Shopping

For the Love of Treats #iLoveMyK9 #CBias

6 Jan posted by Robin

Hannah patiently waiting for a Milo's Kitchen Jerky treat.

Like most dog owners, my daughter and I got our German Shepherd a holiday gift. This year, Hannah was spoiled a bit more than most. She received a storage tub full of goodies, rather than just a bag of dog treats or a new soccer ball. The storage tub was used to package her gift because wrapping a big bag of dog food, treats , a toy and electric nail trimmers would have been awkward to say the least (check out the dog/puppy selection at Walmart in my Google+ story). What the presentation lacks in attractiveness is made up for in the usefulness of the packaging. It has come in handy for holding many of Hannah’s things. I plan to keep it at the foot of her bed (she inherited my daughter’s toddler bed), in the future.

O.K. presentation isn't much, but our German Shepherd loved it!

While there were quite a few items in the box, all Hannah really cared about was the treats. I’d picked her up, a big box of Milk-Bone® biscuits for large dogs, some Original Bacon Flavor Pup-Peroni, and Milo’s Kitchen Beef Jerky treats. The crunchy Milk-Bone® biscuits are her all-the-time treat, while the Pup-Peroni and Milo’s Kitchen treats are used as special rewards. My daughter LOVES to give our dog her treats, so I would say she has enjoyed them nearly as much as Hannah, and she is one happy dog.

I am contemplating getting a puppy in the late spring, so perhaps there will be two doggie gift boxes under the tree next year

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All experiences and opinions are my own. #CBias

My Secret Santa is Revealed #jcpSecretSanta

27 Dec posted by Robin

I had a great time participating in the JCPenney Secret Santa campaign, through Mom Central. It even pushed me to figure out how to use my smartphone…lol. I was assigned Mandy, from Atlanta Military Mom. I’d never been to her blog before and enjoyed stopping in for a visit. The process of making the QR tags for her gift was quite easy, and I hope she enjoyed it.

When my gift came in, I pulled out my smartphone and fiddled around for a bit (I am still very new to this). It didn’t take long at all for me to fire up the app and scan & download the QR coded message. The identity of my Secret Santa was revealed. My secret Santa was a wonderful blogger I was already familiar with, Beth, from Musing Mainiac. I actually visited her blog several times during the time of this campaign.

My gift was a lovely chocolate brown cross body leather purse, from St. Johns Bay. This worked out perfectly, since I had my eye on a pair of brown wedge boots, and this gave me the perfect excuse to go pick them up The bag has plenty of storage without being too bulky. It will be seeing a lot of use.

The Santa Tags we used with our smartphones, to reveal our identities to our recipients were fun to use. Similar tags would be nice for year round gifting. After all, we can’t always be present when someone opens a gift. The possibilities are endless.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of jcpenney and received a jcpenney Secret Santa gift and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

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Filed Under: Shopping

California Wine Club: Great Last Minute Holiday Gift!

16 Dec posted by Robin

Looking for a last minute holiday gift, they will really love? Why not a membership to the California Wine Club . It would be a fantastic present for any wine lover, as well as, the foodies in your life. I have sampled a few shipments, and have been very pleased with the quality of the wines sent.

The club is not stuffy at all. California Wine Club makes tasting wine an easy and enjoyable experience, that you can have right in your own home. Each moth the club sends two bottles of wine from a small (usually family run) California winery. They arrive nicely packaged in a specially designed double wine insulator, to ensure no broken bottles. An informative magazine is also included with each shipment. The magazine shares interesting information about the producing winery, and the family that runs it. There is also a section in the back, offering bottles that have come in earlier shipments (great if you haven’t been able to find them locally). If you have never experienced small estate wines before, you’re sure to be surprised at how distinctive they each are, and knowing about the people that made your wine, adds a little to the enjoyment, as well.

You can send as many months as you like to your recipient. Discounts are available on 3, 6, 9 & 12 month packages. The first shipment will also include a $25 voucher so they can re-order their favorite wines. Each shipment contains two bottles, if you prefer to do two red or two white wines, rather than one of each no problem. To take advantage of this deal and get an additional 10% off your order, use the promo code: blommi and follow this link to The California Wine Club.

