Product Review: Mediderm Skin Care Products

I got the privilege to try 3 Mediderm Laboratories skin care products for free.

My favorite is the Sensitive Skin Foaming Cleanser.

It hasn't caused any problems with my sensitive skins and leaves it feeling clean and smooth.  It smells slightly coconuty to me.  One thing that is a little different than expectations is that this does NOT foam...not sure why they called it a foaming cleanser.  I can't get a lather at all, but I was actually told that if it foams, it's probably too harsh for your facial skin, so I suppose that's a good sign.

Next favorite is their WhiteDerm Sun Shield SPF 30 Cream

I've only had a couple of times where I've used this, but I had no irritation and it seemed to work well.  You don't get much, but a little goes a long way.

Lastly, I have to confess that I only had a chance to use it once, but I liked the way it felt and with how the other products work, I'm sure this one will be nice to lighten imperfections.

If you want to check out any of these items or any of their other skin care line, go HERE.

#WhiteDermAPlus

Disclaimer: I was provided a free sample of each item mentioned.  I was asked to share my honest opinion, this is not a paid or sponsored post.

How to Make an All-American Cake! ~4th of July Cake~

It's videos like this where I can show off that I indeed do have a culinary degree that I use :P I had fun making this cake for this video and seeing the creativity of the other YouTubers that participated in this 4th of July Collaboration. My husband and I are actually eating some of this cake right now lol.

Check out the short video here: 

I also made a sister video to it on how I made the embellishments and how I make other embellishments like cute eyes that you can put on monster cupcakes or the like:

Day 9: The 3 Week Food Storage Only Diet!

Day 9, Sunday

Today was a pretty crazy day for food.  On Sundays we leave for and come back from church kind of at an odd time, so we only usually have breakfast and a late lunch/early dinner.  Today I made turkey.  We're talking a 31 pound, are you sure it's not Thanksgiving...kind of turkey.  And it's actually my first turkey :D  All things considered, it turned out pretty well.  I made gravy from the drippings and we ate rice from food storage and a tomato jam/syrup that we canned last year from tomatoes in our garden.  It was a lot of work but It. Was. Amazing.

It's not lost on me that if this were a real emergency situation that involved not having power, all of the things in our freezers would have spoiled (or had to be eaten first) long ago.  I also know that cooking a turkey over a campfire would be quite a tricky adventure.

The bones are boiling on a stock pot right now to make bone broth-yummy, nutritious, free :)

I also made a rather elaborate dessert for being on such a tight meal plan.  It's a 4th of July themed cake and I was happy to have all of the ingredients I needed.  The video should be up on my YouTube channel in less than a week.  I do anticipate having to break the 3 week diet sadly for a commitment that I had made prior to starting this.  I agreed to do a product review of this cool set of cake decorating tips and I just used up the last of our powdered sugar :-/  So I'll have to buy for that, but that's all I should have to buy.  I'm excited to see how they work and I'll have that up on my channel as well.

Speaking of this cake and emergency food storage and product review items.  I was given an opportunity to get a set of these vegetable seeds to review.




I genuinely think it's a great idea to have a pack of seeds like this in case of an emergency and you have to grow your own food.  Having our own container garden, I've been able to enjoy some fresh raspberries during our no-grocery shopping fast.  I actually used some in the cake I made today :)

Anyway, on to another week!  My husband gets free lunches at work M-F this week so I plan to use up our canned peaches and frozen fruits and spinach to make smoothies for most of our lunches.  And we'll be eating turkey in various ways for days lol.

Thanks so much for joining me on this fun adventure!


 Disclaimer: The seeds and cake decorating set #nozzle were free or deeply discounted for me to try and share my honest and unbiased feedback.  This is not a sponsored/paid post.  Links, if you choose to buy, may be affiliate links. 

3 Week Food Storage Challenge: Days 6-8

Sorry I haven't been updating this daily, life is crazy with preparing to move-packing, garage sale, etc!

We've made it a week!  We're 1/3 into it!  We guessed that it would start getting harder at this point and I'm not too sure it will, I'll talk about that in a little bit, but first, how have we been doing the last 3 days?

Days 6,7,8

In addition to the muffins, english muffins, and toast that we had stocked up on in the freezer (I inventoried, we have more than enough to last us!  This is a good opportunity to shrink that down so they don't get freezer burned!) for breakfast, we've had some fun lunches and dinners. 

