Zulilly Review

So, I finally decided to give Zulilly.com a chance. I bought four adorable little sundresses made by Sugah and Honey. The price was excellent. It was on average about $12 per dress. They looked just like they were advertised and fit perfectly. But my positive review ends there.

The dresses were made from paper thin fabric with no lining. I bought a $5 dress from Target that had a lining and bloomers. As you can see from the pictures, the dresses were poorly sewn. I actually had to break out my serger and repair the dresses before my little girl could wear them. Perhaps they were cheaply made because they were made in China, another negative since I am on a Made in America kick. This information is not available on the site.

The shipping is another problem. It took 10 days just for the items to ship and another four days for them to arrive. I used the Zulilly IPhone app to make my purchase but found that my $10 credit could only be applied if I used a regular computer.

Will I order again? Maybe. If I don't need the item for 2 weeks or if I have purchased from the manufacturer before, then yes, I would.

Zulilly, great price, poor quality.

Good Friends Vs Best Friends

As women we are all guilty, at least at some point, of referring to someone as a best friend that truly doesn't deserve that title. Perhaps it is the length of time that we are with that friend that causes us to consider that friend a best friend when they should be classified as a close friend. Maybe it's because we have told this friend so much of our personal business, we assume that makes them our best friend. But sooner or later we find ourselves discussing that best friend's shortcomings with the person we consider just a good friend. Here are some tips to help sort out which is your best friend and which is your good friend.

A Good Friend Loans You Money. A Best Friend Gives You Money.

We all know the old warning about lending money to a friend. The quickest way to lose a friend is to loan them money. The reason is that if the money isn't returned, there will be irreparable damage to your friendship. Also, some people make terrible bill collectors. Then there are those that like to remind you that they loaned you money, long after you paid them back. Even still, a good friend wouldn't allow you to go without, even if the money they give you is just a loan.

A best friend will simply give you the money. It doesn't matter to them that they are out the money they hand you. The reason is not that they are rich and can afford to throw money away. The reason is actually that you have such a reciprocated friendship that when that same friend is in need you take care of her the same way she takes care of you. It's the "if I got it, it's yours" principle.

A Good Friend Listens To Your Problems. A Best Friend Helps You Solve Them. 

When you're angry or hurting and need someone to turn to, that person is often your good friend. A good friend will listen to you. She will let you say all that is on your mind so that you can get it out of your head. She will comfort you and help you feel her presence and support in your time of need. We all need this type of friend.

A best friend will not only listen as you cathartically expel all of your grievances. She will also help you solve the problem that has you so upset in the first place. Talking things out is nice. But a friend that walks with you to the end of the road is better. What good is sitting in a corner crying into a glass of wine? You need a friend who will help you figure out what to do next, even if the decision you make isn't the one she helps you come up with.

A Good Friend Considers Your Feelings. A Best Friend Considers Your Health.

Many women have ended friendships over comments about their weight or romantic relationships by their friend. We all seek out that friend that makes us feel good about ourselves. If we feel fat, our good friend helps us love ourselves. If we are in love with someone who consistently breaks our heart, she helps us mend it and remains understanding when you choose to go back to him.

A good friend doesn't care about what we want to feel like when it comes to what's best for us. A best friend is like family. She will tell you the truth no matter how much you don't want to hear it. Denial has never helped anyone. She will tell you that you need to lose weight because she doesn't want you to have heart disease or diabetes. She will tell you that the man you're with is a loser that will have you suicidal in a matter of months. She cares about your well being when you can't see the forest for the trees.

A Good Friend Remembers Your Birthday. A Best Friend Remembers Your Family's Birth dates.

A good friend will always remember your birthday because it is the polite thing to do. She will send you a text message or an email or a Facebook status shout out to wish you a happy birthday. She may even buy you a gift. That's what good friends do.

A best friend will pick up a phone and call you on your birthday. She doesn't have your birthday saved in a phone or on a calendar because they have it memorized. She knows your husband's birthday and all of your children's birthdays. She never misses a step. She knows what your children want for their birthdays and is there to babysit for your husband's birthday.

No one likes the feeling of realizing your best friend is really just a close friend. The worst is when an acquaintance is a better friend than that best friend. But it does happen. The best defense is to choose better friends in the first place. 

