Painting with Watercolors! I'm pretty proud of myself :)

I got another painting pad, this time watercolor to test and review.

I was super excited about the watercolor because I've always really appreciated the watercolor look, and always wanted to learn how to paint well.  This went more smoothly than the acrylic painting test, I think mostly because I used better paint brushes this time.  So this time-nice paper, nice brushes, and cheap paint (what I had around...).

I wanted to paint this photo that I took about a decade ago in Poland:

This is my first time using legitimate watercolor paper instead of just printer paper so I can't compare it to other brands, but I'm certainly happy with this. This is a nice shade of white and nice texture. I was grateful for how easy it was to take a sheet out of the pad (I tried this brand's acrylic paper pad and had some problems taking it out of the spiral binding). I'm not going to quit my day job just yet, but with how well I feel my first painting went, I'm excited to plan my next one :)


To see a short speed painting video of this, check it out on my YouTube video:

If you want to try out this brand of watercolor paper, go HERE.  #usartsupply

If you want to try out the paint brushes I used, go HERE.  (affiliate)


I received a free pad of this paper for the purpose of testing and reviewing. I was asked to share my honest and unbiased feedback.  I was not compensated in any way.  As for the paint brushes, I purchased them at a discount for my review and feedback as well.

My First Time "Really" Painting with Acrylics

I got this nice pad of paper for acrylic paints free to test and review.

My first impression is that it's a nice thick paper.  So thick that it actually frustrated me when I tore it out and it bent some of the spiral wire with it....oops!  As for actually using it....I'll confess I'm a complete newbie at this.  The most I've really done before was cheap craft acrylic paint on printer paper.

While I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out, I think that had more to do with my lack of good brushes than anything.  The paper didn't get soaked or anything, nice quality overall.  I got a pad of watercolor paper to try as well.  I'll be posting about that in the next couple of days!

As for now, let me know your thoughts!  I was going off of inspiration from Polish Wyczinanki (the art of cut paper).  I'll be posting a video within the next 24 hours of the whole painting process, I just don't have it ready quite yet.  Go ahead and head over to www.youtube.com/c/JudkinsJourney1 and it will appear on there when uploaded and released :)

If you're in the market for some painting paper, check out this item HERE.   #usartsupply

Killin' It With STYLE! ~Awesome Product Review Items~

I enjoyed giving myself a "welcome to sandal weather aka Spring!" pedicure last night.  It felt so good, in part, by these 2 first items that I got to review:

Cuticle Pusher--

I was really impressed by this! I've only ever used the plastic style cuticle pushers (which I will now refer to as "those cheap plastic pushers") and this is night and day. It's well made, made in the U.S.A. (that always makes me smile to bring business locally and know the quality), and definitely professional quality. Not only does it push up your cuticles, but it gently lifts them up, making it easier to remove them without damaging your nails like I have plenty of times in the past. It scrapes just enough to get all layers of the cuticle so you don't leave any behind. If you flip it over, it also does well to clean out under your nails. I'm a big fan of this and recommend it without hesitation! I'll be taking better care of my cuticles now that I have this for sure.

If you want to get one for yourself, you can get one HERE. #GotGlamour

Callus Remover--

I'm the kind of person that gets embarrassed when sandal season comes around. I am barefoot 95% of the time-I work from home and I just prefer to be barefoot....so the calluses build up. I've been using for a while a manual scraper of sorts. It works ok but it takes a really long time to get any results. I was excited to get this and try it out! This comes with the main piece, a cord, a small brush for cleaning, a snap-on cover for the file and a replacement file.

This has a couple of safety features built in which puts my mind at ease, and it works really great-it made quick work of smoothing my feet out! If there were any criticism, I'd say I don't particularly love that it kicks the dead skin in the air (no catching mechanism) so that can be kind of gross thinking of breathing that in....

If you want to try it out, go HERE.    #TreatMyFeet

I've got a few more "fashion" items to try recently and I've enjoyed them.  In no particular order....

For the Man of the House



 

This is a beautiful ring-comfortable and true to size. I love the natural wood grain look. If I were to give one caution, I'd say be careful what you do when wearing this. My husband intentionally didn't wear it to work because it would get dinged up in a heartbeat, but I think he must have accidentally done some moderate yard work with it on and it has a little bit of a scratched area on it already....just after a couple of days. I'm not sure if those can just be buffed out like he has with his all-metal wedding rings before or if some other sort of treatment would be needed.

If you like the look of this ring-check it out HERE!   #RoseRing

For the Baby of the House

These are super cute! I love the idea of documenting kiddos growing up and these are perfect for that. I got these as a shower gift and it's great for twins, multiple kids in the same family, or to divide and use for 2 gifts since there are 2 identical sets. You never really know how the graphics will look until you have it (I've seen some poor quality things out there...pixelated, etc) but these are well done and very cute.

