Happy Mother’s Day!
In honor of this fine day, Body Bark (read my review here) is offering you a 20% discount in honor of Mother’s Day. There is a special the discount code “Faithandfamily” that can be entered in the promotion field while shopping at www.BodyBark.com. The code is only good through May 13. Hope all you moms treat yourselves to some Body Bark for Mother’s Day!
I have vacation on the brain! This is just a quick travel tip because it always annoys me that I never have anything appropriate to carry knives in while traveling. Plastic bags aren’t safe nor to they hold up if the knife goes through the bag. You may wonder why I would even travel with a knife, it is to cut up fruit especially and occasionally veggies. I do have a bread knife that has a cardboard sheath, but I do not usually need a bread knife while traveling unless we take homemade bread. More likely than not we just stop at a grocery store at our destination and pick up bread so it is not squished beyond belief.
Back to knives, there’s a neat little product on the market called the Quick Split that solves the safety issue of traveling with knives.
Benefits:
– portable
– faster
– easier to use
– has a snap on “child proof” cover to keep mess contained while traveling, but a simple rinse with water would make it good as new
– attaches to a key ring holder in diaper bag
– dishwasher safe
– super quality BPA free plastic – bonus!
– stainless steel
– made in the USA
It looks just like a pizza cutter. My daughters used it for lunch the other day when we got it and found it was great for carrots, but the other fruit or veggie they found difficult.
This is a patented gadget and is the first of its kind on the market! Definitely fills a need in our house for traveling!
Feel free to connect with Quick Split on their website or Facebook.
Enter the Giveaway!
“I received a Quick Split to review as a part of my participation in a MomPact.com campaign. Quick Split has been invented by moms, for moms.”
My photo taken from my iPhone.
On Saturday at Brandcation we went to Adventures Unlimited in Milton, Florida. They have been in business for 36 years! They own 88 acres of beautiful land, with even an old school house that was renovated into overnight accommodations. They bought it at an auction, moved it to their property and fixed it up! Would have loved to have seen that! And as their name denotes: they have Adventures Unlimited. A relatively new activity, which they added two years ago, is fast becoming one of their most popular activities – Zip lining!
This was our zip line group. Everyone from my condo, plus Joy from Joyful Musings:
We spent the whole day there with Adventures Unlimited providing us a box lunch – yummy! The morning we spent zip lining. I admit I am not very adventurous and was really hesitant about even going to Brandcation because of zip lining, however, I went on the practice line and nearly took my arms out of their sockets due to panicking 🙁 Seriously, one of the guides warned me if I did what I did by grabbing the line he’d have to ground me. Not sure if that was said just to discourage me from panicking again or if he was serious. By the way the guides were both great. Courteous, ready to assist with gear etc.
The problem with my zipping is that there is a technique to braking on the line and let’s just say I did not have it down after one trip down the practice line. Even though my legs shook and my tummy churned, I walked to the first big line. Let’s just say it was high…
This was the first zip line “tower”:
Let’s just say that when Sheila made her way back down the spiral stairway, I did too. If I nearly jerked my arm out of joint on the practice run, what would I do on the larger runs? Nah-uh, not for me. If I could do anything again, it would be the practice run because seriously it wasn’t too high and maybe I could eventually learn how to brake with my hand, right? Thankfully, the owner was very understanding, saying it wasn’t for everyone. He offered to take Sheila and I down to the river to see our group when they came in from the nine zip lines they were doing that day. Sheila declined but I went and it was so peaceful. I could hear the lines “zipping” and the surroundings were beautiful. I just loved being out in God’s wonderful creation. I took pictures of the river and got video footage of our whole group zipping on the last line.
This is of Denise, the first one to zip this line.
The majority of ladies thoroughly enjoyed the zip lining, even those who had a fear of heights. They were the ones who felt empowered because they had overcame their fears. The last 900 ft line was the best from what I heard and many wanted to do that one again and again!
The afternoon we spent on the river tubing 4 miles. It was so much fun! I loved chatting with the ladies, laughing at myself as I flopped on and off my tube and racing with Paula and Maryann – they were the “Queens” of the river! 😉 We maneuvered stumps, shallow water, an island and rocks – more adventures and sore shoulders! But I loved it because I love nature and the water, which was a refreshing 70 degrees.
My photo taken with my iPhone.
It truly was a wonderful day and it was awesome of Adventures Unlimited to sponsor our day! Feel free to connect with them at their website, Facebook or Twitter.
Other photos courtesy of Brandy Goleman Photography
This was the first time I visited Organic Valley’s Website! Shame on me, right!?
We are all trying to keep our families happy and healthy, well Organic Valley will help. They have a fantastic website and even two apps for Apple devices (Organic Valley and Organic Moo Can), they are FREE and you can download them from Organic Valley’s Site! **Sorry, they don’t have it for Android at this time**
On this site you can Find your Farmer, Organic Valley Products, Recipes, Reason to Choose Organic Products, and more. Organic Valley’s website is full of wonderful information.
