Mommy’s Time Out Wine: Great Gift for Friends or Wife

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete an honest review. This post is intended for those 21 years of age and older.

Sometimes we have those weeks. You know the ones where you had a rough week at work, the kids seemed extra hyper, you clean the house and it seems an hour later it looks like you never touched it? At the end of one of those weeks I put the kids to bed, I’ll light a candle, pour myself a glass of wine and just enjoy the silence for 20 minutes or so. My time out.

I’m not opposed to trying different wines. I’ve tried a few. So when Mommy’s Time Out wines asked if I’d like to review a bottle of wine, well it just seemed like perfect timing to me.

Mommy’s Time Out is a line of affordable wines made from Italian Grapes. They believe Mommy’s Time Out is a well deserved break. I myself prefer a semi-dry or possibly semi-sweet wine. When they asked me to choose one that proved to be a little harder than it should have been for me. They all sounded great but i decided to go with the Garganega Pinot Grigio.

This wine was a good choice for me. Just a little tart, crisp, refreshing wine. Was the perfect thing for my Mommy Time Out. Since it’s an affordable wine (looking online most places are selling for less than $10 a bottle), this would make a nice affordable gift for a friend, wife, or coworker.

When I received my bottle it came in a nice gift bag.

They also have Daddy’s Day Out and First Rate Old Fart Red for the guys in your life. Who do you know that would love a bottle of wine as a gift? I can think of at least one of my friends who would love this.

ROCA Home Kids Gardening Tools Review

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete an honest review. Any opinions expressed are my own.
It’s been a beautiful fall so far here in south central Pennsylvania. 68 degrees today and it’s November 2! I’m trying to enjoy it while I can. I know it won’t be too long until I’m seeing highs of 30 or colder.

We just moved into a new house about a month ago that has 3 gardens for us to take care of. That’s a change for me, I was lucky to have one very small garden before. I’m actually enjoying weeding and planting. You know who else enjoys digging in the dirt? My 2 year old daughter. I had been thinking about getting her her own kids gardening set.

I’ll be honest, this set was a lot nicer than a lot of sets I looked at for her. The ROCA Home Kids Gardening Set comes with a trowel, hand rake, shovel, watering can, tote bag and kids’ learning guide that teaches them about the different helpful bugs in the garden. Since she got the set and had a chance to play with it she’s been asking me almost daily if she could go outside with her “tools”. She’ll spend a half hour to 45 minutes outside with me as I pull weeds. The one day I was planting a bunch of perennial bulbs a friend gave me. My daughter was helping me dig holes and cover the bulbs back up.

In fact, she loves her gardening set so much, and has been spending so much time in the garden that when it came time to decide on a Halloween costume we went with……

The gardening set itself is very well made. The are made of metal with smooth plastic handles. The tote bag is a sturdy canvas bag with lots of pockets for the tools. We actually used her bag as her trick or treat bag since it had handles, the perfect size for her, and complimented her costume. The watering can is made of plastic and holds a fair amount of water for a kids’ watering can. My daughter was able to soak several plants with one fill.

You can find the ROCA Home Kids Gardening set on Amazon:
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Charitable Gift Idea with World Vision

I received the below mentioned product to review and include in the Holiday Guide. Any opinions expressed are my own. Giveaway is sponsored by World Vision.

You know that person on your list who has everything? Or your grandmother who says “I don’t want anything, if you want to do something just make a donation to a charity for me” Or maybe you decide on a charity to make a donation to each holiday and you’re trying to decide which one to choose. For all of these, my suggestion would be World Vision.

World Vision is a philanthropic charity that allows you to choose a level of donation depending on your budget. You can choose for your donation to go right here to needs in the US, choose needs in 3rd world countries, or just make a donation and choose to have them put it where it’s needed the most.

