Showing posts with label Giveaway. Show all posts

Managing a Home Disclosures and Policies

I have been doing some giveaways, reviews and affiliate links more recently on the blog, so I wanted to update my disclosure, privacy and comment policies. So in order to comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s guidelines concerning the use of endorsements and testimonials in advertising, I felt it important to provide this disclosure policy to you.

As of this date, here are my disclaimers:

1. I won’t make stuff up. I will never review, giveaway or recommend a product to you unless I have used it/touched it/thoroughly enjoyed it first. I will tell you my honest opinion on a product. Also, in the interest of positivity, I will only post it if it is good. Instead of a negative review, I will contact the company’s rep. You will only hear of the good stuff I love.

2. Yes. People give me stuff {including money}. Sometimes I receive free products, services, and other forms of compensation from companies and organizations in exchange for a review or post on my blog. If I am posting about a product it should be assumed I was given one for free, unless otherwise stated. Occasionally I do buy products/services myself and am so thrilled I want you to know about it. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog.

3. Yes. Some links can make me money. One way I earn income through this site is through commission based on purchases through affiliate linking. Purchases made through affiliate links do not add any cost to you, the consumer. If I link to a product, service or company it should be assumed that it is an affiliate link and I will earn a commission on any purchase you make, unless otherwise stated. I will never link to something that I wouldn't use myself {see #1}.

4. I love to hear your thoughts. I really enjoy hearing from you through my comments, but for everyone to enjoy their experience here please be respectful, keep all comments on topic, and please only link to external sites if they are relevant to the post and your comment. Any comments that don’t live up to this will be deleted, without notice, for any reason – that is my right as owner and writer of this blog.

5. I won’t sell your information. When you give me your information for a giveaway, by joining my subscriber list or for any other reason, rest assured I will not give your information away. That information is used solely to get you the information or product that you requested/won.
We do not store any information about your visit to this blog other than to analyze and optimize your content and reading experience through the use of cookies. You can turn off the use of cookies at anytime by changing your specific browser settings.

6. Give credit where credit is due. All images and text on this site are property of Managing a Home. You may use a photo from this blog as long as a link back to my original post is included. Please do not remove any watermarks, crop or edit any images from this site without first obtaining written permission from me.

We are not responsible for republished content from this blog on other blogs or websites without our permission.

You should know that my loyalty is always with MY READERS.

And I never want you, the reader, to feel like I am selling you a product or service. I want you to feel like a good friend is just letting you know about her experience with a brand or product.

Thank you for reading and supporting this site, without you, there is no blog!

Sincerely,
Stephanie

Showered with Love Giveaway - Graco Nearby Napper Pack n Play

It's time for a virtual baby shower! I am honored to accompany 47 other bloggers in giving away everything you could need for your baby!

A while back, I was invited to attend a Graco home event where I met about 20 other Philadelphia area bloggers and learned all about the new Graco Nearby Napper Pack n Play. This pack n play is amazing! It has all of the features that we love about Graco pack n plays of the past combined with amazing safety and comfort features for your baby. You can check out my entire review here.

Since there are no plans for baby #2 in our near future, I am passing on this great product to you! You can enter to win this new $250 Graco Nearby Napper Pack n' Play.

Luck of the Irish Giveaway

I am so excited to be teaming up with 84 amazing other bloggers to give YOU a chance to win $500 in paypal cash. You can enter the giveaway below but be sure to check out some of these amazing bloggers. They all have great blogs and I am so happy to be able to work with them all!

Best of luck to you! I hope you get your gold at the end of the rainbow!!

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The Perfect Pairing for Little Girls - Tutu & Fairy Wand Giveaway

When I found out {by accident} that I was having a little girl, all of my dreams of playing dress up, doing hair, getting cute bows and shoes were all I could think of for weeks. I couldn't wait to meet my little girl.

Fast forward 14 months and I am still totally smitten. Unfortunately, she is a bit less "girly" than I would like. {But then again, so am I} I used to be able to get away with putting cute hairbands on her, and pretty little dresses. Now, she wants nothing to do with bows or hairbands on her head or even dresses really.

For her birthday, I wanted to see if she would wear a tutu. The only problem was that I didn't have time to make one. Just one week before my daughter's birthday, my friend Victoria started her company Pixie Tales Creations. She has made several tutu's for her daughter and she loved doing it so much, she wanted to make tutus for everyone! I was over the moon when she told me we could have one completed and shipped in less than a week!

My daughter LOVED the tutu! It was the only girly thing so far that she can't get enough of.

