Monday, October 29, 2012

NanoStyle :: I Love You 120 Languages Onyx Pendant {Review}


NanoStyle began in 2009 with 15 years of fine jewelry experience behind them to hit the ground running. Using cutting edge technology in innovative jewelry design, this company aims to bring exceptional beauty to their unique jewelry by offering themes of faith, spirituality, culture, and love. They are also the first to engrave 24kt gold words & symbols onto semi-precious stones.
I received their popular I Love You 120 Languages Onyx Pendant, which is one of their love pendants. This pendant can be set in your choice of sterling silver (like mine) or 14kt gold and you can even choose the chain you like to go with it. "I Love You" is translated in 120 languages in tiny print and embedded in 24kt gold on the black onyx. The pendant measures only about 7/8" tall, so it's understated but absolutely stunning up close. It looks gorgeously simple yet sophisticated on the neckline too.
I really enjoyed pulling out the small, included magnifying glass to check out the details of this pendant. Right underneath the gold heart is "I Love You" in English, with the other translations surrounding the heart. It was neat to see that everything was so legible and clear while up close, despite being so tiny and requiring a magnifying glass to read!

I don't really care for the other themed jewelry NanoStyle offers (like New Age which is just not my thing...), but the pendants in their "Tokens of Love" category are appropriate for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Even better, the pendant I received is wonderful because it celebrates the connections of people on a level that we can all relate too: Love. The 120 ways to say "I Love You" on this pendant is just so symbolic of this commonality between us all and it's a gorgeous way to remind your wife/girlfriend/mom/significant other just how much you care. Not just a simple "I Love You", but an "I Love You" in 120 different languages from around the world.

Connect with NanoStyle on Facebook and Twitter

Price: Starting at $99 for sterling silver with several chain choices

Buy It: Check out NanoStyle.com to buy today!

 
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product(s) to facilitate this review for free. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

20 Ways to Use Mason Jars {With Photos & Project Links}


Pinterest has served as inspiration for me for so many future home projects, craft ideas, recipes, educational activities and healthy living remedies. My favorite types of pins involve using mason jars (or any glass container) to organize, sort, or store something in some way. Using glass for storage and organization is probably one of the healthiest means to do so due to it's non-porous and toxin-free nature. I thought I'd compile a bunch of mason jar-type photos and blog posts from my fellow bloggers to give you a bit of inspiration! Enjoy!

Using mason jars to store nuts, grains and seeds.


More kitchen storage using Mason jars and recycled spaghetti jars {via They're All Of Me...}
Making my own cleaner using vinegar, lemon peels and lime peels.
 Storage and organization in my bathroom drawers.
DIY Glass Jar Luminaries {Via Untrained Housewife}
The World's Easiest Hanging Vase {via Blissfully Domestic}
DIY Mother's Day Centerpiece {via Blissfully Domestic}
Home Cooked Yogurt Recipe {via Another Artful Mama}
DIY Homemade Yogurt Recipe {via MontanaSolarCreations}
DIY Chive Vinegar {via MontanaSolarCreations}
What do YOU do with your Mason Jars?


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Educational Insights :: $50 Gift Code Giveaway! {Ends 11/4}



 I'm a sucker for educational products. Children are just little sponges and can use every resource they can get their hands on to help them succeed! You've seen my reviews for Teachable Touchables and the Sprout & Grow Window from Educational Insights. There are just a few other products I'd love to order from them too!



Educational Insights is trying to get to 50,000 fans! On their way to that goal they are also giving away lots of prizes at every 1,000 fans milestone to help along the way, so make sure you are registered on their Facebook page! In an effort to boost their Facebook fans to 50,000 and beyond, Educational Insights is generously offering a $50 gift code to one lucky winner! Entering this time is super easy, with just "liking" Educational Insights on Facebook as the only requirement.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Vitacost.com :: NEW Whole Foods Vitamins {PLUS $50 Gift Code Giveaway! Ends 11/2}


Vitacost.com carries over 35,000 products to encourage healthier living through vitamins, supplements, organic foods and everything in between. I'm guessing they carry at least a few of your favorite brands too. And, at wholesale, discount prices on pretty much everything, you can bet I've placed many orders with Vitacost in an effort to stretch my budget.


Vitacost is currently rolling out their NEW Whole Foods Vitamins line. It will include some basics that every household needs for a well-rounded healthy lifestyle, like the Whole Food Women's Daily Mutli-Vitamin & Whole Food Men's Daily Multi-Vitamin.