5 Products Women Don't Need

It almost seems unfair, men make fun of women for shopping, all the while commercials are geared directly toward you. Perhaps even more unfair is the fact that many of the products "made for a woman" aren't even necessary or useful for a woman. Here are five "must haves" you can cross off of your list. 

1. Activia

The most recent commercial I've seen suggests that if you eat three Activia yogurts a day, your digestive system will begin to run normally again. What that means is, you won't be constipated or irregular if you eat three cups of this special yogurt a day. It has clearly been geared toward women as there are only women chatting with Jamie Lee Curtis in the commercials, smiling and shoving spoons into their mouths. There's just one problem. You don't need it. The USDA food chart shows that if you take in three servings of dairy a day, you will have met your daily requirement. You can drink three servings of milk or eat three cups of any other brand of yogurt and have the same results. 

2. Lysol Automatic Soap Dispenser

Have you ever seen mold growing on a bar of soap? How about on a liquid soap dispenser? That's because soap by definition is antibacterial. Sure, when you touch the soap, however it's dispensed, you put all of your germs on the soap. But then, you wash the germs away before drying them. Unless you need more soap than anticipated, you don't go back to the soap. The automatic soap dispenser is marketed by showing a woman panicked over the animated germs that are crawling all over her sink area. It's pretty. It's convenient. But you don't need it. 

3. Microdermabrasion

Once celebrities like Halle Berry, Jada Pinkett Smith and Jenifer Lopez claimed to use microdermabrasion to keep their skin smooth and glowing, every housewife in the country sought out less expensive ways to have the same treatments. Every company from Olay to Garnier offered some version of microdermabrasion. In recent months we have even see the return of the electric face scrubber. I still have my old one from 1993. It cost me $5. Now the same one costs $35. The fact is that using something as simple as baking soda with your usual face wash can generate the same effect without the need for a large floppy hat to protect your skin from the sun. If the electric face brushes are too pricey, try using a simple exfoliating sponge. 

4. Tide Stain Release

We've all been in the position at least once when we held our breath while removing a previously stained garment from the wash. We cross our fingers and hope that the tough stains came out...this time. Enter Tide Stain Release. It claims to boost the cleaning power of its regular detergent. The product does work. But you don't need it. The problem can be resolved much more cheaply by adding baking soda or Borax to your wash. You could resolve the problem for free by changing the settings on your washer. Believe it or not, it's the ratio of water and agitation to the size of the load of laundry that helps your clothes get cleaner. Ever overload a washer to same time or quarters? Notice that the laundry isn't as clean. If you set your washer load size to the next size up, your stains will come out easier. Pretreating and prompt washing will also help boost the stain removing power of your detergent. You can also switch detergents. 

5. Olay Age Defying Body Wash

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE this stuff. If it weren't for the overpowering perfume, I'd buy it again. The fact is that you can get the same effects with exfoliating gloves and body oil. It doesn't matter if it's baby oil or Avon Skin So Soft oil. Applying mineral oil while still in the shower allows the minerals and moisture to be locked in. It's moisture that keeps skin looking young.

Fellowes P-5S Shredder Review

My Fellowes P-5S shredder is slightly different from the one pictured. Mine has a rectangular button and the shredder completely covers the bin. There is a little opening cut out of the front similar to the P-55c. 

The price of the shredder was decent. It was about $25 on sale at Target. It is a 5 page shredder with with reverse. It has a notch on the bin that must line up with the shredder to prevent shredding when it is not on the bin and of course a reverse option. 

Even though the price was decent, this shredder isn't worth the paper I shred. I spend more time unjamming the shredder than I spend shredding. Every single time I have used the shredder I have had to take a pair of needle nose pliers to it to pull out a shredded strip of paper that is only 3 pages thick. When I actually try to shred 5 pages as it boasts it can handle, it reduces speed and overheats. As a result, the shredder shuts off and I have to wait 30 minutes before I can use it again. 

On the rare occasion when I shred only one piece of paper it doesn't jam, but it does shut down after about 2 minutes of shredding. If you are anything like me, you leave the shredder running while you open your mail and then shred as you go along. That would be a bad idea with this shredder. I have been in the middle of shredding a 15 page document, (should be relatively quick since this shredder is capable of handling 5 pages at a time), and found that the shredder shuts off after the first 5 pages. Then, you guessed it, I have to wait 30 minutes to use it again.

