Roo Reviews: Andreas Clips and More

What Roo said:

I loved everything! I especially loved the hair bow because it was like a zebra and that's my favourite animal.

The suspenders were kinda loose, mommy tightened them but she didn't tighten them enough for me probably because she didn't want them to hurt me.

The tie was really cool, It felt soft and silky and looked great on me even though I am not a boy! Girls can wear boy stuff too!

The hairband was pretty, it even had a jewel and I love jewels. When I wear it I think it sparkles so other people can see it! If I wiggle my head a little bit people will see the sparkle and ask me where I got it.
I've been wearing it since forever and my ears aren't hurting. Sometimes my hairbands make me hurt this one doesn't. I think I want to buy more of this stuff for my friends and we can have a fashion party.

What Mom said: 

Everyone knows that having a girl means all things pretty.
Pretty clothes and shoes, Pretty hair-dos etc

But when you see someone with great accessories, you think "wow, she looks really put together!"
That should be no different for little girls! Why should us ladies have all the fun?

We buy cute shiny baubles and too tiny purses for holding their lip gloss but what about hair accessories or even a pair of suspenders? Everyone who's been paying attention knows that my daughter and co-blogger, Roo, is pretty non traditional, though very very into fashion. So when she saw a pair of suspenders in her package from Andrea's Clips & More she actually squealed! They looked fab with the outfit she had chosen to wear. The other items received we loved as much, a beautiful hairband that Roo hasn't stopped wearing and hair clips. We also got an adorable hat with a bear on it. Sadly that one did not fit my big headed girl so on our day trip tomorrow we'll be bringing that along for my niece! She'll love it!

One thing I noticed was that the bows seemed to be really durable, extra reinforced, there's virtually no way the bow will come away from the clip. The clips were super easy to use meaning they'd be great even for the younger wiggly toddlers who don't want to sit long enough to get their hair done.

Great product, good prices and after checking out her website I was really impressed to see that she offer a lot more that just the things we're testing out. For the new mom, she has a bunch of amazing items to save you from losing some of your important gear. Toy clips, sippy cup clips and even a special leash for Sophie the Giraffe!

GREAT NEWS FOR EVERYONE!
Andrea has offered all of my readers a discount!
Save 10% off your order by using this code
CLIP10
when you visit www.andreasclips.com

Best of all Andreas Clips & More have provided us with a couple goodies to giveaway! If you have kids in your life and want to win here's how:

Don't forget to leave your name and email address. You can't win if you're anonymous.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thought Provoking Thursday: Age

I decided to start a new feature here on the blog. With all the fad features going around I wanted something that would cause my readers to think a little bit. 

Here's my equation: Health + Experience - Joy = Second Age

Consider this; I am 36 and out of shape (like so many), have had depression, cancer, a heart implant and blood transfusions. That's a lot. So when I contemplate my physical age, I might say my body has endured strain beyond my 36 years. 

Flip the coin and I'll tell you about my mental age. I have had many difficulties in my life starting at a young age, though through it all I've always prided myself in keeping my spirits up, laughing and learning through it all. Speaking of laughing, did I mention I have been a mother for over 16 years which, lets face it, ages me drastically. My life experiences are much like my health experiences, well beyond my years. 

Those two things should have me at an age so much older that I could comfortably hang out with my Grandma and her friends and no one would suspect otherwise. "Hey pretty lady", the seniors would say, "how do you stay so young looking?" Ok, perhaps they'd know but I could still fit in.

I have a 5 year old and I never knew that would keep me young! I go to the park with her and yes, I do go down the slide and swing on the swing from time to time. We have mommy daughter date nights. We work together in the kitchen creating delicious goodies all while giggling! I look forward to her Kindergarten antics more than almost anything in life. My husband and son love outings so we find ourselves at rock concerts, or amusement parks. We have family game nights, movie nights, sports nights etc. These things keep me more active and full of joy. Therefore taking away from some of the things that age me.

So what do I figure my age would be?
36
I know, I know, that's my TRUE age.

I'm just as surprised as you, but it's where I am physically. When all the writing is on the wall, truth be told, for the first time in my life I am comfortable with myself and I am happy where I am.

How about you? Ignore all the birthdays and tell me, what age do you FEEL?
Feel free to share my picture and get others talking about their age!

Aussie Reviews - Nexus 7 Tablet

Guess what? It's almost time to go back to school! Forget about the pencils and paper. What your teen really needs is a way to stay connect and keep organized without all the heavy books and paper. How about a laptop? no. too expensive and still really heavy. What about a tablet? But I'm not talking about an iPad or even an ipad mini, I'm talking about the Asus Nexus 7! I was fortunate enough to receive a Nexus 7 a little while ago, so I have had a chance to truly test this tablet out.        

Let's talk about what comes in the box. You get the Nexus 7 tablet, Quick Start Guide and the warranty, and the box it comes in is really nice. After pulling out the tablet my first thought was, how is the screen? Does the 7” screen look crystal clear, are the colours  vibrant and true to real life? well it answered my questions right away. The startup screen look so crisp and the colours looked amazing, beyond what my expectations were. Next up the technical specs. Like I said it had a stunning 7” display powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Android 4.2 (jelly bean) OS with 4.3 update. 1GB of ram and 16 or 32GB of internal storage with available 3G data plan upgrade.

