The Guavalicious Life

Every once in awhile a random no longer cool catchphrase pops into my head and I CAN NOT STOP SAYING IT. Even I know it’s rather annoying. My poor husband has been treated to way too much #winning this week. I am saying it with a sarcastic tone but it doesn’t make it any less dorky. So the theme of my Friday Favorites is WINNING!

1. We’re all about whole foods in this household but sometimes we need a healthy packaged food for car trips and morning runs to the gym. Lately I am loving the new Milk Bite milk and granola bars from Kraft. The girls and I tried some samples (c/o of Kraft) and they are crazy about the strawberry ones. Unlike most packaged foods, they contain no preservatives or artificial colors. And the girls can open them on their own. Winning. They are in the refrigerated aisle and cost $3.49 for a box of five. That $3.50 is well worth another thirty minutes of sleep.

2. We’re on vacation this week and we spent the first three nights at a Hyatt Place. I could totally live in the room we had. It’s huge with a separate (sleeper) sofa hang out area, an office area, and sleeping area. This would be a great place to stay with the girls on our weekend jaunts. And it is so going to be my work travel hotel of choice. The only thing that bugged me was the lack of bathtub. At least the Earth is #winning.

3. My new hostess gift? Marshmallow BonBons. I don’t think that is the actual name of them. But it’s what I call the treats I received c/o of Marshmallow Mischief. You are almost guaranteed that the person you gift these to has not had them before. The flavors are deliciously luscious (and licious! check out the Gingerlicious (Cinnamon + Candied Ginger)!)

4. I am going to get real here and tell you that the one thing I just don’t like about myself is my skin. My Irish heritage didn’t give me a good start and my laziness isn’t helping. Naturally I have tried every skin product under the sun. Some of them work, some of them don’t but few of them get a fair shake because I just don’t have the time to stick to it. That’s why I love the Murad Intensive Resurfacing Peel so much. You can see a difference right away and it is gentle. I break out from someone touching me and it didn’t irritate my skin at all. I received a box c/o of Murad but they are a steal at $45 for four. So worth it!! Trust. You skin will be #winning!

5. Tomorrow I finally get to head to one of my most anticipated SXSWi events: Beauty Bar X. Looking forward to hearing about technology trends in everything from tablets to fashion with some of my fellow female techies. One of the event sponsors is Buyosphere. This beta site finds recommendations for almost any product question. Their mission: “We connect people who know something about stuff, where to find great deals or interesting pieces with people who need to find something that is right for them, but don’t know where to start.” More visual eye candy to get lost in? #Winning!

Not going to lie, it’s been a tough few weeks. But this information in my email box made me smile… FRANKENWEENIE IS COMING TO THE BIG SCREEN. I have always been a huge fan of the Tim Burton short and am delighted that it is being made into a movie by Walt Disney Pictures.

Here’s what it is about: “Frankenweenie,” a heartwarming tale about a boy and his dog. After unexpectedly losing his beloved dog Sparky, young Victor harnesses the power of science to bring his best friend back to life—with just a few minor adjustments. He tries to hide his home-sewn creation, but when Sparky gets out, Victor’s fellow students, teachers and the entire town all learn that getting a new “leash on life” can be monstrous.  It’s going to be a classic stop-motion animated film, but filmed in black and white and rendered in 3D.

So awesome!

Oh holiday road travel, how I dislike you. Some times it feels like I spend more time driving to see various families than I actually spend with family. Now if I was driving with these guys, the time might go by faster.

Unfortunately I can’t take the Muppets with me but I am going to try and get my husband to play this Muppet road trip game with me.

The Muppet Road Trip Game

See if you can spot:

• 5 Kermit green cars
• 1 Person who looks like a relative of Gonzo’s
• 3 People who look like they just stepped off the Electric Mayhem Band bus
• 4 of Miss Piggy’s biggest fans. How can you tell? Easy, they could be: singing to themselves, fixing their hair in the mirror, blowing kisses to you through the window, blowing kisses to themselves in the mirror, bumper stickers that are so funny
• Fozzie Bear would add them to his act
• People wearing suits they stole from Statler and Waldorf
• 3 Cars that are so patriotic, Sam the Eagle just might be driving them

Bonus:

• Sing the chorus of “Mahna Mahna” or “Rainbow Connection” at a red light or while driving through a tunnel
• Find a license plate from Smalltown, USA (or at least one that is red, white and blue)
• Find the letters of Disney’s “The Muppets” in license plates

Totally excited that there’s going to be a new chapter in the Tangled story. The new short film is about the royal wedding of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Flynn Rider – a.k.a Eugene – (Zachary Levi) and airs in front of each screening of Beauty and the Beast in 3D, which opens January 13th.

