Category: Product Reviews

(photo by the amazing Mishelle Lane Photography)

Last year at Blissdom, Emily and I were proud to wear Mary Kay makeup on our bright little faces, and this year we wanted to have the same great makeup to carry us through the conference (especially since this time we took a little tiny baby with us and our faces were likely to look a little more tired than usual).  Happily, the wonderful folks who rep Mary Kay at Coyne PR came through for us again, and this time, even helped with an extra project.

You see, despite the fact that I’ve been harping on the benefits of skin care for over three years now, Emily wasn’t LISTENING to me (shocker) and didn’t really have a skin care routine.  Then, a couple weeks before BlissDom she told me that she wasn’t feeling too great about the way her skin looked, and she really wanted it to look better before we hit the road.  So, our Mary Kay team came through for us again and hooked Emily up with my skin care recommendations. These included the TimeWise Miracle Set and Microdermabrasion Set.

These are some amazing products that will help your skin look AMAZING!  The Miracle Set has your cleanser, moisturizer, day and night solutions o use every day and the Microdermabrasion Set has the fabulous, addictive, fine-line-erasing Microderm step 1 and restoring step 2.  I used these about three times a week, in the shower.  Easy as can be, and it helps keep my skin looking fresh!

So, don’t you think Emily looks great in the picture?  She told me she thought her skin was looking better after just three or four days, and was really pleased with how it was looking by the time Blissdom rolled around. (You’re WELCOME, and I TOLD YOU SO.)

So, now that we had skin care covered, we needed some great color on our faces to go with our fab Lands’ End clothes!  We started with great basics, Mary Kay Mineral Powder foundation.  I have been using this for two years and I adore the coverage and how easy and fast it is to apply!  We also tried out some great new products that I am really excited about. The first was this Liquid Illuminator.

This is a really light, sheer liquid that adds a glow to your skin.  I wore it under my foundation but you can wear it alone, mix it with foundation, or even mix it with your moisturizer for a really subtle glow.  It gave me some  extra sparkle and I loved it!

Our other favorite new product was Mary Kay’s new cream eye shadow:

This stuff makes eye shadow so quick and easy to apply!  You can use the brush with it or swipe it on with your fingertips.  It stays on forever and it helps the rest of your eye shadow stay on, too.  I loved it!

Emily and I felt great in our Mary Kay at BlissDom.  And it is still the only thing that touches my face! If you want to try any of these great skin care or makeup products, contact your Mary Kay lady.  If you don’t have one, try mine, she rocks!

Thanks, Mary Kay for hooking us up with such great makeup looks for BlissDom!

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a crappy housekeeper. I mean no one is going to get any diseases from my house but you will find crumbs under the coffee table and a fair amount of dust. I don’t “deep clean”.  Like, ever. I have these lovely shelves on my walls with antiques in them and the last time I dusted them was…oh, let me see..1970-NEVER.

So, when Sid and Shannon, owners of EcoMaids of Dayton, asked me to review their service, which would of course require me to receive a free housecleaning, I jumped up and down for JOY!  This is a messy girl’s dream come true!  And I was thrilled with the results! So were my no-longer-dusty shelves:

Isn’t that pretty?

EcoMaids did a fantastic job.  They were so, so thorough – really, my tub and shower have not been this clean since they day they were installed.  They vacuumed, dusted, mopped, cleaned under the burners on my stove, cleaned off my ceiling fans, dusted my woodwork, and all the other things I never do because I just can’t prioritize them.  And, also, because I hate cleaning. 🙂

When I asked Sid what he wanted my readers to know about his company, he simply said that he wants every customer to be completely happy with their services.  I thought that was really impressive!  He didn’t give me a sales pitch to pass along, just expressed his desire to please his customers.  I love it!  But just so you know, here are a few things I like about EcoMaids’ service:

• They do a “green cleaning” with products that are not harmful to the environment, are non-toxic and don’t smell like chemicals.  Our house did not smell like high-powered cleaners when they left. Which means I didn’t have a headache and I didn’t have to worry about Bobby’s asthma being aggravated. Yay!
• They are extremely thorough. They come in with a cleaning checklist and they make sure and check everything off as they go, to make sure no area is missed.  I was very impressed with the attention to detail.
• The staff was courteous and friendly.  They worked around me and the two kiddos I had with me at home and never made us feel like we were in the way or needed to move.
• My house just plain looked wonderful when they left!  Wonderful!  They have this amazing super-powered vacuum cleaner that really made a big difference on my carpets, too.  My stairs always look terrible and now they look GREAT!

