shabby apple

We all want to look pretty for the holiday parties we inevitably get invited to. Right? Well, how would you like to were a gorgeous dress made from Crepe de Chine Silk? With Shabby Apple you can find a gorgeous dress that will fit beautifully, and will not leave you feeling like you are falling out of your dress in any spot! I took a peek at the newest line they have, the Silk Road line, which is all made from Crepe de Chine silk, and let me tell you, these dresses are beautiful. I just wish they offered them in a plus size. Cuz until I lose this weight, I am stuck. Not to badly though since they off some gorgeous plus size dresses as well!

The Shabby Apple clothing is a very "boutiquey" feeling wardrobe, with a higher price than I normally spend. But they are definitely worth taking a look at. Especially for any upcoming special occasions you might have coming up. Whether it be a wedding, a party, or a date night with the spouse.

Shabby Apple also has offerings for kids and preteens, handbags and accessories, and oh yes, even shoes!

Follow Shabby Apple on Twitter to stay up to date on the sales, new styles, and contests they might have going on!


Check out the full line of Silk Road dresses:

• Forbidden City
• Crouching Tiger
• The Last Empress
• Shanghai
• Mandarin Plum

Build-A-Bear Workshop

I think that the perfect gift no matter what holiday is a great stuffed animal. It has the ability to bring comfort. It has the ability to spark the imagination. And it is just so soft and cuddly. And when kids get a chance to be in the action, it makes the stuffed item so much more special. Being able to walk in, pick out your favorite, pick out his/her heart, be the one pushing the lever for the stuffing, bathing, dressing, and naming the stuffed animal makes it even better.

Build-A-Bear Workshop gives you all that, and more. When you are done bathing, dressing, and getting to know your little creation, you get to name it and adopt it. I will admit, I love watching the kids faces when they were taken into Build-A-Bear. It is a memory they still talk about today.

I was sent a $25 gift certificate to head over to Build-A-Bear Workshop and make my own furry little friend. The process is super easy. The animals range in price from $10 to $22. You pick your favorite. Then you decide if you want a voice box in it. After that, you stuff the bear, place it's heart in, bath, dress, and name. I have to say now, I was in a hurry, and did not do the adoption part. It was one of those days. But I do know from talking to one of the ladies working in there, that when you go through the adoption you get a code so that you can go on Build-A-Bear online and play with your friend virtually. Sounds pretty cool, right?!

You can find a Build-A-Bear workshop in most malls. If you do not have one near you, you can also order a furry friend online. You can also find lots of clothing and accessories on the website as well.

Follow along with Build-A-Bear on Twitter, or like on Facebook, to keep up with sales, new animals, and more!

Hasbro Easy-Bake Microwave and Style Set

If you have a kiddo that loves the Easy-Bake oven, then you will want to add this new addition of the Easy-Bake line to your shopping list. The Easy-Bake Microwave and Style Set is a super easy to use and lets your future pastry chef make cute cakes and cookies.

We were sent the Easy-Bake Microwave and Style Deluxe Set to review. It just so happened to come on MacKenzie's birthday. So guess who got the toy? LOL She ripped into that box and started "baking" as soon as her party was over. The kit came with 1 rolling pin with 4 end caps, 1 measuring spoon, 1 fondant mold, 1 detail stamper, 1 cake pan (microwave safe), 4 cookie cutters, 1 letter stamper, 1 microwave container with lid (microwave safe), 1 pattern plate, 1 pink sugar cookie mix, 1 chocolate chip cookie mix, 1 chocolate cookie mix, 1 chocolate cake mix, 1 raspberry cake mix, 1 rainbow nonpareils packet, 1 vanilla frosting mix, 1 purple fondant mix, 1 pink fondant mix, 1 light pink fondant mix, 1 yellow fondant mix and instructions.

When it comes to creations, they have a slew of ideas within the instructions, but the possibilities are endless on what cakes or cookies your kidlet makes and decorates. And surprisingly the pieces come clean easily. They are dishwasher safe, but since my dishwasher is my own two hands I want stuff that I can easily wash and be done with. I have not had any trouble getting the cake crumbs out of the bottom of the trays.

When the initial mixes run out, you can easily purchase refills for the kit (we are purchasing a second kit for Savanna and more mixes for both for Christmas). The refills cost $5.99, and the Easy-Bake Microwave and Style Deluxe Set costs $29.99. You can also purchase an Easy-Bake Microwave and Style Trendy Cookie Set for $19.99. The age recommendation on this Easy-Bake product is 8+, but I think a mature 6 yr old would like it as well. Great mommy/daughter project as well if you are really into crafty stuff with your kids.

