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Get Green and Clean with the Shaklee Get Clean Kit giveaway

April 27, 2013 by Lucrecer 15 Comments

Disclaimer: The Shaklee Corporation provided me with one free Get Clean® Kit to review; my opinions and experiences are my own.

One thing that really sucks about a lot of the cleaning products on the market is the harsh smell and knowing I am flushing a bunch of harmful chemicals down the drain in an effort to keep my home clean. I don’t like that at all. So, I jumped at the opportunity to try out the Shaklee Get Clean Kits. The first thing that blew me way was the amount of cleaning products I received and the quality of them.

The dish washer detergent is a favorite in our home. I don’t know how my children do it, but they manage to dirty tons of cups and silverware in a two hour period. The first thing I noticed about my dishes after they were done cleaning is there was not a white residue all over my dishes. This is a constant problem with my usual dishwasher detergent, so it is nice to have a detergent that gets my dishes clean without me having to clean them a second time.

I also really like the Hand Dish Wash. It takes very little to get the job done and I also noticed the liquid concentrate soften the water. Definite plus! The laundry products are great, too. Again, the detergent is concentrated and as littele as 2 ounces was enough to wash a large load of clothing in my home. Also, the Nature Bright® laundry booster and whiter helped get my children’s socks white again. Another good thing about the entire kit is there are no harsh chemicals or scents. I do like not having competing scents all over my home or in my clothing.

Shaklee Get Clean Giveaway!

My experience with the Shaklee Get Clean kit has been a good one. I have liked all the products I’ve used so far and I am looking forward to using more of them. Also, you have the opportunity to win a kit and try them out yourself. The kit contains over $115.00 worth of all natural cleaning products. Enter the giveaway below by following the instructions. The giveaway ends next Friday, May 4 at midnight EST. Check out the rules for the giveaway here. Good luck!

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Filed Under: Giveaway!, Sponsored Tagged With: cleaning, get clean kit, green, safe for the home, safe for the planet, shaklee

Spring Cleaning Your Digital Home with Office 365 Giveaway

April 22, 2013 by Lucrecer 4 Comments

Disclosure: This is part of a sponsored campaign with Social Influenz and Microsoft for Office 365. However, all opinions expressed are my own.

With Spring finally making an appearance in the Midwest, I am reminded that this is a good time to get my digital files in order. I spend a lot of time on the computer writing and editing images and with that, I have to stay organized. I am using Office 365 to help me do that.

SkyDrive, Free Cloud Storage

One of the things I am enjoying the most about Office 365 is I can save and share my photos, videos and documents through SkyDrive, the free cloud storage solution. Now, I don’t have a Windows phone, but if you do, you can access the files from your phone. That’s a nice feature!

Using Templates with Excel 2013

Office 365 gives you access to a lot of templates. One my family and I will be using is the chore schedule template. You open it in Excel 2013, lists the tasks, assign a name to them, and check them off. Now, here is a great feature: The document can be uploaded to SkyDrive and the family can update in real-time. There is also a schedule template which is great for keeping homework assignments in order. When you click New Week, Excel will automatically create a new schedule tab. I have not been a fan of Excel and tend to avoid it when I can, but seeing how easy the templates are to use is making me think differently about the program.

Organizing Schedules with Outlook

Since my children are older, each one of them seems to have some activity or event going on during the week. It is not always easy to keep up with multiple calendars. I am glad I can use Outlook, to help me keep our calendars in check. The program allows you to color code each family members’ activities and share them. Again, SkyDrive makes it easy to upload and access the calendar from anywhere.

Office 365 Home Premium

I am using Office 365 Home Premium and I love that it gives me the flexibility to do things the way I way. I don’t have to have my main computer with me. With SkyDrive, I can work from home, my favorite coffee shop or just about anywhere. The Home Premium edition is subscription-based, gives you one license for use with your entire household on up to five devices. Get this, all your documents are saved automatically to the cloud on SkyDrive for easy access to your documents and personal settings from anywhere. Also, this edition includes the latest set of Office applications, works on Windows tablets, PCs and Macs and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling. The annual subscription cost $99.99.

I am looking forward to using Office 365 daily for organizing my home and business documents, images and videos.

What are you doing to get your digital home in order?

