Tiny Prints: Valentines

It's that time of year when we celebrate our loved ones by giving them Valentines. If you have children they may also be exchanging them with classmates at school.

I was invited to check out Tiny Prints 2012 Valentine Cards collection and then write about my experience here. Having ordered customized Valentines Day Greeting Cards in the past, I was interested to see what designs and options Tiny Prints has to offer.

As the mother of an eight year old boy in elementary school and a two year old girl who will be starting preschool next fall, I was especially curious and excited to see what their classroom card collection included. It didn't take me long to find cards that seemed to fit both my children's unique personalities, but also that would go well with photos of Sean and Abigail that I had in mind to use with them.

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This is the card that I chose and personalized for our eight year old son Sean, who is in second grade. I love that his classmates will get to do a fun maze when they receive their Valentine from him this year. I also like the clever "a-maze-ing" play on words used here. Finally, since Sean started doing Tae Kwon Do around this time last year and has worked his way up through the ranks, I thought it would be fun to feature him in his uniform in his Valentine's cards and like that the "high yellow" belt he happened to be wearing in this picture coordinates with the colors of this design:

Click here to try out this "A-MAZE-ING Valentine" card design for yourself.

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This is the card that I picked out and personalized for our daughter Abby who is two years old. The photo was taken last October by our friend and awesome photographer, Becky Healy from early bird photo and fine art. I love how this Valentine's Day card frames Abby's face and the colors compliment her features, especially her magical green eyes, that seem to twinkle in this picture.

Click here to experiment with this "Crafty Hearts" Valentine's Day card design.

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This will be my first card order from Tiny Prints and I am excited to see how they turn out. However, I know what high quality products Tiny Prints produces as our family has been receiving birth announcements, baptism invites and holiday cards from family and friends for years designed and produced by Tiny Prints.

If you are on Twitter you can follow Tiny Prints here: @TinyPrints

To get their news, updates and special offers on Facebook you can "like" Tiny Prints here: Tiny Prints Facebook Page

You can also follow Tiny Prints boards on Pinterest here: Tiny Prints on Pinterest

If you do decide to order some Tiny Prints Valentines for yourself, be sure to click here first to see what coupon codes are available and what promotions Tiny Prints is currently running. As a savvy internet shopper, I pride myself on rarely paying full price for anything I order online.

Thank you for reading my post about Tiny Prints Valentine's Card Collection. I had a lot of fun "researching" and preparing this blog entry. I look forward to receiving and giving out Sean and Abby's customized and personalized Valentines from Tiny Prints this year.

I wish you and yours a very Happy Valentine's Day filled with much of peace, love and joy!

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Disclaimer: I received 50 free Classroom Valentine's Day Cards from Tiny Prints to write and share this blog entry, but the words and opinions in this post are my own.

BlogHer Book Club: Why Women Need Fat

I'll admit it, the main reason I signed up to read and review Why Women Need Fat by Dr. William D. Lassek and Dr. Steven J.C. Gaulin, my fifth BlogHer Book Club selection, was because of a line in a summary about it which said something about "why those last five pounds seem impossible to lose." I think I was contemplating resolutions for 2012 at the time and knew one was to try to work on shedding those "last five pounds" in the New Year. I wanted to know their "secret" and got a lot more then I bargained for...

I didn't pay much attention to the subtitle: How "Healthy" Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever. Had I realized what I was getting myself into, I probably would have taken a pass. However this is not because I didn't enjoy or learn a lot from reading this book. It was very interesting and informative. I have just been purposely avoiding books, movies (such as Food Inc.) and anything else that could inform me about the details of why my family and my diet is unhealthy. I wasn't ready.

I knew if and when I were to take the time to find out what is wrong with what typical Americans, like my family, eat on a regular basis, that I would then have to make some serious changes to our grocery shopping, meal planning and consumption. I had a vague idea about some of the "bad things" that we have been eating before reading Why Women Need Fat. Now I know the truth. Ready or not, the Benson family will be making some adjustments to what we buy and eat in the near future. In fact I already made my first post-Why Women Need Fat trip to our neighborhood/family owned grocery store and was very impressed how well I was able to do following many of the recommendations the authors suggest in this book.

