Reviews — Page 7

Get Ready for a DRAMATIC Change to Facebook

Cha-Cha-Changes are Coming to Facebook…

I first read about the new changes coming to Facebook in a couple of weeks on Six in the Nest’s new article- Holy Smokes… More Facebook Changes. That’s where this picture came from- it’s an example of what your new Facebook page will soon look like.
I wondered if this was a “possible” type of change, something that they were thinking about, just testing- or if this was a sure thing. So, I went to the Facebook blog, and sure enough, in a few weeks we’ll all start seeing ANOTHER new, and dramatically different, Facebook page when we log-in.

It’s called Timeline, and you can see more of how it works here:

This is BIG deal

One of my favorite social media news sites- (the always amazing Mashable.com) states, “I have seen what Facebook is launching on Thursday, and it’s going to change the world of social media. And while I won’t talk about the mind-boggling things Facebook will be launching, I will say this: The Facebook you know and (don’t) love will be forever transformed.” Read more of how to Prepare for the New Facebook, or if you’re brave, How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline Now.

You can also check out a great explanation, including a really helpful set of screenshots from someone who is already using the new Timeline page- What to Expect from the New Timeline Change on Facebook.

What do you think?

Honestly, I don’t like it. I say- slow your roll Facebook. You’re beautiful just the way you are. Please- don’t change, again, just for the sake of change.
Of course Facebook needs to update often, and evolve- all technology has to change constantly to stay relevant. BUT- this seems to be changing Facebook into something totally different than what it is now. If you have a game-changing product, that everyone uses, why would you make it into something else? It might turn out to be an amazing change, but it seems like a huge risk.
This isn’t an “upgrade”, this is like buying your favorite ham sandwich at the deli and finding out it’s now a tuna melt. It’s the same idea, but a totally different product.
That said- I’m totally open-minded about it {even though it sure doesn’t sound that way, lol}- and am really hoping I like it. A few friends I’ve talked to who are developers and have made the switch already are really lovin’ it. *Fingers crossed*

Helping you find what’s Important

On the Facebook blog it says, “The way your profile works today, 99% of the stories you share vanish.” They want to make it easier to ignore all of the “I totally woke up too early today. I hate Mondays” type of posts that clutter your stream. But um, if all of my random daily posts will disappear, and only major events will show up…. correct me if I’m wrong- but THAT’S making 99% of my posts disappear, right? And if I only wanted to know major events in my friends lives, I could take a peek at their photo albums to see weddings, babies, and graduations.

Do you use Facebook for your Business?

No word yet on how these major new changes will affect Pages. I know that for many bloggers like myself, a large majority of our traffic comes from the interaction and community that we’ve built on our Facebook pages- I’ve already seen a dramatic drop in traffic after the last Facebook update a week ago, since many people no longer see my posts.

It’s hard to imagine how a business page would make sense with this new Timeline layout, but I’m hoping that Facebook will really consider the needs of business owners, and ensure that Facebook can still be as useful to us as it is now.

My bet is that Timeline will roll out to personal pages first, and business pages later on- that seems to be how most of the Facebook changes have worked in the past. I’ve heard from many designers who are halting their Facebook projects for small business clients until the changes are completed, to fully understand what this will mean for business pages.

I’d love to hear from you…

Share some comments- Love? Hate? Indifferent? Tell me what you think about the new Timeline, and whether you believe that it will really change Facebook as dramatically as people are saying.

Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 27, 2011 Filed Under: Reviews, Blogging Resources | 5 Comments

Why T.J.Maxx is NOT Your Regular Discount Store!

Back-to-School shopping doesn’t stop just because the kids are actually back in school.

In our family we do the majority of the shopping AFTER school starts! Here’s why…

While there are loads of great sales before school starts, there are still TONS of great deals to be found AFTER the rush of back-to-school is over. Plus, so many kids- especially teens- will totally change their mind about what they want to wear this year after they see what everyone else is wearing. If you wait until they’ve been at school for a couple of weeks, they’ll end up making choices that reflect what’s “cool” – which you know is what matters, right? Oh, the teenage years…

Get the most bang from your buck at T.J.Maxx!

There’s a difference between discount stores and off-price retailers, like T.J.Maxx. At a discount store, a backpack might sell for $19.99, but it was made at a lower quality to sell at that lower price. At a retailer like T.J.Maxx, their buyers are constantly getting new designer merchandise to sell- so if you find a $19.99 backpack at T.J.Maxx store, it is a higher quality bag that was probably built to sell at a MUCH higher price! This means, not only are you getting great savings, but you’re saving more in the long run too, since you’re getting higher quality!

