Tiny Drops of Honey...This Mommy's Sweet Life

Thursday, October 20, 2016

UpNature Raw Organic Honey Review

I love honey and try to consume it daily. I put it on toast, stir it into hot tea, and drizzle it on graham crackers and other food items. It is amazing on vanilla ice cream with cinnamon and real whipped cream!

I always prefer raw, unprocessed honey when possible. I was sent a jar of honey for review and would like to share my thoughts with you.

Up Nature Raw Organic Honey is USDA Certified Organic and a Kosher product. I love that this is pure, unfiltered honey and does not contain chemicals or additives. It is non-GMO certified.

Up Nature Raw Organic Honey has never been altered by a heating process, it is real and delicious. All of its nutritional value (honey has so many benefits to your health) remain intact.

I have been enjoying this honey all month. Now that the weather is getting much cooler, I have been drinking a lot of hot tea and Tumeric Spiced Lattes. To make a numeric latte, I use soy milk (or whatever milk of your choosing) and warm it in a pot on the stove, I then add cinnamon and Tumeric and honey. I use my hand frother and pour into a mug. It is a delicious and healthy drink that I enjoy in the evenings.

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DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation for a product review and/or link to any products or services from this blog. I am always honest in my opinions and never promise a positive review. I only recommend products or services that I feel are beneficial to my family and my lovely readers. I enjoy testing out items and giving my readers an honest and descriptive account of how a product functions. My personal experience or view of an item may differ than yours.

Tiny Drops of Honey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. You pay the exact same price for any and all products you order through my links, but I receive a small commission. I am a stay at home mommy and any commissions I receive help support my little ones.

Natures Brands Herbal Choice Mari Room Spray Review

I was sent a natural ingredient air freshening spray for review. Herbal Choice Mari Organic Room & Linen Spray Citrus Pine comes in a 4 oz glass bottle. I always prefer glass bottles as it not only looks classier, but also I do not have to worry about over time, leaching plastics/chemicials into the product I am using, which would change the effectiveness and safety.

Ingredients:

Purified water, organic citrus pine air freshener blend (purified water, organic sweet orange oil, organic vodka, organic lemongrass oil, organic bilberry leaf, organic cinnamon oil, organic pine oil).

This organic citrus spray does not contain carcinogenic or toxic ingredients. It does not have a synthetic perfume odor like many air fresheners seen today. The pure citrus blend of botanicals is pleasant to my nose and should not irritate those who are sensitive to fragrances or easily allergic. This phthalate free room deodorizer is non-aerosol and safe enough to be used anywhere in your home, which is why I am comfortable using it in our baby's changing space (out of reach of my little ones). I spray this 2-3 times after each stinky diaper changing. :) It makes the room much more pleasant and leaves it cleaner. I also like to spray this once before we go to sleep as it is soothing. It would be a great spray for the car as it is not overpowering in a confined, small space. I like how it is able to be sprayed directly on fabrics.

You can find this on Nature's Brands website and on Amazon.

I highly recommend this spray. We have not used traditional air fresheners for about 3 or 4 years. I like using essential oils and natural products to freshen our home. We usually use Citrus Magic which is also a non aerosol spray made from citrus oils.

- USDA Certified organic

- 100% chemical free air fresheners

- No phosphates, preservatives

- Free from gluten, soy, NO GMO

- Free from synthetic fragrance or dyes

- Cruelty-free, vegan and vegetarian

- Packaged in an eco-friendly glass bottle

- No terpene, aldehydes, ketones or esters

- No formaldehyde, petroleum distillates or p-dichlorobenzene

- Oils are hexane free, cold pressed, non-refined, non-deodorized

Please follow me on:

Facebook for updates to this blog, reviews, and giveaways. For updates on new posts, you can subscribe to me on bloglovin. I would love it if you would visit me (subscribing makes me so happy) on Instagram and Twitter.

DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation for a product review and/or link to any products or services from this blog. I am always honest in my opinions and never promise a positive review. I only recommend products or services that I feel are beneficial to my family and my lovely readers. I enjoy testing out items and giving my readers an honest and descriptive account of how a product functions. My personal experience or view of an item may differ than yours.

Tiny Drops of Honey is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. You pay the exact same price for any and all products you order through my links, but I receive a small commission. I am a stay at home mommy and any commissions I receive help support my little ones.

