Knorks! I love them!

I know. I know.  Not the catchiest title of a blog, but I really do love my Knorks! haha

What, you may ask, is a Knork? I shall tell you!  Knorks are forks that are designed in such a way that you are able to cut your food better without needing a knife.  It's supposed to be a fork and knife combo in one.  Trust me, it's much better than the invention of the spork.

I had no idea that Knorks existed until I saw a deal on Livingsocial.com for a $60 flatware set for only $14.  Since having kids has made it completely impossible to maintain an entire flatware set in my silverware drawer, I figured this was a great deal to get some nice flatware for a great price.  We ended up getting two of the deals so we could get a bigger flatware set.  Here's all the stuff we were able to get:

We got two stainless steel 5 piece flatware sets (compete with one big and one little knork) and two large knorks.  To be completely honest, if it weren't for my complete love of everything that seems weird and the fact that my birthday was coming up, we may not have gotten these.  But, we did get them and I've loved them more than anyone should ever love a piece of flatware.

The knorks are fun to use.  I know- I used them on any and every thing that I could possibly think of.  Here's how they measured up:

Steak- tough to cut with but actually did it.
Chicken, broccoli, waffles, pancakes, and everything mushy - easy to cut!
Carrots- easy to cut as long as you're carefully holding the carrot (and it hurts when you knork your finger in the process!).

There were many more things that I went around cutting with the knorks, but I'll save you the huge list and tell you that I was a Very happy camper. Not only was it fun to use the knorks, but it was just as fun to tell people about them.  The confused and skeptical looks on their faces were priceless.  And, as if that wasn't enough, they are gorgeous.  Here's a better picture of the knork:

So, what's the buzz on the knorks?  Buzzingly happy!  Gorgeous, easy to use, quirky, and even child proof- as long as you don't let them try to cut whole raw carrots!  Then again, other than me, who does that? haha  So, if you love quirky flatware and interesting things that actually work, you can pick up some knorks at Target, Dillards, or look for the deal on Livingsocial.com.  If you already have them or have used them- tell me your buzz about the product.  I'd always love to hear what you think!

Using Pantene Didn't Get My Hair Clean...

A few months ago, I received a box in the mail with Pantene Repair and Protect shampoo and conditioner to try and review.  I was excited for a few reasons.  The main reason was that they were big bottles that were sent for free.  Anyone who knows me knows that I'm always saying, "If it's free it's for me."  The secondary reason I was so excited was that my hair has been slightly damaged because I blow it dry every day.

Even though I was excited, I always worry a little when I try a new hair product.  Will my scalp be alright with the change?  Will it leave my hair shiny and pretty?  The thing that put my mind at ease with this product was that it's made by Pantene, which is a great company that has been around for many years.  So, I set out to try the shampoo and conditioner for at least a month to give it a chance to work, whether I liked it originally or not.

Unfortunately, after just the first time using the shampoo and conditioner, I really didn't like it.  For some reason the product ended up leaving my hair feeling like it was damaged even more.  I didn't feel like my hair was clean and instead of having that nice, clean, fresh smell that I like my hair to have... it smelled greasy and gross.  After the month was over, my hair had gone from slightly damaged but smooth to dry, brittle, and frizzy. My hair had never been such a mess before.  The only thing that I had changed was my shampoo and conditioner.  There were no other variables... other than what songs I sang each day.

Now, I don't want this to be taken as a blog post saying that the company Pantene makes bad products.  I actually love some of their other stuff.  The company has been around a while and not all their products are like this one.  In fact, this is the only product of theirs that I've tried and had a bad response to.

So, today's buzz?  Stay away from Pantene's Repair and Protect product line... but keep an open mind with their other products.  As always, if you use any products by Pantene, especially this one, and you have some buzz you'd like to share... do it!  I may be a Busy Bee, but I love hearing what others have to share. :)

Great Sales... With a Bit of False Advertising- 1saleaday.com

Maybe you've heard of the site before.  It's called 1saleaday.com and it sells all kinds of stuff at very cheap prices.  There's a few different tabs: main, wireless, watch, family, and jewelry.  Each tab has a different item for sale.  The site tells you how much the item originally cost, what percentage of the money you're saving, and the new cost.  Sometimes shipping is free, which is just a bonus.

