Unexpected Surprises

I don't know if I should admit this or not, but in my never ending quest to find a replacement for my favorite magazine that is no longer in print (Jane) I have picked up just about every "girly" magazine out there. And for the most part, I feel like they are all the same ... I don't know how people can be subscribers to any one of them for a long period of time: they all seem to print the same articles month after month with minor changes here and there. But that's not the point of this post :) One of the magazines I occasionally pick up (and can tolerate much more than Cosmo!) is Allure. Definitely not a replacement for Jane, but more tolerable than others.

Last summer I discovered that Allure does a daily giveaway. I don't pay close enough attention to know if they do this every month or just some months, but I've seen it most times I've visited their website (which I'm more likely to do than actually pay money for a magazine). Most of the giveaways entail being one of the first 50 people to enter at noon EST on any given day ... the kicker is they don't ever tell you if you won. You just have to wait and see. How do I know this? Sometime around June of last year, I managed to be at the right place at the right time and entered one of the giveaways right at noon (well, 11am where I live). I was pleasantly surprised about two months later when UPS came and left this on my doorstep. $23 shampoo for free? I'll take that! Even better that it happens to be for my hair type.

So today, a day that consisted of wiping my son's constantly runny nose, trying to clean up my house, and going through a bunch of old papers (more about that tomorrow) I heard Zach and Boy#4 crying "Truck! Truck!" Now they'd been yelling that most of the morning, pronouncing it more like the F word, but since they were looking out the front window I figured I'd better turn off the vacuum and have a look too. Lo and behold, there is the UPS man walking up my driveway. I have to admit, my first thought was not a pleasant one. I was definitely thinking that Jerome had forgotten to cancel his coffee of the month club or whatever it is and UPS was coming to bring us more. (My disclaimer: I thought we still had a cupboard full of coffee. I was corrected tonight when I recanted this story to Jerome that all we have is 2 really old packs of decaf and about a quarter pound of regular coffee.) Needless to say, I was a little irritated when I opened the door to get the package. My spirits quickly turned around when I saw that instead of a good size box addressed to Jerome, what was actually delivered was a small, lumpy envelope addressed to me. When I saw the return address, I immediately knew what it was.

In December I was perusing Allure's website one day when I saw something that I thought I'd like (but would never pay for) in their daily giveaway. Since they weren't giving that particular item away for a few more days, it somehow popped into my head that the thing to would be to set a reminder alarm on my cell phone. Moment. of. genius. The item that I received today: a fairly new product by Elizabeth Grant called The Socializer. It consists of two pen-style products, one for daytime and another for night, that are supposed to help you cover up and get rid of under-eye circles and puffiness. TOTALLY what I need, especially when I'm pregnant since I tend to look like I haven't slept in a week ... which differs slightly from when I'm not pregnant and look like I haven't slept in 3 days. I can't wait to try this product out. Especially since it is rumored to be one of Blake Lively's favorites.

I have a feeling that I will be making it a point to check Allure's website more often from now on :) Also, if anyone has a good magazine recommendation, I would love to hear it! I'm open to just about any type of magazine, though I will admit that I'm starting to have the same feelings towards Woman's Day/Family Circle/Good Housekeeping that I do regarding Cosmo/Glamour/Allure/Lucky.