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Filed Under: Giveaway!, Sponsored, Writer's Life Tagged With: calendar, cloud, digital files, digital spring cleaning, Excel 2013, Microsoft, Office 365, organization, Outlook 2013, schedule, SkyDrive, Social Influenz, storage, templates, Word 2013

Express Yourself with Expressions Bracelets

March 18, 2013 by Lucrecer 3 Comments

It’s Blissdom week and I am excited to see some wonderful friends. While I am there, these are the bracelets I will be wearing. I absolutely love them. I found Expressions Bracelets about a year ago and purchased the colorful Stackable Bracelet set. I receive so many complements about the bracelets and I am beyond impressed with the craftsmanship and uniqueness of the bracelets. I have referred many friends and family to SaRatta’s shop and they all love her designs.

SaRatta was generous enough to send me a beautiful collection of bracelets to wear while I am attending the conference. I absolutely love the color combinations she came up with and my girls are huge fans of many of the new ones. Check her shop out and browse all of her designs. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

Filed Under: Sponsored Tagged With: beads, bling, Blissdom, conference, craftsmanship, etsy, expressions bracelets, jewelry, saratta, shop

Celebrating the Year of the Farmer with Ginger Teriyaki Sliders

March 14, 2013 by Lucrecer 14 Comments

Since 2009, Ohio hog farmers have been actively involved in the fight against hunger. They have donated more than 750,000 meals to Ohio foodbanks. For Easter this year, the Ohio Pork Producers Council is making it easy for all of us to make sure that no child, adult or senior in Ohio goes hungry.

For each visit to the Ohio hog farmer’s YouTube video “Pork from Fork to Farm”, the Ohio Pork Producers Council and its partners will will donate one pound of ground pork to Ohio’s foodbanks.

Thanks to the donations from Farm Credit Services of Mid-America, the Ohio Corn Marketing Program, and other farmers and businesses, Ohio Pork Producers Council will be able to provide up to 35,000 pounds of ground pork to foodbanks in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Toledo.

In celebration of the Farmer, I made Ginger Teriyaki Sliders for dinner yesterday. My kids enjoyed them and I enjoyed being able to make dinner in under 30 minutes. What are some of your favorite pork meals?

Please visit the farmer’s YouTube video and support families this Easter. We can all make this a grand celebration for everyone.

Ginger Teriyaki Pork Sliders

Pkg of wheat slider buns
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 green onions, cut up (plus more for garnish)
2 tsp chopped ginger
1 pound ground pork
1/4 cup + 1 tsp teriyaki stir fry sauce
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup mayonnaise

(1.) Turn over to broil and line a baking sheet with foil, coat foil with oil or cooking spray.
Wrap rolls in foil and place in oven to warm.
(2.) In a mini chopper, combine mushrooms, 2 green onions and ginger. Pulse
until finely chopped. Put in a bowl and add pork, 1/4 cup stir fry sauce
and the bread crumbs. Stir to blend.
(3.) Shape mixture into 12 patties. Place patties on baking pan, broil 6 min.
turning once, or until desired doneness.
(4.) Stir together mayonnaise and remaining stir fry sauce in a bowl.
Split rolls and top each with a burger. Spread 1 tsp teriyaki mayonnaise on each
roll, sprinkle with green onion, then serve.
MAKES 12 SLIDERS.

Check out these other posts and recipes from Ohio bloggers supporting the cause:

Shugary Sweets

Wenderly

Unsophisticook

Cooking with Caitlin

Filed Under: Sponsored Tagged With: cincinnati, dinner, donations, Easter, Foodbanks, ginger teriyaki pork sliders, hunger, Ohio, Ohio hog farmers, Ohio Pork Producers Council, recipe, video, youtube

Looking for Art Prints or Personalized Greetings? Visit Minted!

February 19, 2013 by Lucrecer Leave a Comment

Last year, I decided I wanted some personalized holiday cards and went about searching for a source. I ran across a lot of sites offering great designs and one of my favorite was Minted. I waited too long to order holiday cards, but I knew I would stop by and visit the site again. Lately, I have been looking to add some color to my walls and I remembered that Minted provides these!

The art prints from Minted come in a variety of sizes. The Abstract Herringbone is available as an 8″x8″ to a 44″x44″ print. I would love that larger size on my wall. In fact three of these at that size would look great in my living room.

All of my children have birthdays in the coming months and I always think about party decor at the last minute. Well, Minted provides party decor in three different suites, or price ranges. I really like Asheville Artisan. Each suite comes with personalized banners, table signs, table confetti and stickers and other great things to make a party special. I love this idea!

Minted is a shop built around artists. It is a community of thousands of independent designers contributing their work to the site. I like the idea of supporting creatives and finding something different for my greeting cards and party needs. Now that I know they offer art prints, I have another place to search for gifts and home decor.

Have you used Minted before? What are some of your favorite things on the site?

Filed Under: Sponsored Tagged With: art prints, favors, greeetings, home decor, Minted, party decor, personalized