I LOVE Green Mountain Coffees! Even more now that they offer Fair Trade Certified Coffees :)

 I fell in love with my mothers Keurig brewer, and thankfully my parents gave me one for Christmas last year! Ever since I got my Keurig brewer, I have been a huge fan of Green Mountain Coffee Kcups!! They offer so many varieties, I especially love their flavored coffees (such as the winter collection which has pumpkin spice, golden french toast, and gingerbread, they are to die for!).

 BzzAgent launched the Green Mountain Coffee Fair Trade Certified BzzCampaign, and I was ecstatic to receive an invite. Not only did they send me 6 kcups of Fair Trade Certified Three Continent Blend, they sent coupons for 50% off on brewers at Keurig.com! What a tremendous savings, I had a few friends that jumped on that offer very quickly.

 Fair Trade Certified coffees mean the farmers get a fair price for their coffee beans, which helps coffee farming communities to live a better life. And not just the Three Continent Blend is Fair Trade Certified, several of the Green Mountain Coffees that you know and love are now offered as Fair Trade Certified. In fact, Green Mountain Roasters (the parent company of Green Mountain Coffee) is the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified Coffee.

Normally I prefer light roast and flavored coffees, but a bold coffee is good for a change up. The Three Continent Blend combines the flavors and aromas of South America, Africa, and Asia. I enjoyed it, but it is definitely a dark roast coffee with extra bold rich flavor. I will definitely be looking for other great Green Mountain Fair Trade Certified varieties of coffees! :)

*although I received these items FREE from BzzAgent, this is my opinion...which was not affected that I got to try these products for free*.

Excellent dry skin relief from Curel!

Wow, I haven’t blogged in quite some time! Summer always seems to get the best of me, and there is NEVER enough time in each day!! I guess another reason I hadn’t blogged lately, is other than my ongoing weightloss journey (which is random and slow going…but at least I have been maintaining my current weight loss) I have had nothing to talk about. But now I do, last month was a great month for me in being picked for some new awesome products to review from BzzAgent!! So stay tuned for more on these great products :). And in case you are new to my blog, I am a BzzAgent meaning I fill out surveys to get matched with products I get to try for FREE (my favorite price lol) or at a discount.

 The first product I recently received was Curel Advanced Ceramide Therapy Intensive Healing cream. It is a daily cream for extra-dry or sensitive skin. I suffer from dry skin, but especially on my feet and hands. This stuff is great! Most lotions and creams that claim to be for extra dry skin are so thick and goopy, even sticky sometimes…but this is light weight and absorbs quickly delivering immediate hydration. It replenishes moisture and ceramide levels and is long lasting. 9 out of 10 dermatologists recommend using it and it is pediatrician tested to be safe for kids 6 months and older. It is clinically proven to help chapping and chafing caused by dryness, and I can vouch for that. It is also hypo-allergenic and fragrance-free; so it doesn’t overpower other scents you may be wearing.

 I really enjoyed testing this lotion and will be more than likely adding it to my winter skin care regimine. Unfortunately my BzzKit was missing the $2 coupons, but this lotion is probably worth the price given the benefits.

Lean Cuisine Honestly Good frozen meals; good for you and delicious :)

Here’s another “I’m so glad/happy/proud to be a BzzAgent” blog post!! This time I was granted coupons to try new Lean Cuisine Honestly Good 100% all natural frozen meals. I have always been a huge fan of Lean Cuisine meals! I eat one virtually every day for lunch, so I was very excited to be able to try one for totally free. And as usual I was also given coupons to pass out, which I love because I love being able to share my opinion of products and things I find out about. Of course my friends and family all love that I get coupons to share too (and for this BzzCampaign I even talked to some absolute strangers and shared coupons with them). As someone who is trying to live a more healthy lifestyle and lose weight, I was excited that these meals were 100% all natural and had ingredients I could actually pronounce and furthermore know what they are! And the best part was that it was delicious and did not even taste like it was a frozen meal. I tried the Roasted Red Pepper Chicken and was very pleased with the whole meal, I loved it all. It had a whole grilled chicken breast filet. The pasta that is with it is whole grain cavatappi pasta that I used most of the roasted red pepper sauce on. Then there is sea salt and lemon-seasoned broccoli florets. I like to have frozen meals most days for lunch since they are already portioned out perfectly for me. I felt like there was more food in this meal, but it was still a usual portion and came in at 270 calories, 7 grams fat, 25mg cholesterol, 520mg sodium, 29 carbohydrates, 5g fiber, and an awesome 25g of protein. These meals can seem a little steeply priced however. When I purchased mine the regular price at our Kroger was $4.79 for one meal! This week our Meijer has them in the ad at 2 for $7 which is much better, especially if you have a coupon! If you have the money to spare, they are probably worth the full price though; the fact that they taste so good and not like frozen food might be worth it to you.