I normally love this site.  I've gotten earrings, necklaces, rings, a bracelet, and also a watch for my husband on that site.  Everything arrived perfectly and looked amazing. I told a lot if people about the site and they all started using it as well.  After the past couple of experiences with the site and the people who run it, I'm a little worried for the people I referred to them.  So, here is my new revised review.

The first time I saw some false advertising with the site was when I bought a toy for my son.  It's a great toy that is solar powered and he can transform it into other things that are solar powered.  It's a great learning toy and I can't wait until he gets it for Christmas.  The false advertisement, this time, was not the product, but the price.  I actually found the toy on amazon.com for the same price, which leads me to believe I didn't save anything through 1saleaday.

The second time the site falsely advertised and I found out about it was much worse.  My sister is getting married soon and I'm the Matron of Honor, or as I like to say "I'm the MOH!"  So, I'm helping my little sis find the best deals for everything she needs.  The colors for her wedding are black, white, and red.  My sis had wanted to get us girls in the wedding party jewelry for our gifts, and we saw the best necklace on 1saleaday and couldn't pass it up.  Here is the picture shown in the add:

Gorgeous right?  It is supposed to have white diamonds on one side and black diamonds on the other.  It would have gone with the dresses perfectly.  Plus, who doesn't love diamonds?  I thought I was being the world's best MOH by finding these at such an amazing price for my sis.  However, this is what showed up at her house:

Now, I'm usually not a picky woman, but this isn't nearly as good as they picture they posted.  There is no separation in between stones and instead of them being actual diamond stones they look like little stickers stuck on there.  My sis was so disappointed that the necklace was so small and cheap, even for what she paid for it.  I was mortified that a website that I sent her to would have sent her something like this compared to what she was shown on the site itself.  

My sister decided that the necklaces were not what she ordered or what she wanted for us girls, since she thought we deserve better.  At first, when she contacted 1saleaday.com they would not let her return the necklaces for a refund.  It took her bringing up the fact that she would go to a lawyer about the false advertisement to make them finally sigh and say, "Fine."

So, the Buzz on 1saleaday.com?  Be careful what you order and make sure that you would want the item if it turned out looking cheaper than you thought it would.  Check for the item other places before buying it on this site, too.  They don't like returns either.  However, if you're just looking for some cute stuff at a cheap price and aren't really too bothered by the gamble, go for it!  I love my ring and my earrings.  I'm going to stick to that kind of stuff.  The watches seem great too.  I'll keep you posted if I buy anything else.

As always, that's just this Busy Bee's buzz.  What's yours?  Any experiences with 1saleaday?  Hope they've been great if you have!  Great or not, share your buzz!  I'll be waiting to hear.

Tonka Trickster is a Trick and Not a Treat

My mom always says, "If it's free, it's for me!" and I always say it right along with her.  That's one of the reasons I love being a BzzAgent so very much.  I suppose the things I get from being a BzzAgent are worked for by reviewing the products and creating Buzz about them, but it feels free because I love doing this so much.  That being said, I was so excited to get a Tonka Trickster toy for my 9 year old son.  He saw it and his mouth dropped open and I couldn't help but think, "Yup.  I'm the coolest mother ever."  That feeling was quickly replaced with disappointment.

My son and I opened up the package carefully, hooked up the batteries to let it charge, and waited the full time for it to charge until we tried it out.  The toy is so cool looking and my son could barely wait the half hour of charge time.  The time was finally here when we could play with it and make it flip around.  However, when my son pushed the button, only one of the tires spun and only for a couple of seconds.  We declared the toy DOA (dead on arrival).  We're a military family... just go with it. haha

The BzzAgent staff was great and sent us a new Tonka Trickster right away.  My son checked the mail for it twice a day and finally it got here.  There was excited yelling, jumping up and down with joy, and other people may have thought we won the lotto if they were looking from afar.  Unfortunately, the same thing happened with this second toy.  My poor boy.  He was disappointed, but handled it so well.  In fact, he came over to me, hugged me, and said, "Thanks Mom. I know you tried and I know you think of me all the time to get this for me to begin with."

In the end, I wouldn't give a good Buzz on the Tonka Tricksters... though I would love to sting them for the sad look that was in my boy's eyes.  Don't bother getting it- find a great toy that does the same thing from another company. Tonka as a company, though, is one I would normally stand by.  Don't give up on the brand, just watch out for these Tricksters.

The Buzz on my son?  I do believe that he's turning out quite alright.  Proud of my boy and love him more each day.

