Favorite things...

There are a few products that I've recently tried & really liked, so I wanted to share them with you:

Downy Almond Cream Bliss fabric softener 

I'm in love with another fabric softener!! I was in the grocery store, sniffing all of the fabric softeners - trying to find something, anything, that wasn't a disgusting floral scent - when I saw this new Downy scent. They describe the scent as "milky vanilla, balanced by hints of peach and cinnamon". Hmmm. That sounds really yummy, but that's not what I smell when I sniff the product, LOL! To me, it has a powdery scent - similar to the original Downy fragrance that I loved so much (before they ruined it with "scent pearls"). But whatever it smells like, I love it. But don't tell Downy, because every time I like one of their scents, they discontinue it. I paid $5.49 for a  oz. bottle (on sale) at my grocery store.

Febreze Pumpkin Harvest & Fall candle 

This candle is just pure heaven. It seriously smells good enough to eat. It has a tremendous scent throw (it easily scents my first floor, which is about 1000 sq. ft. - and starts to drift upstairs a bit, too) and smells like freshly baked pumpkin pie. They describe the scent as "spicy cinnamon, pumpkin and creamy vanilla scents" - and I would agree with that. The box states that the candle will burn for 30 hours & contains odor neutralizers. And I can say that it definitely neutralizes odors. I paid $4.99 (on sale) at my grocery store. This is a limited edition, so grab it while you can!

(I saw on the Febreze website that they also have a LE Cinnamon Sugar & Home candle with the scent described as "homemade cinnamon glazed pastries mixing with the soothing sweetness of vanilla". I'll be looking for this one as well.)

Febreze No-Spill Reed Diffuser 

Gus received two of these free from work or I probably wouldn't have tried them. The ones he got were something like Jasmine Honeysuckle. My first thought was "Ewwww", because I don't like florals. But I thought I'd put them in two of our bathrooms anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. The scent was very light & refreshing - and you only get a whiff every now & then. I hate it when you get a face (and mouth) full of overpowering icky scent when you walk into a room - or when you put a fragrance device in a room and can't smell it at all. They last a long time, too. I've had them for 2 months and there is still about an inch of liquid in the bottles.

It looks like that scent has been discontinued (no biggie, LOL) - but there is a Anjou Pear Spice that is described as "the gentle sweetness of fresh fruit lingering  in a comforting blend of spices" - so I'd like to try that. I've looked at a couple of local stores, but I haven't been able to find this product on the shelves yet. I found a coupon in the Sunday paper for $2 off, so I assume eventually I'll find the diffusers in the store.

Febreze Soy Candle 

I love, love, love this in Cranberry Pear! I bought one of these several months ago and I think it was $9.99 at my grocery store. I had a coupon for $4 off, or I probably wouldn't have tried it. I can't find the burn hours on the website, but I think it lasted around 25-30 hours. This candle was an almost completely clean burn - there was barely a speck of wax left in the bottom. Love when that happens! Because the base can also be used as a lid, you can reuse the container.

FTW and major fail...

You know how some things are just so awesome you have to tell everyone about them? And then there are some things that are just so annoying that you have to tell everyone about them? Well, here's my current win/fail list...

These things totally rock...

1) Amazon Prime membership and free 2-day shipping! Yes!! And Amazon gets extra points for having just about anything I could ever want. The membership is $80/year, but it doesn't take long for it to pay for itself.

2) GAP - for their in-store exchanges!! Yay for doing price overrides to give me the price I paid online for an in-store exchange!! (I was worried because I read online that GAP makes you do a return & then repurchase, but in doing do, some people lost their online discounts).

3) Swagbucks - by installing their toolbar and using them to do internet searches I would normally do anyway, I've earned enough Swagbucks in the past 3 months to redeem for three $5 giftcards for amazon.com!!

4) Slacker Radio - thank you for offering such a great service for free!!!!

5) my blog readers - you guys are the best!!

And the MAJOR FAIL list...they all suck...

1) Rhapsody - they make it virtually impossible to unsubscribe from their service; after trying to unsubscribe for 6 weeks, I finally had to get my credit card company involved before I could get my Rhapsody account canceled. Shame on you, Rhapsody!!

2) iGive - you think you're doing a great thing by shopping through them so money is donated to your designated cause; but when you try to uninstall their annoying shopping window, you can't - none of their solutions work, their customer service people are condescending, and their final solution (in a not very nice email) is for you to allow them to remotely connect to your computer in order to remove it. Hmmm. Let me think...NO.

3) the truck driver who was on 237 earlier this week driving 20 mph (speed limit is 55) and weaving all over the road - he was TEXTING!!! While driving an 18-wheeler!!

4) the elderly lady who I let out of the parking lot - 4 lanes of traffic, and she stops in front of me with her turn signal on to get into the next lane. No merging, no slowing down - dead stop. She held up traffic for at least 5 minutes.

5) Sonya Kashuk bristle hair brush - yep, the one that was supposed to be similar to the $126 Mason Pearson brush. It *might* be great if you have thin hair, but it won't even brush completely through my hair. Grrrr. All I can say is thank goodness it was only $15.

Don't bother if you have thick hair!!

What are some of the things that you love/hate?