How to get perfect skin

Perfect skin can be elusive. I have tried for years to figure out what makes great skin. I've used creams, lotions, oils, and all sorts of "equipment." But recently, I have been very interested in anti-aging light therapy.

There is fascinating information and easy-to-use products that utilize red, green, and blue lights to heal everything from acne to wrinkles. Maybe even stretch marks? The technology is new and the possibilities are exciting. 

If you have experience with any of these light therapies, please leave a comment below. I'd love to hear your thoughts and I can't wait to try to out some of these new devices. 

Via: Tanda Skincare

Santa in OUR house - Review & Giveaway

This is Santa - in MY house. My kids don't believe in Santa, but they can't seem to figure out how our stockings get full on Christmas Eve.

I can't wait to show them this photo on Christmas morning. They won't know what to think! And - when I show them the video of Santa dancing through our living room.... the dancing is priceless because we usually dance in that very spot - and quite similarly to the way Santa dances.

All of this was made possible by uploading on easy picture to the iCaughtSanta.com website. The cost for a picture and your choice of 3 videos is $9.99

I have 5 codes for a free picture and video to giveaway! The first 5 people that comment on this site and leave their email address will win! I will email you the codes as I see your comments come in. Hopefully you can catch Santa in your home and surprise your little ones this year too.

*No compensation was received for this post. I did receive a complimentary code for review purposes. All prize codes are provided by icaughtsanta.com.

Christmas for Kitty

Our cat loves Christmas. Before she destroyed the Christmas tree (climbing inside and biting all the wires), she used to lie beneath it and just bask in its essence.

For weeks before Christmas, she busies herself with biting all the bows, ripping the paper, and jumping through the packages. She inspects every new present, chews it, and comes again to repeat the same actions.

Last year was her first Christmas and I wish I had taken videos. She jumped in and out of boxes like crazy - chasing after balls of wrapping paper, ribbon, and..... her first gift. Last year she opened a big container of freezed dried bonita tuna flakes.

She couldn't get enough of it. She love, love, loves tuna flakes. The canister lasted an entire year and we had high hopes of repeating the gift this year. But alas, none of the major pet stores around us carry the yummy tuna treats. I have one more specialty store to check and then Kitty will have to wait for Amazon to deliver after Christmas - since I was a butt and missed the "free shipping" day.

But she won't be empty pawed. She did get a box of fresh squishies and tin foil balls. Plus she'll have all the wrapping paper to chase and boxes to jump into. And all the bows she's been battling for weeks will be conquered.

 Cats really do love Christmas. Now if we could just get her to stop destroying the trees.....

House Plants to improve your Health

Last winter we were in Hawaii, and we came across some aloe plants outdoors. They looked alot like these:

Ever since then, I have been thinking about growing aloe indoors. Where would I put it? Does it need a lot of sun light. And where do you buy a plant in the first place?

It turns out you can buy plants online for under $2. They are easy to grow (in low light even) and eventually reproduce - so you'll need to give some away.

I like the idea of having an aloe plant around. Will I ever use it for skincare? Only time will tell. But if I plant an aloe, I'll let you know.

Plan Your Garden for 2012

A well planned garden is usually a successful garden, and the best time to plan is after you've had time to reflect on what worked or didn't last season.

Planning in the winter is also a great time to pass the gloomy winter days and focus on all the activity and excitement of spring.

Earlier this winter, I read a book called Square Foot Gardening and I think it just  might revolutionize my garden this year!  Over the years, I have battled with efficiency in the garden.

I want to get the most out of each square foot - but I also need walkways. And I want it to look nice, and keep producing all season, and...

Each year, there are high hopes, but I have never maximized efficiency the way this book explains. Take a look at how my tomatoes were spaced last year (this is 6 tomato plants in a 3'x12' box.)

Not very efficient! And devastatingly sad because tomatoes are one of my absolute favorite things to grow and eat. The more the merrier is my tomato (and berry) motto.

I took feverish notes while reading The Square Foot Garden  (who should be planted next to who, how much space between each variety of plant and more!) and here are my garden plans for next year:

It may be hard to tell by the diagrams (since they are paper and pencil drawings) but I am going to plant 14 tomato plants in that same 3'x12' space. In total, I have four 3'x12' boxes. One is permanently raspberries (woo!) and requires no planning.

