I'm a #CoolAger! Thanks, Philosophy, for pointing that out!

Thanks to being a Crowdtapper- a member of Crowdtap- I recently had the opportunity to try Philosophy's "uplifting miracle worker moisturizer"- their "cool-lift & firm moisturizer for face & neck". 

I'm a #CoolAger, all right!

At 57 (I'm a #Boomer born in 1959), I Do like to think of myself as a #CoolAger - one who at least tries not to let anything stop her, and for whom age is only a number! My mom is THE ULTIMATE #CoolAger- at 94, and a WWII US Army #Veteran, she is a 165 avg. bowler and a Great golfer (see photos below), as well as a professional artist- and a 20-year breast #cancer survivor/thriver! She has been my Cool Aging Inspiration for many, many years- my whole life, actually- and as a result, I have a lot to live up to in the Cool Aging Department! LOL

My belief is that being able to be a #CoolAger, and to keep doing the things you love and want to do, depends a lot on genes- and I'm counting on having my mother's! But it is also an attitude, and a determination not to "let the turkeys get you down", as the expression goes! I HATE when people advise others not to do the things they love and want to do because of their age! As long as you want to and enjoy doing the "crazy" things you've always loved to do, keep doing them!! For me, being a #CoolAger is also doing what ever I can to make myself both look and feel good, and as youthful as possible. No, barring a miracle, I'm not gonna look 35 again (dang! LOL), but I can strive to look as good as possible. Living now in Extremely Rural West Virginia (as opposed to NYC, where I'm from and lived for many years), means I don't have access to monthly facials and spas and shopping, and such, so I really have to do it all myself! I don't wear makeup every day now, either, so it's important to me that my skin look as good as it possibly can without makeup. I do a lot of research on natural medicine, which I rely upon for my health, and I take Ayurveda (Indian) herbs every day as they really do make a difference in how I look and feel. And as an Official Anti-Aging Beauty Product Junkie, I am Always looking for the newest, best, and most 'cutting edge' anti-aging beauty products to hold back the hands of time (at least visually LOL), and so I was really excited to try Philosophy's "uplifting miracle worker moisturizer", as it promises, in only 4 weeks, to make one's skin feel more firm with a better bounce, with one's facial contours appearing more sculpted, youthful and defined. In 8 weeks, 75% of the women who sampled it showed a clinical improvement in skin firmness, radiance, and texture! That is pretty darn impressive!

I've used a number of Philosophy products in the past and have always been pleased with them, and I was pleased with this one, too! (Thank you, Crowdtap!)

I really like the way the uplifting miracle worker moisturizer feels when I apply it- it's cool and lightly firming. You can see from the photo of me applying it, that my skin has a nice, smooth sheen to it. It's absorbed quickly into my skin, my face does feel soft and hydrated all day, I've experienced no breakouts or other issues, and my makeup goes on smoothly on top of it. It is a great moisturizer! To be honest, however, I was, frankly, expecting more... more visible anti-aging results, faster, I guess, especially as it's $65 and not an inexpensive product... I am using it on my face, neck, and decollete, twice a day, and I am going to continue using it to see if I get more "lifting" and "firming" results over time. Philosophy does suggest that for best results it should be used together with their "uplifting miracle worker instant-effect cool-lift & tightening moisturizer booster", which supposedly provides "instant results"...  and I want to try that, along with this moisturizer... Not cheap, but heck- I AM worth it! :-)  

My 94 year old mom- #CoolAger Extraordinaire!

My 94 year old mom playing golf last month...

As you can see, I received the full-size product to try from Crowdtap, which was great, because to see results with a product like this you really do have to give it a fair shot and some time to work- it's unfair to judge a product after only sampling it once or twice. I HEARTILY recommended joining Crowdtdap if you enjoy market research and giving your opinions on products- sometimes you get to try them, too!
SO: the bottom line is: YES, I really like Philosphy's uplifting miracle worker moisturizer, and the cool, firming feeling it gives, and the way my skin looks and feels after I've applied it, and YES, I'm going to keep using it! AND I'm going to lash out and buy the serum, too! :-)

Passover Seder, Vietnamese Claypot Ginger Chicken, Flan-o Perfecto, & Birthday Bling?

Last night (Monday) was Erev Pesach (the evening on which Passover begins), and Dan and I made a lovely Passover Seder at the Elkhorn Inn:

We had handmade Shmurah Matzah (THE best matzah!) from Chabad of Morgantown, West Virginia, and that made it a VERY special Passover, indeed! This is the second year Rabbi Zalman & Hindy Gurevitz from Chabad Morgantown have sent us Shmurah Matzah, and it truly makes our Passover wonderful! We used the beautiful Seder plate given to us by our dear Irish friend, Megan; the pussy willows & forsythia were from the Elkhorn Inn garden; our hand-embroidered coasters were from our amazing honeymoon in the Central Highlands of Vietnam; my prayerbook was my Dad's mom's, and our Manischevitz wine was from the Kimball, WV WalMart!  I made the Charoses (a yummy mixture of apples, almonds, and wine), that is eaten on Matzah as part of the Seder service, and Dan got the horesradish, and other foods we needed for our Seder plate; the herbs came from our windowsill garden!

