REVIEW {neosporin eczema essentials}

First, let me start off by saying that I was not paid for this review. I was sent a free trial pack by Smiley360 for me to try out and share my opinions. The following are my honest thoughts on this product from my own personal experience, good or bad. If you would like to know more about Smiley360 and how you can get your own missions to test out products, then read my previous post here. Ok, let's get to it.

The first item is the Neosporin Daily Body Wash. I have been using this for the past week and while I do really like it, there is one thing I don't like. After using this, I have that "squeaky" feeling on my skin. Does that make sense? It only lasts for maybe 10 minutes after my shower, but that is one of my worst feelings. I tend to stay away from body washes that give me that sensation. I do, however, really love the fact that this is unscented. It is also very moisturizing. It has a thin, creamy feeling when your lathering it on. I do notice that my skin feels much softer since I've started using this. I'm not sure if I will continue to use this regularly, just because of the squeak. But I definitely recommend this product for anyone who loves a good moisturizing body wash! (I would give this 3 stars!)

Next up is the Neosporin Daily Moisturizing Cream. Love, Love, Love! This is good stuff. It is a thick, creamy lotion that really locks in the moisture. I've used this all over, but especially on my feet where my skin gets the driest. I really lathered it on and then put some socks on before bed at night. It is ridiculous the difference it has made on my heels! And we all know that is a must for the summer. Who wants dry, cracked heels showing in your cute flip flops?! Recently, I managed to get major sunburn on my chest and shoulders. Before receiving this, I used another type of lotion in the hopes that I wouldn't start to peel. No such luck. Once I had this guy, I started using it where I was peeling... Amazing. At first there was a slight sting, probably from the fresh new skin, but it really helped! Instead of looking like a scaly lizard, it took it all away! Just for this fact alone, I will definitely be putting this on my summer must haves! (I would give this 5 stars!)

Finally we have the Neosporin Moisturizing Anti-Itch Cream. Honestly, I have yet to use this one. I just haven't had a dry, itchy spot to test it out on yet. I do frequently get dry spots that look sort of like a round ring on my skin. The first few times this happened, I had crazy panic attacks that I had ringworm. LOL. Yes, I'm one of those people. Finally, with much convincing, my husband made me see that it was just dry skin. I know it won't be long before another one of these "spots" pops up again and this time I will be ready! I can't wait to try this out because nothing I've used before has helped. (I would give this no stars, but hopefully that will change soon!)


Now, after reading all that, if you are dying to try one (or all!) of these products out, I have something to share with you. Neosporin is offering a $3 off coupon for anyone who wants to purchase these products. All you have to do is CLICK HERE and download the coupon and print it out! Easy Peazy. You can also sign up through that same link to receive emails on future offers, news and skin advice! Also, don't forget to check out Smiley360 and join in on the fun. Soon you could be the one testing out a new product!

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Freebie Friday #3

ITEMS PICTURED:

• a weeks worth of the Wall Street Journal
• August/July 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan
• June/July 2012 issue of Seventeen
• July/August issue of Maxim
• August/September issues of 4Wheel & Off Road
• issue of Newsweek
• sample of Bodycology Wild Poppy lotion + $1 off coupon
• 1 bottle of BioTru contact solution
• 1 Febreeze Set & Refresh
• 1 Box set of Neosporin Essentials (body wash, daily moisturizer & anti itch cream)

Now, about the Neosporin Essentials. I got this as a mission through Smiley360. They are a word of mouth company that allows you to try out products and give your honest feedback. It is completely free to sign up and free to get the products. You just fill out some surveys about yourself so that they can pick missions that apply to you. I have been a member for about a month and this is my first mission. I received an email yesterday about doing another mission that's coming up! You should all go sign up right now! (Click here to join!) I started using this product today, so in a few days, I'll post my review on it. Be sure to sign up and see what great products you get to test out!!

(All of these items, I received free in the mail. I was gifted the Neosporin Essentials to try out and give my opinion. I was not paid to talk about Neosporin or Smiley360.)

