reviews

I love my smartphone and use it in a million different ways, but I have never managed to get in the habit of using the calendar function, maybe because I’m still not a great thumb-typer. Nor I have I ever had success with an online calendar. Instead, we have a large paper calendar on our refrigerator, and I email my husband when I need to make sure he picks up the kids or takes the right vacation days.

Then I was asked to review the Blue Sky Home Series of planning products. In the week prior to receiving that pitch, I had 1) missed a dentist appointment entirely, and 2) peeled the big calendar off the fridge and dragged it to the ice rink to schedule lessons with my daughter’s coach. So it was clear to me that I needed to try something new.

I received the 8″ x 10″ weekly/monthly planner, the 3.5′ x 7″ weekly/monthly planner, and the multi-task notebook. Each has a fun, contemporary design from Susy Jack Contemporary Paper. And here’s one genius thing: They are dated July 2011 – June 2012. Because we all know that the school year schedule rules our world, right? I have been carrying the small weekly planner in my purse and I love it. These smaller-size monthly and weekly planners are actually two separate books which fit inside an ingenious, sturdy plastic cover with a snap–to protect them from all the frightening things in your purse so they will last a whole year. I didn’t think I would use the monthly planner much so I pulled it out of the case, making the whole deal a little lighter and less bulky. (Even with both planners in the case, it’s neither heavy nor thick, but I figured, why not streamline as much as possible?)

In the weekly planner, each day has 11 lines, plus you get an extra “day” space to write other notes. The lines are pretty small, since they’re in a 3-inch space. So that means you can fill up a day pretty fast–especially if you  have lots of kids or a super-crammed schedule. The 8″ x 10″ size planner obviously offers a lot more space, but is less portable. It has other goodies, too, though: travel checklists; grocery lists; packing suggestions for your purse, diaper bag, and car; to-dos for the month; and so on.

The to-do notebook is also clever. It has color-coded sections for things to  “DO,” “CALL,” and “BUY,” plus 6 storage pockets. This works well for everyday tasks, and I think it would also be helpful devoted to a particular project–like planning a big party or doing a kitchen remodel. You would have all of your to-dos and to-dones recorded for easy reference.

You can buy the Blue Sky Home Series line at Target ($4 to $10). Or! You can comment here to win a set of assorted Blue Sky goodies for yourself. Tell me your worst/funniest calendaring screw-up. Mine was probably the time I arrived at the airport at 8 a.m. for a flight that had left at 6. The whole family had to spend an extra day/night away from home, with no car. It was SO FUN!

You can also get an extra entry by liking the Blue Sky Facebook page. Just leave another comment telling me you did. Deadline: End of the day Wednesday, August 17.

Yes, I received these products free for review.

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At my fitness site, I have reviewed several games from the Wonderforge: Dr. Seuss’s Super Stretchy ABC, Curious George Hide and Seek at the Zoo, and The Cat in the Hat I Can Do That!. Each has stayed in good condition and continued to hold my kids’ interest over several seasons of play. When the company asked me to review some more games, I was happy to take a look. These two don’t encourage activity as much as the first three, but we still had a lot of fun playing with them.

First up is What’s in the Cat’s Hat, another Dr. Seuss game. It’s suggested for ages 3 and up. My son will be six in a few months and he still enjoyed playing this. It also requires some simple reading, so not many preschoolers would be able to play it independently. The game comes with a real Cat’s Hat. One player finds a small household item that can fit in the hat, places it inside and covers it with a built-in flap. Then the other players must guess what’s hidden in the hat.

Each player in turn flips over two game cards, which list either a question the guesser can ask or an action he can perform, such as feeling the object in the hat with his elbows or head. The hat has special features allowing guessers to gather info: a place to sniff what’s inside, to look at it through a “shadow” window, to poke at it through a small hole. We couldn’t ever spy anything through the “magic crystalline” shadow window, and my son had a hard time following the “choose one card” rule. But we both enjoyed playing the game, thinking of funny objects to hide in the hat and then guessing what they were. I think this game can extend up through age 8 or 9, because of the challenge of finding something wacky to hide.

The second game we tried, Konexi, is from the Zimzala line of games for older kids. It’s designed for ages 10 and up, but I found that with some simple modifications, a group of 6- to 8-year-olds still enjoyed the game. It comes with 26 three-dimensional letters with nubs and grooves that allow the letters to interlock (one of the kids I played with said the letters looked like Swiss cheese!).