Photo credit: UberGizmo.com

For the people who are unsure what the tech specs mean, it just means it loads and plays videos, apps and music with no issue and as a bonus for Android users all you need to do is add your Gmail account and all your things will load onto the Nexus. Laptops and tablets and generally quite expensive ranging from a $400 to anywhere over $1000 but the Nexus 7 has an amazing price starting at $199.99 for the 16GB and the highest priced model at only $229.99 for the 32GB version. I got the 32GB one and I sugest spending the extra $30 bucks on the better version, more memory is better. Although I have given this tablet a solid review,  it does have two downsides. The camera and the speaker.  

For one its only front facing and its only 1.2MP so the quality is really bad. I mean I'm usually the first person to say people who take pictures with a tablet look odd but sometimes it’s kind of nice to have. The sound from the built in speaker sounds good but its on the back side of the tablet often right where i like to put my hand. if you want the best sound headphones are recommended. It is very obvious to me this tablet is intended for mostly entertainment but hey maybe you don't think your teen deserves a tablet. Go get one for yourself and make them jealous because I know I  would be....  I rate this 7/10

PS: for those of you who read my last post I watched VGHS and I really enjoyed it. if you haven't watched it its available via netflix and free on youtube.

30 Minute A Day Chore Chart

I regularly have people asking me what house cleaning system I use because even though I have a day job, I also spend a lot of time blogging, and still have a great amount of family time, yet  my home is still tidy. 

Where DO I find the time?!

Believe me, if it was in my budget I would have hired help! A housekeeper once a week is my dream luxury! Sadly I do not have the kind of lifestyle or budget that warrants it. Even though I have twice pleaded my case to the Mr. I keep getting shot down. 

So, until I find my situation changes I had to find a way to spend as little time cleaning as possible. Because frankly none of us WANT to clean, but we also don't want the neighbours thinking the closest dump is at your house.

I tried so many different things. Nothing really helped/worked, but lets face it I'd rather be doing ANYTHING other than cleaning. Don't believe me? Here's a list of things I'd rather do when I should be cleaning:

Watch my nails grow 

(*snort* as if they really do)

Iron socks and underwear

(no really, people DO that!)

Observe the drying of painted walls 

(which would leave me high afterwards...)

Watch the bubbles in my soda until it is flat 

(Count them as they pop for extra points)

De-seed a massive watermelon with a toothpick 

(then flick them at my napping hubby!)

Cut my grass with scissors 

(what else do you do if your lawn mower is on the fritz?)

Read War and Peace to my five year old 

(she's dramatic, she can act it out!)

Are you beginning to understand just how much I will do to avoid scrubbing toilets and cleaning my fridge?

So after many attempts to get a working routine that I would ACTUALLY follow, I found this little gem. It was created by Amy over at My 3 Monsters

It truly works, it keeps me sane and my house tidy (relatively)  and it leaves me with a lot of time. Basically it helps me achieve a really nice work, blog, family, housework balance and that, my friends, is worth a fortune! Though if you click through to her site you can get it for FREE and a template to create your own, if this one doesn't quite work.

You can thank me later!

Do you have a system that keeps your home clean? Or do you scoff at the idea of a housework routine?

Aussie Reviews: Loot Crate

This weeks review is on a product called Loot Crate. If you haven't heard of Loot Crate here is what they have to say about their product:

"You can join LootCrate for less than $20(USD) $30(CAD). We find great new Businesses & Partners with great products to deliver an awesome experience. Every Loot Crate is curated around a geeky theme. Loot Crate is Delivered monthly to your doorstep and it is shipped the 20th of every month."

From the moment I entered my credit card I was extremely excited to see what would be in the July Loot Crate. I had heard of this of this awesome service from one of my favourite YouTubers and I knew that I needed to buy it. Something I noticed while unboxing my Loot Crate is that everyone has a unique name, July has the title of VARSITY. The reason that VARSITY is the name of the crate is that Freddie Wong, the creator of popular YouTube Show Video Game High School was the Co-Curator on this month’s crate. The neat items that were in this months crate included:

1.) The LootCrate box upon delivery

2.) The open box with all of the contents Including Star Wars Earbuds. Each looter had the chance of receiving one of several versions of these Earbuds. Yoda, Darth Maul, C3P0 and Darth Vader, which is what I got. 

3.) VGHS Stormtrooper Vinyl StickerI liked this sticker enough to put it on my computer

4.) Rocket Jump Vinyl Sticker-I got this sticker a put it straight on my computer

5.) Marvel Pez Dispenser-Each looter had the chance of getting one of a few options including Captain America, Thor, The Hulk and I received Iron Man

6.) Video Game High School button SetTo me I don't understand why buttons were created because all they do is put holes in your clothes but I still thought they were a cool item.

7.) Video Game High School Season 1 DVD two disc set-

I had never heard of this Youtube series before but I do plan on watching it in the future

8.) Sonic the Hedgehog Air Freshener-Honestly I was a little surprised about how good it smelled. I was expecting a cheap gross smelling scent. It was cute and smelled really great!

Not pictured: VGHS "Emergency Wireless Keyboard" (cleverly disguised as a pencil!)-I thought this was very funny because I just did a review on a wireless keyboard and mouse.

After I went through all the items I decided to open the DVD case for Video Game High School and I noticed that one of the discs fell out of place and was badly scratched. Needless to say I was kind of mad that I had just received the crate and it had an item that was damaged. So I contacted the people at Loot Crate and they were nice enough to send me a new copy of the DVD free of charge. I was happy with the overall experience of this product and the customer support and I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of geeky things like video games, sci-fi, comic books etc.

If you are interested in looking at previous Loot Crates or reading more information on this product click here http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/291571

I give it a 7/10   See you next week, 

Austin