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* Prices may differ from that shown
This is shower gel that is made by the Body Shop. It has got the fragrance of chocolate and the range is called Chocomania.
This shower gel comes in a round bottle that is brown like chocolate, the bottle is plastic that you can see through and it is the shower gel that is brown but I think it looks very pleasing inside.
I have used many of the Chocomania products recently because I was gifted them for Christmas last year but I have only started to use them for the last 2 months. I think the chocolate fragrance is very strange and in some of the produce it is not very nice but I like the smell of this shower gel because it has got a rich chocolate smell that is like luxury.
I feel very clean when I use this shower gel and the fragrance is very nice when I am having a shower, the smell does not last for very long on my skin after I have finished by shower but I do not care about that because I do not think I would like to smell of chocolate for long.
I like how soft my skin is when I have showered with my Chocomania shower gel and I like also that I have only to use a very small amount for each shower because the Body Shop have taken this off their shelves for now so I will not be able to buy another bottle and I am making this one last for as long as I can. I think the Body Shop will stock it again after Christmas because they do that sometimes and I think it is so that people will buy the bigger gift sets in some fragrances.
This shower gel costs about £4 and it is so nice that I am going to buy another bottle as soon as it is available again.
5 Dooyoo Hearts.
I love all sweet smells, when it comes to my shower gels so when I came across this one on offer I decided to give it a go. I have a number of other shower gels by them and I already had this in lotion form.
First of all this does smell quite like chocolate. I have always found that 'chocolate smelling' items normally smell nothing like chocolate so I was very impressed here. This shower gel is so thick it is just like chocolate sauce - making me try it!. This tastes nothing like it, so don't taste it.
As this is so heavily fragranced, I doubt it would be good for very dry or sensitive skin types.
This does not lather up too much, which to me is a slight downside. Something about a good lather just makes me feel cleaner. This does still work though and is not harsh on the skin. The smell is fab in the shower, but unfortunately does not last. I find that once I am out of the shower, dry and have sprayed by deodrant the smell is totally gone. This is a real disappointment, but I find this to be the case with most of The Body Shop shower gels.
This costs around £4.00 for a small bottle, however they do normally do a four for £10 deal, making it not much more expensive than other products. If you get a Body Shop Membership card you also get 10% off every purchase.
This product is fine for someone who is quite happy to top up with perfume like me. If you are looking for a scent with stamina I would give this a miss.
I got The Body Shop''s Chocomania shower cream for Christmas as part of a gift set. Price and availability The shower cream is available in 60ml and 250ml bottles and being a product from The Body Shop you can only buy it from The Body Shop stores, online at thebodyshop.co.uk or you can order it through a local representative if you have one. The 60ml bottle costs GBP2.00. The 250ml bottle costs GBP4.00. Bottle Mine is just a small 60ml bottle and it comes with The Body Shop logo on the front and a picture of some chocolate. The bottle is made from clear plastic and you can see the brown coloured shower cream inside. It has a flip cap lid, which is easy to use; it isn''t one of those with hardly any lip that you''ll break a fingernail on. In use I have used chocolate shower products in the past and at first I was really put off by the colour. It just felt a bit wrong applying mud-coloured products to clean yourself, but after receiving this set and also using the body scrub I''m starting to get used to using chocolate flavoured products. The shower cream itself is quite thick and it feels of good quality. It lathers well, producing a creamy, rather than a soapy lather. I find that it feels moisturising on my skin and it never leaves my skin feeling dried out like soap sometimes can. It has a nice chocolate scent, but it still smells clean. It also has quite an aquatic undertone, which I think gives it a more clean scent. The chocolate scent dominates and is very pleasant and not too sweet or too bitter. I like the scent of this product and I can honestly say using this product never makes me want to eat chocolate even though I love the stuff, which is good because I''m trying to eat healthily at the minute. It''s not something that really crosses my mind when I''m using it, possibly because I''m in the shower ? somewhere I''ve never eaten chocolate before! The shower cream leaves my skin feeling clean and soft and I find the scent lingers on my skin for a while after using this product. Something else I like about this product is that the flip cap lid screws off so that you can get the last of the product out of the bottle fairly easily and none of it goes to waste. I think the small 60ml bottles are poor value when you can get more than four times the amount for double the price with the 250ml bottles. Although I have enjoyed using this shower cream and I would recommend it I don''t think I would buy it for myself. If I wanted a nice shower gel I''d be tempted by all of The Body Shop''s fruity scented shower gels before this one would tempt me. It isn''t a natural choice for me and I enjoy fruity scented shower gels more.
I am a complete chocoholic. I love eating the stuff and I love any products which have incorporated chocolate into it. When I saw the Chocomania Shower Cream, I couldn't leave it on the shelf.
About the product
The product promises to cleanse the skin to leave you feeling fresh and clean. It contains Fair Trade Cocoa butter to soften and moisturise the skin and claims that it won't dry out the skin. It comes with a delicious chocolate scent which will leave you smelling sweet.
How do you use the product?
The product can be used in the shower or the bath. You can apply the product directly to the skin or using a sponge to build up a better lather. Once you are done, you rinse the lather away.
Packaging and Price
The product comes contained within a clear plastic bottle so you can see the product inside. It has a brown flip top lid which is easy to open and close even with wet and soapy hands. The shower cream will cost you around £2 for 60 ml or a larger 250 ml bottle is available although this costs more. It can be bought from your local Body Shop or from its online website.
Application and Performance
The shower cream is a beautiful pearlescent brown colour which shimmers. It is a bit of an unusual colour for a shower product but I think it looks lovely. It is more of a gel than a cream and it has quite a thick consistency. It has a strong chocolate aroma which is naturally sweet and doesn't smell artificial at all. It smells just like a posh box of chocolates. The shower cream is easily dispensed from the bottle and you don't need to use much in order to get the desired results.
It feels silky when applied directly to the skin and it does feel quite moisturising as you do so. When you apply the product to a sponge, you do get a lovely lather which leaves you feeling nice and clean. The product is gentle on the skin and doesn't irritate me or cause me any discomforts. The product is easily rinsed off and once the skin is dry, there are no feeling of tightness or dryness. My skin doesn't feel especially soft but I do feel fresh and clean.The scent lingers lightly on the skin for a little while after use.
All in all, this is a lovely shower cream which smells and looks like chocolate. It leaves me feeling fresh and clean, and smelling delicious. It isn't as refreshing or invigorating as some shower products but if you like chocolate then I can't see why you wouldn't like this!!
Today I'd like to review the Chocomania Shower Cream by The Body Shop.
Shopper's appeal
I really love The Body Shop. I remember buying their passion fruit lip balm 8 years ago for the first time. I was amazed by the great quality and the lovely scent. My love for this brand has grown even more over time. I love how they offer so many scents for their products - with a quality that has never lessened.
I am lucky enough to not live too far away from a Designer Outlet Centre in the Netherlands where I often buy The Body Shop products half price, so I get the opportunity to try out many of them without spending a fortune. There I discovered the Chocomania shower cream. So far I hadn't tried out any of the Chocomania products.
The bottle
The clear plastic bottle is in the usual style of The Body Shop bottles - wide and round with a lid you can just flip open. Said lip is brown with the brand's logo on trop of it.
A pretty brown label is wound around the bottle, showing a dripping, delicious-looking chocolate heart. Above that you can see the logo of The Body Shop. The Chocomania-name is written in pretty cursive letters, fitting the product quite well. Below the product is described as a "shower creme" in English and French.
On the back of the bottle there is not much further information. It is stated that the product is not edible and should be kept out of reach of small children.
Of course the ingrediensts are listed. The bottle contains 250ml.
While there's no further information about the shower cream itself on the bottle, you can find out more at the website stated on the label (www.thebodyshop.com). On the website it is said that the product contains real cocoa butter and honey. It's also soapfree.
My experiences
Of course I sniffed the bottle at the shop to see if I'd like the scent at all because I've had some not so good experiences with chocolate-scented products in the past. But this one seemed alright and so I gave it a try!
My intuition about it didn't prove me wrong. I love the scent of Chocomania! It's very chocolatey, but not too odd, strong or even articifial. Most of all it reminds me of cake dough with chocolate. :) I'm loving it and didn't grow tired of it! But of course you should have a general love for sweet scents to enjoy this one.
The shower cream is not as thick as I thought it would be. It's somewhere inbetween of what I'd call a cream and shower gel. It's easy to squeeze out of the bottle and spreads on your body nicely!
It cleanses very well without robbing the skin of moisture. My skin didn't feel dry after showering with this product. Instead my skin felt clean and smooth. I still use a lotion afterwards begins my skin gets a bit dry in general when it's winter, but it wouldn't have been absolutely neccessary! I think if you have absolutely dry skin you should use a product that has some more "rich" ingredients, but for normal skin this is perfect.
The bottle lasted me very long - I have been using it for three weeks now and there's still about a third of the product in it.
My skin coped very well with this product and I had no bad reactions. If you are an allergic or have very sensitive skin, you should check the list of ingredients before buying the product.
The ingredients
Aqua (Solvent/Diluent), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (Surfactant), Cocamidopropyl Betaine (Surfactant), Glycerin (Humectant), Sodium Chloride (Viscosity Modifier), Parfum (Fragrance), PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (Emulsifier), Phenoxyethanol (Preservative), Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Trisodium Sulfosuccinate (pH Adjuster), Glycol Distearate (Viscosity Modifier), Mel (Natural Additive), PEG-150 Distearate (Surfactant), Benzophenone-4 (Sunscreen agent, Ultraviolet Light Absorber), Cocamide MEA (Surfactant), Laureth-10 (Surfactant/Emulsifying Agent), Sodium Cocoabutteramphoacetate (Hair-Conditioning Agent), Disodium EDTA (Chelating Agent), Linalool (Fragrance Ingredient), Citric Acid (pH Adjuster), Limonene (Fragrance Ingredient), Coumarin (Fragrance Ingredient), Benzoic Acid (Preservative), Denatonium Benzoate (Denaturant), CI 14700 (Colour), CI 19140 (Colour), CI 42090 (Colour).
The price
On the website and in The Body Shop boutiques you can get 60ml of this heavenly shower cream for just £2.00. The 250ml bottle is £4.00, which is an alright price considering how long this product lasted me so far!
I love this! The scent is fabulous and the shower cream was fun to use while being kind to my skin. This is a great product for every chocoholic! Makes a great present too! :)
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The Product
