Product Reviews

(unpaid product reviews by an American consumer)

Nescafe Dolce Gusto

If like me, you enjoy coffee with your holiday partying, I highly recommend this single serve automatic espresso and cappuccino machine.

Its clean, quick and automatic and the drinks taste fantastic, dare I say it, Better than Starbucks!!

Athough I don't have a Keurig, I believe its kind of like a Keurig, but it makes espressos and cappucinos and lattes, instead of regular coffee.  It's a party!

I’m going to be honest.  The packaging is probably very wasteful (although I am putting it in my recycling bin, fingers crossed) and who knows what lies in those little cups…but it’s one of those times, you just don’t care.

In fact the whole system has plenty of downfalls:  you can only order the machine and coffee cups online, you have to pay shipping, it’s no cheaper than Starbucks…but one sip, and all that fades away.  Not to mention the good caffeine buzz that goes with it.  And you are at home!  Not in line at Starbucks!   A Holiday Must!

SLEEP by Aquarius Flower Remedies

I was repping for Aquarius Flower Remedies about a year ago and could not get anybody interested in SLEEP, which is a homeopathic sleep aid.   I figured it was probably me (bad salesman, not that many friends), but I also inadvertently lost a bit of faith in the actual product.

Well, three nights ago I was very wired (see previous product review) and heading to bed and an early morning and I thought Aha!  I am going to take some drops of Sleep.

It’s amazing stuff!!!  I’m sleeping so well.  I was repping for the company because I had liked other products of theirs.   But I had not taken Sleep that many times, because sleep is not something I struggle with.

But I’ve  taken it for the last three nights and even my usual good sleep is better.  I feel amazingly rested and peaceful when I wake up.  And also completely clear.  There is no hangover.

Sleep is made of flower essences, which are probably the most natural thing you can take.  I have no idea if flower essences affect everyone equally or if diets and other habits and even genetics factor in.  But I definitely have a positive experience with flower essences.  Very, very positive.  You can take them for any kind of ailment, from emotional to physical to spiritual.

Simon, the owner of Aquarius Flower Remedies, gave me a small sample of "Radiant" skin cream back when I was trying to work for him.  I was just kind of using it, unthinkingly, on my face, after my bath at night.  La de da.  Then one morning, I was like my goodness, my face looks good.  

BTW,  I am no longer repping for the company.  I’m not even in touch with them.  So I am writing this review for you.  If you think you might respond positively to flower essences or they might be something you are interested in, go to Simon’s site.  Aquarius Flower Remedies.

Five Stars!!!

Tarot Combinations

wheel of fortune/tower = good fortune resulting from the exposure of a powerful secret

hierophant/ten of swords/world = divorce finalized, moving on

Sinead O'Conner

In a time, where even the most shallow has become entertaining, because being bombarded by it, breath after breath, for so long, you get used to it, and even begin to enjoy it…

It’s wonderful and amazing to be blown away by someone so beautiful…

Take me to Church, Sinead O'Conner

Good News

I had this amazing avocado tree that grew from a seed I planted two years ago.  There were two trunks; it was a twin.  And it was about five feet tall come January this year.  Needless to say, poor thing didn't make it through this past rough winter.  The first night it dipped below freezing I should have covered her in burlap or whatever it is you do, but I didn't.  I brought her in the next morning when I realized what was happening but she never recovered.   All five feet of her beautiful tropical leaves curled and turned crisp, dead brown.  When I read up on it on the internet, it said it was best for plants that get frozen if their leaves fall off right away.  I guess it’s a survival mechanism.  Hers didn't.  Those petrified leaves stood there for the next couple of months, before my boyfriend cut it all back one day.  He was pretty sure she was dead.  I said, “just leave the stump.”  I loved that tree.

Anyhow, the stump did look pretty bad.  But we left it there and I put a makeshift fence around the wooden pot so animals wouldn't get into the now pretty barren dirt.  I also planted a new avocado seed in the same pot one especially still-gloomy winter day.

And then I watered the $%&t out of that empty pot for a couple more months.

Who knows why.  It’s been a crazy winter.

But well, well, well.  Today, but what do I see, but a brand new sprout on the avocado tree.   Actually three sprouts:  two on the old stump and one light green beautiful curled head of a brand new sprout which obviously is from the new seed.  Yeah!

“You know I am finding deep, profound religious significance in those buds,” I told my boyfriend.  “Oh yeah,” he said.  “You thought it was dead,” I reminded him.  “You wanted me to throw away the stump.”   He smiled.

“But I just kept watering…and watering…and watering…”

Quotables

"I want a happy life.  And to control my own fate,"  Alicia Florrick, The Good Wife.

Amen, sister.

Woody Allen

Gross...boycott his movies forever

I read somewhere recently that faeries are the plant kingdom equivalent to ghosts and spirits.  Ghosts and spirits being the disembodied human, and faeries being disembodied plants.

I love that so much.

When I was growing up my grandmother had a greenhouse attached to the side of her house.  It’s unfortunate that I did not appreciate the excellence that was my grandmother in that she grew stuff in a hot house room attached to her house.  I have no idea what she grew or what the heck was going on in there.  I wish I did.  Now, I have plants all over my house and on the outskirts of it. 

Faeries too I hope!

My grandmother was also a painter and she made stainglass art.  She cooked everything and she lived to be one month shy of 100 years old.

Oh yeah, and she smoked cigarettes until she was 80!  J  I love her.

Anyhow, happy New Year to all the plants, people and animals on this planet!  

xx g