These fruit snacks are AWESOME

This simple recipe allows you to create custom gummies that are snack-able, and stack-able!

Posted by Family Centre Westmount on Monday, May 25, 2015

Zep Microwave Miracle sample review

Before                                                                              After





I was given a bottle of Zep Microwave Miracle cleaner to use by Crowdtap.

Just sayin's all....

When life gives you lemons... make Sweet'N Low Strawberry Granitas!

Ok, so technically, the recipe for Sweet'N Low Strawberry granitas calls for limes not lemons.
I am a member of #TeamSweetnLow on Crowdtap! I was given a sample of Sweet'N Low in exchange for holding a #Sponsored Sweet'N Low party with my girlfriends.

Well, life intervened, and the day of the party, my son broke his arm. I cancelled the party and got him all taken care of.

So, I got all set up for my party, packed it up and took it on the road. I held a "progressive" party instead. I took my Sweet'N Low samples, my Strawberry Granitas and surprised my friends at their doors with a mini party.

Most of my friends grew up with Sweet'N Low, so they were not at all surprised that this recipe was fabulous! One of my "more mature" (wiser...? chronologically advanced...?) friends was surprised at how tasty it was though, because she didn't think artificial sweeteners could stand up to sugar.  She told me she was "pleasantly surprised" at how much she enjoyed the drink sweetened by Sweet'N Low.

Then I saw my face... but I'm not quite a believer.

I was sent several samples of Vichy Idealia Life Serum from Crowdtap to use and share with friends. According to Vichy's website, the Idealia Life Serum is  "Vichy's first treatment to combat behavioral skin aging. In just 8 days, skin quality is transformed--tone is illuminated, pores are visibly refined, skin is moisturized and complexion is more youthful-looking."

The idea is simple; This is from Crowdtap's website "For 8 days, Crowdtap challenges you to live your life to the fullest--eat that 2nd piece of cake, pull an all-nighter, even have that extra drink. Just use Idéalia Life Serum twice daily to see your skin quality transform. You have Vichy’s #LifeproofSkin assurance that you’ll still see a transformation in skin quality in 8 days. And the best part? You get to include your friends in the challenge, too. As one of Idéalia’s biggest fans, you’ve also received 5 additional sampling sets to share with your friends." 

I used the samples and distributed them amongst my friends and family. We (almost) all had similar results....in that we didn't see much by way of results.  The general consensus was that the Vichy Idealia Life Serum is a great moisturizer.  We all enjoyed the fragrance of roses, and thought the pink sparkly minerals made it look pretty. However, no one experienced such a dramatic changes as refined pores, or dark spots fading.  I will let the pictures do the talking. 

This is me, age 33.  I have quite large pores across my nose and cheeks.  I did not see any difference in the size of my pores.  I quite liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum as a moisturizer, my skin does feel soft and I did notice far less dry flaky areas, but I was disappointed in the lack of pore refining. 

This is my friend S, age 57. She suffers from dry skin as well.  She liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum as a daily lotion, and also remarked on a noticeable difference in the feel of her skin. She said "My face feels 'wetter' but in a good way.  I don't feel the itchy dryness in the middle of the day like I used to.  I don't notice any difference in appearing younger though, darn it!" 

This is my little sister, L, age 21.  She actually thinks the Vichy Idealia Life Serum caused her to break out.  Over the course of the 8 days, her face became more and more splotchy and itchy.  She said "I didn't see any remarkable improvement, actually, I broke out worse and worse. As soon as I stopped using it, my face calmed down and the breakout stopped." 

This is my bestie, M, age 32.  She had the opposite reaction, in that she started out with a break out and saw it clear up as the days went on.  She was actually the most impressed with the results, saying "I really loved the Vichy Idealia Life Serum. I felt that it did what it said it would do." 

This is my friend, L, age 20. She started out with pretty darned near perfect skin, and stayed that way throughout the sampling.  She didn't have much to say one way or the other, she liked the Vichy Idealia Life Serum fine, but since she didn't have much to improve on, her opinion wasn't strong either way. 

Finally, this is my "adopted mom" C, age 62. She only used the Vichy Idealia Life Serum once and had a severe allergic reaction.  She is very allergic to lavender, and while that was not listed as an ingredient, it might have snuck in there. She was not able to continue the sampling, as her face burned and was extremely painful. 

Overall, my friends and I were not overwhelmed by this product. We generally liked it just fine, and felt that it was a good product, but not necessarily amazing or life changing. Taking a survey amongst my samplers, no one was planning to purchase Vichy Idealia Life Serum in the immediate future.  

I'm a Kleenex Brand Believer!

I was sent a sample of Kleenex tissues from Crowdtap.  I was asked to find a perfect spot to keep my Kleenex tissues, as well as show some different uses for their soft, strong, absorbent tissues (besides nose blowing that is!) We also found a use for the empty box after all the tissues were used up!


First, I was excited to receive my sample. A full sized box of awesome Kleenex brand tissues!! Score.  And, good timing, because both of my kiddos were sniffling, sneezing, and snorting their days away.








First things first, I had to cut out my Box Top for Education.  Love that program!  I was SUPER impressed to see that the boxtop was on the top!  It was on the part that you pull up to open the box and expose the tissues for use.  BRILLIANT!  I hated having to wait until the box was empty to get to the box top!

So, for us right now... the perfect place to store our new box of Kleenex tissues was on the couch with my two  poor sickies!  The two of them used up the whole box in a week! But the box lasted much longer than the second box of store brand tissues they used.  The store brand tissues were much less absorbent, and they had to use twice as many. They were also MUCH rougher on their poor noses!  

I was able to snag a few Kleenex brand tissues from my kids to clean their fingerprints off my computer screen, and take off nail polish.  Kleenex tissues are so strong, that I only needed one tissue for all 10 toes! 

Finally, my little man was inspired to use the empty box when he was feeling better to create a pirate ship.  Check out that plank on the front, and the handy dandy anchor!  He has it in his room and since there is a convenient hole in the top, he uses it to store treasures. 

I was pretty happy with my Kleenex brand tissue sample.  I was super impressed with the absorbency of each tissue, especially when compared side by side with a cheaper store brand.  I am a #KleenexBrandBeliever! 

Disclaimer: I was given this sample for free in exchange for uploading pictures and reviews to my social networks. I was not required to give a positive review, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own. 

What is beauty?

What is beauty? I have been thinking about this a lot lately. The world will tell you that beauty is in perfection. That you must have clear, smooth skin to be beautiful. That you must have clear blue eyes, and no gray hairs to be beautiful. That we must hide our scars, that we must smooth away our blemishes to be beautiful. To that idea of beauty, I say "Nope." Beauty is found in authenticity. Beauty is the scars, the imperfections that make us originals. If we were all carbon copies of each other with porcelain skin, blue eyes, and the perfect tan... wouldn't that be boring? It's not real!  I hate when I see girls/women looking at magazines and feeling bad about themselves. It's not real! It's like trying to eat a styrofoam apple. It might be shiny and perfect, blemish and bruise free, but it has no sustenance! To me, beauty is found in the bravery to strip down to our scars, our blemishes, our skin and say "this is me." Recently my dear friend asked me to take a picture of her scars from her battles with skin cancer. The portrait I took is on the left, and I find it to be striking. It's raw and gritty... it's real. It is beauty. Then just for fun she and I decided I should "fix" her portrait. (On the right.) To me, the portrait on the left is more beautiful, hands down. Thank you Nina for being brave enough to show us your beautiful scars.