playdate

#10 -- Baileys (with recipes)

Yes, Irish Cream. It's fattening. It's super sweet. And it tastes damn good in just about anything. There is nary a time when someone offers me a shot of Bailey's in my coffee that I can say no.

One of my best Baileys experiences was at The Pottery restaurant at Blue Mountain Inn in Collingwood, Ontario. (I'm telling you because should you find yourself there, you HAVE to try this.) They make a Bailey's cheesecake that is wrapped in Phyllo pastry and has a Jack Daniels caramel sauce on top. You don't understand how good this is!

#9 -- Joe Fresh

On my recent trip to San Francisco, I was stopped a few times as people commented, "That's a great dress." I didn't dare miss an opportunity to flaunt my skills as a bargainness. "Thanks! I got it for $19 at the grocery store."

If you live in Canada and you have visited a Real Canadian Superstore, Loblaws or some similar food emporium in the Weston family of stores, you have likely come across Joe Fresh. Because what person in their right mind, when given the opportunity to mask clothes hunting as grocery shopping, would turn the other way?

#8 -- T3 Tourmaline Ceramic Barrel Brush

Addictine mentioned her shopulemic sister a few weeks ago. Said sister is the clever shopper, maximizing points cards, doing online surveys to get discounts and the like. Perhaps her most brilliant shopping scheme is subsidizing her habit by checking parcels at Holt Renfrew each Christmas.

Addictine benefits from this brilliance each year under the tree. This year I received a lovely Cole Haan tote and a T3 Tourmaline round brush. The brush, coupled with ceramic/ionic blow dryer technology, has cut my hair drying time in half.

#7 -- Think Baby Trainer Cup

OK, so we all had a brief freak out when the media got us all crazy about Bisphenol A and bad plastics. (Addictine is happy that BPA is no longer in baby bottles in Canada, but frankly she didn't want to buy more plastic and kept using some of the Gerbers that she'd had from Kid #1.)

We've also all gone through our fair share of sippy cups before finding the right one. But this is my job here: to let you know which item might possibly be the best ever so you don't have to waste your hard earned money too.

#6 -- Bravado Nursing Tank

Addictine has a 10-month-old daughter and a very saggy belly. (Alas, Bio Oil does stretch marks, not stretched skin. Boo hoo.)

While I'm not nursing as frequently as I was a few months ago, I still find myself in situations where the shirt must be raised and the stomach area must be hidden. (My daughter "the tank" tears and tugs at nursing covers until I have whiplash.)

I'm all for bra burning, but everything is tragically jiggly and I just feel better if it's all tucked snugly away.

#5 -- Eco-Lawn

Baby made? Check. House bought? Check. (Well, in 25 years or so it'll be ours.) Deck and fence finally built? Check. (Though Addictine is getting a bit naggy about the finishing touches.) Grass? Well, we had some until the dirt from the deck and the fence build killed it all. And if we did still have some, who would have time to maintain it?

So when I saw a review of Eco-Lawn in House & Home, I was intrigued. Water-sucking, fertilizer and pesticide-needing earth covers, lawns are typically viewed as anything but "green".

#4 -- Elizabeth Arden "CZJ" Lipstick

OK, two lip product posts in a row might be too many. But I work for a fashion/beauty/trend website, so it's a bit of an addiction (to say the least). Plus, last time I promised I'd tell you which named-after-a-celebrity lipstick I wear.

Elizabeth Arden Color Intrigue Lipstick in "CZJ" is a mouthful of a lipstick. Named after no less than that great Welsh brunette, THE face of Elizabeth Arden, Catharine Zeta Jones. It was given to me by a friend, who received it in a free-gift-with-purchase goodie bag and decided the colour was too much for her.

#3 -- Lorac Gloss Stick

Last week your faithful Addictine was strung out on a new job high and missed a post. This week I'm paying the price. My favourite lip gloss ran out.

I even went so far as to get the lip brush out so I could dig out every last ounce of delish lip goodness. Pshaw, you say. It's just lip gloss. A dime a dozen. But I swear to you that Lorac Gloss Sticks are no ordinary lip gloss.

#2 -- Bio Oil

They keep insisting stretch marks come down to genetics. If that's the case, my genes saved my stomach. Too bad they couldn't share the love with my hips. Great canyon-sized purple lines have been engraved in my chach.

A publicist/friend (the best "slash" combo to know) sent me a bottle of Bio Oil. No, it's not some green fuel that will get your husband all excited. It's a skin treatment that claims to reduce scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. I had seen the commercials with somebody's mom running across a beach, happy that Bio Oil had turned her lukewarm mom-bod back up to hot. I was skeptical.

#1A* -- Adria Vasil's Ecoholic

* Last week's Addictine had to be removed due to a technicality, so let's start fresh this week.

A clever frog once sang, "It ain't easy being green." Indeed, trying to change our family's buying and consumption habits has been an uphill battle. I'm convinced that all this eco-talk is just a new anxiety put out there to drive us to feel bad about ourselves. Which drives us to buy more stuff. Which is really the opposite of what a truly green person should be doing, isn't it?