2012 Holiday Gift Guide Feature

 
It is now that time of year to get out the stockings and all the fun Christmas decorations and lights. I am sure that there are many of you that have already been decorating and some of you that might already have your shopping already done. I don’t have my tree up yet and my shopping isn’t done, but I do have a couple stockings hanging up.

This year my two youngest children have new Christmas stockings that are hanging on my mantle in anticipation for St. Nicholas to fill. In celebration for the holidays, I received two of the pretty Glitz Personalized Christmas Stockings for review from Annie’s Woolens and I was really impressed when I received them.

The stockings that I have been using for years are very thin and not too fancy. The two Glitz Personalized Stockings that I received are far from thin and definitely fancy for me. They are made from a high quality wool fabric, soft to the touch, bright in color and have a trio of jingle bells that make a great final touch to them. There is a variety of designs that you can choose from that includes a professionally embroidered name.

When I opened the package, the stockings were nicely packaged into a big clear plastic bag to protect them. I thought it was pretty neat when the bells were bubble wrapped for protection during shipment too! You can tell that Annie’s Woolens cares about what their customers think after they hit the checkout button.

If you are looking for personalized stockings, I suggest taking a peek at the choices at Annie’s Woolens. Not only do they carry these pretty stockings that I received, they also have a great variety of personalized stockings including stockings for baby’s first Christmas, stockings for your pet, Ragg wool stockings, Scandinavian stockings, stocking hangers & more!

For more information, visit: www.annieswoolens.com

Disclosure – I received a product sample to provide you with this review. This post is not a paid post and the opinions stated herein are 100% my own. This post does contain affiliate links.

In addition to having a TON of cookbooks and recipes bookmarked on my computer I also enjoy looking at recipes on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet. One recipe app that I have been playing around with the last couple weeks is SplashPad Mobile’s Top Recipes Android App. It started with me looking for side dishes to create on Thanksgiving, now I am on the hunt for some new dishes for Christmas dinner.

Since I am a full time work at home mom, I am always looking for recipes to make my family that they will enjoy, that are easy to make and don’t cost a fortune in ingredients. I admit that I have bookmarked more recipes than I will ever make but the internet for me is the best place to find the recipe that I am looking for. With the Top Recipes App, I have a few different options of things that I can do.

If I am looking for new recipes, I would visit the Categories option where I have a variety of recipe options to choose from:

I usually like to plan each of the meals for my family because I try to avoid cooking things that won’t get eaten. If I am do happen to be looking for ideas for not just one recipe, but a whole meal I can check out the Menu option for a some menu ideas:

Then there is the fun part when you find a recipe you like. Once you find a recipe you want to make, you select the little heart icon to add it the My Favorites Section.

What I like about the Top Recipes App is the next feature. When you are viewing the ingredients, you can select the items that you don’t have so that it adds the ingredient to the My Shopping List section. For those that have an Android phone, this app would be real handy to use when you are grocery shopping. You would have the ingredients you need to buy at your fingertips.

When you subscribe to this app, you have access to over 2,400 recipes from around the world. Each recipe has a photo, instructions and the estimated prep and cook times. You can download the Top Recipes app for FREE, but I would recommend subscribing for only 99cents a month. What is neat is right now you can get a FREE 30 day trial.

In addition to the features I mentioned above, as a subscriber you will also have access to the The  Weekly Bonbon in-app magazine that features weekly articles, recipes from celebrity chefs, ideas for family-style meals, holiday entertaining tips and suggestions, ingredient spotlights and more. Past articles are archived by month and can be easily accessed at any time.

To download the Top Recipes app, visit:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.splashpadmobile.recipes

One thing I have always enjoyed is music. When I was young I remember listening to Journey, Foreigner Pink Floyd and Stevie Nicks on my moms 8 track tapes. If I was at my grandmas, I would listen to The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean or Doris Day. Those were definitely the days! I then graduated to having my own record player, to having my own cassette player, to CD player, to MP3 player to iPod. I finally have my own Bluetooth Speaker.

I received one of the Soundfreaq Sound Kick Bluetooth speakers to review. I actually have been wanting one of these wireless speakers for quite some time. My computer I use has the Bluetooth technology and I had been wanting to get some sort of speaker or speaker system so I could play my music on my compute. Since my iPhone has a ton of music, I thought it would be something fun to use with my iPhone too.

The first time I used this speaker, I paired it to my iPhone and played it for hours. I then paired it to my computer so I have louder music now! I just LOVE this speaker and I want one in their new Chromatic Twilight color. It would look pretty neat on my desk.

Here are the features of the Soundfreaq Sound Kick:

• Stream Bluetooth wireless from any iPhone, iPad, Android & more
• Enjoy up to 7 hours of AC-free listening with the built-in rechargeable battery
• Ability to charge mobile devices from the USB power port
• Line-in jack to connect any device with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack

What I like about this speaker is that it is wireless, with the option of plugging it in a device that uses a standard headphone jack. Now if I want to go to the park for a picnic, I can bring my iPhone or iPod and speaker and have some music to listen to while I am enjoying my food. This would make a great gift for those on your shopping list that like their music!

The Soundfreaq Sound Kick can be purchased nationwide at Target, Radio Shack, Walmart, and Sears stores. If you prefer to shop online, you can find Soundfreaq products at: Target.com, Soundfreaq.com, Bestbuy.com, Staples.com, Kohls.com.

To find out more about the Soundfreaq Sound Kick, visit: http://soundfreaq.com/store

Disclosure – I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Soundfreaq and received a product sample to facilitate my review.

When you are pregnant you always want to make sure you are eating and drinking things that are healthy for you and the baby growing inside you. If you are not pregnant, but looking to get pregnant you should also be eating and drinking healthy. My friend Aimee had this dream of creating a product that would include a variety of vitamins, minerals and nutrients for women that are wanting to have children. She knows that a mom’s diet is VERY important to the health of her unborn baby and put together a plan to create a product for mamas that they could drink before, during and after pregnancy to improve their health as well as their baby’s health too!

Check out my friend Aimee’s story here:

Mamalicious®  recently launched and I am excited that Aimee’s dream came true. I am so excited about this product and I am not even pregnant or breastfeeding. I have a container on my kitchen counter and use it to make myself some healthy milkshakes or smoothies.

Watch the Mamalicious® commercial here:

The BIG jar of Mamalicious® in Vivacious Vanilla contains 30 servings and each serving is 90 calories. You can add it a variety of beverages that you want to drink to make your drink  healthier. This product contains organic brown rice protein, Calcium, RDA of Folic Acid, vitamins, minerals, fiber probiotics,enzymes for digestion and EpiFactors™. The Mamalicious® product contains all natural products with NO artificial sweeteners or colors.

Since I love to make my own drink & meal creations, I thought I would get a little creative and make a milkshake with this product. I made a chocolate flavored milkshake that I shared with my little guy that thought it was yummy too! All you need is a blender/smoothie machine or some other gadget that can crush ice, a scoop of the Mamalicious® product and a few other ingredients you probably already have in kitchen.

Remember, you don’t have to be pregnant or nursing to drink this product, it just is benefit to those that are!

And here is my creation, the chocolate milkshake that is not only delicious, it is Mamalicious®!

Here is the simple and easy to make this healthy chocolate milkshake if you want to try this at home as well.

Sounds simple right?

• To find out more about Mamalicious®, please visit: https://mymamalicious.com.
• For the Social Media junkies like me, you can also follow Mamalicious on Twitter and Facebook too!