Things I Love - My Insulated Mug

Things I Love....................


This is my feature where I get to share something that I just love. Since you are my friends, I like sharing things I love with others. It could be anything from a new product, food, recipe, song, image, to a person and everything in between. This will be something I am completely doing on my own, without pressure or compensation from a company, author, PR/Marketing firm, friend, business owner, etc. This will just be something that makes me happy and I want to share it with you. Enjoy some love!

Today's love is............................My Insulated Mug
 

I was given this mug last year by my Sister-In-Law, Deb.  Now, I know, I am sure you are all wondering what is so special about this particular mug.  Well, I have 4 of them in various designs including the one in the photo above because I love them so much.  These mugs are the BEST because they are STAINLESS STEEL!  These mugs are 15 oz of Stainless Steel as well as double wall vacuumed so the hot stuff stays hot!  I have filled this up with coffee and driven to my parents house which is 1 hour and 45 minutes away and STILL had HOT COFFEE when I got there!  I do not like it when my coffee cools off, which happens quickly because I add cream to it.  Not when I use these mugs!  The coffee stays hot for hours!  One time, I poured hot chocolate into in for a friend and when she went to take a drink (thinking it had cooled off), she had to spit it out because it was still so hot!

A few weekends ago, while tailgating, I decided to try this mug out for cold drinks as well.  It worked great!  It was a hot and sunny day and it kept my drinks cold.  I even found ice inside of it hours later!

So, if you are like me, and are looking for a travel mug that will actually keep your coffee hot this winter, check out http://www.blueq.com/.  They retail for $14.99 and are worth every cent! 

BlueQ also donates 1% of the purchase of each of these mugs to The Nature Conservancy.  The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. Since their founding in 1951 they have protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide - and operate more than 100 marine conservation projects in over 30 countries. *Blue Q guarantees a minimum contribution of $50,000 through April 19, 2011.

Product Review: Nature's Hand Granola

Nature's Hand French Vanilla Almond Authentic Granola



Nature's Hand Wild Blueberry Authentic Granola

I was given the opportunity to try Nature's Hand Granola.My favorite ways to eat granola is either just with milk or on top of my yogurt.  Thankfully Nature's Hand sent me a coupon for some yummy CHOBANI yogurt.

They also sent along one of these cute CRATE and BARREL bowls for me to eat my yogurt and granola in!

Nature's Hand Granola was founded in 1971 by Hans Sadlak, a German-born immigrant in Burnsville, Minnesota, who customized his own blend.  Since then it has become an American tradition known for its oven-baked taste and texture.  Nature's Hand is an all-natural, good-for-you granola that is perfect for moms and their families.  It features fewer, simple, natural ingredients with no artificial colors or flavors, no preservatives, no sodium, and no trans fats.  Nature's Hand comes in six unique granola blends:

Vanilla Almond
Cranberry Delight
Wild Blueberry
Raisin Hazelnut
Cinnamon Apple
Maple Pecan

The suggested retail price for Nature's Hand granola is $4.99 and can be found at supermarkets, specialty grocery stores, and online.  Check out their website HERE to find a store near you.  You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

I really loved the granola.  I had it on top of my CHOBANI yogurt and I loved how the granola stayed crunchy and it had a nice subtle flavor that enhanced my raspberry yogurt. 





You can see the nice big chunks of granola and big pieces of almonds! YUM! The granola also comes in a bag with a zip closure to keep it from going stale.  But, it won't stick around long enough in our house for that to happen!

The French Vanilla Almond and the Wild Blueberry were both only 140 calories per 1/4 cup serving!

Thanks to Nature's Hand for sending me the granola, coupon and bowl in order to facilitate this review.  I was not compensated in any other way for this review.  This review is my honest opinoin.  I wouldn't review anything that wouldn't benefit myself or my family. 

For Your Little Pumpkin

When our oldest was 2, a bunch of us moms that attended a mommy and me class continued to get together with all of our kids a few times a month.  Oh my,I just realized that was 9 years ago!  My how time flies! Anyway we made these adorable shirts for our kids and since then our other two children have worn it.  But now, our youngest is 6 and this shirt has become the halloween shirt for Reagan's Build-A-Bear.  It was just too cute to part with and it reminds me of all those moms who I relied on during those first scary years of parenting.  We moved to a different town and I don't see those moms anymore, but I credit them with keeping me sane during those early years.