I only have 1 concern and that's about size. I feel like they're a smidge too large, especially for small newborns. But that's just a guess since I don't have a little one of my own to slap these on and let you know lol. I think that these will bring a smile to the face of the mom-to-be that I will be gifting them to.

If you want to snag yourself a set, go HERE.   #bornandbeyond

Last but not least,

For the Jogger of the House:

I've tried out different running/exercise belts and thought I'd give this one a go.  When it first arrived I wondered if I somehow misunderstood....how could this hold a phone?!  It's so thin!  But it expands beautifully to have quite a large capacity.  If I were to have anything different, I'd  have a small opening for earbuds to come through.

If you're in the market for a running belt, get one HERE.   #exercisebelt


Let me know your thoughts-which of these would you be most likely to get?

*Disclaimer-I received these products free or deeply discounted for the purpose of testing and reviewing.  I was not compensated in any way, this is not a sponsored post. 

Non-Candy Easter Basket Ideas!

Kids don't need a whole basket of sugar, we all know that!  So I compiled a fun collection of ideas to stuff that basket with that don't involve candy! 

Take a gander at the video list I made here :)

The ULTIMATE Filled Chocolate EASTER EGGS Treats!!!

As you've noticed, I've really gone wild with product reviews lately....I have anywhere from 2-5 items on average sent to me from Amazon sellers daily Monday-Friday....It's a hobby that's keeping me busy!  I only share a few of the goodies here with you guys.  But sometimes I look at items that are open for opt-in as a product reviewer and I specifically choose to get the item just because I know I can do something fun and share it with my blog readers and YouTube viewers!  This...is one of those items!


  This cool egg silicone mold has been really fun to work with.  At first, I wanted to make DIY Kinder Surprise Eggs.....but alas, this mold won't work well for that.  The shape is fantastic, but does not equal 1/2 of an egg, so they really have to have a flat back to work properly. 

So I started thinking about what I could fill some chocolate eggs with.  My husband LOVES peanut butter everything, so naturally we'd do that.  And I like Nutella, and heck, why not Oreo, and Mounds, and salted caramel, and etc and etc and I went hog wild :P

I decided to make 8 different kinds of chocolate eggs and we loved them all.

Here's a list of what flavors we did:
Oreo Truffle

Salted Caramel

Nutella Cream

Marshmallow

Smore's

Peanut Butter

Coconut

Surprise (not quite like a Kinder, but we made our own version that's almost as great!)

To check out the recipes and see how I made them, head over to my YouTube video >>>>>HERE<<<<<

We also filmed a fun taste testing video and let you know what our favorites are >>>>>HERE<<<<<<

I hope you'll take a gander at the videos and let me know what you think!!! If you want to get one of these molds for yourself, click on the Amazon picture of it above.

DIY Game Tin/Busy Bag Idea!!!

I know that my Busy Bag posts have been some of the more popular on my blog.  Here's a video of one I did recently:

Appreciating the Arts (& Crafts!)-----3 Product Reviews!

First up today is this pack of 3d pen filament refills.

I got the gold set of these filaments. I like the overall quality of these-the color is nice. I tested this in both of my 3D pens and didn't have any jamming problems-nice and smooth.

Despite being a nice quality product, I don't think I'll honestly be buying these again, at least not on a regular basis. This was my first time using filament like this, in "stick" form as opposed to "reel" form. I found it extremely inconvenient to have to keep reloading them on a large project and I don't feel like it came out as smooth because of it.

I also did a cost comparison on these and they tend to be a bit more expensive than other options.

These strands 16.6 cents/ft
10 M reel of 1 color=13.7 cents/ft
Mixed color reel pack .08 cents/ft
1 kg spool of 1 color =.02 cents/ft

Of course, these do definitely have a place. If you just want an accent color for something, there's no need to buy a huge reel of that particular filament or if only want a very specific color, no need to buy mixed packs.

If you're interested in trying for yourself, check them out HERE.   #3dprintrefill


Next up is this Amazing Reef Color Book.

I have enjoyed the "adult coloring book" craze going on lately. My impression of this coloring book:It's cool because you can tell that the pages are made from REAL photographs. But the fact that they're real photos outlined makes for some fuzzy lines, some pages crowded, others pretty empty. I still really enjoyed coloring in it and would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

If you want to check it out for  yourself, go HERE.  #AquariumDepot

If you want to see a sped up relaxing video of me coloring one of the sheets, watch my video here:

My friend's music is the accompanying music, she's so talented!

And speaking of music, here's this cutie ;)

Small Jean Bluetooth Speaker---

This seriously drips with adorable-being so small and cute!  I honestly didn't realize it would be so small, but looks can be deceiving.....this can crank up the music!!!  My husband and I were in shock and awe about how powerful this little gal (I feel it's more of a gal than a guy?...lol) is.  This was pretty easy to pair to my phone (it's a windows phone...kinda lame....so sometimes it doesn't play nice with all the technology out there, but this worked great). 

