Cold and Flu

(Originally posted on Chat with Sandy 12/30/10. I am bringing it back because I like these products. I am no longer a GT VIP blogger and I’m not getting compensated in any way for this post. But I do believe in these products and use them myself and wanted to let you know)

Has it Hit Your House Yet?

Cold & Flu  has hit mine… several times.  We have had colds, bronchitis, walking pneumonia, strep throat, sinus infection in the last 3 months between the 10 of us.

Not fun is it?  Yuck!!

What have I had?  I will tell you that I thought 2 different times that I was getting sick. But it was like 1 day of a little sore throat and then it was gone.  Last night was the first night that I wondered about a cold. My nose was stuffy, but so far today it seems fine.
You know.. I hate even writing this! Because as soon as I start bragging that I haven’t gotten sick… I’m going to get whammied!!

I was going to put this video at the end of this post….but I want you to see this.  Dr. Lindsay Duncan was on the View and did a great job explaining some of these… After the video… check out the rest of our adventure with these juices. Consider this a commercial break! lol

What have I been doing that the rest of my family hasn’t been?  I’ve been drinking Omega Orange Juice from Genesis Today.  Do I know that is why I haven’t been sick and they have been?  Nope, I don’t.  Could it be?  Sure…

My boys got home from the first 3 weeks of basic, both with congestion and the beginnings of colds and coughs.  I started them drinking the Omega Orange and also the Resveratrol, Acai juices along with taking the new Vitamin C and Acai chews that I received from them.

Neither of them have gotten worse like you would expect with a cold. They are both doing great. The first several days that took Nyquil at night and Dayquil during the day. But then that was it. About 3 days and they are better.  Again… can I say it is from the Genesis Today products that they are better?  No… I can’t.

We had several different juices from Genesis Today to try.  The favorite of my older boys (we were out of Omega Orange) was the Pomegrante & Berries with Resveratrol. We also tried the Cranberry Goji and the new Veggie Blast.

The Vitamin C chew has 200% of vitamin C in it, along with some other great stuff.  It tastes good, reminds me of a starburst piece of candy.

The Acai chew is the same size. The consistency is slightly different.  It is just a little firmer. The taste is very much the same as the Acai juice. It is a little tart, and I like to have my coffee to drink after I eat it.  It doesn’t taste bad, but my mouth is actually watering as I type this. lol

My thoughts on the new Cranberry Goji juice – taste wise, I don’t care for it. But… remember!!! The Genesis Today products are about the health benefits for you and what they can do… Let me tell you… the pure form of these things do not taste good. You can get the concentrated form and take 1 oz a day.. and it is terrible! But they have made these juices in a diluted 8 oz serving form that I get at Walmart. So those of us who want the health benefits but want a better taste.

The Veggie blast tastes like cold tomato soup.  I personally have never liked V-8 because of the peppery taste. The Veggie Blast did not have the peppery taste when I was drinking it. Now – what I did notice was an “after burn” in my throat – not really my tongue. Kind of strange really – but a good way to get your veggies in!

I have to start eating healthy and this year is going to be kicked off right. Genesis Today is going to be part of my healthy lifestyle for 2011 and beyond!

Disclosure: I am on the Genesis Today VIP Superfood blogger team. I did receive samples of the Veggie juice, Goji juice and chews to try. I was allowed to use the video if I wanted to (which I did). The pictures are my own and opinions are my own.

(Update 2012 – I’m no longer a GT blogger and did not get compensated with any product to repost this blog)

DiGiorno pizza Review

(This post was originally posted on Chat with Sandy on 12/26/10)

Feeding Large Families Can Be Expensive

With both of my older boys home we have been having meals with all ten of us.  I have been lucky in the sense that we have 8 children, but 3 of them don’t live with us anymore.  Mix that in with the fact that my 4 step children are only with us 1/2 the time, we don’t have that many meals with everyone home.

But for 2 weeks with them home from boot camp we have had and will be having many meals with everyone.  Finding meals that will feed all of us for not a boat load of money (and that are easy too) are pretty important.

I didn’t have any problem at all with doing a shop for Collective Bias for DiGiorno Pizza.

Off to Walmart I went on December 23rd to do some shopping.
I checked Consumer Queen’s Data base to see if I could find a coupon. No luck on that one…poo.

A sign of the holidays… isn’t it?  The store was really crowded.  I didn’t have any problems finding the frozen pizzas.  I was a little bummed that they didn’t have a vegetable pizza – that is my favorite. But I ended up getting a meat pizza, cheese and also a mushroom garlic. They cost $4.98 each.  Pretty good for a nice thick pizza like that don’t you think?

Dave had purchased a Red Baron pizza at Kroger the week before. It didn’t have nearly so many pepperoni’s and was much thinner. It wasn’t so good.  He told me that he was trying to decide between the DiGiorno and the Red Baron. I had to laugh because he had no idea I was going to be doing this shop for the DiGiorno the next week.  He picked the Red Baron because it was less expensive. He told me later he was sorry he did.

The pizza went over well.  I had several thoughts from my family.   Here they are:
1) “It was Great!”
2) “It was too doughy”
3) “The mushroom garlic was too garlicy”
4) “Make sure you get this again”
5) “I wish they had veggie”

I started out with 2 pizzas and 6 people.  My boys and Dave. Then Dave’s 4 kids came over and we popped in a 3rd one to cover us all.

Three self rising DiGiono pizza’s, 2 liters of pop and a bag of chips later, we had a lunch meal that fed us all.  The pizza’s cost $4.98 each, the 2 liters of pop cost $1.76 and the chips were $2.88.  Total cost of the meal:  $19.58 to feed 10 of us… for a total of $1.96 per person.  Pretty good!

Here is the whole gang… being goofy!  Thanks DiGiorno for the pizza!  lol

Disclosure:  Collective Bias compensated me for the pizza and shop. The pictures and the opinions are those of mine and my families.

Seagate Go Flex External Hard Drive Review

Back Up – Back Up – Back Up!

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, it is really important to back up your information.  This is something that should be on your to do list routinely. It goes along with organizing your important information.

I’ve had a couple different external hard drives that I have tried over the years.  Guess what one I bought myself? I bought a Seagate. It was a 1T desk top model. I feel more secure with Seagate.  It wasn’t a sponsored thing, it was a…. research online, go to the store, check prices and storage options and pick out the 1T Seagate.

But I recently did get a Seagate Go Flex to try out!  Look at this thing… it is awesome! It is small and a fun color (would love a pink or lime green….. just sayin’ Seagate) and holds so much.

I have put it right next to my iphone so you can see the size.

This is a 500 GB hard drive!!!  I have backed up with this several times already. I currently have well over 20,000 pictures on my laptop and lots of videos! I just backed it up again today and I still have 243 GB of storage left.

What I love about this is how portable it is.  I can SO easily take this on my trips with me.  That is great for a couple of reasons.  The main one is because I like to back up my computer before I travel.  I often download pictures that I am taking on trips while I am on the trip and with this along I will be able to back up the new pictures and info before I travel home.

The other reason it is great is because if something would happen to my computer while I was away and I lost information on it, I would have all my info with me. Or even worse if my computer completely broke and there was something important I needed to do I would still have my info with me if I needed to borrow someone else’s computer.

This is thin and light weight too.

There is a lot of technical info I could look up and give you about it, but techie I am not. That is one of the reasons I like this.  I just plug it into my computer with the cord (by the way, that little bottom part by my hand detaches. There are different options that you can get for it… you can see those on the web site that I link to) and go to my time machine (I have a mac) and turn it on and it backs up. Simple .. simple

Here is a screen shot of the time machine when I started backing up today.

I will continue to back up with my desk top Seagate before I go on trips so I have a back up of this back up. But this is so nice to have with me. Just a piece of security.

I did receive this Go Flex from Seagate and MARS advertising. I was not asked to do a review or blog post and was not compensated financially.  I chose to do this post. I wanted to show it off and also encourage everyone to back up their computers.

Ford Explorer Review

The 2012 Ford Explorer

Dave and I got to take this beauty on our trip to Corydon, Indiana.   We started off on a Friday late afternoon to drive the 5.5 hour drive to IN.  I wanted to drive (Dave did too.. but I won! lol) and Dave decided to set up the built in GPS.

The first thing we learned was that there is evidently a safety feature set on the GPS. You can not drive and set the GPS at the same time. We had to pull over to set it.  Dave wasn’t too happy about that, thinking that if there is a passenger in the passenger seat it should over ride  it.  But he did think it was easier to set up than the GPS we had on the Lincoln MKT we reviewed.

