influenster bloom voxbox: Sunbelt bakery granola bar

Bloom VoxBox

I literally got my bloom VoxBox (free from influenster!) out of my mailbox just over a half hour ago. I was super excited to find a granola bar from Sunbelt Bakery inside. Mostly because I love snacks and I just got out of work and was super hungry! So right away, I took photos and ate it! Now, I've got four little boys. I buy so many granola bars I should have stock in them. This was literally the best granola bar I've tasted in my life. I've never bough sunbelt bakery brand before--I usually grab whatever is cheap not even looking for a certain brand. Now I need to go find all the sunbelt varieties! The one I tried is fudge dipped chocolate chip (scroll down for my artistic photos!). It was soft and chewy (I HATE hard granola bars) with a great texture. The taste was sweet enough to be considered a treat, but not so much that I felt bad eating it. The wrapper boasts "no preservatives", which makes me happy, as well as "bakery-fresh taste" which is true. This weekend, I'll be hunting down the oatmeal raisin bars. Overall, a great product. At $2.69 for a 10 count box, it's not much more than the "cheap" bars. The quality if definitely worth the extra $0.69!

sample share: mr. sketch scented markers

crowdkit!

 

 

 

 As a kid, I was always wicked jealous of any kid that came to school with Mr. Sketch markers. There was something really neat about sticking those marker practically up your nose and smelling them. Only the cool kids got to bring them in with their school supplies. Fast forward to now: I didn't even realize Mr. Sketch was still around. My ever-lasting 90s nostalgia made these a "I need to own these RIGHT NOW" product. I joined the crowdtap Mr. Sketch crowd the second I saw it and crossed my fingers for a sample share. I applied right away and was stoked to get in. When they came in, I was barely about to get a photo of the package before my four kids grabbed them and went right to coloring. The scents are shown on the packaging, which got passed around any time one of the boys opened up a new color. Many of them are just as I remembered--the one notable exception is cinnamon as the brown scent. I miss the chocolate scented marker! The only thing I could say that isn't overly positive is that the markers were a bit hard to remove the caps the first time they were used (it was less difficult after the initial cap removal) and that, as I thought when I was 10, licorice is still an awful scent. The colors are all bright and smell fun (except black, of course) and the kids had a blast coloring with them. Most of the colors even had a hint of scent after a week of the drawing sitting on the counter. True to the packaging, they are washable and came off my kids hands (and from under their noses...) super easily. Over all, super happy with this blast from my past! Check out the photos below to see how much fun my boys had sampling:

smells good!

clean hands!

Influenster Glam VoxBox #ChooseToSmooth Gillette Venus

ready for sampling!

Hello again, my lovely readers! Two posts in one day. I've just gotten out of the shower and couldn't wait to write about my sampling with Venus (thanks to the influenster glam voxbox). I've always been partial to venus razors, ever since I first started shaving (plus, that jingle!). They seemed to work better than most other razors I've tried. The ones I sampled today are Venus embrace sensitive disposables. Normally when I hear the word disposable I think cheaply made awful razors (in my extreme coupon days I had stock piles of such razors. All of which I've since donated or given away to friends). These razors are not those kind of disposables. They look just like the regular product (minus the little switch to change out blades) and work just as well. This particular razor has 5 blades and a touch of aloe on the protective moisture ribbon around the blades. It glides smoothly with out inflicting any nicks or cuts when I used it (I've only gotten nicked by a venus razor a couple of times in my life). It felt comfortable in my hand.

The part of the sample I'm really excited to talk about is the Venus violet swirl shave gel. I was intrigued when I got it in the mail (after all, what exactly is a violet swirl and what does it smell like?) and I had to open it right away. It smells AMAZING. It is probably the best smelling shave gel I've had to date. It smells like the violet jelly I make in the summer (think: violet flowers and sugar). It's a pretty purple color and lathers nicely (the most important aspect of a shave gel for me) and the touch of olay helps the moisturizing. I literally love this shave gel.

Despite the danger to my IPhone (which made it through with out water damage. YAY!) I took a few photos during the sampling. Check those out below.

showing off the goods

comparing to my regular razor (also venus)

pretty purple color!

lathered up (love the toys?)

nice shave!

Bzzagent sample share: swiffer duster starter kit

bzz kit!

