 Good morning, I'm Mary Ellen and today I'm going to share with you some of my favorites. I'm going to talk about lifestyle favorites, favorites in the home. I think I have one beauty item, some personal safety information, and then I'm going to circle back around and talk about what I've been enjoying on television. So I'm going to go ahead and get started. The first thing I wanted to share with you is there's two things I did. I I don't know if you guys shop on Amazon every once in a while there'll be something like get $10 to reload your e-gift card. Well, I had for Mother's Day, I had gotten a gift card and I you know put it in my Amazon account and when that popped up, I did it and I because I reloaded $100. So I made $10 just like that. I don't know how often they offer that, but I thought that was good to know. The other thing is, not sure if you're aware of this, but on Rakuten that's the one that you can get cash back on that I've been a member of since 2013 and I think it's fabulous. They also have e-gift cards. So if you buy somebody a $100 e-gift card and they have 5% cash back, in reality that $100 gift card is going to cost $95 because you will get the $5 back and I think the most I've ever seen is 6%, but you know, I mean I'll take if I buy somebody a $50 e-gift card, I'm glad to pocket $2.50. So that's just another way to save and I'm really good about knowing what I want ahead of time and waiting until that cash back on Rakuten is higher. If you haven't ever signed up for Rakuten, I'll have a link below. If you make a purchase within 30 days, you will get a bonus and I will get a bonus. So just wanted to share that with you. Now this really excited me and it may not excite you, but we had for the first time, and I don't know how long, we had ants in early part of May and I tried little tiny, tiny ants all around in the kitchen sink and I tried all of the DIYs. I tried it all and I just couldn't get them. So I looked up and found that these, these are by Tarot and they're liquid ant baits and I'll show you what they look like. They look like this and all you do is you snap off this end and you put it wherever you need it and the ants will go in and then they'll take back the poison to their colony, I guess it's called, but they work like a charm. So I hope I don't need this whole box, but I will share it with my friends and family if they have ants. But it really did work. In Southern Illinois, it gets very hot, very humid and and there's a high dew point most of the time, which just makes the air really thick and even though we have central air conditioning every summer when, when the humidity gets really high, I get out my dehumidifier and I'll put a picture in here and I have been so appreciative of having that. I have it on in the kitchen. I think it's supposed to dehumidify up to 2,000 square feet. Well, all I care about is just the downstairs and I tell you what, sometimes I have to empty that twice a day, always once a day and it shuts off when it's full. Last year I bought a package of 25 five gallon ziplock bags. They're reusable ziplock bags. Jim likes to cook things and he does. He gets in the freezer and my system wasn't working. I used to have tote bags and you zipped them. I knew where everything is, but a lot of times he will just go in there and get out chicken legs or pork chops or something that's individually packaged and it's a mess when I get back in. I didn't really think I was gonna like these but they held up for a year and they're still going strong. I put several packages of food in here, meat, different things and then I put a clip, like a binder clip on it and I stick it in my freezer and it's just so easy to pick this up and he can see what's in there and I really do like them. I've given some to my sister, some to my daughter and they're really working out very well. There's a lot of uses for it and since they held up so well, I don't feel bad about using them. I would imagine the last several years. I also bought these last year. These are two gallon. They're excellent for putting like fruit or bags of things in but I like that better for meat, but these are good and and I haven't had any problems with them. I kind of like to get back to you on a few things that I talk about. Almost six years ago, I bought two sets of these. They're the silicone spatulas, they have a wire in here. They're wonderful. I use them all of the time and I've always been on the hunt for this brand in particular and I'll put a picture here. Could not find them. I know when I bought them, they were not inexpensive. I think they were like $20 for four of them but they're they're wonderful. I've purchased so many spatulas that break that that just aren't clean. These are all one piece. Well, I still couldn't find them. When I searched on Amazon, another set came up and these were like $9.99. I bought them. There's four of them. They're different sizes and this kind of has like a little spoon in it. I really liked them. I like I liked them so much that I've already ordered two sets. What I do at Christmas, I just start buying things as I see it and my son and my son-in-law both like to cook and I like to get them different kinds of things to put in a basket. I've already started on my Christmas and those are excellent. Dishwashers say they're heat resistant up to 600 degrees. They're just, they're nice and they have the steel in them. There's not a seam. I anticipate that they're going to be every bit as good as this. In my last favorites video, I asked you all if you had any good, I mean well of course I would want good. I wanted some suggestions for high protein low carb bars and pajama mama gave me a suggestion and I actually went in all these to buy them and they