Head to the Tab “Community” – on the right you can a subscribe section. Enter your email and zip code. It will then take you to where you can sign up for newsletters and the “Farm Friends Welcome kit” – “The Kit contains Rootstock Magazine, a Kid’s Activity Booklet, a Go Organic! bumper sticker, and a booklet of useful Organic Valley coupons.” Sound good to me!
Head to Organic Valley and start your next organic journey!
Surf Burger
After our Blogger Olympics, we ate dinner at Surf Burger. It was so funny because being the social media mavens that we are all of us could be seen with our phones tweeting, posting to Facebook and Four Square what we were doing! I had their Surf Chick, which came with their stick fries and a grilled chicken sandwich. It was very good. The service was friendly and very hospitable too.
Brandcation would not have been possible without all the awesome sponsors our hosts worked with in providing so many of our activities. So I hope you will join me in giving them some social media love.
Event Sponsors:
Adventures Unlimited: Post coming up this afternoon, but we spent all day Saturday here on a beautiful piece of property! In the air and in the water…
Portofino Island Resort: Which I already posted about here.
Dunkin Donuts: Sadly, I don’t think I ate a single Dunkin Donuts bagel, but I hear they were delish!
Jambu: They sponsored our Blog Olympics which I posted here.
Hotel Coupons: A great place to save money and start planning your next trip!
Circle PR: Thanks to these ladies we got to see dolphins in real time.
Dole: Fruit breakfasts thanks to Dole.
Star Gazing: This was amazing and would have been the coolest homeschool field night! Dewey even had an accessory that allowed us to connect our iPhones to the telescope to take photos and videos of the moon!
Brandy Goleman Photography
Swag Sponsors:
After dinner at Surf Burger, we all gathered in one condo in our pjs for a Swag Party. Jambu Footwear had provided bags and our event hosts had filled them up with goodies from all the sponsors listed below. There were some oooos and ahhhhhs as well as a few squeeeeees as things were handed out! (Right, Jenn? ;-)) I haven’t even tried everything yet.
Brandy Goleman Photography
Sorry for the red eye, tried editing and I blackened whole heads!
Mogo Charm
Tervis Water Bottle – This kept my water for hydration on the river while tubing
Capsul Cases
The Village Company
Hasbro
Kidz Bop – My little ones are loving rockin’ to this.
Carex – Definitely a handy little kit to have in the medicine cabinet.
Lush Gourmet Foods – They’ve got yummy sugar coated nuts!
Nivea – My daughter and I haggled over the lip glosses.
Lady Fortunes
Pami Pocket – I ditched the little compact wallet I took to Florida for this, as it was perfect to hold my cell, cash and identity during all of the fun activities over the weekend.
Island Def Jam Records
Ayala’s Herbal Water
Wikki Stix – My son got these and is very excited!
Phone Fetcher – This looks like a cool product, can’t wait to put it to good use!
Page Stationery – I love any kind of stationary and ours was personalized with our blog name!
Cereusart
Annemarie Gianni Skin Care
Veri Peri Sauces
Twin Cottage Industries – Amazing handcrafted items!
Kids Gear – My children love the headphones I brought home and I’m lovin’ the peace it brings so I can write! 😉
Smart Mouth
Sacs of Life
Bright Star Kids
KleenSlate – This is a fun little paddle shaped wipe off board.
EAD Designs – These are terrific and I can’t wait to find homes for them!
Wahmies Eats – These were great! I really want to get some casserole covers to save on foil and plastic wrap.
Blue Orange Games – One of my daughter’s snagged the game we received and she and her siblings have been playing it!
DVO Enterprises – Provided a recipe software that organizes your recipes! Can’t wait to get this implemented!
Wordlock – A cool word lock.
Pampers – Provided us with a thing of wipes and a coupon some diapers! They sponsored Tiffany.
Two of my roomies, Sheri and Colleen.
Giveaway Sponsors:
Rubbermaid
Etching Expressions
Belkin – Great little portable charger that I gave to my husband for his cell phone.
Velvet Pepper
Frangelico
Tiny Love
Atlantic Luggage – This piece looked awesome and was incredibly light!
Drama Queen Bows
Photos are mine taken with my iPhone, except the full view of the Jambu bags and the first photo of the swag party those are Brandy’s, since I left our Nikon home…good thing too because I didn’t have much time to take photos!
Thank you to all of the above sponsors for taking an interest in 32 bloggers who went coastal in Pensacola, Florida! We appreciate all you gave to make this event possible!
I was one of the last ones to arrive at Brandcation on Friday afternoon. There were about four of us who were latecomers. After we arrived it was basically time to start Blogger Olympics. We were all put on teams in advance according to condos. 4 condos = 4 teams. I was on Lynsey’s team, Beachin’ Bloggers in blue, along with my other condo mates. Then the other three teams were: Trisha’s team was SEO’s in white, Kim’s team Ladybugs in red (they had adorable red wings even!) and Nicole/Blondie’s team Snark Attack in pink. Our four team leaders are also the fabulous women behind this event.
Photos courtesy of Brandfluential and Brandy Goleman Photography, our photographer for the weekend.
