bumbledoo Training Pants Review (Giveaway coming during Christmas Event)

Are you a bumbledoo lover? Well if you are not, you better hop on board, because bumbledoo rocks in all aspects.  If you are wondering...yes I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Let me introduce you to this awesome mama from bumbledoo:

Hi everyone. My name is Malia. My craftiness is inspired by my mom who always told me I could do anything if I put my mind to it. When I was growing up she sewed all my clothes, framed my Science Fair ribbons, made Care Bear bedspreads and created functional pieces that made life a little easier (and more organized!).



When I became a mother to my two sweet little boys I wanted to put my mind to it and give my children the same things that my mom gave me. Since then I have been working on MY mother's touch to create useful functional pieces for my children. I hope that other mothers can find them as useful and functional while appreciating the handmade love that goes into each piece.


Every piece listed on my site is made by me in my home. I make my own patterns and try to create original one of a kind pieces. I love fabric and notions. I love to use recycled items. Most importantly, I like to keep trash out of the landfill.


I believe in top level customer service. I will do my best to make sure you are happy with your purchase. Thank you for visiting my site.

So if you are anything like me this still left me wondering, what does bumbledoo mean and how did the name come about.  So, I had to ask Malia:

My oldest son moved a lot when I was pregnant with him. His Dad was out of town almost the entire time I was pregnant. And when his Dad would call to check on him he would ask how he was. I told him “He’s just bumbling around in my belly.” And so soon, he just asked me how Bumble was and we call him Bumble even now.



When my second was born, he had a variety of nicknames. P.K. to Schmeekay to Schmiggy to Schmiggy Doo. Now he is just Doo.


So it is named after my sons, bumble and doo… bumbledoo.

Cute right, bumbledoo after her kids.  I love it!  I always love to know the meanings of a company if I can't just figure it out from reading the name or the about us, so I love to get behind it and how it came about.
bumbledoo sent us a few of her products to review, but the one we want to focus on today is her bumble cloth training pants!  When we first got these, I was so excited, I had to wash them immediately and get her to try them.

Sister E was pretty excited herself to try these on. We put them on and they fit her perfectly and for whatever reason she calls these "hard panties", I don't know why because she said they are not hard, but she does.  I even asked her if they feel hard and she said they don't, but that is what she calls them. But for a while we had a problem, because she only wanted to wear these everyday.  We only have one and she wanted to wear them all the time.  EEK, so we would have to trick her.

This pants fit Sister E very well, because we didn't have any gaps at the legs and no gaps around the tummy area.  This was definitly important just because gaps mean leaks and leaks mean not a happy momma and not a happy momma means not a happy family.  So we all know how that is. The training pants have side snaps, which on Sister E run somewhat on the side front.  I went to look around and it seems many of them run like that, so I think we are safe to say side front snaps.  

We received these pants almost right at the end of Sister E's potty training experience so she did so well she didn't have any leaks in these at all. So I still needed to know if they would leak at all...so since Baby B is just about is big as Sister E, we tried these pants on her.  Guess what, they fit her (sorry no pictures, I didn't even think about it, it was on a whim that I tried them with her). So, over one weekend, I did a test to see how she would do in these pants.  She wore them for 3 hours and she did potty and we didn't have any leaks. WOO HOO. Of course I used the snaps to take them off of her, but I was happy with the outcome.

Sister E is now completely potty trained and wears panties, but she always asks mommy can I wear the hard panties?  She loves these bumble cloth training pants. Daddy tries to tell her that she doesn't need them anymore, but she says "Daddy I like them and I want to wear them!" And they do pull up and down nice and easy with no problems, so being fully potty trained now (both day and night) the ease of up and down is good to know when you are potty training.

Are you looking for the perfect cloth training pants to try? These were the first cloth training pants we have ever tried and honestly, even though we are done with potty training with Sister E (we still have Baby B when she is ready, not close yet though) I would recommend these pants to try because they are amazing.

Also bumbledoo doesn't just sell training pants, she also sells mama cloth, cloth diapers, booties and many other handmade products, so she is your one stop shop.

BUY IT:

http://www.bumbledoo.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/bumbledoo

Giveaway to come during the "All I Want For Christmas" Event. so make sure you come back and check it out.

Frecklebox Review

When I was younger, when it was dinner time we always had set places to eat and that was just how it was.  However, we don't really push that we always sit at the same place now, we have three kids and we just don't force that.  I think just because DH isn't always home when dinner is ready and the kids are starving, so we just eat.