The ride was great, loved how it drove.  One of the things that I loved on this car was the cruise control.

It has the radar cruise – when you have your speed set, but you are coming up on a car that is going slower than you are.. the cruise automatically slows you down.  So you are not having to constantly manually speed up or slow down. It does it for you.  Love that!!

The interior was a two tone leather and looked sharp.  I think Dave took the kids for a drive in it before I got back from a trip and they all thought it was roomy, and liked it.

There were enough cup holders, and they were large enough for my larger bottle of water.

We had dual air conditioning and satellite radio. It is so nice to have radio that doesn’t come and go when you go out of towns.  Dave really liked listening to the comedy channel.

This is one feature that I REALLY miss in my present car.  I would love to see this be a requirement on all cars some days.  It gives you such a piece of mind to back up and know for sure nothing is behind you.

 We made it to Corydon, Indiana and had a very enjoyable weekend.  Driving a comfortable car made it that much nicer!!

Thank you to the MI Ford Fleet for the use of this Ford Explorer for the week.

Therapon Skin Health Review

Do You Have A Skin Regime you Love?

If not I can highly recommend Therapon.  I didn’t set out looking for this, even though I knew I needed something!

I’ve been so discouraged lately at the lines and wrinkles and age showing on my face. I tease that I get my own facelift by not wearing my glasses when I look in a mirror. (and that really does help! lol) When I do have my glasses on and see my reflection, my heart sinks.  My once fresh skin is now aging dramatically, the wrinkles are jumping ahead of one another to race to see who can multiply my face quicker – the area around my eyes, or the area around my mouth and chin.

There have been many a video that I did not use because they showed way too many details of my face deterioration.

I’ve gone the Mary Kay, Ogai and other over the counter routines.  Most of them call for different routines each day. You might do the scrubs once or twice a week, a night time regime that is different than the daytime one, etc.  To tell you the truth, I usually end up getting lazy and go back to my routine of  just using good old soap and water and which ever moisturizer I have on hand.

I went to Gleek Retreat in MI a few months back and met  Christina Stumbaugh, who was giving facials.  I didn’t want to get one done because I just had my skin graft done on my nose and still wearing a band-aide. But I did go in and talk to her, and we got a sample in our swag bag.

It was a four part system, and what was nice about it was that it was the same…. morning & night.. everyday of the week.  Easy Peezy!

I have been using these products for a couple months now.  I had a video I recorded for you, but I’m having big time technical problems with not only my flip software, but also my imovie clips since I had to clear off my computer last week.

Results I Noticed

1) Dramatic change in the softness of my skin  - my skin has always been dryer since I’ve aged and much dryer since I went through menopause two years ago.  I LOVE the feel of my face again!  It feels smooth again.

2)  My pores are smaller – the pores on my nose have always been larger. They have gotten much smaller since I’ve started this.

3) My fine lines have decreased.  I can’t say they are gone or I look 20 years younger, but I have noticed an improvement in the last couple months.

4) The scar from my skin graft is much less. I really think this regime has decreased the scaring on my nose. I’m thrilled with that.

5) I was diagnosed with rosacea shortly before I started on this. Since I’ve been using it, I’ve had no outbreaks of the rosacea. I can’t say they are related because I don’t actually know. But I really wonder if this is why I’ve not had more problems with it.

6) I don’t have problems with flakey dry skin at the junction of my eye brows and bridge of my nose. The lines there are still pretty deep (too much frowning!) but better – but I used to get all this flakey stuff at the edge of my eye brows and that crease.. I don’t have a problem with that anymore.

The products

I am using a four step process

1) Cleansing Wash – Mild, suds really nicely. The smell is mild and clean… not flowerly.

2) Fruit Acid Exfoliant – I expected this to be thick with those little rough pieces in it.. that you use once a week. Instead this is a clear, think liquid. You use their pads (but I thought were too rough and opted for my softer ones, before I read that the purpose of the roughness was to help the exfoliant action… duh!) and put it on twice a day.  It feels nice and you wonder how it is acting as an exfoliant.

3) OPC Reparative Gel – This is an amber clear but slightly thicker liquid than the exfoliant.  I use a little on my finger and put it all over my face.  The color always reminds me of betadine (the nurse in me). The smell isn’t bad, but there is a bit of a distintive odor to it. It does not give or leave any color on your skin. It soaks into your skin very nicely.

4) Enriched Facial Moisturizer – This is a thick rich white cream. It feels wonderful when it goes on. It does seem more like a night cream in thickness, but once it is on, it doesn’t feel heavy or sticky at all.  My makeup goes on very nicely over it.

I do this in the morning and evening.  I have also tried their Sun Screen product and love it too.  I have to be very careful of the sun exposure as I’ve already had a basal cell cancer and skin graft done on my nose and I’m at high risk for melanoma skin cancer.

I’m extremely pleased with the products and really hoping I can have some more to keep reviewing!   I have a dermatology appointment next month and plan to show my dermatologist what I’ve been using and ask her about it.  (These products were developed by  Dr. Beckman who is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon). I am also driving to VA to see my sister and brother in law at the end of September.  He is an Oral Maxillary  Surgeon and preforms reconstructive facial surgery on accident victims. He also does some cosmetic surgery and researches products that can help his clients achieve better skin health. I’m going to also talk to RW about these products.

Thanks Therapon, I’m a very pleased client.. oh.. and I LOVE the little containers for travel! Perfect size!!

 

Magellan GPS Review

Magellan eXplorist 310 North American

My husband and kids love to go exploring outdoors.  It might just be at our farm this trip, but Dave loves the woods and hiking around.

We had seen a GPS unit (not sure if it was this one we saw or not) on TV months ago. Dave was talking about how nice that would be to have. When I got to review this Magellan GPS I was thrilled because I knew how much Dave was going to like it.

There are several different Magellan eXplorist GPS units that range from about $149 – $550.00.  This is the eXplorist 310 North American that costs $199.00

It is a unit that is hand held and battery powered.  You can take it right with you on hikes or trail rides. It is rugged and has a place that it can slip right onto a clip or belt, or would easily fit in a fanny pack, backpack or clipped on your belt.

You can put in locations or find your location. It gives you the coordinance, elevation etc.. of where you are.

The maps are easy to read and geared for outdoors.

There is an anti glare screen.  In the really bright sunlight it can still be a little difficult to see – you can see by looking at this picture of my step son when he was using it. He was blocking the sun to see it better.

I think it is fun because as you walk around with it… it tracks your progress. I know you do the same thing with a car GPS… but it still surprised me to see it picked up my steps.

The kids used it when they were hiking around the farm. It is easiest enough for them to use (once you set it up)

Dave is excited to use it when we go hiking in Indiana in a few weeks and also said it will be a great addition when we go on our Canada fishing trip next year.

 

This Magellan eXplorist 310 North American was given to me for review. This does not influence my review. The pictures and opinions are my own.

Lincoln MKT

Review of the Lincoln MKT Cross-Over

Our family had fun getting to review the Lincoln MKT crossover vehicle. We went on our family vacation around Ohio and to Kentucky.

I can’t even tell you how many times I heard the kids say, “This is the nicest car I’ve ever been in!”

We first went down to Hocking Hills in Ohio and went on the zipline.

Then we drove further south and went to Mammoth Caves in KY.

The kids loved the sunroof. We didn’t have it opened all the time, but they enjoyed it when we did. We did learn that you do not open it too soon after it has stopped raining! (Yes, we got some drips down on us! lol)

The car was very comfortable.  It was leather and looked very nice inside.

I think it would be perfect for a family of four.  The only real complaint I had was the amount of storage space for packing.  There was no roof rack, so we weren’t able to use our car top carrier.  We put one of the seats down in the back to provide enough space (and we used every bit of it). So the child who had the back seat was a little crowded. But the kids rotated seats.

Loved several things:

The dual heat/air controls
The heated and cooling seats!
The Navigation system
The backing up video (loved that and really miss it… such a great safety feature)
The little frig/freezer
The sunroof
The looks of the car (I thought it was sharp)
The little hidden space behind the front console
The steering wheel controls for radio and cruise
The satellite radio
The auto back hatch lift and button just inside the back to close it.

One of the things the kids all wanted to do was to hit the button to make the middle seats go up automatically.  That was a really nice feature

After Mammoth Caves we came back into Ohio and went on a three day Roar and Explore package which consisted of staying at Drury Inn and Suites for two nights.