Lunches have mostly consisted of homemade lunchables.  I used up the last of the ham we had in our freezer, used most of our string cheese from the fridge, and a lot of the Ritz crackers we have on hand.  The only fresh vegetables we have left now are some carrots and celery so I prepped some of that as well.  Healthy, easy, fun, nostalgic.

The other day we took some "chow mein"-the fancier version of ramen noodles basically, and prepared them according to instructions, then added some peanut butter-pad thai :)  I think peanut butter is a great staple for food storage-it's a convenient and tasty source of protein!

Other than that, we made 1 last batch of crockpot chili with the last of our frozen ground beef.  Not your normal summer menu item, but it's undeniably tasty and helps use up a lot of food storage items without being demanding of time. 

As for our future plans, I took the time to sit down and actually make a menu plan.  I know that when I do, we're more organized and eat better.  Knowing what we're going to have for the next 2 weeks is helpful to plan ahead in a few ways, one being knowing what to pack!  I started packing up spices and other foods that aren't on the list.  I'm leaving all the "snacky" foods like popcorn, dried fruits and nuts unpacked, but lentils aren't on the menu, so in a box they go!  I'm actually supposed to be baking a somewhat elaborate cake this week for a YouTube video (4th of July collaboration) and I was worried because I thought I had used up the last of the granulated sugar.  I was thinking about having to adjust a recipe or find one that calls for brown sugar, but I found a bag of regular sugar in my pantry packing :)  I definitely need to stock up on that more.  Now I just hope last of all that I have enough powdered sugar for all of the frosting (I think I do)  YUM! 

We also had to plan in the fact that my in-laws may be coming for a few days to visit and help us with our move.  I don't know that they'll love eating on our food storage diet, but it's not like it's rice and beans for 3 meals in a row :P 

We've got some fun meals planned next-lots of recipes with turkey and chicken, and even some Polish food :)  Stay tuned!

Star Wars Party Ideas :)

I've enjoyed lately making some party idea videos on my YouTube channel.  Here is today's:

I was inspired by the silicone molds that I got to review-so fun!!!

You can get a full set of the molds HERE.

Disclaimer:

Silicone molds were provided free of charge or discounted to review.  This is not a paid/sponsored post.  The link provided is an affiliate link.

3 Week Food Storage Challenge---Days 4 & 5---

Day 4, Monday

We had our usual toast/english muffin breakfasts.  I think that will just go as an assumption for a while because I looked in the freezer and we have plenty!  Andrew ate PB & J for lunch and I think I skipped lunch...or just snacked on this and that..... For dinner we shared leftover chili and steamed broccoli.  I went into our extra freezer and pulled out a huge turkey to thaw and cook as well as some muffins that I made quite some time ago that are amazingly not freezer burned. 

Day 5, Tuesday

Between the usual breakfast fare and the muffins we fared well for breakfast, about the same for lunch as the day before as well.  I had some ramen noodles (we don't have a ton, but a decent amount in our food storage) and finished our last can of black olives.  RIP the black olives.  To sweeten up the muffins (they're pumpkins, zucchini, whole grain....so they taste healthy) I opened up the 1 package of chocolate frosting we had in food storage, I hope it was well sacrificed lol.  I just wanted some sweetness :P  For dinner, we actually had Dominos pizza.  Before you get disappointed that we gave in so early, we actually followed our rules that we would eat something that wasn't in our storage if it were free.  T-Mobile has an app where you can get freebies on Tuesdays and I decided to try it out and got a code for a free 2-topping medium pizza :)  It kinda tasted like crap though, so that was anti-climactic.....Oh well.

Last Minute Father's Day Gift Ideas (And other cool things ;)

Yesterday I posted a short video on my YouTube Channel with a list of some cool gift ideas for Father's day.

The one I'll specifically list here has already been gifted to my dad (we're horrible at shipping things on time so this year when my parents were in town my mom got her gift late and dad got his early lol).  My dad's the outdoorsy type-loves to hunt and fish.  Mostly fish nowadays.  I gave him this fanny pack.  Now, you may laugh at the fanny pack fashion statement, but you can't deny that they can be very useful, and c'mon, camo makes it better right?  :D

If you want to check out the other cool items listed, check out the full video:

If you want to snag one of these for yourself, you can order HERE.