But Frecklebox sent me these awesome placemats.  I almost wish we had gotten one with DH's and my name on them w/Mommy and Daddy!  I know sounds crazy, but the placemats have the girls names on them and they are on the table.  So instead of arguing of who is sitting where and on what night, the placemats say where they sit and they just seem to sit there by default.

While I really want to share the ones that were on our table that we received, I won't be sharing only because they have my girls names on them and I really don't like to share my girls names here!  I am sure that many of you understand that.  So I will share the exact ones we received with the girls names I use on the internet. (smile) see above.

It was really awesome to just go right on over to Frecklebox because as you can see above, you can completely custom what you want and if you don't like the way it looks with the names, then you can pick another picture and start over again.

Frecklebox is on a mission to educate and entertain. So we conceived this here web-based business to offer truly unique, personalized gifts for children at affordable prices. The site makes it quick and easy to customize each item so it prominently features the name of the child who will receive the gift. Our entertaining selection of personalized books, posters, growth charts, journal books, coloring books, stickers, placemats, puzzles, and other personalized items, are designed to delight your children and friends.

Frecklebox doesn't just have placemats, but they have many things that you can imagine from stickers, journal books, to puzzles and many other things.  They also have lunch boxes which is great for your kids when they are starting kindergarden and their name has to be on everything that they own to make sure that they go back home with them on a day to day basis.

BUY IT:

http://www.frecklebox.com/

[Product review & giveaway disclosure: 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. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]

The Divine Muse Handmade Jewelry Review

As I have gotten older, I have found myself to love jewelry and even moreso that depth of what the jewelry stands for.  When I was younger, it really didn't mean as much to me, and didn't have a meaning.

So, when Heather from The Divine Muse Handmade Jewelry requested that I review one of your bracelets, I was really excited about it. Heather got started about three years ago when her fiance's father began to make jewelry for a hobby. She thought his pieces looked amazing and she wanted to try it out herself. She began by just making jewelry for herself and for friends and family, but slowly began to sell to others when they commented on the pieces she was wearing.

Heather wanted me to pick what stones I wanted to work with and me being not so smart about jewelry didn't have any idea where to go with what stones we would be interested in.  So, I wanted to keep with my kids birthstones or at least something close in that nature and I requested that.  To keep close in nature, we used:

Garnets - These are deep red almost black. This is the "stone of health" and the official "stone of friendship". It helps promote feelings of affection both to and from the wearer. Garnet takes away bad energy and transmits it into beneficial energy.

Fire Agate - Larger orange red beads. This stone is powerful and represents the spiritual flame of absolute perfection. It dispells fear fromt he deepest parts of our being and provides a spiritual shield of protection which deflects all threat and harm back to its source.

Carnelian - Red Beads. This stone helps one analize and to be precise. It is quite helpful to activate one's latent, unknown or unused talents.
Peridot - Green Small Beads.  This stone emits a warm and friendly energy. If any changes are going on, it helps the user to accept and work with the energy of the changes.  This is a stone of changes, cycles, mental cycles, emotional, intellectual and like cycles to regulate them all.

Crystal-Glass - Sparkeling faceted beads. These do not have any meaning except for to be pretty.

Prior to sending me the beautiful bracelet Heather cleansed the stones. Your stones, your gems, crystals, jewelry, pendulums, basically anything around you, or on you, can attract positive and negative energy and hold that energy unless the object is cleansed.  This was something new to me and I really didn't understand this concept, so I had to look it up!  But after looking it up, I understood that pretty much anything around you or on you can attract your energy, so cleansing the stones takes out the negative energy.

The Divine Muse Handmade Jewelry

I was really happy with the outcome of the bracelet, but had to be honest how did it work? And I didn't know, so I asked. Heather said you have to say outloud, ""I am going to connect with and utilize the energies of these stones for their highest purpose."

The more and longer that you wear it though, the more you will feel the positive effects that it promises to offer you. The effects that you will feel are all natural and are able to be felt by harnessing the natural energy that your body produces. It does not always seem to make sense but once you try it and are able to feel just how effective it is, you will also be pleasantly surprised and recommend it to everyone you know from friends and family to even your co-workers.


 

As I have gotten older, I have been able to connect more with my jewelry than rather just wearing for the simple fact of wearing it. What I find interesting now, I remember a necklace that my Nana wore and never wanted anyone else to touch her necklance, but she had other jewelry that she didn't mind if you touched or wore.  Being young I could never understand why...however as I have gotten older and done more research and have been able to connect with my jewelry and learn more about it, I understandy why.  That is different energy touching her necklace. She only wants her energy!