The bin should be taller. The shredder disposes the paper vertically until it curls up. This causes it to fill up quicker. You only have 2 minutes before the machine shuts off. But after about 30 seconds, you have to stop, empty the bin, reassemble the bin, clear any jams, turn the machine off and on a few times, then resume shredding. I could chop up a stack of checks by hand quicker than this shredder could shred them. 

This is definitely something you should not buy. Perhaps a different brand.

Harajuku at Target

I was raving with excitement when I saw that Harajuku by Gwen Stefani was now at Target. I ran to the store with my RedCard in hand with the intention of spending that month's entertainment budget. My eyes were met with a technicolor rainbow. There were neon greens and pinks, color I haven't seen since the eighties. There were those loveable Harajuku girls, some with mermaid fins and some without. My personal favorite was the one with the afro. This is perhaps the first disappointment for me. I bought a makeup bag with the same Harajuku girls on it from Sephora. Those girls were all shades of brown, from dark to light. There were no brown Harajuku girls in the Target version. 

The styles were adorable. There was military styled jacket, reminiscent of a jacket Michael Jackson once wore. There "scants", a word I use to describe those pants that have a skirt attached. They look like skorts only they have pants instead of shorts. You'd have to be a woman to understand. There was plaid and overalls, something I was sad to see leave in the nineties. There were shoes, barrettes, headbands, sunglasses and knee-high socks. The universal theme was nautical. It was evident in the navy blue and stripes, along with the anchors and military jackets. 

My problem was with the style and the price. See I like the real Harajuku style. I was expecting the line to be a little more eclectic and interchangeable and a little less Garanamals meets Macy's fashion. Each piece in the line was at least $12.00. That was for a pair of barrettes. I wouldn't have minded if the afro Harajuku was at least brown. Most of the main clothing pieces were $20 a piece. My husband took a stab at the Harajuku line while I was at work. He didn't know that there was such a thing as matching too much. He bought the light blue hoodie with the mermaids on it, the matching light blue onesie with the pink haired mermaid on the chest and the light blue skirt. Too much blue for me. I added a two pair pack of knee-high socks and a pair of barrettes. The barrettes, socks, hoodie, shirt and skirt cost him almost $80. The same outfit in a Circo version was $30. So you really pay for the name. The items constantly sell out and do not get replaced. I'm assuming either they aren't selling as well as expected or there is another line, spring perhaps, that is on it's way in. 

Although there are no brown Harajukus and each piece is slightly overpriced, I will purchase more when or if there is more to buy. The reason, I can't resist the urge too make my daughter look like the Harajuku version of Rainbow Brite as I once did when I was a child.

The Holidays Are Over. Now what?

Swag without Christmas elements can hang all winter.

If you're anything like me you are crashing hard from your holiday high. If you need to drag out the season until the end of winter here are a few tips to help that happen. 

Gingerbread withdrawal- Everyday in December I drank a non-fat Gingerbread Latte with whipped cream. I'm still wired from the caffeine. Now that Starbucks is no longer selling the 260 calorie treat I had to find a way to do it myself with less calories. Step one, brew your own espresso coffee at home, 6 calories per cup. Step two, sprinkle allspice in your coffee instead of the discounted gingerbread latte creamers at the grocery stores. You add zero calories to your coffee but get that gingerbread taste. Add the Cool Whip instead of creamer and stir. There are 25 calories in 2 tablespoons. Total calories, 56. Your sugar adds about 10 calories per teaspoon but if you use the regular Cool Whip, you won't need as much. 

Gift Card shuffle- So now you have a full deck of gift cards from your Secret Santas and that relative that can't stand you but doesn't want to be mean. What are you supposed to do with them, go the mall and be mauled by the post season shoppers? No, absolutely not. Although, that may be what that nemesis of a relative may have planned to have happen to you in the first place. Studies show that people spend as much as 150% more at a store from which they have a gift card. Here's how to beat that gimmick. Shop online. You know that $50 card to Best Buy isn't enough for much more than a DVD or CD nowadays. But shopping online gives you more control. Did you know that the shelves closest to the checkout lines are called "impulse buys"? Stores rearrange their shelves every season to force you to walk through the entire building before you buy what you need. This is done by monitoring what is most frequently purchased at the store and placing it in the middle or in the back of the store. If you're shopping online, you can use preferences to your advantage. Click the boxes that limit your shopping to the value of your card or less. If you still have too many items to choose from, limit your search to item that you need, then look for things that you want. You are guaranteed to spend less money online than if you redeem your card in person. Of course there is always the option to sell the gift card altogether. 