Wild Dill

Have you ever come across one of those sites where you can find all kinds of goodies and you just want to sit there and oogle the site all day? Well that is exactly what happened when I came across Wild Dill. All thanks to Facebook for having their little ad up while I was on.

You will find clothing, toys, art supplies, and gifts all on the Wild Dill website. And making the products even better is the fact that they are organic, eco-friendly, and even fair trade. They use bamboo and soy for most of the products that are sold on the site. The art supplies are all made from soy, which means if your monkey eats the glue, it'll be okay.

We were sent some of the art supplies that are sold on Wild Dill made by Clementine Art. As soon as the box was opened, we had to unroll paper and get to painting. I don't know a kiddo alive who doesn't like art in some form or another. Many children who have sensory issues and can't take the feel of the paint on the fingers, still love to look at beautiful pictures painted by other kids. And many children who can't enjoy the visual beauty of a painting, still enjoy feeling their fingers in the wet paint. Art is just one of those things that can soothe a soul and help you find joy in your day!

The Clementine Art Natural Rock Crayons were a big hit as well in the monkie house. The kids all oohed and ahhed over the way cool crayon rocks. Which kinda looked like little nuts.

The Clementine Art Natural Glue surprised me quiet a bit. It actually works. I wasn't expecting it to work as good as my trusty Elmer's, but I got pleasantly surprised when we tried it out. It holds papers tight, and dries pretty quickly. The drying time did seem to be a little longer than with regular glue, but it wasn't so bad that I would say it was a negative to purchasing the natural glue.

You can also find markers and modeling clay from Clementine Art. Wouldn't this make a lovely gift basket idea for your art lover? Just add some sketch paper, paint paper, and other little art supplies and you have a creative minds best gift EVAH! Check out Wild Dill for all the great products that they offer. You can follow them on Facebook to keep up with sales, new products, and discount codes.

Speaking of discount codes...Use code 15off when you make a purchase at Wild Dill and receive 15% off your total purchase!

Check out the Flickr set for our Wild Dill paint fun!

Super Sipperz!

My daughter, Savanna, has an obsession with straws. She has yet to meet a straw she hasn't wanted to try. So when I was approached about reviewing the Super Sipperz! I jumped at it. Just for her. These are regular bendy straws in a variety of colors. But what makes them really nifty is the connectors that allow you make really wacky designs out of all of the straws.

The girls immediately went and started building stuff. MacKenzie the architect tried putting 5 drinks in a row and building a bridge that all of the kids could sit at and drink from. They figured out really quick that root beer, orange Fanta, and lemonade really don't mix that well. Because that is exactly what happened. The drinks all mixed together and they had some funky flavored stuff coming out of their straws.

 If you have super imaginative kids, or well even not that imaginative kids, then you might want to add these to the stockings. They are reasonably priced at $9.99 for one 80 piece set and then just an additional $5 for a second set for a total of 160 pieces! Each set contains straws, connectors, a mesh storage bag, and a 60 day money back guarantee. Plus the fun you can't buy from watching your kids eyes light up while building. Oh, and the set also contains one set of tubes to make glasses out of the straws.

Check out this really cool video on the Super Sipperz! website. I love the little girl lounging by the pool with straws leading to her drink. LOL For straws you can build with, these are definitely pretty cool!

Lego Universe

"Adventure awaits in endless worlds of creative LEGO® fun where you can safely build, play and connect online. Build your custom LEGO Universe minifigure and join the Nexus Force, an elite team of heroes united to defeat the Maelstrom, a dark menace trying to destroy imagination!

Battle dark creatures, chat with friends and build custom LEGO creations like pets, rockets and race cars! The best players gain leader board fame and collect the coolest LEGO loot.

Within LEGO Universe, players will safely create, build, quest and socialize together. This entirely new online world will be the place for LEGO enthusiasts of any age to form their own fun adventures!"


We were sent a copy of the new Lego Universe game and I have to tell you, it is a BLAST! Braden has been playing this nonstop now for a week. Once he figured it out, he was hooked. Kenzie (even though she is all girlie here lately) has a love for Lego's and she likes this game as well. While she still prefers her Sims 3, she is playing Lego Universe a couple of times a week. 


This game is pretty cool. When you purchase the game disc you get one month of access to the online world. After that you have to purchase additional access. You can purchase it in 1, 6, and 12 months at a time. This is the only area with the game that I have issues. You can only play it online. We haven't been able to play it offline, so I am assuming and going off what the website says, that unless you have internet access add continue to purchase the subscriptions then you can't play. The initial cost of the game is $39.99. Subscription prices are $9.99 to $89.99. Which is kinda suckish. 