Let’s say your budget is $25. Well there’s a lot of good you can do with $25. You could donate 2 chickens to a hungry family in a 3rd world family. This provides nutrition to families. And because chickens are easy to breed, it’s a gift that can keep on giving. Or for $25 you could choose to have it go in to help by a sewing machine to help bring women out of poverty by allowing them to make a living as a seamstress and learn a skill. You can provide care for 1 child providing things like nutritious food, clothing, or counseling. OR $25, thanks to donations from clothing manufacturers, can buy $300 worth of necessities for a child right here in the US. Of course if you budget is bigger there are tons of choices for that too. For $18 you can feed a family of 5 for a day!

If you’re someone who isn’t opposed to the idea of giving a charitable donation in someone’s name as a gift but really kinda want to also give them a gift, there’s options for that too. When you donate $45 or more you can have the option of choosing a Mango Wood beaded bracelet as a gift that you can then give to your recipient. Wouldn’t it be nice to give them a handcrafted gift with a note to let them know you made a donation to a needy family? Or a donation of $75 or more you could choose an Ethiopia Sumatra coffee blend complete with an olive wood spoon to give the your recipient. $100 donation could get you a Vietnamese tote to give. An $85 donation could get you a sliver vines cuff to give like the one I received to review.

This is a beautifully made cuff bracelet crafted by artisans in India. It’s adjustable and made well. Initially looking at it, I thought, there’s no way this going to fit my wrist. But it does have a little stretch to it to allow you to get it onto your wrist but have it stay on once it’s on. There are a few hand crafted gorgeous pieces to choose from if you like, to go along with your donation. I also thought the Royal Silk scarf was beautiful too. Or the Christmas Star ornament. You don’t have to choose a gift to received if you don’t want to but the option is there.

To see what causes your money can help and see just how far your donation can go visit World Vision catalog. You can also follow World Vision on twitter: @WorldVisionNews and/or @WorldVisionUSA You can also find World Vision on facebook

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win

A Silver Vines Cuff bracelet

US only

World Vision Holiday 2015

We Tried the I DO 3D Art Pen

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete a review for my Holiday Guide. Any opinions expressed are my own.
Welcome to the official kick off of the Luv Saving Money Holiday Guide 2015. Here’s you’ll find budget friendly gifts, affordable holiday decor ideas, holiday deals/coupons, and pretty much anything for the frugal conscious during the holidays. Follow the list in the right side bar for an updated list of holiday guide posts or just search the term “holiday guide” in the search bar.

We’re kicking this off today with a new toy to hit the market for the holidays. It’s meant for ages 8-99 according to the box. You may have heard about 3D pens. Maybe even saw youtube videos of some amazing art made with 3D pens. But 3D pens aren’t even everyone’s budget. If you have a budding artist, a teen with a 3D pen on their list, or you’ve been wanting to try it out for yourself maybe you could start with the IDO3Dart pen

We received the I Do 3D Pen 4 pack that came with 4 different color pens, a plastic drawing sheet, a spotlight, and a 3D Guide Map. This packages says it can make up to 20 projects. This would of course depend on how big your projects were and how much ink you use. We started with a smaller project from the 3D Guide Map.

I’ll be honest it wasn’t exactly what we thought it would be. The pens are prefilled with their corresponding color. They don’t seem to be refillable. It uses a special ink rather than the 3D printer filaments. You can put the clear sheet over the 3D Guide Map patterns. Once you draw for a bit you need to use the spotlight to dry the ink. Then we started building up once all the pieces were completed. We connected the pieces by, sort of, sautering the pieces together with the ink and spotlight. This process does take some time.

I Do 3D pens are available in 4 packs, single pens, and a 7 pen deluxe set which is a Toy R’ Us exclusive for $39.99. I Do 3D can also be found at Walmart and Michael’s for the 4 pen set at $19.99-$24.99 per set and Walmart, Target, TRU, Amazon, Michael’s, and Kmart for the single pen set at $7.99-$12.99 each. Visit IDO3Dart.com for more details

This product did not work as quickly an easily as it shows in the commercials but what ever does? This is a project that is going to take some time. Perhaps a few session to get a completed project done depending on the size of the project. For once, I agree with the age recommendation. My 6 year old son tried this and got a bit frustrated with it but my 11 and 13 year old enjoyed it. This would make a great gift for a teen or tween that likes to work with their hands and is imaginative.