Synopsis:
“Tangled Ever After picks up where Tangled left off. The Kingdom is in a festive mood as everyone gathers for the royal wedding of Rapunzel and Flynn. However, when Pascal and Maximus, as flower chameleon and ring bearer, respectively, lose the gold bands, a frenzied search and recovery mission gets underway. As the desperate duo tries to find the rings before anyone discovers that they’re missing, they leave behind a trail of comical chaos that includes flying lanterns, a flock of doves, a wine barrel barricade and a very sticky finale. Will Maximus and Pascal save the day and make it to the church in time? And will they ever get Flynn’s nose right?”

I really love the Disney trend of debuting new shorts before films. The girls get excited about seeing the characters they love and then I get to introduce them to the characters I love.

As I wrote about in one of my BlogHer posts, I don’t get a lot of invites to blogging events. When you live in a town of 100,000 getting together with your friends pretty much is a blogging event. So when I do get invited to an event it is usually two hours away in St. Louis or Kansas City. I usually mull it over, look at my schedule, check with my husband, and generally go through an elaborate “should I go or should I not go” process.

Except when Hallmark calls. They got an immediate yes, scheduling be dammed.

I am not a particularly touchy feely person. But Hallmark has gotten me with their latest campaign, Moments Between the Milestones. As you may have picked up from my blog posts and tweets life with the girls can be a little chaotic. We don’t get many card perfect moments around here. So I love that Hallmark is encouraging us to celebrate those perfectly imperfect moments and little milestones that comprise daily life.

Let’s just say I may have cried a few times during the event.
But really how can you not cry when you are presented with a video like this?
(mine is the second moment shared and you can see the girls are babies)

We also sparked our creativity with a writing exercise that was about defining what makes our own families unique and what our traditions are. The prompt is here and I encourage you to give it a go. Hallmark also has a capture of the event here.

I want to share a bit of the Hallmark experience with you so I pulled together some of the goodies they gave us for a mini care package for one reader. If you would like to win it, just leave a comment with your favorite moment between the milestones.

Ten gold stars to the person who comments first correctly as to where they think I recognized this couple from.

Up and Over It! are my new obsession!

website / Facebook page / Twitter

What’s making you happy this Sunday?

I sent this to draft purgatory on Friday instead of publishing. I blame my BlogHer addled brain.

TGIF, am I right? This week has been rough. I have been recovering from being Hit by the BlogHer Bus, but these are the five things that have made it better…

1) The Universe because it blessed me with cooler weather this week which meant I could take my kids to the park instead of sitting in the house going stir crazy. It also came through on the luck side Wednesday when my dog was hit by car (which kept going by the way, jerk). Why is that lucky you might ask? Because she walked away with just two gashes and a concussion (and a $200 vet bill, again jerk!)

2) The Mother Company: I met this company in the BlogHer expo and was instantly enchanted. I was able to take home a copy of The Feelings Show and the girls love it as much as I thought they would. And it’s totally different, in a very good way, than any other show they watch. It reminds me of Mr. Rogers. You just feel better after watching it. Now I really want to get the Lucy Ladybug and Sid Snail dolls for the girls.

3)  Paper Culture: What can make a girl leave a ticket blaster booth and race across an expo? Well if you’re this girl the answer is paper. I was already a fan of Paper Culture so it was a privilege to talk to one of the founders. I love, love, love this company. They partner great design with a serious environmental commitment so I feel not an ounce of guilt about sending real mail to friends. Perhaps to get me to stop gushing and mosey along they told me to take whatever I wanted from their sample cards. So this week when I was feeling tech overdosed I was able to write cards to friends in the offline world. Viva full mailboxes!

