Photography Sessions in SWVA

Photos courtesy of http://jessicaslilmoments.blogspot.com/

It's getting to be the time for graduations, weddings, and family portraits! If you're in the Bristol, VA or Southwestern Virginia area, I encourage you to check this out! Jessica is currently offering custom on-location photo sessions near her location in Southwest VA. What's even better? Some of her sessions are FREE, she does usually include a CD for you to print an unlimited amount of pictures from. Like her photography page at http://facebook.com/jessicaslilmoments to keep up with her photography session offers! She also has a blog here: http://jessicaslilmoments.blogspot.com/ (you just click on the links running across the top to see the specific pages she has).

Kroger Good For You CARBmaster & Greek Yogurts Review

As with most families, our household is trying to eat better on a budget.  It gets pretty difficult to eat healthy without spending a ton of money, but the hardest part is getting the kids on board with new and healthier alternatives.  That's where Kroger brands have always come in for us.  I recently tried the new CARBmaster line, as well as their Greek Yogurt line of products.  Yogurt is such a great alternative to ice cream and other frozen treats.  Yogurt has so many health benefits for kids and adults and can be frozen to make creamy treats on a hot summer day!

Our family drinks a ton of milk, but sometimes the amount of sugars you find in milk are unnecessary in your diet.  Kroger has a new line of dairy products called CARBmaster.  I tried the milk and the key lime yogurt.  I have to admit, I was extremely skeptical about the milk.  Milk is one of those things that I don't like alternatives of and think that most brands end up tasting like cardboard when they get rid of the sugar or fats.  I was really surprised and pleased the first time I tried the milk.  I used it first in cereal (mostly because I was scared to just drink it straight) and honestly couldn't tell the difference in taste from my regular skim milk.  Next, I used it in a recipe to see if the texture and content would hold up to baking.  Again, it did remarkably well and there was no creepy aftertaste.  It was only then that I could finally trust it enough to drink straight up.  I could hardly tell the difference from skim milk.  The only thing I could even place as different is that it had a slightly less sweet taste, but the difference is so minimal that I would have never known about it had I not known what I was drinking.  One word of caution though....it does have a higher cholesterol content than skim milk, so if you're having cholesterol issues, you may need to talk with your doctor before switching.

My daughter tried the CARBmaster key lime yogurt and said it tasted pretty much like the other major brands, but with a slightly less sweet taste.  I don't think she prefers the CARBmaster yogurt, but she said she'd definitely eat it with no problems if that's what we had in the house.

My husband tried the Greek mixed berry yogurt and the Greek Light blueberry yogurt and really liked them both.  They were very thick and creamy and tasted great as a spread on fruit too.  I definitely like that the Kroger brand Greek Light yogurts taste as good as the national brands, but with a much lower cost.

Simple Truth Products from Kroger Family!

I don't know about you, but I am always looking for ways to give my family healthy, organic products that are affordable and taste good!  I can't pay 2-3 times as much for a product just because it's organic, and my kids won't eat most of those products anyway because they taste bad.  So.....when I found Simple Truth products from the Kroger family brand, I have to admit I was a little skeptical.

We tried a variety of Simple Truth items and didn't find a single one of them to be substandard or with a taste sub par from their name brand (and bad-for-you) counter-part!  I have to say, we were all pleasantly surprised at the awesome taste of everything we tried and I was happy that the cost wasn't way above the other non-organic products.  My kids tried the Simple Truth energy bar in peanut butter and chocolate and really liked it....they were even fighting on who got the last piece of it.  My daughter said it tasted like a cross between an energy bar and a chewy granola bar.  My husband tried the Simple Truth soda and really liked it as an alternative to sugary sodas that are filled with chemicals you can't name.

Both my hubby and I tried the Simple Truth Sweet Potato Chips and loved them as a great alternative to sodium filled alternatives like chips and crackers that we normally eat.  They weren't overbearing and overly salty....it was just the perfect balance of sweet and salty.  The whole family tried the Simple Truth Chocolate Almond Milk and thought it tasted just like a YooHoo (which they all love).  I thought it was delightful and tasted like a yummy, creamy chocolate milk.

I'm definitely sold on Simple Truth products and can't wait to try out the frozen berries in a smoothie and their pasta for dinner one night!

Cellfire Coupons - January 2013

Here's the latest coupons from Cellfire.  You can load them to your card via my sidebar on the right.  These offers are valid at Kroger and Kroger subsidiaries, Carrs, Genuardi's, Randall's, Tom Thumb, Shop 'n Save, Foodtown, and Harps. These offers will be available from 1/1 - 1/31 and they expire on 02/15/13.

Yoplait® Cups Save $.40    Save $0.40 when you buy SIX CUPS any variety Yoplait® Yogurt (Includes Original, Light, Light Thick & Creamy, Thick & Creamy, Whips!®, Lactose Free, OR Simplait™).

Multigrain Cheerios® Save $.75    Save $0.75 when you buy ONE BOX Multi Grain Cheerios® OR Multi Grain Cheerios® Peanut Butter cereal.

