Tip of the day: Coffee grounds as beauty product

I have a new tip for those of you who, like me, start to get elephant skin elbows and hands if you fail to exfoliate at least once a week!

Baby elephants are really cute:

But having rough, dull skin is not. Needless to say, I am addicted to body scrubs. My most recent favorite is Spice Odyssey scrub by Origins, a gift from my friend Lisa.

Unfortunately, I'm out. So last week, while wandering around Kuhl Linscomb -which has an incredible selection of (spendy) beauty and bath products- I spied a jar of exfoliating coffee scrub. What a GREAT idea! And is there a better way to wake yourself up than getting your joints all soft while inhaling the intoxicating smell of coffee?

It cost $35 so I walked away. But here is my tip: You can use cooled coffee grounds from your coffee maker at home to get basically the same effect. You could even mix it with coarse salt or sugar and a little olive oil to make the scrub totally nourishing and moisturizing. I tried this the other day and was very pleased with the results. Goodbye rough dull skin... forever.

In other news, Mark and I got to my parents' place late on Thursday night. The drive, through highways overgrown with kudzu, was pleasant but quite long. It was nice to wake up to a sunny 4th of July on the Savannah River.