I just got another set of perfume products in the Clean line. I have a bottle of the original Clean perfume I was given for Christmas and since I was so smitten with that bottle, I decided to go for another in the Clean line. This time I got a bottle of Clean Ultimate perfume, as well as matching soap and body cream. I have to admit that I actually like the Clean Ultimate even better than I do the original Clean.

Ultimate has Italian bergamot, Provencal lemon, lavender, jasmine, white rose, muguet, neroli and musk and you would not believe how close this is to a natural, fresh, and well,….clean smell this creates.

The Clean perfumes are by a company called Fusion and their purpose is to emulate the smell of soap and that just out of the shower clean that we all love so much. They have been adding new fragrances slowly, but surely. They have one called Sweet Layer that I think I will try next.

Champagne by Yves St. Laurent is still my absolute favorite perfume, but lately my days all smell like Clean. It’s my newest rage.

My last post has me thinking a little bit about the 80s and how fun the fashions were. Colors were bright, layers were out of control, hair was big and bright. I was like a lot of girl my age and thought that Molly Ringwald had a cool way of defining herself fashion-wise. But then, I was also momentarily mesmerized by the ripped sweatshirts that Jennifer Beals wore in Flashdance, so you have to take everything I say in stride.

I’ve aged. And although I still have my big black boots in the closet and my fair share of Ramones t-shirts, my personal style icons have changed. Now I look at people like Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts and the way they can make flowing khakis and soft t-shirts look sleek and soft and utterly feminine. I love the clean lines of the clothes they wear.

I suppose I am showing my true age by admitting all of this. Classic style, that’s what I love. I find myself wanting to make dress down clothes look great. I’m just not as prone to high heels and the skirt-length-of-the month anymore.

Speaking of personal style and favorite trends, there is a video contest going on over at the Dockers website right now. You can put together a video all about your own personal style and tie it into the Dockers brand. The winner of the Dockers contest, which will be chosen by public vote, has the chance to have their commercial aired during NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”. How cool is that. You should check it out. I would love it if someone I know wins.

Sometimes I wonder if engagements and engagement rings are not just a hot accessory in Hollywood.

Case in point, it does not seem like so very long ago that actor Ryan Reynolds was doing press for one of his movies and waxing poetic about his wonderful fiancé, the love of his life Alanis Morissette.

My head spun a little bit when I heard he was dating actress Scarlett Johansson. The kid movies fast, is what I remember thinking. And now, Reynolds and Johansson have announced their engagement. Perhaps Reynolds owns stock in a diamond mine. Or maybe he just figures the way to true love is through trial and error.

Back in the 80s it seemed to me like the “Brat Pack” swapped engagements like trading cards. I suppose the trend has hit Hollywood once more.

Hey, I wish the kids luck. But, I also wish them staying power, determination, and perseverance. They’ll need it.

Wow. OK, I was randomly surfing the net and somehow I came upon this old picture of Madonna’s kid, Lourdes. And all I could think, obsessively and persistently, is that that really need to go into the bathroom and heat up the waxer. Seriously. I am now completely compelled to wax every stray hair I can find.

It is sort of like how when I see Jessica Simpson and immediately think of acne treatment, because of those commercials she used to do where they showed how bad her skin can get. I never look quite like that, but I see Simpson and I immediately go to the closest mirror to make sure I’ve not got any unsightly spots.

People Magazine and their annual list of 100 most beautiful people has always been a little suspect in my opinion. This year, though, they have hit rock bottom. I am not sure who the editor’s are trying to appease, but the fact that RUMER WILLIS is in the issue is proof that you can look like an ice-cold lump of rancid cottage cheese and as long as your parents are famous, people (or in this case, People) will kiss your scary butt.

Have you SEEN Rumer Willis? She is honest-to-God frightening. I actually feel a little sorry for her. Her mother is lovely. He dad is hot. Her step-dad is confusingly ambiguous, but still hot. Both of her little sisters are truly beautiful. Rumer is just plain hideous, though.

There was a little new item about a year ago that she was dating Zachary Quinto (Sylar on Heroes and Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie) and I quite literally vomited a little bit. Well, after I fell out of the hammock chair I was sitting in when I read the story. He is impossible to even look at on screen, due to his inhumanly massive eyebrows. Rumer is not far behind in the eyebrow area, come to think of it. I had an apocalyptic flash of what a lovechild of these two would look like and was not able to sleep soundly for a week.