Dr. Scholl's for her Ball of Foot cushions

I am not normally the type of person to wear high heels, especially ones that are 2 inches or more. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am 5 foot 8 inches tall and do not need any more height, but also because of the fact that heels just make you feet so uncomfortable! So I was so glad to receive the “Something Blue” VoxBox from Influenster which included Dr. Scholl’s for her Ball of Foot cushion insoles made for high heels (along with a bunch of other FREE great goodies to try out!). I have used a few of the Dr. Scholl’s for her products now, and I absolutely love the ones I have tried. They all come with a money back guarantee so if you are not satisfied, you have nothing to loose so why not give them a try. These provide immediate relief to the pain and pressure you feel when wearing high heels. The small design helps keep your foot from sliding forward in your heels, which is a major problem that I usually have to combat when wearing heels. And the small design also helps to prevent your toes from scrunching together. They stayed firmly in place when I tried them out at a recent wedding I attended. Another great detail is that they are also easily removed from your shoes without damaging them. The only problem I had with these is that I am in the minority group of women with big feet; when I say big, I mean at least a size 10! And these insoles are very small. They did cover a good portion of where my foot sits, but for me personally they could have been a bit bigger. But if they were made bigger they might also be more noticeable, especially in open toe shoes, so I do also understand why they opted to not make them bigger. All in all I still had a good experience with these and all other Dr. Scholl’s for her products that I have tried, despite the fact that they are not designed for us larger footed women.

Yummy frozen goodness thanks to Kroger (and BzzAgent)!

Since there is a Kroger very close to our house and we shop there often and regularly enjoy Kroger brand products; I LOVE getting BzzCampaigns for Kroger products. Actually I LOVE getting any BzzCampaigns :) and my friends and family love it too. As a BzzAgent, I get free or reduced cost products or coupons to try products at a free or reduced price. And most of the time I get great money saving coupons to pass along to people that I “Bzz” too about those products. It is a great fit for me since I love sharing my opinion of things ;). For this Kroger BzzCampaign I received a coupon to try a free Kroger yogurt smoothie bar and $1.00 off coupons to pass out that were good for either the yogurt smoothie bars, low fat fudge bars, or low fat ice cream sandwiches. They also have fruit bars. Oh so much goodness to choose from!

My husband and I picked out the triple berry low fat yogurt smoothie bars, and they were delicious! The 3 berries are strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry; and the 3 flavors mix perfectly. At first I thought the price of $4.29 for the box was kind of steep. But when you break down the fact that since it is a box of 12 that works out to only about 35 cents per bar it is actually reasonable. Even still there is another thing to factor in though…the fact that each bar is pretty small and that because of that a serving size is actually 2 bars. So there are really only 6 servings in the box. A 2 bar serving has 100 calories, 1.5 grams fat, 20 carbohydrates, 16g sugar and 3g protein. So they are fairly diet friendly, especially in the calories and fat department. I also like that they are made with real fruit. I find them to be very satisfying too, a very creamy frozen texture.

I will definitely be buying more of these to help me with a nice low calorie and fat snack for this hot muggy summer we are experiencing lately.

Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips BzzCampaign!