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The product I am reviewing is Chocomania shower cream which is from The Body Shop. The products in the Chocomania range contain real Community Fair Trade cocoa butter and smells decadently chocolatey. The body butter in this range is their best seller; how-ever I currently have at least 3 different tubs of body butter at the moment so didn't need anymore. I was actually on The Body Shop website making the most of the 50% off voucher I had, so was stocking up on items that I use regularly. As the offer I had was so good I also treated myself to a few new items as well. I have only used one product from the Chocomania range which is the Body Butter. The Chocomania range hasn't really appealed to me before as I imagined the products in this range to smell very sweet and slightly sickly. It wasn't until the other week when I was stocking up on items that I thought I would try the shower cream in this range as it sounded quite nice and has a few good reviews. The shower cream is apparently soap free and won't dry out your skin, which is good as I sometimes suffer from dry skin, especially during the winter/colder weather. The shower cream comes in a clear brown plastic bottle and it has a picture of what looks like chocolate on the front. It also states what the product is. On the back of the bottle it tells you a little about the product and also lists the ingredients. You can clearly see the colour of the shower cream inside the bottle which is a dark brown colour which looks slightly pearlescent. I flipped open the lid to the bottle to see what the product smelt like. I was expecting it to smell quite sweet and sickly; how-ever it wasn't. The shower cream did smell of chocolate and did smell sweet but it wasn't sickly or over-powering. I actually really liked the smell and was now looking forwards to using the product next time I had a shower.
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The product comes in a 60ml bottle for £2.00 and a 250ml bottle for £4.00. I wasn't paying much attention when buying the item and I ended up purchasing the 60ml bottle, when in fact I would have liked the bigger bottle. I'll remember to double check this next time! Other products in the Chocomania range include:
* Soap
* Body Butter
* Beautifying Oil
* Body Scrub
* Eau De Toilette
* Body Lotion
* Lip Butter
You can purchase items from the Chocomania range in store as well; although I find that they have better offers online with discount codes/vouchers.
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Using the Product
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I got into the shower and before using the shower cream I ensured my skin was wet. I picked up the bottle of shower cream which was easy to do, even with wet hands because the bottle was so small. I flipped open the lid to the bottle and then holding the bottle upside down gave it a little squeeze so some of the shower cream dispensed onto the bath lily. I didn't need to squeeze the bottle too hard in order to get some out. The shower cream flowed out easily and was a dark, slight pearlescent colour which didn't actually look too bad. I didn't think brown shower cream could look nice, how-ever the pearlescent colour it had to it made it look more attractive than what it sounds. I rubbed the bath lily over my wet skin and as I did this the product started to later up and created a nice rich lather. I could also smell the product as well which was a gorgeous chocolatey scent but wasn't sickly or too sweet. Whenever I rubbed the bath lily over my wet skin the product continued to lather up so it felt as though I was getting a really good clean/wash from the product. The bathroom now smelt of a nice light chocolatey scent. I stepped back under the bath shower to rinse off the bath lily and then rinsed the lather off my skin. The lather rinsed off easily but as I did this the smell of the product gradually disappeared as well. After the lather had been rinsed out I got out of the shower and patted my skin dry. I could no longer smell the scent of the product which was a little disappointing; how-ever I was going to be applying body butter anyway so the fact that the smell disappeared didn't really bother me to be honest. In terms of my skin feeling different, it didn't really feel different at all. My skin didn't really feel smoother and softer, how-ever it didn't feel dry either which is good as some products can often dry out my skin and leave it feeling tight.
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Overall Opinion
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I had only previously used the body butter in the Chocomania range and although I liked it I wasn't sure what to expect from this product. I am gutted I only purchased the 60ml bottle but that is completely my fault for not paying enough attention when placing the item in my basket online. From the colour of the shower cream you can tell this product is from the Chocomania range due to the dark brown colour of the product that you can see through the bottle. When smelling the product, I did think it smelt rather nice and smelt a lot better than what I thought it would as I expected it to be quite sweet and possibly a little sickly as well. The colour of the product although dark brown is made nice by the pearlescent shine it has to it. The shower cream lathers up quickly and is soft and gentle on my skin. Due to the amount of lather the product feels as though it's cleaning my skin really well. I like that the smell becomes stronger and fills the bathroom when washing with the product but as soon as the lather is washed off it does disappear quickly. Although the product made no different to the feel and look of my skin it was still a gorgeous product to wash with and one that I would like to wash with on a regular basis. In terms of value, I think the product is reasonable and even better if you have a discount voucher or code. As the product doesn't dry out my skin I can feel confident in using this product again. Not everyone will like the scent of this product, but I think it's gorgeous and not too sweet or sickly. I will definitely be purchasing this again and I am now tempted to try a few other products in the Chocomania range.
(review will also appear on ciao)
===The Product===
Body Shop Chocomania Shower Cream.
Comes in 60 or 250 ml plastic bottles.
Sheeny pearlised dark chocolate brown colour.
Made in UK and use within 12 months.
Not for consumption.
Contains cocoa butter and is soap free so will not dry skin.
60 mls is £2 and 250 mls is £4.
===Other Items in Range===
Body Butter
Body Lotion
Eau de Toilette
Lip Butter.
===My Opinion===
This range is relatively new to Body Shop and is quite a novelty but I have only just got around to trying it.
Not being able to visit their stores I was not able to give these products the 'sniff test' so had no idea what to expect. Reviews varied from loving it to finding it too sickly and sweet so I kept an open mind.
The product in the bottle looks lovely and glossy with a pearlised sheen. It is called a cream so is a different texture to some of the other shower products I have bought which are often transparent.
The bottle is the standard Body Shop one with a screw lid which also has a flip up lid.
The smell is gorgeous. The lotion is the colour of deep rich dark chocolate ad the smell is lovely. It is chocolatey and rich without having any sweet or sickly edge to it.
This is called a shower cream but I will also use these products in the bath as wlel. The lather is good but does not fill the bath with bubbles.
It cleans well and leaves your skin feeling lovely and soft and smooth.
There is a slight scent to your skin afterwards but not in an overly tacky or sickly way and I was actally surprised how you can smell slightly of chocolate without being put off.
The smell has a chocolate tinge to it afterwards but the aroma does not hang around for many hours and get on your nerves. The aroma is also only partly chocolate so do not be put off.
In fact I like these products more than I expected to.
I did think they would be a sort of gimmick that you would buy as fun Christmas or Birthday gifts but I enjoyed using this and would be happy to buy it again.
Having said that they do make good fun gifts which are a bit more of a novelty than the standard bottle of shower gel. A great calorie free gift for some friends and a bit of fun.
Definitely worth a try and they are pretty much the same price as all the other shower creams.
===Star Rating===
5 stars.
===Would I Recommend?===
Aqua (Solvent/Diluent), Sodium Laureth Sulfate (Surfactant), Cocamidopropyl Betaine (Surfactant), Glycerin (Humectant), Sodium Chloride (Viscosity Modifier), Parfum (Fragrance), PEG-7 Glyceryl Cocoate (Emulsifier), Phenoxyethanol (Preservative), Sodium Benzoate (Preservative), Trisodium Sulfosuccinate (pH Adjuster), Glycol Distearate (Viscosity Modifier), Mel (Natural Additive), PEG-150 Distearate (Surfactant), Benzophenone-4 (Sunscreen agent, Ultraviolet Light Absorber), Cocamide MEA (Surfactant), Laureth-10 (Surfactant/Emulsifying Agent), Sodium Cocoabutteramphoacetate (Hair-Conditioning Agent), Disodium EDTA (Chelating Agent), Linalool (Fragrance Ingredient), Citric Acid (pH Adjuster), Limonene (Fragrance Ingredient), Coumarin (Fragrance Ingredient), Benzoic Acid (Preservative), Denatonium Benzoate (Denaturant), CI 14700 (Colour), CI 19140 (Colour), CI 42090 (Colour).
Recently I discovered a voucher for Body Shop and as I walked passed the shop in Derby I noticed they had a sale and many of their products were 50% reduced so I couldn't resist walking in and seeing what they had. I am not a big fan of the Body Shop as I do feel they have sold out since L'Oreal have bought them and am not convinced about the naturalness of their ingredients either. While I do try to buy eco friendly products that are not full of nasties I do sometimes buy ones that are not, however I feel that if a shop sells itself on its eco credentials then it should actually sell eco friendly stuff.
The shower cream comes in a simple recyclable plastic bottle as do all their shower gels. The bottle is see through and the same shape not matter which size you buy. The lid is a flip top lid but the sort that needs you to turn the bottle upside down and squeeze to get the product out. I prefer upside down tubes for ease of dispensing now. The lid does screw off which means if you make your own bath stuff you could wash this out and re use it.
The image on the label is reminiscent of luxury dark chocolate and of course you can see that the product inside is also a creamy deep brown colour.
This bath cream is soap free which I am not quite sure the benefits of this as soap is not actually harmful to the skin. A friend of mine makes her own skin friendly, eco friendly soaps but sadly she lives in Australia so too far for me to go to buy them. Soap free usually means that the lather is created by some sort of artificial surfactant and often these actually cause more skin issues than good old fashioned soap. I am usually okay with bath products but if my skin is irritated then I have to stop using any with parabens ,SLS and funny surfactants until my skin settles again.
It is supposed to smell of chocolate but sadly I felt the scent was very disappointingly not very chocolatey at all . If I stuck my nose in the container or smelled it neat then there was a hint of chocolate but once diluted with water in my bath or shower the scent disappeared all too quickly. The product didn't rinse off that well though and I always felt I had a layer of something sitting on my skin even after thorough rinsing. The scent however disappeared into who knows where as it wasn't evident at all . Usually I can smell my shower and bath products well after I have got out of the bath and this sadly was not the case with this.
I rarely have a shower so I tend to use my shower products as a kind of soap in the bath. I also sometimes use the shower gels as bubble baths and most work really well and the scent really carries around the bathroom. A ll my Lush ones except the olive branch work really well as bubble baths. I tried with this and the foam created was okay re the bubbles but once again the scent died really quickly so that my bath was not quite the chocolatey experience I was hoping for.
Psychologically I found it a bit hard to like the brown liquid for a bath product, it is rather like washing with muddy water. I used to love the Lush rhasoul mud bath scrub but somehow I knew that was mud and this product which was lathering yet being muddy coloured I found hard to sort of accept as a cleaning product.
All in all I found this a very disappointing bath product and I am so pleased that I only paid £2 for my bottle rather than the $4 it should have been. I would not pay £2 for another bottle and certainly would NEVER pay £4 for a bottle. I think this is overpriced, not that skin friendly, not that eco friendly and all in all not that great.
Thanks for reading. This review may be posted on other sites under my same user name.
Chocs away
Some time ago I tried the body butter in the Chocomania range, and I wasn't really sure about it - the smell didn't really do it for me although I usually like cocoa butter scented products. I decided to give the shower gel a go though, mainly because it was cheap as I got it in the Body Shop sale. This usually costs £4 for a 250ml bottle.
The Chocomania range