We also got to enjoy a day at the Columbus Zoo, a day at the Center of Science and Industry (COSI) and  would have had a day at Zoombezi Bay if it hadn’t rained.

We had a great time and really enjoyed the Lincoln MKT.

I think overall it might be a little too small for us.  There are seven of us who are home now. Although it is rare anymore for us all to go together in one car, we still want to have the ability to.

It was awesome for our trip with just the triplets.  If we had a luggage rack on top… it would be perfect (oh…and maybe the DVD  players… )then it would be really perfect!

 

The Ford Fleet out of MI asked if I would like to review this car.  We had the car to use for about a week, without cost.  We purchased the gasoline ourselves. The pictures, video and thoughts are my own.

Book Review

The Parents Guide To Uncluttering Your Home – by Janet Morris Grimes

I was actually featured in this book!  So doing a book review on it is kind of easy.  I don’t know if it is totally an unbiased opinion though.  Actually it is, I’ll be honest. Even if I was featured, if I didn’t think the book was a good one, I wouldn’t mention it to you.

Janet contacted me last year asking for some tips or ideas for her book;  The Parents Guide To Uncluttering Your Home.   She kept me updated as to the books progress.  I would love to say I’m the only Professional Organizer featured in the book…. but I’m not. There are several organizers who were also featured!

This book is packed full of info. She goes through the different areas of your home and helps with all the different aspects of organizing it.

I like that she uses humor to discuss some things.  Chapter 2 talks about your stuff owning you.  That can be SO true.  I worked with a client who “needed” a 5,000 sq ft home even though he lived by himself, because he wouldn’t have room for all his stuff if he lived anywhere smaller.  Honest.  I would try to tell him that he could feel so much freer in a smaller place with less “stuff”.  Believe me, oh… believe me, I helped to to clear out  a LOT of stuff over the year I worked with him.  But it did make me a bit sad how important his “things” were to him.

I like that she has a room by room guide to help you think through things that you can do to help declutter an area.  For instance she mentions the stacks of mail.  Her plan of action for that is to have a mail sorter for incoming and out going mail.   Things can be simple, but often not everyone thinks the same way and it might be a new idea for them.

She brings in the organizers for her Case Study sections of the book.  Look .. that’s me!

My section goes onto the next page. Yes.. I turned down the page where I was featured. (I know, some of you are cringing… “You page turner downer!” lol

Janet Morris Grimes wrote this book. She moved from a large home down to a very small one and organization was a necessity.  (sounds familiar!)

 

Having some guidance to help you clear your head is important.  Reading a book about how to do it, getting different ideas from others… just make sense.  Sometimes when you are too close to something, you can’t process logically.

You can find this book on Amazon here: The Parent’s Guide to Uncluttering Your Home: How to Organize What You Need and Recycle What You Don’t (Back-To-Basics)

 

I was sent a copy of this book since I was one of the organizers featured.  I was not asked to do a review on my blog about it. I am doing that because I like the book…. and I wanted to brag about being in it.  lol Well, come on, it’s not every day that I get featured in someone’s book.  The pictures and opinions are my own. The link is my Amazon affiliate link.

 

Org Junkie

Organizing Junkie’s Book Review & Giveaway!  *closed*

Clutter Rehab by Laura Wittmann

I love Laura! I’m an Organizing Junkie was the first organizing blog I ever saw when I first started looking at blogs. Her writing is fun, easy to understand and basic. But she gets things done. She is a highly respected organizer and I think the top organizing blog (at least that I know of) out there.

She wrote a book. Yee Haw! Guess what? Her book is fun, easy to understand and basic!

She gives you “101 tips and tricks” to help you organize your home and manage your time.

Here is a page from the table of contents.

Some of them are over a page, but generally speaking they are fast and easy tips. You might have several on a page.  Considering I am working on clearing out all the winter clothes and completely going through the kids rooms right now … donation is a big word.  I like her idea of having a “donation station”.

Some of her tips are so simple, yet many people just don’t think of them.

 

You can find this Clutter REHAB on Amazon and it is only $10.36!  Great deal.

 

I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to decrease some of your clutter… just by using some smart and easy ideas.  It would also make an awesome gift for a newly married couple, a messy teenager going off to college, your “messy” friend… but, there are so many neat little tips in the book, that you don’t have to even be a disorganized person, or a messy person, or have a house full of clutter to gain valuable insight and ideas from this book.

Being short little chapters geared towards one tip each, makes it a very easy read. Something you can pick up, read a few ideas and put it back down to get the kids off to school. More than likely you will pick it up and keep reading because it’s so fun to find new ideas to make your life easier.

Buy it Here!

Clutter Rehab: 101 Tips and Tricks to Become an Organization Junkie and Love It!

Try and Win a Copy Here!

Required For Entry: Go to Clutter Rehab: 101 Tips and Tricks to Become an Organization Junkie and Love It! and click on the “Click To Look Inside” at the top of the picture of the book and tell me what you see in the preview of the book that interest you! Leave a comment below telling me how you think this book could help you.

**Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Visit Laura’s blog I’m an Organizing Junkie and  look for something that interest you. Leave the link in the comments below of which blog post you visited. (1 entry)

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog (1 entry)

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 entry

4) Stumble one of my posts for 5 extra chances to win. (tell me which post – please don’t stumble this post, as giveaway posts shouldn’t be stumbled.) 5 entries – be sure to leave 5 comments below for this one.

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy. ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

Please keep in mind I approve my comments. So you won’t see them right away. Never fear!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 *CLOSED*

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. Must be 18+ to win. One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

Organizing Mission Monday Link Party – Week 26

Vacation!

Don’t you love them?  Don’t we need them?  I’m actually on one right now! I’ve gotten some awesome opportunities for our family to review some areas around Ohio.

Ford Media Fleet is providing us with some wheels!!   We have a  Lincoln MKT to drive for the week.  Swaeeeett!

Our first stop was the Hocking Hills area in Southern Ohio.  We went to the Hocking Hills Canopy Tours! I love ziplines!  It was SO fun!!  We all loved it! I’ll have a post on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog within a week or two on all these adventures.

We went to  Mammoth Cave in KY today and then got to stop and visit my son in Lexington, KY.  That was a very short visit to see him at his new job as a buyer at the new CarMax they just built there.  The caves are not part of my review, but we wanted to take the kids there to see them.

We stopped by home and will be heading for a day at our farm.  We are going to be doing some fishing!

Then we are off to a three day fun package called Roar and Explore Adventure Getaway.  It includes a day at the Columbus zoo, a day at Zoombezi Bay and COSI.

This will be an awesome vacation.  I’ll be sharing videos and pictures later on my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog.

Check out my Featured Bloggers For This week!

Susan from Homeroad refinished this Ikea cart

Look at what she did to this cart!  Just refinishing my table and painting my Ikea table were big deals to me. This is what her Ikea cart that she has had several years looked like.
Then she did all kinds of things to it.  Not just sanding…. but she got to take out some aggression and pound it with a hammer to distress it (that would for sure distress me! lol). She also put some black tacks in it, nails in it, put on some hooks and handles…

Made a cool stencil for the top and it turned out like this!!  Isn’t this awesome!!

You can see all her tricks and techniques on how to get this Ikea cart looking so fab on her post called Ikea Cart Re-Make.

 

Anna from Ask Anna- Cleaning your Blow Dryer

has some great techniques and ideas on cleaning some of those things you just don’t think about cleaning, or you aren’t sure about how to clean.

She took her little old hair dryer that looks so nice and clean

Until you looked at the filter/vent area.  She used a little known secret of using dryer lint from her dryer to stick to the lint in the grates of her blow dryer to pull it out!

Look at the difference!!!  It looks so clean.

She has some other great ideas that you can get the links on my going to my Organizing Mission Monday link party Week 25 to see her posts, or you can just check out her blog! This one is called Hair Dryer Trick but she also cleaned the front of her oven door with a homemade mixture I want to try, and several other good cleaning ideas.

 

Card Cubby Giveaway is still going On! (Closed)

I am going to give away a Zebra Card Cubby!

***I am also giving a 10% discount from today until June 30th, 2011. If you use the code “Summer 11″ it will take off the 10%. This is good on the Card Cubby and pouchee purse organizer!

Required For Entry: Leave a comment below telling me how you would best like to use the Card Cubby if you won. **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.   Please keep in mind….  Just posting a link to the link party is NOT an entry.  It is an option for an extra entry, but you have to ALSO put a comment in the comment section for it to be in the drawing.  At this point (morning of 6/13) there are only 24 entries for the 24 comments.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Leave a link in the link party for one of your blog posts. (1 entry) You can leave more than one link in the link party, but only one of them counts towards an entry.