Hello my lovely readers! Can you believe it's MARCH already?? Time for spring cleaning! One of the least fun things for me to clean this time of year is our ceiling fans. I have to climb up on a chair and wipe down the blades while dust flies everywhere. Luckily, this year bzzagent had me covered. They sent me a cool swiffer duster starter kit. (pst--get your own coupons for a kit here!) I've used a few swiffer products in the past--the sweeper hung around for a brief time and I loved the wet jets. I've bought regular swiffer dusters before to clean the blinds at my work (we have these huge wooden blinds covering the centers of all the windows), but never got around to trying out the 360 duster. I'm very glad I did--it made my life a whole lot easier (and took just minutes)! It had an adjustable handle that extends--no more climbing chairs for me--and you can more the duster head to the angle you want. The duster head traps the dust so you don't get a dust shower while trying to clean (or in my case, no sweeping up a year's worth of ceiling fan dust when you are done). I took a few photos as I worked (as well as a short video), so check those out below. Leave some comments if you've tried swiffer products: I want to know what you think & what your favorite swiffer product is!

traps dust like a pro

before and after shot

Reynolds slow cooker liners

slow cooker liners

A few days ago, I blogged about Reynolds cookie baking sheets parchment paper. The same day, I received the slow cooker liners to try out (thanks again, crowdtap!). I've always been intrigued with the idea of using a crock pot to cook with, but have only actually done it a handful of times (crock pot lasagna and sweet & sour meat balls are my specialty!) So for some inspiration I headed over to the Reynolds slow cooker recipe page and fell in love with the Italian meatball soup recipe (I'll be attempting this one friday!). My kiddos, of course, all voted for the peppermint hot chocolate. Since winter is winding down here in New England, I decided to make that as a treat for the kids. It was super easy (less than an hour and a half from start to finish), tastes amazing, and was wicked easy to clean up, thanks to Reynolds slow cooker liners! I literally just had to remove the liner and toss. The liner held up well with no leaks, even after the whisking and scooping. I was able to get all the leftover drink out of the crock pot with out fear of breaking the bag. The heat of the crock pot seemed to have no effect on the quality of the bag as well. Overall, I'm very happy with these liners. I can't wait to use my crock pot more now that I don't need to worry about soaking and scrubbing to get it clean! As always, scroll down to see some photos of my liner in action!

step 1: line step 2: mix ingredients step 3: cook step 4: remove liner

kids enjoying their slow cooker peppermint hot chocolate!

crushed peppermint ready to be whisked in!

clean pot--easy as removing the liner!

Reynolds cookie baking sheets parchment paper

This month, I got to sample Reynolds cookie baking sheets for free from crowdtap (they've just re-imaged their site--check it out!). I've used Reynolds product my whole life, so I'm familiar with the brand. I've just recently discovered the joy of baking with parchment this past holiday season (I used to use aluminum foil) and have a roll of generic parchment in my drawer (hey, it was free! Thanks, mom!). I was excited to try the Reynolds brand parchment and I was not disappointed. The quality was much better than the generic roll I've got and my cookies slid off like a dream and clean up was super easy. One of my favorite things about this package is that the sheets are precut and fit my pans perfectly. No fumbling with those metal cutters and getting bummed out when you cut the wrong size! Another fun thing: I laid the parchment paper on top of my stove and put raw cookies on it and just slid the paper off the pan that I removed from the oven and slid the raw cookie paper on it. Very helpful if you only have one pan (or make cookies faster than they bake!). You can check out the Reynolds website for some great cookie recipes (caramel apple cookies are on my must-bake list). The only negative part of my sampling: those wonderful looking cookies on the box! My kiddos thought the package was a box of cookies and ripped it open trying to get some cookies. Silly kids. If you don't have snack-sneaking kiddos like mine, the packaging is great because the sheets are folded into a nice sized box for storage and have a tab thing on the side of the box to keep it shut. A non-sampling related plus for me: Reynolds brand is a box top brand. My kiddos all collect those box tops for their school, and it's one of the easier ways for us to help out. Scroll down below for some photos of the parchment paper in action.

a perfect fit!

two sheets of cookies ready to go--they slide on and off smoothly

perfect cookies!

influenster: jingle voxbox

Influenster jingle voxbox

I recently got the chance to receive a jingly voxbox from influenster (join here!). All these products were given to me for free, in exchange for posting reviews/photos (super easy, right?). This is a great site to join if you want to try different things before you buy (or if you are trying to discover your inner girly-girl like me). Some of these items I never would have thought to purchase. This blog post will outline each product and what I loved (or didn't care for) for each one. the blue links will link to each company's facebook page. Enjoy :)

hallmark itty bittys

 Hallmark itty bittys are these tiny stuffed toys. They have a ton of different characters (we got spiderman. There was also other superheros, frozen, princesses star wars...the list goes on). These are super cute and my kids adored them.

Biscoff cookies are marketed as "Europe's favorite cookie with coffee" which is a fair statement. They are pretty decent as a stand alone, though not my favorite cookie. However dunked in coffee (or as part of one of the many recipes you can find linked on their facebook page or on pinterest) they are a pretty amazing cookie. There is also a spread available that I need to try and get my hands on.

