R&G

Getting Our Garden On with Scotts

May 8, 2013 By Kayla Aimee

This post brought to you by Scotts Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.

We finished putting in our vegetable garden a few weeks ago and now I'm working on pretty-ing up the front of the house. We have a few rosebushes that we planted near some gardenia bushes around the front porch when we first moved in that have grown up tall and beautiful over the past couple of years. I totally recommend the knock-out roses because I have not managed to kill them despite shameful neglect when I was pregnant. And they still just keep coming back bigger and better, which is a pretty good testament to their name. The left side of the porch, however, is bare and in need of a facelift.

I agreed to write about Scott's because we've been using the Scotts Nature Scapes mulch in our own flower garden to help maintain moisture and prevent weeds.

Now they have Scotts Florida Select Natural Eucalyptus Mulch which is made 100% from sustainably harvested Eucalyptus trees and so it doesn't have any waste materials (like leftover construction wood or ground up pallet parts) so I put that on my list of gardening supplies we'd need to spruce up the other side of the porch, along with some weedblock landscape fabric (no one wants to be pulling weeds constantly) and some new gardening gloves because I have no idea where mine disappeared to.

That's not true. I have an idea and it's name is Scarlette.

A tip: do not put your mulch down until after all your seeds have sprouted. You are welcome

Anyhow, here is what our house looked like when we moved in:

And here is what it looked like after tearing out some dead bushes and planting some flowers and adding Scotts Nature Scapes mulch

And here is what I want it to look like when I finish putting in all the new flowers for this year:
Okay, that might be a bit of a reach but still, I think it's fairly do-able, right?

So if you're into the whole sustainable gardening thing, which I am, then grab a bag and get started!

Leave a Comment Filed Under: NBA, NF, Product Reviews, R&G

Project Runway “Pin Your Style” Contest – KA’s Touch of Luxury

April 12, 2013 By Kayla Aimee

HP asked me to put together a collection of clothing and accessories to promote The HP + Intel + Project Runway Pin Your Style Contest! This was seriously one of the most fun sponsored posts I’ve taken on because who doesn’t want to play Project Runway?

Basically, the challenge was to put together a collection of clothing/accessories inspired by both awards show glamour and the new HP Spectre XT Touchsmart Ultrabook™, powered by Intel® Core™ processor. Here is a look at what I picked and you can enter your inspired board at the end!

My inspiration from the HP Spectre XT Touchsmart Ultrabook™ came in the form of sleek, shiny silver pieces. I also tried to focus on high impact pieces that were a bit delicate in design but make a big impression.

Silver Rhinestone Sandals from Target you know, because rhinestones always make me feel a little bit fabulous.
A completely out my budget and also out of this world handbag by Jason Wu. I just adore the lines and color of this piece.
DaySpring’s Gracewear Cuff Bracelet. I love the unique design of this but mostly I find cuff bracelets cumbersome so I love the lightness of this one.
Someone please buy me these Stella & Dot Sanibel Chandelier earrings for my birthday. Seriously, they are the perfect “touch of luxury” for basically any outfit.
I dream of owning a Jenny Packham dress. You can’t really get any more luxurious than this because it is Princess Kate’s favorite designer. I picked this dress for it’s subtle silver detailing, airy design and utter exquisiteness. I really want this in my closet for the day that Princess Kate calls me up and asks me to attend a movie premiere or the ribbon cutting of a museum or a day of jumping on the thrones at Buckingham Palace with her. IT COULD HAPPEN.

Want to participate? Pin a photo of the HP Spectre XT Touchsmart Ultrabook™ via the Pin It button on the Pin Your Style contest page. Then, build a board that represents that week’s theme. Check out the weekly Pinsetter images on the site for inspiration.

Submit your board’s URL into the site to enter. Then, share your board with friends to earn the most votes!

Win prizes like an HP Spectre XT Touchsmart Ultrabook™ and a gift card to bring your style to life by getting the top votes for your board.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
*some affiliate links may be included. Please see my affiliate disclosure below.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: NBA, NF, Product Reviews, R&G Tagged With: HP, Pin Your Style Contest

California Wine Club | $50 Gift Card Giveaway

December 8, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

For Christmas this year the wine lovers on my list are getting a month’s membership to California Wine Club. When I was approached with the opportunity to work with them, I was all YES PLEASE because A) I love wine and B) I knew I would be gifting wine to some wine aficionados and since I don’t actually know the anything about good wines I figured this would be a good education for me. The wines come with a little magazine that tell all about the winery, the wines themselves and ideas of food to pair them with.

If you love wine or if you’d like to gift some wine this holiday season, then click keep reading to enter to win a $50 gift card to California Wine Club!

I was able to sample a few bottles of wine from them (this is what I like to call “a great perk”) and really loved the 2009 Daniel Gehrs Merlot. I probably should have guessed that I would because my bottle declared it a “double gold medal winner” a “gold medal winner” and a “silver medal winner.” So basically it is like the Michael Phelps of wines.

California Wine Club (www.cawineclub.com) offers a few different memberships but each showcases handcrafted wines from small, family-owned vineyards. If you know someone who is really into wine, a monthly membership would be a fun gift for them, you know, not your average pair of slippers. I’ve tried three bottles over the past month (I mean, I had help y’all. When you have wine, the polite thing to do is share it with your girlfriends. Now please invite me over the next time you have wine. Or cake.) Anyhow, I liked all three bottles, although I did discover that my preference is definitely for red wine and that also, I can not uncork a bottle of wine without physically harming myself.

