Hey everyone, I’m happy to announce that my husband and I are expecting baby number 4. I’ve posted about it elsewhere but I wanted to wait until I had an exact due date to post it here. I’m currently 7 1/2 week and the baby is due March 30.
AVEENO Pure Renewal Dry Shampoo review and sweepstakes announcement
I love being an AVEENO ambassador. It’s great to be working with a company that’s researching and bringing positive programs to the community like the “Be an Active Natural” program, and awarding grants to people who are making a difference.
I mentioned in a previous AVEENO post that AVEENO recently introduced more new products to their line up. One of which is the AVEENO Pure Renewal dry shampoo.
***As an AVEENO ambassador I periodically receive products from AVEENO at no cost. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own.***
Safees Reflectors, great idea for Back to School: Review and Giveaway
I’ve read about how it’s a good idea to wear reflectors, reflective clothing, or at least light colored clothing when your outside, especially when it’s starting to get dark. Dark clothing and non-reflective clothing can be very hard to see for drivers. Here’s a scary statistic, did you know that over 2/3 of pedestrian fatalities occur when it’s either dark or even dark with street lights on.
Did you also know that in Scandinavian countries they have the best traffic safety records in the world?! Every school child has to wear one and their traffic fatalities involving children are the lowest in the world according to WHO Global Status report on road safety.
A wonderful company called Safees is a great solution to this problem. Safees are hard prism reflectors that can easily be attached with a clip to clothing, book bags, stroller, purses, jackets, costumes, etc. They can be worn by both adults and children and come in lots of fun designs. They meet CE and Lloyds certification and adhere to ISO standards. They also meet very high EU standards of environmental consideration, in other words no waste is produced in the manufacturing and Safees are 100% recyclable.
Here is a short video on how Safees can protect you and your children at night
Safees make you 500% more visible to drivers at night. When I opened my review samples, even without actually trying them out in the environment I could see that they were highly reflective with an irridecent shimmer to each one. My oldest son volunteered to try them out for the review. I first had him stand in the backyard roughly 10 feet away at first. I attached one Safees to the back of his shirt and one Safees to the front. Here is the first picture:
This Safees was the clear horse design. I then had him go up about 30 feet into the yard and took a picture of the one on his back.
You can see that it’s hard to see my son in this picture but the blue snowflake Safee is bright and easy to spot. I was impressed with how much it reflected and was visible even from 30 feet away. There are many different colors and styles to fit just about anyone.
Safees website also has a helpful page with statistics and links to traffic awareness and traffic safety sites for tips on how to keep your children safe at night: http://www.safees.com/pages/stay-safe-heres-how
At a cost of only $6 each I think there would be a smart idea during your back to school purchases. Clip one to your child’s backpack or jacket. It won’t be long until we start losing daylight and only a few months until trick or treat. Safees is also offering a coupon to save 15% off your order of Safees product with code: Safeesbacktoschool2012
You can also find Safee on twitter @Safeesreflector
***I received 3 Safees at no cost in order to complete a review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post. Any opinions expressed are my own.***
Deja Vu of Love by Carol Cadoo book review and giveaway
I love a good book. Something I can nestle down just before bed and read a few chapters. Maybe read it on my Kindle while sitting at the boys’ practices for 2 hours. Generally I can tell a few chapters in whether a book is for me or not . Up to about 2 years ago, my book genre taste was pretty narrow. A good super natural thriller, or a good psycho-thriller was about it. Maybe a sci-fi if I wanted something different. I rarely ever ventured to other genres, especially romance. I thought they were all predictable and utterly boring. Well Carol Cadoo just changed my mind on that one.
With a little bit of hesitation I agreed to do this book review on her new book “Deja Vu of Love“. And I’ll be honest, I thought I was right at first. The book started off with the main character having a hard life as a kid. My first thought was “oh boy, like I didn’t see that coming”. Though it wasn’t a long drawn out description, more of a background info that I found out I would need later. BUT, I can say that after the first chapter I was totally wrong about the whole book. I could hardly put the book down once I started reading it. I would categorize this as a modern day romance combined with a little bit of a thriller aspect.
The had so many emotions toward the main character Jazz. A smart, strong, female character. I felt so many emotions towards her in the book from “Way to go Jazz” to “What are you doing you goofball!?” The way Carol describes each character in her book really gives you a good picture of them. I found this book heart-warming at times, a good pyscho-thriller at another point, and of course a good modern day romance in the end.
Most of the characters are so loveable. The ones that aren’t..well..they’re supposed to be that way. I have to say, though a secondary character, Patrick was one of my faves in the book. Good for some comic relief and heartwarming moments. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the book is when Jazz first meets Patrick. The scene she paints is both sad and funny at the same time.
Carol Cadoo was kind enough to send over some standard interview Q & A she had done. I posted some of my favorites here:
—Who is your favorite character and why?
I love Patrick he is funny and witty. A little irreverent that quality I am totally attracted too. I think Patrick and Jazz have simpatico together I like the quality of their relationship as well as their interaction
—What was your day job?
Well as most artist I have been in a variety of professions. I have worked as an actress, director, choreographer, wedding planner and waitress. Not to mention a plethora of other short lived careers. I spent the last ten years working as a wedding planner which was a huge research project for human nature.
—Do you do anything else besides write and if so what is it?
Yes I was an actress, director and choreographer for many years, until I shattered my kneecap. From that point on I became a very successful wedding planner, but my true passion is writing, it completes me.
—Name one character in your story that is based on a real person and tell us who it is and how they are similar. Wow well let’s see Patrick is based loosely on my best friend and writing partner of thirty years and it’s him because he always gave me unconditional love as Patrick gives Jazz. We are taking a little break in our friendship at this point. Hope it all resolves.
One thing Carol mentioned to me that I respected is that she is a green writer. Her book is only available in ecopy. When you get Carol’s Deja Vu of Love you can also get a personal digital autograph of the cover using Kindlegraph which is a service she introduced to me.
The book will be available August 1 on Amazon.
***I received an advanced ecopy at no cost in order to complete this review. Any opinions expressed are my own. Interview questions were taken from standard interview questions shared with me from Carol Cadoo. ***
Custom Stamps from Stampsdoneright.com
Stampsdoneright.com offers custom made stamps for whatever your personal or business needs. Are you looking for a return address stamp to make bill paying and letter writing quicker? Are you a Notary looking for an embosser or stamp? They even have QR code stamps.
I chose to review the return address self-inking stamp. It has my return address as well as a line that includes this blog address. It’s kind of hard for me to show the stamp without giving the world my address but I did take a picture of the side of the self-inking stamper itself.
I had to give it a firm push to make sure the whole address showed up on the envelope. The first time I tried to use it I just gave it a quick push and the right side of the address stamp didn’t show up. With a firm push however, my return address shows up bold and easy to read. The press is smooth and quick.
The whole stamper itself is about 2/3 of the size of my hand. It’s light weight and easy to use. The particular stamp model is the trodat printy 4913. When I requested my stamp, I was surprised that I had it by the next week. I’m used to custom items taking a little longer to receive.
If you’re in the market for a custom stamp for your home or business, I would definitely recommend http://www.stampsdoneright.com. Their prices are reasonable as well. My particular stamp above is only $13.49 on the site right now. There are versions that cost even less as well.
***I received the above mentioned/pictured self inking stamp at no cost in order to complete a review. Any opinions expressed are my own. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this post.***