are the Elevation Advanced Protein Bars and they only had one brand and it was the chocolate peanut butter. It has 18 grams of protein, four net carbs, a total of two sugars and it's 240 calories and they were excellent. I saved one so I could show it to you. This is the size of the bar and they're very, very good. So thank you for the suggestion. I would recommend them. What I judge in a protein bar is I don't want it to make me crave something else sweet and this doesn't and I have to really kind of be careful about what it is sweetened with and whatever this is sweetened with doesn't bother my stomach but some of those sweeteners just make my stomach growl and I want to stay close to the bathroom if you know what I'm talking about. But I think these are wonderful and I'll definitely buy them again. I haven't gotten anything, any new flavors from Belch. Nothing has come out that I've been like interested in. I'm kind of hoping they bring the puffs back. I still have my favorites and I will reorder but I have two boxes in the freezer and one in the refrigerator and I always store them in the refrigerator in the summer. I mentioned that I had ordered another cologne and this was the person who made me want to buy this is Kathy from Kathy's Beauty Care Chats and she talks about Gershaw Lyra and it's a very expensive scent, a very expensive brand that for me I wouldn't buy it. That's just we all have our you know what we'll spend money on and I'm about to talk about something in a little bit. But anyway I ordered this and it's from the company DUA came in a nice box. I will tell you I love this. It's caramel delight and it just smells wonderful. I've used quite a bit of it. I have it on today. It is sweetness and I'm not even going to try to tell you what scents are in here other than it is sweet and it smells good. I like it and Jim likes it. So thank you Kathy for the recommendation and I think I'm done buying scents for a while. I still have I have quite a few to work through. The only other new beauty product I've tried is the Purito Cleansing BB Cream and one of my viewers and her name is Zuley Z-U-L-Y. She recommended this so I ordered it's one ounce and I ordered it from Amazon. I think it has a 37 or a 38 SPF and I just really wanted to try something lighter. I put it on using this brush that I bought from BK Beauty and I'm going to tell you right now if you're still here later on I'm going to do a giveaway with two brush scents but I love this brush. It's the 101 love the way it's angled. I never put foundation. I have a ton of brushes and I never put foundation on with a brush. I put a well kind of a small amount. It was a small amount on the back of my hand and I just pound this in there and just put it all around and I loved it. I love the way I've used I've used this quite a few times because it's different than anything I've ever used. It's been a good combination. This doesn't have very many shades. I don't know if they're working on that but I appreciate Zuley recommending this to me and I've got it on today. Okay what I'm going to talk about next is personal safety and Jim had I have Jim's permission to share something with you and he said I could talk about it but he didn't want me talking about it in the comment section. Anyway Jim has severe spinal stenosis. He was diagnosed three years ago and it has gotten worse. We're due to see the doctor but he's using a walker all the time. I mean he's really really struggling so you know his safety is like number one with me. This house is big if you're in one end of the house and I mean you can't hear anybody. You can't you can't hear anything so I got my thinking cap on and I thought what could I do and he won't keep his phone next to him. He will not learn how to use an echo dot. He's kind of hard headed but I wanted something that I could feel that if he needed me if he felt that I would hear him or you know he gets up at night and anyway I did some research and I ordered an Apple Watch and I'm wearing the Apple Watch right now. I knew that I would have to buy it. I'd have to wear it before he would even consider trying it but for right now he won't wear it. I'll see what I can do about it but I want to tell you a little bit about it and why I am so impressed. The downside to it is you have to have an iPhone. You have to and I have no idea if Android or any other brands make anything like this but I'll tell you what sold me on this. I had I set it up put the app on my phone and in the phone I have like SOS like people that are supposed to be contacted in case of emergency so that was already in my phone. I had just really had this on for a couple of days. Well to get to my dressing room you have to go through two rooms go through a hallway come in here turn so I mean it's kind of like isolated but I was putting up a few things at the top of my closet and my closet is my brother-in-law built it for me and I have like double racks and then I have a really high real deep shelf so I had my two step step ladder that has a place to hold on to I was being very safe and it was that that furry blanket that I ordered from Nordstrom it's kind of a weighted blanket well I had washed it and let it dry some time ago and it was thoroughly dry and I put it in a in a 13 gallon trash bag anyway I was up there and I kind of was hoisting it when I hoisted it I went flying new to protect my head but it kind of it just stunned me so as I was lying there I felt this buzzing on my arm it was like and I looked down and it said call 911 or SOS or I fell but I'm okay so of course I touched I fell but I'm okay I had no idea that it would do that I've tried every which way to move my arm to do whatever I can for that to come up again and it won't but I