Dr. Lassek and Dr. Gaulin take about two-thirds of Why Women Need Fat to give readers background and make their very thorough case for why and how our American food processing and eating habits have gotten so out of whack over the past 40 years. Then they use the final third of the book to give practical suggestions as to how to shop for and introduce healthier alternatives into our meals. The authors also break down their theories and understanding of the most effective ways for us to reach our "natural and healthy weight," primarily without having to follow any formal weight loss diet.

There is a lot of comparison in this book of American food processing and eating routines versus Europeans, Asians and others around the World. They highlight what many of our overseas neighbors are doing better when it comes to healthy eating and how our country went astray. I also found the discussion of how our food choices and eating habits impact our fertility, ability to carry and nurse babies and then lose and/or gain postpartum weight fascinating.
 
I recommend this book, but caution if you choose to read it: be prepared to makes some changes to your own diet or at least know that you will not look at a food label or many of the things you eat in the same way ever again (especially if you currently buy and consume a lot of processed foods made with vegetable and/or soybean oil). Please join our discussion over on the BlogHer Book Club page where you can share your thoughts and find out what others are saying about Why Women Need Fat.

If you have already read Why Women Need Fat or decide to check it out in the future, I would love to know what you think of it.

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Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book to read for this review and to participate in the related BlogHer Book Club discussion. However, I was in no way encouraged to write a positive or negative review about Why Women Need Fat.

Note: This is a cross post with my main blog Four of a Kind, as I know that some of you who follow this review blog, may not also follow me over there and I thought you might be interested in reading what I thought about this book.

BlogHer Book Club: The Magic Room

The Magic Room by Jeffrey Zaslow is my fourth BlogHer Book Club read and a truly extraordinary book. To say that I loved it, is an understatement.

Reading The Magic Room reminded me of watching two of my favorite documentary style television shows: 60 Minutes and Real Sports. I love the way the correspondents and producers on those programs tell stories. Likewise, Jeffrey Zaslow has a gift for drawing readers in and getting us to care about the characters he he writes about, in this case women of all ages, shapes, sizes and backgrounds who have one thing in common: they are engaged to be married and are in the market for a wedding dress.

In The Magic Room Zaslow tells about the journeys to the alter of a number of brides-to-be with fascinating research mixed in about the history of marriage and wedding traditions. He talks about how both have evolved over the past century and what that has meant for the family who runs "Becker's Bridal" shop in a small town called Fowler, MI, outside of Detroit, which has been in business for four generations. The bridal shop carries more gowns in stock than the town has residents!

I found that the description of the Becker family, especially how each generation has been torn as to whether or not to try to keep their business going in Fowler was reminiscent of of the fictitious Bailey family, who ran the Bailey Building & Loan in Bedford Falls in my favorite movie, It's a Wonderful Life.

A master storyteller, Zaslow had me hooked and in tears as I read his introduction to The Magic Room. I love his intention of writing a book for his three daughters, as a sort of "love letter" about his hopes and dreams for them, before they are of age to consider marrying and sharing their lives with another person someday. Reading this book was also very nostalgic for me, as it moved me to reflect on my own journey to the alter and my life since my husband Bob and I were married eleven years ago on September 23, 2000.

I highly recommend this book and am grateful for the opportunity to have been among the first to get to read it as part of the BlogHer Book Club!Please join our discussion over on the BlogHer Book Club page where you can share your thoughts and find out what others are saying about The Magic Room.  over on the BlogHer Book Club page where you can share your thoughts and find out what others are saying about The Magic Room.

In the spirit of The Magic Room, I thought it would be fun to include a picture here of me in my bridal gown, in my parent's living room, before the ceremony on Bob and my wedding day 11 years ago. So I will leave you with that.

If you have already read The Magic Room or decide to check it out in the future, I would love to know what you think of it.

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Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book to read for this review and to participate in the related BlogHer Book Club discussion. However, I was in no way encouraged to write a positive or negative review about The Magic Room.

Note: This is a cross post with my main blog Four of a Kind, as I know that some of you who follow this review blog, may not also follow me over there and I thought you might be interested in reading what I thought about this book.

BlogHer Book Club: Slow Love

Slow Love by Dominique Browning is my third BlogHer Book Club read and my least favorite so far.  It is the first book club selection that I chose to read that I thought was just okay. There were some good insights and tidbits to chew on, but as another reviewer @yesnofilms commented on Twitter and I agree, at times Slow Love felt like I was "reading a friend's ramblings." The author would jump from one topic to another and by the time she got back to where she started, I was not clear where she was trying to go with her story. Then she would go on yet another long and often seemingly random and disjointed tangent.

