My Monopoly

It's time for me to discuss another site I love! I'm fairly new to it--I've only done one campaign so far, but it's been love at first sight! BzzAgent has you fill out surveys and chooses a campaign for you to apply for based on your answers. The campaign I got was My Monopoly. Anyone who knows me will tell you that's the perfect pick for me! I've collected Monopoly games for quite a few years. The idea of making my own Monopoly game thrilled me. I actually attempted to make my own once when I was a teen with a few of my friends on a camping trip. We called it "hansonopoly" and based it off the the band Hanson, who we all adored. (side note: the band ended up releasing their own monopoly game with the same name years later!) While I waited for the game to ship, I thought of all the different games I could make. it took me longer to think of an idea than to actually make the game. I finally settled on a traveling game of sorts. Half the board is fun places I've been to, and the other half is fun events (based on bands/actors) I've traveled to see. The game came with everything you needed, from the cards, tokens, sticker sheets, ect. You have to make an account on the my Monopoly website to upload your photos and caption them. You can personalize properties, chance/community chest cards, and tokens. It was super easy to use and print. The only issue I ended up having with my game was when the stickers printed, some of them didn't line up correctly and it cut part of the photo off. For some, it didn't matter, but for others it cut heads off! It was an easy fix-I just carefully peeled off the sticker scrap and lined it up (photo below). My oldest helped me put stickers on and set up the game board. Over all, it was a fun experience, and at a price point of around $15 (walmart) it is well worth the price.

the game has arrived!

making my own pieces was super easy!

my sticker sheet!

these are the pieces I had to add the "scraps" to

personalizing tokens :)

In addition to properties, you can personalize cards, too!

completed game board!

Team sweet n low!

I recently got the chance to sample sweet n low. They sent me a neat package with a box of sweet n low for me, samples for my friends, and a neat pitcher (and cups with sweet n low pink logo napkins!). The plan was to have a ladies cocktail night, I ended up splitting it up into two nights, showcasing two drinks with sweet n low. The first night was alcohol-free. I invited my brother and his girlfriend (and let my boys steal a few sips). We did game night (we're big munkin zombie fans!) and shared some strawberry granita freezes. These were so good my brother and I each had two cups! My next plan is to make a wild berry smoothie based off of this recipe.

ingredients!

ready to blend!

yummy!

selfie with my creation!

gave out some samples to take home!

i told him to "hold it up and show me" ;)

L stealing a sip

C stealing a sip

Later on the week, we planned what started as a ladies cocktail night (and ended up with a few boys present!). The plan was to make skinny-mini mojitos. The actuality was ending up with skinny-mini chocolate mojitos! My friend is a gardener and has her own farm stand. So when I messaged her asking if she still had fresh mint available-she suggested I go with chocolate mint. It smelled amazing and had a unique taste. You have to add less (I'd say maybe a half cup) as fresh mint has a much stronger taste. We also added extra lime juice. It was an interesting drink! 

our ingredients

yum! our calorie cutting with our drinks earned us the pizza in the back ground! ;)

mojito selfie!

mom digs it!

sister showing off her drink!

my baby brother is still a year away from participating--so we sent him home with some pizza and a cool sample to add to his coffee! ;)

Welcome October! Vichy sample share

The end of September was a great month of sample shares! I have a few things to type up today and tomorrow, and some more sample shares should be gracing my mail box any day now! One of the many reasons I LOVE Crowdtap! Today, i am going to talk about Vichy skin idealizer serum. I am not a huge skin care guru like quite a few of my girl friends are, but it looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a try.

6 packs of 8 samples to try out the 8-day challenge

ready to try Vichy out!

It even looks pretty! Hard to tell, but it's a shiny pink color.

I put it on my face, and was pleasantly surprised at how it didn't feel gross. Like I said, I'm not a skin care guru by any means, and my limited experience with it left my skin feeling gross. Immediately after applying, I felt like I was de-stressifying. It felt nice to feel like I was pampering myself. I put it on every night, and the feel of my skin really did improve. It felt softer, and the occasionally acne I get did not make an appearance. As a mom of four boys 7 and under working a full time job (with fast food, no less!) it was really nice to add something to my routine that took literally less than five minutes and made me feel better about how I look. So what do I do when I love something? Share it, of course!!

gifting to my lovely mommy!

my sister is so excited!

she calmed down enough to snap this lovely selfie!

I mailed sample packs to my two skin care gurus who I am not lucky enough to live near

I am pleased to share that they loved it as much as I did! :)

Sample share: Listerine Naturals

I love, love, love crowd tap! This month, I scored $20 in gift cards! I also got selected for a small handful of sample shares to be completed at the beginning of September. This is the first! The product is Listerine Naturals. It's a Listerine mouthwash made with 99% natural ingredients. It was cool to read the label and see things I actually knew (Eucalyptus, cornmint, oil of wintergreen)! My husband and I both decided to try this product, as he uses mouth wash more than I do. I am not a fan of the strong taste while swishing, and will normally stick to a milder brand. I was very happy when I tried this and the taste was not as strong. I could definitely tell oil of wintergreen was in the product! It was much more pleasant to use that the regular Listerine types--as well as my normal brand! I am a fan!

swish selfie! :)

showcasing the natural side of Listerine!

Truvia Sampling

I always enjoy samplings that I get to include my family. Truvia (from crowd tap) was one of those! The mission was to create a lemonade stand. They sent along all the supplies we'd need (including a $10 gift card to buy things like fresh lemons-nothing beats fresh squeezed lemonade!). 

Kit from crowdtap :) I'm digging the shades!

 We decided we had to have a yummy sweet to go with our lemonade. We opted to try Tuvia lemon bars (recipe here). Unfortunately, I over cooked the mixture for the top layer a bit too long, so the look was a bit off so we didn't put them out for the stand, but the crust was perfect and the bars were tasty, despite the less-than-perfect appearance!

lemon bar ingredients!

making the crust

bars ready to pop in the over

don't look perfect, but were yummy!

"yummy!"

L resisting shoving the whole bar in his mouth!

The next step was to make the lemonade! We used the recipe right on the cups we received, it was super easy! 7 cups of cold water, juice from 4 lemons (got to try out my new lemon juicer from walmart from the 25 cent clearance bin!), 4 table spoons plus 2 teaspoons (or 16 packets) of truvia. Stir to dissolve, serve over ice! The kids got to help me make it, their favorite part was juicing the lemons. While the lemonade chilled in the fridge, the kids got to work on their sign. I wrote "Truvia Lemonade Stand" since my hand writing is just a tad neater, then let them decorate it. We put everything out than got to taste testing while we waiting for our "customers" to arrive. The kids were begging me for more and I found it to be the perfect mix of sweet and tangy (I am not a fan of over-ly tangy lemonade). We got visits froma few of our family and friends (including Grammy and Auntie Kyra, who were nice enough to let us photograph them!) and we poured some lemonade into a bottle for Uncle Ronnie's girlfriend CC who couldn't make it to the stand. Talk about a special delivery!

making lemonade!

Hard at work making signs!

Come check us out!

I have some talented boys!

Baby J digs in

L showing off his cup

C can't wait to drink it!

A is showing off CC's water bottle filled with lemonade

Even mommy got in on the selfie action!

playing with the truvia shades!

Giving some lemonade to grammy

grammy says yummy!

sharing some love with Auntie Kyra

Over all opinions of the lemonade were very favorable. I love truvia because it's an all natural sweetner. Less than 5 tablespoons of truvia were enough to sweeten the whole pitcher. It was easy and fun to make, and everyone from the tiny tots to the grown ups loved it!