(I wrote another post here all about how much I liked the last wine I received from them, so if you decide to sample some those are my recommendations)

The California Wine Club is generously offering one lucky reader (excluding Utah.) a $50 Gift Card. (Please note, you must be 21+ to enter this giveaway. Sorry teenagers, but it’s the law and stuff. Also, apparently it’s a felony to ship wine to Utah. I just googled that.)

(This giveaway is being hosted by rafflecopter so please be sure to click I DID THIS after leaving a comment or any other method of entry, such as LIKE or TWEET-ing. Rafflecopter runs on Javascript so if you can’t see the rafflecopter box, check to see if you have javascript enabled or just leave me a comment letting me know and I will manually add your entry)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own. I received a 2 month Membership to the California Wine Club for the purpose of this review.

4 Comments Filed Under: giveaways, NBA, NF, Product Reviews, R&G, Reviews & Giveaways

Capturing Sweet Family Memories with Animoto

December 4, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

I discovered Animoto a few months ago when working on a website for a client- she had made a video using it and wanted me to embed it on the site. I realize this seems silly since I am technologically inclined enough to do things like build websites for people but I can NOT make a good video on my computer. I didn’t even do one for Scarlette’s first birthday because I got so annoyed at the video-making program.

I wanted to do one for World Prematurity Day + her second birthday and remembered the animoto video my client had used. So I signed up and it was SO EASY. You literally just drag and drop your video clips and photos. And maybe add some text. And choose the music you want to use. Scarlette could probably do it, it’s so easy. Except that she’s not allowed to use the wireless mouse because she thinks it’s a fun game to hide it in various places around the office. That’s her new thing, like how just a second ago I opened my desk door to get out some printer paper and found an empty apple juice box and a handful of raisins.

About two weeks later Animoto asked if I’d like to give a code for a free video to my readers and I was all “I totally would.” And also a little bit like “DANG IT, ANIMOTO! I COULD HAVE USED A FREE CODE TWO WEEKS AGO!” except that I really love the way Scarlette’s birthday video turned out so I’ll have to concede that it was money well spent.

You though, can make a video for free with the code BUSYPARENTS

And then you can send that video to your family.

Animoto wanted me to write a little bit about family togetherness at the holidays. And so I looked back through some photos and decided to make a video of us with Scarlette during each of the Christmases we’ve had with her. This year will be her first year joining us for family Christmas.

She was one month old and in the hospital for her first Christmas. It snowed, a rarity here in the south, and Jeff and I hung a stocking that was much, much bigger than she was on her isolette in the NICU.

Last year we had a small Christmas here at home because we were under a strict quarantine that kept us away from family gatherings. We sat under the twinkling lights of our tree and just reveled in the fact that she was home for Christmas.

This year she will accompany us to the big family gathering (hopefully, as long as everyone is healthy) and I am so looking forward to seeing her experience the joy of sharing the holidays with the people she loves and who love her. It brought us so much joy to see her trailing after her cousins this year as she attended her first family Thanksgiving, making memories and being in the midst of it all.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy using the code to make a video of your own family gatherings this holiday season! I shared it with a group of my preemie mom friends and it’s been so fun to see the different videos everyone has made for the babies birthdays.

(Animoto has graciously offered the code busyparents to my readers, which is good for a free video download. And that’s not all! When you use that code to download a video between now and December 15, you’ll automatically be entered to win a copy of “Capturing Life Through Better Photography” (MSRP $70) by Tamara Lackey, the woman featured in this episode of “Busy Parent’s Guide: Photo & Video Tips for Parents for the Holidays.” Additionally, you can use the code clever until December 15 to receive 20% off a year of Animoto service. All rules and requirements regarding this sweepstakes can be found here. )
I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.

2 Comments Filed Under: NBA, NF, Product Reviews, R&G, Uncategorized

REVIEW: California Wine Club

November 15, 2012 By Kayla Aimee

I’m not a heavy drinker- I don’t like beer and being allergic to citrus severely limits the mixed drinks I can have. So I typically stick to wine. And like Taylor Swift, my preference is red. That girl and I have all sorts of things in common.

I decided to try out California Wine Club because, well, I like wine. I mean, that’s really all there is to it. I’ll be writing two posts about their wine, the second of which will include a giveaway so that one of y’all can try their wine for yourself!

The first bottle I opened was a 2009 Tempranillo. I know nothing about that, I just know that it was red and it wasn’t two buck chuck. I have no idea about things like “essence of oak” and what not. I just know that some wines taste good and some wines do not.

This wine was SO GOOD. I say was because there is no more. We had company when I opened it and between us we finished off the bottle. It got rave reviews from everyone except Jeff and that was only because he didn’t even try any.

The second wine was a 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, which is a white wine and it had a little sticker on it declaring it a Bronze Medal Winner. That sounded promising except that I had no idea what you are supposed to drink white wine with. So I googled “sauvignon blanc pairings” to get some recommendations. I’m really classy and use the internet as my sommelier.

Turns out, it recommended it with brie, which is my favorite snack. I pulled out some wheat crackers and then poured some praline mustard glaze over the brie and a glass of wine to go with it. That makes me sound really fancy until I tell you that I couldn’t find the cheese knife so I used a toddler knife instead. And while I still prefer red wine, this wine was good too.

You can visit www.cawineclub.com to learn more about them – they deliver handpicked wine to your door each month. There are several packages that you can choose from but if there is a wine lover in your life, it would make a great gift! Some wine lovers in our family will be getting a gift package for Christmas this year. They have the wines packaged really well and wrapped in festive paper. I thought it would be something fun and a nice change.

Check back in a couple of weeks for a special giveaway opportunity!