The object of the game is to build a tower with the letters, creating words as you go. For example, you might start your tower with the letter M, then stack on an E to make the word ME; next, add W to make MEW or G to make GEM. The letters can go in any order–as long as they are all touching in some way. A couple of rules make the game trickier: Only one letter on your tower may touch the table, and you may only use one hand to place your letters on the tower. Bump the table or tap the tower with your elbow and it’ll come tumbling down.

I brought this game to my daughter’s classroom of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders and they all clamored to play. We didn’t keep score, and I gave the kids some hints about words they could spell. I also relaxed the rule about all letters touching to form a word; we looked for words anywhere in our tower. These changes were enough to let the kids enjoy the game, but still feel a bit of a challenge. I can easily see playing this with a mixed group of tweens, teens, and adults–I’ll test it out on my Scrabble-loving family during Christmas vacation! That is, if I can tear myself away from Angry Birds.

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I love a good caramel apple, but they’re a once-a-year kind of deal, right? Halloween and…done.

Not so at Mrs. Prindable’s. The company’s hand-made, gourmet apples are available year-round, and they go way beyond your basic caramel (or caramel + sprinkles). They come in flavors including triple chocolate, double chocolate peanut butter almond, and milk chocolate toffee walnut. You can also get a petite or jumbo size. And by jumbo, I mean softball size and weighing well over a pound. These apples, when sliced, can serve 8 to 10 people!

Mrs. Prindable’s sent me a triple chocolate jumbo apple for taste-testing. I shared it among four adults and four kids. None of the kids could even finish their single slice, that’s how big it was. (Yeah, I finished mine, OK?) The chocolate coating was delish and so was the apple inside. I am now dying to know how Mrs. Prindable’s finds these gigantic apples and how they can tell that the inside is going to be beautiful and mush-free. (Also I bet they have a side business in applesauce. If not, they should.) When you order, you can choose between Granny Smith and Red Delicious. Mine was a Granny Smith and that would’ve been my first choice anyway.

I was worried that the apple would be difficult to cut, but a big, sharp knife did the trick easily. Some of the chocolate did chip off during the slicing process. This may have been because I was too impatient to wait the recommended 45 minutes after taking the apple out of the refrigerator. If you do order one, be aware of this recommendation (see the Mrs. Prindable’s serving suggestion page) so you can allow enough lead time. I didn’t open the outer packaging until we were ready to eat, which was a mistake. The gift packaging, by the way, is beautiful, with purple and gold ribbons and accents.

At the Mrs. Prindable’s site, you can see the variety of gift packages and baskets available for all kinds of occasions. I think the petite apples dressed in tuxedoes are especially adorable. You can also like Mrs. Prindable’s on Facebook; there, they’re giving away an apple a day through December 20.

Photo from Kim Moldofsky’s Whrrl story, a visit to the Mrs. Prindable’s factory. I was impressed to learn that the apples are all made by hand and that the company uses no artificial ingredients.

As noted above, Mrs. Prindable’s sent me a free jumbo apple for review. My opinions about its tastiness are my own.

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This post comes to you from one of the pair of couches in our TV room, which are embarrassingly stained. I would blame the children, or their parents for letting them eat in here, but the fact is that one of the worst stains came from a red pen that an adult (a male adult) sat on, while it was uncapped, less than a month after the couches were delivered. Yes, we had a 2-year-old at the time and even she couldn’t top that one.

Anyway! Just passing on a contest here because it has a good prize: Resolve laundry products and 500 (!) Scholastic books for the school library of your choosing. Go to scholastic.com/resolve for all the info–it’s pretty easy to enter.

Scholastic happens to be my former employer, but I didn’t get any cash, products, or other compensation in exchange for this post. Just thought you might want to win some books!

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I am truly disappointed to report that my skin has not cooperated with my need to test the “itch defense” part of Curel Itch Defense Lotion. So disappointing!

I did realize something else helpful about this product, though. As I may have mentioned a time or two, we only have one upstairs bathroom–no master bath for us and, uh, servant bath for the kids. So we all share the one bathroom. And since our house is old, there is no storage in there except for a small medicine cabinet and a narrow bookshelf we stuck in a corner. This means that I try to limit the amount of junk toiletries we keep in there, since they must be either stuffed in the medicine cabinet or displayed on the shelves for all to see.

The Curel lotion wouldn’t fit in the medicine cabinet, but it can go on the shelves. It’s so unobtrusive that it wouldn’t bother me to stash it on the floor, either, especially since we have white fixtures and flooring.