We did everything from a digital scavenger hunt to building White House sand castles, water relay, a hula hoop competition (my teammate Denise won that one! Yay! She rocked!) to the Hawaiian relay (had to dress in a grass skirt, necklace and coconut bra thingy!)
Jenn, my teammate, getting read for Hawaii!
We laughed, cheered and I even chased Alison to try and get a photo of her fruity drink for the digital scavenger hunt. Just plain old fun!
In the end, the SEO’s won. Runner ups in order: Snark Attack, Ladybugs and Beachin’ Bloggers. We were last, but hey that didn’t affect our level of fun!
A sheep trophy was awarded to the winning team, the rest of us received a Brandcation medal for our prize.
You are going to be hearing a lot about Brandcation. We had amazing sponsors and all of us really want to show our appreciation to each and everyone of them. Jambu Footwear was the main sponsor of the Blogger Olympics. Check out their snazzy footwear and please consider following them on Twitter and Facebook too.
Nudge your kids with a Nudge Tee that is! So, what has your child accomplished on their own? Brushing their teeth? Making their Bed? Feeding an animal? Reading or writing? Celebrate with them! For $20.00 you can praise their efforts, and by wearing one of these tees they can let everyone else know of their good doings!
Guess what! They have them in adult sizes also! If your husband’s like mine and doesn’t like washing dishes. Get him a shirt that says “I wash dishes”! lol……! I Love You, Honey!
My Review:
Here’s the shirt my daughter received from Nudge Tees.
Granted we are still working on this, but she’s getting better. I would have shown my daughter in her new shirt Nudge Tee shirts as my daughter achieves more accomplishments. I love these shirts and what they do to boost my child ego.
Head over to Nudge Tees and encourage your child!
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
Summer is coming, don’t forget your sunscreen!
Growing up I remember using the bottle with a little girl loosing her bottoms to the puppy. Well, here I am years later still using Coppertone for myself and family.
I received a brochure called “Sunderstanding”. It has great information, I’d like to share.
I’ll be updating you periodically on how we are doing with our Coppertone Sunscreen. We’ve really only had one day so far here in NJ where temps were above 70, and I didn’t have my Coppertone Sunscreen then. It’s been rainy and soggy here, so I’ll keep you posted! But, for now you can head to Coppertone’s webpage and print out a coupon or download their MyUV Alert app through Itunes.
I’m very excited about being selected to be Coppertone Water MOM!
Thank you Coppertone and MomSelect!
“As a member of the Coppertone Water MOMS group, I receive product samples and promotional items to share and use as I see fit. No monetary compensation has taken place and any opinions expressed by me are honest and reflect my actual experience”
I had a lovely weekend away at Brandcation in Florida. We stayed at Portofino Island Resort and it was beautiful! The white sand beaches, the clear water and gorgeous views of the “Sound” (kind of like a bay but not, and it’s what is shown in the photos of this post) and the Gulf of Mexico. I had never been to this part of Florida before and would love to go back again….with my family so they can experience all that I did! As it was I was texting my husband, sending photos and videos so they all could see what I was seeing.
The resort not only had beach access, but a outdoor water park right in the water at the beach area and each one of the five towers had their own pools. There was also a spa and cafe/restaurant on site as well.
Portofino Island Resort was spectacular. It was clean, snazzy and the service was excellent. Truly topnotch accommodations. For 32 bloggers we had four rooms with eight women in each. Each room had three bedrooms and each bedroom had its own bathroom, I think, at least ours did! We also had a walk-in closet and the master bedroom had an even larger bathroom and walk-in closet! Then there was the living room/dining room, a kitchen and laundry room. Very spacious.
Even though we did not have time to use all of the amenities offered, it is definitely a place I would visit again.
Check them out on the web, Facebook and Twitter.
All photos are mine, unless otherwise stated. I was too lazy to watermark them! And in the words of my daughter, please do not steal them! If those that steal photos even read blog posts!
Mother’s Day is coming! What a better way to celebrate than to receive a new shirt celebrating motherhood! Head over to PeaceLoveMom and get one today!
They have a variety of shirts and other products, including short and long sleeve shirts, tank tops, even Maternity! In addition, PeaceLoveMom also has accessories and kids and baby items! Can’t find the perfect gift? They also have gift certificates!
I received this burnout short sleeve shirt. Turquoise is shown here.
My Review:
I received a burnout shirt in a mossy color. For those who are not sure what a burnout shirt is. Here’s a picture.
It’s got a worn out, weathered, vintage look to it. You really can’t tell unless you hold the shirt up. If/when you wear a shirt like this you may want to wear a tank underneath to better cover your undergarments. The weathered look makes the shirt very soft and it’s long enough to keep everything covered.
The shirt says “Peace Love Grateful Mom”, which suites me just fine. As I am VERY grateful to be a Mom!
There are wonderful presents for expecting moms or any moms! Don’t forget Mother’s Day is May 13th! Head over to PeaceLoveMom to order today! Happy Mother’s Day!
Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.
