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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
———————————————————
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.
Making chicken noodle soup!
My favorite winter activity is scrapbooking. Ugh, I never thought I would say that!LOL Now that my daughter is three years old, she can help. Last year she basically scribbled on the pages before I pasted her photos. I usually dread doing it, but in the cold winter it is nice activity to keep both of us busy and distracted from the fact that we cannot go outside.
being cozy with my family.
I’m actually big on baking for the holidays, but I never make sugar cookies. I hate rolling them out, it’s such a hassle. I’ll stick to chocolate chip cookies and cheesecakes. You chose a pretty ambitious cookie in that respect and they came out super cute!
I love to make dinners and freeze them so when I get home from work it’s just pop into the oven and bake. Makes the house warm and allows time with family.
Well I live in the South…so winter here is for example…74 degrees yesterday morning and by noon is was 46! Crazy weather. I actually love going for walks when it’s cold. It seems to help clear my mind and my sinuses 🙂
Making snow forts with the kids.
Snow! And why the heck haven’t we gotten any yet?
And I also love scrapbooking, though my little monsters have kept me away from it the past few years.
favorite winter activity always used include snow, but since we haven’t gotten any… i will say walking to town and having a hot cup of mocha at the local coffee house, leaving my son with my husband, and enjoying the quiet with my ipad. i’m dreaming of course, cause that hasn’t happened….
Skiing!
My favorite winter activity is playing in the snow with the kids! In Arizona it’s a drive to find some but so much fun! Did you know there are different types of snow and the wrong kind makes snowmen much harder than on tv?
lol meg, i feel your pain!! i am big on baking and canning in the winter, but with my family its a whole lot of board games… can’t go wrong with a game of monopoly that lasts 8 days- so far…lol
Sledding with the kids!
Favorite winter activity…complaining about how cold it is.
Oh gosh. I thought you were going to make the cupcakes and cookies more moist by adding the lotion. They have a vanilla flavored – scented? – lotion, don’t they?
My skin is cracked all year long thanks to my lovely combo of genetic input, so I’m always using different lotions. Especially after washing dishes or using my phone outside without gloves in the sub-freezing outdoors. The fingerless gloves* make it possible if not pleasant.
* And don’t tell me about those special tech gloves that work so well – I’d rather slather Vaseline lotion on my hands afterwards. 😉
Making pancakes on a weekend morning with my Little Big Man-either the strawbaby (yes that’s what he calls them, adorbs, and I know it won’t last so I’m sharing here to make it go further) or banana variety…
Eating soups!
My favorite winter activity is Bitching – it’s too cold, there is too much/not enough snow, the roads are slick, I’ve lost my gloves, it’s cold…
Baking with the kids is a favorite winter activity for me. Especially since I bought myself a KitchenAid stand mixer and don’t have to do that disgusting hand mixing.
My skin gets nasty dry during the winter, too. I’m always looking for lotion that works well. I keep the lotion next to the shower to lotion up immeditely, or I’ll forget and scratch all day. Also, I decided to go ahead and shave regularly this winter (for the first time in years) because I was tired of clogging up my razor when I finally did. So I’m all clean shaven and moisturized this year.
Making Chili and cleaning out closets for Goodwill!
My favorite winter activity was finally having enough of the right kind of snow to make a snowman with my daughter. That and snowball fights with her. 🙂 Unfortunately our other favorite activity, sledding, will have to wait until next year due to the fact her brother is due in four weeks, so all Mommy gets to do this year is waddle out and watch.
My favorite winter activity hmmm who am I kidding, I live in Michigan. It’s cold as shit and I spend the entire winter scrubbing my kids slushy dirty footprints off our wood floors, cleaning and recleaning the house because she’s usually trapped indoors and my house pays for it and rotating between treating one or more family family member for colds and flus. Fun times…
Mine is actually baking, though I only let myself do it until Christmas so I don’t balloon up to 400 pounds. I love making tasty things for my family.
