Giveaways & Product Reviews Archives - Page 11 of 55

When I woke up this morning, I realized what terrible shape my house was in. Between my kids being out of school the entire week, me trying to finish the painting project that will never die, hosting Thanksgiving dinner and taking care of a visiting cat, it was gross – there was just no way around it.

We had a “family cleaning party” and worked on getting everything put away in its proper place. Just having everything straightened up always makes the house look about 75% better, doesn’t it? Well, until I looked down at the tile floors.

Can you see the brown spots? Yeah, those aren’t supposed to be there. Yuck!

Luckily, HomeRight recently sent me a new chenille mop pad for my SteamMachine Plus Steam Mop. Until now, I’d been using the microfiber mop pads that come with the unit (as you can see from the dirt stained areas on the microfiber pad below).

The microfiber mop pad has cleaned up my tile floors just fine. It takes more work that I expected, though, because it only really picks up dirt around the edges. And as you can see in the below image, a quick swipe of it over the floor doesn’t get up as much dirt as you might hope.

I think it’s because of the way the SteamMachine Plus Steam Mop (affiliate link) is built. The center of the mop head is raised. I’m sure there is a fabulous engineering reason for this, but it doesn’t change the fact that you have to make sure you clean every bit of your floors with just the sides of the unit.

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This giveaway is now closed.

When I woke up this morning, I checked the Weather Channel app on my phone. It’s always the first thing I do every morning, as it helps me see what the day is going to bring. I am a warm weather person at heart, so this time of year (literally) sends a chill down my spine.

Today, the app announced that it was 28° with a windchill of 19°. WHAT?!? Okay, some of you are laughing at me right now and others of you are equally as horrified. Not only did I have to send my kids out the door to school wearing heavy coats and scarves this morning, but I had to throw on my fleece pants and pour myself an extra large cup of coffee. I’m glad I don’t have a ton of errands to go and run today – I live in Central Texas for a reason!

The only thing that I like about the cold weather is that it is a signal that the holidays are on their way. It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner and Christmas is not far behind it. Of course, the stores (and some of my neighbors) have already decorated big time for the holidays, so it’s hard to forget that we are getting ready to enter the holiday season.

I’ve always been a stickler for not decorating for Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. I love Thanksgiving (family+food+football=greatest day ever), so I don’t want to push it out of the way so that I can enjoy Christmas decor for a few weeks longer. Instead, I get busy trimming the tree the weekend after Thanksgiving But just because I don’t decorate early doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy some things about the Christmas season! One of the best way to do that is to add in some scents of the season. Doesn’t the smell of cinnamon and gingerbread bring back such wonderful memories of holidays past?

This year, the Thymes company sent me their delicious collection of Gingerbread scented home fragrance products. The products include two sizes of candles, a reed diffuser, an ornament sachet, hand lotion, hand wash and a home fragrance mist. I love that the gingerbread scent is subtle enough not to be overwhelming but sophisticated enough that it doesn’t scream, “ZOMG, CHRISTMAS!” It smells so good – I wish the Internet was scratch and sniff.

The reed diffuser and ornament sachet are my favorite products since they deliver the gingerbread scent all day long. But, obviously, candles are always fabulous and the hand lotion, hand wash, and home fragrance mist are great ways to have a delicious scent in your home. And how cute is the little bakers twine and house charms? The Gingerbread Collection is new to Thymes this year, and I hope it’s one that they bring back every year.

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SteamMachine Plus Steam Mop Coupon + Giveaway

Giving the Gift of Scent {and Win a Gift from Me!}