The operation is pretty straight forward-3 buttons.  back/volume down, forward/volume up, on/pause/off.  The first two buttons mentioned are on the sides on nice brass buttons like you'd see on jeans.  It has an attached carabiner clip to make it easy to take with you. 

If I were to give any criticism, it would actually be the buttons.  It took me a while to get used to them and kept accidentally changing the song while trying to adjust the volume.  Otherwise, I really do love this!

To get your own, go HERE.


I believe all of these items are eligible for Amazon Prime free 2 day shipping.  If you would like a 30 day free trial of Prime, go HERE.


***Disclaimer*** I was provided these items free of cost for the purpose of testing and reviewing.  I was not compensated in any way and was asked only to provide my honest opinion.  A couple of the links are affiliate links-they all go to Amazon.com.

Too Much Fun with Marshmallow Peeps! (Taste Test and Chubby Bunny)

Just another post and fun, hope you guys enjoy these videos, we had too much fun making them :)

Saint Patrick's Day Pancake Art!!!

Hey guys, just a short post and run.  Hope you enjoy this, it was only my 2nd time trying to do pancake art :)

 

3 Neat Product Reviews! Personal Water Filter, Muscle Stick Roller, Charcoal Car Air Freshener

First up, we have the AcquaPura Personal Water Filter #acquapura

I got this water filtering straw and compared it with the Seychelle filtered water bottle that my husband and I used for 3 weeks when we were last traveling abroad.

Where Seychelle Wins:
-Comes in one piece-this has several components that I feel I might lose.
-Seychelle doesn't have to be back filled to clean it out (not even sure if I did it right when I did it on this)
-More normal feeling to drink out of (compared to this plus the pouches they sell for these or even attaching this straw to a regular drinking bottle)
-More thorough explanation of what it kills/filters and no typos (found 2 on the AcquaPura box without even really looking...)
-When the filter is used up, you don't have to replace the whole setup, just the filter.

Where AcquaPura Wins:
-Smaller/more light weight design
-Filters a lot more water per filter than the Seychelle bottle. (almost 4x as much!)
-More versatile-can be used solo at a lake, with the optional water pouches they sell, or with any standard water/soda bottle that has threads.
-For just the straw, the price is cheaper than the bottle.
-The Seychelle shows a required filter time for some of the viruses to be killed-some up to 9 or 10 minutes so you have to wait to drink.

Overall, I think this is a nice product. I think I'll still use my Seychelle bottle for traveling abroad or while camping, but this straw will DEFINITELY be in our emergency pack for those "SHTF" situations. This would be even more ideal for a serious backpacker who really values space and light weight options.

If you want to get your own personal filtration straw, go HERE.

Next up, we have the Live Infinitely Muscle Stick Roller.   #liveinfinitely

This is my first time trying a Muscle Stick Roller so it was pretty foreign to me. I wanted to try it out because my husband has been working lots of hours at a pretty physically demanding job and is sore a lot. The instructions in the packaging talk about how you can use it before and after a workout as well to help with healing and proper circulation.

So far my husband likes it, it has helped him. While it's long enough to be used solo, he feels like it helps a ton more when someone else is applying the roller to you-but I'm sure that really depends on which muscles you're going for. I'll confess that I haven't used it yet pre or post workout, I've been really busy but I know that I really NEED to get back to working out. I think this will be a really worthwhile tool to help me ease into a routine. Normally I'll get motivated-bust out a good workout, and then can't move properly without lots of pain for the rest of the week. Using this before and after working out should significantly reduce that problem!

Overall, this is a pretty simple and well-made tool. A rod with gripping handles and plastic rings that move. Make sure to use it over clothes if you've got long hair (looking at the men folk here) or you'll likely rip your hair out painfully.

If you want your own Muscle Stick, go HERE.

Last, but not least, we have the PURGGO Car Air Freshener (Bamboo Charcoal)  #purggo

My car hasn't been super stinky lately, so I haven't noticed any life-changing moments with this, BUT I know how well charcoal can work as an air freshener. I've been using some charcoal pouches in shoe storage and next to the dirty clothes hamper and I feel like they help.

If we accidentally leave fast food wrappings in the car too long after a summer road trip, this will be a lifesaver! It's also nice to have a little bit of freshness to the air for those with allergies. My parents have such bad scent allergies that sometimes they get headaches from the smell of my shampoo or my husband's deodorant just from riding in the same car with us! Hanging a smelly tree from the rear view mirror is like nailing their coffin closed(ok, said a little tongue-in-cheek there, but you get it, right?)

The only improvement I could see for this is making the knots a little more secure on the strap. It's well made and I love that it should last a whole year so you don't have to replace it often!

If you want to try one out for yourself, go HERE.

All of these items can be purchased on Amazon.com.  If you would like a 30 Day FREE Trial of Amazon Prime to get free 2 day shipping, go HERE. (Affiliate link)

*Disclaimer: I was provided these items free for the purpose of testing and reviewing.  I was not compensated in any way and was asked to provide my honest and unbiased opinion.