Product sample provided.

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Filed Under: Food & Beverage, Holiday Gift Guide 2011

Get Your Kids Outside Again with GeoMate Jr.

15 Dec posted by Robin

Want to get your kids outdoors more, and away from the video games, then why not have technology help rather than hinder you in this endeavor. Geomate JR. feeds kids desire for technology and gadgets, but also makes it a fun adventure to be outside and active. This handheld GPS device is specifically created for geocaching, and come preloaded with 250,000 Geocaches. With the help of an update kit, even more geocaches are available. What an exciting way to get your kids interested in the outdoors.

The Internet and television may be dominating leisure activities and zapping outdoor time for kids, but that won’t slow down the fast growing trend millions enjoy: GPS treasure hunting called, geocaching. Thanks to Apisphere, Inc., the company behind Geomate.jr (www.mygeomate.com), children, their families and adventure seekers from all walks of life can get hip with the increasingly popular and fun geocaching phenomenon, a great group activity for scouting, summer camps and schools. Geomate.jr, the first and only device of its kind, combines technology and outdoor play while providing hours of geocaching entertainment; it is preloaded with 250,000 geocache locations.
Sadly, according to the Outdoor Foundation, outdoor activity among children ages 6 to 17 declined 11 percent in 2008. “Geomate.jr offers a way to reconnect our children with family time and nature while encouraging them to be active, get outdoors and explore the environment,” says Warren Hewerdine, co-inventor of Geomate.jr and Apisphere’s vice president of marketing. He says, “Savvy kids will get their technology fix from the easy-to-use device, and it eliminates the traditional fuss of Internet connections, downloads, coordinates and preplanning to provide a spontaneous geocaching experience families can enjoy anytime, anywhere.” Geomate.jr acts as an electronic compass, guiding you to within yards of a geocache.
People all over the world have enjoyed geocaching but up until now, the GPS receivers required were expensive and difficult to use. “Geomate.jr is about the size of a granola bar and built tough so it can take a beating. The contoured grip fits comfortably in the hands of kids and adults,” says Hewerdine. “Then all you have to do is head out to a local park, the back country or just down the street to get started on creating lifelong memories and a new found appreciation for the outdoors.” The Geomate.jr makes a great gift idea any time of year, and thanks to its size, it is a perfect stocking stuffer around the holiday season.
Products available include:
Geomate.jr – Geocaching GPS
Retail: $69.95
Pre-loaded with 250,000 geocaches covering all 50 U.S. states, just switch it on and be directed to your closest geocache. European, Canadian, Australian & New Zealand versions are also available.
Geomate.jr – Update Kit
Retail: $24.95
The key to update any Geomate.Jr with the latest and greatest geocaches for the U.S. or for around the world. Other features such as being able to create a private geocache list and Pocket Query support are also accessible with an Update Kit.
Geomate.jr – Combo Pack
Retail: $94.95
Everything you will ever need in one box including a Geomate.jr, an Update Kit, a Geomate.jr Travel Tag, batteries, lanyard, and documentation.
Geomate.jr is available for purchase at major outdoor retailers including REI, L.L. Bean, Gander Mountain and Eastern Mountain Sports. It is also available through Target, Amazon.com and Geocaching.com. For more information about the Geomate.jr, including demo videos, please visit www.mygeomate.com. Follow on Twitter: @geomatejr and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/geomatejr.

Product sample provided.

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Filed Under: Children, Electronics, Holiday Gift Guide 2011

Get Rewarded for Using Your Current MasterCard to Holiday Shop #heres2mom #cbias

15 Dec posted by Robin

Do you end out doing all the holiday gift shopping? Don’t you deserve a little bonus for all that time and effort? MasterCard is ready and willing to give you one! Just register your MasterCard credit or debit on the Here’s to Mom page on the MasterCard website, and when you spend $200 online between the time you sign-up and December 31st 2011, they will reward you with a $20 prepaid MasterCard. Registration is a quick and easy process, which takes less than a minute, and requires very little information.