was so impressed with that so like if I would have fallen and I would have been knocked out it would have automatically called 911 I'm glad and then also sent alerts to my the people that are supposed to be alerted if something goes wrong with me I was so impressed by that I just thought of all the situations that would have turned out better had something like this been available then I went ahead and got the cellular plan on mine which is $10 a month because I thought well if Jim is out driving the car he doesn't take his phone so I thought well we'll do the cellular if it's on your Wi-Fi network at home it'll do so many things as far as health I don't need it for my heart it will do heart rhythms it's a one-lead EKG but I already know that I have atrial fibrillation and I know when I have it it also does your blood oxygen well I have that little device that does blood oxygen and I forgot to bring it in here but I'll put a picture of it up here and it works perfectly and it does several your pulse well my Fitbit does all that but you can call you can make telephone calls you can just say hey and I'll write the word call so-and-so in it that's yeah S-I-R-I or you can just touch the side of the button there's a place you can touch it like if you're ever in a situation where you don't want to draw attention there's a little place you can press five times and that will initiate your SOS it's also on cell phones on this on Apple phone on the upper right side as you're looking at it if you just touch that five times it is supposed to initiate help and the reason I'm sharing this is 90% of the people who watch me are 45 years old or older so they either you might have parents you might have friends you might have you might be at the age where you need something that would help you in case of an emergency you know I buy my phones outright because I don't want to spend $17 a month for insurance and that's the way it used to be if you bought it and you paid for it every month you had to have the insurance well when I buy my new cell phones I do it about every two years and I keep my old ones and I keep them for a reason because they can be used as a computer they can be used as my camera which is my iPhone 8 right now is my camera they can you can do anything on them except for call and you can even use call 911 but the important thing is learning how to do it when you're young enough to do it if my mom could if this would have been available when my mom was 80 it would have it would have just been wonderful she wouldn't even have had to learn to use the cell phone all I would have had to do is show her how to use this watch and she could call she could she could get help you know she could I just think of so many situations that came into the emergency room that were so sad and or if you're in the car and you're driving and you have a wreck well it'll probably initiate 911 just because of the force but or if you run off this side of the road you don't your your phone may go flying but you'll still have your watch on I don't know I'm just thinking of all these safety things and just wanted to share those with you the downside it has to be charged every day I mean it'll go for a little longer than a day but I've got to be in a routine and what I do at night when I come in here I come in the bedroom I read I clean I you know I watch some TV so that's when I put it on to charge and it has like a little metal thing that goes behind here and it charges at 100 probably in about 45 minutes 30 to 45 minutes if it would be totally dead which it never has been I think it takes an hour and a half to charge so somebody would have to get into a routine but just for me the possibilities are out there and just wanted to share that with you you need to do a little bit of research to see I think the series four five and six Apple watches all have that fall detection and like I said I know it works and I think sometimes it's important for me to share things with you that could be helpful and I think I was supposed to fall so I would know I mean that I would know that it would do that I still love my Fitbit I've been wearing it because I've been comparing I look on the apps to see how I do very very close in sleep it'll tell you how well you sleep what type of sleep you're in if Fitbit had fall detection and the ability to make phone calls I wouldn't need an Apple watch but as of yet it doesn't but you know what it may be out there at some point my mother died 11 years ago and she was 89 years old the last 10 years of her life she did wear a safety alert pendant it worked really well but it didn't have the ability to alert to alert us if she fell and was unable to press the button what really impressed me so much about this watch is the ability to send alerts and being able to cancel if the help is not needed and I was really impressed with the feature to make phone calls just from the watch itself so often somebody does not need an ambulance they just need a hand so if you know of any similar devices please be sure and share it in the comment section below thank you now I'm going to talk about the BK beauty brushes and then I'm going to circle back and talk about what I've been enjoying and on TV and and that's about it I went ahead and open these because I wanted you to see them but I believe I always I've washed my brush before I ever use it I'm just going to show you what I do I don't know everybody has their own thing I take my brush run it underwater make sure I don't get it up in here I have a bar of soap that I have raised up on a little tray rinse wash it go around and around on the soap and it's just your preference I this is African black African soap go around here a few times run it underwater go