Donation central- Now its time to face the fact that you will not wear those jeans or those boots you bought this fall. Help someone less fortunate by donating the warm clothes you haven't worn. It's only the beginning of winter, so there will still be time for someone else to enjoy your clothes, even if you are re-gifting them.

Leave 'em hangin'- Did you know that the Christmas tree is a pagan ritual? So is the wreath and the mistletoe. If you believe it is bad luck to have these things up but you can't stand the thought of chucking such expensive pine in the dumpster just yet the solution is simple. Wreaths were originally an expression of wealth or your occupation. Redesign the wreath and leave it hanging as a symbol of winter or your occupation. Mine is called "swag". It's not circular but hang vertically like the leaves of a tree. I decorated mine with gold, flocking, acorns and pine cones. I tied it with a ribbon and now I have a winter decoration and not a Christmas one. The pine needles in my tree are sitting in jars of almond oil. Pine oil brings money and good fortune when you anoint a candle with it. It also smells nice in the house throughout winter. Add it to your ammonia when you mop the floor and you have Pine-Sol.

Bissell Cleanview Helix Review

I bought this vacuum to replace a Eureka upright that I had for more than 10 years. I hated to let that thing go because it never lost suction. But the cost of giving it a tune up became more than it was worth. So I stiffened my upper lip and bought a new vacuum. Let me be upfront and say that I don't trust the new vacuums on the market. They are either grossly overpriced or they turn to crap in a matter of months. Most people seem to simply tolerate them not working as well until they can stomach the idea of replacing the vacuum again. In all fairness the problem is that people don't take the time to maintain their vacuums. Vacuums have to be cleaned and tuned up just like everything else in this world that has a motor. 

When I went shopping I was looking at prices more than anything else. I was pretty much convinced that the quality of the newer vacuums isn't as great as it used to be. I found the Bissell Cleanview Helix for $78 at Target. It was normally about $150. It is a "bagless system" with more filters. It has a filter at the top of the vacuum where the attachment hose is linked. It has a filter in the main canister where the waste comes in. It has another filter under the main canister above the motor and one that cannot be washed outside the machine in the side. This is both a benefit and a flaw. 

I like being able to wash the filters. If I do so regularly and properly, the filters will last 12 months. That's a benefit because of convenience and the price. The flaw of the filters is that you have to wait until they are dry before you can use them again. It takes a very long time for the filters to dry. It took my filters a full 24 hours to dry. If you know anything about children and real Christmas trees, you know that in 24 hours you may not be able to see your carpeting by the time the filters dry. 

After about one month of using the vacuum, I found it was already losing suction. I was beyond irritated with this fact. I cleaned the brushes and the filters. I lived with the poor suction because I no longer had the receipt or the box. Then, this Christmas I found the vacuum spitting out the pine needles I just picked up back onto the carpet. I did what most of us never do, I read the owners manual. There I found that There is a tube that runs from under the hose tool to under the machine. It leads to the same opening that serves the brushes. I was told to use a broom handle to push the clog through. There was such a large clog in this hose I had to pull it it out with my hands first before the broomstick could work. I had two months worth of lint, hair, and pine needles in a large pile on my floor. Lesson learned, check for clogs regularly. The suction of the vacuum returned immediately. I was pleased. 

The vacuum is smaller than the Bissell carpet cleaners so it does make it easy on me to use as a short housewife. If you are taller than 5'7" you may have a back issue. It is very lightweight. It almost propels itself. There is a very bright light on the front which would be more useful if the vacuum laid flatter to reach under the bed or the coffee table with ease. It has an edge suction feature that leaves something to be desired. You know how you run the vacuum along the edge of the wall and it sucks up the debris by the base boards? It doesn't do that too well. I was spoiled with my Eureka. The cord is positioned on the right side of the unit. This makes for a great look but not for convenient use. I am right handed so the cord is always in my way. But there is a spot on the back where the cord should have been to secure the excess cord so it won't drag on the floor. 

Despite my irritations with the cord and the edge cleaner, I would recommend this vacuum to anyone looking to use a bagless vacuum.