Category: holiday guide 2015

I had heard of DelSol before but never owned anything from them.  The thing that draws people into DelSol is the color changing aspect. They have tons of products that change color in the sun.  Indoors your shirt is one color, outdoors it changes to another color. Under the shady cabana your sunglasses are one color, step out onto the beach and..yep..a different color. I didn’t realize how many color changing products they actually had until I had a chance to do this review.

Everything at Del Sol – from the shirts and tote bags to the sunglasses and hair accessories – changes color with sunlight. This favorite island spot is not only the world’s largest retailer of color-changing merchandise, but it also harnesses the power of the sun and cranks it up a few notches. The apparel is made from 100 percent pre-shrunk, heavyweight, double-stitched cotton and is guaranteed to change color for the life of the product. Their exclusive eyewear collection, Solize, is made with color-changing frames and polarized lenses that protect your eyes from harmful UVA / UVB rays. They’re also guaranteed for life against theft, loss and damage.

I visited the site during Cyber weekend. First Black Friday then again on Cyber Monday. I got some incredible deals.  I was able to get a ton of stuff for just over $100 shipped.  And when I say just over I my order total was like $105 when I was done but I got at least one thing for everyone and took care of a big chunk of gifts and stocking stuffers.

I bought a shirt for myself and each of my 4 kids:

For me: a long sleeve shirt with a butterfly on it.  My my only complaints are that it seemed to fit small and is very thing.  I’m gonna have to wear a thing cami underneath because any bra I wear shows right through. The rest of the shirts however were a lot better.

For my oldest son: I bought the Men’s “Deep Blue” T-shirt. He and I love to watch shark week together. I thought this was a great shirt for him.

My my middle son: I got a cool gecko delsol shirt that I think he’ll really like

For my youngest son: They had all kinds of cool Marvel shirt he would have liked. Unfortunately shopping on Cyber Weekend a lot of things were selling like hot cakes.  I did find a really cool kids shark shirt I’m sure he’ll like too.

For my daughter: I got a super cute Minnie Mouse tshirt.  She’s only 2.5 years old. She’s starting to recognize characters I think she’ll be excited over Minnie Mouse

All of these shirts were a bit thicker and of good quality.

Then stocking stuffers. Oh I could have grabbed so many cool things but I ended up choosing a pair of son glasses for my youngest son, a Disney Princess kids’ nail polish for my daughter, and a some color changing Minnie Mouse rhinestone hair clips to go with her shirt.

I thought the rhinestones on the clips wouldn’t change that much. I mean I’ve never seen color changing rhinestones before but actually just holding this up to the window the purple and pink was starting to pop out.

I also grabbed a color changing nail polish for myself. I chose the color “Taken for Granite” which I actually don’t see on the site anymore.  There were so many cool colors on the site, I had a hard time deciding.  It so happened that when I was shopping that weekend they were also offering a free bottle of nail polish with purchase. So I ended up getting 2 nail polishes. The other color I got was “Smoke and Mirrors”

If you’re looking for something cool to spend your Christmas money definitely check out DelSol.com. If you need a last minute gift, grab a DelSol gift card. They have toys, sunglasses for all ages, swim wear, hats, something for everyone. And you’re not giving a boring t-shirt when you give DelSol you’re giving a color changing shirt!

Save 35% off your first purchase at DelSol when you go through my referral link

I received a DelSol gift card through the US Family Guide Blogger program in order to complete this review and for promotion during the holiday season.  Any opinions expressed are my own.

We were blessed this year to find a house that’s just perfect for us.  The funny part was, we weren’t really even trying.  We planned on expanding our old house because we were getting kind of cramped.  We had the money saved and had a contractor come give us an estimate.  After we saw how much the estimate was and realized we still wanted to build a garage we had tossed around the idea of looking at other houses. (The cost of the addition and a garage was going to be almost as much as buying another house in our small town). We were still planning on going forward with the contractor until one of my facebook friends shared a house listing.  The house was beautiful.  4-5 bedrooms, garages, a bigger yard, a bigger kitchen, more square footage, everything we wanted and then some.  I happened to see it the day it listed on Zillow.  It wasn’t being sold by a realtor.  I showed it to my husband and he said “I want to go look at it” I told him “I kinda want to too” After touring the house we both loved it.  We had a price in mind we were hoping to talk them down to. We didn’t even have to talk them down.  They said the price we were hoping for without haggling. So of course we went ahead with it.

One of the purposes of sharing my story is that we are still working on decorating our new house.  We got some new furniture, curtains etc.  But it still needs some finishing touches here and there.  That’s where FramedArt.com comes in.  I found some pieces to give color and depth to some of them rooms but I really wanted something personal.  I wanted something relaxing.  I searched FramedArt.com and saw a lot of beautiful choices.  Then I came across the fact that I could have my own photos framed.  I thought back to a photo I had taken on a walk on  a nature trail in our town.  I remember the fresh air, the temperature was perfect.  It was a beautiful scene.   I just had to snap a picture.

I wanted this picture in our bedroom.  Something to look at when I need to take a deep breath and relax.  The other thing about getting this framed was that it was more meaningful for me. I took the pictures, I was there, it’s right here in our hometown.  Think how great it would be to have a picture of all the grand kids framed for a grandparent, to have your a photo you love framed to hang anywhere you wish in your home.

If you’re not into framing your own pics there are tons of framed pics to choose from on FramedArt.com, just click here and see for yourself. I’m not very good of taking a picture of a picture. Particularly a framed picture.  I feel like with light you get the glare and without the light it’s too dark.  My picture really doesn’t do it justice.