If you don't have an Amazon Prime membership, this ships free with a membership and you can try a 30 day free trial of Prime HERE.

I also wanted to mention a couple of other cool products that I've had the chance to review recently.

Firstly, I've been dabbling in essential oils.  I wanted to try some lavender for my husband to help him sleep better.  I do a ton of shopping and reviews for items on Amazon.com but this one in particular is actually through their own website.  Here's the direct link to the lavendar oil:  https://www.aveniroils.com/shop/lavender-essential-oil/

They have a bunch of different recipes/recommendations for the use of different oils and I found this article helpful about allergies and how lavender, as well as other oils, can be helpful (again, my husband and that dang hayfever lol)  https://www.aveniroils.com/essential-oils-for-allergies/

And last but not least, this fun Adult Coloring Book :)

If you too love kanines and have hopped on the adult coloring train, you can order your copy HERE. #promotion


Disclaimer: I received the above items free or discounted to review.  I was not compensated, this is not a sponsored post.  Some links are affiliate links (which means I get a teeny tiny commission if you choose to buy through that link).

3 Week Food Storage Challenge---Days 2 & 3---

Day 2-Saturday

No big deal today.  We like toast and english muffins for breakfast.  We usually stock up when we visit the local Dollar Tree because they sell the nice $2-$4 bread for only $1 because it's close to expiration and we freeze it.  We also ate some leftover chili and steamed broccoli.  And then snacking here and there on string cheese, crackers, pretzels.

Day 3-Sunday

We actually didn't have breakfast or lunch today because we were fasting for religious and personal purposes.  That consists of going without food and water for 2 meals/24 hours (including prayer).  Once we ended our fast, we broke out some canned tuna and mayo, some fresh celery, and crackers.  For snacks, we busted out some apple juice from food storage, and some pudding.

In preparation for next week's menu, I have the last of our ground beef thawed and that will make some chili with canned beans and tomatoes that we have.  I took out a huge turkey from our stand-up freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw.  We got it free for spending so much on groceries last Thanksgiving but didn't use it since it's just the 2 of us.  I've got some fun ideas for all of that meat, that should last us a while!  I will confess though, I didn't realize we have so many frozen tomato slices in the freezer.  That would be nice if I liked those tomatoes...... We had tons of plants last year and it was our first time so we hadn't tasted them before.  These are sickeningly sweet.  They work well in my chili, but using them in spaghetti sauce is gross because you have to work so hard to cover the sweetness.  Let me know if you have any ideas!  I have lots of pasta and rice in food storage....but I have to make it palatable! 

3 Week Food Storage Diet!!! Follow Us!

My husband and I are moving in 3 weeks.  We have a lot of food storage, and not much money in the bank.  We decided to challenge ourselves.  Can we live off of food storage ONLY for 3 weeks?!?

The rules:
-NO Grocery Shopping, NO Eating Out! 

-NO stocking up ahead of time (it was tempting, but luckily we decided to start on a bit of a whim so we just started with whatever is in our pantry/food storage/fridge/freezer.

-Tap water is OK.  Ideally, you should have LOTS of water in your food storage for emergencies.  We'd survive for about a week because we don't have much. 

-Free food is OK.  If you show up to my house with a plate of cookies 1. It's a good thing I'm moving 'cause that's creepy lol and 2. assuming they're safe, I'm not going to turn them down.  Similarly, my husband gets free lunch at work for 2 of these 3 weeks.  We're not going to turn it down-helps on the budget, cooking, and I don't want to put him through that awkwardness while at a new job lol.

We're going to update on this blog daily what things are looking like so make sure to follow us!  We'll also be talking about how things are going on our YouTube channel, make sure to subscribe and follow us THERE. 

My thoughts when starting this:
-Oh boy, lots of actual cooking in our future
-Must ration the cheese and eggs!
-Make sure to eat all produce before it goes bad, cause there won't be any fresh replacement soon
-Must find recipes for ingredients we have
-We'll finally discover the hidden gems in our messy freezers!
-Good thing we're well stocked up
-I'll probably have to look up substitutions for things....when the eggs run out, I hear hydrated chia seeds are used by vegans when baking....
-It will be nice to not have to lug over so much food storage

Day 1 (Friday 6/10/16)
Things are easy in the beginning.  We still have fresh milk and cheese etc.  Just the thought of not being able to go buy anything, being restricted, gives me that sad feeling that I've felt for the majority of my life because of dieting.....  My husband confessed he really wanted a hamburger and was sad that we wouldn't be able to do a fast food run.  I think we're going to lose weight in these 3 weeks lol.