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog (1 entry)

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 entry

4) Stumble one of my posts for 5 extra chances to win. (tell me which post – please don’t stumble this post, as giveaway posts aren’t so great to stumble.) 5 entries – be sure to leave 5 comments below for this one.

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy. ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

Please keep in mind I approve my comments. So you won’t see them right away. Never fear!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Sunday, June 19, 2011 (Closed) 

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. Must be 18+ to win. One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

Link up to my Link Party

I would love to see what you are working on this week. But as always you can link up any organizing or cleaning or DIY post to my link party.

You can find the link for my button and also my “Proud to Be Featured Button” on my sidebar Rules 1) Link to your specific post – not your blog
2) Please Link back to my blog with my button or link (link just above underneath my button)
3) I’d love if you’d follow me on google and/or FB. The google is new and I’m trying to build it
4) Blog post related to Organizing or Cleaning or DIY or decorating
5) No sales pitches or web sites.
6) If I feature you I will use one or more of your pictures with a link back to your blog.
7) Feel free to link up more than 1 post.

Looking for other link parties? I have a whole list of them. Thumbnail via day above and keep scrolling down to find a more extensive text lists by day on my link party list.

If you aren’t sure how to link up… see my link party tutorial here. It is simple.

If You Are On A Reader and Want to View All the Great Link Up’s Please Click Here.

This link party will be open until 11:59 on Sunday June 19, 2011. Feel free to leave more than one post. (But only one counts as an extra entry for the giveaway)

Disc Sanders

Review of two Skil Disc Sanders

The 5 inch Random Orbit Sander

The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander

When I think of finishing furniture, the part that I dread the most is the sanding.  Thinking about refinishing my dining room table was not a happy thought.

I was thrilled when I found out I was going to get to review these two Skil Sanders.  The job didn’t seem nearly so scary anymore.

I also was going to refinish an Ikea table

I set up my work area in the garage. The 5 inch random sander came with several specifically  cut pieces of sand paper.  It also has the dust collector. What a great benefit that was. I didn’t have to worry about massive amount of saw dust all over me, all over the garage, all over everything!

The 5 inch Random Orbit Sander

I wanted to start with this sander because it was going to be the main one I was going to use for the surface of the dining room table and the Ikea table.

Here is the bottom of the sander…. why look at that…. the same holes that are on the sandpaper. lol

 

The gray surface has a bit of a “Velcro” feel to it … it is rough and then the bottom of the sandpaper is almost “felt like”.  When you place the sandpaper on the sander… it grabs and sticks on.  It isn’t hard to line up the holes either.

Now to test to see how it works.

The on/off switch is really handy. It is right where your index finger goes… so if there is any reason you have to stop it fast… it is right there.

There is also a light guide to let you know if you are putting too much pressure  (light turns red) or if the pressure is just right (green light that is lit now).  The dust goes into the particle filter. It is so nice to not have all that saw dust coming up all over the place!

My son was dying to help me out! lol  He couldn’t wait to use it.

I did try the other sander on the legs (I’ll show more of that sander later).  It would have worked, but there would have been a lot of changing of the sanding tips… and I had four volunteers (lol) who each got a leg to sand.

You have to be sure to remember the leaves of your table too if you are going to refinish a dining room table.

It made sanding the table top So fast and easy.  We also used it on the Ikea table. That surface was much different, but it still worked fine.

The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander

Look at this cool sander!  The Octo Multi-Finishing Sander has  eight different sanding tips (hence the octo) to be able to sand different surfaces.  (Check out the video on their site that shows this sander in action)

With all the tips and the sand paper to fit each of the tips, it is nice that it also comes with this bag.

It isn’t too hard to change the tips, but I did use the directions to see how to change things out. The different tips fit into the slots and snap in place.

The white on my hand is not saw dust, it is actually primer that was a pain to get off!

Putting on the sandpaper pieces worked the same way as the other sander. There are several cut pieces of sandpaper for each tip.  I didn’t realize at first (but did before I actually used it) that the sandpaper had the different grades.  I used the 120 grit for my projects.  I do realize you would have to purchase replacements pretty quick if you were doing much sanding though.

I did try using it on the legs.  It worked, but as I mentioned earlier in the post… it would have had me changing the tips for the different angles and surfaces.

Since I had willing participants… I spent my time working on other projects with the sander.

I had an old mirror to refinish and it had scroll work on it.

I was able to use several of the different tips.  I think I liked this tip the best, to do the curves.

I used all of these tips

The corner attachments were really nice to do in the little creases …. and also the long side of the mirror. The longer tip wasn’t as useful for this mirror.  I used it to try and get on the flat main surface at the edges of the scroll work. You can see how the sandpaper did. I don’t know if I was putting too much pressure on the tip and that is why it wore out so fast or not. I didn’t feel it was as useful as the others on this mirror.  But I am counting on it to get in between the rungs of my chairs when I refinish them.

I also refinished this little chest of drawers that goes on the wall.  I did use that longer tip on this for the corners and it worked nicely.

 

I was very happy with the sanders. It helped save some real time along with muscle in sanding the several pieces that I worked on.

I loved the 5 inch random orbit sander for the flat surfaces.  The Octo multi-finishing sander was very handy for different edges and surfaces.

I think it is going to really help me when I refinish my chairs. I don’t think those spindles will be any problem at all.

I would recommend it for sure if you had a lot of sanding to do with those surfaces.  If you didn’t have much to sand, I would say it would probably be easier to do it by hand rather than changing the tips several times for a small area.

The weight of the sanders and handling of them were great. They worked easily and I felt very comfortable using them. They definitely saved me some time.  I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend someone purchase one of these if they have some refinishing projects to do.

You can check out all the Skil sanders and tools by going to the Skil.com site.  You can also find them on Facebook.

I very much appreciate Skil for giving me these two sanders to use and keep.  This did not influence my opinion on the sanders.  The pictures and projects are my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Time Pottery Review & Gift Card(s) Giveaway *CLOSED*

Do You Have an Old Time Pottery Store Near You?

Hopefully you do! If you’ve not been there before, then you need to go! You will find a massively big store that has just about anything you could need for your home.

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time! This is not a store that you zip in and back out of quickly. I don’t know if I have ever spent less than an hour in here.  Oh wait… yes I have. I had to run in to get some extra baskets one time and spent only about 15 minutes in it. (But that was an exception)

One thing about Old Time Pottery stores is that merchandise varies in each store.  They buy huge quantities of merchandise (hence the good prices for some high end products) and they get new shipments in each week. This is one of those stores that it really pays to shop frequently! And if you see something you really like, don’t hesitate to buy it, because there will be others who like it as well…. and it might not be there next time you go to the store!

Ok, so you know many stores like that right? But do they also have discounted prices on everything? That is why it is so fun to go to Old Time Pottery.
I have made many trips there recently. I used plastic baskets from there for my pantry, refrigerator and freezer reorganization.  These are the ones I used on my pantry, I got red ones for my ref. and freezer.

I also got some wire organizers that I used under my sink, and pantry and also plastics cupboard.

It isn’t your fancy-smancy store.  It is very basic. Grab your cart and start your adventure.

There is a little bit of everything.  I love all the baskets they have there.

But I have recently been there for items to decorate in my dining room.  (You’ll see those in a later post when I show you my finished dining room….but if you watch the video close you’ll see what I got on the check out counter) Here are a few other fun things you’ll find at Old Time Pottery (that you haven’t already seen in my video)

They also have a contest going on. You can see rules for the VIP Old Time Pottery card contest below (hint…. it can earn you five extra entries into this contest! Double whammy goodness!)

 

 

 

To Enter to Win 1 of four $25 gift card to Old Time Pottery!!!

Tell me: If you have an Old Time Pottery Around You. Which store (or state if you don’t want to be specific)  If you don’t know go to Old Time Pottery and plug in your zip code to find out. (sorry, no online sales – in store only) **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Go to the Old Time Pottery Web site and sign up to be a VIP OTP (Old Time Pottery) shopper. No purchase necessary. You will register and then you can print out a coupon to take to your OTP store to enter. You are entering to win a $50 gift certificate! (They are picking weekly winners) This promotion is good until June 17th. (5 extra entries – add 5 comments)

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog This is for 1 chance to win!

