Racor Wall Bike Stand Review

The Racor Bike Stand Is As Easy as 1-2-3!

By Amy Trauntvein

Organization in my garage is not a strong suit of mine.  It’s a place where everything gets put that either doesn’t belong in the house, or doesn’t fit!  I AM able to park my van in it so that’s a plus for me, but frankly the rest could use a little help.  Especially with bigger items, such as bikes.  That’s where Racor Home Storage Products come in.  Racor sent me one of their Wall Bike Stands ($59.99) to review.

Sweet!  Being a family of 6, we have a few bikes and they take up a good amount of floor space in my garage that I definitely could use more of!

So last Saturday I employed my husband to put it together and get a couple of these bikes up and out of the way, AND I timed him to see just how long it would take him to get the job done!  He started at 4:17pm

1. Open the box and put the parts together…

2. Set in place and screw it to the wall…

3. Adjust hangers and hang up bikes. Done!  Ending time 4:34pm – 17 minutes!  That’s how fast and easy it is to set up the Racor Wall Bike Stand and gain some much needed space in your garage.  I might add, he wasn’t trying to hurry either.

I was quite impressed with the Racor Wall Bike Stand.  Not only did it go up easily and quickly but it’s strong too!

The Racor Wall Bike Stand

• Holds 2 bikes
• Direct mounted to a wall stud
• Independent adjustment arms for level bike storage
• Red cradles are vinyl-coated to protects the bikes
• Steel construction epoxy finish and skid-free rubber guards to protect the floor.
• Weight limit of 100 pounds

Thank you Racor Storage Solutions!  I love the Bike stand and the extra room in my garage! Check out their website, they carry many more storage ideas and solutions that could be perfect for your organizational needs.

*Although I was compensated with the product for review, all opinions are honest and my own.

Love To All!  ~Amy

I have been married for 23 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep me young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening, yoga, walking and saving money! I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Colorful Street Nails with Sally Hansen

Getting The Popular “Street Look” With Your Nails Is Easy With Sally Hansen!

by Amy Trauntvein

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and COTY. All opinions are my own. #cbias #SocialFabric.  All opinions are my own.

It’s spring and with the wonderful warm weather, it’s time to break out the bright colors of our wardrobes, and that includes our nail color!  Right now I’m seeing a big trend in “Street Look” nails.  Lots of bright colors and funky designs.  So much fun to create and the possibilities are endless!  I was given the opportunity by Sally Hansen to create one of these trending looks for the season and I couldn’t wait to get started! But first we needed to find some inspiration…

We loved the this black and white design with a pop of color on the bottom left. (Source-Pinterest)

We also love this Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real nail Polish Strips with the black and white geometric designs.

I grabbed my teenage daughter and we headed over to Walgreens with my new Balance Reward Card.  Look how fun this display is! Love all the bright colors for spring and fabulous ideas right on the display! #IHeartMyNailArt

Walgreens has some great sales going on right now for Sally Hansen products.  Xtreme, Salon Effects, Diamond and Insta-Dri polishes are $1 off, Magnetic and Crackle Polishes are $5.99 and Complete Salon Manicure Polish on sale 2/$10.  All prices good through 5/25.

First we put a base coat of each color on and let dry.  I let my daughter pick out the colors she wanted for her nails.  Here are some more awesome color choices Pop Art and Off The Chain.

Next, we applied the Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips making sure we applied them 1/4 the way up the nail bed so the base color showed.  Just follow the easy directions on the package for application.

We then painted thin strips of the same base coat colors on top of the nail polish strips.  We used a thin paint brush and cleaned it in between colors. Two different colors per nail.

And finally we sealed the nail art with Sally Hansen No Chip Top Coat to extend the life of the manicure and prevent chipping.

The final Product!  She LOVES her new “Street Nails” and so do all of her friends!

Don’t let the fun stop here, head on over to the Sally Hansen Pinterest Party going on right now!  One winner will receive a year supply of Sally Hansen Products!

Be sure to check out Sally Hansen on Facebook too for more sweet nail art ideas and products!

Love To All! ~Amy

I have been married for 23 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep me young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening, yoga, walking and saving money! I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Staples Office Supplies To Help You Shed, Shred and Get Ahead in 2013

We Can Use Help With Office Supplies Right? Staples Can Help

I received this fun gift pack, along with a Relay Flash Drive to review for Staples. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can walk into an office supply store and just roam the aisles. I love them. Honestly, I’d prefer going through an organization, or office store, over shopping in a clothing store. I know, I know.. I’t an oddity.

Shed
I’ve have discussed many times how papers can take over your life, and your home. You have to keep some paperwork for taxes and business purposes, but the majority of it, you can shed by shredding and recycling it.

Shred
Protecting yourself is important in today’s world. Be sure to shred any paperwork that has your name or any kind of private information on it, before throwing it away.

Get Ahead
Staying organized is important for any of us. It helps us to stay ahead of the game and know where things are, what they are, and how to use them.

I just have to stay, that I’ve always wanted an “easy” button! I was excited to see that tucked into my box. I’ll be using it on conference calls, that’s for sure! What fun I’m going to have. There were batteries already in it, so it worked right out of the package.

Staples New BETTER® Binder with removable FileRings™

Couple things I liked right off the bat with this BETTER® Binder: 

• The front clear pocket pouch on the front of the binder that you can slide your own cover page into.
• Side binder 1″ clear pouch that you can label the side of your binder.
• It has rubberized hinged sides that enables you to open the binder completely flat on the table and they will help it to hold up longer.
• It is easy to open the binder clips, but pushing down on the tab on the end.

I did have a hard time figuring out how to take the inside binder out. You see the picture on the cover that you can pull out the binder file and hang it as a hanging file. What the binder does not tell you how to do, is how to do it. I played around with it for a few minutes before I finally realized you pull out with the ends of the binder section and that is how you remove it.  Why wouldn’t they either show that in a picture, or have it written somewhere?

You can see that it just lifts off the little nubs.  What is nice is that you can take that whole binder thread and then hang it as a hanging file somewhere. I did look and you can get replaceable binder removable refills.  That is nice. You can then reuse the notebook and just add in a new refill binder to start a new notebook.

Staples One-Touch™ Aero Stapler

Staplers? I have one in several places in my home. Office – check. My mini office in the family room – check. Basement wrapping station – check. Kids each have one in their rooms at their desks – check.  Why? You always seem to need them, don’t you?

This is nice because it has the rubberized top lever that makes it a little easier to use. I was expecting it to act almost like one of those ones that you barely have to touch though, with the name One Touch. You still have to push, and you have to push pretty good, just like any other stapler, to make it work.
I did test it a bit and kept folding the piece of paper to see how many sheets it would go through. It says it can staple up to 10 pages. I would have to say, I think it’s more than that.