Better yet, it’s something all four of us can use. It’s safe for kids (again, depending on how strict you are about ingredients … I’m not), and because it’s fragrance-free, it works for dads too. So there’s no need for his, hers, and theirs bottles crowding our shared space.

I was compensated for my participation in testing and blogging about this product. The opinions expressed are my own. And if you want to send me an email in three months asking how this lotion works in the winter, I’ll let you know!

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We have been blessed with an unseasonably warm fall here in Mayberry. We may even make it to November before the first snow falls. Wooo! I’m thrilled, of course; but this weather is making it a little harder for me to test out this new Curel Itch Defense lotion I received for review. So I’m going to do a two-parter. Today, first impressions; and next week, does it work?

As you can see, the packaging is calm and neutral (or bare-bones and basic, to put it another way)–white with a silver top. My sample has a red “NEW” burst on it which is the only hint of color. The lotion comes in a (#2, HDPE) plastic bottle with a pump top, in 13 oz. or 20 oz. sizes.

The lotion is fragrance-free and it doesn’t have that no-smell smell, either; it really has no odor. It feels light going on, not greasy, heavy, or overly creamy. On shaved legs, it feels just a little tingly, like it wants to show that it’s Doing Something.

The first ingredient, after water, is glycerin, and Curel says the product is safe for people with sensitive skin and eczema and for babies 6 months and older. It does contain parabens (way down at the bottom of the ingredient list) so if that is something you are concerned about, now you know.

Personally, I’ll take the parabens if the lotion will help me get through a long, cold winter without losing a couple of layers of skin off my legs and arms. Sorry for the visual; but why is it that my shins and the backs of my upper arms get all itchy and dry in the winter? I don’t suffer from eczema, but the chill definitely takes its toll on my skin.

Next time, I’ll talk about how effective the lotion is for me. Pray for snow! (Please don’t, actually.)

I was compensated for my participation in testing and blogging about this product. The opinions expressed are my own.

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Knowing that I would be at BlogHer, the Gap invited me to come to one of its stores and try on some clothes to wear* to the big event. Since this made me feel like a movie star, I of course said yes (and because there is a Gap near Mayberry–so many other blogger events are too far away for me to consider).

Although I know many department stores offer the service, I’ve never used a personal shopper before. The only time I’ve ever had a salesperson suggest clothes for me was probably when I went to Kleinfeld’s for my wedding dress (true story). And here’s the thing, when someone else picks out clothes for you, they choose things you might not have ever dared to try on.

Exhibit A: Slim crop pants. Yes, I cropped my head out of the picture because I had a goofy look on my face. But the point is, who knew I could wear slim-fitting, basically tapered-leg pants? I certainly didn’t. But my friend Meghan at the Gap did.

She also suggested the skinny belt at the waist–clever. Also note the cute gold shoes.

I also tried on two other pairs of the new Black Magic pants. The curvy pants were also super-flattering (and one size smaller than I thought I’d need, speaking of flattering). The perfect trouser pants were a little overwhelming on my short self. Even in a petite size, they were just too much fabric for me.

Next up, jeans. Again, Meghan managed to drag me out of my comfort zone and into a pair of … legging jeans! Two pairs, actually, in two different washes, and I liked them both.

In the first pair (classic wash, I think), Meghan styled me with an embellished v-neck tee, a slouchy v-neck sweater, and the very comfy, very packable city flats (I’m including all these links so you can see better pictures if you’d like). The bag is the metallic canvas hobo.

Once again, I was amazed that these jeans looked good. I did have on a  different pair at one point that gave me the bubble-butt look–super-wide in the hips. But these legging jeans didn’t do that. With the right top and the right shoes, they look good and feel comfy too.

Here I am in the second pair of legging jeans, in the faded dark wash. With the faded spots in just the right areas (front of thigh), these were even a tiny bit more flattering. The red Ray-Ban style shades don’t hurt, do they?

In this picture I’m also wearing the cascading ruffled tank (didn’t love the straps/sleeves on this one), a wide braided belt, and that cozy yet cool cardigan.

I left the store with not only some new clothes, but a new resolve to try new things. Even if you don’t have lovely women like Meghan and Lori  helping you when you shop, you can grab something different and give it a chance. You might be surprised.

And if you need some ideas about how to put clothes together into outfits, don’t be afraid to peek at the mannequins or just ask a staffer. Maybe you’ll find your very own Meghan.