I think it is great that there are so many healthier snack chips being offered nowadays. That’s why I was so happy to be invited to the Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips BzzCampaign! For this BzzCampaign I received a full size bag of each of the 2 varieties currently offered; Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddar and Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt. They also gave us 4 sample size bags of the Sweet Potato chips and coupons to pass out. And of course it was all FREE for being a BzzAgent in exchange for my review and reporting my opinion of the products to those around me…like here on this blog :)

Normally when I would think of Green Giant, I wouldn’t be thinking of snack chips…until now. I am so glad they jumped on the bandwagon of making a healthier crunchy snack to replace greasy high calorie potato chips! 

Initially I didn’t think I would like the Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt; I am used to eating sweet potatoes as a sweet dish (like candied yams) and I do not usually like things that are salty and sweet (like chocolate covered pretzels…gross!). To my surprise the first time I tried them I fell in love, these are my favorite of the two kinds offered.  They were not too sweet tasting, and the hint of sea salt added a great flavor. My husband refused to try them, but our young nieces and teenage nephew really liked them also, so they are kid friendly too.  And you can feel better about feeding them to your family knowing that they have a whopping 40% less fat than regular potato chips per serving! And they have 14 grams of whole grain goodness.

The Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddar had a great flavor eaten plain also, but I really enjoyed dipping them in salsa. I love the fact that they are made from real vegetables such as broccoli and carrots. And they have 17 grams of whole grain per serving. I was able to get my husband to try this kind, and he enjoyed them a lot. We think they are a lot like regular Doritos, and we used them to make some awesome nachos which not only tasted good but were much better for us than using regular salty tortilla chips.

Overall I highly recommend these chips, and they can be found at a very reasonable price; my mom was ecstatic when she found them at Kroger on sale for $1 a bag, especially since I had shared an $.85 off coupon with her! 

Lysol Touch of Foam Antibacterial Hand Wash is Awesome!

 Ever since my mother introduced me to foam hand cleaners, I have been a big fan. I hate that most pump liquid hand cleaners tend to drip and get all goopy. So I was super excited to be invited to the Lysol Touch of Foam Antibacterial Hand Wash BzzCampaign! Now if you have read my previous BzzCampaign blogs, you know that by being a BzzAgent I get things to try out for FREE in exchange for my review of the product. For this I received a Lysol Touch of Foam antibacterial hand cleaner in Creamy Vanilla Orchid scent.

 First of all the scent is spectacular. Not only that, it isn’t too strong or weak of a scent. It is also available in 2 other scents; Rose & Cherry Bloom and Wild Berry Bliss. I wash my hands very frequently in the kitchen, so that is where I placed it. I love that it kills 99.9% of germs on contact. What I find even more awesome than that is the fact that the pump itself also has antimicrobial properties to resist odor causing bacteria! Since the micro-bubbles are moisturizer enriched, it doesn’t dry your hands out, they are left silky smooth and smelling great.

 My bottle has lasted a very long time (and let me repeat, I tend to wash my hands A LOT in the kitchen) so it is well worth the price. The non-drip foam is also very easy for kids to use without making a mess.

Garnier Fructis Hydra Recharge BzzCampaign :)

My hair has never really been in great condition. I usually leave it pretty long and it tends to have a lot of flyaways and frizz or a statically charged appearance. I am told it is too dry, it probably does not help that I tend to wear it up a lot; I throw it up into a ponytail or bun almost every evening. And I do color it nowadays. I guess one of the main problems as told to me by the last hairdresser to cut my hair, the quality of my hair is deteriorated because I do not get it trimmed about every other month. I am sorry, but in this economy I cannot afford the now $13 (plus tip) they charge for a hair cut every 2 months when it literally takes them 10 minutes or less to cut my hair! Could it be that she as a hairdresser is just trying to get me to come spend more money there, especially since she also tried to sell me numerous expensive products to help “fix” my hair? UGH. I am sick of trying all these high priced shampoos, conditioners, and treatments that claim they will magically transform my hair into the beautiful, lush, shiny, soft hair they show in their commercials only to find these expensive hair products leave my hair in basically the same condition as the cheap few dollar per bottle stuff!