4)  Lara bars: I bought a whole stock of these to use at BlogHer forgetting just how much food was available at all times. So I came home with all of them. They’ve been keeping me going all week since I am too lazy to go to the grocery store.  I started eating these after doing the Cinch diet and they are by far my favorite meal bar. They taste great and I recognize all the ingredients. They’re not cheap at a $1 a bar (and that’s the sale price) but they are so worth it.

5) My husband: He’s been amazingly tolerant of the messy house, brain fogged me, and swag covering our dining room table. His birthday was on Wednesday and he didn’t even seem to mind my lame cake and the fact that I was asleep when he got home from watching the US vs Mexico friendly. Love.

So I haven’t really gone into the swag yet. What they say about the swag is true. There’s a lot of it. And it’s mainly stuff you want to take home. Even this year with me being selective, I still filled a suitcase and carry on just with swag. And gave two bags to my cousin and left a bag for the swag exchange. What I don’t to be true is that all the swag is aimed towards moms. There were only a few companies in the expo hall that were aimed specifically towards kids.

Which left me wondering if I was going to have to make a pit stop at the airport gift store. My girls do not expect gifts but bringing them helps assuage my guilt at being gone for five days. Fortunately the awesomeness known as the Big Toy Book Sweet Suite had send me an invite to their party during BlogHer. And wow did they do it up this time. Enough that I decided to do my New Toy Thursday post about it.

We entered a kids’ fantasy: a huge room filled with toys and plates of cupcakes. Lucky for us, there weren’t any kids there to hog the toys. Plus we got champagne to go with the cupcakes. There’s not much that can distract me from free champagne but the following toys managed.

I started off the with Hex Bugs which I am totally fascinated with. The girls love the squigglyness of them but they are just a bit too young for the habitats. Too bad because I loved the fold up and go ones especially with the carousels that catch them and send them off in different directions. I also absolutely adored the big spiders and am totally jealous that Fadra managed to snag some. But my biggest squee was over the special holiday bugs that are coming at Halloween (glow in the dark) and Christmas (reindeer bugs with detachable ears!)

What could distract me from the Hex Bugs? How about fairies that capture light? Lite Sprites are new on the market and look like your stereotypical fairy toy. Until you see them light up. You can use a light wand to capture colors from your world and transfer it into Lite Sprite world. Be sure to check out their website for the full explanation. By the way, the nerd in me loves that their favicon changes colors like the Lite Sprites.

Other standouts for me were the Briarpatch puzzles and games. I mean games based on my girls’ favorite books… what’s not to like? They also produce I Spy Wonder Tubes filled with glitter that are perfect for younger kids like my girls. They can try and spot certain items or just watch them float around. Imperial Toy couldn’t get rid of me. That’s what happens when you fill your booth with squishy bugs, bubble guns, and mini aliens. Just look at the fun we were having. I also made a custom bracelet with Shains and checked out their plastic line for my niece and the metal line for myself.

If trying out hot toys wasn’t enough, they also sent us away with amazing swag bags filled with toys. In the bag was an adorable Disney Baby Princess doll. As much as I hated to let go of my favorites, I traded away my Hex Bugs for an extra doll to bring home to the girls. I think it was worth it. I mean babies and princesses, it’s like they were specially made Calamity Jane and Desmonda Drama. They haven’t let go of them since. I do question Baby Ariel though… shouldn’t she have a mermaid tail instead of legs?

So there you have it, my wrap up of the Big Toy Book Sweet Suite. There were actually many more vendors than this. I skipped the video games since we didn’t have a system and I couldn’t get near the Leapfrog table. A standout that I didn’t spend much time with was the solar powered cars. And there wasn’t someone manning the booths but I really liked the dolls from Adora and of course the Penguin Books with matching stuffed animals. If you want to be in the know yourself, follow Big Toy Book on Twitter and check out their blog. If you have a kid seven or older get them signed up for KidzVuz where they can make comments on toys, post reviews, and essentially put me out of a job.

My digital inbox posts usually consist of the press releases and emails that find their way into my inbox but this week I also wanted to highlight some cool sites and apps that I learned about at BlogHer. if you haven’t read one of my digital inbox posts before, welcome to a random assortment of the cool and the weird!

