Monday, June 30, 2014

Product Review: Adovia Mineral Eye Gel


   I received a free review jar of Adovia Eye Cream for Reducing Eye Puffiness, Dark Circles, Wrinkles and Fine Lines Around Eyes.


   After only a week of trying this cream, the puffiness around my eyes is gone. The dark circles are lighter. I don't really have fine lines or wrinkles, but I have noticed a difference in the way my eyes look. It only takes the smallest amount when you apply. It goes on smoothly and absorbs quickly and completely without any sticky residue.I am excited to continue using this product.

 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.

Friday, June 27, 2014

Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary

   When we were debating about getting Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary Edition, I was hoping we would get it. We didn't have a copy yet, but our friends do. We try not to get the same games as others in our gaming groups because then there is a bigger variety when we get together. We decided it would be worth it, and I agree!

 

   Inside there is a card that has a code on it to register your game and join the Days of Wonder community. There is also the rule book. It's rather thick and big, but it has many languages in it. It is really only two pages long.


   Under that, there is the game board. It's folded into a 6th of it's size.


   Under the board are the pieces for the game. Five tins of trains, cards and score tokens.


   The board is huge! It's very bright, colorful and nice to look at.


   The back side is even decorated to celebrate the Anniversary.


   There are five square scoring tokens that match the train colors.


   There are two decks of cards plus a bonus card. The art in this game is amazing!


   This game has both the regular cards plus the 1910 expansion.


   The train cards are very bright and colorful. They are also extremely detailed.


   The train pieces are amazing! You have the yellow barrel cars.


   Red circus cars, complete with a giraffe head poking out of the top.


   Black coal cars that look like there is actually coal in the car.


   Blue transit cars


   And green caboose cars.


   Everything fits nicely back into the box. Everything stays nicely where it's supposed to go.


   The details in the art and the bright colors make this game amazing! I love looking at it while playing. If you are on the fence about getting this game, I promise you won't be disappointed!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Feature Friday Link Palooza - and Ahh Hah Organizer Kits Giveaway


It’s Friday!!
Welcome to the …
Feature Friday Link Palooza - www.blissfulanddomestic.com - Blissfulanddomestic.com

Hello Lovelies! Welcome to The Feature Friday Link Palooza! The gals from Living Made Healthy, Quilted Euphoria, Ode to Simplicity, Laura Sue Shaw,  Alex Haralson, Blissful and Domestic and I have all joined forces to create one mega weekend party! You’ll only have to link up once to to be listed on all seven sites, and each of us will choose our own projects to feature throughout the week! So be sure to check with each site to see which of the amazing ideas were featured! 

This week’s giveaway is a Child's Records Organizer Kit from Ahh Hah Organizer Kits

Feature Friday Link Palooza - www.blissfulanddomestic.com - Blissfulanddomestic.com

Feature Friday Link Palooza - www.blissfulanddomestic.com - Blissfulanddomestic.com

Feature Friday Link Palooza - www.blissfulanddomestic.com - Blissfulanddomestic.com

We are so excited to see what the winner of this week’s giveaway does with their kit! Find out more, enter to win, and link up your projects after the break

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Summer Smoothies Made Simple


Well, it's hot here.  As the temperature climbs up, smoothies are a good way to cool down.  I have been buying smoothies for years.  At $5.00 or more, the cost adds up. I recently realized that anyone can make a smoothie at home that is just as the good as the ones you can buy.  It is cheaper and much simpler than you think. 

Here are the basic ingredients you need for a smoothie:

  • 1 cup frozen fruit
  • 1 cup juice
  • 1/2 cup frozen yogurt (or sherbet)

To make the smoothie, add the frozen fruit to the blender with the juice.  Blend until smooth.  Then, throw in the frozen yogurt and mix until blended.  This recipe will make one large smoothie or two small ones.  If you want it to be thicker, you can add 1 cup of frozen yogurt instead of just 1/2. That's it.  Can you believe it?

The best part of this recipe is that so many variations are possible. Trying new combinations of fruit, juice, and frozen yogurt means an endless number of smoothie flavors.  Here are a few of my favorite combinations.

Simple Strawberry
  • 1 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
Strawberry Limeade
  • 1 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1/2 cup lime sherbet
Add more lime sherbet if you'd like a stronger lime flavor.   