Anyway, I’m happy with the way my picture was framed. There’s so many size and framing choices on the site along with pics and artwork to choose from. You could certainly find something you like for any room of your house.  Perk up a room in your house for the new year with some new art from FramedArt.com.

I received the above mentioned product in order to complete a review. Any opinions expressed are my own.

 

I’ve seen a lot of women wearing those cute charm bracelets. You know the ones that you can buy the bracelet and add beads that are significant to you.  Maybe a birth stone, a charm that signifies your job, whatever.  I looked into those one time.  Super cute, lots of choices, but way out of my budget.  I couldn’t bring my self to pay $40 or more for 1 small metal charm.

Soufeel offers charm bracelets similar to those name brands but at a price that’s much easier to actually create a bracelet.  They still have lots of options: birth stones, careers, children, pets, love, whatever you want your bracelet to represent.  They even have a good selection of charms for the holidays!

I  had the opportunity to choose a few holiday charms for review.  They had so many pretty and cute choices that I had a hard time deciding.

I love picking things like snowflakes and the cute hot cocoa charm above because it doesn’t have to be necessarily Christmas but I could wear it all winter. It’s nice to have the Christmas ones too like the poinsettia charm.  You can easily add to your Soufeel charm collection and change out your bracelets depending on the season or occasion.

The charms are compatible with Pandora and other name brand charm bracelets. Every charm on my bracelet was $20 or less. The snowflake charm is actually on sale for $9.99 right now! These charms have a little weight to them. They are not made cheaply.  You can get the starter bracelet for as low as $20 too.

Charm bracelets don’t have to break the bank.  Visit Soufeel.com and tell me which charms are your favorite.

 

I received the above mentioned products in order to complete an honest review. Any opinions expressed are my own. 

 

 

This is a cool little subscription box that I have a few people interested in even before I posted this review, because I loved the concept and had to talk about it. RawSpiceBar is an affordable gift idea for the foodie or cook.  The idea is simple but for someone like me who is always looking for new dinner ideas, this subscription box is the key to the “what’s for dinner” question, at least for a day or two.  My family and I aren’t afraid to try something different when it comes to food.

Each box is themed with a different region or country.  The one I received featured Ethiopian spices and recipes.  As far as I know, I’ve never tried Ethiopian dishes or spices before. I received 3 recipes to use my spices with:   A main dish recipe, a side dish recipe, and a dessert recipe.  And three spices: Ethiopian Mitmita, Berbere, and Pumpkin Pie Spice.

Here is a little about RawSpiceBar spices:

• Freshly ground: ­ Our spices are whole toasted, ground and blended just a few days before we ship directly to your door so you can have your spices the way you have your coffee (fresh!).
• Perfectly sized: ­Each of our spice blends are perfectly portioned to create a dish serving 8-12. Our recipes are kitchen tested and loved- and almost always will include an option for vegans, carnivores and vegetarians.
• Spice discovery:­ Our blends are from old family recipes or our curated chefs- so you can explore new spice blends from experts all year long.

I love that each of the spice packets have a description of the spice itself and what actually is used in the packet.  There’s no crazy scientific or chemical sounding words.  Just simple stuff like “sweet paprika” and “star anise” to highlight just a couple.

The dessert recipe called Pumpkin Spice Dabo Kolo (Ethiopian Pumpkin Spice Ricotta Donuts) sounded really interesting to me.  I already had all the ingredients at home. The Main dish recipe Key Wat (Spicy Ethiopian Stewed Beef) sounded absolutely delish and I couldn’t wait to try that as well. Especially because someone actually helped me out with a dinner idea.  If I ask the kids or my husband it’s “whatever you feel like making”.  Gah!

I made the Key Wat for supper.  The spices were fragrant.  I could tell though that this was gonna be a spicy dish. The spices tingled my nose while I was cooking.

It smelled so good.  The recipe recommends serving it with something like injera, couscous, or butternut squash.  I had couscous in my cupboard so that’s what we went with.

I took a few bites and it was very flavorful. Then the spice crept up on me. My kids like spicy things (except my 2 year old). They all ate it (with a big glass of cold milk handy).  It sort of reminded be of a General Tso’s beef with 3 stars.  I know my husband is going to love it, this is right up his alley.

So after all the spice I decided to try out the Pumpkin Spice Dabo Kolo.  As I was mixing things up I realized there was a bit of a discrepancy in the recipe for this one.  The first step tells you to mix up several of the ingredients including butter. Unfortunately, butter is never mentioned in the ingredients.  So I went online to the site and found the recipe where the butter was listed as an ingredient.  Then MY ingredient list had 2 tsp of baking powder but never said what to do with it.  So I checked the site and baking powder isn’t listed at all.  So I added it anyway. They seemed to turn out alright lol.

They aren’t sweet at all.  But they suggest using honey as a dip which really made the difference.  The idea kind of reminded me of sopapillas.  The kids seemed to like them.

We broadened our palates today.  I probably would have never tried these dishes without rawspicebar.  For only $6 a month, this is the perfect way to to add some adventure to your dinner routine and try some new spices.  You can start your subscription at rawspicebar.com.

You can find RawSpiceBar here too:

Twitter: @rawspicebar

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Pinterest: pinterest.com/rawspicebarLA

I received the mentioned product in order to complete an honest review.  Any opinions expressed are my own.