First off, HOW ARE YOU? Are you safe?
Are you hunkered down in your home?
And when you venture out, are you staying at least 6 feet away from
humans that you do not live with and wearing your mask?? I hope so!
We are squirreled away in
our house. I have worked from home (by
choice) for a few years. Given that
fact, you would think that this quarantine life would not be that different for
me. I should be used to it, right? Alas, it is not that easy. I have actually been finding it really
depressing. I made a huuuuuge list of
things I planned to get done while “stuck” at home, and I swear I have done
maybe 1/12th of them. It is
just hard to get motivated these days!
Between watching the news, reading the newspaper, and keeping an eye on
my social media feed, I feel overwhelmed with Covid 19 about 17 hours of the day. (But ahhh, those glorious 7 hours of amazing
dreams…)
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| Spotted on a walk |
We get out and take a walk
around our neighborhood at least once a day, but the only places we have been
are GROCERY STORES. And, of course, the
one we go to most is our favorite, Trader Joe’s. I think this was our 3rd trip
there in the last 6 weeks. That’s great
for us, since we love grocery shopping and normally go every couple of days. But we are trying really hard to stay home and
help flatten the curve. That means
insanely long receipts when we check out now!
Instead of buying 3 or 4 items we are buying a CART FULL (well, more
like 2 carts full this last time, but hey, lots of it was stocking up on wine!!).
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| We may have gone a little overboard... But we won't have to buy WINE again in a long time! |
When we went to TJ’s this
time we brought along 25 $5 Starbucks gift cards and a thank you note. The cards were purchased with money raised at
a Kindness Yard Sale last Spring. I gave
them to a manager and asked that he hand them out to staff working. Oh my goodness, it was fun! Grocery store workers are “keeping the light
on for us”. They are stocking shelves. Wiping down carts. Making sure lines are distanced
appropriately. And checking out orders –
ALL WITH A SMILE. Well, you can’t really
SEE their smiles now because they are wearing masks, but you can see the grin
in their eyes. Next time you pop into TJ’s
please be sure to thank the workers.
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| Have mask, have Starbucks gift cards, READY TO GROCERY SHOP! |
OK, let’s finally get to
the review. It’s been so long since I reviewed
a Trader Joe’s product, and I think it is past time! When
we were in the store rushing to shop and exit, I peeked at the “New Products”
end cap and saw something we hadn’t had before.
It wasn’t a FOOD item, and it was nothing we NEEDED really, but still I plopped
one in our already overflowing cart. And
so, on deck for today’s review is Trader Joe’s Kitchen Garden Scented Candle
Collection
The collection comes with
3 candles. The scents are Lemongrass, Tomato Leaf, and Fresh Mint (much like a little KITCHEN GARDEN!) Each is a soy candle in a 3 oz. glass jar,
sealed with a metal lid. They are quite
sweet looking.
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| Sorry, I didn't save the packaging to show you what they look like on the shelf at the store. But here is what they look like when you bring them HOME! |
The Tomato Leaf sounded
like the strangest scent to me, so it was where I began. Smelling the candle before it was lit – WHEW,
was that a strong scent!!! The first
whiff I took I was not so sure this was going to be a pleasant experience. Then I closed my eyes and took another
try. Hmmm… Instead of overwhelming and weird, it smelled
like… Like what?? Ahhhh – I figured it out! It smelled like SUMMER. It smelled like working in the garden,
picking tomatoes, watering plants. Then coming
back inside and noticing that your hands smell like TOMATO LEAVES! They nailed it! And the scent when burning the candle is not
as strong as it is when you are sniffing it unlit.
Next up I tried the
Lemongrass candle. It is a bit of an
overpowering scent, much like Trader Joe’s Lemongrass body oil. I like the smell (and taste when it is in
food) of lemongrass, but I guess a little goes a long way.
Finally, Fresh Mint. It smells nice and airy and MINTY. I think this one should be in a bedroom. It would be a nice pre-sleep scent.
In order of best to not as
good (I won’t say best to worst, because none of them were bad…) I
rank them Tomato Leaf, Fresh Mint, then Lemongrass. They all light very easily and hold a steady
flame. I think they are great candles.
I guess the thing I like
most about them is that they brought a little bit of indulgence into my “focused
on getting through his shit” life. They
bring a new light, a new scent into what is feeling like a stale environment from
being locked in it for so long. And the
Tomato Leaf scent made me remember that no matter how bad it is right now,
summer is right around the corner. The days are getting longer and warmer. The sun is shining. The fresh tomatoes in the garden can’t be too
far away.
Price: $9.99
Rating: 4.5
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| STAY SAFE!!! |