Garnier Olia haircolor BzzCampaign

I have always had fairly fine hair. I usually keep it pretty long (or at least I did when I was younger…not quite as long now that I am getting older haha). When dyeing my hair, I also usually stayed in my natural blonde color (which nowadays as I am getting older is much darker too…*sigh*). About 6 months ago I was ready for a more dramatic change and I decided to go with a light auburn, but was not very happy with the results. Then in February I was given the opportunity by BzzAgent to try new Garnier Olia oil powered permanent haircolor and I was so excited to be able to give my new look another try! A couple of days after I found out my BzzKit was with my coupon to redeem for the dye for free, I got a good 4 or so inches of my hair cut off so I was right below shoulder length and had nice fresh ends.

There are 24 colors to choose from, but only a few of them were reds. I was looking at the more violet one (sorry, I don’t remember the actual name of the color) but my husband convinced me to go with 4.60 Deep Intense Auburn. I was very pleased with the smell, they use a 60% oil blend with natural flower oils and it contains no ammonia, so it smelled much better than normal hair dye. It was also very easy to apply to my hair, which I loved. The bottle they give you to mix it up in was very cute, but not very user friendly since the shape made it somewhat hard to hold when you have some dye on your glove and it gets slippery. Then it came to rinsing my hair...and rinsing my hair…and rinsing my hair! It felt like 20 minutes went by and it looked like I had murdered someone in my tub, but the water was STILL not rinsing clear! But it was close enough for me, I had no more time. I would come to find out it would rinse out visibly like that for at least my next couple weeks worth of showers. I did like that it didn’t leave my hair feeling all dried out either like some hair dyes do.

I LOVED the color, as did everyone who saw me the first week or two, but then after is when it was very visibly washing out, at least at the bottom anyway. The top part of my hair seemed to maintain more of the color, maybe because it was newer hair, but I didn’t think it should fade like that regardless. And it wasn’t anything I did since my best friend was also given the opportunity to try this (I did mine before hers though) and she seemed to have similar experiences at least with the way it was visibly washing out in the shower and leaving her towels looking like mine did. Apparently I also did not have quite enough dye since I missed some spots towards the top of my head in the back. My husband had checked for me and thought I had it all covered, but I guess I did not.

I try to take good care of my hair so I know I shouldn’t dye my hair again since it hasn’t been quite 8 weeks, so I am left with somewhat strange looking hair unfortunately. I don’t mind, I am married already haha. And I still love a lot of Garnier products, like my Fructis sleek and shine 5-in-1 serum spray for maintaining my flyaways. And I have also been using the new Hydra Recharge shampoo, conditioner, and treatment that I received to try from BzzAgent…but that is for yet another blog *wink*.

The day after coloring:

Just over 5 weeks later:

Mmmmm Nescafe Memento!

Yes this is yet another blog dedicated to a free product that I received to try from BzzAgent. This one is for frothy deliciousness known as Nescafe Memento. I was so excited to get this one since I had just received a Keurig coffee brewer for Christmas, and although these are not K-cups, the Keurig brews perfect hot water that can be used to make these in very little time. Here was my review of them for BzzAgent:

There are many great things about Nescafe Memento. I love how the servings are individually portioned out already, which makes it so quick and easy to make. Also each one is so foamy, just like an expensive coffee house coffee. Plus they are made with real coffee, sugar, and milk. It was the perfect way to warm up on winter days, but I like to have this type of drink just about everyday after work to help unwind too. I enjoyed all 3 and will definitely be purchasing more. Each box contains 8 packets, and each packet is 100 calories. This is my thoughts on the individual flavors:

Cappuccino- The first time I tried this I didn’t like it very much; it isn’t very sweet, it’s more like regular coffee. But as I drank it more it grew on me, it just has a deeper flavor than I am used to I guess. This is my least favorite flavor of the 3, but still good overall.

Mocha- a great chocolatey flavor.

Carmel Latte- delicious, by far my favorite one! I love the flavor; such a light, creamy carmel.

So if you are like me and enjoy specialty coffees on a daily basis, do yourself the favor of saving some time and money, and buy some Nescafe Memento to make for yourself at home!

My first product review blog for Eden Fantasys :)

*Although this blog does not talk much about adult stuff, it does contain links to a site that sells some very adult things! So please be over 18 to read this posting.*

One of my main focuses for about the last year of my life is getting things for FREE! I love customer reward and loyalty points programs.  So when my friend introduced me to the Eden Fantasys site, I was so excited that I could earn points to use like money for candles, bath and body stuff, and of course some sexy lingerie ;). But I later learned that they also have a great blogger program, so of course I wanted to sign up! I received a product to review for my blog for free, but I was not paid otherwise, and these are my true opinions, just like in all my other blogs.

