to because it seemed to be more of a hindrance than anything. Then I saw the new-fangled rubber netting landing nets and began coveting immediately.  However the ones I saw were all about $100, which was a little out of my price range.

Then one day Seth and I were at Angler's Den, a local fly shop, and noticed they had these Frabill rubber landing nets for only $30! So, we bought 2, one for each of us. And it's been one of the best things we've ever bought. I love using my landing net now. It makes landing fish so much easier and I can quickly remove hooks and release fish. No more tangles. Plus this net is nice and deep so there's more room for larger fish (because that's all we catch...). I was a little worried that the quality of the Frabill nets would be crappy because they were so much cheaper than the other rubber nets we'd seen, but so far they've proved to be durable and are just as good as they were the day we bought them. If you're still using one of those old style nylon nets, I highly recommend switching over to one of these babies. You won't regret it!

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W290 12.1MP Digital Camera- So this is sort of an endorsement for Sony Cyber-Shot cameras in general, but this is the current camera I have from them. I had an older model which finally gave up the ghost a year after being dropped in the dirt (thanks a lot Seth!... just kidding), so Seth bought me this camera as a replacement this last Christmas. I am not normally inclined to haul a camera everywhere, mainly because they're too cumbersome. The thing I like about this camera is it's so slim and small that I can slip it in my back pocket or in my purse and it doesn't take up much room at all. Which means I bring it everywhere and actually USE it!

This camera has a lot of great features and it's really easy to use. You can put it on an auto setting which does a pretty good job of selecting an option for your situation whether you're taking a close-up picture, a landscape, or a portrait. But, there's also a lot of manual selections as well if you want to do that instead. After owning the camera for a little while I found some extra options on there, one of which was a pleasant surprise... it had a 'food' setting! I use this one ALL the time and it works really well. The camera has a great zoom range and a large viewing screen and it also comes with a rechargeable battery which is awesome. Plus at 12.1 MP, the quality of pictures are amazing. I can't believe some of the pictures I've gotten with this thing!

This camera also has a video camera setting which is fine... nothing too amazing, but better than nothing. The only bad thing about the video setting is that you can't zoom, so you have to physically move around if you want to change the view. I don't use the video setting that often but I've been fairly pleased with it the times I have used it. So if you're in the market for a good digital camera, try this one out. It's not exactly cheap, but sometimes it's worth it to spend a little extra for added quality. It's definitely one of my favorite things.