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 chance

4) Stumble one of my posts for 5 extra chances to win. (tell me which post. Post 5 comment entries)

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy. ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

Please keep in mind I approve my comments. So you won’t see them right away. Never fear!

See lots of way to enter!!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Wednesday , May 25, 2011  *THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED*

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. Must be 18+ to win.  One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

I was given a $50 gift card for Old Time Pottery, but this in no way swayed my opinions.  I was talking about going to Old Time Pottery on my past posts, before they contacted me.  The pictures and videos and opinions are my own.

 

Paintstick – Review and Giveaway *CLOSED*

HomeRight EZ-Twist Paintstick

I was very excited to review this EZ-Twist Paintstick by Homeright.  I have several areas I am going to be painting in my house.  I was starting with my dining room.

I was being daring with colors. I remember a friend who had a room that was periwinkle and I loved it.  Trying to find the right color was the hard part. Bright enough, and that combination of blue and purple that isn’t too strong one way or the other. I ended up going with the color on the left.  The lighting really effects it.

I watched the videos that I was sent of the paintstick being used and I was psyched! This looked awesome! It was so easy and fast!

When the box came from HomeRight I had a few other things to review also!  There was a Quick Painter and Quick Mask and a Paint Sprayer (which is not part of the package being given away today -  I will review later once we can try it)

The Quick mask is a combo tape and drop cloth for edging.

It is set up like a roll of packing tape with a sharp edge to cut.

This was nice. You can tape along the edge and then pull out the drop cloth. It isn’t a full room drop cloth.. just edging.  You just have to be careful that you don’t pull it on the sharp edge side.. (just sayin’.. not that I might have done it or anything, but if you were to do that I bet you would tear the drop cloth.  LOL)

I also used it on the edge of the windows.

It worked well although I had to be careful around the corners. It didn’t always stick as well there and I had to fix it on most corners before I painted them.  But I don’t know that it was much different than most other tapes I’ve used in the corners.  I would use it again.  It was nice to have the drop cloth along the edges.

They also included the Quick Painter.  I have used a tool similar (the red handle one) and really liked it.  But this had a tube to load, so it seemed really convenient.  There was not a roller edge, so it didn’t work for the ceiling edges, but it was nice especially around the window edges.

There was no problem loading it up.Just fill it up like a squirt gun.

Once the paint was loaded it was very easy to manage.

I did learn that you have to be careful when you push the little pump handle to get the paint flowing.  I first tried it when the brush was not on the wall and it came flying out.  Thank goodness for my Quick mask drop cloth! Really!!   The trigger seemed a little touchy.  Not hard enough and I had to paint over things a couple of times because I wasn’t getting enough paint. Just a little too hard and I had too much with several big drips down my drop cloth to prove it.

But when I had the right amount, it worked great.  I think it just takes a little getting used to the “feel” of the trigger for it to be a fantastic tool.

Now for the EZ-Twist Paintstick!  Please be sure to watch the whole thing through. I did have some trouble with it… but for my husband it worked with ease.

I also think a big factor may have been that the paint I used was very thick. I got the Behr ultra paint with primer all in one. I think next time I will use a thinner paint and I bet I would have better results.

I want to point out that the splash guard around the roller is very nice. You don’t get the splatters that you get with a traditional roller. If you noticed, my husband walked in wearing his coat and didn’t take it off while he tried the paintstick. He didn’t have any paint on him.

The paint in the handle goes pretty far.  That was one of the things I wanted to see.  How far one “handles worth” goes. It holds 18 oz of paint and will paint a 8′x8′ wall according to HomeRight.  I do agree that it did seem to go a long way on the 2nd coat.

You don’t have any paint trays to worry about sitting around which is really nice.

I would advise you to follow the directions and white down the roller first and let it dry. There is a bit of lint on it if you don’t, but it is explained in the directions that wetting it down first and letting it dry will help solve this issue.

I can recommend this after watching my husband use it.  I think there is a bit of a learning curve, and I would advise you not to use a really thick paint with it.  I think that was the main problem for me.

You might want to go to the HomeRight FB page. There are many people who have taken their EZ-Twist paint challenge and did not have the difficulties I did. I just watched some more myself and keep wondering why I had such troubles.

To Enter to Win one of TEN Ultimate Home Painting Kits!

These kits will include the EZ-Twist Paintstick, the Quick Painter and the Quick Mask like I showed you above.

Tell me: Why you need painting done around your house? **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Post a picture of the room you would like to paint on my FB page saying “This it the room I want to paint with the EZ-Twist Paintstick.“  (5 chances to win, be sure to leave the link and make 5 separate comments below)

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog This is for 1 chance to win!

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 chance

4) Stumble one of my posts for 5 extra chances to win. (tell me which post. Post 5 comment entries)

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy.  ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

See lots of way to enter!!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Thursday , May 12, 2011 **THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED**

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

If you are chosen as one of the 10 winners, I will ask you if you would mind if the rep from HomeRight contacted you. They would love it if you wanted to post a video for their FB page on your experience. But this will not be a requirement and I would not release your information without your permission.

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

I was given the above paint system to review. The pictures and videos and opinions are my own.

Also be sure to enter my other Painting supply giveaway going on until May 2, 2011

Green Toad Pivoting Paint Brush Review

An Eco-Friendly Pivoting Paintbrush!

Congrats to Karen @Karenmed409 for winning the giveaway! Random.org picked #54!

Painting walls of your home, is not a chore very many people enjoy. I know I sure don’t.  I get sore, my hand cramps up from the paintbrushes or rollers and I actually broke my ankle painting one time – although that had nothing to do with the paintbrush.  Hint: Don’t use a chair to stand on… it may tip. Just sayin….

I got the chance to review the Green Toad Pivoting Paint Brush last weekend when I painted my dining room. I used it for the trim and corners.  I told them I didn’t want to review the roller because I was reviewing a different paint roller system, but I wish I had offered to try that too – just to see what it was like.

As you can see, the handle is bent! The  ergonomic pivoting paint brush was designed with the help of physical therapists. Which I think is cool. So many people have issues like carpel tunnel or arthritis and something like painting can be really hard to do.  I will tell you that as I was using my old traditional paint roller to do my dining room walls, my hand was cramping up like crazy. That is the reason I said I would have liked to have tried their paint roller with this handle – to see if it had the same effect. But I bet I wouldn’t have had the cramping.

Now… the other cool part about this brush. The pivoting part.  The brush head turns  360-degrees and locks into eight different positions! You don’t have to do any fancy stuff, it just turns and kind of clicks and then you can tell when it is locked in place.

So…. let’s say you are painting around a light socket. (Ok… so I forgot to get more than picture of when I was actually painting, so I took most of these this morning and yes… I know the electrical socket cover comes off when you paint. But I do have video down a little further from when I painted)

Turn the brush head this direction to do a space like this.

Then to do underneath it, you can turn your brush head this way.

The rubber grips make it easy to hold and the built in finger grooves help to make it comfortable to hold. It is also very light and that makes a difference.

Yes.. this is the picture of when I was actually painting. Notice light socket off the wall, paint on the brush and on my hand! lol! You can see the natural finger grooves and a  rubber place where your thumb naturally sits.  There is a small black button underneath that you push to release the brush head. Then the black oval grips on the actual paint head help make it easy to turn the brush head when changing positions (especially if you have paint on your hands) Look at the flat edge of the brush – the black right by the bristles – that is a drip guard that helps any dripping you may have.  I didn’t have any problems with any bristles coming out. I hate that when you get a paint brush and you have to pick the bristles off the wall that have fallen out of the brush. ewww…

Now you can see it in action:

Now for the “green” part.  It really is green! I mean it is environmentally friendly! All the plastic parts which include the handle, the brush, the brush heads, the bristles and most of the internal parts are treated with Earthgreen polymers.  Evidently this makes them biodegradable. They can be recycled and they are even compostable! So how can you argue with that? I think that is great that the company went to the effort and extra step to make them “green”.

There are different size brush heads. The 1.5 and 2.5 inch tapered brushes, the 2 and 3 inch straight brushes and the 4, 6 and 9 inch rollers.

They are also have roller extension poles, paint pad attachments (I love those!) and earth-friendly paint trays in development! So this is only getting better.

I am extremely happy with the Green Toad pivoting paintbrush.  I actually hid them from my husband and kids!  They are going to be painting the shed out back, and I want to keep these nice to work on some other painting projects I am going to undertake soon.