One is permanently Blueberries and (soon to be) herbs. One will be ALL tomatoes and the last will be loaded with lettuces, swiss chard, spinach, carrots, beans, zucchini, peppers, flowers, radishes, cucumbers, peas, beets (yum!) and buttercup squash.

I am so beyond thrilled! To have a plan that follows "all the rules" and still allows me to grow seemingly endless quantities of produce (plus organically bug reducing  flowers), herbs, and berries has me so excited for spring. And just having a plan makes me feel so much better about "where to start," "what to plant," and what to do once the early plants fade out.

Wish me luck! I am not an organized person - so being prepared in advance instead of just buying every plant I see, has me super excited. I just have to wait until April to start....and the end of May for most of the big plants.... Patience is good, right?

$50 Novica Gift Card Giveaway (and product Review)

In today's Big Box world, everyone sells the same things. Granted, that makes things less expensive and readily accessible - but what about things that are unique and special? 

I've purchased unique items from Novica.com in the past and have been super happy with the entire process. They have a huge variety of items from accessories, gifts, clothing, home decor, even walking sticks!

I look to Novica for unique gifts - handmade from skilled artisans. This season, the weather has been murky and I found this amazing teal dress at Novica: 

I love that it was handmade in Thailand and that it reminds me of spring. Light, airy, and full of hope. It was extremely well made and fit great. You have got to check out their unique clothing collections!

But one of the coolest parts of purchasing from Novica is the beautifully wrapped packages and hand-written notes that come directly from the artist. 

Here's how this little dress was packaged: 

I want you to have a chance to experience the unique items at Novica this holiday season - and luckily Novica is giving one Suburban Jungle reader a $50 gift certificate to use on Novica.com.

To Enter the giveaway: Fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I received a complimentary item for review purposes. No other compensation was received and all opinions expressed are my own. The winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email.

womens accessories

mens accessories

cufflinks

mens scarves

Crispy Fruit Review

If there's one thing that my family unanimously loves - it's fruit. It's nature's candy. Gotta love candy - especially natural, good, tasty candy like dried fruits. If you haven't yet tried freeze-dried fruits, then you are truly missing out. More and more varieties and brands are becoming available. 


We recently had the opportunity to sample the Crispy Green line of Crispy freeze dried fruit and they were DELICIOUS!!! When I saw pineapple - I was so excited. And they were as wonderful as dried pineapple always is. 


I flipped the bags over and to my awesome discovery (but not surprise) the only ingredient was fruit. For pineapple - the ingredient was...pineapple. For Bananas....the ingredient was bananas, and so on and so forth.


Now - the nitty gritty. We tried every single variety. And they were all great. Mango, pineapple, apple, Asian pear, and Banana.  It absolutely floored me that the bananas were great.


I hate (HATE) dried bananas. They always taste like syrup and perfume. Yuck. But they were awesome in this freeze-dried variety. They tasted like bananas! Wooo!!! 


I will gladly pack these in my kids' lunches, eat them as snacks, add them to my yogurt/cereal/granola/muesli, or eat them as a dessert. They are beyond yum and I can not tell you enough how happy I am that they are all natural with no extra ingredients. I love, love, love them. 


If I had to make a complaint, it would be - Where are the berries??? Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, black berries.... But that is my one and only complaint.


I haven't seen them in stores yet, but I'll keep you posted. Until then - you can find them on Amazon. These would be amazing to stuff in holiday stockings. They beat candy any day!


*I received complimentary samples for review purposes. No compensation was received and all opinions expressed are my own.

Compost Your Cat Fur!

Every once in a while I find myself staring at a humongous clump of cat fur - the results of furminating. And I hate to just vacuum it away.

So I don't! No, I'm not knitting cat fur sweaters or making anything from it.... I'm composting it! And my hair too. Ever since I have been reading about the creepy underworld of worms, I couldn't help but think of all things I could be adding to our soil (and keeping out of the landfills) to increase the organic matter in our garden.

If you'd like to see a whole list of things you can be composting but never knew you could (like pencil shavings, used tissues!, and nail clippings) then check out this cool composting website.

Can you be productive and have long fingernails?

For most of my life, I have chewed my nails. Disgusting, right? Well - it used to be a nervous habit. And after fighting it for a long time, I have finally quit. Woo-hoo!!

Not so fast. Now I have super long nails. And it sucks! I can't punch without cutting into my own hand, hold weights effectively, type without it being weird, or open things well.

They do look nice though....and they make cool noises when I tap them on hard surfaces.... But what's an active, dirt digging, weight slinging girl to do?

