Herb Scissors

I was excited to try these, it seemed like a good idea. However, these were poorly made and broke after only a few uses. The handle came right off. They never cut very well anyway. Perhaps someone else makes a better one, but I wouldn't buy these.
https://www.giveawayservice.com/p/q0h5c2o1/t4f3v3t5

Another Review for You!

I promise you I do other things besides review products! I also homeschool my two girls. I may post about that sometime. But, for now, I have another item that I wanted to tell you about that I was sent for free to review. It's an armband extender.

OOOHH!!!!!!

AAHHHH!!!!!

OHHHH!!!!!


I know, right? Totally exciting!


Ok, maybe not real exciting, but it is a handy little item to have! I got an armband cellphone holder (also through a review offer) a few weeks ago. However, when I wore it, it felt like I was losing all circulation in my arm.

NOT FUN!

So, I put that little puppy up and away. Then, I received this offer and thought I'd give it a try again. Well, this has made a big difference in how the armband fits! It is so much more comfortable now! The extender is made of the same material as my original armband, although they are from two different companies. There were no directions on the box, so I wasn't crazy about that. But, it's not a complicated product to figure out (you know, after you do it the wrong way two times.....) http://www.amazon.com/Armband-Extension-Iphone-Samsung-Armbands/dp/B00XPUC834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442057066&sr=8-1&keywords=red+star+tec+armband+extender

Vegetable Spiralizer

I received this vegetable spiralizer at a discount in exchange for writing a review and blog post about it.
The first time I tried this, I used carrots. That did not work out really well at all. I think the carrots are just too hard for this machine to work properly. It took me about 5 minutes to get through one carrot. It was frustrating and I was ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Then, I got it back out again last week and tried some potatoes. i was going to make mashed potatoes and was hoping this would help them cook quickly because I had decided on mashed potatoes kind of late into my supper preparations. I didn't have much hope, since this had worked so poorly for carrots. I was pleasantly surprised though at how quickly this whipped right through the potatoes. I was able to prepare enough potatoes for five people in just a minute or two. I think the softer vegetable really made a difference. And, this did make a big difference in the cook time of the potatoes. They cooked up quickly and didn't require much mashing since they were so thinly sliced. They tasted great too. 

 I do find the handle and the lever to move the contraption very awkward to use. The whole thing stays secure to the countertop with four suction cups. It is rather hard to unstick them when you are done though. The whole thing is a bit of a pain to wash up, so I'm really not sure if this is something I will be using very often.

Making Soap With Neem Oil

 The other day, I decided to make some soap with some neem oil that I received for free from Amazon in exchange for testing it out and writing a post and review. I have never used neem oil before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew it had a strong scent, but I was unprepared for HOW strong it was! It may be a case of just growing accustomed to it, that may come in time. Anyway, I did some Google searching and decided to make some soap. Neem oil is suppose to help skin conditions, which we have some of in this family. I like to make hot process soap, instant gratification and all. Let me tell you, if you think neem oil smells bad when cold, it gets much worse when you heat it up!!! However, once the soap was finished the smell was barely noticeable. I also put lavender essential oil in the soap once it was finished. So, it smells really good now. So far I am really liking the soap. It's a harder bar than some of the soap I've made in the past, which means it lasts longer. That's always a plus. The soap is quite gentle and cleans well. It doesn't foam up too much, but enough. I haven't noticed it it's helping with any of the skin conditions (skin yeast rashes mostly), but I'm hopeful. Overall, I really like this oil, except for the smell! I am no soap making expert, but this is the recipe I came up with, you will want to double check it before using it yourself:

Neem Oil Soap

22.17 ounces of Coconut Oil (76 degree)
38.01 ounces of Olive Oil (Pomace)
3.17 ounces of Neem Oil
9.05 ounces of Lye
21.13 ounces of water

Look up ways to make soap before attempting this, you can't just mix it all up or you will get hurt. There are tons of crockpot soap tutorials out there. This is the one I started with: http://chickensintheroad.com/house/crafts/how-to-make-soap
This recipe will fit in a rectangular cake pan. I oil the pan before I poor the soap in to make it easier to get out later. 