What I liked:

1) Comfortable to hold
2) Easy to turn angle & change paint brush heads
3) Bristles didn’t fall out
4) Nice edge on the tapered brush. I could paint my ceiling edge without taping off.
5) The rubber grips were in the perfect place
6) Easy to clean up
7) Environmentally friendly
8) Priced right!

What I didn’t like:

1) I didn’t also ask for the paint roller
2) It would be fun in pink
3) I don’t know if there would be a time that I would want the handle to be able to be all the way straight like a traditional paintbrush or not.

To Enter to Win a Green Toad Pivoting Paint Brush system!

Go to the The Green Toad.net and look at the paintbrush on the main page. There are 8 highlighted green dots. Tell me what 2 features of the paintbrush are, according to those dots.  You will be entering to win a system like in the last picture on this post. **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Stumble this post with a brief review – The button is the first one at very bottom of this post under where it says “Sharing is Caring” (For 5 extra chances to win! I have to see the review – leave separate posts)

2) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog This is for 1 chance to win!

3) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy (Leave me your twitter name) 1 chance

4) Follow @GreenToadBrush on Twitter.(Leave me your twitter name) 1 chance

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. You can use the tweet button at the top to make it easy.  ( Pls leave your url link) 1 chance for each tweet.

See lots of way to enter!!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Monday, May 2, 2011  *THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED*

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. One person per mailing address only. Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

I was given the above paint system to review. The pictures and videos and opinions are my own.

Be Sure to check out my other painting supply giveaway here that ends May 12, 2011

Donating to a Dog Shelter #Ilovemydog

Kibbles ‘n Bits Bistro Dog Food to the rescue

I had the opportunity to purchase some dog food for my dogs to try and also to donate a bag to a local dog shelter. The timing couldn’t have been any better.  E has been talking about wanting to be a vet for some time. She is in 4th grade now.  She has also talked about volunteering at a dog shelter or vets office at some point.

Evidently the Second Chance Humane Shelter came and talked to the  kids at their school.  She decided that she wanted to go and help out.  Dave got the phone number for her and she wanted him to make the call.  Dave told her no, that he thought it was best if she made the call on her own.  She made the call and discussed it with the woman, and then they of course asked to talk to Dave to verify it.

They were all set for this last Sunday.  The perfect timing came in when last week I got the chance to go to Walmart and purchase a 16 pound bag of Kibbles ‘n Bits Bistro Dog Food to donate to a shelter. I was also supposed to buy one for my dogs, any size I wanted.

So off I went to Walmart.  I had some other shopping to do also, but didn’t have any trouble finding the dog section. I had been there many times before… so I should hope not. But there are hanging signs to make it easier.

The Kibbles ‘n Bits Bistro Dog food in the small 3 pound bags was on the end cap.  It was $4.95 and I decided to get that bag for my dogs.  We had an experience with changing their dog food once a year or so ago.  They both got sick and that isn’t something I want repeated! I figured I would let them have one bowl full and see how their systems handled it. Then if that went well… they could finish off the bag.

I had to find the bigger 16 pound bag also.  I went down a couple aisles. Found the dog toys, leashes, bowls etc… and the smaller bags of dry food.  But I didn’t see this brand in the small bags other than this end cap display at first.

I went down the aisle with the large bags and then I spotted them.. up near the front of the aisle (of course)

I knew I wanted to buy the new Bistro Meal dog food. I have to say that I was impressed with the picture on the bag.  Looked like  a really nice meal!!  lol

I then saw that there was a $2 off coupon right on the bag.  Coolio!!  So I grabbed one 16 pound bag and figured I’d be on my way. Then I spotted the other end cap (not sure how I missed it coming in!) with the big bags!  It was $12.  Of course then you take off the instant coupon of $2 and now I’m down to $10.  To make the pot even sweeter I printed off a $3 coupon at home.. so now I am down to $7 per bag.

Now I am no math wiz.. but I am smart enough to know that here I am with a 3 lb bag of food in my cart for $4.95. I could get a second bag 16 lb bag of food for $10 (I only had one of the $3 off coupons).  It was kind of a new brainer.  So I put the small bag back and got a 2nd big bag (that had a $2 coupon on it.. not all the bags did)

I did the rest of my shopping, and then checked out with a total of 3 coupons (two of the $2 instant and one $3 off).  Another fun surprise was that the big bags rang up as $11.48 instead of $12!   Wonder why they didn’t have that on the signs?  Just makes sense that the lower price would attract even more people to buy right?

Home to check out what my girls think of it. Sadie is 8 years old.. and she is checking out the picture of good food! Gizzy is my food hog, she is 6 years old.  She also was very excited.

According to everything that it says on the bag… this stuff looks really good.  There are vitamins, antioxidants and protein.  We buy our dog food primarily on cost.  I would like to say we get our food at the vets office (I used to years ago when money wasn’t so tight) but we have 5 kids at home and 8 total.  We just don’t have the money in the budget to spend on the best food for the dogs.  They are both happy, healthy, and in good shape.

I let them both try it first.. and then I used it for some tricks.  Sadie is the pickier of the two when it comes to food.. and she was ready to do about any trick after she first tasted it…. so that was a good sign.

Then the big test.  I cleared out their other food from their other food.  I washed the bowl out… and then put the Kibbles ‘n Bits Bistro Dog food in.

Instant run for the food.  You would have thought these girls had not eaten in a week.  Seriously!  They had food in their bowl before I switched them out…. and they hadn’t been hungry!.

These dogs ate for like 20 minutes! I cleaned the kitchen and folded clothes and put in another load in the laundry and they were still eating. This is what the bowl looked like after their “dinner”

I think it was a success.  And a bigger success in that I can say two days later that neither dog has gotten sick from it.

Now for the rest of the adventure.  On Sunday we went over to the shelter in Johnstown where E was volunteering.

I told them what I was doing and asked if I could take some pictures. They were fine with that.  It was a house, actually Holly’s house and her sister Paula was there working.  There were also 3 girls (including E) and the one girls father helping out.

I don’t remember all the dogs names or who had what name.. so I won’t even try. lol

She said that they had about 50 dogs there presently and that the cats were in the other part of the house. We didn’t go in to see them. Paula was wonderful with all the dogs.

The place wasn’t in the best of shape… there was nothing fancy about it.  Repairs were needed, but the dogs were all clean, they all had beds up off the floor with blankets.  They had clean paper on the floor and their play yard was clean.

The cages were full walk in cages.. not small little ones that can only hold one dog.  They all had assigned cages and they knew which ones were theirs. They got to come out in groups to eat and play outside. Can you imagine the food that 50 dogs go through?

Or all the work involved with taking care of them?

This is a shelter that is supported by donations only.

They had the smaller dogs inside and the larger ones out back.

E is getting ready to go out to show us the play area.

Someone was getting their belly rubbed…. ahhhh…

I went out to the back area.  Holly was back there with the bigger dogs.  She brought a couple out to show me… they had their own little house back there with heat.  There were cages inside and ones outside so they could play.

Each dog had a story attached to it. The reason they were there. These two brothers had been indoor dogs since they were pups. Then a new baby came into the house and suddenly they were outdoors only.  A neighbor turned them in when the yellow lab got caught under a fence and torn his back open.  Holly said she’d never separate these two.

This pit bull was the funniest thing. He came running out to see me.. all excited and smiling.  She said that he had been in a home with one other pit bull.  The law evidently says you can’t have more than one. This guy had two.  They were going to put this dog down, even though he had never hurt anyone.  Holly said he was the sweetest thing ever.

The biggest problem they were having when we were there was the fact that they had no water.  They were trying to figure out if it was the pump on the well that went bad.  Holly was saying she was probably going to have to go and buy water at the store, but wasn’t looking forward to the cost involved.

I suggested they put the girls to work while they had them here and have them collect snow in these buckets.  There was a whole big yard of untouched snow they could let melt for water.  Holly was concerned about the snow and what was in it.

I have to admit that I chucked a bit on that one only because.. heck, the dogs eat their poop! Snow wouldn’t be that bad would it? But, it also shows the concern that they have for the well being of these dogs doesn’t it?

It was a good experience.  I dropped off the bag of food and got to learn about a new place. I know E is going to go back. I am thinking of the extra blankets I have that I can donate.  A 16 lb bag of food is like nothing compared to what all they need.

I got home to see my girls.. and realized how lucky they were.  Sadie had been a rescue dog. She was 11 weeks old when I got her. But her litter of 7 pups had Parvo and were going to be put down.  The vet at the Annhurst Animal clinic in Westerville wanted to save them. He treated them and only lost 1 of the 7.  Thank goodness because Sadie has been an awesome dog.

