The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 35,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 13 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
My friends…I totally received and unbagged this Glam Bag when it was still September. Honest. So let’s just ignore the fact that it is now October, and pretend like I’m posting this video and review immediately after having recorded. Got your pretending hat on? Okay, good, let’s get on with it. 🙂
Ipsy did not disappoint this month, so let’s do a little breakdown, shall we?
Hikari lipstick in “Cabernet” shade: This is a full-sized product in a very nice shade that I’m definitely impressed with. To buy this in stores it would cost about $13, which is almost the entire cost to me of the Glam Bag, so that’s pretty damn awesome!
Pacifica nail polish in “Red Red Wine” shade: This is a second full-sized item (Ipsy…you’re awesome) in a shade that closely resembles the lipstick. It goes for about $9, so now with only two of the items we are well over the cost of the bag.
Nourish Organic’s Moisturizing Cream Face Cleanser: When purchased in stores, this product comes in a 6 oz tube for $14. The sample that I received is 1 oz, so that makes it worth a little more than $2.
Mitchell and Peach’s Luxury Hand Cream: A full-sized tube of this lotion is 60 ml at a cost of 17 euros, which is approximately $24 Canadian (which, personally, I think is outrageous because it feels just like any other hand cream to me). Since the trial size we got is 30 ml, that makes it worth about $12. Just want to point out here that even though it’s decent hand cream, I would never in a million years pay this price for it.
Be a Bombshell’s “Smooth Criminal” Powder: I was actually shocked to find out that this is a full-sized product as well. Being that it’s a product that I wouldn’t normally use, I just assumed that the small container had to be a sample, but no! This is the third full-sized product in my bag! Awesome, Ipsy! Oh, and the little container goes for $12
Total approximate value of bag: $48
Total cost to me: $15
I mean…come on. That’s value right there. Admittedly two of the items are things that I wouldn’t have purchased for myself, but I’ll definitely use them up anyway, and the lipstick and nail polish are awesome. Ipsy really did a great job with September’s bag; I’m totally satisfied with my purchase. Honestly, how can you beat $15 for three full-sized products, plus a couple of trials? And they are nice products too, not cheap, generic stuff. I can’t wait to try them all and do my product review video. Look forward to it!
Day 10- Write a review of the last book you read
I’ve read reviews on all sorts of things and something I’ve learned is that I’m not particularly good at writing reviews. There’s a kind of knack to it, I think. That said, please excuse my awful review of A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.
I’ve mentioned before that this book amazed me. Within the first third of the book I found myself developing a major “author crush” on Martin. He creates an amazing, deep world full of lovable (and hateable) characters whose stories weave a complicated tapestry that keeps you hooked page after page. The journey begins with a prologue that hints at the existence of supernatural creatures of evil…which then fail to show up again until within the final chapters of the book. You’d think that would be a down-point, but I mention it because even though it seems like it would be annoying, you don’t even realize it’s happening because the other plot points are so incredibly interesting that until the creatures show up again you totally forget about them. That is how great Martin’s writing is.
If there’s one complaint I have about the book (and believe me, it’s tough to complain about this book), it’s the overwhelming number of characters. Many of the characters are obviously important and it is necessary to know about them, but there are torrents of characters who, as near as I can tell, are just background noise, and yet we’re forced to know a ridiculous amount of back-story about them. Maybe it’s just me, but I found this writing style made it extremely difficult to keep track of the important people and information. I’m getting used to it now, while reading the second book in the series, but it definitely hurt my head more than once.
In conclusion, you might have to draw a map to keep track of things, but A Game of Thrones is a must-read for anyone who loves fantasy stories.
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