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For those of you who didn't read my skin's
original plea for help
— it's winter and I'm stuck indoors with a baby.
Artificial heat coupled with frequent hand washing has not done my skin any
favors, particularly since I am prone to cracked hands, old lady elbows and
scaly lizard legs.

Vaseline did me the favor of sending a bottle
of Vaseine Intensive Rescue Repairing Moisture Body Lotion,
but they also wanted to up the ante with a 'winter skin challenge'.

ME: Can't I just take the
lotion and be done with it?

VASELINE: No.

My challenge? BAKING.

I think Vaseline chose BAKING because standing by a hot oven, dipping your hands in dry flour and scrubbing
caked-on burnt bits from the bottom of a muffin tin aren't exactly the things
that add up to touchably soft hands. 

But they might also know that I haven't baked
since the 7th grade, when I made a disastrous Mississippi Mud Pie and
almost failed Home Ec.

Was
baking a challenge? YES.

I decided to start slow and committed to making
cupcakes from a box. Impossible to mess up, right? Well, that would be assuming
an intelligent person would read the back of the box where it says the box makes 24 cupcakes. I assumed the box matched my muffin tin and poured all the batter into twelve.

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Forget following instructions, did I mention I
don't even like reading them?

The cupcakes came out fine— just a little dense
with oversized flat tops. Mazzy didn't notice a
difference— she only eats the frosting, anyway.

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Then I got motivated by my semi-success, and
decided to bake sprinkle cookies from scratch. I looked up a sugar cookie
recipe online, sent Mike out to buy my ingredients, made Mazzy wear the apron
and got to work.

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All was well until I got to the part where I had to knead the dough with my
bare hands. Am I the only one who sees this as disgusting? Mazzy was more than
happy to dive in and by the time we were done, we both looked like we'd taken a
bath in flour. Scraping both of our fingers with a rubber
spatula to make sure we were maximizing our dough seemed particularly
disgusting.

I might think twice before eating just anybody's baked goods from
this point forward.

Once the dough was finished and Mazzy was done
licking the flour off the countertop (kids are weird), the fun part started. We
took turns making ducks and bears and stars and hearts with assorted cookie
cutters and then covered them with sprinkles and candy eyes.

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Mazzy was in
charge of setting the eyes just right— although I had to explain that the ducks
were in profile and required only one eye, a complex concept for a
three-year-old.

Then I put them in the oven and prayed.

If you discount the creepy melted eyes, they
came out perfect! It's how they taste
that matters, right?

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After we ate the cookies and cleaned, I used my
Vaseline Intensive Rescue lotion. You really do notice a difference in dry skin
after just one use. Plus, I'm really into the non-greasy formula since, as I
mentioned with the cookie dough, I hate the feeling of stuff on my hands.

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I've been the using Vaseline Intensive Rescue
since the end of December and it's been very effective, particularly on my
legs, which have actually lost their lizard-like distinction.

Of course, they are still unshaven… but I'll
save that tidbit for when Gillette contacts me.

———————————————————


Untitled-2GIVEAWAY

If you’d like to try out Vaseline Intensive
Rescue lotion, just name your favorite winter activity in the comment section
below.

I’ll randomly choose 5 winners to receive both a 10 oz. sample of
Vaseline Intensive Rescue Repairing Moisture Lotion and 7.5 oz. jar of
Vaseline Petroleum Jelly so you can enjoy winter without worrying about dry
skin too. Winners will be announced on Friday.