Get moving...

Thanks to Old Navy and Crowdtap I had another awesome opportunity to try out Old Navy's active wear!!  Thanks to some issues with the coupon delivery, the coupons were actually sent to my aunt's house in Florida, where we were going on vacation and it worked as a great thank you to her for letting us stay the week.

My aunt was in disbelief when I told her what the coupons got us.  I had to explain it a few times until she finally believed me. :)

I was very impressed with the Orange Park Mall store.  It was larger than the one I go to here in Columbus.  The store was clean and bright and the sales people were very friendly and helpful.  Plus, they had a great selection and we tried on quite a bit.

As you can see from the following pictures, my aunt was all about color coordination.  We both loved the triangle of color on the capri pants.  It also didn't hurt that they were SUPER comfortable!

Next it was my turn...

 I really wish they would make a built-in-bra tank that is comfortable and effective for larger chests...

I was not a big fan of the Tees, they didn't fit comfortably. 

Here's our final choices!  We both loved the yellow pants. They were SUPER comfortable and flattering and we both loved the tank tops that matched. 

My aunt ended up wearing this outfit more than once while we were visiting and commented a few times how much she loved them.  Overall it was a very successful sample share and I continue to be impressed with Old Navy's style and offerings.

Thanks Old Navy and Crowdtap!

Cottonelle Care Routine

Thanks again to Cottonelle and Crowdtap for another awesome sample share. 

This time myself and two friends got to try out Cottonelle toilet paper and their fresh wipes.  I chose my dad and mom to give the samples to.  My dad has a 5 year old at home and my mom has a 16 year old boy (who, let's face it, they can ALWAYS be a little cleaner).

My mom didn't want her picture on here, so my dog, Dexter, was a stand in.
 

 At home, we placed the wipes on top of the toilet so my 4 year old could reach and replaced our regular toilet paper with Cottonelle for a week.

I am pretty set in my toilet paper brand, and have not been happy with a switch when I tried to make one, but I tried to go into the challenge open minded. 

I had never used the wipes, and was very satisfied with those.  It seemed to work out nice for my four year old to use them as an extra step when she went #2 because we're still working on her getting extra clean then.  She said she felt "super fresh".

 I was not impressed with the toilet paper.  While it was surprisingly thick and did not shred like some other brands, I thought it was very rough.

 My dad had very similar feedback for me.  He said both him and my 5 year old sister liked the wipes.  He was very impressed with the container it came it, he said it was easy to open and close which was nice.  His only complaint was that they plastic wrap was really hard to remove when you first opened them.

He was less impressed with the toilet paper. He said he liked how absorbent and thick it was but also commented that they didn't like how rough it was.

My mom, who is more of a whatever's on sale TP buyer, really liked the toilet paper. She and my brother didn't think it was rough at all and also commented that they thought it was very absorbent and would use it again. 

When it came to the wipes, only my mom had tried them and she said she liked them but probably wouldn't continue to use them in the future because of the price. 

Thanks again CT and Cottonelle! 

Woolite Wonders!

Thanks to Woolite and Crowdtap, I had another opportunity to share a great product with people.

I was sent 10 samples of Woolite Everyday to share with people.   I divided my samples into 2 sets (and kept one for myself).

The first set went to some coworkers.  I set this up at work and told people to take one then report back on their thoughts. 

 The underwear keychain was a perfect touch and drew attention to it. The three people who took the samples did come back and let me know what they thought.  Two of them commented that they liked the scent.  One coworker said she used it on a blanket and her husband who "never notices anything" asked why the blanket smelled so good.  She also said that she had already used the coupon to buy a larger bottle.  All three of them commented that they were not aware that Woolite had an everyday detergent and had still only thought of it for delicates.

The second set of samples went to the parents on my daughter's soccer team.  The last two weeks it has rained for two days before our game so the field had been a mud pit.  They were all COVERED in mud from head to toe so last week while one of the parents passed out snack, I passed out the Woolite samples. 

I wish I had taken a before picture, but there was no way I was putting those clothes down anywhere.  Here is the after:

  

 

It worked great!  When I asked the parents this week what they thought, the general opinion was that it was a winner.  Again, a few of the parents mentioned that they had no idea Woolite had an everyday detergent.  I think that is the most important outcome of these sample shares.  It gives more visibility to the options Woolite has and slowly but surely allows people to see them as more than just a brand for delicates.

Thanks again Woolite and Crowdtap!

Windows 8X Phone

Thanks to Crowdtap and Verizon, I had another AWESOME party opportunity, this time for the new Windows 8X Smartphone by HTC!!  Not only did they send me an active Windows 8X phone to try but they also sent 3 swag bags filled with goodies to hand out as prizes for the Pinterest challenge.

The goodie bags each had a cup, 1G USB memory card and photo coasters in it. I couldn't believe how generous they were!

The phone was enough enticement to get people over since most of them had not seen any of the Windows phones yet and they came with all kinds of questions about what it could do which made my portion of demonstrating the phone simple.  Food was the other driver to get people in the door, I had all kinds of new recipes I wanted to try from Pinterest so it was easy!

We had...

 Buffalo chicken pizza strips...

 Crockpot Salsa Chicken...

 

Mexican roll ups...

 Chex mix, chips, cookies and brownies! 

They were all delicious!  Not many of my guests were familiar with Pinterest before the party so I set up a Pinterest station with my computer and walked them through the Pinterest Challenge.  It was so funny! The topics they chose were great to get to know more about people you thought you knew a lot about!

Here's a link to all the boards:  http://pinterest.com/verizonctparty/.

These three photos were from the winning boards:

 Photo of you with friends and family.

 Photo of you with friends and family.

Favorite childhood memory.

It was a great time and ended up being really great timing because three of my guests were planning to upgrade their phones in the next month.  I know one of them went online at the party to look at what other Windows phones were available at Verizon because they liked what they saw. 

Thanks again Crowdtap and Verizon!!

Hotel Transylvania... blah blah blah

Thanks to Crowdtap, I had the opportunity to host a Hotel Transylvania launch party!  Becca and I had seen the movie in the theater and loved it so I was excited to have the opportunity to see it again. 

First I will apologize for the limited pictures.  The other mother told me when she got there that she did not want her kids in photos online.  So you  just get to see my beautiful daughter and sister. :)

While the food cooked, the girls colored the color sheets and Valentines.

Brunch consisted of bats (watermelon cutouts), ghosts (white chocolate covered strawberries), worm pancakes (just like Mavis although I forgot to take pictures after I added the gummy worms) and blood (strawberry milk.  The girls thought this meal was hilarious and kept giggling every time someone said "bats taste good" or "blood tastes good".

Afterwards, we all snuggled in for the movie.  It was the first time any of the girls besides my daughter had seen it. As you can see they were glued to the screen!

After the movie, we moved back to the kitchen to make witch hat cookies.  We took the round chocolate cookies, put icing in the hole and added a hershey kiss to top it off.  They tasted great!

Thanks again Crowdtap for an excuse to have another fun party! My daughter always asks what our next one will be!