Thanks, Meghan, Lori, and Gap!

*After my styling/trying-on session, I was invited to select a few outfits to take with me, compliments of the Gap.

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Living in Mayberry, I very rarely get a chance to attend in-person blogger events. Maybe that’s why I’ve attended every BlogHer since 2006? I am occasionally invited to events in Chicago (thank you, Kim and MomImpact!), but it’s still tough for me to get there; it’s a nearly four-hour trip. So it was extra-special that I could attend the Kenmore Live Studio event celebrating the release of Kristen Chase’s book, The Mominatrix’s Guide to Sex: A No-Surrender Advice Book for Naughty Moms.

Being there meant I could see some of my all-time favorite people (this goes beyond “all-time favorite bloggers”), including Kristen, Julie, and Kelly. It meant I could see Kristen speak live about her book (I never would have guessed she was secretly pregnant!). It meant I could taste the Mominatrix cocktail (see below). It meant meeting many new and lovely people.

It also meant ooohing and aahing over the Kenmore Live Studio. If you’re in Chicago or thereabouts, fan Kenmore on Facebook so you can see the schedule for the studio, and get yourself there for an event. It’s a beautiful space and the events and presenters/guests are top-notch. You can check out Kenmore’s surprisingly sleek and chic appliances, but it’s not a hard sell; you’re there to browse only. And to watch A-list chefs, bartenders, and other VIPs share their secrets in interactive classes demos. Even if you’re not in the Windy City, get in on that Facebook page anyway so you can see live-streamed video during events, or watch archived footage later. Here’s a post from Kim at MomImpact about the Mominatrix event that contains a Kenmore-produced video.

At the end of the evening, Kenmore gave us the choice of a few “small” appliances to take home. I received a stand mixer, complete with LED work light–is that cool or what? But I gave it to my bride-to-be sister as a shower gift. Lest you think this was totally cheap of me, I will note that I paid for the mixer in sweat and tears if not dollars. I had to take it in a cab, on a train, in a car, on a plane, and in two more cars to get it to my sister’s party. Plus, when I was detraining with the mixer in my hands and my overnight bag over my shoulder, I slipped on the wet stair of the train and fell embarrassingly down the steps. The resulting butt bruise was EPIC.

To distract all of us from that image, how about a cocktail? Thanks again to Kim, Kristen, Prescott from ImperfectParent (home of the original Mominatrix sex column) and Richard from Kenmore!

Mominatrix Cocktail

• 1.5oz Cabana Cachaca
• ¼ Hum Botanical Spirit
• ½ Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
• ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
• ½ oz simple syrup (1:1 ratio, raw sugar: water)

Combine all ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and shake well to chill and dilute. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Use a vegetable peeler or channel knife to cut garnish from orange, misting top of cocktail with oil. Place decoratively in glass.

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I’ve been using the Palm Pre Plus for several weeks now and yep–I’m hooked. For starters, there’s the common-to-all-smartphones ability to check email and the Web on the fly (welcome to 2007! I am so happy to be here!). But there are also several unique features that make this phone stand out.

First, the mobile hotspot. It turns the phone into an itty bitty little portable router, basically–allowing up to five devices to connect to the Internet, wirelessly. It’s pricey at $40 a month, but wow–what a convenience. And possibly a lifesaver if you really, really need to get online. Or just impress your geek friends.

Second, the camera. It has a flash and it can record video, and it’s super-easy to share the images. Plus you have 16GB of storage–enough for a ton (to use the technical term) of images, videos, and music files too.

Third, the multitasking. Not only the whole check-your-mail-during-your-kid’s-piano-lesson thing. But on this phone, you can keep multiple apps open, scroll through them easily, and copy/paste among them simply.

Overall, I love being connected anytime I’m away from my laptop, and I love being able to do so many different things with one small, slim device.This phone easily replaces not only my old phone, but also my digital camera and at times my netbook too.

And now for the big question: Am I going to keep the phone after my free month of service runs out? Yes. I’m going to take a close look at the plans and figure out which one makes the most sense for me financially. I’ll probably have to give up, with much sadness, the mobile hotspot ($40/month), and maybe the GPS too ($10/month; the phone does have a Google Maps app that will show routes and directions, although it won’t update on the fly like the GPS can).

The final result: I got smart, and I’m not going back!

*Disclosure: I received a free Palm Pre Plus phone and one month of service from Verizon Wireless so that I could test them out for this series of reviews. These opinions are my own.

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