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Rally Up Game by Blue Orange (Review)

We do not play video games or computer games with our children and neither our 5 1/2 yr old or 2 1/2 year old use a tablet or iPad. I have been quite proud that my daughter is slightly computer illiterate at her young age of 5 1/2 because she actually plays with her toys (non electronic) and uses her imagination and creativity daily. I always cringe a little when I see a young child slumped into their seat with their eyes glued to a computer game. We like dolls, blocks, wooden toys, tea sets, Mega Bloks, Legos, etc. We like activities that are simple yet, fun with a learning / creativity element in them. We like puzzles and board games as well.

I was recently sent a game from Blue Orange. They are known for their fun, yet educational games for children. They sent me Rally Up! Here is some beef info from the company:

"110 illustrated cards are shuffled, distributed, and then rhythmically turned face-up on the table. Players will find themselves in a hullabaloo and will race to rally up 2 or more images belonging to the same family! Scan swiftly through the craziness to get these thingies back to where they belong!"

The game comes in a metal round tin and is quite small, but the size is really nice as I can see this easily being used on trips when we stay at a hotel or visit family. The compact size makes it easy to slip into a travel bag and perhaps even play at an airline between flights. This is designed for ages 6 and up, but my 5 1/2 year old enjoys this a lot. You only need 2 players (such as parent / child) for a fun game (or as many as 6 can join).

Here is the main objective of the game:

Players look for objects belonging to the same family/category (there are reference cards that show those items in that grouping). Players continue flipping over cards on a table until someone finds 2 or more cards belonging to the same category. (Rally Up!)

I like how this is educational and inspires them to think and develop categorization skills. Other skills learned are Visual Perception, Focus & Attention, and Processing Speed.

Pass all the cards out evenly to each player, put extra card(s) back in tin for next round. Keep the cards face down and do not show other players your cards. Each player at once turns over their top card to middle of table. Here is where we use: Visual Perception, Focus & Attention, and Processing Speed

Scan over all the cards that were turned over and see if at least 2 cards or more match within in it's category. The first person to find matching cards for one category win those cards. Easy and fun!

We like this game and find that it is fun for us as parents as well. This was sent to me for review, no compensation other than a sample game was provided.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Googly eyes! Craft fun. Review of Sanc 700 Self Adhesive Craft Eyes :)

Today's review will be short and sweet, and maybe a little dill (pickle). I was sent some googly eyes for review (silly but fun for the kids).

Both my 5 year old and 2 1/2 year old love pickles and so I made some quick and easy paper pickle friends for them. Sadly my 2 year old son's pickle friend was ripped to smithereens (hmm...is that how you spell it? I have never wrote that word.) shortly after, and so he is not pictured with the long pigtailed pickle gal. My children loved this 700 black self-adhesive googly eyes in a plastic box. I was happy they were not glue on style, as glue would be particularly messy and difficult when applying to such a tiny googly eye. Most of these are tiny and I would assume a tooth pick would need to be used to attach glue to such small eyes. I did assist with peeling the adhesive backs, but the kids enjoyed sticking the eyes to things around the house.

Package includes:

5mm: 240 pieces

6mm: 180 pieces

7mm: 120 pieces

8mm: 80 pieces

10mm: 60 pieces

12mm: 30 pieces

10mm x 12mm Oval: 40 pieces

7 Sizes of black plastic googly, movable eyes in a plastic storage box. The box is smaller that I imagined. I would have preferred larger eyes than those in the set. My 2 year old enjoyed playing with the eyes by themselves and then mashing them till they no longer were usable or resembled eyes. They were a great distraction during diaper changes as he is increasingly wiggly.

**This set contain small objects and should not be used by children under 3 years old alone, adult supervision is required.**

These were sent to me for review and I think they are fun for children and adults alike. I would recommend larger eyes to be included in the set. I also think the 700 eyes is slightly misleading. Now, I did not count them, so perhaps there are that many, but, the container is tiny and I would have preferred even half the amount of eyes, with much larger eyes and a bigger storage box. The box is able to fit in my hand.

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Saturday, October 15, 2016

Mango Green Tea Loose Leaf Tea Blend by Coastal Tea Company (Review)

As the weather gets cooler, and as I am on my third cold in the last 2 months (my daughter started Kindergarten and my husband works in a busy hotel restaurant, so I am assuming we have a lot of germs here), I like to enjoy a nice cup or 2 of tea per evening before bed. I generally enjoy an herbal or mint tea as it is soothing to my digestion. I recently was sent a loose leaf tea for review, in exchange for my honest opinion. I always prefer loose leaf over a bagged tea.