I feel you on the cracked hands, we don’t have a dishwasher. (Ok, we just got one last year and it doesn’t drain properly, so we don’t use it, because it takes me just as long to do the dishes by hand when you add in the time it takes to drain the dishwasher…) My favorite winter activity is to sleep, I love it when you are lying in bed, covered in thick blankets, so you are nice and toasty, but your face is cold. Granted, usually it is a struggle to sleep with my kids foot in my rib or them sleeping on top of the blanket, so I get a little draft. I also love watching the birds on the feeder.
Snowmobiling!
My favorite winter activity is hibernating…does that even count as an activity?
One of my favorite activities would have to be taking a warm bath.. although, now I have to put my son in there with me, only use baby shampoo for bubbles, fill up the tub a lot less than I’d like, AND have warm water (the worst part of all). Oh yeah, how could I forget about all of the finding nemo toys, a wash cloth, a rubber ducky, and a hair brush?!
Napping while the little heathens run circles around the house 🙂
Hanging out in the den, enjoying a nice fire in the fireplace.
I love baking and snuggling with my son!
Outside activities in the snow… sledding! Skiing! Ice skating!!
We don’t get snow, but whenever it rains i love to bake. Or snuggle up on the couch under a warm blanket & read or watch a movie. With two little guys the latter activity never happens anymore. :/
We love having snowball fights in the yard with our two kids (ages 7 and almost 2)… followed by hot (OK, warm) chocolate with tons of marshmallows.
First off I hate the feeling of stuff on my hands, when I was little and my mum would put lotion on my hands I would immediately wipe them off on something, my dad always joked it was how he knew I was really his child 🙂
My favorite winter activity is that first snowy walk 🙂 or snuggling up inside with some tea and a book
I don’t like to bake either and am only motivated if there’s an event, or soon to be rotten bananas on the counter. LOL Mazzy licked the flour off the countertop. Kids are weird! My favorite winter time activity is snuggling under a blanket in front of my TV ;). Though with a 2 yr old at home, I’m hoping for some significant slow so we can take him sledding or something wintery.
Love making snow cones with the kids when it snows. And sledding. And hot chocolate afterwards. And counting the days until spring.
Favorite winter activity: wrapping my dry, scaly hands around a warm cup of hot cocoa and watching movies with my 2 year old and my newborn baby ( I NEED that lotion!!)
My favorite winter activity is snuggling on the couch with the kids enjoying the fireplace. It’s too cold to do much else.
I understand the dry skin. I have dry skin in the summer and winter is horrible on my skin. My hands actually crack open and bleed. 🙁 I have yet to find anything non-greasy that helps.
Iceskating!
going for long winter runs and then coming home to cook delicious treats in the kitchen!
my favourite winter activity is counting down the days until Spring/Summer… I hate being cold – which is unfortunate since both my kids play hockey and I spend a good portion of the winter in arenas…. I carry hand cream with me everywhere!
I feel like I really just want to hibernate during the winter, like a bear…a beautiful, warm bear. However, I have a 4 year old and a 28 year old (the BF) and they like their activities. So my “favorite” activity is trying to stay warm and not itchy from dry skin while we walk the dog, play in the “snow” (I live in Texas now, I used to live in Chicago so I use the term loosely), and making winter soups in my crock pot.
My favorite winter activity is sitting by the fireplace reading a book.
My initial answer was going to be ‘snuggling under the warm covers of my bed all day with hubby and/or my ipad’. But I’m not sure that really qualifies as an activity. Nor is it even remotely realistic given the 5 and 6 year old kiddos and that pesky FT job (sigh), so I’ll say… building snowmen with my girls. 🙂
Curling up on the couch reading in front of the fire.
Our favorite activities usually involve snow. But with the lack there of and darkness looming at just 6pm, game nights have become all the more intense in our household. Games of Phase 10 that last 3 days and trying to keep the cat from knocking over the Jenga tower are more challenging than one may think!
reading when it’s snowing outside!
