Thursday, December 04, 2014

We Try It Before You Buy It Fundraiser: Web Extra

BIDDING IS NOW OVER
Thanks for all of your bids. The winning bids are below each picture. We will contact you about picking up your items. Tune in Tuesday, December 16 to see the final check presentation to the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program.

Every year, you (our amazing viewers) pledge to donate to our We Try It Before You Buy It Angel Tree Fundraiser in exchange for one of the We Try It Before You Buy It products tested by Jason Pederson. Each year, there are a few items left behind.

This year, we decided to give you (our amazing viewers) a chance to help out with the fundraiser even if you are not able to watch our show from 9 - 10 a.m.

All you have to do is leave a comment (don't worry, these will only be visible to the Good Morning Arkansas Producer) with your name, email address & phone number, and the item you'd like and the amount you are willing to donate. Every day, we'll update the list with the highest amounts pledged. The highest donation amounts will be contacted after noon on December 11.

You have until 12 p.m. CST to post your donation amount in the comments. You must be able to pick up your item at our offices in Little Rock, AR no later than 4 p.m. CST on Monday, December 15, 2014.

Campers Dream $3

Aqua Globes $3


Samurai Pro $4

Zoomies  $6






Cake Pops $10

Grill Mats $3

Pop Chef $3

Thursday, October 17, 2013

The Do’s and Don’ts of Dark Lipstick


by Augusta Andrews
The time has come to put up your summer colors and trade them for bold, dark colors for fall.  Women in general think they can’t wear bold colors, but with these 5 easy steps they will be wearing these beautiful dark colors for Fall that will make them look Chic!

1)     Do: Prep your lips properly by exfoliating and moisturizing before application.  This makes the color go on smoother and last longer.
2)    Don’t:  Apply dark lipstick on dry, chapped lips.  The color will crack and flake off – not a good look.
3)    Do: Line your lips with a pencil similar in color to your lipstick first.  This allows you to establish the boundaries of your lip and the pencil helps hold the color in place.
4)    Don’t:  Apply it straight from the tube.  Instead, use a lip brush to give you control over the application and intensity.
5)    Do:  Clean up mistakes and perfect the edges of your lip with concealer for a polished finished look.


Last but not least, don’t forget about your eyes.  Keep it soft with clean liner and lots of mascara.  Do a little color on your cheeks in a shade that you love!

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Rebecca Ward's Thoughts on Movies, Book & TV Shows

My interest in television and movies and even books has changed over the last five or six years. I tend to want to be entertained but I don’t want to have my emotional system activated beyond a certain level. I’ve never really liked to go to movies that I knew would have me so deeply affected I might not be able to pull out of whatever doldrums I’d  fallen into for a few days.

I still remember with clarity the night Ruthie and Susan and I saw "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and sniffled around in front of McCormick’s Department Store waiting for one of our mother’s to fetch us. We were so sad for poor Jennifer Jones and there just wasn’t any better looking guy then than William Holden. How would she survive without him? Such angst! Raised on post WWII movies we almost always knew the good handsome soldier would die so I seldom went to very many of those.

So really I guess I’ve always steered clear of movies I knew were sad like "Sophie’s Choice" and "Saving Private Ryan". My husband always repeats in my ear 'It’s a movie, just a movie.' But if a movie isn’t stimulating your limbic system in some way, why go? I’d just rather see great scenery, a sweet love story, an interesting mystery, etc. I don’t want to see incisions into the body cavity, vomitus, bathroom scenes, any form of torture involving body parts and people screaming. I want to escape for sure but not into blood and gore.

New TV shows I’m careful with. I don’t want to have to get to know a whole bunch of new people so I tend to watch what I’m already watching which is not a lot. I never watched "Breaking Bad" or "Downton Abbey" until it was too late to get involved. The train was too far out of the station for me to hop on. I’ve gotten involved with a PBS series I like and did enjoy "The Newsroom" and "House" which departed last year. In a way I was relieved. I had gotten invested in what happened to those characters but was getting tired of all their issues.

So I’m really careful about whom I choose to let into my home and into my brain. This TV season I think Robin Williams will make the cut for "The New Guys" this season.


While I read some serious books from time to time, I tend to like mysteries, courtroom dramas and police procedurals. I have a handful of authors of that genre that I read regularly. I spend so much of my time in my office dealing with real life, real people and real emotion that fictional stuff works just fine for me.

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Rebecca Ward Says "Use It or Lose It"

Remember those commercials where some elderly person is lying prostrate on the floor howling “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”? I always wondered why they couldn’t get up unless something had been broken but most of them looked okay other than that they were flat on the floor like a turtle on its back.

Well, I have fallen and so far I’ve been able to get up but the older I get the more I hear about folks who cannot.  Researching this because it’s so easy with a magic machine that burbs out answers almost as fast as I can type them in, I’ve discovered some interesting information: as we age, we lose some ability to balance ourselves and if you don’t exercise them, muscles will just quit being themselves. They will gladly, easily turn into flab because it’s nature’s way, gravity and all.

The answers I found to help reverse these inevitable issues was to get myself to a gym about as fast as I could and find someone who would guide me in this endeavor to re-create muscle that had disappeared from gross negligence and build some that may have never been born. My “People” don’t really seem to be people of muscle. We may have been hunters and gathers in centuries gone by but I doubt we had to run very far or gather too much heavy-stuff. We actually were probably berry-hunters and pickers if the truth were told.

I found a wonderful trainer who I’m nearly certain looked at me and had to stifle himself to keep from laughing out loud and who must have nearly choked when I got on some of those muscle-building machines and could do no “reps” which is the word they use for an agonizing sequence of repetitive movements. The goal it seems is to be able to do  many of these “reps” at one time on many different painful areas of dilapidated tissue that was formerly, perhaps, muscle or maybe not but the aim is to turn this useless tissue into muscle by using them over and over with “reps”.  There were no sweeter words to be heard than when TM (Trainer Man) would say “Three more.” Usually he said that after I’d done one.

But that was then, almost a month ago, and now I’m doing 10 reps two times on most of those machines that look less and less threatening each time I go.  TM has me on the go from the minute I get there until I leave. I stand, I sit, I lift, twist, turn and  I squat, lift and drop small heavy balls . I pick up big ropes, hold them high, (well, higher than when they were on the floor) and slap them to the floor over and over. I am finding muscles that have laid dormant for many years and some that have been rudely awakened for my lifetime.  They are not amused.  

But when I leave now, I no longer feel like I’m going to throw-up or need to crawl to my car. Only pride and fear of public opinion kept me erect and moving those first few sessions. I had crackers and 7up in the car to help me through the aftermath of exertion the first week. Most of that first weekend I felt like I’d been in a car wreck and hobbled around on an insulted body that was indignant that at this stage of life I’d decided to demand something it had never been asked to do before. It kept saying to me “Please don’t do this. Have you lost your mind? I don’t do this sort of stuff. Repent.”

But I’m committed so I’m going to just have to get over my belief that rest is the best thing one can do as one ages: rest, relax, and read. Now my mantra is “Use it or lose it” and I’m doing curls with 6 lb weights most every morning…..exercise curls, not hair curls. To be honest I’m not seeing my bat-wing arms showing any definition yet but I’m only a month into this.


I’ll tell you more soon. I am recommending that each of you start walking, carry heavy grocery bags to your car that you have parked as far away from the store entrance, and practice getting up from a chair without using your arms. When TM asked me to rise from a sitting position while looking at the ceiling without using my arms, I said “I can’t”. But I almost can after only a month!!