For breakfast, we had fruit/dessert sushi.  I had the supplies already as I got the sushi press free or discounted (don't remember right now...) to do a product review for it.  I filmed a video of making the tasty sushi, it'll be up early next week on our channel ;) 

For lunch, my husband had free lunch at work and I didn't really eat lunch.  My "breakfast" was more of a brunch.  After he came home from work, we honestly didn't eat a dinner.  Just some munching on pretzels, string cheese, etc that we already have at the house.  I enjoyed a klondike that has been in the freezer for a while.  I plan to inventory and organize our freezers this weekend.  They hold the key to the more flavorful and exciting things....meat, fruit.  That will balance out a heck of a lot of rice & beans ;)  When our bread stash is gone (we have a few loaves in the freezer-we love having a good supply from our Dollar Tree that sells expensive bread close to expiration!) I'll have to bake bread.  Last time I tried that it had dismal results as the yeast is very expired.  Anyone know a non-dessert-like quick bread?  Hmmm......

So what do you think, could you survive only on the food you have at your home for 3 weeks?  Want to try and join us in the challenge?

Silicone Gloves & Steamer Set

This is a nice silicone set of kitchen goodies. I mostly wanted to try out the mini oven mitts, but I've used the steamer too.

I've tried several different kinds of kitchen oven gloves, including silicone types. I think I like this because it's not so bulky and hard to get on, and is dishwasher safe and makes it so you don't burn yourself like grandma's crocheted hot pads will sometimes do to you.

The steamer basket is also nice because it can squish into a pan that's smaller. I've steamed some broccoli in it and it turned out great.


 I received a complimentary set of these to test and share my honest and unbiased review.  The link is an affiliate link.

Artist Kit and Table Basketball Set-----Product Reviews for the Kids----

Disclaimer: I was sent these items free to test and share my hones and unbiased review.  This is not a paid/sponsored post.  Links are affiliate links.

Of course, this art kit doesn't have to be for the kids, but it's a great variety.  This 36-piece set contains: 12- Watercolor Pencils, 12 - Colored Pencils, 8 Sketch Pencils & 4 Graphite Pencils

#usartsupply



Another fun item I got to review is this tabletop basketball game. 
This is pretty fun! Assembly is easy and intuitive. I was afraid it would be too easy to score baskets every time but it doesn't take a bit of practice/talent/luck. The score keeper is a bit impractical because I don't think you'll want to reach up and turn it every time you score a point. But it's an option if you want. Either way, I think it's lots of fun for the kiddos and when you want to put it up for the night, it's just as easy to take apart as it is to put together.

Testing a "Squatting Bathroom Stool" and a Magnetic Screen Door

We'll keep this short and sweet, let me know what you think-have you tried any of these?!?

I got the chance to try one of these squatting bathroom stools.  I heard about this kind of stool quite a while ago and was intrigued. I decided to give it a go and see if it would make things better when we "go". Assembly seems like it should be really easy but I had some trouble snapping it together. When not in use, I do feel like it sticks out a little and I'm still not used to that. I haven't personally had too much chance to use this because I've been having some trouble with my hip and it was extremely painful to have it up in that position. My husband has had more opportunity to use it and he likes it, feels like it does a good job.

When it comes to cleaning, I think it's easy enough to put it in the bathtub and give it a good wash.
#stoolease


I also got a complimentary magnetic screen door, which I'm excited to try at our new place (we're moving soon).  This is meant for a normal sized door and looks like pretty nice quality. I haven't had a chance to use it quite yet because the door I'd want to use it on at my current place is a sliding glass door which this won't work for. I'm hoping to use it at our next place that we're moving to shortly. The only concern I have is about the adhesive. A lot of times products like this are not intended for renters, which we are right now. I'll probably try a bunch of push pins or find a different adhesive....not 100% sure. Hopefully I can make it work! I'll try to update this review once we've had more opportunity to try it.
#instantbugmesh


Disclaimer: I received these items free or at a deeply discounted price to test and share my honest and unbiased review.  This is not a paid/compensated/sponsored post.  Links are affiliate links.