We live on the third floor of our apartment. We have a community laundry room which is in the basement, meaning I have to carry my laundry down four stories of steps. I've always found the small, circular laundry baskets to be frustratingly small because unless you heap them full, they don't hold an entire load of laundry. Yet, the rectangular ones are really awkward to carry, especially when you have four sets of steps to get down. To make matters worse, the dryers have a mind of their own. Two Read more [...]

I haven't had great luck with cutting boards in the past. I've had two wooden ones that wound up splitting into two pieces after just a few months of use. I also had a weird, very thin "bendable" cutting board that was really poorly made and never really stood a chance to last very long. Architec is a company that makes several cutting boards. I was sent the gripper board for review in orange. The cutting surface is made out of polypropylene and the bottom side is covered in "dots" that stick out Read more [...]

The 10.00 amazon gift card winner is #91 Joni   I had to rechoose the winner at least 10 times because SO many of you simply said "gfc follower" but did not leave your GFC username. How can I verify an entry if you don't leave your display name? This gets sooo frustrating for me because I see it every time I end a giveaway. I would imagine that other bloggers have extremely similar rules as I do. If you follow on gfc, twitter, facebook, email, whatever it is, you HAVE to leave your Read more [...]

Remember my review of the solar powered flashlight from problem solvers? It’s now a giveaway!

Solar Flashlight (9/16)

As a kid, my dad lived less than 100 yards from my brother's house at the time. My niece is 2.5 years younger than me, so we were really close and played together all the time. We would often want to change back and forth between my house and hers, but were afraid of the dark, even though it wasn't super dark as there were yard lights. So we always wanted to drag a flashlight along. My dad had several flashlights, but 95% of the time they didn't have batteries because someone had stolen them to use Read more [...]

The Toledo botanical garden is a public garden that is free to the general public. I had never been to a botanical garden before, and I hadn't heard of anything similar from my area. The Toledo botanical garden is a unique and relaxing experience. There is a huge variety of plants and flowers to look at on their 60+ acres of gardens. Although I'm not a gardener or very knowledgeable about plants and flowers, it was fun to see so many different types of plants that I had never seen before. I can Read more [...]

On Friday I had a dentist appointment. I was leaned back in the chair with tools in my mouth when the dental assistant squealed and jumped back, frantically. "Was that a TOOTH?" she says. Um, what? a tooth? where? Turns out, a white spider came down from the ceiling and landed on her knee. So we laughed, the spider crawled a few feet away and she kept a close eye on his movements. I forgot about it after we got back home until I look over on the wall and see a small grey spider. In the Read more [...]

I'm in the blog and social media boosters group and we came together to provide a 125.00 cash giveaway to one lucky winner. Simply enter using the rafflecopter widget below. The giveaway will end September 11th. Good luck! // <a href="http://rafl.es/enable-js">You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.Makobi Scribe Simply Stacie Oh My Gosh Beck! Keenly Kristin Generations Read more [...]

I'm 20 years old, so I can't really say that I've experienced a whole lot - but from my experience, the teenage years are the hardest. Especially the first three or four. Transitioning from middle school to high school, and from kid to young adult is weird and can be challenging all on its own. Throw in acne, friendship drama, crushes and break ups...and it's no wonder so many people struggle through the teen years. Chicken Soup For The Soul: Just For Teens is a self help book for teenagers who are Read more [...]

I love companies with neat stories. Street Moda definitely fits that description. Street Moda was started in 2005 by a then-18 year old who liked designer clothes but wanted to see them offered at more affordable prices. So, that's what he set out to have his business do. Street Moda gives back by working closely with safe place services which helps and shelters runaways and helps kids who have troubled home lives. This is exactly the type of business I like to stand behind. That being said, the Read more [...]