Every single week, every T.J.Maxx and Marshalls store get more than 10,000 new items – meaning you’ll always find the newest fashions for your home and your family!

Back-to-School Shopping Challenge

As part of my partnership with Mom Central, I received a $50 T.J.Maxx Gift Card, and the challenge to see what kind of great back-to-school deals I could find for our family. I hadn’t shopped at T.J.Maxx in a while, so I was super excited to go check it out!

As you can see, we found the boys some great stuff! I was able to get backpacks for both of them, and most of their first day outfits- for less than $50 bucks- which was amazing. And, the boys actually had FUN shopping- which doesn’t happen often. I was SO impressed with the deals that we went back again last week to check out the selection of new winter coats and boots too!

Do you have more fall shopping to do?

In a Mom Central survey of moms shopping habits, 81% said that they’ve had to change their back-to-school shopping habits due to the rising prices of things like gas and groceries. Did you put off any of your purchases due to a tighter budget? If so, I totally recommend checking out the deals at YOUR local T.J.Maxx, to get everything else you need for fall at an affordable price.

My Verdict

The fashions were deemed “cool” by the kids, the selection and cleanliness of the store were awesome, and the prices rocked my socks. What more can you ask for, right?

As a deal-savvy momma, I entered the Cheap Sally “Bring Home the Bacon” competition. I’d love for you to check out my profile, and give me a vote to help me get to Round 2 if you think I deserve to make it there! Thank you!

{Disclaimer: I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of T.J.Maxx and Marshalls and received a gift card to facilitate my review and thank me for taking the time to participate.}

Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 26, 2011 Filed Under: Reviews, Deals and Coupon Codes, Shopping | No Comments

RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY- GENTRY’S CLOSET- CUSTOM BOWS & BABY ACCESSORIES!!

Gentry’s Closet

If you have any little girls in your life, you simply MUST check out the amazing Gentry’s Closet shop on Etsy!

Custom Bows and Baby Accessories

When the owner of Gentry’s Closet emailed me to see if I’d be interested in partnering for a giveaway, the first thing that I did was head over to check out her shop- To my surprise, this was the same shop that I’d been checking out the previous week, and had added a couple of her adorable clips to my boards on Pinterest! Small world sometimes…

Tiny Fashionista…

The clips she sent over for us to check out are amazing- One, they’re absolutely adorable, obviously. But they’re also some of the best quality hair clips I’ve ever seen. The ribbon is top notch, all of the details are perfect, and my favorite- on the inside of the clippy, there is a soft, no-slip type padding, that really helps these stay in Abby’s hair. I’ve never seen this on other accessories, and it’s awesome.

Since she’s a toddler now, and a little busy-body all day, she wouldn’t sit still for a photo session. The top two pics are the clips that Gentry’s Closet sent us to review, and the bottom pic is one of my other VERY favorites in her shop. I’ll get some fun photos of her modeling these great accessories later this week- stay tuned!

Win a Gift Certificate to Gentry’s Closet!

One lucky Sunshine and Sippy Cups fan will win a Gift Certificate to shop at Gentry’s Closet! I’m so excited for one of you guys to get to check out her work for yourself- You will NOT be disappointed!

Enter Today!

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 25, 2011 Filed Under: Reviews, Giveaways, Shopping | 14 Comments

Rafflecopter- Halo Bars Delivered to YOUR Door! #giveaway

How to know if you’ll LOVE the new Halo Snack Bars:

Ask yourself the following questions. If you answer, “Um, heck yeah!?” to most of them, then you, my friend, will LOVE the new Halo Snack Bars from PROBAR. {Disclaimer: this quiz is a bit less than scientific. In fact, I just now made it up. But it will still determine whether you’ll love ’em.}

Do you have a sweet tooth? Does it make demands for things like chocolate, marshmallows, nuts, or graham-crackery treats?
Are you trying to ignore that sweet tooth, but it’s not working?
Do you wish you could get yourself to eat snacks that were organic, vegan, or just plain better for you than the vending machine junk you eat now?

If you answered YES, then keep reading!

PROBAR has launched a SUPER yummy new snack, the Halo Snack Bar! This snack bar isn’t just GOOD, it’s also good FOR you. How often does that happen, right? This new snack bar bridges the gap between your current options of high calorie nutrition/energy bars and sugary granola or candy bars.