Here’s What We Thought of the Pittsburgh Mills Sky Trail

We received complimentary tickets as part of the Pittsburgh Kids Guide.

There are times that you try something out for the first time and it’s just not what you thought it would be. Then there are other times you try something new out and you wonder when you’ll be able to do it again. Pittsburgh Mills Sky Trail is one of those experiences.

Located in the Pittsburgh Mills Mall, Pittsburgh Mills Sky Trail is a 32-foot tall, 2 level ropes course complete with 30 exciting elements including zig-zag beams, cargo nets, angled rope ladders, crisscross walks and more. Participants choose their own path through the elements and go at their own pace. The ropes course is also equipped with a Sky Rail zip line connection measuring 69′ long. Participants soar down the length of the ropes course on a self guided zipping experience and are able to enjoy it’s thrills over and over. For young adventurers, there’s a specially designed Sky Tykes ropes course for kids ages 2-7.

We went on Halloween, October 31. I really didn’t know what to expect. Would it be super busy? Will it be worth the drive from Johnstown? Will all the kids be able to get the same enjoyment out of it? Valid question considering my 4 kids range from 2 years to 13 years old. When we arrived we found it right next to the food court. It was quite an impressive set up considering it was in a mall.

It says it’s fun for ages 2-102. The staff gave us a friendly greeting. They got all 4 of my kids lined up and fitted with the proper size harnesses. They went over the safety rules with us. The boys were ready to jump into the big kids Sky Trail while my daughter was anxious to try out the Sky Tykes.

My 6 year old was right in the middle where he could have done the big kids Sky Trail or use the Sky Tykes area. He jumped right into the Sky Trail. All 3 of the boys started on the Sky Trail while I took my 2 year old daughter over to the Sky Tykes area. She wanted to climb but she was a little bit nervous. It didn’t stop her though. Most of the time she wanted mommy to hold her hand.

The nice part is the harnesses are fitted to each person. They are hooked up to tethers that slide along the bars. They never detach except manually to go on the zip line but they had another staff member assisting people with that. I’m a nervous Nelly but I had very little concerns with my kids climbing around over my head 12-18 feet in the air. Even if they would lose their footing, they weren’t going anywhere. There were plenty of staff there to help too.

My 6 year old ended up getting cold feet on the big kids trails so he came down and decided to try the Sky Tykes area. After playing on that area for a bit he decided he was ready to go back on the grown up area.

That practice on the Sky Tykes area must have been just what my 6 year old needed because he was almost keeping pace with his big brothers, 11 and 13 years old respectively. Almost, my older boys had no fear what so ever. I kinda wish I would have tried it myself. But I had the opportunity to talk to the assistant manager and other staff and get some great pictures. I can’t say enough about how friendly and helpful the staff were. Everyone had a great time.

This would be a great activity to jump in the car on a runny or cold winter day and get your kids active. Break the boredom and try this place out. Seriously fun for the whole family. Save your self some money too with a coupon from the Pittsburgh Kids Guide! It’s $14 for those 48″ or taller and $7 for those under 48″ tall.

Be sure to stop by Pittsburgh Mills Sky Trail facebook page too tell them Luv Saving Money sent ya!

I’ll leave you with a clip of my 11 year old doing the zip line section of the Sky Trail:

My brave 11 year old trying the zip line section at the Pittburgh Mills Sky Trail #skytrail @pittsburghkidsguide check out more info in my post at LuvSavingMoney.com

A video posted by Angie Beechan (@angwith4) on Oct 31, 2015 at 9:13pm PDT