I was sent the SHUNGA exotic fruits massage candle. I love candles, but one of my biggest complaints is not being able to smell the candle enough when it is burning. This definitely was NOT the case with this candle! Not only did it smell great, the smell filled the room and could even be detected in neighboring rooms. It is 7oz. which isn’t too small, but I do wish it was bigger, especially since I enjoyed it so much! It claims to have 45 hours of burn time, but there is no way it would ever last that long in my opinion. I have burned mine for maybe 15 hours and it is more than 75% gone.

Personally I would not use it for the massage oil, but I did rub some of the oil on my skin and it felt very nice and absorbed almost completely when rubbed in. It also left my skin smelling very good. It says to burn for 20 minutes before blowing it out and using the oil, but the first few times you burn it 20 minutes will not be long enough to collect a good amount of oil to use. They give you a little plastic spoon like you would get at the store for a sample to get the oil out too.

Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic BzzCampaign

As you may know from reading previous blogs, I am trying to lose weight by exercising more and having a better diet. Still, normally I am not the type of person to spend extra money to go organic. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be able to afford it since I believe that organic and all natural foods are better for you, even if just a little bit. It is so frustrating to me that healthy food is usually more expensive than unhealthy food. That is why I was so glad to find out I was a part of the Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic foods BzzCampaign. Again if you are a previous reader of my blog, you would know that I am what is known as a BzzAgent which basically means I fill out surveys to qualify to receive products or coupons for free or discount products to try and share my opinion about.

For this BzzCampaign I received several items for free. They sent me the blackberry pomegranate flavored Simple Truth sparkling beverage, which is caffeine free and contained 12% juice, but was the only thing I didn’t really care for. They also sent me peanut butter chocolate chip flavored Simple Truth energy bar, which was so yummy! And the rest were coupons I had to redeem which included a coupon for both chocolate and regular almond milk. I used the regular almond milk on cereal and was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked it, and my nieces and nephew really liked the chocolate almond milk. They also sent a coupon for free Simple Truth Organic frozen fruit, I picked whole strawberries which were very good, but not a very big bag. And finally a coupon for Kroger Simple Truth “chips” and we chose the natural vegetable straws to try, which tasted very much like regular chips, they were very good too.

All of the foods are free from 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients. Although some of the ingredient lists were still pretty long, they weren’t filled with a bunch of unpronounceable and unidentifiable things. I love that Kroger has made eating cleaner and healthier so much easier. Also that is just a very small sampling of all the products that are offered in the Kroger Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic foods! There is produce, snacks, dairy, pastas…on and on. Even better is that new products are being added all the time. Just about the only problem I had with all of the foods that I priced was to me they are still too expensive to justify even though I liked them.

Healthy yogurts available at Kroger

I remember when yogurts were just regular and ordinary, and nowadays there is such a wide variety of types and flavors of yogurts available. Being a person who loves yogurt, I have tried many brands and varieties of yogurts. So I was so excited when I was given the opportunity by BzzAgent to try some Kroger Greek and Greek lite yogurts, and Kroger CARBmaster yogurts for FREE. I was especially excited since these are healthy yogurts that will help me remain on track with my diet. Can you believe the CARBmaster yogurts that I tried only had 60 calories, 1.5 grams of fat and 4 carbs!?! And I am not talking about some little dinky cup of yogurt; these are regular 6oz. cups. Both types are high in protein also; the Greek has twice the protein of regular yogurt.

Such a wide variety of flavors is also available! In the CARBmaster variety I tried cinnamon roll and spiced pear and they were so delicious! The spiced pear was my favorite; there were even a few bits of juicy pear in there. I also want to try carrot cake. They make a great snack, so rich and creamy.
I love vanilla yogurt, so for the Greek ones I tried vanilla. I actually think I liked the Greek lite vanilla yogurt better. Both were so thick and creamy too. I also picked some of the Greek yogurts up in plain and used them in place of sour cream.

