Reviews

Review: Dove® VisibleCare™ Body Wash

by Cate on July 19, 2012 · 0 comments

It’s a vicious cycle: you wake up feeling less than attractive, a feeling that’s perhaps compounded by two small children who need you right now. You surrender to the “lazy day” and may or may not shower. You throw on some ratty jeans and tie your hair in a ponytail. But instead of feeling comforted, you feel gross.

I have a three-year-old and a five-month-old. By necessity, many of my old beauty routines have gone out the window—and at a time when I could really use the accompanying self-esteem boost. The first thing to go was applying lotion after a shower. Sure, I feel so much better when I take the time to do it, but I find myself skipping that step more often than not. Showering alone is tough to squeeze in when somebody always needs something from you.

Enter Dove® VisibleCare™ Body Wash.

After using cheap bar soap, this body wash was a revelation. It has a consistency like conditioner and lathers into a lush cloud. Because it’s so frothy and creamy, washing actually takes me less time than usual. And when I dry off, my skin is still deliciously smooth and moisturized…without adding lotion. I live in Kentucky, which is unbearably humid in the summer, and I’ve been rationalizing my lack of lotion application by thinking, “It’s so sticky, there’s no way my skin is dehydrated.” But sweat and healthy, moisturized skin are not the same thing!

There are three varieties of the new Dove® VisibleCare™ Body Wash: Toning, Renewing, and Softening. I was able to try the softening variety, which really smoothed and hydrated my skin. Dove promises visibly more beautiful skin in just one week—but it didn’t take that long for me. In fact, after the very first use, my skin felt great. I kept walking up to my husband and saying, “touch my arm! It’s so soft!”

My usual frugal habits aside, I’ll be purchasing another bottle of this soon. A mama can use a little luxury in her life.

Visit Dove^® VisibleCare^® to get a coupon for $1 off!

You can also enter to win one of two $500 Spafinder gift certificates!

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY

COMMENTS TO THIS POST ARE NOT SWEEPSTAKES ENTRIES. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR ENTRY METHODS FOR THIS SWEEPSTAKES.

You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Follow this link, and provide your email address and your response to the Promotion prompt

b) Tweet (public message) about this promotion; including exactly the following unique term in your tweet message: “#SweepstakesEntry”; and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that Tweet.

c) Blog about this promotion, including a disclosure that you are receiving a sweepstakes entry in exchange for writing the blog post, and then visit this link to provide your email address and the URL to that post.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize, or an alternative winner will be selected.

The Official Rules are available here.

This sweepstakes runs from 7/18/2012 – 8/22/2012

Be sure to visit the Dove^® VisibleCare™ Crème Body Wash brand page on BlogHer.com where you can read other bloggers’ reviews and find more chances to win!

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eeBoo Games: Review and Giveaway

by Cate on April 4, 2012 · 19 comments

in Frugal Fun,Giveaways,Reviews,Simone

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to winner Chrissy!

A few weeks ago, I was puttering around on Amazon (story of my life) and stumbled upon a brand of games called eeBoo.

The product that initially caught my interest was a set of cards called Tell Me a Story: Fairy Tale Mix Ups. The concept is simple enough: a deck of cards featuring beautiful and creative illustrations, which can be used with your child to spark and craft your own stories. I thought they would be great for inspiring Simone’s verbal skills (and they’re pretty much my dream where open-ended toys are concerned), so they went into my cart within about two seconds. I also bought a game of Color Go Fish. Simone is big on identifying colors right now, so I thought it would be fun for her.

When the games arrived, I was smitten.

The Tell Me a Story cards are absolutely incredible. As a fairy tale nerd, I’ve always placed some importance on the illustrations (if there are any), and these are gorgeous. The illustrations are pretty diverse, so there’s no limit to the stories you can tell with them. Since she’s still young, we’ve been using 5-10 cards at once to tell our stories, instead of the whole deck. I was actually surprised by Simone’s willingness to experiment with new words while telling stories, and impressed by her creativity. If I may confess something: I often don’t enjoy playing with my kid. Preschool play just isn’t very stimulating for me as an adult. But I LOVE these cards.

Mystery in the Forest cards

In fact, I love them so much, we went ahead and ordered two other varieties: Mystery in the Forest and Circus Animal’s Adventure. (There’s also a Little Robot’s Mission set). They’re really nice, and we’ve enjoyed playing with them, but the Fairy Tale ones are still my favorite. (Sometime we’ll probably mix and match decks for even more story possibilities).

