In My Bag

One of the great parts about being a mom is that I always have a reason to go shopping! Before being a mom I only had myself to shop for, and after a while I couldn’t really justify all of those trips to the mall and to Fashion Bug. But when you have not one but two kids, both of whom are toddlers (my daughter is three years and four months old, and my son turned nineteen months old on Tuesday), there is ALWAYS a reason to shop. Baby gear, bath supplies, diapers, wipes, furniture, toys, and clothes. Oh, the clothes! I love being able to go shopping every season for cute and adorable baby clothes (and now childrens clothes, since my daughter is wearing size 5T, and my son isn’t far behind!) for both of my children.

Anyway,  one cute baby apparel site I came across today is sandboxcouture.com. They have designer baby clothes, baby gifts and more! In addition to clothes and gifts, you can also find baby gear and accessories. Right now I’m busy checking out the swimsuits, as Alyssa needs a new one for this summer!

Late at night I often turn on the TV as background noise while I’m working on my blogs, or doing whatever. I see a lot of commercials for colon cleansing, weight loss, debt relief, medicare advantage and more. Of course, I also see some very informative commercials that lead me to make purchases or look into services. Or, in the case of a particular commercial I saw the other night, contact the person on that commercial about a relevant issue going on with my family.

Oy. I’m very sleepy. Why am I up so early??

Larry’s Potatoes come in several varieties, including the one I picked up at the grocery store yesterday, bacon, onion & tomato.

I could write more to this review, but I have a feeling that the following photo speaks volumes:

Generally, when a product advertises its food as having bacon in it, I expect more than three lonely little pieces.

The other potato, which had no bacon on it, was eaten by my three year old daughter before I could snap a picture of it.

So I’m checking out titanium-jewelry.com. As their domain name suggests, they carry a variety of titanium jewelry, including mens wedding bands. When my husband and I were shopping around for our wedding bands, we briefly considered mens wedding bands. The only thing that made us hesitate was the fact that titanium would not match my yellow gold engagement ring. Nor would it go very well with my husband’s white gold engagement ring (yes, I proposed to my husband; a few months after he proposed to me!).

I have never had any type of titanium jewelry, but that doesn’t mean I can’t lust after some of the lovely titanium jewelry that the company has to offer! They have all sorts of jewelry made from titanium, including rings, bracelets, cufflinks, ears, necklaces, and even watches.

If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, simply start browsing! Check out the top fifteen jewelry pieces, or see what’s new. Or simply watch some of the tasteful ad banners that display on the main page, and get inspired.

I was recently sent a sample of shampoo and conditioner by naked naturals. I originally wanted to use the shampoo and conditioner a few times before writing this review, except that my hair is very thick, so even though it’s not much longer than shoulder length, I needed the entire packet of shampoo and conditioner for one wash and conditioning! Anyway, today was the first time that I ever tried a natural shampoo.

The samples (and me, right before hopping in the shower to try them out):

For reference, here is my hair yesterday, about four hours after washing and conditioning it with my normal shampoo and conditioner, Bed Head’s multi-vitamin formula.

And here is my hair today, four hours after washing and conditioning it with Naked Natural’s

According to the products page, Naked Naturals’ line of shampoos and conditioners have only the essential ingredients needed to clean hair naturally and gently, without the use of harsh chemicals or additives. Included in the shampoos and conditioners is a natural plant protein called Keravis, which can make hair up to three times stronger.
In addition, the shampoos and conditioners contain no DEA, TEA, Lauryl, Laureth Sulfates, animal by-products or synthetic fragrances. Best of all, the shampoos and conditioners are not tested on animals!

The shampoo and conditioner I tried was the Awapuhi & Lavender blend, which is geared towards color treated hair. You may have noticed in my photos that the last few inches of my hair are significantly lighter than my natural color. Not only has this hair been colored, but it has been colored and bleached repeatedly for years! Needless to say, that bit of hair is not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. It is dry and coarse, and often catches my hair brushes up.

Overall, I did not notice too much difference between my normal shampoo and conditioner (Bed Head multi-vitamin formula) and the Naked Naturals shampoo and conditioner. However, the one thing that did jump out at me right away was how easy it was to run my brush through the colored ends! Even with the vitamin enriched conditioner I use along with my shampoo, I have trouble getting my brush through the colored ends of my hair. But with the Naked Naturals shampoo and conditioner, I did not have that problem. Also, note how the colored ends seem to gleam a bit in the photo I posted!

Of course, Naked Naturals has one big thing over my typical shampoo and conditioner: the essential ingredients only, without the unnecessary extras.

After doing a quick write up on jenn.nu last week about them, I decided to check out Vista Print and use the coupon code BlogAddress75 and save 75% on an address labels order! Well, for $5.49 I ordered 140 address labels and chose priority shipping. I ordered them last Friday afternoon, and they arrived yesterday (Wednesday).

The address labels themselves are a lot bigger than I realized they would be! Up until this point I have always used address labels that I printed myself, using an Avery template with labels that are 1 3/4″ in length and 1/2″ in height. The return address labels from Vista Print are 2 3/4″ in length and nearly 1″ in height. No biggie - the easier to see, the better they are, I suppose!

My surprise at the larger size aside, I am pleased with the quality of these return address labels, and would definitely order from Vista Print again!

My favorite pillows are the Martha Stewart grandpa pillows my husband and I bought in the late summer of 2004. We had just signed the lease for a small house (renting, obviously), and needed a few household things. Here we are, going on four years later, and we still have those pillows! I wash them every few weeks, and toss them in the dryer in between to give them an extra fluff.
…Though why I bother with the fluffing is beyond me, as Dan pummels his pillow flat, and I scrunch mine up into a wad.