Currently Heather runs The Divine Muse Handmade Jewelry through Facebook so if you are interested in having a beautiful product made for you with beautiful stones, please contact her at: picassomoons@hotmail.com. Heather also does not go into complete depth of her stones in this manner, however I was interested and requested this information, so it was important for me to share that.

Here is some of her other beautiful work:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Divine-Muse-Handmade-Jewelry/137898392921438

Flexi-8 Review

Hair Bows, hair ties, rubber bands, OH MY!  Oh My is right, because seriously I never have something that works best for my hair and then just when I think hey this is working great, it breaks or doesn't work so well anymore.  What works best for your hair?

Well, I received several different size Flexi-8 Clips to review and when I first saw them, I must admit, I seriously said, "This will not work in my hair!"

Well, I was very wrong.  I am mommy of 3, and I always, always wear my hair up.  The hubby always tells me, why don't I kick back and let my hair down sometimes, but I just like my hair up and out of my face.  It also works best having my hair up when I am breastfeeding to, just out of the way.

So, as a mommy who likes to wear her hair up and not have to fiddle with it several times a day, I was really happy to try something new and pray that it would work for me.

It came with simple directions and on how to twist your hair and put your hair up!

There are different sizes as below:

Mini

• very smallnone 2 inchOur smallest clip, recommended for baby fine hair or pulling back just a little bit of hair. If your ponytail is an extra small, you will use the mini for a 'Half-up'.

Extra Small

• 7/8 inchXS 2 3/4 inchThe extra small was designed for those with very fine hair who want to do styles like the Ponytail and Tails-up. Also works for most women's Half-ups.

Small

• 1 inch S 31/4 inchSmalls are the most common size for a Ponytail with fine hair. Those who have thick hair and use a medium or large for a Ponytail will use the small for a Half-up.
  

Medium

• 11/4 inch M 33/4 inchThe medium is best for those with thick hair and want to do a Ponytail or a Tails Up. If your Ponytail is a small, the medium is great for a French Twist or Up & Down.

Large

• 11/2 inchL 41/4 inchIf you've very thick hair (wavy, curly, or straight, but very thick) you can use the large for a Ponytail or Tails Up. If you use a medium for your ponytail, then you can use a large your French Twist. You will want to use the extra large for very long thick hair.

Extra Large

• 11/2+ inchXL 51/4 inchOur extra large was designed for the Up Dos. When you watch the video of the Extra Long hair style you can see how this is used. Those with very thick hair (large ponytail size) can also use the extra large for the Up & Down or French Twist styles. Extremely rare will someone use the extra large for a ponytail. Those who use the mini, extra small, and small sizes will never need an extra large.

I also gave a few of these to my mom to try because she has thick hair like myself and I felt it would be a good combination to see how it works for her.  She wants more.  She goes to school full time and also likes to have her hair pulled back and out of her face.  Flexi-8 gave her exactly what she needed.

BUY IT:

http://www.flexi8.com/

The product in this review was provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting this review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced by monetary or other means of compensation.





This Product Was a Free Giveaway

CSN Review Coming Soon

(autopost for Thursday)

I am so exited to be working with CSN Stores.  I have read so much about them from other blogs and when I was given the chance I wanted to jump on it to work with them.

CSN Stores is amazing if you haven't checked them out really should.  They have everything you could imagine from Dining Room Furniture to Kitchen Sinks to Table Sets and everything else you could ever imagine.

Here is a just a few of the products that they have, you really  have to check them out.

In a couple of weeks I will be doing a review post, so make sure you keep an eye out for it! 

Air-O-Swiss Review

As a mommy who has two children who have lots of coughing issues, doctors constantly recommended finding a good Cold Air Humidifier. I get bloody noses from time to time from the dry air. So, we have searched and searched and have used quite a few.  At one point, I thought we had found one, but it wasn't working because I was still getting bloody noses and the girls were still coughing.

Until we came across, Air-O-Swiss.  The day we received the AOS 7142 Digital, we could not wait to get this out of the box and set up!

AIR-O-SWISS Purifiers and Humidifiers from PLASTON – Our Advanced Air Treatment Systems optimizes your indoor air through proper humidification and air purification. PLASTON develops and manufactures technologically advanced air treatment systems, such as ultrasonic humidifiers, air washers, air purifiers and evaporator humidifiers with exclusive functional design providing healthy room air.