That's enough sentimental mommy stuff!  Sheesh.  Let me know if you have/have tried the Tonka Tricksters!  I would love to hear your Buzz about it.  And, if you bought it for a child you love, I hope you're Buzzing happily and not as ready to sting as I am!

Claritin Chewables for Children... And They're Grape!

As most of us know, there's nothing worse than struggling with allergies... except for when our kids struggle with allergies. Unfortunately, my son has really bad allergies all year round.  His eyes water, his nose is stuffy, and he is always really uncomfortable.  He looks like a mess and acts like a crotchety old man.  Needless to say, we had to do something to help him out.

I've tried multiple products to help my boy feel better.  The first was Children's Allegra.  The bottle said that it was non- drowsy and would leave him feeling great. What it really did was send him off for a nap.  Maybe the "non" was a typo.  The second that I tried for the boy was Benedryl for kids.  While this also knocked him out, it worked a lot better for him than the Allegra did.  However, both of them made him sleepy and that just wasn't acceptable for me.  He's a kid. He should be able to go outside and play and have so much energy that we have no idea what to do with him!

For a long time we opted not to give my boy anything.  He would rather have a runny nose and "leaky eyes" than fall asleep.  Then I got an e-mail from BzzAgent about a Bzz Campaign where we would be able to get a free sample of Children's Claritin for him to try.  A week later, I got the medicine in the mail and gave it to him right away.  The results were wonderfully amazing!  Not only were his allergy symptoms gone, but he definitely still had his energy.  Once that pack was done, we immediately went out and bought more.  My house will never be without it again for as long as my kids are the correct ages to take it.

Like I said in the title of this blog, the flavor of the tablets is grape.  It's hard to find a medicine that tastes good, no matter what kind of medicine you're looking for.  While my boy hated the previous types of allergy medicines and the way they tasted, the taste of these grape tablets isn't much better.  But, at least the Claritin company is putting forth the effort to make it easier for our kids to take their allergy medicines.  I'm hoping that in the near future they will have more flavors, but for now grape is what we've got.  I don't know about you , but I'd rather see the yuck face my kid makes when taking his medicine and have him feel better than to have him "leaking" from his eyes.

So, what is the Buzz on Claritin's Chewables for Children?  I'm Buzz-inga with joy here... and more importantly, so is my son.  So, if your child suffers from allergies, pick some up and give it a try.  You've got nothing to lose and you'd be surprised at how amazingly it works. Plus, if you're quick, you might get a really funny and cute yucky face picture.

As always, whether you like it or not, let me know what your Buzz on the product is.  You know what I think and I'd love to know what you think too!

LivingSocial.com = Amazing Deals!

The many of you that know me, know that I'm a sucker for a good deal.  If I can't find it cheap, I'll ask my cousin NovemberSunflower to help me out.  She's definitely a great person to learn from.

Lately I've been finding all kinds of deals.  My favorite place to find them? LivingSocial.com.  Why? Because the deals come to me!  Every morning, before I even get out of bed, I check my email on my phone to see all the deals that I can choose from.  Let me tell you how it works before I get into all the things I love about it.

Firstly, you go to LivingSocial.com and click to sign up.  Then you can choose your city and any other cities you want to find deals in.  I've lived in a lot of places since we're a military family, so I have a bunch on my account.  After putting in your basic information- no credit card number needed to set up the account since it's free- and your e-mail address you're all set up.  All you have to do then is wait for your e-mails every morning to see what your deals are.

Personally, I have my current city, three surrounding cities, Denver, Colorado Springs, NYC Uptown, NYC Downtown, Buffalo, and Dallas added on my account.  If you wouldn't use the deal but know some one who would like it, you can give it as a gift.  I've bought pedicures, flowers, and a couple of other things for friends and family members in other cities and they've loved it.  It's very easy to use and the deals are great.

While deals are great, it's only a true deal if it's something you needed to get anyway.  Can LivingSocial.com help you get a true deal?  I'm not sure.  I don't know your specifics, so I can't guarantee you that this will save you money on things you really need.  I can, however, tell you what LivingSocial.com has done for my family by sharing two examples with you.