The Mango mint tea is by Coastal Tea Company and was quite surprising to me. I was at first hesitant to try it. Although I love mango, peach (yes there are hints of peach!) and mint, I did not envision the flavors to meld well. There are dried chunks of a candied mango inside the pouch of tea. The mint flavor is very light and crisp. Luckily it is not a spicy or strong mint flavor. The flavors work well together. I would have liked more peach flavor, as I detected the other 2 flavors more. I also would have preferred the peach to have been dried pieces as well, instead of "flavoring oils."

I do want to mention that the stock photo shows the mango pieces to be more of a true orange toned mango color, when in reality, they are more grey. I enjoy this tea with natural raw honey after brewing it with my metal strainer. Please excuse the small pieces floating in my cup, it seems some pieces of tea are small enough to pass through my strainer.

This is a loose leaf, low caffeine, sencha green tea blended with dried mango pieces, peach flavoring oils, and dried mint leaves. It is said to be naturally flavored with no artificial ingredients. It comes in a paper bag with a nice secure seal for ultimate freshness. I like the width of the bottom of the bag that allows for storing on the shelf. The "best by" date is stamped on the back of the bag.

I like the tea and recommend it. I would have preferred there to have been dried peaches in the tea in addition to the mango.

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Thursday, October 13, 2016

My Great Baby (brand) Breast Pump Review

I am on my third baby that has been exclusively breastfed, and have used a variety of manual and electric breast pumps. I am not a frequent pumper, but I do like to pump a few times a month to boost my supply as well as keep some excess on hand. Breast milk is just as they say, "liquid gold" and cures a lot of ailments.

I have used Avent (electric and manual), Aveda Purely Yours, Medela Pump in Style Advanced, and about 5 or so generic ones in electric and manual. I like Medela the best and can not find one that exceeds its quality and efficiency. I think Avent is my second choice. I do love the bottle style of Avent (we have used plastic and glass---with glass being are first choice.) I was sent a generic manual pump for review that has a similar looking bottle to the Avent (plastic).

It is currently less than $20 (actually less than $15) and might be something to look into if you are in a very limited budget. I do want to mention that the Avent brand is just under $30.

Here is what the company says about their pump.

Easy Breast Pump is made without any harmful chemicals: BPA or PVC. (This I appreciate.)

Directly copied from the product info:

"Here are some of the benefits you receive when using the Easy Breast Pump.

-Reduced pain when breasts are overfull
-Recover from pregnancy faster
-Have milk ready when needed
-Save time
-Save money on batteries and electricity
-Extract milk whenever you want wherever you want
-Easy to carry"

I am not sure how it would help with quicker recovery, as I find that having a baby suckle works the best at making the body heal faster and for things to go back to normal. I agree that using a manual pump is often easier to pack and saves on batteries/electricity. However I tried using this pump twice and it was sadly disappointing. I kept getting milk pooling up in the top of the pump and it never went into the bottle. After reading a few reviews on Amazon, I found that several other users had this same issue and they said their pump was sealed shut. I am thinking my pump had this issue as well. Since this is a $15 pump, I cannot give much fault to it, since sometimes you do get what you pay for (except this luckily was sent to me complimentary for review.) I would have been disappointed if I had paid money for it, and would have returned it for a refund.

It is too bad, as having an extra manual pump is something I recommend (having 2-3 manuals actually is pretty great---as you could have one at your parents home, work (if you are a working mom), one in the car, etc. Since I nurse on demand with the little one and always have a nursing cover, I have only given my new baby expressed milk (in bottles) a few times. I mainly keep the expressed milk for my older (weaned) toddler for when he is sick (put it in his oatmeal or sippy).

I sadly cannot recommend this pump, and would recommend spending $15 more and getting the Avent manual.

It comes with 2 pouches for milk storage, but I did not find them useful. I prefer the Lansinoh bags. The pack came with a pair of quilted cotton breast pads to absorb excess milk. I currently use wool nursing pads, but before using wool, I used bamboo pads with a pul waterproof backing. These could potentially get soaked pretty quick. I personally do not recommend these for nursing. I have a moderate to heavy let down.

The pump might work for you and at the price, I guess you could always try it and then return it if it is defective. I do not have many pictures of the pump, I set it up and after losing so much milk and making a mess with it collecting in the top, I honestly got frustrated with it and did not keep trying it out. Here are a few pictures (stock) and some of the accessories.