These non-GMO, 100% vegetarian formulas feature, organic ingredients from raw, whole, recognizable foods & herbs for easy digestion. They are also made without any chemical stearate binders or excipients, so you can be sure you're getting the purest Whole Food Vitamins from this new line. The packaging even uses recycled paper labels! I've been a fan of Vitacost for over a year, and I'm glad to see them continue to wow me with excellent new products such as this Whole Foods Vitamins line.

If you are new to Vitacost you will get a FREE $10 off code to spend at Vitacost on ANYTHING you want! Get your code HERE and you start earning through Vitacost Rewards.

Win It!
One winner will receive a $50 gift code to Vitacost.com!

Bright Horizons Early Education Centers :: Renovation Celebration & Open House on 11/3! {Cupertino & Los Gatos Locations}


Join Bright Horizons Early Education Centers for a fun, family event open to the community to celebrate their two center's recent renovations. Mark your calendars for November 3, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm. There will be lots of fun event activities and you explore their Infant, Toddler, Preschool, and Pre-Kindergarten programs!


Event Location:
Bright Horizons Early Education and Preschool
10253 North Portal Avenue, Cupertino
408-366-1963
 

For a sneak peek, visit www.brighthorizons.com/cupertinoOH

Event activities:
  • Experiment in our NEW Science Labs
  • Experience the latest in children's educational technology in our NEW Media Center
  • Interact with literature with storytelling in our NEW Growing Reader’s Library
  • Explore our NEW Unique Outdoor Classrooms
    • Movement Matters Zone
    • Art Studio
Enjoy Live music by Mr. Clifford, healthy snacks and exciting raffle prizes and  Center tours!

Special Registration Offer: Attend the Renovation Celebration Event on November 3rd and register by November 30, 2012 to receive a $150 tuition credit after 30 days of enrollment.


Event Location:
Bright Horizons Early Education and Preschool
220 Belgatos Road, Los Gatos
408-356-7989

For a sneak peek, visit www.brighthorizons.com/losgatosOH


Event activities:
  • Experience the latest in children's educational technology with our NEW SmartBoard
  • Explore our Unique Natural Outdoor Environment
  • Enjoy hands-on activities throughout the center, healthy snacks & exciting raffle prizes
  • Guided tours of our Remodeled Classrooms and insight into our proven curriculum
Special Registration Offer: Attend the Renovation Celebration Event on November 3rd and register by November 30, 2012 to receive a $150 tuition credit after 30 days of enrollment.

 
Disclosure: This is sponsored post thanks to US Family Guide. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

{Fair Trade Giveaway Hop} Win Prizes from soleRebels & Alter Eco! 3 Winners! {Ends 10/31} #FairTradeHop

Fair Trade Giveaway Hop
Welcome to the Fair Trade Giveaway Hop, hosted by Happy Mothering, Eco-Crazy Mom and the Green Moms Network. To celebrate Fair Trade Month, we are featuring giveaways from companies that ethically produce and source products from around the world. You can find a list of more fair trade giveaways valued at $25 or more at the bottom of this post. I have two awesome fair trade sponsors for my giveaway! I encourage you to read my reviews and learn more about them. I will randomly be choosing a total of three winners, so good luck!

 


soleRebels :: Handmade gorgeous shoes made with sustainable materials from Ethiopia! 

{Read my review

PRIZE: Win a pair of women's tooTOOs flats! $60 RV, TWO winners! Open worldwide



 


Alter Eco :: Sustainable foods from around the world!

{Read my review}

PRIZE: A fabulous assortment of fair trade ingredients and chocolate bars! (Actual prize may differ) $30 RV, one winner! Open to the US only.



Win It! 
As described above, two winners will receive a pair of soleRebels tooTOOs shoes (open Worldwide), and one winner will receive a generous prize package from Alter Eco (open to the US only)! That's THREE lucky winners total! 

Giveaway :: Win a Kiddy City 'n Move Stroller! {Ends 11/12} #kiddycitynmove


A high quality, sturdy, and stylish stroller can be hard to come by. Today you don't have to look very far since we're giving one away! The German engineered Kiddy City 'N Move is everything a parent dreams of and now it is available to us in the U.S. 

The Kiddy City 'N Move is a full-feature stroller - not really an 'umbrella' stroller like you're used to. We are in love with the huge canopy that will shield your baby from sun-up to sun-down. An easy one-hand recline is great for infants and napping toddlers. The storage pocket and undercarriage basket have enough room for all the necessities and a little more. The umbrella fold is easy once you get the hang of it and it's compact. The harness, bumper bar, and adjustable footrest make the seat a very comfy place for baby. You can read the full review of the Kiddy City 'n Move Stroller over at Eco-Babyz and see a myriad of detailed photos as well as a 3 year old and 1 year old using it! 