All you need is:

White T-Shirt
Orange Clothing Dye
Black Paint, non-washable
Sponges Cut to desired shapes

Fold or twist your shirt however you want your design and follow the directions for tye-dying the shirt.  This could be a two day project depending on how long you want your dye to set.  It is best for the color to sit for 24 hours to get the desired brightness.  Once the shirt has been tye-dyed and dried, then dip your sponges into the non-washable paint.  Place them on the shirt according to your desired Jack-O'Lantern look.  Let dry.

Check out the hundreds of other awesome ideas over at Tip Junkie by clicking the button below!

Scenes From Our Week - Week 3

There was no school on Wednesday so the kids and I spent the day shopping. The kids needed clothes for this upcoming cold weather.  We needed birthday gifts.  We needed pumpkins.  We needed groceries.  So we embarked on an all day adventure.  We went to the outlet mall, the regular mall, Earl May, and Target. After an exhausting day, the best reward was Coldstone ice cream!  The kids had oreo cream filling with various mix-ins. I varied from my usual raspberry/cheesecake/white chocolate chips variety to swap the raspberry for PUMPKIN! Oh My Goodness it was soooo yummy!

On Friday night, Reagan and I baked our pies for our annual church dinner.  She loves to run the apple peeler/corer/slicer and help with the pie making. 

Saturday morning 17 of us from our church went around our small town and raked leaves for about 3 hours.  We call ourselves the Community Crew and even had shirts made up! We were able to complete 7 lawns and had a lot of fun doing it!  Since not all of the leaves have fallen, we just may have to do it again!

We we moved into our house nearly 8 years ago, one of the things we absolutely loved were our backyard trees.  We have been so grateful that the previous owners invested in these gorgeous trees. They have provided us wonderful shade in the summer and beautiful leaves in the fall.  If you are looking for a tree for your backyard, I highly recommend the Autumn Blaze Maple!

May you all have a wonderfully blessed week!



Book Review: Mai Tai One On by Jill Marie Landis

MAI TAI ONE ON
By Jill Marie Landis
Book 1 of the Tiki Goddess Series
Published July 1, 2011 - Book
August 24, 2011 - Kindle

Six months ago, if anyone would have told Em Johnson she'd end up divorced, broke, and running the dilapidated Tiki Goddess Bar on the magical North Shore of Kauai she would have told them to shove a swizzle stick up their okole.


As if all that isn't bad enough, when an obnoxious neighbor with a grudge is found dead in the Goddess luau pit, suspicion falls on Em and the rest of the Goddess staff. With the help of a quirky dance troupe of over-the-hill Hula Maidens, Em and the cast of characters must ban together to find the killer and solve the mystery before the next pupu party.

I purchased this for my Kindle when there was a .99 cent special.  It sounded fun and came highly recommended by authors I love like Kristin Hannah and Carly Phillips.  This isn't my typical genre but with the low price, I was willing to take a chance. 

I was expecting a little more "romance", but it was mostly mystery with a comedic twist.  Since I have never been to Hawaii, some of the terms and way of life described in Hawaii was new to me.  I could see those who are familiar with the Hawaiian life-syle would appreciate that part of the book more.  I did appreciate the author making one of the characters from Iowa and not making her too "hickish". 

Since there were a couple murders and an attempted murder in the story, you were easily drawn into finding out who was the next to fall and who the murderer was.  Even though the story leads you in several directions, I did guess the murderer early on, but it didn't change my interest in finding out if and/or how that person would be caught. 

This was an enjoyable light read.  It is perfect for a weekend getaway or for taking a break from heavier reading.  It will make you laugh and make you wish you were relaxing at the Tiki Goddess bar yourself!  The fun part is, the author includes some signature Tiki Goddess drink recipes at the back of the book.  I may have to try out some of those!  I gave this 3 out of 5 stars. 

Check out this fun book trailer:



Check out the website  HERE for more Tiki Goddess information and to stayed tuned for information on Book 2 of the series! 

Some Deliciousness

I spent my Friday baking for our annual church fall bazaar.  I did some internet surfing and found some recipes that I wanted give a shot.  I am always searching for the perfect banana bread recipe.  I have plenty of ok ones in my stash, but I am always looking for THE ONE.  I found this Martha Stewart Banana Bread recipe from Amberly Place Cooking Corner .  Why hadn't I ever considered Martha Stewart before?  Maybe because usually her recipes are difficult or multi-step recipes.  Well, not this one.  WAY easy AND I had all the ingredients.

