SYLVANIA PalPODzzz Portable Nightlights

HEATHER SAYS:

My daughter Maddie is OBSESSED with things that light up. Remote controls, toys, the blinking light on the VCR, you name it. If she hits her head (she’s SO close to walking), my sure-fire trick to get her to stop crying is to hand her my cell phone. Unfortunately, my cell phone is about two more head-bonks away from having water damage, so I can’t rely on that old stand-by anymore.

When Parent Bloggers Network asked me if I wanted to review the SYLVANIA PalPODzzz Portable Nightlight, I jumped at the chance because I knew Maddie would LOVE the lady bug light (there is a rocket ship version for the little astronaut in your life). It’s so stinking cute – Maddie literally squealed with delight when she saw it.

SQUEE!

There are so many great things about this night light. The first one I already said – it’s ADORBS. Second, when you plug it in, the whole thing has this awesome soft glow.

Third, the little face lights up to make a flashlight. You can set the flashlight to either come on automatically when it’s removed from the base, or rely on the on/off button. Fourth, the green base still glows with or without the flashlight. Fifth, the flashlight and base only glow when the room is dark, so no energy is wasted. And sixth (and quite possibly my favorite), the batteries in the flashlight are rechargeable. So no more buying and replacing batteries, and no dad batteries clogging up landfills. YAY for being green and stuff!

Madeline plays with the ladybug every day. She clutches it when she crawls across the room (so far, it’s totally indestructible), and it has withstood many, MANY trips to her mouth, something that is SO important when you have a teething kidlet.

The flashlight is bright enough to make things fun, but it doesn’t hurt your eyes when it’s pointed at them – TRUST ME. In it’s nightlight form, it’s bright enough for late-night diaper changes, but soft enough that it doesn’t prevent sleep.

I think this is a great product. Good for the environment, fun for the kids, and reasonably priced at $19.99.

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JCPenney – Your Holiday Shopping Destination

It’s been a long time since I’ve shopped in a department store. This is mostly because I hate crowds, and department stores are always at malls. But, now that I am gainfully unemployed, I’ve realized that malls aren’t crowded during the day. Who knew? So just as I was thinking I should take advantage of the empty malls, BlogHer and JCPenney gave me a $300 e-gift card. YEAH. THREE HUNDRED SMACKERS! Don’t hate the player, baby.

Armed with my e-cards, my mom, Madeline and I hit the JCPenney in my hometown. I had a list of people I wanted to buy Christmas presents for, but nothing in particular in mind. And, yeah, can you believe that I went Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving?! I totally broke my own rules. We entered by the kids section, so we wandered up and down the aisles. I found two cute Christmas dresses for Madeline, a shirt for my nephew, a onesie for my friend’s newborn, and cool pants and a hoodie for my older nephew. There was a lot of selection and the women who worked in the section were really nice and helpful.

After I had the kids done, we wandered around the store to see what else there was. I never realized that JCPenney sold toys, electronics, and gadgets. My mom and I fiddled around with the idea of getting everyone toys, but practicality won out. Darn practicality.

My husband has been lamenting the destruction of our blender for months now, so I knew I needed to pick him up a new one. On our way to the housewares section, I passed men’s athletic wear and picked him up some track pants and a sweatshirt for him. Now he can make himself a smoothie after working out! (Mike would like all of you to STOP LAUGHING, he does SO work out…sometimes.)

I seriously felt like I was on a game show. I bought pillows, a silverware set, a blender, and there were still lots of other things I would have loved to buy. But I still got TONS of loot for $300:

Why? Because JCPenney has insane deals. I didn’t buy a single one of those items at full price. EVEN THE 80 PIECE SERVING SET! When it was all said and done, my mom and I actually commented on how hard it was to spend $300 at JCPenney since everything was on sale.

My e-cards were printed on regular paper from my printer, so I was a little uncertain how they would be received by the cashiers. The first cashier I came on wasn’t sure how to ring up my purchase with the e-card, but luckily her supervisor was there. The supervisor then took the opportunity to show all the cashiers in the area how to use an e-card. I helped them learn!

Holiday shopping is always a pain, but JCPenney made my experience pleasant and easy! Whoo JCPenney!

Want to win your own $300 shopping spree? You’re in luck! BlogHer and JCPenney are giving away a $300 gift card each week for the next five weeks! Just go here to enter!

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Minted Holiday Cards

Heather Says:

So listen. My husband and I aren’t exactly the conventional holiday card type. One year we sent out cards with us dressed as Britney Spears & Kevin Federline with the tagline “Have a Very Cheetos Christmas.” Another year we sent out cards starring our dog Rigby wearing 2006 glasses and below her photo we wrote, “Kiss Me At Midnight!” We like to be different.

Not surprisingly, this doesn’t please some members of our families (COUGH his mom COUGH) who’d prefer we be a bit more…dignified. So when Parent Bloggers Network asked me to try Minted holiday cards, I thought maybe this would be the year Mike and I grew up. After all, we have a child now. Right? HELLO?

The Minted website has lots of gorgeous designs to choose from (and, FYI, they have designs for all events, from birth announcements to invitations, you name it) and the goofball in me felt like a total impostor. But the amateur photographer inside my head was screaming, “YES! Now I will be taken seriously!!!” This is because the options for the cards are all so nice that they could make a picture of a foot look festive. Yes. A foot. I went there.

First, I had to figure out what picture to put on the card. I have lots of silly pictures, but this is supposed to be our GROWN UP card. So I picked a classic picture of Madeline.

Then I settled on design. I went with something that I thought complemented the colors of the photo, the “Home For The Holidays” collection. I liked the classic look to it. It looked very…GROWN UP.

All the writing on the card is customizable. I resisted the urge to write something like, “Maddie sees you when you’re sleeping… because she planted a camera in your room,” and instead wrote the very GROWN UP “Happy Holidays and warm wishes for the New Year.”

Once I made all my choices, I submitted my order and was told I’d get a proof to approve. Three days later, the merchandising manager Kate contacted with with two proofs – the one I’d designed, and one that she’d altered slightly so that there wasn’t writing on Maddie’s face. Um, can you say brilliant? I picked her altered proof, and a week later I had my very GROWN UP holiday cards on my doorstep.

Of course, the day the GROWN UP holiday cards arrived, my hubs came up with perhaps the most genius holiday card idea EVER. So we are sending these GORGEOUS Minted holiday cards to the people on our mailing list that might not, uh, get our sense of humor, and we’ll send our genius cards out to those who’d like a good laugh.

If I had to nit-pick about Minted, it would be that they are NOT cheap. This is clearly a case of getting what you pay for, though. The cards are truly beautiful, and the service I received was impeccable. Not to mention, I ordered the most basic card available – the flat note card – and there are other options like timeline, fold-over, and letter-inside.

In the end, I give Minted a Rating: simply because of the price. Not that they aren’t worth the splurge, but they are just a little out of my price range for holiday cards.

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