Here are a few amazing facts about the Halo Bars:

All Halo Bars are certified organic, meaning no yucky chemicals, and no weird ingredients that you can’t pronounce.
Each bar has Omega 3 & 6, is low-in-sugar and is dairy-free/Vegan- but they come in dessert-style flavors like S’mores, Nutty Marshmallow, Rocky Road, and Honey Graham.
Even with the dessert flavors – {and these babies are GOOD!!} – they are each only 150 calories! Rockin.
Like all of the other great PROBAR products, these are delicious, convenient, healthy plant based food products. How much better can you get?

Fun reactions from tasting HALO at Expo West 2011:

Now hear the reactions to the new HALO bars in my house…

Me: I’m always in a rush, and hardly have time to eat some days. I love, love, LOVE a snack that is easy to grab, fills me up for a long time, and isn’t junk. This is amazingly perfect. Plus- I crave sweets. A lot. So this is just what I’ve been looking for.
Kiddo’s: Both of the boys got SUPER excited when they heard I was getting Halo bars- they thought that it had something to do with Halo the video game, lol. They were quite disappointed when I opened the box to some snacks…. Until they got to try them. 5 year old: these taste like camping!! {this was while eating the smores bar…}
Boyfriend: He HATES anything healthy. I have to lie, so he doesn’t know, or he won’t eat it. Here is the conversation- Him: “Why didn’t you tell me these were all organic-y stuff?” Me: “I don’t know….” Him: “I’ve eaten like 5 of these already!!” Me: “That means they were good right?” Him: “Whatever. Yes, they were really good. But you tricked me.” :)

Want some too?

Does all this talk of chocolate and marshmallows make you hungry? Then head over to Probar.com, and pick out some new goodies to try out. Use code BLOGGERS at check out, and they’ll give you 40% off your ENTIRE order! Amazing, right? Not only do they take care of your health by developing a great new snack, they care about your wallet too.

Now- Enter to WIN some too!

One lucky reader will win a whole case of great Halo Bars to try out in THEIR house too! Use the Rafflecopter form to enter- Just follow the directions on each tab, then click “I did it!” to put your entry in. Easy peasy!

{Disclosure: This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. But as always, all of the opinions here are 100% my own!}

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Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 23, 2011 Filed Under: Shopping, Reviews, Giveaways | 3 Comments

Survey Junkies, Online Shoppers, Bloggers, and Busy Moms- Let OIB Organize Your Inbox Automatically!

Tame your out-of-control inbox!

Inbox overload. No one should have to suffer from this awful affliction. And yet tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of email users are plagued by overstuffed inboxes every single day. But there is a cure. It’s a free service called OtherInbox, or “OIB” as the cool kids say.

OIB basically weeds through all your emails and pulls out the automated ones from the ones from real people and then files them in different folders. So, that sale site coupon will come into the OIB Shopping folder, but the credit card statement will go into the OIB Financial folder. Then you can look at what you want, when you want without having to sift through dozens of other emails clogging up your inbox. And best of all, that email list you ended up on, but never signed up for, well that can be moved into the OIB Unsubscribe folder where they’ll do the breaking up for you.

OIB works with Gmail, Yahoo and AOL and has a bunch of other nifty features we can’t wait to share with you. So watch how quickly and easily it tames Carley’s out-of-control inbox. Plus you can check out her adorable PJ’s.

See OIB in action in this weeks Twirl…

So, what do you think?

I’ll tell you what I think– I think I’m in love! As a busy blogger, social media junkie, online super-shopper, busy survey-taker and more- my email is out. of. control. Seriously.

I love this idea to automatically sort my emails, so I can check important updates first- then skim through other categories as I have time. In the mood for some online shopping? I can check my shopping folder to see what new deals and coupon code updates I have waiting for me. Or, if I have a minute to earn some free cash with my favorite survey sites, I can pop into my survey folder to find all of the invites together in one place. Easy peasy!

{Also, did you notice that Carley gets emails from a bunch of the same great places I’ve told you guys about? She has the Chili’s Free Chips and Queso coupon in her Inbox, the amazing LearnVest Frugal Tips Newsletter, and a couple more- I’ll see if anyone else can find them. Leave me a comment!}

A couple of things to keep in mind…

When watching the video on the Digitwirl site, I noticed that in the comments there are a couple of issues that might come up when getting started with OIB. Nothing major, and all have solutions- but you might want to take a second to read the OtherInbox Post to check it out. You’ll see that they have an AMAZING customer support rep on the page, responding to everyone’s questions. Gotta love that, right?

