Yay for the Freakin’ Weekend!

Happy Friday, y’all!  This has been the slowest week ever, so I’m hoping this weekend goes nice and slow, as well, but we all know it won’t!  It’ll more than like go by super fast and Monday will be flying upon us like those crazy creepy flying baboons from the new Oz movie.  Oh well, it is what it is….happens every week like clockwork!

If you’re interesting in entering a giveaway for one of my 8×8 “Moonlight Cherry Blossoms” paintings, make sure and head over to Simply Stephanie blog a.s.a.p.!  All you have to do is visit my Etsy shop “The Painted Palette” & take a look and then go and leave a comment on her blog, as to which painting you like.  Easy peasy!  The winner will be announce on Monday, May 6th, so you only have until this Sunday to enter.  Last I checked there were only 4 comments, so you have a pretty good chance, so go enter!

Remember in my last post where I said that all of my posts I’ve written lately were in draft mode over on i.seekissimmee.com?  Well, if you head over there now, my first post has been published, so you’ll have about 10 more that will be published throughout the next week! Some of the posts you’ll see over there this week are for some pretty good places to eat, like Hawkers, Beaches & Cream, & Blue Bird Bake Shop.  You’ll also see my review of the musical dinner show the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, which is pretty spectacular, as well as things like the Boardwalk, Downtown Disney, shopping at The Loop & of course the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival.

Other than that, not much else going on.  Been doodling a bit in my sketchbook & playing around with my logo character.  Tomorrow is my 1 month weigh in.  I’ve been trying my best to be a good girl and eat more veggies and smaller portion sizes.  My goal for the month was to hopefully be down -10lbs, so fingers crossed I can hit that in the morning.  As of week 3, I was down 7.7, so far, so we’ll see!  Well, until I post again…yak at ya y’all later & have a fabulous freakin’ weekend!!  

Malena’s Gourmet Creations Review & Giveaway

Hello all my bloggy friends!  Are any of you out there addicted to Etsy?  LOL….silly question, I know…of course you are!  I have found some of the best handmade shops over the years on Etsy and now I’ve found another great find for you that is just too good not to share!!  The name of the shop is Malena’s Gourmet Creations.

Malena’s Gourmet Creations specializes in making completely natural, handmade soaps, lotions, lip balms, mud masks, moisturizers & more!  I love the fact that in her description of each product, she lists the ingredients along with the benefits of each ingredient!  It’s kind of like a little science lesson!  For instance, Papaya Extract is good for stabilizing oiling skin, as well as a good exfoliant for removing dead skin cells!  Who knew?  Another plus is when you order, your shipment is sent out pretty darn quick.  I ordered and received my package within a week and it was packaged super well with bubble wrap and tons of pink tissue paper!  Even living in Florida and my package sitting outside in the heat, everything was perfectly fine when I opened my package.

It’s hard to pick a favorite item, as everything I’ve tried has been excellent, but if I had to pick I would say it’s the Massage Lotion Bar in the scent “Viva La Juicy”….it smells Aaa-Mazing!  I had never heard of a lotion bar before, so I thought I’d try it out and I’m so glad I did.  It comes in a little metal tin for you to keep it in, so you can throw it in your purse or keep it on your desk for whenever you may need it.  It’s super moisturizing and it doesn’t leave your hands all greasy feeling, like some lotions do.  Plus, this has little ridges around the heart shape, which gives your hands an excellent massage when applying!  It comes in so many different scents, it’s hard to choose, but I highly recommend “Viva La Juicy”.  It smells so good!  If you’re a lotion person & travel….this would be an awesome item to get since it’s not a liquid and you wouldn’t have to try to cram it in a quart size baggy with all your other liquid cosmetics!

My next favorite item I ordered was the lip balm.  This stuff is the BALM!  Haha…bad joke, but, seriously….it’s off the hook!  It contains things like beeswax, sweet almond oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, cocoa butter….so super moisturizing!  What I love is the fact I don’t have to constantly reapply like you do with some lip balms.  This moisturizes so good…it literally lasts for hours.  Plus you can get it in numerous lick your lips yummy flavors.  I went with the “Pink Frosting” flavor due to my love of cupcakes.  I think the next flavor on my list to try is “Cotton Candy”.  YUM!!

Anyone out there love face masks?  I do!  If you do is well, you’d love the Dead Sea Mineral Mud Mask!  This is a pretty thick mud mask…I would almost describe it to have a clay like texture, which is great because a little goes a long ways!  Just put on a thin layer and let it dry for 15-20 minutes and then wash it off with some warm water and leaves your skin feeling so smooth & refreshed!

Now for a little surprise for all you lovely readers out there!  Malena was sweet enough to send me a couple bars of soap with my order & I’d like to give you all a chance to win one of these bars in a giveaway!  I have two full sized bars…one in the scent Crisp Lettuce & the other in the scent White Truffle Raspberry.  I tried out a sample bar of the Frosted Cranberry.  Loved the soap…it lathers up really well and leaves you smelly good and leaves you squeaky clean!

How to Enter

To be entered to win the Malena’s Gourmet Creations Soap Giveaway, all you have to do is follow this blog & visit Malena’s Gourmet Creations Etsy shop & leave a comment of which product you’d like to try out for yourself.  For another entry, “like” Malena’s Gourmet Creations on Facebook & leave another comment that you did so.  While I’m still deciding on whether to transition my blog to wordpress completely, you can also follow & leave a comment on my blog here for an additional chance to win.  I will pick two winners and the contest ends on Friday, August 17th at 8pm EST.  Best of Luck & spread the word on the giveaway!  Wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on getting to try out a pretty great product!