Our Favorite Features: 
  • Modern, fun colors 
  • Huge, ridiculously generous canopy!
  • One hand recline
  • Self-locks when folding
  • Superior handling
  • Very sturdy, high quality construction
  • Comes with parent cup holder and car seat adapters
  • For kids up to 55 pounds

Buy It! The Kiddy City 'n Move retails for $219.99, but it is so new that it isn't even available to buy just yet! You will find it here on Amazon in the next couple of weeks. You may also check out the list of retailers (which will be updated soon) to see who carries one. 

Fair Trade Giveaway Hop Sponsor :: Fair Trade Foods from Alter Eco! {Review}

Truly inspiring, fair trade, sustainable food companies are sprouting up everywhere. But the ones that are making a big difference for small-scale farmers and produce delicious products are the most impressive and have my full support. Alter Eco fits the bill and exceeds my expectations. Through mutually beneficial partnerships with these small-scale farmers from around the world, Alter Eco is able to bring you exotic, sustainable food products while helping improve the quality of life and food for these farmers. Growing quinoa, rice, sugar, and chocolate using fair trade and organic practices, you get these amazing products I'm going to share with you now.

I received a mouth-watering assortment of products from Alter Eco to sample. (Mostly) Organic, Fair Trade and carbon neutral, you can be sure that you're getting high quality, all-natural ingredients from this socially and environmentally responsible company.
These three products are Fair Trade Certified and hand-cultivated. The quinoa and cane sugar are also USDA Certified Organic.

Thai Sticky Purple Rice - $4.79 - This is a native heirloom medley from Thailand. Colorful, sweet, high quality grains result in the perfect side of rice with dinner! They also have Hom Mali Jasmine Rice and Khao Deng Ruby Red Rice available.

Organic Royal Pearl Quinoa - $5.79 - I discovered quinoa earlier this year and love it! From Bolivia, this heirloom quinoa is wonderfully nutritious and a good source of protein. It tastes a bit nutty and earthy, and the texture is fluffy, almost like rice. They also carry a Rainbow Quinoa and a Red Quinoa too.

Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar - $4.39 - From the Phillipines, this is an un-refined cane sugar with a fine texture. It has beautifully sweet aroma reminiscent of a vanilla maple syrup and tastes a bit like refined brown sugar, but with it's nutrients intact and unrefined! It's wonderful for baking and can be used as a 1:1 ratio for recipes using refined sugar. It's great in my tea and bound to create incredible flavor in my favorite gluten-free recipes. I'll be trying it next time I make cookies!
Alter Eco organic chocolate bars are heavenly! I love the unique combinations they have created! I recently tried some "all-natural" chocolate bars from another company and I was not impressed by any means. There is literally no comparison to the REAL ingredients in these bars and the cacao beans they contain from countries like Peru and Ecuador. They are all USDA Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, vegan, GMO-free, soy-free, gluten-free, and contain no artificial flavors or emulsifiers. Each bar is 2.82 ounces and retails for $3.99.

Dark Blackout - 85% Cocoa - Classic dark chocolate bar with a creamy, smooth texture, and not too much of the typical bitterness of other brands. At 85% cocoa, this one holds the most health benefits with the highest antioxidant content of all the bars.

Dark Almond - 60% Cocoa -  Toasty almond goodness really stand out in this bar! The almond are tiny little pieces so don't expect much crunch as a result. The almonds do still manage to tone down the rich cocoa flavor of the cocoa, making this dark chocolate bar tolerable for my husband (who isn't a big fan of dark chocolate).

Dark Quinoa - 60% Cocoa - I love this bar. It's reminiscent of a Crunch bar, but with higher quality chocolate (and dark instead of milk) and quinoa instead of the typical rice crisps. It works out very well and I never would have guessed this was quinoa if no one had told me! The toasted quinoa, which makes this bar light and crunchy, doesn't taste nutty to me so the smooth dark chocolate really stands out.

Dark Coconut Toffee - 47% Cocoa - I never would have imagined putting coconut and toffee together! The coconut flavor is in the actual toffee only, but it comes out strong and rich, offering a very sweet, subtle coconut flavor throughout. The toffee offers a crunchy candy texture, but is definitely not tooth-breaking hard by any means. The cocoa content is the least of these four bars, and is actually a good middle ground for someone who doesn't like dark chocolate (again, like my husband! He enjoyed this bar!). This is probably my favorite bar of the four I tried, with the Dark Quinoa at a close second.