If you are like myself, and try to do as much holiday shopping as possible online, to avoid the shopping crowds, then this is the perfect opportunity for you. You can shop anywhere you wish online, and break up the purchases however you like. The only requirements are that, you must be a U.S. resident, the purchases be made on a registered MasterCard, and meet the $200 threshold.I kicked off my shopping for this promotion at holiday.bhg.com. The shop has a wonderful array of unique kitchen items. The bake ware selection is particularly enticing. I’m a Bad Santa, I bought myself a little present on their website. My splurge was the Mini Tart Pan with Tamper, a BHG exclusive. Check out my Google+ story, to see some of the other great options there.

Don’t wait to register your MasterCard, at Here’s to Mom, since purchases don’t count retroactively.

Offer is only open to U.S. residents, ends 12/31/2011

Join the #cbias gang during a Twitter party on December 15th at 1 p.m. EST (#heres2mom). We will be discussing the promotion and the party hosts will be giving out prizes, as well. (register at: http://bit.ly/tomj42)

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All experiences and opinions presented here are my own.

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Filed Under: Deals, Shopping

Playing Secret Santa with JCPenny’s Santa Tag

13 Dec posted by Robin

I am participating in a fun blogger’s version of Secret Santa this year, hosted by Mom Central. The participating bloggers have each been assigned another blogger to play Secret Santa to. We select the gift, and then use JCPenney’s Santa Tags to add a message wishing the recipient happy holidays, and reveal our identity. Pretty cool, isn’t it.

Santa Tags are a great way to add a little extra excitement to Secret Santa exchange. Each tag has a QR code, which is scanned with your smartphone’s camera. The sender scans the code, and is then directed to add their phone number. JCPenney then promptly calls back, and records your holiday message to the recipient. Attach the self adhesive tag to the gift, and when the recipient scans the QR code, they will get your message.

I had a lot of fun selecting the gift, and am curious who my Secret Santa is. I was a bit concerned about using the QR code and reader, because I only just recently switched over to a smartphone. This is the first time I ever used a QR reader app. I was very easy though. Downloading the app was simple and fast, and the process of creating the Santa Tag was very easy, much more so than I thought it would be. It was a terrific way to add a special personalization, to a gift.

Check out how fun and easy this new gift giving tool is for yourself : Santa Tags

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of jcpenney and received a jcpenney Secret Santa gift and a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Awesome Christmas Stockings on a Budget

11 Dec posted by SS

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Most of us are watching our budgets closely this year, when it comes to holiday gifts and stocking stuffers. Christmas Stockings, especially for children, do not need to cost much to be exciting on Christmas morning. The key is fun items and candies, that provide a big mess of immediate gratification. See here how I filled 3 stockings for my daughter (yes, she has three stockings) at Dollar General , for just $25!

inexpensive stocking stuffers for kids

I made sure to get her some Crayola items and Elmer’s Glue Sticks, since she enjoys doing little projects, with her therapists and I. The Fusion Ball packs a lot of fun for just $6 and the little pull back ATVs were just $3 for the package. The 3-D Moveable T. Rex is too big to fit in the stockings, so I will probably assemble it and put it beside the stockings or under the tree on Christmas morning. She likes the Dino Dan show, so I think this $5 toy, may well go over better than more expensive gifts. I also grabbed some inexpensive candy and a bag of Tropical Trail mix. I already had the stockings themselves and candy canes, so I didn’t get those, but they can also be gotten at Dollar General at good prices.

stocking stuffers from dollar general

One tip would give anyone regardless of their budget, is to break things up. It makes dumping out the stocking more exciting, as everything tumbles out. You can see here, that I unpackaged the ATV toys, Glue sticks and individually wrapped candies. It makes the stocking contents seem like more, as kids empty them.

inexpensive Christmas stockings for children

Here are the completed stockings. I will just assemble the dinosaur and add the leftover candy canes, from baking projects on Christmas Eve.

I think my daughter will be thrilled with her stocking loot on Christmas morning. Dollar General has lots of great options for the rest of the family too. You could fill a stocking on a budget, for nearly anyone, with goodies from this store. No Dollar General near you, no worries. Many of their items are available online as well, with free shipping! So don’t fret about a tight budget, just visit your local Dollar General or surf over, and fill all your stockings inexpensively, in one quick trip.

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Filed Under: Misc., Shopping