It wasn’t any harder to push going through this many layers than it was going through the first couple. I did check to make sure on the opposite side it had tucked the edges down. You know how often, if you go through too many pages, the underside will have the points sticking out. This didn’t do that.
My suggestions – make it in funner colors! I might walk past this in a store, unless it was lime green, orange, or hot pink. Just sayin’ Staples. Yes.. color matters to some of us.

M by Staples™ Arc Customizable Notebook System

I was given the 8.5 inch x 5.5 inch size Arc Customizable Notebook to review.
There are many options you can use to add to this notebook. Calendar pages, graph paper, To Do, or project planners, along with several other options.
I like that it’s easy to move pages around and you can customize it how you’d like.  I see online there are other color and design options, along with the full size 9×11 size. That’s good.

My thoughts:

I again could not easily see how to remove the pages. I kept thinking the plastic round rings would somehow come out, come apart or something. It doesn’t show a picture or give any explanation on how to do it. I handed it to my husband who messed with it a few minutes, looking at the rings also. He then simply pulled the pages up. Duh

It this convenient, yes.  Would I purchase this kind of system myself to customize it? No, I wouldn’t.  Why? Because, if I am going to take the time to build a customizable notebook, I would want to know that my pages are going to stay secure. I’ve had other systems that have pages like this and after removing things around a few times, the paper does tend to lose some of the edges that keep it hanging on securely.  I would purchase a binder before I purchased this, for the purpose of a calendar system or project planner.

If it was for a To Do list, that I could pull out and remove the pages I had already used and discard, then I would consider this solution. That’s just my personal opinion. There are many that would love this kind of system.

Relay USB Flash Drive

I’ve used this Relay 8 GB flash drive to pull some pictures off of one computer to put on another computer. It’s kind of cool looking. It worked without any problems. It’s always nice to have a few of these around, plus it’s kind of cool looking.

Thanks Staples. I always love checking out office supplies. Now I have some new toys to play with!

I was supplied with the products from Staples that are shown in these pictures, for no cost.  I was not compensated in any other way for this post. The pictures, and opinions are my own.

Exercise Tools – Nike FuelBand vs FitBit

Do I Like To Exercise? No – But I’m Going To Learn To Love It!

Do I Need to Exercise? Absolutely… big time!

I’ve gone through so many phases in my life, and even on this blog, where I’ve started to exercise and get in shape. I’ll do good for awhile, and then I tend to fall back into my old ways. I think there is a part of me that doesn’t think I can ever be one of those “in shape” people. I know that sounds dumb, but after watching my mom struggle off and on for years with exercise (Jack Lalanne and soup cans.. for some of you who might remember), I just have this block in my head – that I’ll never be that person out running a marathon.  Do I have a desire to run a marathon. Nope. Would I like to be able to run for a few miles? Yes!

I have a zillion excuses, I have plantar fasciitis and my Podiatrist said that walking should not be an exercise for me. The nearest club is over 1/2 hour away and my work schedule won’t allow it. My heart rate goes into the 200′s when I try to jog. Oh… there are more, believe me. But I have to break through those.

At the beginning of this year I decided I have to get 70 pounds off.  I did it in 2008, I used Jenny Craig and took off 50 pounds, but I went off their plan and slowly gained it back.. plus another 20 pounds. Menopause hasn’t helped either… along with sitting on my butt for at least 12 hours a day working.

When I lost my 50 pounds, I wasn’t exercising. This time I have to do both. Now I have the fat arm stuff happening, the big belly.. (I never knew your boobs could touch your belly when you sit certain ways! lol) As always my hips, legs and butt are huge. There are things I never have experienced before. I was always very thin growing up.. and this extra 20 pounds in the last year has thrown me over the edge. I’ve had to buy new fat clothes, the backs of my arms will bother me because things are too tight. It’s the pits and I feel gross.

Nike FuelBand

Part of my inspiration is because I feel terrible.  The other part is watching all my co-workers at Collective Bias show all their pictures of running and working out on Path and Facebook. This company is so awesome to work for that they gave us all Nike FuelBands this Christmas. How cool is that? John Andrews and Jay Thornton both got a Fuelband and liked it so much for themselves, that John decided to get them for all 50+ of us.  For a company to care so much about it’s employees, that they REALLY want to see us healthy. That is just one of the reasons I love working at CB. Not because they gave us a cool gift, but because they really care about us. They want the best for us. Love that!

This is really neat. I love the look of it. It comes in a white/clear one or a black/clear one.. or this solid black. You get fuel points for your activity. If you are walking or working out, doing laundry etc. It also tells you how many steps you’ve walked, calories burned and what time it is.  You set a goal and you work to meet it each day. The little red dots at the bottom.. go across as you work towards your goal. They get green when you are into the good zone. Then you can share on Facebook or Path your progress and compare with your team. That is where Collective Bias has been really productive with this. There are several runners at CB, and many of us that aren’t, but they have had fun with sharing their fuel points with everyone. It shows the path they have run, or walked. It syncs with your computer and your phone, so you can easily track what you’ve done.

I think this is an awesome tool if you want to get in shape. If you want to track your progress for the day, have competitions to see who can get the most fuel points or just track it yourself. It is a great way to inspire exercise. You want to get more fuel points to hit your goal for the day.

FitBit

Before I knew I was getting one, I had asked Dave for a FitBit for Christmas. He got me one, so now I have both tools. I also got one for Dave for Christmas. He’s been using it and is happy to show me how far he does walk at work everyday, inspecting the job site he manages.

They are both awesome tools to tracking your exercise and activity. I highly recommend them both. The FitBit is small and clips onto your clothing. Dave wears his clipped inside his pants pocket. I wear mine clipped to my bra. It tells you your steps for the day, calories burned, time of day and a growing flower for your progress. It has an automatic sync (this model of FitBit at least) to your computer and your phone. You can also share with your friends and post to FB or Twitter.  Very similar features of the Nike FuelBand.

What it does do that is different, than the Fuelband  is that you can track your food intake and it also tracks your sleep. There is a wrist band that you slip the fitbit into. It comes out of the rubber clip you see above and easily slips into this Velcro wristband. Then you just hit the timer to start it. In the morning you turn the timer off. The wristband doesn’t bother me at all to sleep, although I did see on a few people who reviewed it, that they didn’t like it.  I like being able to see my sleep patterns. I was surprised I woke up as much as I did through the night.

This also has an alarm feature on it. It will wake you up in the morning. I have yet to figure out how to set that, but I think I saw a way, and just haven’t taken the time to try that feature out yet.

This is what the dashboard looks like. You can earn badges for your accomplishments. Climbing stairs, steps, miles.  You can see where I did my short work out in the morning.. where the yellow spikes are.

The feature I like the best with this FitBit is that I can track my food intake. I picked a program of easy, medium or hard (I picked hard) in order to lose my weight. It has me losing 2 pounds a week, so that I’ll hit my goal of 70 pounds in August of this year. It then calculates your food intake (you plug in the food and there are many options that come up to pick from. If those don’t fit, you can enter your own food item with the portion and calories.) and exercise for that day.