I was amazed at the quality of store brand yogurts, especially since they were specialty and not just regular yogurts. And since they are healthy yogurts, I was afraid that taste would be sacrificed (or that there would be a funny aftertaste), but that clearly was not the case. I have definitely recommended these yogurts to many friends and family, and I will certainly continue to enjoy them myself!

*Thanks to BzzAgent and Kroger for giving me the opportunity to try these Kroger brand yogurts for FREE!* If you ever want to know more about being a BzzAgent, don't hesitate to ask me...I love being a BzzAgent!

Schick Hydro Silk razor BzzCampaign

The next totally free awesome product that I received to try from BzzAgent to share with you was the Schick Hydro Silk razor. All I can say is wow! This razor is awesome, the only small flaw in my opinion is the price of the refills, but we will get to that later. I was excited because my husband has really liked his Schick Hydro men’s razor for a long time now, so we just recently upgraded him to the Schick Hydro power men’s razor. I was so happy with the results.

This 5 blade razor delivered an incredibly close shave. The blades move independently of each other and sense your curves, so there is no issue with missed patches of hair. It has a water-activated moisturizing serum strip that leaves your legs feeling so hydrated and smooth for hours after shaving.

Even the way the handle is worth a mention. Not only does it fit comfortably in your hand, it is designed to keep the razor elevated when it is resting on the counter. I have always had problems with razors that I leave laying on the edge of the tub that later get rusted from laying there in a puddle that forms.

Now as I said the refills can be somewhat pricey. In our area the 4 pack of refills with no sale retails for around$15.99!! The actual razors themselves (one razor handle and cartridge) can be found for as little as around $6, so my friends and family were especially happy that I had also received $5 coupons to pass along! Anyway, I have known of some good sales and coupons out there, like $4.00 off the refills. When you figure that each refill will last a good amount of shaves, it becomes worth it if you buy them wisely.

So in my opinion, if you are not already using one of these razors, you should make the switch for sure. I know the cost may seem a bit, but find yourself some great coupons and realize that once in awhile it is simply worth it for you to splurge on yourself! If you think about the amount of irritation you will save in not dealing with the way most razors leave your skin feeling, you will see that the benefits outweigh the costs. *Just wanted to remind you, I did get this razor for free to try…but I really do love it as much as I say. Have I mentioned lately that I also love being a BzzAgent!*

Let's talk about at home manicures :)

When I was younger, I would often go to a salon to get a manicure, but as I got older it became just one of those luxuries that I could not longer afford. Don’t get me wrong, I still LOVE having painted well maintained nails, but it is just something done at home nowadays.

If you are a regular reader you know I am a BzzAgent which means I get opportunities to try awesome free products and share my opinions of them with people. I absolutely LOVE doing it, and my friends, family, co-workers, etc. love it too because I can let them know about products, and BzzAgent always gives me coupons or samples to share as well. For this BzzCampaign, I received a full size Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream for myself and 6 samples to hand out.

Anyway, I received some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream to try. It is great for combating dry skin, I love it! But for those of you like me who like to have painted fingernails, this lotion also will not mess up your manicure. So I wanted to share some tips for a great home manicure. I don’t do anything special like you would get with a paid manicure such as soaking your nails, but this is still a treat to me.
The first step is to make sure you have totally clean hands and nails. You want to start by using some nail polish remover on your nails to make sure they are fully clean of polish and other dirt or oil. Then I always wash my hands paying close attention to washing the nails so you don’t have any remaining remover on them.

Then trim and file your nails so they are all uniform. My nails grow and break at different rates, so I don’t trim them all to the same size, but I make sure they are not jagged or splitting anywhere. I also clean under my nails.

Now its time for paint! I personally don’t use a base clear coat, but do apply 2 coats of color and then a top coat. You want to make sure to shake up the bottle well to mix it all before applying. Apply the first coat and let it dry a little to “tack up” as my husband puts it before applying the second coat. I let my color dry almost fully before applying the top coat. Then the waiting game because you want to make sure not touch anything for about 20 minutes so they can fully dry. And yes, even the ones that claim to dry in 10 minutes, I have never personally found one to actually dry that fast unless you use a nail dryer.