Anyway, my point is that you cannot trust Hollywood or the Media when they try to tell you what “beauty” is. Call your mom; ask her what’s beautiful. She will more than likely have a much better answer.

Hello. This is my kind of contest, baby. All you have to do is submit an essay of 250 words or less at the Weiman Products website by July 31 and you can win biweekly maid service for a year from Merry Maids®. Five people will win this grand prize and I, for one, am all over it.

Look for their “Maid for a Year” at weiman.com/contest.

Any mom of a young child will attest to the fact that having someone come in to help with the cleaning would be amazing. Sometimes I feel like my daughter quite literally drips messiness as she moves about the house. I might be wiping up a milk spill in the kitchen and when I walk into the living room I find where she has taken her shoes off and let about a gallon of sand fall out of them and onto the carpet. Then, I move the bedroom to find that she has somehow peppered the entire floor with about 500 Barbie shoes. That doesn’t even take into consideration the normal cleaning that needs done, like bathrooms and the kitchen.

I’m getting tired just thinking about it.

I’m not a huge fan of the internet quiz. Well, I used to be. That was before motherhood and a hectic schedule that has my online time trimmed down to the work-at-home necessities. Still, there are times I do take the laptop out to the family room with me so I can aimlessly surf the net while I watch some of the shows I recorded on my DVR. I suppose my incessant need to multi-talk commands that I use all leisure time to the full. Why do only one thing when you can do two things at once, you know?

So, back to the topic of internet quizzes.
My friends send me e-mails all the time with this quiz or that quiz, asking that I take said quiz and forward it to more friends, along with my test results. I typically hit delete and move onto the next e-mail. Every now and then, though, I come across a site with quizzes that are just too compelling to pass up without a little light exploration. OK, take for example the quiz I found on the Bored Quiz site called “How Good Is Your Vocabulary?” Not only was the quiz concise, it was on a topic that interested me.

I’ve got a degree in English. I have worked with language my entire career. I like to think I am at least OK when it comes to my vocabulary. I just had to take that quiz, and I can happily report that I did quite well. I’m pretty sure I would have felt a little bamboozled if the quiz results had revealed that my vocabulary was lacking.

Of course, once I began sifting through the site, I found other quizzes that looked interesting. I’ll even admit that I took the Would You Make a Good Porn Star? Quiz. Yikes. I’ll skip those results, thank you very much. Instead, I’ll let you in on the results of the quiz “Should You Have Your Own Reality Show?”

Take the Should You Have Your Own Reality Show? Quiz

Myspace Quizzes!!

God bless my friend, Michelle. Bless her. Bless her. Bless her.

As some of you may know, I am living with family while I am in transition after my divorce. Like many women who spent years at home as a wife and mother and then find themselves divorced, I also find myself with close to nothing to call my own. I lived in HUGE homes when I was married, but with the current housing market I find our marital home still unsold while my ex and his rebound floozie live in it. I also, to this day, still have no idea what my ex did most of our savings.

And so life goes on, but with very little alone time for me. This is where Michelle comes into the picture. She called to night and said she was having a key made for me, so I can come over when she is at work and get some time to myself. It’s a small blessing and I will probably end up feeling compelled to do housework while I am there (she is a widowed mother of four, so things pile up), but it will be a slice of quiet paradise in my never-quiet life.

I had not realized just how much I need quiet time now that I am the mother of an over-active 5-year-old. She quite literally never stops talking – even in her sleep. It is something that has often made me think of calling the Guinness Book people. The family member I live with is retired and loves busy noise, in the form of televisions and radios being on in nearly every room. It’s not loud, but a constant background murmur – still too much for me.

Yes, God bless Michelle.

Our society is full of mixed moral standards.

In a day and age when there is more focus than ever on drug rehab and the importance of living a clean life, the United States media is still comfortable moving the news of the death of Albert Hofmann (father of the drug LSD) to the top position in the headlines.

As a collective society, we pour funds into rehabilitation and recovery programs, drug education, and alternative for our children. And yet, on the St. Petersburg Times news website, Hofmann’s obituary has placement above such issues as today’s vote on abortion in Florida, drastic job cuts in our school district, and news about the current presidential election.

I have no problem with Hofmann’s obit appearing in the headlines. His “medical discoveries” were significant in the direction our society took in the 60s. I just do not agree with the prominence of the article.