I'm definitely impressed with Alter Eco and will be buying their products at my local Whole Foods when I run out. A few days ago I saw that my store even carries more chocolate bar flavors that I am dying to try! If you get a chance to try Alter Eco, be sure to look at the packaging. They include statistics and information on the various co-ops that they partner with. For example, the Organic Mascobado Cane Sugar package says that for their partners at the Alter Eco co-op, that fair trade practices and organic farming means 652 families are building a better future, co-op members receive 100% medical benefits, and it results in 500 acres of reforested eco-reserves. I love seeing the impact of buying and supporting Alter Eco, and how it's protecting the environment through organic farming and helping families live better through fair trade practices. I encourage you to check out Alter Eco and make the choice to buy fair trade more often. You can even buy Alter Eco in their online store!

Want a chance to win your own? Come back to my blog from October 22-31 during the Fair Trade Giveaway Hop for your chance to win a prize package from Alter Eco!
 
Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product(s) to facilitate this review for free. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

Fair Trade Giveaway Hop Sponsor :: Fair Trade Footwear From soleRebels! {Review}

As I try to incorporate a greener, healthier attitude into my shopping habits, it's about time that I look at my shoes and where they come from. Especially the ones I wear most often like ballet flats. Really, I have a thing for flats. Once I find "the ones" I tend to live in them during colder weather and I usually buy an extra pair just-in-case the unthinkable happens to the first pair. Or I'm just paranoid that I won't find them ever again and I'll have to start my search for the perfect pair of flats all over again (totally happens to me far too often). Naturally, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to check out soleRebels, the ONLY WFTO fair trade certified footwear company in the world! Offering truly unique footwear styles for men and women, soleRebels is helping make the world a better place, one pair of shoes at a time.

Founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu, soleRebels has grown immensely and are now enjoyed by people in over 30 countries. The idea of bringing jobs to her community in Ethiopia has erupted into this amazing footwear company that ethically supports local artisans, sources and creates most of their materials locally, and uses recycled and sustainable ingredients for their beautiful handmade shoes. Their strict fair trade policy is making a big impact on the local economy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Now a multi-million dollar company, soleRebels has even been featured in The New York Times, and in Oprah's O Magazine.
How awesome is it that these are HANDMADE and shipped right from Ethiopia? No way. That is too cool! It makes the little tiny differences and distinctions between each shoe that much cooler and brings in the reality that they were made them just for me. On the left is the tooTOOs Mix, and on the left we have the tooTOOs xxYYY elite. Although I'm a bit partial to stripes and dainty feel of the Mix style, I absolutely adore the grass green color of the xxYYY elites I received! Each pair is made from sustainable organic cotton uppers and recycled tires soles that grip the ground quite well. These flats are not made with just any cotton. It's hand spun Abyssininian heritage organic cotton that showcases traditions and culture that are still thriving through soleRebels!

As a self proclaimed flats junkie, I could also tell right from the get-go that these were well-made, and thoughtfully designed. Plenty of toe room for my wide feet, curved construction in all the right places, and a comfortable foot bed are just a few features that I love from soleRebels. The designs are awfully unique, colorful and fashion-forward that really make soleRebels stand out. The heel and side construction is sturdy and thick, allowing you to easy slide your feet in without holding up the back of the heel. Despite the solid body of the shoes, they are still relatively lightweight, and the comfy foot bed makes you forget you're even wearing any shoes.

When you order your soleRebels, you can print out the size chart available to ensure that you order the correct size. I would recommend going just a 1/2 size smaller than your normal size. These arrived in the size recommended by the size chart (a 7.5 although I'm normally a 9), but ended up being about a whole size too small and an 8.5 would be the correct size. However, Bethelehem at soleRebels is amazing and will be sending me the larger sizes soon! I still had no problem squeezing in them for a few photos to show you just how darn cute they look on!
Creativity drives the talented artisans of soleRebels to create these unique designs that not only make a statement, but make you feel like a million bucks. Both pairs of shoes are incredibly comfortable and quite possibly the best-fitting ballet flats I've ever owned! With a 100% satisfaction guarantee, free shipping worldwide, and your support going to such a well-meaning fair trade footwear company, you can't go wrong with soleRebels.

Price: tooTOOs Mix - $60, tooTOOs xxYYY elite - $60
 
Want a chance to win your own? Come back to my blog from October 22-31 during the Fair Trade Giveaway Hop for your chance to win one of two pairs of soleRebels tooTOOs in my giveaway!

 
Disclosure: Thank you soleRebels for providing the mentioned products to facilitate this review for free. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.