Yoplait® Greek Yogurt Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy TWO CUPS any flavor Yoplait® Greek yogurt.

GM Fruit Snacks Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy TWO BOXES any flavor/variety Betty Crocker® Fruit Shapes, Fruit by the Foot®, Fruit Gushers® or Fruit Roll-Ups® Fruit Flavored Snacks; Ocean Spray® Fruit Flavored Snacks, Mott's® Fruit Flavored Snacks OR Sunkist® Fruit Flavored Snacks.

Bisquick® Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy ONE 20 OZ. OR LARGER Original Bisquick® OR Bisquick Heart Smart® Baking Mix, OR 10.6 OZ. Bisquick® Shake 'n Pour® Pancake Mix.

PB Sweet Rolls Save $.40    Save $0.40 when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Sweet Rolls OR Grands!® Sweet Rolls.

Pillsbury® Crescents Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy any TWO Pillsbury® Crescent Dinner Rolls (excludes Twin Pack).

Fiber One® 90Cal Brwn Save $.40    Save $0.40 when you buy ONE BOX any flavor Fiber One® 90 Calorie Chewy Bars or Fiber One® 90 Calorie Brownies.

Cookie Crisp® Cereal Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy any ONE BOX Cookie Crisp® cereal

Cookie Dough Save $1    Save $1.00 when you buy TWO PACKAGES any variety Pillsbury® Refrigerated Cookie Dough.

Liberté® Greek Save $.30    Save $0.30 when you buy ONE CUP any flavor Liberté® Greek OR Liberté Méditerranée® yogurt.

Yoplait® Fruplait™ Save $.50    Save $0.50 when you buy any flavor Yoplait® Fruplait™ Yogurt Multipacks.

Active Accessories Hair Bands Review

My daughter LOVES to wear hair bands, but they're so hard on her hair and create a lot of breakage when she takes them out.  She always puts the bands on her wrist before leaving out to school or the gym in the morning and it inevitably cuts off her circulation and leaves a deep red ring on her wrist.  I was really excited to try Active Accessories' On-the-Go hair bands.  These hair bands are not like your normal hair bows that claim to be no tangle and no hurt.  These are made to be worn on the wrist until used and are nice and wide so they don't cut off your circulation.  They also don't break your hair or create split ends.  Even though they may be a little more expensive than hair bows you can get at Walmart, they're definitely well worth the money because they last a while and don't create pain and hair breakage.

You can get them on Amazon for $8.99 for 6 and they come in 5 really cute patterns and colors.

FromYouFlowers.com Christmas Cheer Bouquet Review & Coupon

I love fresh flowers for the home and as a gift, but I hate making a special trip to a florist and paying those high prices for a fresh arrangement and then having to transport it.  That being said, I am also a little leery of ordering fresh flowers online and having them sent as a gift because you just never know what you're going to get from a new internet-based florist.  I've used a couple internet florists before with varying success.  When I was given the chance to try out FromYouFlowers.com, I was excited to see what their product would look like.

I received a Christmas Cheer bouquet via UPS.  It was scheduled to be delivered on Friday afternoon, but I was going to be out of state until Sunday evening and for some reason I wasn't able to hold the delivery with UPS.  The flowers sat in their box at my mailbox out in the weather from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening.....I was really worried at what the flowers would look like after being without water for that long.  I opened the box and was pleasantly surprised to find that the flowers were beautiful and still very healthy.

My bouquet didn't come with any greenery or baby's breath like in the above photo, but it did have beautiful smell and color.  This bouquet has roses, mini carnations and several classic ornaments that really made for a beautiful yet simple centerpiece on my table.

The flowers came wrapped in florist paper and plastic for easy transport

Beautiful colors and plenty of unopened blooms for later

Sparse looking unless you have some filler or bunch it together more

The vase was a very beautiful red glass and not a cheap plastic type.  The only drawback to the vase is that it wasn't tall enough to hold the arrangement without having to cut off a good 4-6" from the flowers and wooden sticks holding the ornaments.  The opening was a little too wide for the amount of flowers and decorations, leaving the arrangement looking pretty sparse and bare without putting a ribbon around the flowers to bunch them together more or adding some greenery/baby's breath.

The package came with a very nice card, instructions on how to care for the flowers, a packet of flower food to add to the water.  The entire order was packaged securely and was easy to open and get the flowers out for display.

I think I've definitely found another online florist that I'll be using in the future for gifts and special occasions.  This will also be something that I'll probably use this year for a gift of Christmas flowers for my mom.

Want to check them out for yourselves?  Use this special link to have a coupon code for FREE DELIVERY applied to your order!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Piczzle Coupon Code- Exclusive Offer! Expires 12/15

Have you read my review of Piczzle's photo puzzle?  I thought the quality and customer service were top notch and would definitely purchase their products in the future for family gifts, teacher gifts, or just as a fun way to show off a favorite photo memory.

If you didn't win the Piczzle photo puzzle giveaway that ended this week, don't worry because there's a great offer for you from Piczzle.  Right now until 12/15/12, you can get 21% off your entire order by entering this coupon code: SwvaSavesMoney21