Predictably, Simone adores playing Color Go Fish. One thing I like about this version is that the colors are given unique names: hot pink, indigo, buttercup. It’s a little more interesting than your standard blue, red, green type of stuff. (And if your kid is still little, feel free to just call them “red” and “blue”–they don’t know the difference.)

Don’t mind the “RAINBOW” card…that sneaked in from our homeschool box!

eeBoo also makes a variety of other toys and games, and I’m sure many of them will make their way into our house eventually.

Barely a day after my first order arrived, I contacted eeBoo to see if they would be willing to provide a giveaway pack for one of my readers. I was thrilled when they said yes.

To enter to win a deck of Color Go Fish cards and a deck of Tell Me a Story: Fairy Tale Mix Up cards from eeBoo, simply leave me a comment on this post about your favorite game (of any kind!) to play with your kids. I will choose a winner at noon on Wednesday, April 11th.

And eeBoo, if you’re listening? I love your products so much, I practically want to come work for you. Keep it up!

I was not paid or perked by eeBoo to write this post…I contacted them of my own volition after discovering their products, because I was so impressed that I wanted to share them with y’all.

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Papa Murphy’s: Review and Giveaway!

by Cate on March 14, 2012 · 64 comments

in Giveaways,Reviews

Literally the day after James was born, Papa Murphy’s approached me to see if I’d like to try some of their pizza, specifically their new Mini Murphs. If you’ve never heard of them, Papa Murphy’s is a take-and-bake pizza chain. You go in, order your pizza, and they assemble the dough and toppings. You take the pizza home and bake it at your convenience.

I’d never tried Papa Murphy’s before, but my mom had good things to say, so I figured I’d give it a go. Having a new baby in the house is a great reason to outsource dinner!

A couple days later, I received a lovely package via UPS. Inside was a heavy-duty pizza cutter, a really nice 12″ x 20″ Bamboozle pizza peel, a $30 Papa Murphy’s gift card, and a $20 Target gift card. To say I was overcome by the gift pack would be an understatement!

A few nights later, we ordered a large Cowboy Pizza for Jason and me, and a cheese Mini Murph for Simone. The service was unbelievably fast! We paid about $18 for both. Simone was very excited to put together her own pizza, and it was just the right size for little kids to share or for older kids to have their own pizza. I appreciated that it wasn’t super messy for Simone to make, and she had fun eating the pizza she “cooked.” I tried to get a photo, but she was too eager to eat!

Cowboy Pizza

Our Cowboy Pizza (red sauce, pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, and an herb and cheese blend) was good, but the crust left a little something to be desired. It was a bit bland—the crispiest parts were the tastiest—and paled in comparison to my homemade pizza dough. the toppings were piled on, though, and tasted yummy and fresh.

Gourmet Chicken Garlic before baking

About a week later, we used the rest of our gift card to order the Gourmet Chicken Garlic on thin crust dough. The toppings were SO good! Creamy garlic sauce, juicy chicken, tomatoes, green onions, and an herb and cheese blend tasted fabulous together. However, the crust was limp and only crispy on the outermost edges, even though the pizza was certifiably “done” (I even baked it on a pizza stone). The toppings were so fabulous that it didn’t ruin the pizza, but a crispy thin crust would have made the pizza transcendent.

Cookie dough! Don’t mind the ruler, infant gas drops, and flooring sample on the counter…

We also ordered 16 oz of chocolate chip cookie dough ($4) which baked one large cookie sheet full. They were delicious! Crispy on the edges, chewy on the inside, and wonderfully buttery.

I was impressed by how little trash our pizzas produced: just a thin cardboard circle and a little plastic wrap. Not perfect, but even making pizza from scratch isn’t usually a zero-waste endeavor.

Papa Murphy’s has generously agreed to give away the same gift pack to one lucky reader. The winner will receive:

One pizza cutter
One pizza peel
$30 Papa Murphy’s gift card
$20 Target gift card

To enter to win, just leave a comment on this post before noon on Wednesday, March 21, telling me your favorite kind of pizza. I will choose a winner using Random.org.

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to commenter Jennifer Wear!

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Just Because You Lived It Doesn’t Mean You Can Write It

by Cate on February 23, 2012 · 2 comments

in Reading,Reviews

This is a paid review from BlogHer Book Club. I also received a free copy of The Rules of Inheritance from Penguin Group. However, all opinions are (clearly!) my own.