It tells you how much more you can eat for that day… or if you’ve gone over your calories for the day. Several times when I’ve gone over, then it has inspired me to go up and do more exercise.

For me, because I am trying to lose weight along with the exercise.. the FitBit is a better exercise tool. It has been more inspiring to me due to the calorie intake feature, than the Nike FuelBand.  If your main goal is the exercise and getting in shape, then I think the Nike Fuelband would be ideal. I think the guys like the look of the FuelBand.

The FitBit One that I have is $99. I got mine for Dave at BestBuy. He got the one for me online.
The Nike Fuelband is $149.

I can highly recommend both of these exercise tools, and I’m very thankful to Collective Bias and my husband for giving them to me. Neither one expected or asked for a review – I just wanted to share part of my big inspiration for exercising and losing weight.

So far since January 1st of 2013, I’ve lost 8 1/2 pounds. What I was thrilled with, was that it also included a six day trip to Bentonville, AR for work, and I’ve always gained weight when I’ve traveled before. I’ve always had an attitude of “I can eat whatever I want when I’m traveling, because it’s too hard to try and eat healthy”.  But not this time. I exercised 3 of the 4 available mornings I was there with Debba from Girlfriendology. Of course she was far past me in her running and exercising abilities, but she was great encouragement and  inspiration while I was there.

ZeroWater Filter Pitcher Review

A Great Water Filtration Pitcher That Removes It All!

By Amy Trauntvein

We drink a lot of water in our house, but hate the way water our tap water tastes.  It contains a lot of chlorine and not only can you taste it, you can even smell it!  Not very appetizing even if you are really thirsty.  We do have a filter on our refrigerator water dispenser and even though is works at taking our the “swimming pool” flavor, it still tastes pretty metallic.  So when ZeroWater asked me to try out and review their 5 Stage Water Filter Pitcher, I of course accepted!  It even comes with a water “tester” that can detect any solids in your water.  A good thing to have on hand so you can know when your filter needs to be replaced.  This is the 6 cup pitcher.  It has a smartly narrow shape that helps it fit nicely in the fridge to keep cool.

The ZeroWater filtration pitcher is perfect for those who relish owning innovative tech products, and/or have a palette for great taste. Moms, dads, health & fitness fans, tech fans, and food & cooking lovers will enjoy hydrating better with ZeroWater filtration products.

All you have to do it take off the lid and fill the upper chamber with tap water.  It does take a few minutes for the pitcher to fill because of the 5 different filters the water goes through, but it is definitely worth the small wait.  The water tastes pure and clean, nothing to mar the taste or make you wonder what is in your water.

ZeroWater filtration pitchers use dual ion exchange technology to remove 99.9% of dissolved solids, leaving you with great-tasting, pure water. The pitchers are designed with space-saving convenience in mind and the one hand pull-and-pour spout makes it easy to pour into any glass or bottle.  ZeroWater pitchers deliver great bottled water taste without the waste and cost, also making it the smart choice for those striving to minimize their use of bottle water at home. In addition, Good Housekeeping has featured ZeroWater as outperforming other filter-pitcher brands.

ZeroWater’s new 6-Cup and popular 10-cup pitchers are available at zerowater.com, Meijer’s, ShopKo and Bed Bath & Beyond for the suggested retail prices of $29.99 and $36.99 respectively.

I love my new ZeroWater pitcher and am finding not only myself, but the rest of my family drinking more water since it tastes so clean and fresh.  My kids are actually bypassing juices and sugared drinks more often to drink a glass of water.  To me, ZeroWater is worth purchasing as it filters out more solids than any other filtration pitcher on the market.

I hope you will check these cool water pitchers out and see how they work!  *Even though I was compensated with the ZeroWater pitcher for this review, all pictures and opinions are my own.  Love to all!  ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep my young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Gutzy Gear Backpack Straps and Patches

Kids Love Gutzy Gear Backpack Straps

I had the opportunity to have a Gutzy Gear home party and my triplets were so happy. I had a problem trying to get kids together with all the sports and sports schedules we have. It finally took a broken arm and Christmas break to get kids over here. lol

I got all the straps ready to go. They come in single boxes, so you can purchase just one strap if that is what you’d prefer.

The girls started out by coloring and making cards with some of the fun things that Gutzy Gear sent me.

The Gutzy gear patches come in packages of two. They have velcro on the back of them, and adhere to the straps easily.

I opened all the rest of the packages so that they girls could pick out what they wanted. We spread them out on the table (so they wouldn’t all stick together from the velcro. lol)

The straps go on easily. They just wrap around the backpack straps. They are padded and help to protect the kids straps, along with being decorative.

The littlest one, was more than eager to pick out her favorite patches. I started out by asking the girls all to pick out two patches they wanted. She quickly grabbed up six of her favorites! lol Her mom had to talk her into putting a couple back for the other girls. lol

Her mom called me when they got home and told me again how excited the girls were with their Gutzy gear straps and patches. They were all very shy when they were here.

Our second youngest participant, Amy’s @Happy4Deals youngest daughter was showing her mom what patches she liked, on the back of the package.

After the kids decorated their book bags, we all ate some goodies!

Elise broke her arm at Basketball practice a couple weeks ago. She had her initial soft cast on with a sling. After the 2nd day with the sling on, she had a nasty red mark on the back of her neck from her sling strap. We were trying to figure out what we could do. She isn’t allowed to wear a turtle neck to school, so we were trying to figure out a way to protect her neck. I said, “Elise, I know what we can do!!  We have those Gutzy gear straps in there waiting for us to have our party. Let’s use one of those!”.

OMG.. it worked perfect!! No more red neck, she was so happy because it felt so much better.

Of course we had to get a couple patches to decorate it! This was SOOOO perfect for this.

Here are the party girls with all their decorated backpack straps.  Alex and Zach had them on their back packs, but I think in 6th grade they were just a little too conscious of their friends. One of the brothers of the other girls who came did bring his back pack too… and took two straps and patches, but didn’t join in the party.

I did see the Gutzy gear products in Target, last time I was there. They were in the aisle with luggage and back packs. You can also find them online on their Gutzy gear site. 

Thank you Gutzy gear for providing all the backpack straps and patches for our party. I was not compensated in any other way.

Fellowes Shredder Powershred 63Cb Review and Giveaway #SmartGiftsforGuys

Need a Gift For The Man In Your Life?

What about a POWERSHRED Fellowes Shredder?  Even the name sounds tough! It’s not a delicate shredder, or pretty shredder… it’s a POWERSHRED! Right there, we know we’ve got our men hooked! The nice thing is, is that it also benefits us! We have less paper clutter around right, and we don’t have to worry about identity theft because it shreds it so small.

I’ll tell you now that this Fellowes Shredder is heavy! I picked up the box when it came to the porch and I was thinking.. wow, this sucker is good! I have a shredder now that is soon going to be replaced. It gets jammed really easy and then heats up after just a couple minutes and I can’t do anymore shredding.

