Dexter

I've just been talking with some friends about Dexter. My brother showed me an episode of this show on Christmas Eve. I was disturbed even by the introduction and theme song. Can you say "creepiest breakfast ever?!!?" I wasn't sure I wanted to get sucked into this show, but on New Year's Day I decided to check Netflix to see if any of it was online and saw the first two seasons. I started watching and was hooked. A week later I had finished watching all four seasons!

This is what I love about Dexter:

1. Michael C. Hall is hot.


2. They have done an extremely good job of helping you empathize with a serial killer. We get to see a human side to him, although he doesn't see it himself. We get to see the events that caused Dexter to turn out to be the way he is, from the trauma he experienced as a toddler, to his adoptive father teaching him "The Code of Harry," by which Dexter lives his life. Rule #1: Don't get caught.

3. The storyline. Each season focuses around one central serial killer. Somehow, although even Dexter's girlfriend (and later, wife) and sister can't see him for who he really is, there is one person each season who figures out his secret "Dark Passenger." I find myself cheering for the sociopathic serial killer to not get caught by the police because: 1. He's hot, 2. At least he's only killing people who have also murdered, right? 3. It would probably mean the end of the show, 4. There's a part of me who really wants to believe Dexter is a good person in there, although I know that's probably not really true.

4. It just keeps getting better. Season 3 was not the best, but Season 4 was incredible with John Lithgow deserving his Golden Globe for his performance as The Trinity Killer. This is the stuff nightmares are made of, yet I hate scary movies and love this show. This season was filled with some of the best acting ever.

Faerie Made

Today one of my friends took a huge digger down her stairs at home. She was complaining about her muscles, so I told her about one of my Things I Love: Faerie Made Arnica Muscle Rub!! Which, of course, meant I just had to tell her about another one of my Things I Love: Faerie Made Lip Balm!! So, guess who placed an order for Faerie Made Arnica Muscle Rub and Faerie Made Hemp Lip Balm today? If you guessed me you'd be right!

I didn't take these pictures, and I want to be fair to the woman who makes Faerie Made products because she is a small woman-owned and operated business, so I am just posting a link to her website. She also sells on Etsy.

So, why do I love these things so much? Well, the Arnica Muscle Rub is something I had read about on a forum that I belong to, which just so happens to be the forum where I found out about Faerie Made products. People were posting about the wonderful healing powers of Arnica and were raving about this muscle rub. They said it also helps bruises. Last May, my ex was running and ran right onto my foot, bruising it and I couldn't walk. I decided to try the rub and ordered some. It just so happened that I ended up taking a huge digger and getting a gigantic bruise on my side, and big, but not so dark one on my leg right when the muscle rub came in. I tried the muscle rub on the darker bruise. It was gone in a couple of days, when the bruise that was larger but barely visible hung around for about a week and a half. Also, any time my muscles are sore, I just put on some of this rub and it takes the pain away. The only problem is it smells a bit mentholy, but it's a miracle worker, so I just deal.

The lip balm? What's so special about that? Well, I'm a lip balm addict. I had tried a bunch of different kinds and ended up going with just Chap Stick® brand for a while. When I placed an order for the muscle rub, I figured I might as well try her lip balm and threw in a peppermint lip balm as well. I have not used another lip balm since then! This lip balm gets a little too soft in my pocket on warm days, but not too bad. It glides on easy, leaves a bit of a shine on my lips but doesn't feel like gloss (I don't love gloss), and I don't have to use nearly as much of it as I do the commercial brands. I can go a few hours between applications of this stuff, not so much with the other brands I've tried.

I've tried her soaps, and they're nice but I'm not a bar soap person. I'd definitely use these for hand soap, though! They are quite moisturizing for bar soap, too.

Christmas Decorations

I love Christmas and Christmas decorations. It's my favorite time of the year and the only thing that could make it better would be if it wasn't so darn cold! It is the end of January and my Christmas decorations are still up. Now, that's late even for a Christmas decoration lover like me, but it makes me so sad to take them down. They are coming down today, though. :-(

So, what is my favorite Christmas decoration? Well, I love my Hallmark Keepsake ornaments. I buy one each year when I first put up my tree to make sure I get the one I love the most, then I wait until after Christmas and stock up on them when they're on sale for 50% off. This is my third year doing this and I have enough to mostly fill up the tree now, the sparse area I just put in the corner so you can't see it!

One of my favorite decorations besides my ornaments is my splish splash Santa. He's just so silly and wrong, but cute!