If Claire Bidwell Smith is a good writer, The Rules of Inheritance is pretty weak evidence.

An avid reader of memoir, I had high hopes for Bidwell Smith’s. Both of her parents were diagnosed with cancer within less than a year, and understandably, she dissolved into her grief. Now a grief counselor, she organized her memoir into five sections, one for each of the stages of grief. While nonlinear story lines are nothing new, I thought the concept was interesting, and I hoped it would lend the book a unique framework.

Unfortunately, I found The Rules of Inheritance disappointing from the get-go.

Its main flaw is that Bidwell Smith isn’t truly a character. Just because you’re writing about yourself, and about things that truly happened, doesn’t mean you can neglect character development—but Bidwell Smith did just that. Like all of the other players in her memoir, she reads as entirely one-dimensional. I didn’t “know” her enough to identify with her, or even really sympathize with her, despite the fact that her circumstances were desperately sad.

In memoir, as in life, the characters must change, and we must see them changing. It’s not enough to simply tell us that the characters have changed. I’ve historically found even non-consecutive storytelling easy to follow, but The Rules of Inheritance was choppy and confusing. Smith’s behavior and feelings were so static that I couldn’t pinpoint the time period from them alone. I found myself grateful for the section headings, which contained the year and Bidwell Smith’s age.

The Rules of Inheritance has smaller problems, too: cliche turns of phrase, a heavy dose of sap, “name-dropping” people and events completely unrelated to the story. But mostly, I just couldn’t bring myself to care. And that’s a shame.

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Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose: Review and Giveaway!

by Cate on January 12, 2012 · 35 comments

in Giveaways,Reviews

A few weeks ago Kristen, otherwise known as The Frugal Girl, asked me if I would be interested in reviewing and possibly giving away a copy of her new ebook. It’s called Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose, and it’s all about how to make the most of your old clothing. Since my go-to method for dealing with old clothes is to get out my scissors and cut them into rags (and our rag pile is overflowing as it is), I said “yes” right away!

The projects in Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose are arranged loosely from easiest to hardest, which makes for nicely intuitive browsing. I found the first few tips fairly obvious, but I guess we all start somewhere, so I can’t judge—there was a time when I simply threw away old clothes that were unfit for donation. And the great ideas in the rest of the ebook made up for the few I wasn’t as thrilled about.

I felt so inspired after reading Kristen’s ebook that I decided to investigate my mending pile. For me, “mending pile” is a pretty generous term. It houses easily-fixable items like socks with tiny holes or shirts with missing buttons, but there are always a few things that are stained beyond recognition, or clothing I can’t wear anymore but also can’t bear to part with.

So when I found a simple red t-shirt that shrunk in the wash, I decided to use one of Kristen’s ideas and make a t-shirt bag.

When I dug out the sewing machine I scored on freecycle a couple years ago, I realized the needle was broken. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that I’ve still never actually used the sewing machine! I didn’t have the time or inclination to go pick up a new needle right then, so I decided to just hand-stitch the bag and hope for the best. It only took me about half an hour, and nobody’s going to be looking that closely. (Also, that half hour was time spent supervising Simone’s bath…yay for productive multitasking!) Obviously, it would have gone much faster with a working sewing machine.

The bag looked a little plain at first, so I decided to try another one of Kristen’s ideas and embellish the bag with a fabric flower. I dug through my pile of fabric scraps and settled on a red and white polka dot print. It took me about five minutes to gather my materials on the way out the door to a prenatal appointment, and I was able to stitch the flower together and attach it to the bag in the car. Obviously, my husband was driving at the time.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

All of our other reusable bags are huge (with plastic inserts to make the bottoms extra sturdy), which is great for groceries…but not so good for when I need to run a quick errand. And that’s leaving aside the fact that I always forget our reusable bags at home during non-grocery outings anyway. So, I’m happy that this t-shirt bag can be rolled into a tiny ball and stashed in my purse. It’s already come in handy a few times.

Overall, I’ve been really impressed with Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose, and I’m eager to try my hand at a few more projects!

If you’d like to win a copy of Kristen’s ebook, just leave a comment here before noon on Thursday, January 19th, telling me your favorite thing to do with old clothes. I’ll pick a winner using Random.org and Kristen will send you your free copy!

I received a free copy of Reuse, Refresh, Repurpose to review, but was not otherwise compensated for my review or for hosting a giveaway. I just love Kristen’s blog and enjoyed her ebook immensely!

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