**I received a gc to use on NOVICA.com for this post.  No other compensation has been received**

I have been a fan of NOVICA for a long time. Before I ever did my first post for NOVICA my husband had bought me a necklace from the site. It was beautiful, unique, and was made so well.  He had also bought a necklace for his mother from the site.  As I explored NOVICA more I saw beautiful hand blown glass pieces I just had to have as well as expertly crafted wooden piece, baskets, and more.  I really could spend a lot of money on the site if I had it to spend.

I love adding unique home decor to my  house that can tell as story.  It’s nice to know that the wooden mirror hanging in my foyer was crafted by an artisan in Peru. The hand blown glass pitcher and matching glasses I use for sun tea came from a skilled artisan in Mexico.  NOVICA works with artisans from around the world giving them fair wages, no binding contracts, and allowing them a way to sell their goods to support their families.

**I received the below pictured product in order to complete an honest review.  No other compensation has been received. Giveaway is sponsored by The Pasta Shoppe**

The first time I ever came across this unique fundraiser was when my niece was selling Fun shaped pastas from The Pasta Shoppe fundraiser around this time of year to raise money for her daycare for holiday activities and new playground items.  I bought several items and used everything I bought.  I loved when she did this fundraiser because the kids thought it was cool, it made easy dinner ideas, and it wasn’t expensive.

The Pasta Shoppe has tons of fun shaped pasta from your fave collegiate team, cat lovers pasta, special shaped and colored pasta for the holidays, and more.  They also have soup, chili, mac n’ cheese kits, and more.  I used to love to get the Christmas pasta and make fun side dishes for Christmas parties. (Also fun for making pasta jewelry and decorations on a rainy day.)

I received a variety of pasta products from The Pasta Shoppe for this delicious review.

This is just a small sampling of all the flavors, kits, and varieties they offer.  I received:

–Chicken Noodle Soup kit
–Halloween Pasta
–Down on The Farm Cheesy Pasta (mac n’ cheese)
–Cat Lovers Pasta  (with cute cat faces and paw print pasta shapes)
–Penn State Nittany Lions Pasta Salad
–Spinach Basil Garlic Angel Hair Pasta nests

We’ve bought the Cheesy Pasta kits before and as soon as my boys saw it, that’s what they wanted for lunch.  It’s super easy to make, it tastes great, and makes a decent amount.  Enough for myself and my 3 boys to each have a bowl to enjoy from one packet. It had cute farm animal shaped pasta.

When I asked the next day what they wanted me to make for supper, they said they wanted me to make the Penn State pasta with sauce.  The bag has a pouch in it to make a pasta salad for tailgates or whatever but the nice part about these things are, you can do whatever you want with them.  Get creative.  Perhaps I’ll used the vinaigrette packet with the Cat Lovers Pasta, who knows.

**I received the below mentioned product as part of the Purex Insiders blogger program.  I also have a chance to win a gc for sharing the sweepstakes.**

I’ve mentioned before that I love any product that can make household chores easier, quicker, less messy, and actually work.  I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing a few products like this and today I bring you another, Purex UltraPacks Plus Oxi Laundry Detergent.

Ever since Purex came out with these little ultrapack products, I’ve been a fan.  You just take one of the little “ultrapacks” of laundry detergent and throw it straight into your washing machine with your clothes. No mess, no measuring, no fighting to get the last little bit out of the bottle.  I love them.  Now Purex introduced the new Ultrapacks Plus Oxi with their Dirt Lift Action.

Purex Ultrapacks Plus Oxi come in a convenient resealable pouch.  You only need one little Ultrapack to do an entire load.  Here is a picture to show the scale of the Ultrapack.  I compared it to my sons pocket knife I found in his pants while I was doing the laundry.

For this load I washed, among other things, my boys’ football jerseys.  They have grass stains, dirt marks, sweat stains, and who knows what else on them.

This is one of the shoulders of my oldest son’s jersey.  Since we got it, there has been some kind of blue streak (located at the top of the pic) that I’m thinking must have come from the screen printing.  Then there was that dirt mark across the shoulder and small one on the seam where the shoulder meets the sleeve.

You can see how good it worked.  The the big dirt streak is gone.  I had put a bunch of Fels-Naptha on the blue streak not really expecting it to come out but it looks like it faded that a bit too.  All in all I’m happy with the way these work.

Speaking of football, there’s a lot of other things going on that makes me think about fall.  The weather is starting to get a little cooler, the days are just a little shorter.  And Purex has a new sweepstakes, Step Into Fall Sweepstakes where you can win $1000 AND a year supply of Purex with Dirt Lift Action!  You can enter daily until 9/30/13.