Deal 1: My husband works really hard.  He's the reason I get to stay home and go to school to get my teaching degree while taking care of the kids.  Yup, he's pretty wonderful.  But, he's not the deal, so you can't have him. haha.  Well, this great husband hurt his back and has been in a lot of pain lately.  This is when LivingSocial.com comes into  play.  One of the deals I got to buy was an appointment with a chiropractor for an alignment analysis and an hour long massage for only $25.  That's a total savings of about $130!  It took a few days to make an appointment, but only a week after buying the deal my husband is at the appointment right now.  I'm looking forward to seeing him walk through the door all happy and feeling healthy again.

Deal 2:  Do you go into your silverware drawer to find out that your silverware has gotten all warped and weird looking?  I'm pretty sure anyone with kids, or someone in the house that uses regular spoons to scoop ice cream, knows just what I mean.  Well, I have that problem.  And thanks to my dishwasher not drying the dishes during the "dry" setting, they got kind of rusty.  Luckily for me, LivingSocial.com sent me a deal where I got $60 of flatware for only $18.  And it's awesome flatware, too.  Anyone ever hear of a knork?  I hadn't.  I'll post the link. It's a fork that you can use to cut your food just as well as a knife.  The flatware comes with knorks (since the deal is from the knork website) and they are made of titanium.  No rust!  I'm extremely excited and will be reviewing them on here as soon as I put them to the test.  But, this deal couldn't have come at a better time.  The link for the knorks flatware is http://www.knork.net/.

These are just two of the deals that LivingSocial.com has given me over the past few months.  I think it's well worth the bunch of e-mails in the morning.  In fact, it's a better way to wake up than a cup of coffee.  Ok, many of you are probably yelling at me through the computer saying that I've lost my mind.  I challenge you to prove me wrong!  Try LivingSocial.com and after a month of deals let me know which one you do first- coffee or your LivingSocail.com e-mails.  The savings may surprise you!

Well, here's my latest Buzz.  Anything you're buzz-ing about?

Cellphone Postcards

When I joined up with BzzAgent, the first product I got to try was from Cellphonepostcards.com.  This is a site where, from your phone or computer, you can upload a picture of your own onto a postcard, write your message, and they send it out for you.  I got to send 10 free postcards to family and friends and see what they were like.  I've got to tell you- I'm impressed.

You know how thank you cards can be a hassle and most of the time after you fill them out they never make it into the mail anyway?  No- Just me? Yeah, I'm really bad with that.  So, since the cards were going to be sent for me, I decided to use the first few as thank you cards.  They turned out really cute and I knew they were definitely getting mailed.  And it wasn't the horrible experience of buying cards at the store, writing them until my hands hurt, and then making sure they get in the mail that I'm used to.  I loved that it added a personal touch, too.

The postcard that I'm going to share with you was just a "hello" to my little brother.  He's a great brother and we had just gotten back from visiting with him, so I thought it would make him smile to get a goofy picture and know I am always thinking of him.  I uploaded a funny picture from our visit, wrote a little message, and sent the card on its way.  Not only did Cellphonepostcards.com send the card to my brother, but I got a copy of the card in the mail as well.  The quality was great.  I loved it, and so did my brother.  In fact, Mom loved it too.  She loved it so much that I've just sent her one of her own.  Considering that after the 10 free postcards the rest that you send will only be 99 cents per card to be sent anywhere in the US, I'm more than happy to send her one.  I'm sure she will get it soon.

Here is what the post card looks like:

I hope you don't mind the blocked out information.  It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Now, there is one thing that you should know about Cellphone Postcards before you send them.  Truth be told, it does take about 2 weeks (in my experience) for the postcards to get to the recipient.  I was really excited for everyone to get the cards and to see what they were like, so it was a little disappointing that it took so long. That being said, to send a totally cute postcard for free or only 99 cents and make people smile with them is worth the 2 week wait.

So, the buzz on Cellphone Postcards?  They are awesome and the wait is worth it. Now go to Cellphonepostcards.com and start your own trial to get 10 free postcards and Buzz-inga! You'll be as hooked as I am.  As always, let me know what you think.  Buzz always goes both ways!

Audible.com Audio Books Membership

Do you love reading? Well, in our house we do.  However, with work, school, the kids, the dog, and all the other crazy things that life throws at us, it's just hard to find any time.  I'm one of those people who puts her book in her mommy purse and carries it around waiting for that one opportunity during the day to whip it out and read.  My husband, on the other hand, not so much.  This may be because he does not, and never will, have a mommy purse to put a book in. hahaha  But, I'm leaning toward the reason being that he doesn't want to carry one around all the time.  His solution, along with many other people I know, is to download an audio book so he can listen on his iPod whenever he wants.

