review – Page 110 – Luv Saving Money

Kids’ Christmas T-shirts from santaslittleshirtshack.com

It can be fun to dress festively for the holidays. A cute Christmas or snow themed shirt would make it easy. My 2 older boys are to the age though that they are still excited about Christmas, they think they still believe in santa but they’re not sure, and they’re starting to get more opinionated about what they want to wear.

SantasLittleShirtShack.com has a bunch of sweet children’s Christmas t-shirts or oh, excuse me, cool Christmas shirts for kids. Sorry my boys won’t wear “cute”.

This shirt here was a good option for my 8 year old. When I looked at the shirt I thought it might be something he’d wear but I thought, I better ask him. He said “Yea mom that looks pretty cool”. When it arrived (which didn’t take long by the way) he wanted to try it on right away. I’ve seen him wear it a least 2 more times since the first time he wore it so he must like it.

Here is my son wearing his shirt. He said it was comfortable. I’ve washed it a few times so far and the color seems to hold. It didn’t seem to shrink much either.

It looked like most of the shirts, including this one range from a size 6 to a size 16. Most seem to run at about $14.99 as well. I like the rhinestone shirts too. I think this is a good quality t-shirt. It’s not too thin or cheaply made. the picture on the shirt was vivid. I’d definitely look into Santaslittleshirtsshack.com again when in the market for another Christmas tee.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Holiday Guide: VinylDisorder make your walls rep you

Have you ever looked at a wall in your room or hallway and said “something needs done with that” but you just weren’t sure what. Perhaps you have a rather plain door in your house and you think maybe you’d like to dress it up a bit but not sure how. Vinyl decals are a great option.

Vinyl decals from Vinyldisorder.com give you a way to decorate that empty space in your house without ruining your paint. You can leave it there permanently or change it up for the holidays or when you just need a refresh. They even offer car decals like the popular family decals for cars.

Use them to decorate your headboard on your bed, cupboard doors, your ceilings, your floors even. They even have holiday decals to get festive for Christmas, New Year’s or whenever.

My boys have a military theme going in their room. I painted their walls, had got camo bedsets, hung pictures of things like tanks and such but still it needed more. I saw that they had a Black Hawk helicopter vinyl decal and thought it would be perfect. I love that you can choose different sizes and colors for almost every decal on the site. They even do custom orders.

The boys were very excited about the decal. I let them tell me where they would like it in their room. Now I’ll be honest, I’ve tried other vinyl decals from other sites. I’ve had some issues. I was a little leary about how this was going to turn out. I didn’t want to let a bad experience with other companies give me a negative opinion of all vinyl decal companies. With some hesitation I started.

Clean wall and dry: Check

So I started the process

I found the placement and made sure it was level. They sent a handy scraper type tool to smooth out the decal on the wall after and make sure the vinyl adheres to the wall. I had to go over some of the smaller, more detailed areas a couple times with a bit of pressure but it worked.

I was impressed with how well it looked on the wall. It’s been up now for about 4 days. I keep checking it to make sure there was no peeling or anything and I haven’t seen any signs of it yet. My boys walls aren’t real smooth, there’s a bit of texture to it and has semi-gloss paint over top but the vinyl still stuck very nice.

My boys love it. In fact when I was tucking them in tonight my oldest said, that helicopter looks cool mom. My opinion, VinylDisorder.com is not like the other vinyl decal companies and their products are much better quality than other’s I’ve tried.

They don’t just have pictures though, you can get quotes, initials, and more on the site.

You can find Vinyl Disorder on twitter: @VinylDisorder and on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/vinyldisorder

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win a Vinyl Disorder decal of their choice

up to 36″ in size (excludes gold leaf and glow in the dark)

US and Canada

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Holiday Guide: Make Your Own Candy kits make a creative gift

From the makers of GLEE Gum all natural chewing gum are the Make your own candy kits. Each kit comes with all the ingredients you need pre-measured, natural, and ready to use. There is also easy step by step instructions as well as educational material for kids on where some of the ingredients come from. My kids think that part interesting too. I think it gives them more of an appreciation for the treats they are making and enjoying.

For the holidays, GLEE Gum has a special running where you can get 30% off a candy kit combo pack which will give you one of each of the 3 kits to give as a gift. This would be a fun and interactive alternative to toys and electronics and great for those cold winter days indoors. Also I’d say a bit less expensive too.

My boys and I always have fun reviewing these kits. This time we had the opportunity to try the Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit.