I’m signing up for OIB today- and I’ll let you know how it works for me! I’d love to hear from you if you’re already using it, or plan to start. What’s YOUR biggest frustration with keeping your email organized? Leave some comments and let’s chat!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 23, 2011 Filed Under: Freebies, Shopping, Reviews, Blogging Resources | No Comments

Hate the New Facebook Changes?

Were you like me, and logged onto Facebook this morning, only to see that it looked DIFFERENT? Ugh, I hate that.

I’ve come up with the theory that Facebook is trying to get rid of old people like me, so it keeps changing things up so I get confused and give up. Just sayin’.

Where are my friends??

One thing I don’t like at all is that Facebook is deciding who is most important to me, and showing me what it thinks is my “top news”- except most of those posts are from people I don’t even want to read about. Um, how is Facebook deciding this? And where are my favorite pages at? I had to scroll down three pages to get to see even ONE of my favorite blogs or pages updates. What’s that about?

Learn how to use Facebook Lists

Anyway, I read a great post today on CEO of Me, Inc. that tells you how to how to How to See Your Favorite Facebook Friends and Pages again with Lists that I thought I’d share. I hadn’t used the lists feature yet, so I’m going to try it out today, and see if I can customize this new Facebook style, and actually see stuff I’m interested in again.

She also links to the Facebook page that explains about how Facebook Lists work, if you’re like me, and kind of confused by it. I must admit, I do like the idea of putting my favorite blogs on a list, my best friends on a list, and my family on another list- so I can check in to see what my favorite people are doing.

UPDATE:

I just found another great post on the Facebook changes too- Hate the New Facebook? Here’s how to Change it Back! More great ideas on how to use the List feature to make Facebook work the way you want it to!

What do you think?

Are you using the List’s yet? Do you love/hate/feel indifferent towards the new Facebook layout? Are you going to add Sunshine and Sippy Cups to your fave list on Facebook? {Of course you are- you don’t want to miss any good stuff, right?} Do you have any great advice on getting used to this new Facebook update?

So, I guess I’ll read up on these lists, and hopefully learn from your tips– and get used to this new Facebook update just in time for them to change it all up again!

And make sure to come by and check out Sunshine and Sippy Cups on Facebook too!

Posted by Meagan Paullin on September 21, 2011 Filed Under: Reviews, Blogging Resources | 2 Comments

Will You Love the New Halo Bars? Find Out…

How to know if you’ll LOVE the new Halo Snack Bars:

Do you have a sweet tooth? Does it make demands for things like chocolate, marshmallows, nuts, or graham-crackery treats?
Are you trying to ignore that sweet tooth, but it’s not working?
Do you wish you could get yourself to eat snacks that were organic, vegan, or just plain better for you than the vending machine junk you eat now?

If you answered YES, then keep reading!

Here are a few amazing facts about the Halo Bars:

All Halo Bars are certified organic, meaning no yucky chemicals, and no weird ingredients that you can’t pronounce.
Each bar has Omega 3 & 6, is low-in-sugar and is dairy-free/Vegan- but they come in dessert-style flavors like S’mores, Nutty Marshmallow, Rocky Road, and Honey Graham.
Even with the dessert flavors – {and these babies are GOOD!!} – they are each only 150 calories! Rockin.
Like all of the other great PROBAR products, these are delicious, convenient, healthy plant based food products. How much better can you get?

Fun reactions from tasting HALO at Expo West 2011:

Now hear the reactions to the new HALO bars in my house…

Me: I’m always in a rush, and hardly have time to eat some days. I love, love, LOVE a snack that is easy to grab, fills me up for a long time, and isn’t junk. This is amazingly perfect. Plus- I crave sweets. A lot. So this is just what I’ve been looking for.
Kiddo’s: Both of the boys got SUPER excited when they heard I was getting Halo bars- they thought that it had something to do with Halo the video game, lol. They were quite disappointed when I opened the box to some snacks…. Until they got to try them. 5 year old: these taste like camping!! {this was while eating the smores bar…}
Boyfriend: He HATES anything healthy. I have to lie, so he doesn’t know, or he won’t eat it. Here is the conversation- Him: “Why didn’t you tell me these were all organic-y stuff?” Me: “I don’t know….” Him: “I’ve eaten like 5 of these already!!” Me: “That means they were good right?” Him: “Whatever. Yes, they were really good. But you tricked me.” :)