UnReal Candy- meh

Disclaimer: I received coupons for a free candy bar through BuzzAgent. This is my honest review of the candy.


I was pretty excited to be part of the Unreal Buzzagent campaign. I had seen the candy at Walgreens and wanted to try it, but I'm too cheap to pay full price. So, I eagerly awaited the arrival of my coupons. There was only one coupon for a free candy bar and then several others for buy one get one free. Since, I wanted to try them all, we used some of those to purchase as well.

I let both of  my daughters pick out one they wanted and then we just decided to buy one of each to try them out and we'd all share. We ripped them open as soon as we got to the car and took a bite.  Even though we all had a different version of the candy, we all had the same expression. Not quite yuck, but definitely not YUM either! It was palatable and that's about it. We couldn't quite put our finger on the problem, but the candy is definitely lacking in the good flavor department.

We decided to sample all the versions before reaching a final decision. We all agreed that the M&Ms version was the best and the Reeses version was a VERY big disappointment. (seriously, have these people ever eaten a real Reeses????)

I love the idea behind this candy, all real ingredients, no corn syrup, no preservatives, no hydrogenated oils, but I really doubt I'd buy this again. I'm disappointed, because I really wanted to like this! How someone can go so wrong with chocolate, I will never know.

Disney Countdown

I was looking for a fun countdown idea for Disney World. So, I turned to Pinterest and found some cute ideas with scrapbook paper and little suction cups with numbers on them (similar to what's sold in this Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/66744778/countdown-to-disney-vacation-frame-made)
 I decided to take the tag and suction cup idea and make something for us.

First, I went into Picasa and found of my favorite pictures of us at Disney I resized it to a 5x7 and then added text to it.  I've always liked the phrase: Been there, done that, going again! So, I used that.

I had it printed out at Meijer for about .90.

My original plan was to put suction cups ($1/12 at Dollar Tree) on the outside and hang paper tags ($1.99 for 100 at Walmart) from them that I wrote numbers on. (similar to the one in the Etsy shop). However, when I tried that, the tags kept falling off, which got frustrating. So, after a bit of brainstorming, I decided to forget the tag and just write on the glass with a dry erase marker. Unfortunately, that didn't show up. So, with a rare stroke of genius, I decided to stick one of the tags to the picture with some tape and then write on the glass over the tag with the dry erase marker.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out! 

The whole thing didn't cost me much at all.
Picture- .90
Frame- $1.00 (I got it on clearance)
Hang Tags- $1.99 (you could easily make one yourself though)
Dry Erase Marker- these were free for me, there was a rebate.

A cute customized Disney countdown for less than $5.

Time 4 Learning

Arminda has been using the Time 4 Learning for 8th grade for the past few days. She is enjoying it, but we are both frustrated that we can't figure out how to customize her curriculum. I would like to have her skip some of the activities that she already knows, but I can't figure out how to do it.

I use http://www.theheadoftheclass.com with my 3rd grader, and it is SO customizable. I can change things easily on that site, and I can give her assessments every few months and the site will automatically adjust her curriculum to skip activities she has mastered and repeat ones she needs more work on. I expected at least as much from Time4Learning as I can do with a free program.

I will keep looking to see if there is a way to customize (or if anyone reading this knows of a way, please let me know!) and I'll update the post.

Update: There doesn't seem to be a way to change her curriculum online to skip activities or repeat ones I feel she needs more work on. But, each assignment has a number that I can look up and have her input that into a box (I think!) to have her repeat the lesson. I'm not sure how that works with skipping lessons, I may have to give her a list of just the assignment numbers I would like her to complete and have her put the numbers in.  We love this program, but I find this extremely inconvenient.
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As a member of Time4Learning, I have been asked to review their online education program and share my experiences. While I was compensated, this review was not written or edited by Time4Learning and my opinion is entirely my own. Write your own curriculum review or learn how to use their curriculum for homeschool, after school study or summer learning.