Running!
It all looks yummy to me!
playing in the snow – it is an amazing feeling when you go out there with a 3 year old and see everything from his eyes!
My favorite activity is sleeping….haha, just because I’m pregnant. But during non pregnant winters, my favorite activity is cook soups!
drinking cocoa and watching the snow fall from the window count?
my son just asked me to make cupcakes like those. So you probably rank as a culinary mastermind according to 5 year old’s standards. Also I totally do not see what baking has to do with hand lotion. Whatever Vaseline.
Long walks in the snow!
Backing and playing in the snow top my list. Less snow this year so I’ve been crocheting a lot…
Um. Baking. LOL
I’m in California, so I really have no complaining priviledges, except for this winter when it’s actually colder here than on the east coast. We’ve been having freezing nights the past week and my lawn is brown. boohoo for me. Anyway, favorite thing to do is bundling up on the couch, wrapping my cracked fingers around a hot cup of coffee and watching mindless tv. I can so do that right now…
My favorite wintertime activity is baking!
Cuddling up with a blanket and hot chocolate and watching tv
I, too, find kneading cookie dough nasty. But I’d rather do it than let my kids do it because I know where their hands have been, and, well, EW.
My favorite winter activity is cuddling on the couch watching a good movie while eating some sort of gooey dessert (ie-apple crisp, chocolate lava cake).
I live in Florida in protest of winter in general, but if forced into a snowy climate my favorite winter activity is cozying up inside with a blanket, hot coffee, and a good book.
(I have a three year old so that should happen again in approximately 15 years)
I love snow tubing!
Reading. But now that I have three year old twins, so that’s not happening soon!
Ice skating!
Reading near the fireplace (which this year was replaced by playing with the 9 month old in a place near, but kind of far from the fireplace). 2 of my fingers are actually SPLIT at the moment, so this lotion sounds great.
My favorite activity is actually being able to USE a blanket! I’m always so hot and the best sleeping weather is when it’s cold and you have to snuggle up in a soft and fuzzy blanket! AAHHHH
Making mint chocolate chip muffins!
Nice to know I am not the only one who gets grossed out by touching dough!! haha 🙂
My favorite winter activity is snuggling up with my just-turned 3 year old and reading his books.
Hiding in the basement watching TV and reading while doing laundry and cooking during commercials
ice skating
My favorite winter activity is having hot chocolate before bed while huddling on the couch under a nice warm blanket!!
Can my favorite activity be eating? Because it’s (unfortunately) true.
We don’t have much of a winter so being outside and playing is probably my fav. It is over 100 in the summer so we don’t get out much then.
I just love bundling my daughter all up and as we head out the door, she spits up all over her only winter coat so our plans are dashed until laundry can get done.
But in all honesty, I really love taking her and just watching her discover snow. It’s her first winter and so each time it snows, it’s a brand new phenomenon.
I love baking, and its too hot in the summer to turn the oven on so I mostly bake in the winter.
My favorite winter activity is sledding with my son! Even in Wisconsin we haven’t gotten a lot of snow lately so we’re hoping for a big storm before winter ends so we can use his new Spiderman two-person sled.
I love baking, making soup and snuggling on the couch with hot chocolate and coffee!
My favorite winter activity is trying different dry skin lotions ( I live in the frozen tundra of Iowa) ….. So that when I vacation in the warmth of the Caribbean ( my second favorite winter activity) my skin doesn’t look like a pale white lizard. I haven’t tried this Vaseline Intensive Rescue, but I would love to!
Spending a day in a museum. Museum of natural history is our favorite one now. 🙂
My favorite winter activity is booking a week long vacation to Mexico to escape the snow, temperatures in the negatives with blistering wind and to finally see the sun. . .
Favorite winter activity would be battling seasonal depression… It sucks!! I need some sun and warmth, oh and non cracked skin would be nice
I’m buying this for my boyfriend today. He works in construction and his hands disgust me. Lets hope it works!