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Freebie Friday #2

Another round of freebies that I got in the mail! I know I skipped a couple weeks. Mainly because there was one week where I didn't get but like 2 things. That happens sometimes. You have awesome weeks and slow weeks. But my freebie basket was full so that meant it was time to empty it all out! Because I waited a few weeks to post this, I'm not sure what is still available and what isn't. But you can always go check out the sites that I mentioned in my first post of freebies and see what goodies you can snag! Check out that post here!

ITEMS PICTURED:
-2 weeks worth of the Wall Street Journal
-August 2012 issue of Martha Stewart Living
-July 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan
-first week of July for TV weekly
-Barbie Collector catalog
-a free card from cardstore.com (I only showed the back bc I'm saving it for M's birthday!!)
-a sample of Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition shampoo and conditioner
-3 samples of Nexcare band aids
-1 sample of Purex Ultra Packs laundry detergent + .50 off coupon
-1 dose of NRG-X sleep aid
-1 full size bottle of 5 Hour Energy in berry
-4 free rosaries (I gave one to my mom!)
-2 packs of Ovaltine chocolate milk mix + $1 off coupon
-2 day supply of Prilosec OTC
-1 sample pack of Lewis Labs Weigh Down shake
-10 free business cards from Moo.com (I will probably end up buying more of these!)
-fragrance sample of Escada Sexy Grafitti
-fragrance samples of Lacoste Pure and Energetic
-sample of Infused Air Scent Sticks
-1 sample pack of Lipton Tea and Honey in Mango Pineapple
-free tumbler for Brew Over Ice (this is my favorite one!)

 ITEMS NOT PICTURED:
-a fishing ruler that I gave to my dad
-2 packs of Invisible Windshield Wipes with Rain Repellent (M already used these!)

I do believe the tumbler is my favorite freebie from this grouping! I can't wait to use it. It'll be perfect out by the pool this summer. Have you guys started doing freebies? Let me know if you've racked up anything super fun! Don't forget to check out my unboxing post of my Influenster Summer Beauty VoxBox 2012 here! Have a great weekend!!

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Influenster Summer Beauty VoxBox 2012

Today, I received my very first VoxBox. I am so excited about this program! So before I get to all the goodies, let me just give you a description of this site. You all should go sign up right now! (Click here to sign up!) It's totally free. They have a badges page, where you can unlock all different kinds of badges by clicking on them and doing a little survey about yourself and that category. Once you've unlocked several badges (I did all that I was qualified for!) they use this information about you to know if you will qualify for any upcoming boxes. I was a member for about a month before I got an email telling me I qualified for this box. Once you receive your box, all you have to do is try out all the products and then fill out a survey telling them if you liked the items or not! So easy and sooo free! Go, sign up now! Ok, on to the products...

• Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen SPF 30
• Tampax and Always Radiant Collection
• Quaker Soft Baked Bar in Banana Nut Bread
• Sally Hansen Magnetic Nail Color
• Sally Hansen Nails and Cuticles Hand Creme
• CLEAR Scalp and Hair Beauty Therapy Shampoo and Conditioner

I'm not going to go into detail about each item because I'm going to do a seperate review post for each of them after I've tried everything out. (Ok, maybe not on the tampons, bc well... we all know how those work.) This totally made my day! Let me know if you go sign up!!

(I received this box for free. I agreed to test out these products and provide my honest feedback. I was not paid by any of the above companys, nor by Influenster.)

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#16 - Get a new Cell Phone

I actually got this phone for my birthday back in January. Yeah, I'm a little behind on updating my list. But #16 on my 101in1001 list was to get a new phone. I can now check that one off! I got the HTC Inspire 4G from ATT. I love it. This is my first smartphone and I couldn't be more addicted. The one thing I love most about this phone is that the camera is 8mp. That is equal to my digital Samsung camera. Plus with the auto focus and settings, it works much, much better! M has had an iphone and now an atrix, so I've played with smartphones for years, just never had one of my own. I have officially joined the bandwagon.

I know. There's nothing to exciting about this post. Just me updating my list a bit. So I thought that maybe I'd share some of my favorite apps with you! If you guys have any of these as well, feel free to follow me/add me!