Here it is! It’s such a nice size.  You just put the upper power unit down onto the basket, remove some tape and plug it in… it’s ready to go.

One of the things that we accumulate way too much of is paper! Think about how much junk mail you get on a daily basis.

So much of that junk mail can be used to cause you a deal of great anguish if it falls into the wrong hands.  Any mail with your personal information on it should be shredded. Also any old credit cards need to be shredded. I’m happy to see that this can also handle those.

Here is a size scale, you can see the actual size of it.  You all know the size of hanging files right? So I put it next to my portable hanging file so you can see.

Now I’m going to test it.  One of the things that we all get so much of are those pesky charge card offers. I don’t even like to open them, but my other shredder couldn’t handle putting them in whole. In fact, I had to open them and unfold the papers to feed it in.  Here we go….

It worked!  It did stop about 3/4 of the way through and I thought it was going to be jammed. The red light came on and after about 3 seconds it started going again and finished the job. I did several more the same way and the same thing happened.  Of course when I opened one and took the envelope off, it went easier and didn’t stop. I didn’t have to unfold it to run easily.

Here are the results. They were little strips 1 1/2 – 2″ long. As a suggestion from me, I would have liked to have seen those strips diced even smaller, but this still did a better job than my other shredder.

I really like the fact that when you touch the area around the feed… it turns off automatically.  When you have young kids, that is a really nice security blanket to have.

Features:

* Jam Blocker ™ There is an electronic sensor that measures the amount of paper and prevents over feeding
* 10 sheet cross-cut – Turns a piece of paper into 399 pieces so you can’t read anything.
* Shreds credit cards, paper clips and staples
* 5 gallon basket
* 8 minutes continuous run time without shutting off
* Safesense® Technology – automatically shuts off when hands touch the paper opening
* Energy Savings System is in use rather the shredder is in use or not.

I can hardly wait to give this to my husband this Christmas! (Now to pack it back up so I can wrap it!) It is larger than I thought it was going to be. It’s heavier than I expected it to be. Both of those things combined in a shredder, mean a higher quality shredder to me.

I am planning on giving this to my Dad. He LOVES office equipment and he only has a small one sheeter shredder. He will be SO excited! I will update this post with a picture once I give it to him.

Be sure to check out my “Smart Gifts For Men In Your Life” Pinterest Board and feel free to pin any of these pictures onto your pinterest boards!

You can Purchase one!

The Fellowes Powershred 63Cb can be found on Amazon ($125 right now as I post this) and at Office Depot (I couldn’t find this model on the site, but they might have it in the stores) and Office Max (179.99).  The suggested retail price is $149.99
You can WIN one!
Win a Fellowes Powershred 63Cb shredder!  The contest is going to run from Monday Dec 13rd – Friday Dec 21th at 12:01am.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I will notify you via email and you’ll have 48 hours to respond. If I haven’t heard from you at that point, then I’ll pick another winner.  You must be 18 years of age and have a US shipping address. (no P.O boxes)

Disclosure: I received product from Fellowes, Inc. and The Motherhood as part of my participation in this program. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own.

Coupon Cubby and Card Cubby Review

Organizing Your Coupons and Cards with the Coupon and Card Cubbys!

By Amy Trauntvein

Aren’t these just the cutest things ever?  These are the Coupon Cubby and Card Cubby for organizing your coupons and your cards in your purse, home, car or anywhere else.  They come in a variety of colors to match your style and personality!

The Coupon Cubby is perfect if you are not yet ready for a full size coupon binder but do use coupons.  It fits easily in your purse OR comes with it’s own removable and adjustable strap if you’d like to use it on it’s own for couponing or or even as a small purse or clutch!  It also includes 30 handy dividers with alphabet, grocery store category and blank (create your own category) labels for easy coupon organization.  There is an inside zipper pouch for anything else you may want to keep in your Cubby.   Retail $25.99

The Card Cubby is smaller and is the perfect size to hold your gift cards, business cards, frequent traveler cards, membership cards, rewards cards and discount cards.  A portable mini card file or Rolodex!   It’s all in one place and comes with alphabet dividers for easy reference and filing. Like the Card Cubby is also has a small zipper pouch for cash or anything else you want to stash.    Retail from $19.95-$23.95 depending on options.

Both the Coupon Cubby and the Card Cubby have a clear pocket on the back for your drivers license business card or a picture.  Both could easily be used as either a purse or wallet and has a durable cover that can easily be cleaned with a wet cloth.

Not only are these two Cubbys handy, fun, adorable and easy to use, they are even easier to purchase! Perfect for yourself or as a gift!  Just go to the top tab here at Organizing With Sandy where it says “SHOP” and click on the drop down menu where it says “Card Cubby” or go here: Card Cubby 

I love my Coupon Cubby and Card Cubby and know you will too!  Even though I was compensated with the product for this post, all pictures and opinions are honest and my own.

Love to all! ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep my young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Litter Spinner – Self Cleaning Litter Box Review

Got Cats? Hate to scoop the poop?

by Amy Trauntvein

I am a cat person.  Don’t get me wrong, I love dogs too, but for me, cats are much easier to take care of. They eat when they want to, clean themselves, entertain themselves and bury their bathroom jobs.  Except for the litter box.  I loathe cleaning the litter box!  Luckily my 2 cats are indoor/outdoor cats and normally “go” outside, but when it gets cold they usually stay indoors which means they “go” indoors. Ugh.  So when Litter Spinner asked if they could send me their self cleaning litter box for review, of course I wanted to check it out!  Retail- $99  They are also offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $79.

It is enclosed so more of the litter stays put.  It did take my 2 cats a while to get used to entering the “door”, but they got the hang of it.  We have a finished basement (the cats sleep down there during the night) so I put the new litter box in the bathroom where we have an empty corner.  It fit perfectly!  I pulled it out for the photos.  We did need to assemble it, but it was only in four pieces and just needed a Phillips head screwdriver to put the round “box” together.  It took all of 3 minutes, very easy!  Fill to the inside line with clean (clumping) litter.

To Self Clean-  It sits on a rounded base, so all you need to do it stand on the right side of it and push the top so it rotates counter-clockwise.  The drawer always sits at “3 o’clock”.  Rotate Litter Spinner one full rotation and continue to spin until the drawer is at “2 o’clock” then rotate back to “3 o’clock” to reset the litter.  Yep, that’s my foot. My apologies…

All the clumps will deposit themselves into the drawer.  Simply pull out the drawer and dump into the trash.  No need to scoop or touch anything!  Sweet!

I decided to be kind and not show you the “cat clumps”.  You’re welcome!

Now just put the drawer back and it’s all done and clean!  Yay!  Also, a VERY easy job for the kids to do.  Yes, I think so.