Cetaphil moisturizing cream was one of my favorite product I reviewed. I have extremely dry feet that get worse in the winter. I put some cream on before bed and had some good results overnight (and improving each time I use it). The jar reads fragrance free and is pretty accurate. No funky smell that I would expect from a cream that actually works.

Ore-Ida was already a household brand for us before receiving it. We get their frozen fries fairly often. What was fun about this sampling is that I was given some recipes to try, as I normally think of frozen tots as a stand alone side. We ended up making some cheesy tots for my kiddos in a picky mood (check out my blog post on that here) but there was a ton of other recipes that looked good. Ore-Ida overall has great quality and taste, the tater tots are no exception.

NYC 24 hours city proof eyeliner was an adventure for me. I've worn eyeliner before and thought it looked nice, but I've never done it myself. It took quite a few tries to get the line to look decent. Other than my inability to draw a straight line and stop from blinking, the eye liner went on smooth and did last (no make up wipes here, so I had to use coconut oil and tissues to remove). The color was great (dark brown) and once I get some more practice it'll be more fun to apply.

Pure ice nail polish is exclusively sold at walmart. The price is great and it comes in so many fun colors! The one above is called silver star, a fitting name for the shiny color. It lasts about a week before it starts to chip. The only thing I was not a fan of is that it does take a while to dry (I don't often wear nail polish, so that may be a normal thing. I had used some quick drying polish a few years back) and I'm usually running around so I prefer something that dries quicker. For the price and color, it's a great deal.

Kiss nails fake lashes were another interesting adventure for me. I have literally never worn them in my life. After a quick search and a thorough instruction reading, I was ready to try! These lashes (which are not adhesived in the photo above!) are nice and thick and really make a difference. It was fun to try, and I would recommend the brand to anyone who likes to make their lashes full and pretty--it's just not my thing. It was fun to try once. :)

Overall, I had a great time trying these products out and taking the photos you see here. I'm having fun learning what type of products are for me (and how to better use them!) and thanks to influenster, I get to do it for free!

Making Ore-Ida Totchos

Ore-Ida cheesy tots!

I recently got the chance to try Ore-Ida for free from Influnester as part of the jingle voxbox. I've got four kids who are all potato obsessed: mashed, fries, hashbrown, tater tots....any way they can take it. My original intent was to make loaded tots: load those puppies up with cheese, sour cream, and bacon (check out that recipe, alone with some others over at kraft!). Note to self: do that up for the next get together. Since it was a side dish for the kiddos who were in a "ewww sour cream???" mood, I just cooked the tots based on the cooked directions in a casserole dish and piled on the cheese immediately when it came out of the oven (to melt it a bit. yum!). I also sprinkled on a touch of raspberry salt to season (a local farmers market find--try a touch of sea salt!). A very kid friendly and simple recipe that takes almost no extra time.

pasta with a side of Ore-Ida!

the kids chowing down

Hosted party: weight watchers morning glow party

spending some time with my favorite people!

Weight Watchers is one of the best weight loss programs I've had experience with. Ive never been a paying member, but my mom has been most of my life. I remember her going to meeting when I was younger, and she fairly recently started going back again. She lost over 100 pounds by eating better and getting active. I got the chance to try out their new smart points app (not related to this hosted party event!) and it was really neat to see how points were calculated and helped me cut down on late night snacks and make better eating choices. When crowdtap announced a chance to host a weight water party, I jumped on it. With the new year, a bunch of my family and close friends have a healthier life style as a new years resolution--and what a fun way to kick it off!! The idea behind the party was a morning brunch--we turned it into a dinner party. For the party,c rowdtap supplied us with some fun goodies:

weight watcher party it!

Included was a neat spa kit for me (hostess gift! yes!), a pretty table decoration, a glowing backdrop, a selfie stick (!!!), glow sticks, beach balls (we stuck the glow sticks inside and had a blast!), journals, and most importantly: a recipe book! For the party (check out a sample of weight watcher recipes here), I made raspberry-peach smoothies (six points) and blue berry-peach cornmeal cupcakes (six points) as well as a low fat baked ziti entree for dinner (8 points) and some cheesy tots for the kids (I swear!). The cornmeal cupcakes were amazing! I made them mini-sized to make a cute 3 point snack (and they came cleanly out of the pan! woohoo!). The smoothie was good, I am in desperate need of a new blender (I found this out the hard way, of course!) so it was a bit thick, but tasted really good. I'll have to revisit once I replace my blender. overall, it was a fun night. We all got to talk and motivate each other, share some recipes, take some fun photos, and play with glowing balls! Check out our photos below!

mini cupcakes!

pre-party selfie :)

table set up!

smoothies :)

kids table--sort of!

love the back drop!

showing off our journals!

dance party!