The Chocomania range is relatively new to the Body Shop and is kind of designed to be a level of chocolatiness above the cocoa butter range (in my opinion!). The packaging is dark brown and designed to appeal to chocoholics. The shower gel comes in the usual chunky plastic bottle, and you can see the rich chocolatey looking gel inside. It is dark brown, but has a slight pearlescent look to it too. It is soap free so won't dry out your skin.
Having a first sniff of this, it immediately reminded me of the fragrance of the body butter. Very chocolatey, but with another smell that I personally find really unpleasant. It is very sweet and rich smelling, but this almost becomes a bit cloying I think and I find the smell slightly off-putting in some ways.
Using this in the shower, it is a very rich product, so it produces a lot of thick lather, and it becomes quite creamy when in contact with damp skin. It's quite a luxurious shower product and is of a very good quality, which I would expect from the Body Shop. Luckily the smell softens quite a bit when you start to use it so it isn't quite as cloying as it seems to be to begin with. I am still not a massive fan of the fragrance, but at least it isn't too strong once it gets going!
After washing this away, I have to say that my skin feels really smooth - and oddly I quite like the smell that lingers afterwards - it is more of a cocoa butter-type scent, and lacks the slightly sickly edge that the smell has fresh from the bottle.
In summary
Overall I am not a big fan of this shower product. The gel itself is of a really high quality, and it does leave my skin feeling very smooth. But it's the scent I have a problem with! I assumed I'd like it as I like cocoa butter, but I think this is just too strong and sweet for me, and there is something about this fragrance that I just don't like. I'll use up the rest of the bottle, but I wouldn't buy this one again.
I got a bottle of this at Christmas from my sister. She knows how much I love body shop products and I had never tried this before. The great thing about body shop is that the products aren't tested on animals. When I first saw it i thought it looked good enough to eat it really does look like a very exciting product in the bottle it has a feeling of rich luxury about it.
The product comes in a bottle which contains 250ml of the shower gel. The lid is flip top which I always love as it is easy to open in the shower. The shower gel looks gorgeous and looks like dark chocolate! Yummy! The great thing is that the smell is even better than how it looks.
When I have used this product in the shower I have found that it has worked really well. It lathers up great and smells lovely. I have found the more that the water is added to the shower gel the more it smells lovely.
Even when you have got out of the shower and got dried you can still smell the shower gel on your skin it does smell great. My skin is sensitive and this shower gel was very gentle on my skin and did not cause any problems. My daughter even asked if she could use the product as she smelt it on me and asked if she could. I was unsure what it would be like on her young skin but it was no problem at all she loved it.
I have noticed that my skin is very soft to the touch when I have used this product and also it seems to hydrate it too as I found it didn't leave any dry patches as some other shower gels have.
The price of this is very reasonable it is around £4 so good value for money.
I would definitely recommend this to everyone its great
Let me just start off by saying that I have a HUGE chocolate addiction; left to my own devices I'd eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and for various snacks in between as well! We go on holiday to the US next month, and I've been trying to eat a little bit healthier in the run up to our holiday, and to cut down on the amount of chocolate that I currently scoff!
I told my mum not to buy me an Easter Egg this year, to choose something non-edible for me instead. She ended up buying me a gift set from The Body Shop, full of their Chocomania products. The Body Shop's Chocomania collection is basically a range of chocolate scented bath and body goodies. The Chocomania gift set that I received contains travel sizes of the shower cream, the body scrub, the body butter and the lip butter. And they are all contained in a reusable, chocolate brown coloured, metal, heart shaped tin.
So the Chocomania shower cream first. The bottle in my gift box is a small travel size bottle at 60ml. A quick look on The Body Shop website tells me that a full size 250ml bottle of this retails for £4. I think that if I remember correctly the travel sized shower creams/gels are normally about £2 each.
The Chocomania shower cream is chocolate brown in colour, and it reminds me of melted and molten chocolate. It's got a very creamy consistency, and it's quite a thick shower cream. A little bit of this really does go a long way. It smells absolutely divine, as soon as I open the bottle I can smell the intense and rich chocolate fragrance. It is quite an artificial chocolate fragrance, and it is quite a sweet chocolate fragrance, however that didn't initially put me off as it is so obviously chocolate scented!
I don't need to use much of this at all to create a lovely foaming and intense chocolate smelling lather on my skin, and it feels quite creamy on my skin as I'm rubbing it in. This does seem to moisturise my skin slightly whilst I'm using it, which is probably due to the cocoa butter that the shower cream contains. My skin certainly doesn't feel dry or tight after using this, just refreshed and clean, and smelling absolutely gorgeous. It rinses off easily, and it just leaves behind the sweet chocolate fragrance. The sweet chocolate fragrance lingers on my skin for absolutely ages after showering, and also the bathroom always smells wonderfully of chocolate after I've showered with this as well.
All of the above sounds lovely, and at this point it probably looks like I'm going to give the Chocomania shower cream a 5 star rating. However....
That divine, sweet and chocolatey fragrance doesn't stay divine for too long, especially if you layer the Chocomania products like I've been doing. The fragrance does linger on my skin for quite some time, and it soon becomes quite sickly. In fact it seems to just get sweeter and sicklyer as the day wears on, and depending what perfume I'm wearing it can even overpower that too. I've found that it's actually best not to layer the products, so that the sweet chocolate fragrance isn't quite so intense.
Although I've liked this, I've not loved it, due to the lingering chocolate fragrance becoming so sweet and sickly. I'ts not something that I would buy for myself because of this, however if I was given more of it as a gift I'd certainly use it.
'Chocomania' is one of the newest ranges to be available by The Body Shop. I first noticed it when I was in the shop and so smelt the different products that was available in the range. These included body butter, shower gel, body scrub, soaps and lip butter. I didn't really like the scent of the body butter that much, it was very strong and not a nice chocolatey scent, more of a nutty chocolate instead. However the shower cream smelt much nicer and seemed to smell less sickly than the body butter.
I never buy products in store from The Body Shop due to the high prices and instead purchase online from the Body Shop website. They always have some sort of offer or discount code available and you can get cash back if you use a cash back website such as topcashback.co.uk. This always makes purchases quite cheap and reasonable from the Body Shop. I decided to purchase the chocomania shower cream from the website when I was ordering gifts before Christmas. The 250ml bottles costs £4 but it worked out less for me after using a 40% discount code.
The shower cream does last quite a long time as only a small amount is required. The scent is very strong, but I still don't think it is as strong as the chocomania body butter/lotions, which were so strong they were actually quite sickly.
The scent unfortunately does not linger on your skin after washing and so after getting out of the bath or shower I can no longer really smell the lovely scent, so you need to enjoy it while it lasts! I do think because of this the product is quite pricey. If you are paying more than double that you would for a standard shower gel then you would at least expect the scent to linger on your skin for sometime after use. I have found this with other Body Shop shower gels too though and it usually helps when using the body lotion or butter from the same range afterwards. However, after smelling these in store I din't want to purchase them as the scent was slightly different to that of the shower gel. However, if you do like the scent then I would recommend using both products together for a better result.
At the moment this shower gel is only available in one size which is 250ml. I would purchase this again if I can get it cheaper, but not for £4. It leaves my skin feeling soft afterwards but I would have liked the scent to stick around for a bit after use, but this does not.
This would make a great little gift for any chocolate lover!
I recently bought a box set of chocolate scented stuff from the Body Shop on the sale which included the Chocomania body wash, the sugar scrub, the lip buttle and a small pot of the body butter - and I have to say I loved all of them apart from this.
The products in the box set smelled lovely and rich, and scrub in particular looked and smelled like brownie mix which was just delicious. This however smelled strange, a bit like chocolate, but only a little bit - but mostly just a strange artificial smell that I didnt like.
The version I got from the box set was a small mini version. It comes in a plastic squeezy bottle with a flip open cap on the top through which to squeeze the body was out of. The body was itself is a pearly dark brown colour and to be honest looks horrible when you squeeze it out - it has a strange jelly like texture to it and I didnt like the look of it at all. It didnt lather up too well either so I found I needed to use more than I normally would which doesnt make it very cost effective. As I said earlier about the smell, it just wasnt as niced as I had hoped. After just using the scrub and being left with a hige craving for brownies, the smell of this one was just disappointing. I did feel nice and clean afterwards but I definitely did not enough using this on and probably wont use it again, I definitely wont be investing in a bigger bottle thats for sure.
Overall I would recommend it, it smells horrible, looks horrible and isnt very good value for money - nothing appealing about this one at all. Donnt be put off the other chocomania products though as they are divine, the Body Shop just got it wrong with this oen unfortunatly.
When I was on swagbucks a while ago, I saw an offer for money off at the Body Shop, coupled with the fact that I would also earn Swagbucks, I couldn't resist! Over the years, I have brought and used many Body Shop products, so I know that the quality is normally very high. So with that in mind, I decided I would buy whatever I thought sounded nice. And so came my decision, the Body Shop Chocomania Shower Gel. Here are my thoughts:
The packaging, although nothing to shout home about, is quite attractive, and makes it easy not to confuse with other shower gels. With just one look at it, you can tell it is a chocolate scented shower gel.
The Shower Gel Itself
When I first ordered it online, me and my family had a good laugh, because it is actually stated on the website 'Do Not Eat Or Taste The Shower Gel'! Who would try to do that we thought?! But when it finally arrived, I knew what they meant. I won't deny it, I smelt *beautiful!* Quite literally, it did smell extremely nice!
However, once I had actually used it, I was left dissapointed, to be honest. Though in the shower it smells lovely (it fills the room with the smell of chocolate), the smell simply did not linger. Once I was out of the shower and away from the bathroom, I could not smell it at all. Not one bit. This left me very disappointed to be honest, as I was expecting more.
I would not really recommend this product to anyone. Though it smells lovely, it does not leave any of it's fragrance on your skin, which is a real shame. If anything, I would probably recommend the Butter Cream instead.
As per usual, this product from the body shop did not disappoint. It was an unusual smell, sort of like chocolates mixed with nuts mixed with the outdoors. I found it quite appealing, but I don't think that it would be to everybody's tastes, and I would not like to use this everyday as I think it would get sickening.
Other than that, the shower cream left my skin feeling very soft, as most Body Shop products do. It also left my skin feeling moisturised, like I had applied a moisturiser in the shower, and I found that I did not have to use my daily moisturiser so much. It also made my skin much softer, and by the end of the bottle I was very happy with the feel of my skin without any moisturiser applied.
I don't know if I would get this exact "flavour" again, but I would use the product again for sure.
This pearlescent shower cream contains real cocoa butter and has a decadently chocolatey scent / It is soap-free and will not dry out the skin /