Do this once a day for best cleaning results and you won’t be disappointed.  I love my Litter Spinner.  What did I do before?  Oh yeah, plugged my nose and gagged.  A lot!  Here’s a pic of my one kitty that was being helpful today.  Yes, Tiger is fat and he still fits!  Even though he looks annoyed, he doesn’t mind being in pictures unlike my other one who hides unless she’s hungry.

 I would recommend Litter Spinner for any household with cats.  It’s keeps you, your pets and your house much cleaner for those necessary jobs that come with pet ownership.  Even though I was compensated with my Litter Spinner for this review, all opinions and photos are honest and my own.

Love to all!  ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep me young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Caboodles 25th Anniversary! Organizer Review

Caboodles Beauty Organizer Review

by Amy Trauntvein

Ah, the ’80s.  Best decade ever.  Pegged pants, over-sized tops, bright colors, big hair bands and of course big hair on everyone!  But one thing that totally takes me back is the Caboodle.  They first came out when I was in high school (I think I just dated myself) and they were so totally awesome dude!  My best friend had a mint green one and boy was I jealous!  She took it everywhere and in it, she carried her blue mascara, hair mousse and of course hair spray among other beauty necessities.  I wanted one so bad!

Guess what?  Caboodle must have heard my cries from yesteryear because they sent me one to try out and even better, it’s their “Original” design from 1987!          Re-Introducing (drum roll please)…

My First Love Retro Caboodle !

Isn’t it just the best ever???  Retail $25   At national retailers in time for Christmas.

I have 2 daughters with long hair which means I “do” a lot of hair every day.  So I decided to fill my amazing Caboodle with all the hair stuff and accessories I use for my girls’ hair.  Here’s mine…

The top houses brushes, combs, 2 curling irons, spray water bottle, hand mirror and a few other misc items.

The top drawer contains small hair clips, (can you tell I’m a little obsessed with Mickey clips?)  bobby pins, ponytail holders, clear silicone bands and my mini Topsy-tail.

The bottom drawer holds Bling Strings, large hair clips, larger ponytail holders and elastic head bands.  These drawers are larger to hold bigger items.

The Caboodle can really hold anything you want.  My daughter has one that holds makeup and hair accessories from when she was on a competition dance team and needed to carry everything with her to the performances.  It has been well loved and used.  :)

I adore my Caboodle!  And you can too!  Go get one for yourself and fill it with all your beauty needs.  Don’t forget the hair mousse!

I was compensated with the Caboodle for my review, but all my photos and opinions are honest and my own.

Love to all!  ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep my young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Year Supply of Trident Gum Giveaway!

Trident Gum- Giveaway

by Amy Trauntvein

Hi, my name is Amy and  I’m a sugarless gum addict. There, I said it.  I feel much better.  However, it’s not going to keep me from my gum!   I love sugarless chewing gum and keep at least 3 different packs in my purse (for variety of course!).   Having fresh clean breath  is important to me, and my friends appreciate it too.   I also love that Trident contains Xylitol and not aspartame, which in my opinion, is healthier for me.  So when Trident asked if they could send me some gum AND do a giveaway to one lucky reader, I said “yes please”!

Trident wants to give you a year supply of gum to one of you, our readers.  Here’s why…

Believe it or not, tooth decay affects approximately half of all second graders and nearly 80 percent of 17-year-olds, but according to a survey by Trident, more than 84 percent of American parents don’t realize this.

Trident’s survey also showed that more than nine in ten (92%) parents believe that cavities in children are preventable; yet getting a child to take care of their teeth can be difficult for 86 percent of parents. To help get the word out about keeping your kids teeth in tip top shape, here are some helpful tips below to help keep kids’ mouths happy and healthy!

Brush 

Remind children to brush their teeth at least twice a day for two minutes each time, using a pea-size amount of fluoride toothpaste.

Eat

Foods such as fruits, vegetables and cheese help build strong healthy teeth and gums. Try chewing a sugar free gum, like Trident, after eating to help fight cavities.

Floss

Children should gently floss once a day to remove food that can get stuck between their teeth.

Avoid 

Try to avoid overindulging in sticky and sugary foods. When kids do have a special treat (especially during the holidays), make sure they brush and floss afterwards.

Routine

Remember to get regular dental check-ups. The more you help kids incorporate healthy oral care habits in their everyday life, the more they will as adults.

To Enter Giveaway-

Contest ends…

Winner will be announced…

Good luck to all, and happy chewing!  I know I am…

Win a One Year Supply of Sugarfree Trident® Gum!

You can win the same amount of gum that Amy shows in the picture! Hoot! I know she was excited when she opened her box to review! The contest ends on 11/30/12 at 12:01am.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I was compensated with the product for the giveaway.  The pictures and opinions are honest and my own.  ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep my young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Racor Bike Hanger Review

Organizing with the Racor Bike Hanger

I’ve been looking for a storage solution for my recumbent bike /trike since I got it this last summer.  It is large and awkward and heavy and is taking up a lot of space in our already small garage.

When I was asked to do a review of this racor bike hanger, I jumped on it.  They did explain to me in the email that this bike hanger was not designed for a recumbent bike, and they couldn’t  recommend it for that. But, we decided to try it because that is what we really needed it for. Rebels maybe? lol  I’m just saying that it worked for us. You can see from the picture on the package how it is intended to be used.

The first thing I did was to check out the weight limit of the product.  It says that the maximum weight is 50 pounds. So I know we are good weight wise for the recumbent bike. I’m not sure what it weights, but I know it’s not 50 lbs.

Here is the monster that we need to get up off the garage floor.

Today has been a cleaning out, reorganizing day.  Just as with most of you, even though an area has been organized, doesn’t mean it stays clean an organized in our house. Today was shed, my office area and garage maintenance day.

This is how we currently have the regular bikes being hung. It works to keep them off the ground.  It is hard to maneuver them and lift them down. I know I have a very hard time doing it (and usually don’t).  We could have tried to do something with hooks like this for the recumbent, but it is heavy enough that it would have been really difficult, and it wouldn’t have been a solution that would have worked for everyday.

Dave got his ladder out, found the studs, used his drill and attached the pulleys. He threaded the cords as per the instructions.

He had already figured out the two spots he was going to attach the pulley hooks to and had measured to be sure it would work.

Once he figured out how to work the system, he started raising the bike.  He quickly realized there was a self leveling system and it leveled the bike out. He said he wondered how that would work and was concerned about it.  You can see how high off the ground it is. Dave is 6’2″ and he can almost walk under it.

He attached a tie up hook to the wall that was included, so that he could secure the line.

I’m really excited to have the bike up off the ground, but yet accessible, so that I can get it down to ride it. What is really nice is that Dave positioned it so it is right over the bed of our pick up truck. So we can lower it right into the truck when we want to take it somewhere to ride. Double yay!

I can say that Dave was impressed with the quality of the product and was very pleased that the bike leveled itself out.  This bike hanger is not designed for a recumbent bike, it is designed for a normal two wheel bike. We were the ones that were experimenting with it in order to hang the recumbent.

