Household

Oransi Fridge Air Purifier ~ Giveaway

Published May 4, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

Does your nose wrinkle when you open the fridge? I hate that “weird fridge smell” (do you have a better name for it! ha!), and I start rummaging to find the offending of bit of food.

Still, odors in the fridge just build up, even if you clean out your food regularly, so lately I’ve been using the Oransi Fridge Air Purifier kitchen gadget to refresh my fridge.

I think it’s working better than the box of baking soda I used to keep on the shelf and forget about for years, because I haven’t smelled anything funky lately. I’ve been thinking about shutting this purifier up in our closet, because I can’t quite get that “shoe” smell out of there!

The Oransi Fridge air purifier is about the size of a lemon and fits just about anywhere – I was really pleased that it didn’t take up much room in our fridge. And it works pretty much out of the box once you put in the two AA Batteries. No filters or replacement parts, which I like because I hate keeping track of things like that!

It uses ionic technology to deodorize without ozone like some other deodorizers. Because it silently removes bacteria and odors, your produce stays fresher, so you can reduce food waste and save money! I love seeing the teeny light on when I open the door to my refrigerator because I know it’s working!

What do you do to keep the odors out of your refridgerator?

BUY IT: Get the Oransi Fridge air purifier online for $29. Oransi is also the manufacturer of room air purifiers that produce totally clean air. Worth checking out if you have asthma or allergy sufferers in your house.

WIN IT: One reader gets a fresher fridge by winning an Oransi Fridge Air purifier! Enter in the Rafflecopter form below!
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Posted in cleaning, Giveaways, health, household, review | 75 Comments

One Wild and Precious Life…

Published April 24, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

What will you do with your one wild and precious life? ~poet, Mary Oliver

WILD: mini cars skidding across the floor, crayons rolling an obstacle course, a toddler making himself dizzy by spinning in circles, Cheerios flying through the air in his excitement at using a spoon, water all over the floor from a scuba diving mission in the tub, sticky fingers and faces (peanut butter? bubbles?), stickers clinging to every counter-door-tshirt-wall he can find…

PRECIOUS: random hugs and kisses, pats on the belly for little brother, being handed my own fake flowers by my toddler-son, him telling me “mommy’s prity,” him rubbing my arm to make me feel better when I bump into something, telling me “I did it!” when he turns on the CD player by himself, watching him carefully line up his cars “in the garage” when I ask him to clean up, listening to him tell his stuffed dog, “Let’s try this one!”…

Life certainly is wild and precious… and full of messes that need to be cleaned up! We’ve always used Glad white trash bags in our house for regular trash, but recently I was sent the Glad Black Bags with Force Flex. Now these are the ones you’ll want for those heavy duty messes, like cleaning the basement, hauling items to be donated, and other big messes … like making pizzas, playing with play-doh, and more! (Sometimes I use a trash bag as a drop cloth!).

Glad wants moms to know they can handle the mess (but we have to do the rest!). To support recycling and creativity, Glad has partnered with the Picker Sisters, who built their business on a “trash-to-treasure” concept that takes relics from the wildest moments of life and recreates them into something new, beautiful, and memorable!

Taking the Picker Sister’s expertise and partnering with celebrated mosaic artist Jason Mecier, Glad® Black Bag is showing the beauty and benefits of turning trash into treasures. Right now through April 26th, you’ll find four amazing pieces of artwork from Mecier up for auction on Ebay.com! Each piece in the Glad Black Bag Art Auction was created with discarded objects collected during Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup!

Here’s my favorite mosaic of a brown bear – it’s unbeleivable the individual items you can pick out in the collage!

All four pieces by Mecier are up for bid until April 26th, and proceeds from the auction benefit Keep America Beautiful.

Also check out Glad’s latest campaign – The Wild Life, at Facebook.com/Glad, and watch as real life becomes the wild life. Visitors can take part by creating sharable trailers for a chance to win $25,000 and other prizes and coupons, or follow the family’s happening on Twitter @GladWildLife.

Tell me about your own “wild and precious life”… how do you keep up with the messes?

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Glad Black Bag and received a Glad Black Bag product and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate. I was also asked to “pin” one (1) Glad Black Bag Art Auction photo on Pinterest.

Posted in 2 year old, household | 2 Comments

Mother’s Day Gift Guide: Uncommon Goods $50 Gift Card Giveaway *CLOSED

Published April 22, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

I think most moms reach a point in life where giving them gifts becomes difficult. Unless they have a hobby or specific passion, it’s hard to find just the right item to give on Mother’s Day, anniversaries, birthdays…

But I think I’ve found just the place to go for unique mother’s day gift ideas!