Two months ago, my husband went on the site Audible.com and did some looking around.  Apparently, if you join as a member you earn one point a month to use toward purchasing an audio book along with getting major price cuts on many great titles.  The price for this?  It only costs $7.49 USD for the first 3 months and then only $14.95 after that.  It may sound like a lot, but it's actually really reasonable.  Some may say it's frugal.  Many of the audio books on the site can be purchased for only one point.  That means, as a member you could get one free audio book per month.  Also, those price cuts for many of the books are outstanding.  If I were to buy a hard copy book in the stores it would cost more than that.

Ok- so now we know the prices and how it's, in my opinion, a great deal.  Let's get into the website itself.  There are a lot of websites out there that I just get tired of trying to figure out and leave without getting anything... except frustrated.  This is not one of them.  It's very easy to use.  Actually, Audible.com is an affiliate of Amazon.com.  Super easy to use.  Definitely a site we'll be visiting a lot.

Since my husband has been doing this for two months, we've been able to listen to one audio book already.  He purchased it with his one point and bough the next one with his other one point tonight.  That first book was great.  For his first book, he chose The Dresden Files.  The quality was great.  The voice wasn't at all annoying.  It didn't put us to sleep either.  There are a few books I've loved and when we find them on audio book they make me want to scream.  This book sounded great and kept me interested.

So, the overall buzz on Audible.com?  It's all good, people.  Go check it out for yourselves and, if you want, let me know what you think.  If you join up and love your books, I hope you think, "Buzz-inga! I got quite the deal!"

A BIG Buzzy Thank You!

I just wanted to post a big huge THANK YOU! to my brother for creating my bee for this blog.  I'd searched for a couple of days on google and didn't find one I liked and then tried to draw one myself.  Yeah... Not so great at the drawing! hahaha  But, thanks to my brother, the site is now complete.

Thanks again and Love you!

Welcome To My Blog

With the way companies are coming out with new things left and right, I thought it would be fun to set up a blog to write some reviews on the neat stuff I get to try.  Recently, I joined a website called BzzAgent that gives you the opportunity to try new things and have a say in polls and reviews to help other consumers.  It's a lot of fun, so I thought I'd take it to another level in hopes of helping someone out there to find the great things their family would love... and to give them a heads-up on the things that really weren't worth our hard-earned money.

First, I'd like to give you a little background on who I am.

I grew up in New York, born on Long Island and went to high school up in Clifton Park.  At 17, I joined the US Air Force and became an Intel Analyst.  That job was a lot of fun and really interesting.  By the time I was 19, I'd found the man I wanted to be with for the rest of my life.  We got married in England, where we were stationed, and a year later we had our son.  Now, you'd think that being in the military and living in England were quite the adventure.  However, I got out of the military to be a mom to my son... and that is where the adventure really began.  He was the biggest baby I'd ever seen and so very good and sweet.  It didn't take long to see he was going to be just like my husband.  I loved being a mommy so much that a year and a half later, we had our daughter.  Have your parents ever told you that they wished you to have a child just like you when you grow up?  Well, thanks to my parents, I do have a daughter just like me.  She talks, walks, sits, stands, laughs, and everything just like me... but with her own twists, of course.  I'm sure in these blogs you'll hear a lot about her and my son.  As for my husband, we are still going strong and it will be 10 years soon.  He's still in the military and doing great.  This year, I actually finally get to go back to school to finish my teaching degree.

Like I said, I recently joined up to become a BzzAgent.  One of my family members is a BzzAgent and they sent her things to try out and keep if she would blog about it.  With the economy the way it is, I figured that maybe I could do the same for our family, while helping out other families in the process by telling them the real buzz on these products.  Goodness knows how many times I've read rave reviews on something just to buy it and find out it was really junk and should have saved my money.

So, getting back to the buzz- I promise that I will always tell you the truth about a product.  I won't write about something unless I actually try it myself.  I'll even try to post pictures about everything so you can see what it's really like.  I'm painfully honest about things, and you will see that I don't hold much back.  Of course, if you have any questions about something I review, just ask me in a comment and I'll make sure to answer to the best of my ability.

This should be a fun experience and I'm very excited to get this blog going.

Want to know what the buzz is? Come back and see! Buzz-inga!