You can find more bike hangers by Racor that will work for your needs.

I did receive this racor bike hanger free of charge for review. I received no other compensation and the pictures and opinions are my own.

Kanex Charging Organizer Review

Review of the Kanex Sydnee Charging Organizer

by Amy Trauntvein

Cords, cords, cords!  If your home is anything like mine, it seems that everywhere I look, there are charging cords all over my house.  iPads, iPods, iPhone, cell phones.  Everyone thinks they need their own charging cord and “place” to charge their devices.  Kanex has come up with a great solution for all your portable electronics that use a USB cord.  The Sydnee (retail: $149) at http://www.kanexlive.com/sydnee

I instantly liked the idea of having one place for everything that needed charging.  I also like the fact that you can charge up to 4 devices at one time, but that’s about as far as my knowledge goes so I employed my computer savvy husband in trying it out and testing it further.  Here are his coments on the Sydnee Charging Organizer…

- sleek factor, fits on a small corner of the desk

- four charge ports and built in cable management

- came with three short cords already, so I still have the flexibility of keeping my other charger cords for travel and in other uses like hooked up to my desktop without having to go take them back from the charger base.

- white – goes with anything

- ability to add a cell phone charge cord for micro usb on the 4th port (remember, it came with three short cords for four ports)

- I like that I can have my ipad in landscape display mode while it is charging, so I can still use it at my desk, viewing videos, surfing, etc.

- plenty of room to put the chargable items.

Todd’s suggestions on improvements for the next version?

- cable management clips on both sides of the holder

- slim wall cord where it plugs into the outlet (flat style).  The cord stands out from the wall plug a good 3 inches so if you’re wanting to use a wall outlet behind a desk or other piece of furniture, it might be difficult to get that furniture closer to the wall because of the plug.

I would definitely recommend the Sydnee especially if you have many items in your home that need recharging!  This product would be good in a central location for the whole family to use to keep their devices charged.  It will hold up to 4 iPads and will easily handle 4 smaller devices.

I was compensated with the Kanex Sydnee Organizer, was not paid for this review, and my pictures and opinions are my own.  ~Amy

I have been married for 22 years to my awesome hubby, Todd and we have 4 equally awesome kids who keep my young! Our favorite thing to do together is travel. I enjoy gardening and puttering around my yard. I am very active in my church and am currently serving the children, and I love volunteering at my kids’ schools doing whatever I can to help the teachers and staff.

Loved the Daisy Outdoor Tour!

Love The Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun?

You’ll be jealous then, because I got to tour the plant and build one myself!  I love being able to see how things are made. I think it’s so interesting!  Daisy Outdoor is a client of Collective Bias and when I was at our corporate office this last week in Bentonville, AR, Kim Janocko and I had the chance to go on a tour. We both were thrilled.

This was in the lobby of their offices. I thought it looked cool.  I also found out how Daisy got it’s name. You can find this info on the Daisy Outdoor site, under “History” 

“On March 6, 1888, Hamilton approached the windmill company with an all-metal airgun of his own design. He chose to take it to the windmill company because they had blast furnaces and they were equipped to mold and stamp the metal parts necessary to build his gun. The gun was passed around to members of the board. General Manager L.C. Hough test fired the gun and exclaimed, “Boy, that’s a Daisy.” ‘”It’s a Daisy” was a colloquialism of the time.) So the little gun was named Daisy.”

We went back in their warehouse where they assemble all the guns.  This space is 80,000 sq feet (I think he said) If that isn’t correct, I just know the place is huge! lol

The parts to the guns aren’t made here, they are shipped in pieces and the guns are assembled in this space.

There are many stations that are used to assemble the guns.  They can put one of the guns together in less than one minute.  They said they move their employees around to different assignments to prevent work related injuries like carpel tunnel syndrome.

We loved the barrels full of BB’s!  They were just plain fun.

Jon was in his happy place in these barrel of bb’s. lol  They do feel really cool when you put your hands in them.

We learned that there are 2.4 million BB’s in a 55 gallon barrel. I know I sure wouldn’t try to lift a barrel either! Wow… 2,200 lbs!

Daisy Outdoor makes practice BB guns for the military. Who knew? They are the exact weight, feel and action of the real guns.

They also make BB guns for competition shooting.

This was something I was totally shocked over.  I had no idea they made BB guns that look and feel just like the real thing. This pist0l is made for Winchester. It’s just like the Colt 1911 handgun.  It is heavy, and looks just like the real thing. I texted a picture of this to my husband and he knew which gun it was designed from immediately.

We learned that Daisy Outdoor utilizes the help of some Special Needs adults to help pack BB’s. I love when I hear of a company that helps out this group of adults. They do a great job and love being able to have a job to earn money and give their lives a sense of purpose. Kudos to you Daisy!

Cool huh? I’m not sure what model of pistal this is.

Here is the Powerline 880 kit. They said this is their best seller.  I can see why. It’s larger than their Red Ryder gun, but still a reasonable size for a young adult. I’m thinking it might make a great gift for the triplets for Christmas.

I learned that they do a lot of quality testing of their guns.  They shoot a gun from each batch 10,000 times to check their products.

One of the things that is a necessity is to always wear eye protection when shooting. After all, you wouldn’t want to “shoot your eye out” or anything!

Kim and I went back the next day so that we could make our own Red Ryder BB gun. Paula was kind enough to guide us through making one. I’m amazed that she is able to make one of these in less than 1 minute. I think it took me about 8 or 9 minutes to do mine.

Each piece is put into place.

The screw guns are cool. You just put them into the screw and put a little pressure down on them and they work fast… really fast!

Here is my finished product.  They made an engraved forearm for us. Mine said “The Jenney Family”. How cool is that? The triplets will be so excited!  Since we were flying home, we had to ship the guns. We couldn’t put them in our luggage, even though we were checking the luggage.

I decided I wanted to guy Dave one of the Winchester 1911 pistols.  I was told that I could find them at a local sporting goods store called Academy Sports, so Kim and I went that evening to check it out. We found a big assortment of Daisy Outdoor products.

I found the BB gun I wanted to buy Dave. It was $89.00.  If you think about it, it is a great way to save money in ammunition. Right now ammunition is really expensive and actually hard to find. So this will be a wonderful way for him to get some target practice in.

What I also like about it is that he will be able to set up a target in our back yard. He is very safety conscious (thank goodness) and has taught gun safety before.  He knows that he’ll have to find a place that he won’t have to worry about what is behind the target.

The gun was heavy enough that I decided not to buy it at the store and ship it home. I asked someone at the store about being able to buy it online and if he knew what shipping prices were like. He said it would be a much better deal for me to buy it online. That their shipping was either free or just $5.00.  Cool!

As soon as we got back that evening, I got online and purchased this gun and a large container full of BB’s for Dave for Christmas! (shhhh!)  I am going to talk to him to have him help me decide which gun we’ll get the triplets for Christmas!