I'm tapping my nails on the desk as I ponder that situation. Maybe I should just chew them off. Does anyone live with long nails and still do a lot of grabby, active things with their hands?

Chex Party Mix and $25 Sams Club Gift Card #Giveaway

This year - it's all about keeping the holidays simple. To make simple snacks for your holiday gatherings, consider Chex party mix! Did you know how many great combinations people have created??!! 


Head over to the Chex website to find exciting new combinations like Chex Pumpkin Pie Crunch and Hot Buttered Yum Chex Mix 


Who doesn't love pumpkin pie flavors? My personal favorite is the one for Chex Muddy buddies. 


MyBlogSpark and Sam's Club would love to help you make the perfect Chex Mix for your upcoming get-togethers and are offering One Suburban Jungle reader a Chex Mix and Sam's Club Prize pack:


What's included: a $25 Sam's Club gift card and a large Sam's Club sized Box of Chex (including 3 varieties)


To Enter: Fill out the rafflecopter form below:


Disclosure: The Sam’s Club gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by Sam’s Club, Chex Party Mix and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Pillsbury Pot Luck Party

When you think of Holiday parties, do you think about all the prep work, time spent in the kitchen, and clean-up? That's what I used to think about  - UNTIL.... we hosted a Pillsbury Pot Luck party. 

We asked each guest to bring an item made with a Pillsbury product.  And we made quite a few ourselves. After having made almost everything from scratch over the last few years, I was in utter shock at how easy it was to use these products. 

I mean, there was literally NO work. You just open a can, bag, or package - dump it on a pan - and you're done in a few minutes (all oven time.) Wow! My kids, of course, loved this because they felt like they cooked. 

I made very simple things and we ended up with a LOT of cookies that this party, but some of my guests made extremely impressive items like these:

These little puffs were filled with bacon (BACON!), egg and cheese. She baked crescents in a muffin tin, loaded them with goodies, and then layered the strips (arms of the crescent rolls) over the top. These were awesome - but made me think of breakfast. I'd make these with a pizza filling next time.

One of the best Sandwich Wreaths that was brought - it had tomatoes, cheese, ham and kale. Kale had always been considered gross in our family -so this was a nice surprise. 

This was my all time favorite. Not just because it was beautiful but because there were so many veggies and the dill/sour cream flavor was awesome!

This was a sandwich "wreath" filled with creamy spinach and ham.  It was good - but it seemed to have a little too much filling. 

I have to tell you that the cream cheese/sour cream and veggie wreath was my absolute favorite. If there's dill and cucumbers...I'm in. She was - of course - the only one to come without her recipe card filled out, but I'm tracking it down from her as we speak and will add it here once I get it.

Here are a few of the "usuals" that made it to the party:

We wrapped little smokies in crescent rolls (cut them first)

Monkey Bread - quite a few people brought these. This one was great because she sneaked raisins into it.

Just one of the many plates of cookies

Side view of the bubble pizza 

A bubble pizza - made with Pillsbury rolls

We had a great time and learned a lot about how easy it was to put together a party. Or at least make the food! You may want to consider this for your holiday parties because it was so simple to put things together. Below this paragraph, you should see a "widget" loaded with recipes and a $1.10 off coupon for any Pillsbury item. Feel free to print one out to use for your holiday baking.

 Disclosure: The Pillsbury product, information, food ideas, online coupon link, and prize pack have been provided by Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark.

Mike Donavanik's Extreme Burn Review

As someone who exercises regularly, I'm always looking for new routines and videos to try. So when I came across Extreme Burn and read more about Mike Donavanik (he's a celebrity trainer with a lot of buzz right now,) I wanted to give it a shot.

To be honest, before I even tried the DVD, I had a bad attitude. I was sure the video was going to be annoying and I wasn't really in the mood for an intensive interval session. The night before, my husband and I carried 3 couches up 2 flights of stairs, and my body was not happy.

So as I popped the DVD into the player, I was searching for things to pick apart. My first....and only...critique was the coloring and angle of the set. It came off as a little stark white/blue and in the beginning I felt like I saw a lot of feet/legs. 

But soon enough, I was no longer paying attention to the coloring. The warm-up is fast! One of the best parts of this whole workout series is the limited talking. The workout starts - you get going - you keep going - and then it's over. 

But when I mean "you keep going," I mean you KEEP going. There are no breaks. No "recovery moves." You just work. Awesome!