Mango-Berry Limeade
  • 1/2 cup frozen mango
  • 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
  • 1 cup apple juice
  • 1/2 cup lime sherbet
Strawberry Banana
  • 3/4 cup frozen unsweetened strawberries
  • 1/2 banana (not frozen)
  • 1 cup apple juice or V8 fusion strawberry banana juice
  • 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
Berry Pomegranate
  • 1 cup frozen mixed berries
  • 1 cup V8 fusion pomegranate blueberry juice
  • 1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
I hope you enjoy these recipes and have fun making your own combinations. As that old familiar song sort of said, its "Summertime, and the smoothies are easy!"

Friday, June 20, 2014

Roll For It! Review

   Roll For It! (Red Edition) is a fun dice rolling, matching game by Calliope Games. Back on Table Top Day, we were lucky enough to get one of their boxes of goodies. In it, was a little promo game of Roll For It! It was a little different than the game in the box, but we looked more into it and it looked fun, so we bought it.


   When you open the box, there is a rule book, a deck of 30 cards and twenty four dice in four colors.


   To set up, shuffle the cards and deal three cards face up in the middle of the table. Each player chooses a color of dice.


   On your turn, roll the dice, only once, and try and match your dice up with the cards in the center. If you have a match, take the card from the center and put it in your scored pile. After you have placed all of the dice you are able to use, place a new card in the empty spot and take your dice from the scored card back for your next turn.


   Play continues, each player rolls once and matches the dice to the cards, trying to score. You can only roll the dice you have available so plan wisely. If you choose, you can take back ALL of your dice that are placed at the cards and then roll.


The first person that gets to forty points, or above, wins!


   What's that you say? This game would be awesome for game nights but you have more than four people in your group? Not to worry, there is also a  Roll For It! (Purple Edition).


   Both games come with a deck of cards and four sets of dice. You can shuffle both decks together when playing with up to eight people. The different color cards and dice makes it easy to sort back out at the end of the game as well. The purple deck comes with dice that look like marble. The red deck comes with more transparent dice. I love them all! I couldn't make up my mind which one I wanted because of the dice, so we got them both. The only difference when playing with more people is you  have four cards face up in the center instead of three.


   I LOVE this game! It's fast, easy to learn, and people who "don't like games" even enjoy this game. It is great as a filler game or you can play it multiple times. There is tons of re-playability in this game due to the different cards. There isn't much down time between turns, even when playing with a large group because you only get to roll once. This game is great to play with kids since there is more luck than strategy. It's small size also makes it easy to take if you are heading to a friends or on vacation. I highly recommend this game if you enjoy dice games. I know I do!

Monday, June 16, 2014

Melted Crayon Art

   A week or so ago, I decided I wanted to try out some melted crayon art. I don't own a hair dryer to do the one that drips down so I was trying to find a different way. I found a post on Pinterest about shredding a crayon and using an iron to melt it. I didn't really like the way it turned out. I looked into it more and found out they were ironing it like you would clothes, but if you held the iron still, it wouldn't make it a big mess of mixed crayon. I decided to give it a try. I had read that they used a cheese grater to shred the crayon. All I accomplished by trying it that way was coloring on my cheese grater. I grabbed a sharp knife and carefully got to work.

This is about two crayons each. You may need a couple boxes depending on what you are making.


   I grabbed a piece of card stock, hoping it would hold up better than regular paper.


   I decided I wanted to try out a Batman logo. I printed one off of the internet and carefully cut it out.


   I figured it would be easiest to start on the inside and work your way out. I placed the cut out logo on the paper.


   Carefully fill it in. One nice thing about doing it this way is you can gently push the crayon that landed on the template into the middle to help keep it nice and clean.


   Carefully lift the paper and touch up the outline.


   Next, I used the piece I had cut out to cover the black crayon to help keep the yellow from mixing in. I just shaped this on my own. It wasn't too hard since it's an oval.


   I thought it might look cool to add the mixture of the two colors around the outside.


   Very carefully remove the paper from the logo. I did end up getting a couple bits of yellow mixed in with my black. I used a toothpick to very carefully pick out the yellow.


   Tape down some wax paper over the top of your art work. Put your iron on the lowest setting and very carefully melt the crayon.

  
   Here is my finished work. Not bad for a first time, but can still use a little bit of improvement.


   Some tips that might help:

   Make sure your crayon is the same thickness throughout the work. The middle was much thicker than the outside. This made it so it wouldn't melt evenly.

