I really really love canvas prints and have purchased them as gifts before but never for myself, for our home. So I was super excited to work with Easy Canvas Prints - and they're based in Austin, Texas so yay for a local TX company! 

The ordering process on their website was SO easy and I really liked that it helps you along in the process with things like letting you know if your picture is good enough quality for the size canvas you chose (in my case, I got an 8"x10") and it also lets you adjust how the picture will be cropped. No one wants to pay for something they're unsure about so this feature is really nice! I also got to choose if I wanted a color border on my canvas or have the image wrap around which is what I chose. 

I placed my order on 12/16 and my e-mail receipt said it would be delivered on 12/23 which totally worked for me but even better, it showed up on the 20th! That was an awesome surprise! 

My camera just doesn't do this canvas justice. It's such great quality and the picture just looks so soft and pretty, almost like a painting. I really love it and my experience with Easy Canvas! Their prices are affordable and now that I know how easy the process is and how great their shipping is, I'll definitely order more from them. They also have some affiliate companies which I'm curious about, too - BuildASign.com and Allied Shirts. I've already shared the latter with my sis who's always purchasing custom shirts for her sorority!

If you're in the market for a canvas (how can you not be? :), Easy Canvas currently has some great specials going on, one of which is 50% off + Free shipping with the code 50FREESHIP!!

Disclaimer: In exchange for writing this post, I received a photo canvas from Easy Canvas Prints.

Announcement + A GIVEAWAY!

Happy Friday!! And holy crap - Happy March, too!

I'm happy to report that I survived the emotional day known as V's 1st Birthday yesterday. We had the best day with her and she was knocked out by 8pm (early for her) so we know she had a great day too! :) But more on that next week - today I have some fun news to share!

Starting this month, I'm going to post about one Etsy shop every month to help spread the word about them AND I'll also host a giveaway and offer a discount from that shop! Fun, right? The shop will also be advertised on the "Etsy Sponsor" tab above and on my sidebar for the month. I have a slight addiction to Etsy and have met so many amazing and creative women because of it so this is  my way of recognizing their shops! :)

Now I'm excited to introduce you to my March shop -
Chip and Chisel!!

Lindsy is the lovely lady behind Chip & Chisel and I was totally blown away by how many awesome pieces she offers in her shop and that they're also really affordable! She has a wide variety of hand stamped items but also a lot of non personalized items as well. I had been looking for a "mom" necklace for quite some time when I happened upon her shop and immediately fell in love!

 

After talking to Lindsy on the phone, I could tell right away how passionate she is about her shop and her jewelry. She takes a lot of pride in her products and is big on engaging with her customers on Facebook - y'all know how I feel about customer service so that really stood out to me! I couldn't be happier to tell you now first hand how great Lindsy is to work with! She was quick to respond to emails, my necklace arrived in just a few days and the final product is perfect!

 

This is the bar necklace that she personalized for me.

It has both Violet's name and birth date which is so special to me and I'm obsessed with it!

It's trendy, not mom-ish (which is just what I wanted!), and just really dainty and pretty.

I like so many of her other pieces that it's really hard to only show you a few! 

1 / 2 / 3
4 / 5 / 6
7 / 8 / 9

And because Lindsy is so awesome, she's giving away a

$50 credit to her shop!

AND

She's also offering you 20% off purchases from now through 3/15!
Just use the code: YAMC20
(Code must be entered at time of purchase + You must like her Facebook page first to qualify.)

 

The first 3 entries are mandatory. 

Winner will be announced on Monday, 3/11!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Disclaimer: I was given a product in exchange for a review and a month of advertising. All opinions are my own.**

Campus Book Rentals

I can't believe it's almost time for school to start again! If you haven't already heard me mention it a hundred times, Ronnie's currently in school so that means he won't be a SAHD anymore, he'll be back to his busy student life soon! But going back to school also means spending a ton of money on tuition, books, and more. We're on a major budget and because of it, Ronnie has been using CampusBookRentals.com for the past few semesters and we highly recommend it. I really wish I (ok, my parents) had known about book rental sites when I was in college. Were they even around that long ago? ha! It would've saved them so much money and I wouldn't have stacks of books still hanging around that I'm better off keeping than selling for a measly amount.

Renting books has really been such an easy process for Ronnie! It's so nice to just pay a small rental fee for each book instead of shelling out hundreds of dollars for a book he'll only use one semester (and sometimes not at all. Why do some professors do that?!). All he does is order and the books are shipped to him for free and then at the end of the semester he ships them back with pre-paid shipping labels.