You can see everything that comes with the kit. The only thing I really needed to use of my own was a pot to boil water and I used a wooden popsicle stick to stir the gum base once it was melted. Each pack is labeled what it contains, IE: confectioners sugar, gum base, etc. So it’s easy to grab the product the directions tell you to use. Some of the steps, like boiling the water and putting the gum base in and out of the pot are for an adult, but most the steps the kids are able to do or help with.

Here is my 8 yr old kneading the gum after it had been melted and mixed with the corn syrup. This is the part where you mix in your flavors and powdered sugar. The kit came with 2 flavors: peppermint and cherry. You can use other powder flavor mixes though like jello mixes and kool aid mixes. My son wanted to try to make some with some of the lime jello mix we had. I’ll admit this was a bit messy but it was still fun. That’s the confectioners sugar all over the table. You have to put it down or the gum sticks like crazy. Another thing I like about the kits is that it warns you about where to use it and even gives you tips on how to get the gum out should something happens it ends up somewhere it’s not supposed to.

My oldest son was having fun rolling it in to shapes. He says “Look mom a giant gumball!”

After it was kneaded enough and the flavor and sugar was added, it was time to roll it out. After rolling it out you can cut it into squares, strips, or even roll it into little balls if you like. This is how ours turned out.

We had a good time and really enjoyed this kit. I think my kids would be thrilled to receive another one of these kits for the holidays. I have also done a review on the Make Your Own Chocolate Kit in the past if you’re thinking about getting these and want to read about that one too. You can find the chocolate review here: http://angiewith2.blogspot.com/2010/10/glee-make-your-own-chocolate-kit-review.html

You can find GLEE Gum on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GleeGum

and on twitter: @Gleeguy

Wanna know where you can find the Make Your Own Candy Kits or GLEE Gum? Use the store locator on their site. You can also order online on their website: GLEEgum.com and don’t forget about the 30% off the candy combo kits!

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Powered by PromoSimple. ***I received the above mentioned/pictured kit in order to complete a review. I was not required to give a positive review. I did not receive any other compensation for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own.***

Holiday Guide: Super cute Smiley Cookies ready for Christmas

There something about having Christmas cookies around that really make it seem like the holidays. Let’s face it though, sometimes we just don’t have the time to make all the cookies we want to make. SmileyCookie.com has cute and generous sized sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies that are sure to bring a smile to your guests or recipients face.

I grew up with Smiley Cookies being around when I was a kid. They originated at Eat n’ Park restaurants that were started right here in Pennsylvania. I don’t know what it is about the Smiley Cookies but they are so darn tasty. I had never tried the gingerbread smilies before. The kids really seemed to like them though.

My 8 yr old, (the one on the left) kept asking for the gingerbread cookies. My youngest also seemed to like the gingerbread flavor. I didn’t even get to try a gingerbread for myself so when my oldest took the last one I said “they must be good I didn’t even get to try one” He said “They are wanna try a piece?” and he broke me off a piece about the size of a quarter lol. Of course I had no problem eating the Smiley tree sugar cookies. They were tasty too.

Another good thing about these cookies is, if you have someone in your house with nut allergies, these cookies are nut free Christmas cookies. They would make a great gift to send to a loved one, friend, or a kid away at college.

SmileyCookie.com is also offering Luv Saving Money readers a 10% discount when you order from their website with code: BLOG10

You can also find Smiley Cookie Store on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/smileycookiestore

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

New Carmex product: Lip Conditioner

My lips seem to always be dry. I wear lipstick or use lip balm but it doesn’t always help. So any product that leaves my lips feeling soft without feeling greasy or like i have a layer of petroleum on my lips is what I look for.

New Carmex lip conditioners give you 13 moisturizing ingredients that a blended to make a creamy and light formula to apply to your lips. It’s not greasy or sticky which I really like. It gave my lips sort of a satin feeling. Right now the lip conditioner comes it 2 flavors. Orange and regular (unflavored). I just had to try the orange. I’m a fan of orange flavored products normally. This product did not disappoint me. It had a light scent and flavor which sort of reminded me of an orange creamsicle.

This product does not have a color so it would be good to apply under lip stick or wear at night to soften lips over night. This might be my favorite Carmex lip product so far. I’m also a fan of the healing skin care products they have too.

***I received the above mentioned product at no cast as part of the Carmex Blog Squad. I did not receive any other compensation for this post. Opinions are mine and was not persuaded in any way to give a positive opinion.***