Overall the game is quiet good. You have so much to do and creating the characters (you can do up to 4), and the imagination factor in getting to build the worlds is really cool. If you have a kidlet who likes to play MMO's and you are wanting to find something more along their age level, then this is the route to take.

Dragonart Evolution

If you have a budding artist in your home then this is one book you will want to put under his tree!

This drawing book contains:

• 60+ step-by-step demonstrations covering a variety of dragons, including medieval, fairy and sea-dwelling wyrms
• In-depth advice for drawing every part of the beast – eyes, ears, horns, wings, scale patterns, limbs and more
• Extra tips and tricks provided by your dragon guide, Dolosus

With the rage being towards the mythical the past few years, Dragonart Evolution fits right into the genre and right into any artists heart that likes to try and draw knights and dragons. Braden was so excited to get this book and open it up. While he really isn't old enough to understand all the drawing concepts within the book, he definitely likes looking through the pictures and trying his hand at drawing the simpler dragons. MacKenzie is at a better age to sit down and draw the dragons. Her favorites are the more fairy tale dragons and she likes taking time with the wings. She does tend to get a bit "creative" while drawing the wings.

Did you know that Newsweek did an article called "The Creativity Crisis"? It talks about how kids aren't using their imaginations like they use to. I completely agree. I think kids today are so into video games and television shows that they just don't have the imaginations we had when I was little. I think that is why I prefer books to tv. I can actively engage my mind in what I am reading.

So to get your kids off the couch and having a different kind of fun, pop Dragonart Evolution under the tree this year. And when your artist is done creating, have them upload their designs onto DeviantArt.com and share with millions of other artists!

You can purchase Dragonart Evolution by J. "NeonDragon" Peffer at most of your favorite bookstores, including Amazon. Amazon has it for just under $16.

Beauty and the Beast Diamond Edition

I will readily admit that my FAVORITE movie is Beauty and the Beast. I always loved how Belle could look past the way Beast looked, and see his heart. I remember seeing the movie many many years ago and falling in love with Disney right then and there. While I loved all the princess movies when I was little, Beauty and the Beast resonated with me. And now at 30 years old I am still enchanted with the dancing tea pot and cups. I could listen to the clock and candlestick bicker all day. And I still gasp when the last petal of the rose falls. I am thrilled that now I have two daughters of my own that I can share the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast with. And with the new Diamond Anniversary addition, I can enjoy it with the girls in a few new ways.

Did you know that Beauty and the Beast is only one of two animated movies ever nominated for an Academy Award? Or how bout the fact that it was the first Disney movie to inspire a Broadway stage play by the same name?

Disney’s most requested film, Beauty and the Beast, arrives for the first time on Blu-ray Hi-Def as the second installment to the company’s new Diamond Collection. The Blu-ray transformation reveals the magic, music and majesty of the film as never before experienced with state-of-the-art picture restoration, pristine 7.1 Digital Surround Sound and hours of additional viewing experiences that include behind the scenes features, deleted scenes, enhanced music tracks, immersive games and more.

I know we will spend a lot of time munching popcorn and watching this movie. You can purchase Beauty and the Beast where ever you like to get your movies at. 

This would make one little girl smile a bright smile if she pulled it out of her stocking or unwrapped it from under the tree. I know, cuz I'd be smiling just as wide!

Piggy Paint

Sure to brighten any young girls heart to open up a gift basket full of nail polish. LOL Piggy Paint is one of those companies that you just love purchasing from. Not only are you going to get great products that do not contain any nasty chemicls (after all Piggy Paint is as natural as mud!), but you are going to find nail polish with names that make any girl, young or old, smile. Whether you have the more subdued color lover or the far out their bright as the sun color lover, then you will be covered. And even better, this polish is perfectly safe to place on the tiniest fingers without the fears of them sucking the paint off. While I am not saying the paint won't come off, what I am saying is that since the polish is completely natural and doesn't contain any harmful chemicals, then your little toe sucker (my girls preferred to bend themselves in half to suck on their toes instead of their thumbs!) won't have to be rushed to the emergency room.

Now with a whole new polish line called Project Earth designed for that tween in your life  that might be a little eco-friendly, Piggy Paint is embarking on a new journey! With colors named things like "Drama" and "The Boyfriend Blues" your tween/teen is sure to love these colors. There is even a glow-in-the-dark color called "Radioactive". This is by far Kenzie's favorite and she has worn it every day since receiving it from Piggy Paint. It does take a couple of coats to really glow, but when it is glowing it is pretty cool.