I don't know what books he'll need this semester but to show y'all an example, I studied Criminal Justice so I just grabbed the first CJ book I found on their site. You can purchase this book for $139.85 or you can rent it from them, FOR THE WHOLE SEMESTER, for just $36.14! Honestly, why would you even still buy your books?

Not only do you save 40-90% off of bookstore prices and get free shipping both ways but you're also allowed to highlight in the textbooks and they have really flexible renting periods.

So if you're in school, definitely try out CampusBookRentals.com! I know when I go back to school when Ronnie has finished, I will definitely be using this site!

My first Influenster VoxBox!

I owe so many of my awesome findings, Influenster being one of them, to Twitter! So many of my friends were talking about all the goodies in their Spring VoxBox that it got me really curious and I ended up signing up immediately. Who doesn't love getting samples to try in exchange for a review? So fun! When I signed up I was expecting to not get selected for a long while but when they came out with their next box, the Mom VoxBox, I was selected! Thanks, Violet for putting me in the mom category! ha. 

So when you're selected to receive a box, they e-mail you only a general description of what you'll receive like "1 sweetener product, 1 food product..." etc. and since I love surprises, I was soooo excited to get my box. When I got it, I wasn't dissapointed!

 I didn't take a picture of each product individually but here's everything I received!

First thing I tried (and I shared half with Ronnie) was the Quaker Oats Soft Baked Oatmeal Cookie. I'm a sucker for sweets and a sucker for soft cookies! The cookie was soft and fresh but the flavor was just so-so. Ronnie agreed. They weren't bad though and since they're a quick and easy snack for taking to work, I might consider buying them.

I was super excited to get the Dish Drying Mat but I think Ronnie was more excited because he immediately stole it and took it to the kitchen to set up. We LOVE it. We so deseperately needed something like this! I'd always seen them at Bed, Bath & Beyond so I'm happy to finally have one. We have a dishwasher but honestly just prefer to wash dishes by hand (I know, crazy) so this has been perfect for the constant pile of dishes we're washing. I highly recommend it! (Please ignore our 80's style countertops. They're getting changed soon!)

Next up were the two packets of Nektar Honey Crystals. Sorry to say, I have yet to personally try it. Ronnie tried a packet though because he likes honey in his coffee so that's how he tried it. He said he couldn't taste the honey at all. I bet if he'd used both packets it would've made a difference but I banned him from that since I want to try one myself. ha. Apparently one packet of the crystals equals one teaspoon of honey. I'm curious to try it soon!

I'm a big tea drinker so I was excited about the Stash Superfruits Tea Sampler. I've tried both the Goji Berry and Pomegranate Raspberry flavors and the Pomegranate was my favorite. I tried one hot and one cold and they were both yummy that way. Of course we drink a LOT of iced tea here in Texas so I think I just prefer drinking these cold.

The one product that I was MOST excited to try was the ImPRESS Press-On Manicure by Broadway Nails. Sad to say though, it was the only product that totally dissapointed me.

I wasn't excited about the color they sent me (Stiletto) but that's not a big deal of course. The nails were easy to apply and didn't take long at all (great with a baby in the house) but I could just tell that they weren't going to last me long. Even though I'd cleaned and dried my nails beforehand! I literally completed the nails then got up to grab my camera and when I looked down, I was missing one nail from each hand. ALREADY!? I was so irritated and tried to put them back on but they had lost all stickyness. I was bummed and yanked them all off. Total fail.

Ignore the sticky goop on my hands, it was leftover from the IV I had while in the ER!

Moving on from the dissapointment (ha), I was also really excited about the DenTek Flossers because I'm a lunatic about my teeth and fresh breath! I've always used Oral-B floss but I really liked how sturdy these flossers were and they got the job done! I think I would buy more of these because they're so convenient to keep in my purse for a quick floss after eating when you're out and about.

I wasn't sure at first about the Ivory Bar Soap because I'm just so loyal to my Bath & Body Works body washes (and sometimes Caress bar soap) but I really liked the scent! I read in reviews that it's great as a facial cleanser so I tried that for a couple of days and it was great for removing make-up however I didn't continue that because I was nervous about drying out my face. That's just been my experience with bar soaps so I switched over to using it as a body soap and I'm liking it so far!

So there you have it! My first ever VoxBox, yay! Thank you, Influenster!

And super exciting, I received an e-mail from Influenster a couple of days ago saying that I've been selected to receive the Latina VoxBox! I should have it in the next couple weeks so reviews to come on those goodies soon!