So for Valentine's Day, Pixie Tales Creations made us a Valentine's tutu AND a fairy wand! We love them! Each tutu is handmade with tulle, embellished with a flower {or a puff} and is great quality. The fairy wand is a huge ball of tulle! {I'm sure there is a lot more work than just a ball full of tulle, but that's what it feels and looks like! I love it!} It's so soft and fun!

My daughter LOVED the wand right out of the box! {forgive the blurry pictures, my camera is not fast enough for her}

We decided to do a Valentine's photo shoot with my oh-so-talented friend Karen, owner of Rich Imagery to showcase this tutu. It was so hard to choose what pictures to include...

Now it's your turn!

We are teaming up with the Blogging Mamas Network, Lindsey Blogs and Viva Veltoro for the 3rd annual Handmade from the Heart Giveaway Hop. This Hop has been such a success in the past that they brought it back for round 3 because it seems everyone loves beautiful handmade items!

Pixie Tales Creations is giving away a handmade tutu and fairy wand to your little girl!

If you purchase a tutu and/or fairy wand from Pixie Tales Creations {enter that option below} and if you win, you will have the option of getting another tutu and fairy wand or be refunded for your purchase.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Each blogger in this Event has a handmade giveaway worth at least $25, so be sure to hop around and celebrate Handmade from the Heart! And you definitely do not want to miss the fantastic handmade goodness of the Grand Prize… a $200 Etsy Gift Card!

So Easy Being Green, Viva Veltoro, the Blogging Mamas Network, and the Handmade from the Heart participating bloggers are not responsible for sponsors who do not fulfill prize obligations.

Disclosure: I have received this tutu & fairy wand at no charge. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. Giveaways are supplied by Pixie Tales Creations. See full disclosure statement here.

Cleaning for the Holidays - Bathrooms and Laundry & a Giveaway

The holidays are tough. Buying the perfect present, trimming the perfect tree, decorating the house enough {but not too much} and baking the cookies without burning them. With all that stress, we add on hosting guests. Even if you are like me and do not host any major holiday events at your house, I am sure you have family that stops in or friends coming by to say hi and exchange gifts. So, we are under pressure to keep our house "guest-ready."

Today I am sharing with you how we are using Mrs. Jones Soapbox products in our home to keep it clean simply and naturally.

A while back at our Mom's group, one of the members shared information on how we can keep our homes safe from dangerous chemicals in our cleaning products and cosmetics. Since then the EWG {Environmental Working Group} has been a permanent resource for finding household products that I can safely use in my home without the worry that my daughter will be ingesting any toxic chemicals. I still find that even in the "safe" categories, there are toxins that need to be worried about.

I have tried over and over to make my own cleaning products and laundry detergent, but none ever seemed strong enough to really clean well. This is where Mrs. Jones Soapbox comes in.

Mrs. Jones Soapbox prides themselves on being made with all natural, safe ingredients. They are even mixed and crafted by hand. I love that when you look at the ingredients on the label, you can not only pronounce it all, you know what each ingredient is!

And how pretty are the containers? No need to hide the dollar store spray bottles!

Check out her comparison chart to see which of her products can replace commercial cleaners.

Toilet Bombs

I have tried and failed at making my own toilet bombs. They ended up being more of a mess than a cleaning product.

From my previous experience with Toilet Bombs, I thought there was no way that any would ever really work. Then these Toilet Bombs from Mrs. Jones Soapbox showed up in my sample kit. They really are everything I thought my homemade ones would be, just actually working.

I simply dropped the toilet bomb in the toilet and let it fizz. When it was done, I dipped the brush into the water and used that to clean the rest of the toilet. It was cleaning the yuck off, but I was a bit skeptical that it really was "clean". After I brushed the toilet down, I actually had baby duty {she woke up early from her nap} and when I went back to the toilet 10 minutes later, at the top of the water, around the rim there was dirt. Actual dirt collected around the sides. At first I thought it was a ring that the toilet brush hadn't gotten, but when I flushed, there was no ring. I was super impressed.

Here is my video review:

Cleaning Tip: After I am done scrubbing a toilet, I leave the brush in between the bowl and the seat to allow it to dry before putting it back into the holder. Wet/Dirty Brush + Dark Place = Disgusting Mold and Germs.