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post by Del Monteto but the pictures and thoughts and opinions are my own.  Sadie and Gizzy’s opinions are pretty obvious too.

Dymo Desktop 360D Label Manager Review

Organizers Love Labels!

I explained last week how labeling  your office at work can really benefit you. I used the Dymo Rechargeable Desktop Label Maker that I was sent.  Let me tell you about the actual label maker

It came with 3/4″ tape, an ion battery pack and wall charger, along with the label maker of course.

Here is the cartridge that you use.

The Li-ion battery just fits down in the bottom without any problem.  So once it is charged it holds the charge so you don’t have to keep it plugged in or worry about it eating up your batteries.

When you first turn it on you have to do some simple programming. But I left it like it was and it was just fine.

I like how clear and easy the screen was to see.  I liked that the set up was simple. One of the things I didn’t like was that to use the caps you hit the alt button to go to caps… but then you have to hit it again to turn it off. I tried holding it just to press the letter… and that didn’t work. You still had to hit it again to turn it off. That was a bit annoying.

The print button was easy to see and that was nice.  But every time I wanted to print it asked me how many copies I wanted.  So I had to hit the print button a 2nd time every time.

Once I hit the print button I couldn’t find the label at first. lol It came out the back.  Not sure why they did it that way. This is meant for a desk, so you have to reach behind to find the label. Or lift the unit up to see it.

But if you have a short word like the word “cord” it is hard to even get to. It comes out a little curled and lays against the machine..so you have to get the edge of it underneath. Remember… this is the back, so the whole time you are lifting it up to get to it.

I love the cutter.  It is on the side (where I think the tape should be coming out too) and just presses down nice and easy. It cuts it nice and clean.

The print is nice and bold and looks good.

This is also another nice feature. The tape is split on the back so you can easily feel off the backing. My other older labeler that I still love has a little tool that you have to “curl” the tape to get the edge lose from the label to peel (does that make any sense?)

Looks good!

The “Income” on the left ended up the size I needed it, but the “expenses” was a little long. Rather than cut the edges I just stuck it around the corner.

I decided to try them on my cubbys. I wasn’t sure that they would stick, but I decided to try.

But alas… a couple days later…

Just as I thought…. it didn’t stick.  But this was also fabric, so I can’t complain that it didn’t stick.

But the edges of the “expenses” also did not stay stuck either.

But this one stayed stuck without any problems.

Here are my honest thoughts over all.

1) I liked the side of the desktop manager labeler.
2) I liked the ease of set up and use
3) I liked the print and the look of it.
4) I like the cutter
5) I like the split back of the label for ease of peeling
6) I like the Ion battery and that it also has a wall plug

1) I don’t like that the caps has to be hit x2 to turn off/on
2) There wasn’t a “-” sign. If there was, I couldn’t find it with ease
3) I didn’t like that the label came out the back, it was hard to get to
4) I didn’t like that I had to hit print twice to by pass the “number of copies”
5) I don’t like the cost of the refill tapes.  The 1/2″ was $19.00 and the 3/4″ was $26.50.  If you are working in an office, and the business is paying for it, that might be one thing…but so often we like to have these label makers at home and I know that would be over my budget to use.

Keep in mind that I did not study the owners manual.  There more than likely are ways to take care of many of the issues I had problems with the caps, the “-” sign etc..  but I don’t like to look at the instructions on purpose when I do a review. I want to see how easy things work without having to spend a lot of time reading.

Would I recommend this for an office. I more than likely would not…. and the main reason would be because the label comes out the back and it is hard to get to. I think most of the other issues more than likely can be solved… but for a unit that is meant to sit on a desk, to have to reach behind to get the label.. and most cases I had to lift the unit up to see what I was doing to find it and reach it.  In my opinion this was a poor set up in the design.

Disclosure: I was given this Dymo label maker to review and I am also being compensated for the post. The pictures are my own and the opinions are my own.

Cleaning – Reviewing Mr. Clean

Everyone Knows Mr. Clean Products!

Organizing is my thing.  Cleaning… well… isn’t as much. (hate it!)  Yes.. you do clean when you organize, but the general house cleaning… and deep cleaning are no fun for me. I do wish that i was a bit OCD about it (only a little) and kept on top of it like I would love to.

I will admit that my husband got me the best early birthday present ever! I had a (almost entire house) deep cleaning done professionally.  There were 4 people that came in my house and were here from 9am-7:30pm!  Honest!  Everything… vents on walls, lamp globes and shades, behind the washer & dryer and refrig and oven! They did the windows!  I have been so busy and my house needed it… and I was getting more and more frustrated because I couldn’t get it done.  I’m not superman…. I can’t do it all!

I recently was asked to review a couple of Mr. Clean products. Mr Clean.. Mr. Clean… (can’t you just hear the song in your head?  Ok…if you can’t it’s because you aren’t old enough.. sigh)

First thing I did was the downstairs bathroom.  It needed it.

The first thing I noticed was the smell. I even looked at the bottle again. Oh..that is right it has Febreze in it! That is why it smelled so good.  Clean with a fresh smell… ahhhh..

Don’t forget those pesky tools you hide behind the toilet…

It says that it kills 99.9% of bacteria…. that I like!

Especially when cleaning these areas.

Now upstairs to the master bath.  Here is something that I have been using daily.. but not too fond of at the moment… lol

The shower track. Oh… what a pain that is to clean. But how nice it is to have clean.

They also sent me a Mr Clean Magic Eraser bath scrubber.  I love these things! They are amazing!

This is bigger than the normal Magic Eraser, and has the little texture to it. Plus a curved edge to help with the grip but also makes it easier to get in the corners.

This also came with that nice scent of Febreze!  The other thing that I liked about it was that it wasn’t falling apart when I scrubbed hard. That was the only negative thing about the Magic Eraser was that it kind of fall apart as you were cleaning.

This is one area of our shower that gets so much soap scum. That bar of soap drains down the side and leaves a terrible soap scum.  I love that I have the new Magic Eraser Bathroom scrubber to keep on top of it.

A clean bathroom is a happy bathroom.. is a happy mom!!

Disclosure: Mr Clean sent me 1 bottle of the Mr. Clean with Febreze Disinfecting Bath Cleaner and 1 box with 2 Mr Clean Magic Eraser Bathroom Scrubbers.  I was not compensated in any other way for this post. (other than a clean bathroom) The pictures and the thoughts are my own.

Sandy’s Blog Summary Friday

My Friday’s I like to showcase what has been going on in my other 2 blogs, hence “Sandy’s blog summary Friday”.  I realize not as many of you see those two blogs yet… and I want to give you a chance to experience them too!  I do have a lot of giveaways going on – so be sure to check them out!  I am really surprised more of them aren’t getting entries… I have some really nice things I am giving away!

Explore Ohio with Sandy

Sugardaddy’s Sumptuous Sweeties and Desserts in Lewis Center OH – Nov. 30, 2010

Chat with Sandy

purrfectplay Pet Wool Ball Giveaway – Dec. 3, 2010

Dirt Road South Etsy Shop Giveaway - Nov 26, 2010

1-800-FLOWERS $50 Gift cert. Giveaway - Nov. 28, 2010

Villeroy and Boch Lasagna Pan Review – Nov. 29, 2010

lia sophia Wisteria Necklace Giveaway – Nov. 29, 2010

Genesis Today Omega Orange Juice Giveaway – Nov. 30, 2010

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 – Chat with Sandy – Nov. 30, 2010

FUMI Bracelet Pursehook Giveaway – Nov. 30, 2010

I obviously have more reviews going on than normal… it is because of my gift guides!! I also don’t want you to miss the great reviews I have going on here… so I am going to do a quick review of them today too!

The Card Cubby

The Pouchee

Teamson Kids Magic Garden Book Shelf

And then of course I don’t want you to miss my Holiday Gift Guide for Organize with Sandy!

Both of my Holiday Gift Guides are the items that I loved the most since my blogs started. I wanted to share with you that I thought you might really want to look into yourselves for gifts for people. Of course my Organize with Sandy blog I have items that can help you organize. On my Chat with Sandy blog I have a variety of items. Maybe next year I will be able to start a Holiday Travel guide Countdown too! Now that would be cool

Holiday Gift Guide 2010 – Organize with Sandy

Bringing you my favorite products I have reviewed

The items I am listing in my gift guide are products that I have already reviewed that I really love and use frequently.  I am linking you to the reviews I did of the products.  It says “Contest is Closed” on most of them because these are past giveaways…but…  Watch for a couple  of giveaways among them!!