back and then all since I do brushes often I'm I'm not one to wait until they're all dirty this is all I need for that then I'll take this and go around like that run it underwater do a quick thing and then they're done and then I just take it kind of shake it kind of press it and I just lie mind flat and I've done it I've never had a problem but I think it's a good practice to always wash your brushes before you use them and this was when I bought it's a 105 brush the first brush in the giveaway is a 101 and that is the foundation brush that I showed you that I used they're they're they're wonderful brushes they're cruelty free they're soft they wash up very well they're so well made and they fit really good in your hand that I have a few it cosmetic brushes I use as far as face brushes these have been my favorite this is a large powder brush I'm not going to touch it but I just want you to see how full it is this is the 103 the bronzer brush it's it's pinched here very very nice brush and the last brush in this set is a tapered powder brush and this would get really under your eye very well very very nice so this is my face set and these are the eye brushes and I'll go over them one I'll go through them with you the face brushes were called the essentials face brush and this set is designed for smaller or hooded eyes and here is a very first brush and it is the defined crease brush this is the 203 it's a shader brush and I bought the I had the larger versions of those I bought those this is a 204 it's the smudge brush this is a 207 it's a precision blending brush I think it is and this is the one that I have to uh it's a 208 and it is the I think it's a precision defining eye brush I use this one in my recent get ready with me it's it's just perfect the brushes the brush is just perfect she sent me her brushes I had already purchased two sets when she sent them to me when she found out that I had a YouTube channel it's really nice to be an older content creator and be remembered by these young women it really is and you know there's a lot of people that want to send you things but they don't want you to give them away I knew that I was going to give these away when she wanted to send them to me and I asked her and she said that is perfect a lot of times they don't want you to give it away so I really appreciate that and I mean I really love her channel she's a professional makeup artist she was the trainer for matte cosmetics in Texas and and now she has her own brush line and makeup line and busy mom of two I'm just going to wrap up the giveaway and then I'm going to talk about what I've been liking on TV and I'm going to ask you all for your suggestions if you want to be entered all you have to do is in your comment section list which one you want first and I do want a sentence and list if you know this will be face and this will be eyes so if you say something about the eyes if you use that word first if and your name comes up you'll get your first choice or face so you kind of know how I do it and and I always close my giveaways in three days and I announce them on my next video and that's all you have to do if I'd appreciate it if you give me a thumbs up or subscribe but you don't have to do any of that well I subscribed to HBO max for one month and I really enjoyed it I wasn't going to I wanted to see the friends reunion because I used to watch that all the time so I I went in and I subscribed for one month I've got it written in my calendar when I need to cancel it but I thoroughly enjoyed the friends reunion I loved mayor of east town that's on HBO it was fast paced it was interesting it starred Kate Winslet and it just really was good I enjoyed it I usually watch about an hour of television every day every time when I come into the bedroom and I have not watched daytime TV since I've been home which will be eight years in December cannot believe that and I'm going to finish out this month I'm going to watch some of Lisa Ling's interviews I've watched a couple of them and they were really good and then I'll probably cancel and then I'll wait until something comes on that I really want to watch and do it again also I don't know if you know this or not but you can get Netflix in our area at least for $8 and 99 cents a month if you just use it when it on to watch one TV well I can watch it on any television in the house but two people can't watch Netflix at one time and Jim never watches Netflix so I some time ago I went down to $8.99 a month and there's no commercials so on Netflix I really enjoyed the Queen's Gambit it is a series I never thought I would enjoy anything about chess but it was just so well done and it it just brought you in from the beginning and I really enjoyed that I've been doing Ancestry.com I've been working on that some in the evening and I have been a member of Ancestry.com since 2002 and my children both know I mean it automatically comes out of my checking account every six months and they know my password I mean I'm like on one vein in my family I'm back to the 1300s I've worked on Jim's Ancestry and also on my children's father so there's just a wealth of information and I really do enjoy that and for the suggestion I'm going to ask you if any of you have any recommendations for very very very lightweight readers I am so tired of getting things on my nose right here and here and I don't usually like the ones that have the little tips unless you know some that are really light anyway it is all good thank you so much for watching and for giving me your time I appreciate it so much and I'll see you in my next video take care the first thing I want I mean I bought and if you haven't ever and if you're not the first thing is because I wanted to show them on