Nail polish from Piggy Paint starts at $8.99 a bottle and goes up to higher prices for gift sets that include several bottles as well as polish remover.If you spend over $35 on items from the website you will receive free domestic shipping. You can connect with Piggy Paint via Twitter and Facebook to find out about secret sales and discount codes.

Piggy Paint makes great stocking stuffers or a tween/teen spa basket!

Use coupon code MONKIES10L to take 10% off your order from Piggy Paint.

Kameleon Jewelry

When you think about a chameleon, you think of an animal that can blend in with whatever situation it comes across. It has the ability to change it's color, change it's look so to speak, and transform into whatever the occasion calls for. As women we could really use that ability with a lot of things. LOL. I know I wish some days that my stove was really a chef in disguise.

Wouldn't it be nice if our jewelry had the ability to change into something different, but be able to retain the same base? Well, guess what! I have found a company who offers just that option. Kameleon Jewelry specializes in interchangeable jewelry pieces.

You can purchase either a necklace, ring, sunglasses, bracelet, and much more as your base. Then you get individual "jewel pops" that pop in and out of the base piece. The JewelPops come in a huge variety of pieces. You can get ones that are more elegant looking all the way to the other end of the spectrum where you have fun pops.

Green Sparkle JewelPop $29

From the website:
JewelPops are available in a rainbow of colors and materials and being the same size, are able to migrate amongst the entire Kameleon Jewelry collection. Some are set with semi-precious stones, Swarovski Crystal, lab Opals or sparkling cubics and sport outrageous names like “Strawberry Shortcake” (Rhodochrosite) and “Midnight at the Oasis” (Blue Sunstone), adding a real element of fun to the Collection.


Kameleon Jewelry resonates with what today’s consumers are seeking – beautiful jewelry that is flexible, versatile and reflects a sense of individualism and style. Investing in Kameleon sterling silver comes with the added value of infinite possibilities tailored for every mood and wardrobe change.

CZ Swirl Pendant $99

Changing out your JewelPops are easy. You just push gently on the back of the pop to remove it, then gently push on the front to replace it. They have quite a snug fit and you will not have to worry about losing the pieces when you are out. I think that JewelPops would make a great gift for just about anyone. Especially teens who want that individuality most of all. With prices starting at $19.99 for a solid round pendant, and JewelPops costing from $24, you or your gift recipient will be able to have a lot of fun and a lot of "new" jewelry without the expensive price tag! With the simplicity in some of the designs and the ease of use, I would say that this would be a great gift for your tween to your your oldest recipient!

Connect now with Kameleon via Facebook or Twitter.

Whiplash Scooter

Have you seen the really scary skateboards? You know the ones that require actual concentration and actual body movement to keep the momentum going? Well, if you have seen those and thought they looked pretty cool, then you will love the Whiplash Scooter. It is for the more timid. At least a little less timid. As many wipe outs as Kenzie has a day on it, I think I will refrain from even trying. LOL Of course, put an uncoordinated child who is already accident prone on a scooter like the Whiplash and you expect a few wipe-outs. She keeps getting back on it though. Braden absolutely loves the scooter and can work it like a pro. The Whiplash is a self-propelled scooter that requires the rider to not have too do too much other than ride!

The Whiplash features a rear caster wheel, it folds for easy storage and transportation, has Wave Torsion Self propelling technology, an extra wide skate inspired flexing deck, and is really light weight. Oh, and did I mention it holds up to 200 pounds. So feel free to jump on after the kids if you are lighter than that and have the urge.

From the site:
The Whiplash™ is a self-propelling, revolutionary new ride. It is part scooter, part Wave board (caster board) and totally fun. The Whiplash Scooter’s flexing deck and handlebar fuse together to provide riders with a cool, side to side, whip-like ride. Riders can self-propel the scooter so that their feet never touch the ground or ride it like a a traditional scooter.

We got the Whiplash in not to long ago amid some shipping issues. It was so easy to put together and the kids were riding it within 10 minutes of the UPS man dropping it off. Of course it was raining out so they were riding in circles under the carport. But boy as soon as the rain stopped it was wide open. Every day since, it is a battle of who can get outside fastest to get on the Whiplash Scooter. I foresee another being purchased for Christmas. LOL



We are still working on the whole self propelling thing. But luckily you can visit the Whiplash website and learn how to ride it! 

The Whiplash Scooter would make an excellent Christmas gift for any kiddo. I would give this to the 5+ age group. If they are tall enough to see over the bar, place their feet across the bar, and have a semi sense of balance then they will love this scooter. It costs $79.99, and can be purchased directly from Whiplash website. You can also find a store near you HERE.