   It doesn't look cool to add a mixture of the two colors around the outside. It would have looked a lot better if that mess around the edge was just yellow. It would actually look pretty cool.

    Hold the iron flat and don't move it around. Don't even put it on the paper. Just hold it above the paper. It gets plenty hot to do it that way.

   When you are letting it cool, place something over it or on the edges of the paper. It will curl and if you try and flatten it back out, the crayon will crack. I had mine curl so I placed it on a cookie sheet out in the sun. It melted back down again pretty quick. This might also be a good way to melt it without an iron. Just make sure you watch it, once it starts melting, it goes fast!

   Other than that, have fun with it! If you are doing it with children, make sure you watch them closely. I recommend not letting them shred the crayon or use the iron unless they are old enough to do it safely. When I was looking at different ways to do this project, I saw one where they let their kids use a pencil sharpener to help get the crayons ready. This might be a good alternative.

   If you give this craft a try, I would love to see what you come up with as well! I'm already trying to decide what I want to do next.

   Happy crafting!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Harbour Review

   I received a print on demand game of Harbour by Tasty Minstrel Games. I was rather excited to get a pre-production review copy. Keep in mind, this game hasn't been put up on Kickstarter yet, so the pieces you see here, are most likely not the pieces that will come with the game. 

   To begin, each player chooses a player card. Each card has it's own abilities. This card is where you keep track of which goods you have.


   There is a card to keep track of how much each good is needed to purchase more buildings. This will change throughout the game, which is one thing I really like about the game. Here, two stone is worth two dollars, three lumber is worth three dollars, four fish is worth four dollars and five cattle are worth five dollars.


   To begin, each player will put their player cards in front of them. You lay out cards (number of players plus three, so a two player game has five cards) face up and the rest are in a draw pile. You can start with either one of each good or any combination of three goods. Here we set up for a combination of three goods. After you choose your goods, randomly place one of each goods cube on the cost of goods card. For the first turn, place your player marker next to your building. We found it's easier to sit next to each other so the cards are easier to see.


   On your turn, you can place your player marker on any of the available buildings. The cards in the middle are free for anyone to use. You may use your buildings for free as well. You may use an opponents buildings by giving them any one of your goods. After you place your player marker, do what is on the cards. For example, the first card you can pick any of your goods and double the amount. On the second card, you can pay one cattle for a fish, stone and lumber.


   Once you have some goods saved up, you can purchase a building card. The cost of each building is on the top right of the card. I have enough goods saved up to purchase the seven dollar building. Move your player marker to a building that allows you to purchase a building. Each player card allows you to purchase a building.


    I would put the three dollar lumber and four dollar fish on the ship space.


   Move your tokens on your goods track down to zero. In this game, if you have extra goods (for example, if I had four lumber instead of three) you lose the extra goods. There are ways to be able to keep some goods. We will talk about that in a minute.


   Once a building is purchased, the cost of goods will change. You slide the ramaining goods forward.


   The lower amount that was paid moves first. It will go on the highest available space.


   Keep going until all of the cubes are returned to the cost card. The highest amount that was used, will  now be on the lowest amount.


   Each card has the cost on the top right. There are the number of points the card is worth on the top left. This top card is worth twelve points. Each building also has a symbol on it. There is either a top hat, a coin, an anchor, or a warehouse. These symbols each have their own ability. The top hat allows that user to use other players buildings for free. The coin allows you to purchase a building for one less dollar per coin card. The anchor cards have special abilities on the building cards. Some cards give you the same number of goods as the number of anchors. The warehouse lets you keep one good when purchasing a building.


   Some of the cards have two symbols on it giving you double abilities.


   Whoever purchases the fourth building (fifth if you count the player card) triggers the last round. Each other player gets one turn to try and buy another building. Whoever has the most points from their cards, wins the game!

   I will be honest, I have had mixed feelings about this game. I have played it as a two player game and also as a four player game. I enjoy it as a two player game. It's not too long, there is plenty of room to move around and to get what you need. You can have some sort of strategy. It is also fun trying to race and see who can get the buildings done first. The game is a little different each time you play it since the cards are random and there are a few player cards to choose from.

   I didn't enjoy it as much as a four player game. We had a hard time seeing the cards, it got crowded and wasn't easy getting what you needed. You can't plan in advance because the cost of goods can change multiple times before it gets back around to your turn. That also causes a waste of goods until you are able to get a warehouse or two. As a four player game, I felt it was mostly a game of luck without any strategy.