Slow Love started strong for me with the back story of how the author, once the managing editor at House & Garden magazine lost her job when the periodical folded in 2008. I really bought into the premise of Slow Love, that it "is about knowing what you've got before it's gone." When I first started reading it I couldn’t stop highlighting inspiring and thought-provoking quotes in my Kindle. However, unfortunately that did not last very long.

Slow Love deals with some universal themes about when our lives feel out of balance. Often a significant event will cause us to review, reflect and reevaluate our priorities and especially how (and with whom) we chose to spend our time. I appreciated Dominique’s perspective and insights as the mother of two grown
sons, as my oldest child is almost eight years old and I often wonder how my son's personality will evolve in the years to come. I also liked what she shared about the nature of adult friendships, especially those we form and/or strengthen when our "worlds collapse."

Another connection I felt to Dominique’s story was the experience of selling and moving from the place that was her home for many years, where she raised her sons and which she thought would be her “forever house.” She talked about how it was full of memories and happy moments, the bittersweet experience of packing it all up and the transition of settling into a new space. Since my family and I moved to a new house this summer, I could relate to some of what she shared.

However, the further along I got into Slow Love, unfortunately the less engaged I felt. Dominique focused a lot on a relationship with an old lover, whom she calls “Stroller” in her memoir and though I appreciate that it took her a long time to realize that he was not a good match for her long term, it was tedious to have to read through the experiences she shared before finally coming to that conclusion.

I do believe that the heart of life is found in the journey, however Slow Love's path didn't work for me. I loved the concept, enjoyed the beginning and found redemption in the end, but the middle left me lost and uninspired.

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As I mentioned in my review above, though I didn't love this book, I was able to relate to many of the topics that Dominique covered in Slow Love. Please join our discussion about Slow Love over on the BlogHer Book Club page, regardless of if you read the book I think it is worth checking it out, as the facilitator has tried make the questions engaging to both those who have read Slow Love and those who have not. To share your thoughts and find out what others are saying about Slow Love click here.


Disclaimer: I received a free e-copy of this book to read for this review and to participate in the related BlogHer Book Club discussion. However, I was in no way encouraged to write a positive or negative review about Slow Love.


Note: This is a cross post with my main blog Four of a Kind, as I know that some of you who follow this review blog, may not also follow me over there and I thought you might be interested in reading what I thought about this book.

There's an App for That (and I'm in It)!

Last month I got an email from Julie Godar, the Managing Editor at BlogHer (yes, I felt very special). She said that one of her colleagues suggested she contact me (I felt even more special). Julie explained in her email that "BlogHer has a fun new partnership with a company called Gourmet Live – featuring local expertise a la Yelp, but with the focus on local eats. We’re supporting this effort with cool, clickable maps and other fun features. Gourmet Live is a part of Gourmet Magazine – yes, THAT Gourmet!"

Julie also shared in her email that they were targeting Chicago (where my family and I live) for their fifth local stop and invited me to "contribute a tip or two to help out." She said that for the local bloggers, like myself, who chose to participate, that our tips would be "featured on BlogHer.com and/or the app developed by Gourmet Live – and you’ll receive credit with your name and your blog URL everywhere this tip appears."

I was both honored and excited to be asked and jumped at the chance to participate!

A "Google Doc" was created for the local Chicago area bloggers who had been tapped with questions that we could choose to answer. They encouraged us to pick one or two questions and share our answers in the document. There was really only one question that I saw which I felt confident about answering. I don't consider myself a "foodie," by any means and didn't want to do this unless I believed that I had a recommendation truly worth sharing.

So the question that I answered was:

"What's the best brunch spot with a view?"

Yesterday the Chicago Food Guide: Tips from Local Bloggers was released both on BlogHer and as a part of the Gourmet Live app. Whether you live in the Chicago area or plan to visit here, you will find some great tips in this guide. If you want to find out where I think the best brunch spot with a view in Chicago is, you can go to iTunes and download the free Gourmet Live app!

You can also find some fabulous recommendations for other big cities across the U.S.A. featured as a part of the Gourmet Live and BlogHer Road Trip, including Austin, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington DC, San Diego and New York City.
Bon appétit! 
Note: This is a cross post with my main blog Four of a Kind, as I know that some of you who follow this review blog, may not also follow me over there and I thought you might be interested.