text:
Does anyone have this? I loaded a Quiltmaker CD and it put the files into EQ7...which is okay because they are from the same company.
However, when I went to use EQ7, all my "libraries" are gone. No blocks, no nothing! What happened! Then I deleted the Quiltmaker!
Re-loaded EQ7 and my Kaspersky said...."WORM" detected.....How could that be on my CD from the company.....It won't reload anything. I am furious, to say the least....HELP! I even turned off my Kaspersky with firewall!
Please someone help me!

subset: commoncrawl


text: Leighton Moore, left, proprietor of Seacrets in Ocean City, recently pledged a generous gift to the Sara Chase Carlson Scholarship Fund at Worcester Preparatory School. Carlson, Ocean View, together with her father the late Robert L. Edwards, established the scholarship endowment in 2004. The scholarship provides a high school education for a local student interested in a Worcester Prep education. Those interested in obtaining more information about the Sara Chase Carlson Scholarship Fund should contact Admissions Director Lisa Cook at 410-641-3575, ext. 107. Above, Moore is pictured with Carlson and Michael Jahnigen.


text:
Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
Edited by Orson Scott Card
Cover Artist: Tomislav Tikulin
Review by Andrew Brooks
Tor Books Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 9780765320001
Date: 05 August 2008 List Price $15.95 Amazon US / Amazon UK
Links: Interview: Orson Scott Card / InterGalactic Medicine Show Website / Show Official Info /
Editor Edmund R. Schubert has also opted to do something that I wish a lot more anthologies would. After each story there is a short one or two paragraph, occasionally reaching an entire page, afterword from the author. The first anthology that I read that incorporated this was Paragons, edited by Robin Wilson, and I've always wondered why it wasn't done more often. Now Paragons features essays after each, and the focus there is more on the crafting of a short story, but it's the same idea. It's a great way to delve a bit deeper, to find out how this or that story came about. It's one small touch, certainly, but it added to the book as a whole and, for me anyways, made the experience a little richer. For those of you who don't want to know, or don't care, how the tale comes about then skip them. If it's the meat and potatoes you came for you won't be disappointed.
For brevity's sake I won't touch on each story and every story, and rest assured that those I'm skipping aren't bad, I'm just going to review the ones in the anthology that I really liked. The ones that, like a good short story will do, stuck with me long after I set the book down.
I'll start with Card's "Mazer in Prison". It follows Mazer Rackham as he takes a solitary loop through space, for no other reason than that Earth needs him to be their commander once the fleet has made it to Bugger territory. I first read Ender's Game a long time ago, but I wish I'd known what is revealed about Mazer at that time. Card hadn't written the story at the time, of course. I don't recall much, if anything, Card has written about Mazer before to be honest. Strictly reading about Mazer in Ender's Game doesn't give the character justice. Seriously, if Card wishes to write another in the Enderverse I hope he gives us a story about Mazer during the first Bugger war. We also get a bit of Graff in this story, although his appearances are taped recordings, his negotiating with Mazer to help them in a different way. It's a great set-up to Ender's Game, at least those two characters, and one of my favorites in IGMS.
I'll cut to my favorite right now. "To Know All Things That Are In The Earth" by James Maxey is a post-apocalyptic tale of angels appearing on Earth. When they begin dragging people off with them the world believes it's the Rapture or End Times, and those left must not have been truly saved. What they find out as the story goes along, though, turns that theory in another direction that I don't wish to give away. Would it ruin the story? It might not, but the joy of Maxey's short is in the discovery and what the characters really believe. Like Eric James Stone's "Tabloid Reporter to the Stars", this story touches on how perceptions shape action. The afterword by Maxey is both touching and why I mentioned earlier that these brief story biographies greatly enhance your reading. "To Know" has become one of my favorite short stories, a list that's pretty long but that contains stories that are of the near and dear variety.
The third story that really impressed me was "Dream Engine" by Tim Pratt. Set in a world that is some kind of hinge in the universe, a world in which people and things can be pulled from other worlds when they're close enough, "Dream Engine" was a blast to read. Some detail that really pulls you pops up on seemingly every page and that's important to me when reading about a city or place that's so unlike those from other stories. But I like stories with weird cities, and Nexington-on-Axis fits that bill perfectly. Pratt, in talking about his weird city in the afterword, describes the population of the city as magpies of the universe and that sums it up better than I probably could. But even under the neat idea of a place that takes what it wants from other places, including entire buildings being pulled and placed in the empty quarters of the city, the story is very well done. Howlaa Moor, a shapshifting/city enforcer, and his partner Wisp are sent out to find and stop what they think to be an unstoppable entity that's accidentally been pulled down with the other stuff by the coty's creep 'orphans'. This is another story that I hope gets made into a novel. It's great stuff! Highly imaginative, with humor and action perfectly spread throughout.
That's one of the things that I thoroughly enjoyed about IGMS. A lot of the shorts were ones I felt could be expanded into novels, or the ideas within used as the basis of a book. "Respite" by Rachel Ann Dryden, is the story of two colonists fighting for their lives as well as each other, on a planet quite a bit more hostile than they'd been led to believe. The ending is horrific, but the setting would make for an extremely interesting book. And "Audience" by Ty Franck has a similarly interesting future setting that begs for more exploration. Granted, not all of the shorts in this anthology would work in the novel form, but even those that wouldn't are as good as those that would.
IGMS Volume 1 features newcomer and veterans alike, and is a showcase for the quality stories over at the IGMS website. Highly recommended as you'll probably be reading stories from the future heavy weights of the SF/Fantasy genre.
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© 2002-2018SFRevu