Uncommon Goods has a collection of fine household, personal, and humorous items for gift-giving! From wall art to jewelry, garden items to glassware, even games, puzzles, office items… the eye candy in their online store is amazing! I have a few unusual new kitchen gadgets from Uncommon Goods that will make you smile!

The OCD Cutting Board is perfect for an unseasoned cook like myself - now I can get perfect cuts and lengths of veggies, fruit, baked goods and more. Fine lines, a ruler and a grid are printed on the cutting board show you just how small to dice, mince, julienne – and several other words I’m now pretending to know! The board meaures just 9×12″ so it’s just larger than a sheet of printer paper – but perfect for chopping up veggies and small items. My crudite platter will be absurdly perfect next time we have company!

And, Friday night pizza night has gotten more interesting with this handforged, recycled steel pizza cutter (I call it our pizza sythe!). I’ve never seen anything like its dramatically curved blade and rustic design. There’s a curlique at the end of the handle and a signature stamp from artist Al Stephens. Stephens uses traditional blacksmithing techniques to create each cutter! It’s got a good edge for gliding through crunchy crusts and cheesy toppings!

My only two wishes are that the blade had a protective cover, and that it were easier to store – the handle (while beautiful and perfect for holding while slicing pizza!) sticks out too much to hang on a wall or put in a drawer without the blade being exposed. I’d love to safely display this conversation-starting item in full view (I am open to suggestions!).

I seriously LOVE both my products from Uncommon Goods…What Uncommon Goods gifts for mother’s day would you enjoy giving or receiving? You simply must spend time browsing their vast array of goods! Why? Because…

WIN IT: One lucky reader will win a $50 GC to Uncommon Goods – spend it on yourself, spend it on your mother… just have FUN! Enter in the Rafflcopter form below!
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Posted in gifts, Giveaways, household, review, shopping | 4 Comments

Spiced Meringue Cookies Celebrate Springtime!

Published April 14, 2012 | By Julie Kieras

So this was my week to decorate and coordinate breakfast for my MOPS group. I really like coming up with themes for parties (as you might know!). With Easter just behind us and spring ahead of us, I thought a cheerful blue and yellow theme would be nice.

I decided to make some sweet treats that were yellow/blue colored to match the theme!

Perfect timing because McCormick just sent a big package of spices and colorings to try! There’s a great McCormick Look Book online that I used to get ideas! I found several items that worked for my color scheme:

I decided on the Festive Meringue Cookies because they looked easy and fast (with all I had going on to prepare, that’s what I needed!). BUT… I took it a step further by flavoring and spicing my meringue cookies as well as coloring them!

Here’s the easy recipe I adapted from the McCormick site!

Festive Meringue Cookies

4.0 from 1 reviews

Recipe type: Dessert

Author: McCormick Spice

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 55 mins

Serves: 12 (6 cookie serving)

Light, airy, and low-fat cookies can be colored to match any theme! Also switch up flavorings for variety!

Ingredients

4 egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Cream of Tartar
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon McCormick® Pure Vanilla Extract OR McCormick® Pure Lemon Extract
1/2 teaspoon McCormick® Ground Cinnamon OR McCormick® Ground Ginger
25 to 30 drops McCormick® Assorted NEON! Food Colors and Egg Dye

Instructions

Preheat oven to 225°F.
Beat egg whites in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until frothy. (If using a freestanding mixer, use wire whisk attachment.) Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form. Increase speed to medium-high. Add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Beat in extract and food color until well blended. Gently stir in chips, if desired.
Drop by rounded measuring teaspoonfuls about 1 inch apart onto 2 large foil-lined baking sheets sprayed with no stick cooking spray.
Bake both sheets of meringues at the same time 45 minutes. Turn oven off. Let meringues stand in oven 1 hour or until completely cooled.

Notes

I halved the recipe to make a half batch EACH of Vanilla-Cinnamon Meringues and Lemon-Ginger Meringues. The prep time doubled because you have to beat each batch separately, but the cook time was the same because I had the same quantity.
Both are very yummy! What other flavoring-spice combo would you come up with?

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This one batch filled two cookie sheets, and made almost 60 cookies!

As my very first batch of meringue cookies goes, I was happy with how they turned out – light, and with a delicate flavor from the spices and extracts!

I can’t wait to see what else I can make with my new spices – I already know I’ll be making some of those cupcakes featured above for a church dinner this weekend!!

McCormick has a great Spring Pin-spiration Contest going on right now ! Pin five (5) recipes from McCormick.com that you would like to bake for a spring gathering, bake one, take a photo and then pin that original photo too! For more details, visit the official rules page linked above!

What’s your favorite springtime baking recipe?

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for McCormick. I received product samples and a promotional item to thank me for participating.