The hands-down best thing about this workout series is THE MOVES. Most of the moves are full-body resistance moves, and the majority of them were brand new to me. That is saying something!

Mike puts together all sorts of combinations you may have never seen before. Almost all of his moves were new to me. They were either variations of things I already do, or completely new combinations. Either way - this was a workout for my body AND brain. 

I love that this DVD challenged my mind and my body. Was it super hard? It was challenging. I was sweating during the workout (not the wildebeest sweat that I get from the Tabata Inferno in the supreme 90 day set, but a good consistent sweat.) 

The moves are challenging and there is a countdown for each and every move so you can gauge how long you'll be doing a single move and exert the right amount of effort. 

Abs come at the end, but it's not the same type of Abs work that you get in a "girly" DVD. The Abs moves are simple, but non-stop. That makes them challenging. And since they come at the end.....oy!

The cool-down is really short, and I prefer to do a lot more stretching (foam rolling, yoga/balance work, etc). You can always do more on your own after you stop the DVD. 

Throughout the video, Mike does most of the moves along with you and that is pure awesome. There isn't a whole lot of talking, except for when he tells you to "rip it" which I found a little weird but still fine. 

He doesn't make errors, he does the workout, it's quick, it's intense. It's a good workout, and I'd recommend it. But I would say - it's not for beginners. Beginners can probably do it - without weights, taking breaks as needed, etc.  But if you're at least semi-familiar with jumping lunges, squats, presses, and moves like axe-chops then you'll enjoy this routine - and the NEW MOVES you'll learn.

Disclaimer - I received a complimentary DVD for review purposes. No compensation was received and all opinions expressed are my own. I am not a physician, nurse, nutritionist, or personal trainer - just a mom that loves to exercise. 

Cover Your Hair: Review and $25 Giveaway!

Since winter is here, it's time to change things up! Time to try new pieces and accessories to keep things interesting. For the next few months, my friends will only see my head and hands. So to spice things up, I decided to try  a new hat and scarf from CoverYourHair.

That's me - looking a little big creepy - as I got ready to head out the door. I always forget to take pictures of the products I'm reviewing, so I took one quick before I grabbed my coat and mittens and ran out the door.

Look past the picture because I am telling you this scarf and hat set are really cooshy and cute. I have been looking for hats for my kids lately and have been super annoyed with the quality of hats  and head coverings at the brick and mortar stores, so I was expecting this set to be lower quality too.

I was wrong. It's really fantastic. The color is a nice chocolate brown and it's so nice and thick. CoverYourHair has so many fantastic head accessories, you'll want to check them out.

They have Hair Clips, Snoods, Head Scarves, you name it. And right now you can save 20% on your orders by using promo code: blog1231 (expires 12/31/11.)

One Suburban Jungle reader will also win a box of surprise Hair Accessories (worth $25.) Count it as a holiday gift - since it will be a surprise.

To Enter: Fill out the Rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to worldwide residents 18 and older.


Disclaimer: I received a complimentary hat and scarf for review purposes. No compensation was received and all opinions expressed are my own. The giveaway prize will be shipped from CoverYourHair.com and the winner will be selected at random. This giveaway will end on 12/19/2011 at 11:59AM

When Vegetables Become Berries

I love vegetables, but I've been getting some harassment lately because....as it turns out, many of my favorite "vegetables" are actually fruits.

It's true! Cucumbers, Zucchini, Buttercup squash (OMG! Buttercup squash!! Yum-o!,) Tomatoes! They are all fruits.

My kids love to razz me about my love for "fruits" vs veggies. And then we heard the news: Tomatoes are actually BERRIES! That was the end of it!

They know how I love berries. And now my all time favorite veggie (oops - fruit!) is actually a berry. Oh, how I love berries.....

I guess it made sense. I gladly welcome Tomatoes into the berry world, and I love them all the same. I take solace in the fact that asparagus and swiss chard (two of my all time faves) will most likely remain vegetables. Right?  Right???

Only Boring People Get Bored!

Here's something to ponder next time you (or your children) are feeling Bored:

Only Boring People Get Bored!

You don't need a heap of evidence to see the truth in the above statement. Just as we make our own happiness (or misery) in this life, we make our own excitement, challenges, and entertainment.

If you're feeling a little bored - turn off the t.v and write down what you'd really like to do in this life. Think of things that interest you, hobbies you can get involved with, how you can reconnect with family/friends. Then get up and do something. Life's too short to spend it on the couch!