text:
Adrian Wojnarowski
Y! Sources: Jason Kidd is pursuing the Brooklyn Nets head coaching job.
Adrian Wojnarowski
Y! Sources: Jason Kidd is pursuing the Brooklyn Nets head coaching job.
he's interested because he knows the nets want to hire a big name, and he won't have to go get coaching experience beforehand. i think it would be a mistake hiring him right away.
Despise The Nets and would love for them to make this mistake!
Kidd very well could end up being a great coach but right now is not the time.
There are too many good established coaches out there right now for a team to take a gamble on him...
Too bad Phoenix and Mil. have hired coaches already because these would be the type of teams that would hire Kidd for next season, but a team with a chance at winning next year is not going to.
"I'd Rather Melo shoot with 3 men on him than Jefferies shotting wide open"
-Jeff Van Gundy
Has to be one of the worst coaching jobs in the league. High expectations and little patience with that team, if Avery lasted 28 games Kidd might last a month. They wouldn't hire him anyway, Kidd is just blowing smoke.
I hope the best for Kidd.
Jason Kidd became the Headcoach of the NJ Nets when Kidd & Kenyon Martin had headcoach Byron Scott Fired, and went on a 16 game win streak to make the assistant water-boy coach Frank look like a headcoach.
Jason Kidd selecting his own coaching-staff (Rasheed, Kurt Thomas, and ???), plus getting the organization to sign one or two old-head FA (Marion & K-Mart), Headcoach Jason Kidd would have Nets bigmen "Lopez, Blatch, and Evans" win the Atlantic Division Title next season.
We messed-up big-time by not letting Jason Kidd coach our team throughout the 2012-13 season, plus tutor Jeremy Lin for a full season to prepare Lin for the postseason games (We threw Lin to the WOLVES last offseason, N.Y. endorsements would have had Lin settle for $5M per).
So many Knicks Fans were blinded by Jason Kidd outstanding all-around performance on both ends of the court in the 4th quarter of each game because they didnt see points. We traded Brewer for no player in return, because 9 out of 10 it was Jason Kidd who recruited his ex-teammate Kenyon Martin to take us on a 13 game win streak .. this was done before the so-call injuries to players Amare, Tyson, and Melo.
The day we sign Jason Kidd last offseason, I automatically predicted we were going to win the Atlantic Division Title...
I hope they do so they can be a lottery team next year
Kidd's floating Frank's name as his assistant.
JR's chaotic behavior in China deserve a 10 day contract.
K-Mart was sign to a 10 day contract, and didnt get any playingtime until his 2nd 10 day contract.
Recall .. K-Mart was injury-prone throughout half of his 6 yr Max contract with Melo, K-Mart got healthy when Billups became a Nuggets. Plus K-Mart first season comment on coach Karl having no-strategy for postseason games lead to K-Mart not playing in the Nuggets next two seasons in the playoff .. sounds familiar to Melo & Amare.
Last edited by Kiyaman; Jun 11, 2013 at 13:43.
Byron Scott inherited assistant coaches Jordan & Tripucka who were on the Nets coaching-staff 2 years before the hiring of headcoach Byron Scott.
Coach Frank was hired by the Nets the year after the Byron Scott took the Nets to their first season to the FINALS.
Assistant coaches Jordan & Tripucka both left the Nets to take the head coaching job of the Washington Wizards, after the Nets consecutive season in the FINALS.
The Nets 3rd season without the assistant coaches Jordan & Tripucka on the staff, became so chaotic that headcoach Byron Scott was fired in the middle of the season, and a clueless coach Frank became the interim head coach depended heavy on Kidd, Kittles, and K-Mart leadership, but coach Frank folded under pressure with a 3-2 lead in the playoff (with Game-6 at Home in NJ), the Detroit Pistons won the next two games of the series to go to the FINALS .. the Nets wouldve won that series with Byron or Jordan & Tripuka...
^ This is why Kiyaman is the best poster on this site.
He knows all the inside stuff.


text:
Financial Planning Educator and CFP® Professional Has More Than 40 Years of Experience
Washington, DC, August 4, 2010 – Veteran financial planner and educator Alan Goldfarb, CFP® has been elected by his peers on CFP Board's Board of Directors as 2011 Chair-elect, which continues his many years of service and dedication to the financial planning profession.
"CFP Board is setting a high bar for the financial planning profession and I am honored to be part of this very important time in the organization's history and our profession's evolution," Goldfarb said. "I am especially excited that we are telling our story to the public as we encourage more people to plan their financial futures and use the services of a CFP® professional."
The Chief Wealth Strategist for Weaver Wealth Management in Dallas, Texas, Goldfarb has dedicated his professional life to the advancement of the financial planning profession. He is a leading educator and advocate for financial planning education, having developed the curriculum and structure of the nation's first MBA program in personal finance to be registered with CFP Board.
He now serves as the Director of the Financial Services MBA Program at the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management and is the Executive Director for the Southwest Institute for Personal Financial Education.
"I have had the pleasure of working with Alan for more than 20 years. He has a passion and enthusiasm for personal financial planning education that is contagious," said Bob Glovsky, CFP®, 2010 Chair of CFP Board's Board of Directors. "He is the right person for this position, and I look forward to his leadership."
The Board of Directors elected Goldfarb at its July 15-16 meeting. He will begin his duties as Chair-elect on January 1, 2011, when Charles Moran, CFP® begins his term as 2011 Chair. Goldfarb will serve as Chair of the Board of Directors beginning in January 2012.
Moran added that he and Goldfarb will work together to advance the cause of CFP Board and the financial planning profession, especially among the public.
"We have great momentum in our profession," Moran said. "Over the next several years, the Board's objective will be to ensure that more people know about what CFP® professionals do and how our organization and CFP® certificants benefit the public. Alan will continue his leadership in fulfilling the CFP Board's mission."
Goldfarb received CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ certification in 1978 and was instrumental in the organization's creation 25 years ago. A past Chair of CFP Board's Board of Professional Review (now Disciplinary and Ethics Commission), he also served on the Ethics Task Force that developed the most recent version of CFP Board's Standards of Professional Conduct.
He has been recognized for his outstanding professional work, having been named by Worth magazine as a top financial advisor for five consecutive years and a top financial planner in D and Texas Monthly magazines.
Originally from New York, Goldfarb lives in a suburb of Dallas with his wife, Terry. They have one daughter.
ABOUT CFP BOARD: The mission of Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. is to benefit the public by granting the CFP® certification and upholding it as the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning. The Board of Directors, in furthering CFP Board's mission, acts on behalf of the public, CFP® certificants and other stakeholders. CFP Board owns the certification marks CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements. CFP Board currently authorizes more than 61,000 individuals to use these marks in the United States.
# # # CFP® - The Recognized Standard of Excellence in Personal Financial Planning
Dan Drummond, Director of Public RelationsCFP Board
E: firstname.lastname@example.com
Twitter: @CFPBoardmedia
© 2012 Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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phone: 800-487-1497 (Toll-Free) / 202-379-2200 | fax: 202-379-2299 | firstname.lastname@example.com
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text:
PASADENA, Texas - Police are searching for two men who stole electronics from a Walmart store.
Pasadena police said a manager of the Walmart in the 5200 block of Fairmont Parkway discovered a case that contained Apple products was broken into on Jan. 28.
Store security reviewed surveillance video and saw two men walking into the store and heading straight to the Apple display case. Video showed the men opening the case and stealing iPod Touches, concealing them under their clothes, officials said.
Surveillance video also showed the men walking out of the store, bypassing the cash registers.
One of the men was described as black and 22 to 30 years old. He was last seen wearing a black polo shirt, dark-colored jeans and a white and black hat.
The other man was described as white and 22 to 30 years old. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and khaki shorts.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.
Copyright 2013 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
There is no age for making something with 'love' as the main ingredient or sharing it selflessly with others. If a five-year old can do it, we can do it too … let's make it happen!
An Occasional Diary of Everyday Life and Travel in the U.K. and sometimes elsewhere
Apps for any screen
From Zero To Zen
Fun, unusual and forgotten designations on our calendar.
Healing Through Art & Words
A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.
The Casual Dinner Club
your guide to unlocking your marvelous mind.
Sharing this fact: Faith + Family + Friendship + Love + Laughter = Life
Psychology to Motivate | Inspire | Uplift
A Lifestyle Blog by: Lauren Smith
Discussing. Sharing. Healing.
Millionaire's Digest - Share your passions, discover what others are sharing, and connect with new friends who are passionate about the same things as you are!
read. imagine. write
Based on actual events.