Thanks Daisy Outdoor for the tour! I had a blast. I also thank you so much for the Red Ryder gun that you had engraved and let me build for my family.

I am an employee of Collective Bias and Daisy Outdoor is a client of Collective Bias.  I was not asked or expected to do a post, I just wanted to share my experience and excitement for the Daisy Outdoor products.

Be Sure To Pre Order Your Spiderman Movie Now! #SpidermanWMT #cbias

The Spiderman Movie Is Coming Out Soon!

I had heard that I could pre-order the Spiderman movie and also get a free Vudu copy of it… all before it came out to everyone else! The kids would love it! So I went on a search today at our local Walmart.

I set out early this morning to pick it up and surprise the kids. They would get a kick out of watching the trailers and knowing that they’d get to see the Vudu version on the 30th of October, followed by the DVD around November 9th.  It was a beautiful autumn morning this morning!

I had my travel mug of hot coffee in hand and I was heading to Walmart to pick up some milk and the pre-order Spiderman movie.

I had seen the display when I was in AR last month, so I knew what I was looking for.. or so I thought.  I got to the first Walmart and after looking all over, I asked an employee who informed me they no longer had it in their store.

I found the display shelf where it should have been. I guess it was too popular and they sold out of it. Of course this made me want it even more!! Funny how that works isn’t it? lol

Oh, I did stop to look for the new version of the Chris Mann Christmas CD. Chris was on The Voice, and is a friend I’ve met through our blogging conferences. It’s been so fun to watch him on TV and see how well he is doing. It was the only copy of his CD in the store too.

So off I went to another Walmart that was across town from this one.

I arrived at this store without any issues. It was still early, so there were no crowds. I went to the back of the store and started looking for the display.

I was seeing many other DVD’s..

I did spot the Spiderman section in the toys… and so I decided to walk over there and get some “Spidey Inspiration”. Where would Spidey look?

I went back and decided to ask for help finding it.  He went right over to the shelf near the counter and grabbed a copy.  Can you spot it on the rack? Look hard… even though the light is reflecting off of it. It’s in the top left corner. There were about 4 copies of it left. Yay… I found it! Mission accomplished! No big displays, signs, or any other labels that stuck out and made it easy to find. But I found it.. all by myself. Ok, so not really, I only found it because I asked for it.  It was $24.96.

Here it is… in my hot little hand! They didn’t have the movie set with the mask, but I was happy to get the pre-order copy.

Now I had to get some “pre-movie candy”, don’t you know!? Just being able to give the kids a movie snack while we looked at the trailers, would increase their excitement, until we got the vudu copy.

Ok.. I’m ready to go.

I did see these darling Brutus the Buckeye loofas from Mascotwear on the way out. I had to pick up one for my Ohio State Buckeye nut son!

Once I got home, I was anxious to see how this pre-order of the DVD worked.

It say  right on the package . Buy – Redeem – Watch

So I opened it up and this is what I found.  There was a cardboard “DVD” shaped instruction sheet. It had the redemption code on it.

I got on the computer and went to VUDU.com/theamazingspiderman and it walked me through the steps.  I first entered the redemption code and hit “submit”

I clicked on the left side where it said to sign up for the free version.

I signed up for an account.

Then it switched over to this Ultraviolet page. It’s a place that allows you to store your digital movie collection. I also did the free version.

After a couple more screens, it came to a payment information page. It ask for your billing address and then your mailing address (so they know where to ship your DVD).

Because there was nothing to pay I picked the option to skip the credit card info. Just go to the gray box on the bottom right. They have this, so that if you order additional movies in the future, they’ll have your info.  You do not need to put any credit card information in to retrieve your vudu copy or your DVD. So no worries there.

I finally got to this page. I went to “Go to Movie”

I was able to watch the trailer clips today.

Just watching a few trailers .. really gets you even more psyched for the real thing!

The triplets were so excited when they got home from school. Elise wasn’t here for this picture.. but the boys were more than happy to let me take a picture! Of course they wanted to watch the whole movie today. They were really excited when I told them we could watch it on vudu on the 30th.. and that would be before their friends got to see it! And of course the pre-movie candy sure didn’t hurt! lol

You can look for the pre-order copy of the Spiderman movie in your Walmart store. (I would suggest calling your store to be sure they have it, before driving there). You can also order it right from the Walmart.com site.

You can also follow along on twitter if you follow the #SpidermanWMT hashtag and also the @SpidermanMovie Twitter handle

I am an employee of  Collective Bias®. This product has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment #CBias  All opinions stated are true and my own.

theraderm Facial System Review (Giveaway Closed)

theraderm – Help for My Face!

I did a review on theraderm last year and really liked it.  But I ran out, and was bouncing back and forth with what to use on my face.  Being older, I’m dealing with even more wrinkles, fine lines, dry skin and acne. What’s up with that? Shouldn’t that be over by now?

I realized that my face had gotten worse since I stopped using the theraderm and starting using other products.  Why didn’t I just order more theraderm right away? I’ll be honest, it’s a little out of the normal budget I pay for facial products.  But, I also realized it had worked on my skin.

I liked how easy the program was.  Use the series of products, once in the morning, once in the evening. Done.

So I emailed Christine, who introduced me to the product and said I was interested in purchasing product and wondered what the cost was. I of course offered to review it again for her and was more than thrilled when she agreed.  This time I’m also doing a giveaway for you to win the products shown here.

This is difficult to show you my before and after pictures.  Since I was taking the pictures myself, I used my camera phone, so the quality is not so great. But I think you can get the idea.

Before

You can easily see all my lines (yucko! I much prefer to look in the mirror with my glasses off, thus creating a “face lift” sort of look! LOL)

My eyes are bad, the area between my brows – over my nose , the lines above my lip and the fine lines drawing down on my chin.  I was having issues with really dry skin, but then when I’d use moisturizers on it… I’d break out.  Isn’t it funny how gruff I look? Just like in those “before” commercials.  I didn’t want to smile because I wanted you to see those lines over my mouth. lol

Check out the video!

After

I took this picture 6 weeks after the “Before” picture.  Of course my face is far from perfect, but there is improvement. The lines aren’t quite as deep. I am dealing with a little bit of on again, off again acne – but not that bad. Better than when I was using some of the other moisturizers. The acne is only on my nose. I freckle and I did not touch up these pictures at all (wow… if I did and I still look this bad.. lol)

Giveaway

I am really excited to be able to give away Therapon’s Skin Renewal System with a Peptide Hydrator (value $147.50) 

To Enter Giveaway – ** Closed**

1) Leave me a comment about why you would like to win this awesome skin renewal system!

For Extra chances to Win:

**Each of these HAS to have a separate comment written please. (I know its a pain, but other wise you won’t have as many chances if you don’t)

1) Subscribe to my Organizing with Sandy blog
2) Follow me on Twitter @OrganizerSandy
3) Tweet out this giveaway up to 3 times per day. Write a comment for each time you do with the link.
4) Stumble this post
5) Google + this post.