• INSTAGRAM - I am obsessed with IG. I use it multiple times a day. My user name is: hollyinwonderland. I'm always looking for new friends to follow!
• RELAX & SLEEP - This one I downloaded a while ago but just recently started to use it. It has a list of sounds (a LOT of sounds) that you can play at night as your falling asleep. I'm one of those people who can't sleep if it's too quiet. It has a timer on it, so that after a certain time it will shut itself off. I use this every single night now!
• DRAW SOMETHING - Super fun! I don't play as much as I used to. I tend to go through phases where I'll play something obsessively for a while and then not touch it for a while. I usually log into this through my facebook account, but I believe my username is hollymade if you want to play me!
• AIR HID - M and I both have this one. It allows us to be even more lazy! :) We hook our laptop up to the television almost daily, so that we can watch our tv shows on a bigger screen. Well this lets you have a mouse on your phone. So you don't have to get up and walk over to the computer to change something. You also have to download an app for your computer, but it's free and we love it!

I've tried multiple photo editing apps and camera's but just recently went through and deleted almost all of them. I'll try to do another post sometime if I find some more apps that I just can't live without! Do you have a favorite app? Let me know so I can check it out!

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RECIPE {blueberry pound cake}

My mom makes this cake all the time. My parents have blueberry bushes, so this is a easy way to use a lot of them up. Sunday, on top of being Father's Day, it was also my dad's birthday. Since this is one of his favorite cakes, I decided to make it for him. This was my first time making this cake but it was so easy, I'll definitely be making it again! I didn't get a picture of the whole cake because we all dug into it almost immediately!

Blueberry Pound Cake

• 1 cup of butter, softened
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups of flour + 1 cup for coating blueberries
• 1 pint blueberries

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. In a mixing bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until fully blended. Next add in the eggs and mix well. Next, mix in vanilla, salt, baking powder and flour. You should have a nice super thick batter. Using the remaining cup of flour, coat the blueberries. Once they've got a good coat of flour, add them into the batter. (Don't let all the extra flour go in with them tho! Just the berries.) Fold the berries into the batter until they've mixed in well. Pour into a greased/floured bunt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Let cool completely and then flip onto your cake plate!

My dad prefers his without icing, but I like a little drizzle on mine. The mixture I use is confectioners sugar, a few drops of vanilla and a bit of milk. I don't really measure these out. I just put the sugar in a bowl and add in the milk and vanilla and stir it up. Just play with the sugar/milk until you reach your desired consistency!

Enjoy!!

LINKING UP @

A bowl full of Lemons

Sumo's Sweet Stuff
My Girlish Whims
Handy Man, Crafty Woman
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sew Much Ado
Lady Behind the Curtain
Liz Marie Blog

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Freebie Friday #1

About a month ago, I have mildly majorly become obsessed with the freebie/sample sites that are out there. I have reached the point where I check a few certain sites multiple times a day. It's fun! It's also amazing what you can get for free. Since starting this, I've probably signed up for over 100 things. Food samples, Beauty samples, Magazine subscriptions, Jewelry and more! So I decided that every week, I'll snap some pictures of some of the stuff I get in the mail and share with you guys. Considering most freebies take 6-8 weeks to receive, this past week I haven't gotten a ton. A few of the things I got the week before. Before the pictures, I'll share some of my favorite sites, in case you guys want to check them out too!

1. http://www.heyitsfree.net/
2. http://www.ilovefreethings.com/
3. http://www.ericsfreesite.com/

These are the 3 that I check on a regular basis. Sometimes when I have a little more time to kill, I'll click around to some of the others that they list on their site. Now the pictures!

Items pictured:

June/July 2012 issues of Martha Stewart Living

Jiffy Mix recipe book {get it here!}

VCF (vaginal contraceptive films) {get it here!} these freak me out just a bit!! but I was curious..

ASPCA poison control safety pack {get it here!}

free meal deal from Zaxby's {join the mail club here!}

Ring and Bracelet from Sneakpeeq {each month they offer a freebie for a new signup!}

Ball point pen {honestly can't remember where this one was from.}

Dove deodorant sample {get it here!} it's for Costco members, but i was informed to just put a random 12 digits in the member box. evil, but free!

Items not pictured:

Pool test strips

Horse treats from Winnie's Cookies

Let me know if you do the freebie thing too! Or especially if you're going to start! Have a great weekend!!