text:
All quotes tagged Landed
(3256 quotes found)
"If toast always lands butter-side down, and cats always land on their feet, what happens if you strap toast on the back of a cat and drop it?"
"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."
"God of our fathers, who by land and sea have ever lead us to victory, please continue your inspiring guidance in this the greatest of all conflicts. Strengthen my soul so that the weakening instinct of self-preservation, which besets all of us in battle, shall not blind me to my duty to my own manhood, to the glory of my calling, and to my responsibility to my fellow soldiers. Grant to our armed forces that disciplined valor and mutual confidence which insures success in war. Let me not mourn for the men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes have lived. If it be my lot to die, let me do so with courage and honor in a manner which will bring the greatest harm to the enemy, and please, oh Lord, protect and guide those I shall leave behind. Give us the victory, Lord."
"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land."
"If I ever opened a trampoline store, I don't think I'd call it Trampo-Land, because you might think it was a store for tramps, which is not the impression we are trying to convey with our store. On the other hand, we would not prohibit tramps from browsing, or testing the trampolines, unless a tramp's gyrations seemed to be getting out of control."
"My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges."


text:
One Direction surprised fans by releasing a new single overnight.
"Drag Me Down" is the first song that the four remaining band members--Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson--have released since Zayn Malik abruptly quit in March. Julian Bunetta, John Ryan and Jamie Scott wrote the song; Ryan and Bunetta produced the track.
The single is available to buy on iTunes and to stream on Spotify.
The release of "Drag Me Down" comes days after Malik signed a solo contract.
The band dished on its new single via Twitter.
VIDEO: One Direction opens up to E! News about its future
One Direction is currently on tour in the United States, and the multiplatinum pop group will return to the U.K. in September. The X Factor U.K.-created band's fifth studio album will be released in November.
PHOTOS: Harry Styles' famous friends


text:
DM of the Rings CXIX:
on Jun 29, 2007
DM of the Rings
Actually this doesn't happen very often. The DM is most likely going to point to the map, or the minis, and clearly describe which side everyone is on, even if that information really shouldn't be so neatly defined for newcomers. However, if the DM is foolish enough to let players work out the sides on their own, then a friendly-fire incident is probably a good bet.
Now the question is: If the players attack the wrong guys and prevail, do they get XP?


text:
Pirate Prospect's Wife Held for Kidnapping
UPDATE: ( 6:41 pm)
Pittsburgh Pirate prospect Jose Tabata spoke for the first time to reporters late this afternoon and told them that his wife had told him recently that she was pregnant. Tabata told the St. Petersburg Times through a translator: " The truth is that my wife had told me many lies that, until this whole situation began, I did not know. One that hurt me alot was her history as a criminal, that she has spent years in prison, that she had robbed and committed fraud. But the worst lie was that she completely falsified her pregnancy, and the eventual birth of the baby girl, which would have made me a father for the first time. Imagine how that makes me fell."
A Pittsburgh Pirate prospect wife has been charged with abducting a 2-year old baby from his parents earlier this week. As Hillsborough County authorities continue to search for answers as to why a baseball player's wife allegedly abducted a 2-month-old baby that turned up in Manatee, sheriff's officials here have begun wrapping up their role in the investigation. Pittsburgh Pirates prospect Jose Tabata is not involved in any wrongdoing in a bizarre case in which his much-older wife is charged with abducting a 2-month-old baby girl from a Florida couple, police told the team. Tabata, a 20-year-old outfielder who is one of the Pirates' top minor leaguers, said in a statement Wednesday that he is "hurt, frustrated, and confused" that his 43-year-old wife, Amalia Tabata Pereira, is accused of taking the girl from a woman at a health clinic in Plant City, east of Tampa, on Monday night.
The infant, Sandra Cruz-Francisco, was taken from her mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, about 3 p.m. Monday by a woman her family only knew as "Janet," according to police in Plant City, about 60 miles from Bradenton. The mother had taken her baby for a checkup at the Plant City Health Department, where she met Janet, who said she was an immigration official. The woman told Sirilo-Francisco there were officers at her home waiting to deport her and the child's father to Mexico. She was arrested after handing over the girl to authorities in a Bradenton shopping center parking lot, less than 24 hours after the infant was taken. After an Amber Alert was issued, Manatee sheriff's deputies got an anonymous 911 call, then found her with the girl in the parking lot of a strip mall off 60th Avenue West in Bradenton, near Manatee Community College.
She was arrested on a false imprisonment warrant out of Hillsborough, then taken to the Manatee County jail. According to jail records, she has also been arrested on charges of impersonating a public officer and interference with custody. Authorities have not announced if the baby's parents are U.S. citizens, but they say Tabata is originally from Puerto Rico and is an American citizen. Her husband is from Venezuela and is here on a visa, according to a Manatee county sheriff official. The two met in Tampa when Jose Tabata was a minor league player in the New York Yankees organization.They married in January 2008 when he was age 19 and she was age 41, at an Amscot in the city of Tampa.
According to her arrest report, the couple lives in an apartment in the 3400 block of 59th Avenue West, near where the baby was found. The report also lists a Tampa area telephone number. It was disconnected Thursday. In 2003, Tabata was released from prison after serving more than two years for arson and theft, according to information from the Department of Corrections. In September 1999 she staged a robbery at Paycheck Advance, the loan company where she worked in Temple Terrace, said Temple Terrace Police Department spokesman Mike Dunn. He said Tabata acted as a lookout while an accomplice, Sammy Bush, set files on fire. When an officer arrived, she gestured as if someone was holding a gun to her head. No suspect was located. She pretended to be a crime victim for months, then eventually broke down and admitted to stealing $20,000 from her employer by creating dummy accounts and by selling cars without the owners' consent.
Tabata was considered one of the New York Yankees' top prospects last year, only to walk out of a game involving their Double-A Trenton farm club early last season. Tabata apparently was frustrated by his slow start. The incident partly led to the Yankees including Tabata in the July trade in which the Pirates dealt outfielder Xavier Nady and left-hander Damaso Marte to New York for Tabata and right-handers Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen. After the trade, Tabata hit .348 in 22 games with Altoona – or 100 points higher than he hit in 79 games for Trenton – and had three homers and 13 RBIs in 89 at-bats. Tabata, a native of Venezuela, also impressed the Pirates this spring with his line-drive power, throwing arm and ability to learn quickly.
Upon making the trade, the Pirates apparently were unaware that Tabata was married to a woman more than twice his age who, according to the St. Petersburg Times, spent more than two years in a state prison about 10 years ago for an arson case. Family members told the newspaper that Pereira, a native of Puerto Rico, has four children of her own, all of them teenagers or older. The woman apparently has used at least four names in the past, and the name given to police does not match the one – Mayita – in the Pirates' media guide.
Photo credits: 1) www.pirates.com
sp; 2) www.hcsd.com
22 Comments
This story frightens me. Why are there people like this in the world? And why would a professional baseball player marry a convicted felon twice his age? I don't understand. I guess he would say it was love and I can only believe him because no other explanation makes sense.
I remember right after I was drafted I was to attend a mandatory NFL Security meeting where they discussed this type of con artist. I hate to call her that, but there is a pattern here that puts doubt in your mind.
He is from another country, you never know what she might have told him, or made him believe.
It is a pity that he could not have seen this coming, but sometimes people are so slick they get through the cracks.
Rays Renegade
I've heard of this happening before. I'm glad the baby is back where she belongs. I hope that Tabata takes a good long look at his wife. I don't believe the age difference is the problem, but her mental state.
You never know what goes through a person's mind, but we also do not know what she might have even told him about her past.
I am just glad he did not have anything to do with it. He is a really good prospect that the Pirates got in the Nady trade last year. He should be in the majors in the next two years, if not this September.
Rays Renegade
Oh my God Rays – that there are people like this in the world is terrifying! I can't help but wonder if you are right and this poor kid has been conned by this woman Her age isn't really the issue – her mental status is. I'm glad the baby is home safe and I hope that Tabata gets some help – he is going to need it to process all that has happened After all – he is really just a kid himself. I think I'll give my boys an extra hug today – whether they want it or not.
I know the Pirates clubhouse is supportive of him in this situation, and he has been told he can remain off the field until he feels secure and willing to continue.
People make bad choices sometimes in their other halves. Hopefully he can rebound from this with grace, character and a bit of class.
Rays Renegade
Awful story, but at least there's a happy ending with the baby back home safely. Sure glad the Yankees traded this guy and his "baggage." We have enough drama already.
When I first saw this in the newspaper, I wondered if there had been a misprint in the ages. It makes me wonder how well he knew her before they were married. I'm glad the baby is safe, and I hope things end up working out for Tabata.
Rants, Raves, and Random Thoughts
Could you imagine him still being a part of the Yankees this year and have this hit the airwaves too.
I am glad that the guy has some distance from her now so he can sort out the damage and get a good attorney to start some divorce proceedings before he goes north this Summer.
He is a good player, but young ( 20), so I will cut him some slack right now.
Rays Renegade
To give her a bit of credit, she is not ugly, but I would have balked at 4 kids if I was 20 years old.
But, they say that love is blind, hopefully she did not take him for any huge amounts of cash or anything else.
A rumor flying out there is that she might have "played" pregnant, and got the baby to make the whole thing legit.
I hope that ends up just being idle gossip.
Rays Renegade
Glad the baby is ok…scary. And this poor, obviously naive guy is going to need some serious counseling after this. More proof that my theory about every team needing a Life Coach holds water :)
One word, two syllables, lots of shaking when I say: "CREEPY".
Oh man that's crazy! =( I can't believe that his wife did that. I can't believe his wife is 20 plus years older than him.
~ King of Cali
I agree with you Jenn,
Not only a life coach, but you would have thought some one with MLB security or maybe a team official might of questioned her by now.
I know the NFL did background checks on us and our relatives as a precaution.
Rays Renegade
actually you are #7 on the readers list! I guess Mark updated it after Julia looked! Congrats!!!
I agree with you Jeff,
I am sorry when I was 20 and in college, a 40-year old would not turn my head.
Rays Renegade
Not a problem Sarah,
Looking forward to see how the casting call does this weekend for you.
Rays Renegade
I have not even seen the list yet.
I am still shell-shocked from James Shields giving up 11 ryns on 12 hits today………
It was a murder in the first degree.
Rays Renegade
I have to be funny here for a second, that is going to give MILF's around the world a bad name.
The best part of it all is how fast the states Amber Alert system worked, and that the baby was with the mother again that night.
So the system does work.
Rays Renegade
I move up just by being me………………Thanks for the update.
If it was not for people like you reading and viewing my blog, I would not even be up there at all………..So thank you everyone.
Rays Renegade