Martha Stewart's Banana Bread

1/4 Pound (1 stick butter), room temp

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 c flour

1 t baking soda

1 t salt
1 c mashed very ripe bananas (2 bananas)

1/2 c sour cream

1 t vanilla extract
1/2 c chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F, butter 9X5X3" loaf pan. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs beating well. Sift (yeah right) the dry ingredients together and combine with the butter mixture. Blend well. Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Stir well. Stir in the nuts and pour into the pan. Bake 1 hour until a cake tester comes out clean. Turn out onto a rack to cool.

I made one batch of 4 mini loaves and one batch with a regular loaf and mini loaf and added mini chocolate chips.  They turned out practically perfect. 

Next up were Picky Palate's Itty Bitty Oreo Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies.   Jenny at Picky Palate is always coming up with something new and amazingly delicious. If you aren't following her blog yet, you should be.  I just wish I had all the time in the world to bake and no worries to eat all of her scrumptious goodies.  When I saw these I knew I had to try them and surprise my kids with them.

Click on the recipe title above for the link to the recipe.

I used one scoop of cookie dough, divided it in half and then folded it around the mini oreo.  My cookies also took closer to 13 minutes in my oven, so be sure to check after your cookies often.  The kids we excited to have cookies after school but when they took a bite and said, "Mom, are there oreos in here?"  I could tell they were excited.  I got "These are awesome!", Wow, thanks Mom!", and "How many can I have?" as responses.  I handed one to Pat when he got home and he was pleasantly surprised by the oreo in the middle as well. 

Now you can either bake these yourself, or come on out to the Salem UMC Fall Bazaar Dinner Saturday night.  Get the banana bread and cookies before they are gone.  Hmmmmm, maybe I should sell to the highest bidder!

Things I Love - My Favorite Droid Apps

Things I Love....................


This is my feature where I get to share something that I just love. Since you are my friends, I like sharing things I love with others. It could be anything from a new product, food, recipe, song, image, to a person and everything in between. This will be something I am completely doing on my own, without pressure or compensation from a company, author, PR/Marketing firm, friend, business owner, etc. This will just be something that makes me happy and I want to share it with you. Enjoy some love!



Today's love is............................My Favorite Droid Apps
 
I have had my Android Samsung Galaxy S cell phone for about 2 months now and I LOVE it.  I used to be a Blackberry girl, but I've moved on.  I don't miss my Blackberry at all. 
 
1 - Scrabble
You know how much I love Scrabble.  It has been something I have played since I was a young child.  I must have Scrabble with me at all times!  It is my release, my time-passer, and frankly my time-waster.
 

2 - Words with Friends

Several of my friends and family got me started on Words with Friends.  It is very much like Scrabble but with a slightly different board and slightly different point value for the letters, but played in the same way.

3 - gReader
I can keep up with all my favorite blogs right from my phone.  It sends all the blogs I follow to my gReader app on my phone and lets me know when there has been a new post.  I has been much easier for me to keep up with my blog reading.

4 - You Version Holy Bible
I love that I can pull up any verse, any translation, any devotion for just the situation I am looking for or need.  It is right here in front of me whenever I need encouragement, reassurance, or to feel calm.

5 - imdb App
If I am at a movie and can't figure out where I know that actor/actress from, I can look it up.  If we are out to dinner and can't remember the name of the movie we want our friend to see, I can look it up.  If we are trying to remember how old I was when "Purple Rain" came out, I can look it up.  I love using this app and finding out all sorts of neat stuff.

6- World Webcam
At anytime in my day I can select a webcam view from numerous places in the world: Paris, Ground Zero NYC, Panama Canal, Mount Everest, Mount Fuji, Cape Town, Denver, Bora Bora, Tampa Bay, Madrid, Loch Ness, Yosemite Park, and many more.  This morning I tuned in to Bora Bora and viewed a breathtaking sunrise.  Sometimes when I need to just take a moment and escape the stress of the day, I travel to Paris or Bora Bora and dream of visiting there. 

All of these apps are free and are available to download to your Android phone.  What are your favorite Android apps?