Anyways, the doctor told us one sure way to help prevent the girls from coughing and my bloody noises, was to have enough humidity in the air and seriously you would think with where we live we would. However, in the house there is just not eough air flow.

Air-O-Swiss can do this for you! We have found since receiving this, the girls do not have to use the nebulizer as much, which seriously is heaven sent because a 3 year old just does not want to sit still sometimes. Our 29 week old she still doesn't care, but it is really nice that we don't have to confine something to her face several times a day.

This digital ultrasonic humidifier uses high-frequency vibrations to turn water into a micro-fine mist when blown into a room immediately evaporates.  I was super shocked that it automatically regulates the output to create the most comfortable relative humidity adjusted to the temperature in your room.  Seriously, we have never known there to be a product out there that does this.  Not only that but it also has a sleep mode and timer on it.  We have never used them just because it is something that we keep on all night and if we are home during the day, it stays on a lot.

Most humidifiers we have used are hard to clean and tend to get moldy fast!  Which mold doesn't help, so once they are moldy, you can't use them. We have had this product for a couple of months now and the others we have had grew mold so fast which is quite scary.  Not this one.  We have always washed the others like we were supposed to, but that didn't help.  The Air-O-Swiss has not molded and we clean this on a regulary basis. It has a cleaning indicator as well so you can't forget to clean it.  A replaceable demineralization cartridge ensures water mist without lime scale or mineral residues, and the AIR-O-SWISS quad-band microbial protection system helps prevent microbial growth in the water base. This is mportant when the humidifier is not used for some time with water remaining in the base and that could be why we had a mold build up sometimes. The Ionic Silver Stick®, the cornerstone of their protection system, uses the anti-microbial effect of silver to prevent the growth of microbes in the water base for up to one year of continuous use.



When it runs out of water, most humidifers continue to run, not the Air-O-Swiss, it turns off and there is an indicator that it is empty.

And are you tired of all those other humidifiers that are loud?  Well Air-O-Swiss is nothing of the sorts!! IT IS QUIET.  Seriously, it is so quite, you have to check to see if it is still running.

I love our Air-O-Swiss and it continues to be a product that we will use and buy products for.

BUY IT:
Does your house need something like this?  Well you can buy one from anywhere $49.99 to about $229.00.

 http://www.airoswiss.net/

You can also purchase Air Washers, Evaporators, and Air Cleaners from Air-O-Swiss.  So make sure you check them out!

Medela Sleep Bra Review

I recently was given the oppurtunity to review The Medela Sleep Bra as shown above Provided by Medela.  Sorry no personal photos to be shown here.   LOL

 Here are a few Features and Benefits about the sleep bra.

• Luxurious combed cotton and no-tag deisgn ensure comfort against your skin.
• Keeps nursing pads in place to avoid leaks.
• Draback design for convenient nursing.

As a mom who is nursing and has nursed all of her kids when you are breastfeeding, you just want to be comfortable and make sure that you are not using or doing anything that will put your milk in "danger" of not producing enough.  Also with both of my other girls, I never realized that they had anything like a sleep bra, so I had no clue.  I just wanted to be comfortable and not have any plugged ducts or get mastisis.  Which I have heard that some bras can do this.

This bra is a pullover style with a racerback style which fits nice and snug.  I am a 36D and was sent a Medium and it was comfortable and didn't feel too tight.  The color is nude, which I liked and it very thin.  I feared that it would easily snag or tear however, not at all!  It was easy to just draback on my side (like I do at night when feeding Baby B) and she could eat. 

It was also great to wear out of the house, however for me I would wear nursing pads only because haha...when I get cold you would know it.  So, that to me is not something I wanted to show the world.  The great thing about wearing the nursing pads though is knowing that they fit and did not slip out and fit great.  I was happy with that.  This bra was tagless and I easily get irritated with tags in certain areas and especially at night time, so NO TAGS was nice.

I didn't have any issues with this bra at all, actually I was overall super pleased with its looks, with its fit, with its ease and for a breastfeeding mama to another, you will love this.  And by the way Baby B got her milk and honestly as long as this happens, we are good.  :)

Washing this bra, I just washed with my other white clothing, I didn't worry about gentle wash or anything like that.  However since the fabric was so thin, I didn't put it in the dryer but it did dry quickly.  Plus I worried that it might shrink and wouldn't fit me anymore.  It washes great and still looks brand new and I wear this every night.

I did search around for the prices of these Medela Sleep Bras and overall the cost seems to be in the price range of $20.  And Mama's who love to shop at Target, I see that Target even carries these.  This is a great price when you want to be comfortable.  And while I like to use coupons and try to be frugal I will pay whatever I have to pay for the safety of not losing any milk.  I think all you mama's would love this product.