The greatest thing for me is that I have a husband who is very willing to paint my nails! Shhh…don’t tell him that I told you that ;) but he loves working on model cars, and painting my nails just gives him more practice for when he is painting them. So my number one tip would be to have someone else do the painting for you.

The final step after your nails are all nice and dry…apply some Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream of course! This will not only help to maintain your manicure, it will hydrate your hands like you never imagined.

Kiss Nail Dress

I was one of the lucky people to receive a Holiday VoxBox from Influenster! For those of you who don’t know, Influenster.com is where you can sign up to receive a similar “VoxBox” full of goodies for you to test. I had been a member for more than 6 months, and this was my first VoxBox so I was very excited!

Amongst other great things, this VoxBox include some Kiss Nails Dress, which are stick on stickers for your nails in place of nailpolish. I didn’t want to use all of them up at once, so I just painted 6 of my nails and applied the nails dress to the remaining 2 fingers on each hand. I had my husband help me apply them, which made application very quick and easy. It may not be quite as easy by yourself, but I am not sure.  I did find that the lasted as long as they should have, however as you can see some of the tips had worn away a bit, but I do a lot of typing. All in all I am not sure they are worth the price listed of $6.99, but you do get 28 stickers total in 14 sizes. Some of them are quite big so they would be able to be used on toes only though. There are many patterns and colors to choose from too. I was also surprised with how easy they were to remove and that there was not much if any residue left behind.

when I first applied them:

10 days later:

For more information about Kiss products visit their website here and the Influenster review page can be found here .  

Goody Quikstyle

I was one of the lucky people to receive a Holiday VoxBox from Influenster! For those of you who don’t know, Influenster.com is where you can sign up to receive a similar “VoxBox” full of goodies for you to test. I had been a member for more than 6 months, and this was my first VoxBox so I was very excited!

The best part of this VoxBox was that it included a Goody QuikStyle Brush! I had just recently seen these in stores and was shocked by the price tag of $12.99, but after I have been using mine I can see why it costs as much as it does. The amount of time you save from drying your hair is priceless. I am not the type of person to use blowdryers since I do not like the resulting damage caused to my hair from the heat, so this brush was perfect for me. I have very fine hair and did notice though when I used on my dry hair it tended to leave me with a lot of static.

For more information on Goody products, visit their website here or for information about the Quikstyle brush itself visit the Influenster product page for it located here .

Happy Valentine's Day, Eden Fantasy's style ;)

*This blog references an adult shopping site and should not be viewed by those under 18 years of age! These are my opinions, but I was compensated for writing this blog with a site giftcard.*

 Valentine’s Day holds a special place in my heart since it was the day that my hubby asked me to marry him, 12 years ago this year! Typically guys are the ones doing the gifting, and it is usually some form of flowers, chocolates, or stuffed animals. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting that stuff! But maybe this year you gals should join me in getting the hubby a “gift” too…you in a sexy piece of Lingerie from Eden Fantasys!! It’s a win win since lingerie is great not only for him, but wearing lingerie helps you get in the mood faster and easier.

Currently (ending February 15^th) you can save 25% on their very large selection of lingerie. There are many brands, styles, and colors to choose from.  I love Escante lingerie and have found several pieces that not only fit well, but are well made too.  I love the Enchanted forest open-back chemise , the green color is so beautiful. You don’t even have to get a full outfit; perhaps a pair of crotchless panties is all you need to make your partner go wild.

I love Eden Fantasys since it is not just a sex toy site, they offer a WIDE variety of things including health and beauty items like make-up and body lotion. They are constantly having sales and offering freebies with your order, which makes it one of my favorite places to shop.

 

Lean Cuisine Salad Additions...Thanks to BzzAgent!

I often get frozen lunches for work for convenience and price. There are really only 2 brands of frozen lunches that I purchase and Lean Cuisine happened to be one of them, so I was really excited to be part of this BzzCampaign! Up until that point I had not even seen these Lean Cuisine Salad Additions, but the next time I was in the store I did see them on display, and they looked so yummy! I was interested in 3 of the 4 varieties, so I had to try all 3; Asian-style chicken, Bistro chicken, and Southwest-style chicken. They seemed kind of pricey, but at least I was able to try one for free at first…although I did still have to pay for the salad (lol).