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Vintage Sewing Desk

I have finally finished the sewing desk that my dad got for me months ago. (Actually truth be told, I'm not 100% finished yet. I still need to paint the inside of the drawers, but I'm lazy.) Here is the before:

It was not in bad shape, just really, really dirty. Like wasp nests and dirt dobbers (sp?) on the inside dirty. I chose to paint it with Rustoleum's Winter Grey and added some white stripes and hardware. I have been really uninspired for the last couple months, so this poor guy got really neglected. I would paint a little on it one day and then go 2 weeks before I touched it again. And as I was deciding to write up this post, I realized that I didn't take a single picture with the top down. The top of the desk lifts up and slides down the back side to reveal the spot where you can store your sewing machine. I'm a photo loser. And I've moved it into a "storage" area, so I'm not gonna go digging in to take another picture. (there's that laziness again.)

notice the cat tail photo bomb?!

I really do like how it turned out and I'll really be glad to get it "finished" finished so I can sell it. I have got to make some space in my house. My lack of inspiration here lately has resulted in small large piles of stuff all over the house. But I'm hoping that I'm starting to come out of my slump. Only time will tell, I suppose. :)

LINKING UP @ Handy Man, Crafty Woman, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Lil' Luna, Ginger Snap Crafts, Sew Much Ado, Domestically Speaking, Liz Marie Blog, Miss Mustard Seed

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Custom Art DIY

A few weeks ago my dad got several boxes of "junk" from a friend of his. His friend bought the whole load at a flea market for like 15$. After he got out what he wanted, he gave the rest to my dad. So of course, I went through it. I pulled out a box full of stuff that I kept and these pictures are just one of the many things I kept to makeover.

solid wood frames. the pictures are just not my style.

I debated for a while on how I wanted to use them. Finally I decided to just bust out some spray paint. I picked Blue Lagoon and Berry from Rustoleum. I think that these are 2 of my favorite colors. I didn't do anything special, just 2 good coats of paint. Then I printed out a couple of simple pages with our initials on them. I chose orange for the blue frame and green for the pink one. I love how they turned out. Very simple, yet it'll add a pop of color to our living room. I plan on getting some floating shelves to hang between our front door and window, but until then, these are just chilling in a safe spot. Now I wish I had more frames to play with!

Ps. It's really hard to take pictures of glass without getting that god awful glare/reflection thing going on!

LINKING UP @ Handy Man, Crafty Woman, My Girlish Whims, DIY by Design, Lil' Luna, Ginger Snap Crafts, Sew Much Ado, Domestically Speaking, Liz Marie Blog,

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{HOME} living room wall addition

About a year ago, M and I decided to start remodeling our kitchen/living room area. It's a slow process. We are working as we can afford to do so, a little at a time. Our kitchen/living area used to be one huge room, with nothing but the kitchen counter/bar separating the two. We decided to split them up and build a wall between them. This way, we can expand our kitchen cabinets and hang the television on the wall.

we started by ripping up the carpet.

then we built the wall frame.

next came the drywall, and a huge mess.

we also built in the fish tank!

Now the wall is pretty much done, painted and the television is hung. We love it. Plus I'm hoping that it helps keep the two rooms cooler this summer. It was so hot when it was one huge room. We haven't touched the kitchen side of the wall. That will have to wait for a little more funds and once the living room is done. One project at a time! :)

tv setup. post coming up about the chest!

the other side. doorway, fishtank.

this is my favorite part. it looks so good!

We still have some painting to do. You can notice the wall next to the fish tank has yet to gain some color. We chose the color "Chinchilla" from the Martha collection. It's a nice light grey. And we don't have any of the molding/trim back up since we aren't completely finished painting yet. The cords on the tv are still a little wonky too. M wired it all up so that no cords would be showing, but we are having some issues with our surround sound unit. Until we can get that shipped off to be fixed, we've had to rewire things a little crazy. I've got several more projects I've been working on for the living room. I can't wait until it's all put together. As if I need more of a reason to lay on the couch and watch television. But soon I'll never want to leave this room!


LINKING UP @ A bowl full of Lemons, Handy Man, Crafty Woman, My Girlish Whims,

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