I was overwhelmingly pleased with the service EcoMaids of Dayton provided, and I know you will be too!  You can check them out on their Facebook page or website to get a free estimate or schedule a cleaning.  AND…one lucky local Dayton-area reader will win a Kitchen, One Bathroom, One Bedroom cleaning from EcoMaids of Dayton!  Here’s how to enter!  You can have up to three entries!

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me what you most hate to clean

2) Go to EcoMaids of Dayton’s Facebook page and “Like” them, then leave us a comment on this post letting us know you did so!

3) Follow them on twitter @DaytonEcoMaids and then leave us a comment on this post letting us know you did so.

The contest closes on Friday, February 4th at 7 pm EST.  One winner will be chosen at random.  Winner MUST LIVE in EcoMaids of Dayton’s service area to claim their prize.

Good luck, and THANKS EcoMaids of Dayton!

***UPDATE***  Sid from EcoMaids just called me and said that anyone who requests a free estimate from EcoMaids TODAY January 31st, he’ll give $40 off for your first cleaning!  WOW!  So call and get your estimate and your $40 off!

In the last year, my kitchen has undergone major renovation – new appliances, new counter tops, new cabinets, a new paint job (and someday soon, new flooring). It looks incredible and I can’t believe the difference. And I thought it was just fine before! So now I am looking at the rest of my house in a more critical light, and wondering what other “just fine” parts of the house could become “incredible.”

My husband and I aren’t what you might call handy, but since the home improvement bug has bitten us, we are trying to get that way – because really, DIY projects are so much more affordable than paying someone to do the work. For example, the kitchen paint job I mentioned above? We were really hesitant to try to do something even that simple on our own. However, once we got an estimate of $500, we were relieved of our hesitation! Forty dollars in paint and about eight hours of elbow grease (and the help of a very good friend) later, the job was done. So, we’ve decided the only way to become more handy is to jump in and try to figure it out. And watch YouTube videos (which is what I need to do so we can do the new kitchen flooring).

In any case, one room of the house that I’ve been meaning to do something about for a long time (since we moved in four years ago) is the bathroom. The previous owners were somewhat more outdoorsy than we are, and the bathroom contains stenciled moose and pine trees, and is topped off with a pinecone border. There are two other things that drive me nuts about our bathroom, too – the only storage is under the sink, so all our toiletries/vitamins/medicines/curling irons/etc. sit on the counter collecting dust and looking cluttered (which drives me crazy), and the hand-held shower head is a piece of junk and sprays one hard stream of water, so the kids freak out when I wash their hair. Overall, it’s just not really my style, but somehow we’ve just never gotten around to doing anything about it.

However, now I have no excuse not to get on it, though, because between now and February 23, Home Depot is having a “Renew Your Bath” event in an effort to inspire people to redo their bathrooms. The Home Depot offers in-store experts and online tools to provide inspiration, help you decide on what to buy for your new bathroom look and show you how to get it done right. Of course, tons of bathroom stuff is on sale!

Our family took at trip to Home Depot to check out the event over the weekend. I was surprised at what all they had (and what all was on sale!). I immediately wanted to replace our entire sink/cabinet/counter thing, but I suppose that will have to wait for another day. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be a major renovation to make a major difference – renewing a bath can mean adding new lighting, installing a new floor, changing out the toilet, replacing the showerhead or adding a new paint color. Things you can learn on YouTube! We did got a few things that I think will really refresh our house.

Home Depot wants YOU to renew your bath, too, so they’re giving one lucky reader a $100 gift card to get started!

Here’s how to enter:
Required entry: Visit the Redo Your Bath website and leave a comment on this post telling us what you’d get for your bathroom.

Extra entries:
— Tweet about this contest & leave a comment with a link to your tweet. Here’s an example: “Win a $100 #homedepot gift card from @momminitup & @jennyitup!”
— “Like” us on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.

This contest will end at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, January 31. Good luck!

The Home Depot works with bloggers like me to conduct product reviews. They do not tell bloggers what to say about their products or how to say it. The Home Depot fundamentally believes that people should be free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. The Home Depot often provides product – free of charge – to bloggers for review, as they did for this post. The Home Depot’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.