Sensual mint

My love affair with mint and eucalyptus is not limited to shampoo. I especially love it in soap. Unfortunately, I have yet to see any in supermarkets. I am lucky that we have a friend that makes handcrafted soap—Annomi Soapworks—and several of his variants have mint or eucalyptus: Eucalyptus Lavender, Peppermint Scrubby, Minty Lavender and Blue Mint Swirl. Some are smooth, some scrubby. He usually only frequents bazaars, but he lives close enough to us that we can go to his house if I want to buy some.

Like the shampoo, it's the sensation of coolness that I adore. Especially in one particular area. Which area, you'll have to try mint soap yourself because I am not mentioning it here. Let's just say that sensual is definitely the word you'll be using to describe it too.

Keep a cool head

Literally.

I suffer from seborrhea / seborrheic dermatitis, thankfully only on a particular spot on my scalp, near the nape. (For you lucky ones who have no idea what seborrhea is, read the article on MedicineNet.com—just don't laugh!)

Late last year, Unilever launched it's newest shampoo and conditioner in the Philippine market, and it has quickly become my (current) favorite hair product. Clear, the Ice Cool variant (I think of them as flavors, actually, but then that's me). Even if I didn't need its anti-dandruff properties, I'd probably use it anyway because it has mint. Mint! I love the sensation of my head literally feeling cooler, especially from the conditioner because it has to be kept on for several minutes.

The day after

Three Kings Day (officially, it's called the Feastday of the Epiphany in the Catholic Church) also marks the last day of the Christmas season for most Filipinos. In its most shallow sense, it means that's when we take down all our Christmas decorations.

And that's what I have to start doing tonight.

• Remove the ornaments and lights from the tree and dismantle it
• Remove the ornaments from the wreaths on the doors and take them down
• Remove the ornaments from the garlands on the banister and screen and take them down
• Walk around the house and pack up all the decorations I put all over the place
  
• Wrap each piece of the creche in bubble wrap and put them in their box
• Change the runner on the buffet table
• Wash the regular dinnerware and change the Christmas-themed one we've been using
• Take down the capiz parol outside the house and return the security light

Obviously, this list is for my use because I might forget something otherwise. And it's going to take me the whole week since I can only do it at night when I get home from work.

Three Kings Day

And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was. They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. Then they opened their treasures and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

~ Matthew 2:9–11

The Journey of the Magi. James Jacques-Joseph Tissot, French.
Oil on canvas, c. 1894.

The Adoration of the Magi. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish.
Oil on canvas, c. 1655–60.

Glitter happy

Uh-oh. I think I've caught the glitter bug.

When I started this blog, I promised myself that I am not going to use glitter graphics, either on my site or my friends' and family's. Sigh. I guess it was inevitable, though. I have glitter glue, glitter gel pens, loose glitter, glittery embossing powder. So what's a few glitter graphics for the web?

If I leave some on your site, however, feel free to delete them. Just as I delete those on my site every now and then. They tend to make loading slow, and I just hate it when the thing's hosted in Photobucket and the "bandwidth is exceeded."

Out with the old, in with the new

Toothbrushes, that is.

My dentist only told me two things about toothbrushes (not about brushing—that's way more than two). One, buy brushes with soft bristles. Not medium, and definitely never hard. Hard bristles are not good for your gums. Two, change your toothbrush every six months. I forgot to ask why, but I can only think of two reasons for it—it either has something to do with the bristles or bacteria.

Just to make it easy for me to remember, I change our toothbrushes at the start of the new year, so that's what I did this morning. July 1 is harder to remember, but I get by. I usually make the mistake of changing brushes on June 1 though—easier for me to remember because that's our wedding anniversary.

A new year

A new dawn, a new beginning.

May your 2008 be filled with peace, prosperity, success, love and joy.

Happy New Year!