See….lots of ways to enter to win!
This contest will run from June 9th (when I post this) until 11:59pm est on Friday June 29, 2012
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 win to be eligible. If I don’t hear back then I will go to the next winner.
I was given the products I displayed above at no cost to review. Opinions are my own & truthful, pictures and videos are my own.

Bissell Lift off Deep Cleaning System

Happy to Review Bissell Lift Off Deep Cleaning System!

I used the Bissell Carpet Cleaner  to clean two different areas in my home. My front hallway had several spots and my poor stairs had been attacked by dripping Nyquil when my husband carried it up the stairs a couple weeks ago.

Video Review

I didn’t do any pre-treating of the stains because I wanted to see what the abilities of this cleaner were.   I’ll walk you through the process. I am going to talk to you in my terms – I might not hit all the awesome features etc – but I’m also not pulling this info from anywhere but from what I’ve experienced.

Front Hall Way Before & After

Before:

After:

Steps Before:

Steps After:

Assembly

Not too difficult. It came all put together in the box, except the handle.  I attempted to put the screws in when I didn’t have the handle lined up right. The screws go in at an angle, so it is a little tricky. I had to have my husband pull it back apart and get it lined up right because I wasn’t able to do it. But once he did that (only 4 screws) it was good to go.

Features of the Bissell Lift Off Deep Cleaning System

• The water heats once in the clean water reservoir.  You have to turn the cleaner on for about a minute, so it has time to heat up the water.  I left it on for a couple minutes, but I couldn’t really tell how warm the water was. The water tank did not get warm, and I never did put my hand down to feel the temperature of the water coming out. I did like that I didn’t have to worry about the unit getting hot though.
• There are side brushes that I like so that you can get close to the edges.
  It works easily and is self explanatory.

• The foot pedal in the back seems solid, along with the one on the side to lift off the smaller unit.
• It is easy to fill the clean water tank and put add the Bissell carpet cleaner solution.
• A small bottle of the Bissell carpet cleaner came with the unit
• The lift off unit comes off easily and doesn’t drip water all over.

• To snap the “lift off” unit back into place you need to use just a bit of force once on. I was hesitant to snap down the right side. The left side goes right on, but I was scared to push down very hard because I wasn’t sure it was lined up and I didn’t want to break something. But once I did, it went right in on the right side too.
• Easy push button and it is easy to move the unit when in the full upright unit. It isn’t hard to push.
• Even though I vacuumed my carpet before I started, evidently there was dog hair left behind. The carpet cleaner did not pick up the dog hair, it just wet it and left it in clumps.  I had to keep bending over and picking it up. That part was annoying and kind of gross.  I wish it would have sucked it up. If you have a dog that sheds, I would suggest double or triple vacuuming first.

• Using the smaller hand held lift off unit was easy.  There is a long cord, which makes it nice when you are doing the stairs.

Clean up

Love, Love, Love how easy it was to clean out the dirty reservoir! My older small carpet cleaner that I’ve used for small stains was hard to clean out and I never felt like it got cleaned out all the way, because of the design.  But the Bissell is really easy and I felt like it was totally clean once I rinsed it out. Yay! It also did not leak dirty water when I took it off the unit! (another big plus! The other unit had to take off right in the bathroom because I knew it would drip yucko stuff before I could dump it)

Overall Opinion

Very good! Would I recommend it? Yes! My big points (other than it did a good job) would be that the lift off unit makes it really convenient. You don’t have to have a full size carpet cleaner AND a second smaller unit – it’s an All-in-one Cleaner.

It is very easy to use.  But one of my biggest “pluses” to this deep cleaner is how easy it is to fill the clean reservoir and even better is how easy and neat it is to empty the dirty one!

My negatives would be that it does not pick up the left over dog hair that my vacuum didn’t pick up, so I had to pick it up on my own (wet dog hair is really gross).   I also would like some place to hook the cord up on the handle when I’m using the vacuum. I felt like it was in the way a bit. I think because the cord is actually attached to the smaller unit, down low on the side.   But neither of those reasons would be reasons that I would not recommend this to others. Those are minor compared to the benefits this cleaning system has.

As an update, my sister went out and purchased this cleaner herself after reading my post. She has four Newfoundland dogs and needed something to help with her clean ups! Wow!

I’m very happy with it and appreciate that they (Bissell) sent me this Carpet Cleaner to review.  I was compensated with keeping the Bissell Lift Off Deep Cleaning System, I was not paid for this post.  But even though I received the cleaner, the opinion, pictures and video are my own.

Cold and Flu

Cold and Flu! Has it Hit Your House Yet?

(Originally Cold and Flu was 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)

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)

Nutrisystem Week 8

I’m Stuck!

Can I say that I’ve been doing the whole program perfectly though?  Nope..  I’ll be honest, I can’t.

I haven’t been exercising for one. That is a big thing that would help me.

I also have not been eating only the Nutrisystem food.  I’ve been on a medication that has been nauseating me .. a lot.  You would think that in itself would be great for losing weight .. wouldn’t you?  I would say that probably 5 out of the 7 mornings I’ve not been able to eat any breakfast.  Then lunch time nothing looks good to me.  I’ve been eating crackers to help keep the nausea down.  Then on the days that I don’t take the medication I tend to eat more than I should.
Some of the days it makes no sense at all with as little as I’ve eaten that I haven’t dropped way down.

This week has been very steady. From 190-191 all week.

I wanted to show you one of the dinners that was really good.  Notice this is a full size plate and it looks really full.   It was the glazed turkey.  The gravy was good, veggies were soft and cooked well, spices seemed natural (not too many spices to cover up plainness).

Ok.. ready for the scale shot?  Please notice that I finally got the little bit of nail polish off toenails. I had a friend who said when she first saw one of those pics that she thought it was a new way to wear your polish when she glanced. lol

Last week: 190.5 … This week – No change.
Total lost 10 pounds

I’m not excited about the next couple weeks when it comes to losing weight. I LOVE all the Christmas goodies… I mean love it. My boys are already asking me when I’m going to make the 7-layer cookies, fudge, toffee and buckeyes.  I have 8 kids that are excited for these Christmas treats that are a tradition in our family. I’m not going to just say to them that we aren’t to have what you are looking forward to because I’m trying to lose weight. That is just selfish.  But it will be resisting.

Tonight is my first Christmas party, next week I’m traveling for business and going to two Christmas parties while there.

Wish me luck to be strong!

Want to lose weight and get healthy on Nutrisystem? Join today by calling 1-888-853-4689 or visiting http://www.nutrisystem.com/nsblog

*I have been selected to participate in the Nutrisystem Nation blogger program. For four months, Nutrisystem will provide me with their meals at no charge for my review. I am not being compensated for my participation. 

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.