From the In Box:

I very rarely get Disney press releases so I am very happy I got one about the Discover What You Treasure sweepstakes. Disney and Verizon have partnered together to send the grand prize winner and three family members on a five day vacation to Walt Disney World Resort where they will spend one special night at the Cinderella Castle Suite in the Magic Kingdom. Awesome huh?

New Site Directory B is doing something I have thought about: creating a directory of blogs by geographic region. Love it! The site hasn’t launched yet but you can learn more here.

The amazing conference I spoke at last year, #140Conference SmallTown, is happening again this year in Hutchinson, KS. If you’re anywhere close by, or even if you’re not, you should consider going. It’s the most diverse conference I have ever attended. I think we can learn more from the people not like us, yes? Early bird registration is only $100 but it ends Friday so get on it.

Cool Websites I Learned About at BlogHer:

FoozKids: I haven’t had much time to play around with this but I really like the idea of creating an internet within an internet for younger kids. Add in activities and I am sold. I will report back on what the girls thought!

HomeSav: Yes, yet another deals site. But this one is focused on the home and somehow I fell less guilty about spending money on decor and household items. So yes, awesome. Sign up here and I get a referral bonus. Not sure what it is, I was too dazed from the London Mansion dollhouse. I also don’t feel guilty when I buy things for my kids. Convenient, no?

GoPicnic: These are basically green, shelf stable Lunchables. That taste really good. I got one at a party and intended to eat it at the airport since I figured it would make the perfect carry on meal. Of course I forgot about ti and instead survived my flights with chocolate, airline issued peanuts, and Heinekens procurred with soon to expire drink coupons. But come afternoon snack time today the girls and I hit the swag (dining room) table for a snack and settled on the GoPicnic Peanut Butter crackers meal. At 430 calories it would make a full meal and was perfect for a split snack. I am definitely a fan and will be ordering a few as healthy lunch back ups. If you want to get some too you can get 10% off by entering code FLIP10 at checkout.

Paper And Cake: I have no idea how I found out about this cool company at BlogHer. Was it at a party? Did I meet the owner at an event? Who knows. What I do know is that these downloadable printable party kits are going to make planning the girls’ next party a snap. Plus I heart the name.

Since I had the girls, the only cleaners allowed in my house are natural ones. I was already turning into a hippie before they arrived but once I discovered that anything a notch above mild made them turn into red balls of rash, our cabinets underwent a serious cleaning out. However, green cleaning products can get expensive. Sometimes I feel like I have to take out a second mortgage to buy some of them.

So when my frugal mother-in-law recommened Bon Ami to me, I was thrilled. Not had powdered cleanser been the one green thing I couldn’t find, the ingredients were earth friendly and it cost just under a dollar. Then I discovered they are a Missouri company. As a localvore, I really try to make an effort to buy as many local products as possible. I was finally able to give up my secret Comet addiction and show some state pride at the same time.

The powdered cleanser I fell in love with was originally developed in the 1880s as a gentle alternative to the gritty quartz-based scouring powders on the market. And now Bon Ami pays homage to that heritage with their cute retro packaging. I admit it, I am lured in by a pretty label.  But how can you resist that cute chick?

I recently emailed Bon Ami to profess my love and talk to them about a Missouri project I am working on. They were sweet enough to send me a set that included my beloved powder, their all purpose cleanser, and a very cool limited edition cake cleaner. I was ashamed to say I didn’t even know they made items besides the powder. But I am thrilled to say that I was an instant fan. The products are simple, no frou frou lemongrass tea scents or fancy coloring. Simple is the way to go evidently because they work great.

Want to try them out for yourself? Bon Ami is giving one of my readers a set of products. To enter, just leave a comment letting me know you checked out the Bon Ami Facebook page.  Really want the set (and who could blame you?) You can like my Facebook page, follow me on Google Friend Connect, and on Twitter. One additional entry for each. Just leave me a comment for each one. Giveaway will run through Sunday the 19th at 11:59pm. Good luck! And thank you for reading!

Disclosure: Bon Ami sent me the three cleaning products pictured. I was not compensated in any other way for this post. Opinions are always my own. And yes, I really am this big of a nerd about cleaning products.