The product in this review was provided to me free of cost for the purpose of conducting this review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced by monetary or other means of compensation.

Tummy Tub from Bathed with Love Review

We recently had the chance to work with Bathed with Love and review a Tummy Tub for Baby B.  The Tummy Tub creates a womb like experience for your baby.

ABOUT THE TUMMY TUB

In order for me to get the complete knowing of the Tummy Tub, I had to actually put Baby B in the tub before I even put water in it and still with clothes on.  This was just to get the feel for how this worked and how to put Baby B in there.  Baby B is one that likes to sit up and has pretty much been that way since birth, so I figured if she sat up with her clothes on she would like this when we tried it as a bath.  As you can see above she was happy and comfortable.  And while there wasn't any water in the tub yet and she was still clothed, I do believe that it helps to to relax them and get them calm just because she seeemed rather calm after just sitting her in there.

Baby B enjoys bath time but the biggest complaint she has is she gets cold.  So, we always place a towel over her body and continue to pour warm water over her body so she will not get cold.  This was something that I did with all of my girls. So I tried the Tummy Tub the next night.  However, I was completely nervous about putting her in here because this night she just happened to be a little antsy.  So, I was afraid as soon as I put her in that she would get fussy and this wouldn't work for her!

Once I got the Tummy Tub all together and her all ready, you can see it is quite easy just to set her in the Tummy Tub.  You may have to adjust the water according to your baby's size and depending on your baby and how they sit in the tub with the water.  So, be prepared to have to take some water out should you have to.  So, this is a trial and error.

Once Baby B was in the Tummy Tub she was calm.  And she was super happy. She had warm water all around her without some parts of her not in the water and some parts of her in the water and without the worry of having to place a towel over her and continue to pour warm water on her.

Some great benefits from the Tummy Tub:

■Womb-like bathing experience relaxes and reassures baby


■Stress free bathing for both baby and parent

■Helps with colic and gas

■Saves space & water
 

Mommy & Daddy Thoughts

Overall we were impressed with the Tummy Tub and happy with how Baby B benefited from this. She was born 6 weeks early and while she missed being in mommy's womb for the last 6 weeks, she enjoyed the tummy tub. 

Mommy loved this and will continue to use this moving forward.  The only thing that Mommy thought it could use, but she wasn't sure how it would work...was something to hold her head when they are infats and can't control their heads.  I am not really sure how this would work, but it was more or less just a thought.

Daddy also was happy with the Tummy Tub, except for the overall look of it.  When we first received the tub he wanted to know if this was a bucket to use to wash the cars with.  "NO!!!"  He felt that it needed to be more appealing and decorative to show it was a Tummy Tub.  I showed him the Tummy Tub Stools and he said that this really helped to give it more of a look rather than a bucket look.

VIDEO of our EXPERIENCE

COST

• 
  
  The Tummy Tub cost from $44.95 to $46.95 and comes in various colors. 
• 
  
  The Tummy Tub Stools cost $54.95 also in various colors.
• 
  
  The Tummy Tub Sets is currently on sale at Bathed with Love for $94.95.

OsoCozy AIO Review

Giggle Britches sent me a OsoCozy AIO diaper to review a couple of weeks ago.  This is a daddy tested and daddy approved diaper according to my husband.

This is a contour form fitted with soft PUL waterproof liner and Aplix hook and loop closure.  The diaper is very soft and fits perfectly on my little girl.  The Aplix hook and loop have the fold over laundry wash.  They come in four sizes and are made in the USA by stay at home moms and grand moms.  We were sent the unbleached diaper as seen above, but they also have a bleached version.

We did not have any leak issues and DD is still on the tiny side with skinny legs and this contour form fitted diaper fit perfectly around the legs and the waist.  The diaper washes well and dries quickly, which is a must for Moms on the Clock. 

What daddy liked the most about this diaper is that you put it on just like a disposable diaper and he likes this.

We did try this diaper at night time and found it worked better with a diaper cover but I think that is because my little one is a big night time wetter.  We didn't have any issues with this diaper during the day or even a long car ride.

And right now if you head on over to Giggle Britches you can get this diaper for 10% off, and if you have any questions, LeAnn will be glad to help you!  She is a super sweet and a great woman to work with. Also let me know if you have any questions and I would be glad to help you.

You can find Giggle Britches on Facebook which is constantly kept up to date with sales and whats going on.