Soft Cleaning Scrub

Generally, I am not a fan of scrubs. They are usually gritty and hard to clean up off of a surface. This was not the case with Mrs. Jones Soapbox scrub. Per the directions, I took a dollop and placed it on the surface to be cleaned {my sink & vanity top} and used a moist washcloth to spread it around. It was not gritty and spread very easily. The sink usually gets a lot of buildup from my husband shaving and our toothpaste. Our conventional cleaner that is a D on the EWG scale {not good, we just wanted to finish up what we had on hand} usually has a really tough time getting that buildup off. I usually have to clean it a couple times to get it all. The Mrs. Jones Scrub took it all off in one swipe like it wasn't even there. And it doesn't have any of the chemicals in it?! I was already sold.

The real test would be our tub. I took a dollop and placed it on a damp rag and started scrubbing. It didn't take a lot of pressure or scrubbing to start to see the ring from my daughter's baths start to disappear. For the last several months it has been there, even with regular cleaning {I use a magic eraser to clean the tub during showers}. I did have to use another dollop in the tub, but I think that is also because it really needed the deep cleaning. After I was done scrubbing, I just turned on the tub and used the same rag to wipe down the tub with clean water. When I squeezed the rag, I was amazed at how much dirty water came out of it. It also didn't take me as long as it does with other products. And I was able to stay in the room. Sometimes with other cleaners, I have to leave the room to take some deep breaths. In my opinion, this product performs as well as other conventional cleaners and is much safer too.

Laundry Soap & Softener

I have made my own laundry detergent before. It worked well but wasn't very effective at specific clothing types. I usually had to supplement with Oxyclean. I gave up on it.

For this particular post about guests, I used Mrs. Jones Soapbox Laundry Soap on our guest sheets that go on the ~~air mattress~~ bed in our ~~basemen~~t guest room. It said that I use a heaping teaspoon per load. That's it. Again, I was very skeptical. But I am a rule follower {at least the first time} so I put just a heaping teaspoon in.

During that laundry cycle, it smelled amazing! We usually use unscented detergent when we buy it, but I do love the smell of clean, lightly scented clothes and sheets. Since the scent is due to the essential oils used in the product, I have no need to worry that it is not safe against even my daughter's sensitive skin.

The sheets came out of the dryer soft and fluffy even without added softener {the product says it is a softener too} and still smelled great. I am not sure how to compare the cleanliness of the sheets to a conventional detergent but the Mrs. Jones Laundry Soap seemed to do the job.

The real test will be my husband's smelly running gear. {Update to come}

I had heard great things about Mrs. Jones Soapbox products and was excited to try them first hand. They really are great in the bathroom and laundry. I loved them so much, I went and purchased the other products so that I can try them everywhere! {I will review them later this week :)}

You can get them too for 10% off! Just for Managing a Home readers, you can get 10% off your order until December 31st by using the code HOME10.

You can also try Mrs. Jones Soapbox products for free! Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win the sample pack below. Three winners will be chosen!

Win this sample set from Mrs. Jones Soapbox until 12/12/14! Managing a Home

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!

Disclaimer: I have received this sample pack of (2) Toilet Bowl Bombs, (1) 5-wash Laundry Soap Sample and (1) 16 oz. container of Soft Cleaning Scrub at no charge, This review is my honest and unbiased opinion. Giveaways are supplied by Mrs. Jones Soapbox. See full disclosure statement here.

Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas & a Giveaway

Now it is after Thanksgiving and I know you all have started to receive your holiday party invites. Most of us gift a bottle of wine to our hostess when we attend a party. This week I am partnering with EVCreations to bring you a super simple way to jazz up that bottle of wine for your hosts.

Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas with Wine. Enter to win your own Personalized Holiday Wine Labels | Managing a Home

Holiday wine labels make it easy to gift wine to hosts for the holidays. Not only are these labels easy to attach and witty, they are personalized with our family's names. No need to even gift the wine with anything! And the best part is that the host knows who the wine came from.

But just in case you are like me and want to make your wine a little more like a gift {it is the holidays after all}, here are some simple ideas to dress up your wine.

I found these great bags at Dollar Tree this season. What a better "outfit" for a bottle of wine than a Santa suit, elf costume, or just a little Santa hat?

Holiday Hostess Gift Ideas. Enter to win your own Personalized Holiday Wine Labels

You can simply add an ornament for a festive look.

Want to give the hostess a little more than just wine? Pair it with a great candle and a box of chocolates. My personal favorite combination: DaVinci Chianti, Sea Salted Caramel Chocolates and Twisted Peppermint Candle.

There are so many options to dress up your personalized wine for your holiday parties this year. Here is your chance to win your very own set of personalized holiday wine labels. Good luck!