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Roxymandy June 24, 2015

My Birchbox Review

Have you heard of Birchbox before? I had heard enough about it to give it as a gift, but hadn’t experienced it myself until last week.

The feedback I got from the people I sent a Birchbox to was amazing! The products were great, and getting new beauty surprises every month was fun. It seemed like an awesome concept, so I kept sending them out as gifts to others, and I kept hearing great things.

One day I got really jealous and decided I needed my own Birchbox. I sound very mature, don’t I? Well it’s true, I wanted a cute gift every month with fun beauty surprises inside, so I went ahead and ordered myself one.

Birchbox itself has an online store which sells beauty products often exclusive to the store. They have what they call a monthly Birchbox which is delivered to your home, and includes 5 personalized beauty samples tailored to your profile.

When sending one as a gift the only information you need to provide is the receiver’s address. The receiver can then go online and complete a personal profile so their remaining boxes are tailored towards their preferences.

If you want to buy a full-size version of some of the products you loved in your Birchbox, then you can order them on the website.

Each month is $10.00 CDN plus $4.95 shipping and handling. You can subscribe yourself or a send someone a gift for a 3 months subscription for $44.85, 6 months for $79.70 or 12 months for $159.40.

Each Birchbox has either a theme, or is curated by a special guest. My own box was called “Say Yes!” and it was all about adventure. It included travel tips from Meghan Markle from The Tig as well.

My box included:

Naobay Oxygenating Cream Moisturizer

Number 4 Clarifying Shampoo

Parlor by Jeff Chastain Moisturizing Sea Salt Spray

Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels

Pure Vida Lave Headband with Charm

I actually hadn’t heard of any of these brands or products before, so it was fun to try them all out! I am in love with the shampoo and the moisturizer. They are both on repeat this week in my bathroom.

I loved getting all of these great surprises in the mail, and it’s nice to try out products I wouldn’t have normally tried. Overall I think it does serve as an amazing gift for someone else, but it’s also a great treat for yourself.

For more details on Birchbox, visit www.birchbox.ca!

Roxymandy June 23, 2015

Little Monkey Designs Growth Chart + Shop With Our Friends and Family Discount Code!

I love to think of myself as the “Pinterest” kind of mom, but I failed on one point completely. As my son was growing up, we kept forgetting to create or buy some sort of chart to track his growth! My husband was more than a little annoyed when I started using a pencil, pen or whatever writing utensil I could find to make notches in the freshly painted trim in my son’s room to track his growth. That time I used a Sharpie did not go over well.

Fast-forward to last week, and I am now the proud owner of quite a fancy little growth chart from Little Monkey Designs!

You may remember my blog post from last year that I wrote praising some of the fabulous products Diane from Little Monkey Designs has to offer.

I am happy to say I am now a Brand Ambassador for Little Monkey Designs, and this is my first product for review!

There were plenty of designs I could choose for when it came to their selection of Personalized Growth Charts, and I fell in love with this Oh The Place’s You’ll Go Growth Chart.

My husband and I love to travel, and one of the places we have been a few times on our travels is London. Our son’s room is London-themed, and we thought this growth chart would fit in to the theme.

Also, when my son turned one I wanted a keepsake of his first birthday party, so I bought the book Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss and had all of the guests sign the book so we would remember who was there to share that day with us. I thought the growth chart was very fitting both ascetically, and on a personal level.

We certainly have stepped it up a bit from using pens, pencils and Sharpies to mark our son’s growth on the wall! The growth chart is beautifually made, and our son loves to stand beside it just for fun to see if he has grown.

To hang the growth chart, you must measure 40cm from the floor, and then place the bottom of the growth chart at that point. This will give you an accurate record of height! It’s nice and light, so it’s easily hung with a push pin.

Little Monkey Designs also does color matching, and they can often do personalized work so be sure to contact them if there is something you are looking to have made.

Their personalized growth charts are designed and printed in Canada on your choice of either premium 13 oz. matte vinyl or artist grade canvas.

The products used to create these growth charts are high quality and non-toxic, and the chart can easily be rolled up if you want to store them away as a keepsake!

sparkleshinylove readers can exclusively save 15% off anything in the shop including sale items by using the code sparkleshinylove. How awesome is that? Get shopping! There are some amazing products locally made by this shop that are perfect for your own little one, as a gift, or for an upcoming event you might be planning.

To learn more about Little Monkey Designs, or to get shopping with that great coupon code, visit their website here!

Disclaimer: This product was provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.

Roxymandy June 22, 2015

Launch of Huggies Little Movers Plus

Our son has been in Huggies practically since the day he was born. We started with another brand in his early days, and switched quickly to Huggies and never looked back.

Huggies and Costco have now teamed up with two brand new exclusive products – Huggies Snugglers Plus and Huggies Little Movers Plus! They are both Huggies newest and most premium diapers on the market.

Both diapers are now available, and exclusively so at Costco.

I can’t even imagine how many diapers we have gone through since my son was born. My son has always been a squirmer when it comes to changing his diaper. We started with a change table when our son was born, but he would squirm right off of it! We’ve resorted to changing him anywhere we can – on floors, on the grass, on planes and trains, and everywhere in between. I feel like I am an expert in wrapping our son in a diaper at this point. Huggies Little Movers Plus have Double Grip Strips that I can latch into place quickly, and they stay put!

We use the Huggies Little Movers Plus because our toddler is always on the move. Whether he is at soccer, skating, running, dancing, or squirming around in the mud, he rarely sits still. The Gentle Absorb Liner adds that extra layer of protection when you are in one of those places you actually can’t change a diaper – like when they jump into a play place ball pit and refuse to come out for hours! The DryTouch Liner makes it one Huggies most absorbant diapers.

Huggies Little Snugglers Plus and Huggies Little Movers Plus are exclusively available at Costco in sizes 1-6.

Visit my Instagram page to see the video my son and I created for the Huggies Ambassador Campaign here!

For more information, head over to the Huggies Little Movers Plus site here.

Disclosure: I am part of the Huggies Ambassador Campaign with Influence Central and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Roxymandy June 18, 2015

The Popcicle Trend with Graham & Brown

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I am now a Graham & Brown Ambassador, so I will talking about different home trends each month and how to incorporate them into your own home.

Starting next month I will be showing you how I use Graham & Brown products in my own home to give you an idea of how I have taken a trend and made it work with my personal décor.

Every year new trends in color, design and style for the home emerge, and when this happens it may make you want to redecorate your whole home, but sometimes instead it can just inspire you to refresh an area of your home.

Have you heard of the popsicle trend?

Think of it as a form of ombre – colours that fade in and out of each other, creating soft and subtle illusions. The trend is all about being playful and having fun, and since it’s the beginning of summer it’s the perfect time to experiment with it!

Graham & Brown has challenged it’s Ambassadors to show how this trend ‘Popsicle’ is echoed through our past, present and future design aspirations.

When I think of the Popsicle Trend, well I can’t help it but think about popsicles! I used love it when I was a kid and my mom would buy popsicles as a treat. Like so much that I would fight to eat the whole box. Even to this day when I am sick, I (politely) order my husband to buy a box of popsicles so I can eat them all! My absolute favourites were creamsicles and grape flavoured ones.

This “Bloom wherever you are planted” photo found here reminds me exactly of this. How pretty are all of these photos in row as well? Talking about the Popsicle Trend not only makes me hungry, but it’s also so pretty to look at when it works!

I’ve mentioned on the blog before about my love for freshening up my home each season buy adding some new pillows to my décor. Sometimes I add seasonal ones for the holidays like at Christmas, and sometimes I just want lighter or darker colours to change with the seasons.

I’ve actually just purchased 4 new pillows for my home for summer, but I really wish I had of seen this Meadow Cushion before I starting swiping my credit card!

The Meadow Cushion would be such a great way to freshen up my home, among some of the other Popsicle Trend pillows.

I have so many plans to revamp my closet, and one idea is to use one of my favourite colours – pink! I’m loving this pink paint in Carnation Street (love the name too!), and this Neon City print has such fun colours as well! I’m totally obsessed with this Polka Flock Pink wallpaper! How cute are these polka dots?

The fun colours merging into eachother to create gradual tones is a fun way to brighten up for spring. Any of these colours used in the Popsicle Trend tend to be radiant and bright, which is perfect for this time of year, and a great way to refresh your home.

For more design inspiration, visit www.grahamandbrown.com!

Roxymandy June 16, 2015

Nautical Striped Sweaters for Summer

As hot as it has been during the last few weeks, we have had some cool nights and rainy afternoon’s where it’s chilly enough to throw a light sweater on.

I’d be embarrassed to show you how many nautical striped sweaters I have in my closet. I’ve been collecting for a few years now. They never seem to go out of style! Nautical seems to have a resurgence every few years, and this year has been a great year for nautical striped sweaters.

This one I am wearing is from Joe Fresh, and it was practically free because I just added it to my grocery cart. Don’t you love how Joe Fresh is sold where you buy your groceries? My husband doesn’t look twice at the grocery bill, so a sweater here and there will fly under the radar. Well, after he reads this post I may need to be a bit more careful!

Joe Fresh Stripe Crochet Sweater {$29}

My collection of these sweaters continues to grow, and it’s really not my fault because there are so many great variations of this staple sweater. Here are more of my favourite summer nautical striped sweaters for cool summer nights and rainy afternoons below.