Organizing Products  - My Favorite 10 for my 1st Gift Guide!

#10 Avery Customized Binder

Avery Binder Review  from October 4, 2010 .. contest is closed.

Zazzle.com/averybinder $18.99

I love being able to make personalized binders – what a fantastic way to make that special place for each child to keep their special papers, your recipes can be categorized into different binders with pictures and recipes using your own pictures.  I had fun making my own binder and was SO excited when it came in the mail.

#9 Twirly Hanger

Twirly Hanger – Feb. 19, 2010 contest is closed

Twirlyhanger.com  $9.99

The twirly hanger is still hanging up in my bathroom. I keep most of my frequently worn necklaces on it.  I bet I have at least 15 necklaces on it and I have very little problems with them getting tangled. They are easy to see when I am looking for a necklace to wear for an outfit.. and easy to get to.

#8 Neatnix Stuff Bucket

Neatnix Stuff Bucket – Oct. 18, 2010 contest is closed

Neatnix.com – $16.00

I am currently using this Stuff Bucket in my bathroom. I have my blow dryer in the main section and my most freq. used cosmetics in the pockets.  There are organizers that would fit better in the corner… but they aren’t as cute. I just like looking at cute things sometimes… they cheer me up.

#7 BedZak Bed Pockets

BedZak Bed Pockets – Dec. 7, 2009 contest is closed

Bedzak.com $29.99

I have this at my bedside and still use it nightly.  The TV controller is the biggest thing. But I have a pocket pen light and notepad in there (although you can’t really see them… and some hand lotion in another pocket.  Very convenient and has held up well.

#6 belle dangles Jewelry

belle danglesJewelry Organizer – Nov. 30, 2009  contest is closed

belledangles.com $34.99

I use this daily also.  It is on the wall above my soaking tub. The Twirly hanger is right to the left of it.  This holds my bracelets, scarves and some odds and ends.  It is solid… and I would miss it now if I didn’t have it.

#5 Butler Bag

Butler Bag – April 19, 2010 contest is closed but ENJOY an Exclusive 25% discount!! Use code “SANDY25”

Butlerbag.com - I don’t see the bag I have on the site now, but there are 4 beautiful bags! I love the colors of the Day Swagger bag, and like the outter zipper pockets of the Medium tote they have on their site now!

I have been using this purse as my main purse since I did this post.  I was thrilled that my pouchee and card cubby fit well with this purse and do like having the slots to keep track of my little items that go in my purse.

#4 Teamson Kids Magic Garden Bookshelf

Giveaway Going on NOW!!  (until Dec. 17, 2010)

Teamson Kids Magic Garden Bookshelf (see giveaway here)

This shelf is SO cute!  But not only cute and functional – is is very well made.  The quality is superb and impressed my husband as he was putting it together.

#3 Card Cubby

Giveaway Going on Now (Dec. 10, 2010)

Card Cubby Giveaway (see giveaway here)

I think you all know I like the Card Cubby! I sell it for peak sake.  I do not produce it and it wasn’t my idea… but I started using it and love it so much I wanted to make it available to you.  You can find it in my Organize with Sandy Store too. You can purchase them with a $2.00 discount by entering code “GiftGuide10″ until Dec. 31, 2010 (while supplies last)

#2 pouchee Purse Organizer

Giveaway Going on NOW (Dec. 17, 2010)

pouchee purse Organizer (see giveaway here)

The pouchee is an awesome purse organizer.  I also sell this in my Organize with Sandy Store. I am also giving a $2.00 discount on the pouchee until Dec. 31, 2010 by entering the code “GiftGuide10″ (while supplies last)  I like it much better than other purse organizers because it has handles that fold down to get out of the way, but also make it possible to move it from purse to purse or carry on it’s own.  There are very few other purse organizers out there that you can do that with.

#1 Favorite Review & Giveaway –  Campus Quilt!

Campus Quilt – Dec. 14, 2009 (Contest closed)

Campus Quilt.com I absolutely LOVE my quilt that Campus Quilt made for me!  They normally do t-shirt quilts (with all your favorite t-shirts) ..but they added some special things in that I requested.  I was able to have them put in squares from my wedding dress (wedding in 2006), my step daughter first Christmas dress (that I got to buy for a little girl ..since I had all boys). My Mom’s wedding gloves and her hankie.. They also made me a pillow from the bodice of my wedding dress.  This is a treasure and a great way to decrease some of that “stuff” in your closet that you don’t really wear, but want to keep… and this makes it special to see everyday!

Visit my Chat with Sandy Blog and see my Gift Guide (and giveaways)

Disclosure:  None of these Brands knew I was going to add them into my Gift Guide. I was not asked to have any of these in my Gift Guide…nor did I pitch anyone for this gift guide. I just wanted to let you know what my favorite 10 items have been to review!

Teamson Kids – Magic Garden Hand Painted Shelf *CLOSED*

Congrats! Winner – Kathy Pease Random.org #129

Who Says They Don’t Make Things the Way They Used To?

Isn’t this Magic Garden shelf darling?  It is made by Teamson designs. This is their Teamson Kids line.  When the PR rep e-mailed me she offered me the doll house or kitchen. I wanted to say yes to one of those SO bad.. but my triplets are 9 years old, just a little too old for it. (Darn it!)  I mentioned I thought this shelf was really cute and I love shelves for helping kids to organize.  I like them much better than toy boxes because you can see what you have. It makes it easy for the kids to be a little more organized.

She sent this Magic Garden shelf and my first thought when I went to pick up the box on the front porch was, “Woo Nelly… this is heavy! It’s going to be a nice one!”  I was right.  This is very high quality, from the hand painting that makes each one a little special and unique to the hardware (according to my husband.)

What really sealed the deal for me on the quality was my husband. He is putting this together on the floor in front of me and at least 3 or 4 times he turned to me and started talking about the quality.  ”Sandy, Who made this?  This is really nice. I am impressed… the  wood is solid, the instructions are clear, even the way they have it packaged in the box – you can just tell there is a difference.  I have exactly the amount of hardware I need and even it is high quality. Everything lines up perfect.”  This is coming from a man who is a senior project manager for a construction company!  It takes a lot to impress Dave… and Teamson Kids did it. This is one of latest products to review and it has made my top 10 list for my Gift Guide this year!

To ENTER to Win a Magic Garden Shelf like in the review:

Go to Teamson.com  and tell me if you like the New York Mansion Doll House or the Ultimate Play Kitchen better.    **Be sure to come back here and leave me your answer in your comment. Your e-mail has to either in your comment or on your profile.

FOR EXTRA CHANCES TO WIN:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment to win. The winner is picked using Random.org. It just goes the number of comments….not by what you say.

1) Subscribe to my Organize with Sandy blog This is for 5 chances to win! (use 5 separate comments)

2) Subscribe to my Chat with Sandy blog This is for 5 chances to win! (use 5 separate comments)

3) Subscribe to my Explore Ohio with Sandy blog.  Come back here for 5 separate chances to win.

3) Follow me on Twitter. Leave me your twitter id in your comment

4) Subscribe to my YouTube channel

5) Tweet this out up to 3 times a day. (one comment for each tweet) Pls leave your link

6) I can’t ask you to “like” me on Facebook, but I can ask you to leave a comment for an entry.  3 chances for each comment on any of my FB  pages:

Organize with Sandy

OrganizerSandy (Organizing Fan page)

Explore Ohio with Sandy

See lots of way to enter!!

This contest will run until 11:59pm est on Friday, December 17, 2010 (This will NOT come before Christmas if you win)  *CLOSED*

Any comment that comes in after the above time will be deleted. This is open to US mailing addresses only. One person per mailing  address only.  Winner will be chosen by Random.org

You will have 48 hours to reply to my e-mail if you are picked as the winner, or else I will go on to the next winning number.

You can see my other giveaways going on here:

Card Cubby – Dec. 10, 2010

Dirt Road South Etsy Jewelry Shop – Dec. 10, 2010

pouchee purse organizer – Dec. 17, 2010

1-800- Flowers Cheryl’s Cookies & Fannie May Candy – Dec. 10, 2010

Genesis Today Omega Orange Juice - Dec. 17, 2010

lia Sophia Wisteria Necklace – Dec. 17, 2010

Disclosure: I was given this Magic Garden Shelf to review. The pictures and thoughts are my own, and husbands.

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