Now like I had said before, I am maintaining a 45lb. weight loss (and lose a lil more), so I also buy healthy frozen lunches. A salad was a great change to a typical toss in the microwave frozen lunch. Yes these do require some microwaving for the chicken and vegetables and such to cook, but it isn’t the same as a frozen meal, a salad just has a healthier feel to it. And it was so quick and easy! The main reason I would not normally have a salad that included things like beans and corn (like the Southwest-style chicken variety) I would have to open a whole can of each and then only use a part of it and try to either save the rest or let it go to waste. And what a pain in the butt to take up the time to cut up peppers and carrots or asparagus! The biggest reason my husband and I don’t keep a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables in the house is because of how fast they can go bad if you do not eat them right away or take care of them properly. I hate wasting money! But since these are frozen, they could sit in my freezer for a month or more if need be (although they won’t last that long in my freezer before being eaten!). I would usually put shredded cheese or maybe some croutons in my salads, but I did not even miss the presence of cheese, and the additions always included something crunchy, so there was no need for croutons which tend to add a lot of calories. Eating good for you healthy meals set you up for success and gives you more motivation to do other healthy things such as getting a workout session in. At least that is the way that I feel when I eat well.

I have always loved Lean Cuisine! Their delicious rewards points program is awesome. I was just recently able to order the collapsible salad bowl that they just added as part of the winter catalog. Also there is a chance to earn a free lunchbag if you log 20 codes before the end of March (or when supplies are gone) and you get to keep the points you accumulate to earn other great stuff (like that collapsible lunch bowl!). So if you have not already, you should check it out!

If you have read any of my previous blogs about being a BzzAgent, you know I absolutely LOVE it! It gives me the great opportunity to try products free of charge like this one, and then pass my opinions on to my family, friends, and readers. I get coupons or samples or both to pass out too. So, other than it being free, I am not compensated, and these opinions are my own.

Perdue Oven Ready chicken BzzCampaign :)

I was invited to this Perdue Oven Ready chicken BzzCampaign after it had already started, so by the time I received my coupons, I was already in a time crunch. I checked our usual Walmart, Meijer, and Kroger and was unsuccessful in finding them, even with the help of store workers. I was worried they simply were not in my area and I panicked until I realized I should check the Perdue website to see if there was a store locator (I sometimes have blonde moments, why didn’t I think of that in the first place!). Unfortunately there were only 2 Kroger stores that offered them, and they were both over 15 miles away, but at least one was near my parents house. It just so happened they had them on sale for $7.99, so we were lucky they had just 1 left when we got there.

My plan was to make the chicken the following night for dinner since it takes a minimum of an hour and a half to cook plus 10 minutes of rest time. The cook time is not a problem though even for a weeknight meal, if you just plan ahead; I made it on a Thursday. I also made salad, mashed potatoes and jar gravy since I did not at first realize there is a recipe on the bag for gravy that you make with the remaining drippings after cooking. We did make the gravy the next time we enjoyed one of these chickens and it was good and our guests enjoyed it. From the chicken that I made just for us, I was also able to make chicken noodle soup and chicken fajitas with the leftovers, it was great! Since this was my first time making a whole chicken, I was worried at first, but the Perdue Oven Ready chicken made the whole experience a great one with the fact that it is perfectly seasoned and in its own baking bag which makes cleanup easier. Both times that we have made them, they turned out tender and juicy, and so easy to get off the bone. I hope that they become available at our local Kroger or another local store soon, because if on sale or if I get my hands on more coupons, my family would be enjoying more Perdue Oven Ready chickens for sure! Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE being a BzzAgent?? I DO! :)

 I am not sure if it was a mistake or not, but I did not understand why there were 2-$3.00 off coupons and 4-$2.00 off coupons to hand out. I did not even realize that they were for two different face values at first, I should have checked closer I guess since it was kind of embarrassing when you hand one person a $3 coupon and another a $2 one, so I kind of felt the need to apologize to the people who only got $2 ones.