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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.
LEADERS: Azerane Bam BinkyBunny JerseyGirl LBJ10 LittlePuffyTail LongEaredLions RabbitPam
I'm adopting a 2nd rabbit this weekend and I'm currently working out the housing situation. My bunny currently lives in a NIC condo, 2 grate wide, 3 long, and 3 tall. I have the supplies to mimic this condo almost exactly for the second rabbit. Would this be an appropriate option for housing during bonding? Their condos will be a few inches apart side by side and the floor layouts will be almost identical. Any issues with this setup? I only ask because it was recommended that they be housed in pens, but with my limited space I can't make incredibly large pens, but I can easily build a 3 floor condo for each of them.


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We are giving away a pair of tickets to see Midnite at the Roseland Theater on Saturday, April 20, 2013. To win, comment on this post why you'd like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed Monday, April 8.
FREE PORTLAND: We give out 100s of $$$ in free tickets every week including to many of the top events in Portland. Join our email list if you like free stuff
From our sponsors:
April 20, 2013
9 p.m. | $22 advance | 21+
Purchase tickets at www.souldoutfestival.com/performer/midnite/
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave Portland, OR 97209
(971) 230-0033 | More Info: www.roselandpdx.com
Lead singer Vaughn Benjamin's electrifying voice seems an amalgamation of many great voices in reggae-soulful, chanting, edgy. Vaughn's potent lyrical style and his brother Ron Benjamin's exquisite production, vocals, dub, arrangements, keyboard & bass musical arrangements form the nucleus of this musical – rootsy heavy sound, which includes: Christian Molina (drums), Edmund Fieulleteau (guitar),Edwin Byron (guitar) and Ras L (keyboards).
Midnite weaves the cultural lyrics of "old school" roots music with modern day experiences to create a unique listening encounter. Roots Reggae – naked and raw is an apt description for Midnite's musical style, in which they forgo the frills of extensive remixes, overdubbing and other musical refinements.
"Unpolished" is the title of their debut album which includes such classics as "Don't Move", "Mama Africa", and "Love the Life You Live". Originally released in 1997, while the band was located in Washington, DC. In 1999, Midnite linked up with Wildchild! Records for their second release "Ras Mek Peace". Incredibly, this album was recorded using only two channels and was mastered without any reverb, filtering, compression or equalization. Songs like "Hieroglyphics", in which graffiti is likened to ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, showcase the intelligent songwriting that pervades all of Midnite's works.
Following the release of Ras Mek Peace, Midnite returned to live in St. Croix so that they could work with the local musicians and make recordings at their African Roots Lab without any outside interference. The fruits of these labours can be found on their third album "Jubilees of Zion", which was released on their independent Afrikan Roots Lab record label. The expansive, hypnotic rhythms continue, alongside the messages of peace, universal brotherhood, and cultural resistance to Babylon.
In June 2002, Midnite made their Northern California debut at the 9th Annual Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. That same month saw the release of Midnite's fourth album "Seek Knowledge Before Vengeance". Released on their Afrikan Roots Lab record label, this album raises the bar of cultural roots reggae, as we know it today.
Midnite explodes in live performances with sets that often exceed 3 hours. Their vigorous, weighty sound, driven by the punchy bass lines creates a vibe that penetrates straight to the heart. These epic musical communions have earned Midnite an enormous following throughout the reggae community. By breaking all the rules, Midnite is setting a new standard. Armed with a firm foundation in Jah Rastafari, their natural talents, and a strong and uncompromising musical vision,Midnite champions a unique sound that is on the cutting edge of modern roots music.