Make no mistake: I am NOT a Chef.  Dan is the Chef.  I can basically follow recipes, "potchkee", doctor and tweak them- but I truly impressed even myself Monday night!

For our Seder dinner I made Vietnamese Claypot Ginger Chicken from Mai Pham's wonderful  "Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table" cookbook, as it's a great Kosher recipe:

basically chicken, ginger, garlic, Thai chilis, scallions, & a bit of brown sugar; the claypot gives the dish a wonderful smokeyness, and it's wonderful served over rice; it turned out SO good, in fact, that we've put it on the Elkhorn Inn's menu!

You can see the Elkhorn Inn's new 2010 menu

here, on our Facebook "fan" page under "Notes".

We treated ourselves to Freemark Abbey 2006 Viognier, one of the "Wines of the World" that the puppies had bought Dan for "Dogfather's Day" on http://wine.com, and it was Superb with the spicy ginger chicken! This is Definitely a wine we'd love to buy more of...

We then REALLY treated ourselves to a desert of the great banana and guava wines we brought back from  Vino Del Grotto in St. Augustine, Florida- tropic summer in a bottle! Neither is too sweet, as fruit wines are wont to be; the Guava wine would be an excellent accompanyment to a spicy, tropical dinner, & the banana wine is Fabulously Banana-y! And we WILL be ordering at least a case of their wines as soon as we can!

After this fete of culinary extravagance, Suzie Homemaker Not then Totally Outdid Herself, and made a Vietnamese flan (also from Mai Pham's cookbook), which is creamier than the more dense Spanish version; it's more like a creme brulee than a flan- and it was Excellent! Flan is a Very tricky thing to do right, and as I was able to do it spot-on my very first time, this means that: a) Mai Pham's recipe is Really good, & b) I CAN (contrary to popular belief) Follow Directions! LOL

I pulled about 10 different flan recipes before I attempted Mai Pham's, & I learned something REALLY cool from the www.ElBoricua.com recipe for  Puerto Rican flan: Instead of trying to make the caramel sauce in a pot (with the resultant mess of hardened or burnt sugar), you put sugar and water in the bottom of each ramekin (they must be both oven and microwave safe) and then put them in the microwave for approx. 2 1/2 minutes (you must watch them VERY carefully!), and you make the caramel sauce in each little ramekin! Pull them from the mircrowave the Second they turn light brown, let them cool, & then pour in your custard mixture through a strainer. Then you bake them in a "Bain Marie" (a pan of water) and Voilla!: Flan-o Perfecto!  If I can do this, ANYONE can do this!

As loyal readers of this blog know, April Fools Day is my 51st birthday, but I'm not finding it Nearly as depressing as 50.  LOL (I didn't find 40 NEARLY as depressing as 38, either...) I am therefore not planning to do or buy myself anything extravagant- although I Did treat myself to a ProPlay golf club handle/glove set & a cool (pre-loved) Helen Welsh "pony" zebra handbag on eBay, and am Hoping Dan & I get a chance to have a celebratory sushi-saki fest @ Kimono in Princeton...) I Am, however, still hunting for an engagement ring to replace the one I lost doing laundry, and so was back this week on DiamondNexus, in the Continuing Saga of Elisse's Great Ring Hunt. I, at 50, have been truly suckered in by the "Journey Jewelry" ad campaigns, which tout a string or a circle of diamonds, each one representing a 'milestone' in one's life. Having passed more than a few milestones to date, I find that concept Extremely appealing, and when I found the "Emotions" pendants on DiamondNexus, I began to think that maybe I want one of those, too!

Once you get to 40 or 50 (or 60 or 70 or 80 or 90...) and you have a few milestones to commemorate, the idea of a Journey Pendant is Very appealing. Whether it's kids or pets or jobs, military service or marriages or divorces (LOL), countries traveled to, illnesses survived, or houses owned (or all of the above, LOL), at some point it hits you that you Have been on- and are still on- a "journey", that life is, essentially, a "journey", and that it would be Really Cool to celebrate it all (or at least a few of them) in diamonds! 

What is cool about DiamondNexus is that while a diamond Journey pendant with stones of any size would be obscenely expensive, (and my journey has been Livin' Large, so I want Big Rocks! LOL), theirs, beautifully & perfectly set in 14k white or yellow gold, are actually affordable! (And Boo-Boo wants a 3.2 carat one, to be sure!) And they have them with emerald, ruby, saphhire, & chocolate gems, too!

And as someone who's mom has fought- successfully, B"H- the fight against breast cancer, and who has/had many friends and loved ones affected by this horrid disease, I LOVE that DiamondNexus has a 7-stone rose-pink "Journey of Healing" pendant, and that $200 from the sale of each pendant and chain set goes towards funding the fight against breast cancer.

Click here to check them out!

I will close this post with a couple of photos that prove that it really Is, Actually and Truly, Spring, here in Landgraff, WV: