Citrusolution - A Review

Ahhhhhh, its that time of year people! Now that the weather is FINALLY nice after all that snow, everyone gets that itch to start their spring cleaning. There's just something about cleaning out the clutter, making several trips to Goodwill, opening up the windows, and freshening up your house that takes me to the beginning of spring!

When we bought our home a couple of years ago, we completely gutted it. So, part of what we had to decide was new carpet. Well, when they give you a big board of 50 samples and you pick one, you honestly don't realize how LIGHT it is until you come home and its in your house! As much as I like it, it is SUPER light, and with two five year olds, and two shedding cats, our carpets already look several years old instead of two.

I was recently approached by Citrusolution to come out and clean my carpets in return for a blog review. If you've read the paragraph above, you will know that I was jumping up and down emphatically said of course!

Im going to show you some pics of my carpet before (yes, I know Im brave!!)

 Just lots of spots and just dingy wear.

I honestly had not heard of Citrusolution, but let me tell you - I was SO PLEASED and impressed! Ed Van Voorhees, the local owner of Citrusolution, couldn't have been nicer or more professional. He bought his small team, who have been with him for years, and they got it done in no time. And it was dry so quickly!

Citrusolution uses an environmentally-friendly, citrus-based cleanser. I liked this part due to the fact I have kids and pets! Its super safe! And I promise I was so pleased it worked!! And it smelled awesome!! The  solution contains citrus acid (like lemon juice) and d-Limonene (extracted oil from citrus rinds). The d-Limonene agent has been proven to fight against dust mites and other household allergens. In addition, this agent is also used in other forms to help support immunity and detoxification. I couldn't believe how great my carpet looked when they were done. They looked brand new! And the best part? The leave an entire bottle of the cleaning solution so you can clean spots yourself using the same solution they used. 

Now here's a BEFORE:

And AFTER!!

I spoke with Ed a little bit on their pricing. They dont do gimicks, they dont do the bait-and-switch, they dont do Groupons. What they do, if offer a very competive, all-inclusive pricing structure with nothing hidden. 

I was really pleasatly impressed with this company, and I absoluetly will give Ed and his company Citrusolution a call the next time I need my carpets cleaned. Im not sure I will go anywhere else! Their contact info is below :) 

Happy Spring Cleaning!

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www.Citrus4Carpets.com

615-333-8977

Matilda Jane Paint By Numbers Collection - A Review and $50 Giveaway!

If you are follower of my blog, regular reader, or even happen to stop by every now and then, you must notice my little curly-haired darling, Jules, one half of my twinnies. She is my spunky full-of-life hysterical little girl.

I wrote a fashion post several months ago on toddler/kid fashion. It's funny - what you envision and then what actually comes to pass is usually SO DIFFERENT!! I thought, being a southern girl, that Jules would wear smoked monogrammed stuff all the time.

Oh how wrong I was. She is full of bright, fun, colorful energy, and with that comes bright, fun, colorful clothing. Again, if you are a regular reader, most of the clothing I put her in is Matilda Jane. You can see some of her outfits here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Right now her absolute favorite dresses are the Joanna Wrap dress and the Fruit Punch dress. When I say she asks to wear them every day - she asks to wear them every day. (Soon to be replaced by PBN Damsel Dress!)

For those of you who are not familiar with Matilda Jane Clothing, - let me introduce you to this fabulous company:

Denise DeMarchis started MJC in 2005, started selling her designs at art fairs around the Midwest. After that was so sucessful, she eventually  moved the business toward a Trunk Keeper model— home shows are parties. Yup - you can get her designs in stores! Thats what makes this brand so great - its not mass produced.

"Sometimes, when you put on a certain dress, you feel a certain way. When you put on Matilda Jane, you feel just happy and twirly. You just feel good." – Denise

I bought Jules' first Matilda Jane piece when she was just over a year old, and since then had added piece by piece and now she has quite the collection! This might confuse you because she is clearly almost four. Well, that is the beauty of Matilda Jane. Every piece is made to mix and match and the sizes seem to carry on year after year: leggings become capris, dresses become tops, tops become dresses. She is still able to wear some 12m things, 18m things and has some size 2, and some size 4. The quality is amazing and as long as you take care of it, it will last forever. It's a great investment - and it's beautiful! Our favorite collections are Good Hart and Serendipity, but wow - I am blown away by Paint by Numbers!

Their new fall line of Paint By Numbers launched in August. They had another release in September, and another small one in October. The colors are warm and fabulous. I have honestly bought more pieces from this recent collection that any other.

When I say I love Matilda Jane, I honestly do. Jules loves it as well (she thinks it's Matilda Jane is a real person - hehe!). They are comfortable, easy pieces that mix well with everything, and Jules loves them as well. If I have any critiques about the brand, it's that sometime their sizes vary. In some things she can wear a 4, and sometimes it is HUGE on her. They have an easy return/exchange policy though, so it's easy to swap out. We also bought the Shasta Bubble top from PBN and had to send it back to swap sizes, so it isn't pictured.

Need a trunk keeper? If you are local to Middle TN, please email me at apstribling@gmail.com. Emily Holleman (emilyh@matildajaneclothing.com) is a great Nashville rep, and Brea Freeman  (breaf@matildajaneclothing.com) is great for north TN!

Her new favorite!!

She is wearing 12m leggings from an older line. They are now the cutest little capris! Love this top. I adore all things french, and the sweet detail on this top is to die for. Another piece that I have not pictured is the Sky View Puffer Tee and it is precious as well.

Our own ruffle leggings - also adore this top. 

She is wearing the Moon Ruffles with the Turtledove Top. It is also from an older line and 18m! They are also capris. I also will say, the Moons were by far the best investment we made. They go with EVERYTHING. This is the outfit she recently wore for preschool pictures :)

Love this girl! Can there be a brand more fitting for her?

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Review - Great Father Day Gift!

Staples recently approached me to see if I would be interested in reviewing the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. I headed to the store to find out more information about it, to see if it was something that would fit my family's needs.

The staff there was super knowledgeable and know so much from phones, tablets, computers to printers, and were able to explain things to me in a way to help the "not-so-tech-savvy" understand (like moi). In our household, we have laptops, we have the ipad, and we have our phones. So, we are in the market for a smaller tablet that my 3-year-old twins can use to learn and play games, and Mama can read her books on.

 Enter the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0. It is perfect for all these things, and it does so much more.

 First off, the size is perfect. It's much bigger than a smart phone, but not as big as some of the larger tablets - it measures 8.3" x 5.3". It's super lightweight at less than .8 pounds, but packs as much fun as a full computer, but in a slick, stylish way.

Everyday: 
First off...oh the things that this can do! If you are a casual computer user like me, then you will love the ease of surfing the internet, checking email, and playing games. You can zoom in and out with ease. It's Android based, which is different from my apple systems that I'm used to, but it was really easy to navigate and find apps. I'm a big Google fan anyway, so this didn't bother me at all.

Get Organized and Creative: 
The one things that sets the Galaxy Note apart from an ipad or ipad mini is the S-Pen. You can write on this! It's so cool and super useful. There is no pixelization and it's as smooth as writing on paper. You can make out your grocery list, write meeting notes, (or school notes - I wish I had this in college!) write recipes, daily journal, dairy, etc. - the possibilities are endless. Its so small too, its easy to grab it from your purse and jot down a note or two. I am really excited to use this with my kids. This is going to be so great when they are learning to write. And I have already found some helpful apps.

The stylus is located on the bottom corner and discreetly fits into the tablet. - on the right, one of the cute ecards you can personalize. 

sample of the daily journal, and recipes you can play with and write on using your stylus. 

spot-on handwriting!

Read, read, read: 
If you are in the market for a Kindle, I think you will love the Note. It has night and day features (so cool!) and you can change the text size and download books until your heart's content. The storage on here is great.

day on the left, night mode on the right. 

Take pics and videos: 
It has a front and back camera and they are actually pretty great at 8.0 mega-pixels. It also has a video camera. What makes this great is its so small to keep in your purse,take it on trips as your mini-computer, and still take those quick snapshots of the kiddos instead of hauling your camera.

regular camera

front facing

Video sample from the installed camera:



Voice Recognition: 
If you like Siri for your iphone, you will love the voice recognition on the Samsung Galaxy Note. Siri always gives me grief (could it be my southern accent?) and never gets my questions right, but this was was spot on. You can write notes and messages by using your voice to transpose. You can even dictate recipes, blog posts, that book-in-progress, and it saves it with surprising accuracy.

The Samsung Galaxy Note really has it all - you can take pictures, videos, use it as a television remote, watch TV shows and movies, connect it to your security system and see who is at your front door, play in the internet, listen to music, read books, social media, and more. Oh, and play all those fun games that I do in my space time, haha (whats that again??)

If I had one critique it would be the auto correct on the keyboard. I feel like I make many more typing mistakes on this other than my iphone/ipad. I'm not sure why, but I do. I think it's a learning curve and a difference in Apple/Android.

Again, if you are in the market for a tablet I highly suggest heading to Staples and getting a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0.

Staples graciously sent me this for review, but the thoughts and opinions are all my own. Feel free to shop their entire line of tablets online.