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By Cliff Corcoran
The Major League Baseball season started last night with the Astros' easy 8-2 win over the Rangers but the proper Opening Day, featuring 12 games and 24 teams (only the Orioles, Rays, Indians and Blue Jays have to wait until Tuesday to start), is today. The Giants-Dodgers matchup in Los Angeles at 4:10 pm ET, which will find Matt Cain taking the hill against Clayton Kershaw, undoubtedly sets up as the best game of the day, but it's not the only one worth watching. Here's a quick look at all 12 of Monday's Opening Day contests (all times Eastern).
Red Sox @ Yankees, 1:05 pm, Jon Lester vs. CC Sabathia
This could be the first season since 1993 that both of these teams fall short of the playoffs. Even die-hard fans can be forgiven if their clubs seem unrecognizable with Boston's David Ortiz and New York's Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson all opening the season on the disabled list and long-time Fenway Park favorite Kevin Youklis now a clean-shaven Yankee. The most intriguing newcomer to watch is Boston's rookie leftfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who forced his way onto the Red Sox' roster by hitting .419/.507/.613 in camp and was one of the sensations of spring training. With the Yankees' questionable playoff chances, the opportunity to see Mariano Rivera, who is entering his final season, pitch in a bunting-draped Yankee Stadium is a valuable one.
Marlins @ Nationals, 1:05 pm, Ricky Nolasco vs. Stephen Strasburg
The Nationals and Marlins are expected to be the best and worst teams, respectively, in the National League this season, giving this game an even larger disparity in term of the outlooks of the two teams than Sunday night's Rangers-Astros matchup. The Marlins greatly resemble the Astros with their bare-bones roster of low-ceiling youngsters and veteran castoffs and their rookie manager, but Miami has one thing Houston doesn't: a budding superstar in 23-year-old Giancarlo Stanton. Mix in the 24-year-old Strasburg, a popular pre-season Cy Young pick, and 20-year-old Nationals leftfielder Bryce Harper, and no other game on Monday has a better concentration of elite young talent. If nothing else, Stanton's at-bats against Strasburg will be must-see baseball.
Padres @ Mets, 1:10 pm, Edinson Volquez vs. Jonathon Niese
These two teams had similar records in 2012, the Padres winning 76 games and the Mets 74, but they seem to be headed in opposite directions. New York, despite its smart new front office and David Wright's massive new extension, continues to drift toward oblivion. San Diego, however, has some compelling young talent, including first baseman Yonder Alonso (26 next Monday), centerfielder Cameron Maybin (26 on Thursday) and rookie infielder Jedd Gyorko (24), that has many in the sabermetric community touting them as a near-future contender.
Cubs @ Pirates, 1:35 pm, Jeff Samardzija vs. A.J. Burnett
The Pirates have flirted with contention in July each of the last two years. Will this be the year that they finally follow through to September? They have a true superstar in centerfielder Andrew McCutchen and an increasingly solid lineup, bolstered this year by free agent catching addition Russell Martin. Burnett, meanwhile, is coming off an impressive, career-salvaging season last year. As for the Cubs, they've turned the corner in their rebuild with promising young players such as shortstop Starlin Castro and first baseman Anthony Rizzo (both 23), catcher Welington Castillo (26 at the end of April) and Samardzija (28) in the Opening Day lineup.
Rockies @ Brewers, 2:10 pm, Jhoulys Chacin vs. Yovani Gallardo
This is the least-compelling matchup of the day, but it does mark Troy Tulowitzki's first major league appearance since May 30 of last year. Given that a healthy Tulowitzki is easily the game's best shortstop, that's a major milestone.
Giants @ Dodgers, 4:10, Matt Cain vs. Clayton Kershaw
If you only watch one game today, make it this one. Heading into the 2013 season, there are four intra-division matchups which qualify as essential viewing because of the likelihood of a close finish atop the division by the two teams involved: The Angels and Rangers in the AL West, the Nationals and Braves in the NL East, the Reds and Cardinals in the NL Central, and Giants and Dodgers in the NL West. Only one of those invokes 125-years of history and involves the defending World Series champions and the team with the highest payroll in baseball. That's San Francisco and Los Angeles, which also happens to be the only of the four taking place this week, making it my series to watch for Opening Week.
If you're only going to watch one game in this series, watch this one with a matchup of two of the game's best pitchers. Kershaw, who is reportedly on the verge of signing the richest pitching contract in history, breaking Justin Verlander's record that has stood since last Friday, won the 2011 NL Cy Young award and was equally deserving of last year's award, for which he finished second. Cain finished sixth in the Cy Young voting last year and eighth in 2011. Those two pitchers and these two teams should be at the center of the action all season as Cain and Kershaw battle over another Cy Young, the Giants look to defend their title and the Dodgers look to topple their rivals and justify their recent spending spree.
Angels @ Reds, 4:10 pm, Jered Weaver vs. Johnny Cueto
Unfortunately, the second-best matchup of the day takes place at the exact same time as the best matchup of the day, despite being three time-zones away. This game in Cincinnati represents the first Opening Day interleague showdown in major league history, but it is just as relevant for the quality of the teams involved. The Reds are the defending NL Central champions and the favorite to repeat for that title, and the Angels are expected to go down to the wire for the NL West crown. This is also the second-best pitching matchup of the day as both Weaver and Cueto finished in the top four in their leagues' respective Cy Young voting last year. This game also marks the start of Mike Trout's eagerly anticipated sophomore season and the return of a fully-healthy Joey Votto, whose 2012 season was interrupted by knee surgery. As a result, viewers will get to watch arguably the game's best hitter (Votto) and player (Trout) as well as the best player of the last decade in Angels' first baseman Albert Pujols.
Tigers @ Twins, 4:10 pm. Justin Verlander vs. Vance Worley
The Tigers are a popular pre-season pick to win the American League pennant and the division-rival Twins are almost guaranteed a last-place finish in the AL Central and a loss total approaching triple digits. Minnesota rookie Aaron Hicks will make his major league debut in this game as the team's starting centerfielder and the first pitch he sees will come out of the hand of Justin Verlander. Welcome to the Show, kid.
Royals @ White Sox, 4:10 pm, James Shields vs. Chris Sale
The Royals are a popular sleeper pick in the AL Central this year, with some expecting them to push the Tigers the way their Opening Day opponents, the White Sox, did last year. That will only happen if Kansas City's young talent blossoms, however. Injury-prone centerfielder Lorenzo Cain and leftfielder Alex Gordon turned in impressive spring training performances, but the Royals need first baseman Eric Hosmer to step up as well. As for Shields, this is the first of the roughly 33 chances he'll get this year to prove that the Wil Myers trade was worth it for the Royals. For the White Sox, the big question entering this game is whether or not 24-year-old lefty Chris Sale will have a year-after effect from his move to the starting rotation in 2011 and resulting 121-inning increase in his workload. As little as spring stats mean, it was still a bit troubling to see his strikeouts rate down and his home run rate up in spring training.
Phillies @ Braves, 7:10 pm, Cole Hamels vs. Tim Hudson
Given that the Giants-Dodgers and Angels-Reds games run simultaneously, this isolated and nationally-televised tilt between the Phillies and Braves is a solid consolation prize for those who prefer not to try to watch two games at once. The Braves won 94 games last year and should be right back in the playoff mix with the addition of the Upton brothers and potential full seasons from exciting young players such as Julio Teheran and Andrelton Simmons. The Phillies won 102 games two years ago and, despite their aging, deteriorating roster, should improve on their .500 finish from a year ago given the solid spring performances of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and outfield prospect Domonic Brown, none of whom appeared in the major leagues before late June last season. This is also an outstanding pitching matchup with Hamels, who, in the wake of Roy Halladay's struggles, has emerged as the an ace among aces in Philadelphia going against underappreciated veteran Tim Hudson, who enters this season three wins short of 200 for his career.
Mariners @ A's, 10:05 pm, Felix Hernandez vs. Brett Anderson
The first of 2012's surprise playoff teams to debut this season, the A's have their work cut out for them facing King Felix. Still, they are hoping to pick up where they left off, exceeding expectations thanks to their young rotation (with Bartolo Colon finishing his performance-enhancing drug suspension, the 25-year-old Anderson is the veteran of the group), strong bullpen, the superstar potential of leftfielder Yoenis Cespedes and manager Bob Melvin's ability to get the most out of his roster and his players. The Mariners, meanwhile, hope to slip by Oakland thanks to big steps forward from first baseman Justin Smoak, catcher Jesus Montero and rightfielder Michael Saunders and the boost they hope to get from the imported bats of Mike Morse and Kendrys Morales. Those wishes may be overly optimistic.
Cardinals @ Diamondbacks, 10:10 pm, Adam Wainwright vs. Ian Kennedy


text: You said: And if Murry wants more blood doping tests he should start from himself. Maybe I've mis-understood you? Did you mean that Murray shouuld be an exemplar on this? If so, I agree with you. But so should the rest of the top dogs - why do you think just Murray should set an e.g.?


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From realgm.com via ESPN.com:
"For his apparent refusal to play in Detroit, the Knicks have suspended Stephon Marbury without pay. Marbury has also been told to stay away from the team, at least until Monday.
"A player's central obligation is to provide his professional services when called upon," Donnie Walsh said in announcing the suspension. "Because [Marbury] refused the coach's request to play in the team's last game, we had no choice but to impose disciplinary action."
With Marbury sent home, the Knicks will try to determine the next course of action. Further fines and suspensions are possible; the team could continue discussions on a buyout; or the Knicks may simply decide to tell Marbury to stay home, pay him his remaining salary, and keep him on the roster until he is traded or released.
"We feel the discipline imposed by the Knicks is baseless," said Hal Biagas of the National Basketball Players Association. "We plan to file a grievance."
Marbury gave an extended interview with the New York Post.
"We need to separate from the relationship," he said. "The marriage is over. It's a done deal."
About Mike D'Antoni, Marbury said, "I wouldn't trust him to walk my dog across the street.""


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Art explores issues of women's health
Updated 8:27 am, Tuesday, October 23, 2012
In a searing series of images graphically detailing the often demeaning medical procedures that women routinely endure, Phyllis Evans offers a stinging commentary on what she calls "the anxieties that we collectively feel toward the medical establishment and the political forces that govern it."
"Women's bodies are now politicized more than ever, with debates growing particularly heated during election cycles," the Edinburg artist says in a statement. "Sadly, the fate of the women who are drawn into this debate is of the least concern to those making the loudest claims."
Evans is one of 11 Texas artists whose work is exhibited in a powerful show addressing women's health issues and their political ramifications at Gallery Nord through Saturday.
But "Governing Bodies: An Invitational Exhibition Addressing the Assault on Women's Health Care in Texas," which is sponsored by Planned Parenthood of South Texas, is "not just about mean-spirited laws," curator Kathy Armstrong says.
"It is about women - those we must stand up for and those who stand with us," she said. "These artists tend to be more outspoken, more willing to take a stand and voice their opinions through their art."
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Linda Arredondo was "very pregnant" with her second son in February when Rush Limbaugh attacked Sandra Fluke on the air over her attitude toward contraception.
It inspired the San Antonio artist to create a series of portraits, such as "Death," using her breast milk as paint against a black background.
Arredondo says she has no illusions that an art exhibition can alter "sexist attitudes."
"But I do believe in the value of art as a critical posture encouraging thoughtfulness and exposing the blind spots of perspectives," she said.
Perhaps the most technically amazing work in "Governing Bodies" is by Richmond artist Catherine Winkler Rayroud, who is a master of the traditional Swiss paper-cutting art called Scherenschnitte. She calls it "drawing with scissors," and each intricate work tells narratives related to important women's issues contained in panels within, for example, the shape of a bra in "Women's Liberation, What Liberation?"
"I feel that this process of snipping paper away, which has been done for centuries around the world, allows me to slow down and somehow be a quiet witness of my time," says Rayroud, who is quite aware that viewers must also slow down to take it all in, a smile usually dawning on their faces.
Time is a major theme in the work of San Marcos artist Mary Mikel Stump, who uses antique clocks in her assemblages to call attention to women's reproductive rights: "At what time and under what circumstances?"
"The ability to govern what happens to one's own body is indeed an issue related to health, finance and opportunity, but it is so much more than that," Stump writes in a statement. "It is power. It is empowerment. It is what is right."
Perhaps the most courageous work in "Governing Bodies" are the images from San Antonio photographer Sarah Sudhoff's "Maternity Ward" series.
Working in the nursery, delivery room and kitchen of an old, abandoned hospital, using natural light, Sudhoff shot nude self-portraits when she was pregnant, ending with a striking image of her and her baby son, both naked, peering directly at the viewer.
Sudhoff says the series explores "my role as a new mother and references my continued dependence on medical intervention." The artist had a portion of her cervix removed in 2004 to treat the first stages of cervical cancer. It was not certain she could conceive or carry a child to term.
"The images became not only a record of my pregnancy and my physical changes but also revealed my changing emotions toward my son and the many unknowns ahead of us," Sudhoff said in a statement.
She will continue working on "Maternity Ward" until her son's first birthday.
Other artists in "Governing Bodies" are Ana Laura de la Garza (San Antonio), Julia Barbosa Landois (San Antonio), Rosemary Meza-DesPlas (Dallas), Jillian Palone (San Antonio), Katie Pell (San Antonio) and Hadar Sobol (Frisco).