Today I bring you Green Mountain Fair Trade coffees that I received from BzzAgent.  First I’ll start by telling you about the flavors and then about why fair trade coffee is a good choice.

I was sent 4 flavors, Vermont Country Blend, Sumatran Reserve – Extra Dark, Columbian Fair Trade Select, and Wild Mountain Blueberry.

Vermont Country Blend – This is a mild coffee, like a breakfast blend. It goes well with everything and is not bitter. Using my Keurig I was able to get a perfect cup at 10oz. This is well balanced but not very aromatic.

Sumatran Reserve- This is a BOLD coffee. It is very aromatic. It smells like a coffeehouse. Brewing the k-cup at 12oz was still to strong for me, but my husband adored it and asked me to buy more.

Columbian Fair Trade Select – This coffee is on the Bold side but not as strong as the Sumatran. It is aromatic and not too bitter. It doesn’t have an incredible amount of acidity either.

Wild Mountain Blueberry – I was not expecting to like this, but once I brewed it it smelled like I made coffee and fresh blueberry muffins.  That is also what it tasted like when I drank it. It was super delicious. I will definitely get this again.
Now, lets talk Fair Trade.

Fair trade is when farmers in third world countries are introduced to methods of building a sustaining business model. With the help of  the brands who support fair trade, these farmers are given reasonable pay and premiums for their work.  The farmers also have access to healthcare and child labor is prohibited.  The farmers communities also receive premiums for predetermined development activities. Buying Fair Trade products like this coffee creates a sustainable future and transfers more of the profit to the hard working men and women. These products will be similarly priced to other high quality items, but mass marketed – mass produced items will still be cheaper, but they will also still be lower quality.

Now that I’ve learned about the benefits of Fair Trade, if I have a choice between a fair trade product and something else, I know which I’ll choose…What about you?

Information about Fair Trade from http://www.fairtradeusa.org

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policy for further clarification.

Here’s why!

FTC  Disclaimer: Not affiliated with nor compensated by anyone regarding this post.  For more information please review my disclosure policy.

If you have a smart  phone and you have automatic date/time set and don’t have anything disabling DST then you should be good to go, but check your microwaves, ovens, most cars, and your handy wrist watch to make sure they are ok – remember VCRs? If you have one of those you should check it too – you don’t want to miss taping an episode of The Young and the Restless – Is that still on?

Anyway – enjoy the extra hour of beauty sleep or the extra hour to party!

*Art inspired by Dalí

There is 50% of the vote still available and if we all voted for the candidate we think will best lead our country we have a chance of getting him or her elected.  I have decided that for the first time in my adult/voting life I am not going to vote for the lesser of two evils but for the individual who I want to lead.

If the silent 50% of Americans vote for who they like, even if it isn’t one of the two main parties and the third parties actually show up as more than a half percent of the total vote it might let people realize they can vote for who they want and have the possibility of getting more votes in 4 years – because you know that some of the 50% who did vote are really only going for the lesser of two evils.

I honestly don’t care who you vote for, but rather that you vote, and vote for who you want to win.

Here are some of the main issues that most candidates have expressed their opinion on. I suggest you decide for yourself how you feel about each issue and then research who agrees with most of your points.

• Economy
  • Taxes
  • Deficit
  • Jobs
• Health Care
• Immigration
• Foreign Policy
• Education
• Abortion
• Same-Sex Marriage
• Social Security and Medicare
• Gun Control
• Environment
• Global Warming
• Terrorism
• Role of the Government
• Military size/readiness

For ease of research here are many of the parties represented in the upcoming election and who is representing them with a link to their party’s page.  This is not a comprehensive list and if I missed any of your favorite candidates let me know and I’ll add them. The list is in Alphabetical Order, not my order of preference.

• Americans Elect – no candidate for 2012
• Constitution - Virgil Goode
• Democrat - Barack Obama
• Green - Jill Stein
• Independent - Thomas Hoefling
• Justice Party – Rocky Anderson
• Libertarian - Gary Johnson
• Republican - Mitt Romney

FTC  Disclaimer: Not affiliated with nor compensated by anyone regarding this post.  For more information please review my disclosure policy.

I’ve got my fun Halloween look for today and I thought I’d share! I’ve got Stila Mimosa on as the bright orange on my lids with Kitten on my brow bone.  I used an Urban Decay cream shadow in a green (but the label has worn off) for my top lid liner.  My lips are CoverGirl temptation 285.  I think it turned out very festive.

Oh and I have a devil dog!

FTC  Disclaimer: Not affiliated with nor compensated by anyone for this post. Items purchased by me for my own personal use. For more information please review my disclosure policy.

And this works! I get my hair in the style that I want and then spray about 3 pumps from arms length away from my head and my hair looks glossy and beautiful. It doesn’t weight down my hair and it doesn’t look greasy. I don’t end up with oily hands, like with some solutions. This is the perfect 30 second method to boost my style. The only downside is that the next day my hair ends up fairly oily looking, not the natural glossy look of the previous day. I like to get 2-3 days out of my hair, and this gives me 1 styled day and one pony-tail day.  The positive aspects of this spray are so amazing that they far outweigh the frequent wash inconvenience.

I have added this to my personal beauty arsenal. I would highly recommend this to anyone who suffers from dry, dull looking hair.

Will I finish the sample? Yes

Would I buy this again? Yes!!!

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (TotalBeauty.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policy for further clarification.

One more food post then I’ll go back to beauty products for awhile. Today I bring you Smartfood Selects. I received 3 bags of different flavored treats and I’ll tell you how I liked them.

I started off with the Feta Herb Hummus Popped Chips. They are quite yummy. They sort of look like pop chips.  If you look closely at them you can actually see the herbs and spices. This flavor is zesty and a little cheesy. The bag is severely oversized for what is in it though…I think the serving size was perfect, but the bag is so empty looking that it just seems skimpy (but I promise it is not).

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Next up is the Garlic Tomato Basil Hummus Popped Chips. These are pretty good, I would have preferred more of the garlic flavor, but it was still tasty. They look nearly identical to the feta, with the herbs and spices being quite obvious, and same serving size in the oversized bag.  I prefer the feta to the garlic, but I certainly wouldn’t turn down either

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Finally we have the Sour Cream and Onion Puffed Corn. This is NOT popcorn. This is similar to the Pirate Booty  stuff, but WAY better. I have a problem with popcorn, I get those little shells stuck in my teeth soooo bad and it is painful, and I’ve actually had to go to a dentist before to get rid of the kernel – gross I know…sorry…but I’m making a point. With Puffed Corn there are no kernel shells, so there is nothing to get stuck in your gums. These, like the popped chips above have clear and visible signs of the real herbs included in their production.

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I think my favorite thing about them is that they are, like their name says, smart! They are NOT diet food – please don’t take it that way, but they are healthier than the alternatives like chips and butter soaked popcorn. Sometimes you just need to crunch on something savory, and when those times come up these seem like the perfect solution.  I will definitely be buying more of these in the near future.

Will I buy this product again? Yep – these are my new favorite guilty pleasure food.

Will I finish the samples? Oops, I already have!

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policy for further clarification.

Lets start with the spray. I was worried that this was a standard aerosol, but I was educated today. Current aerosols are different than old school pre-1978 super-polluting aerosols. Less than 2% of aerosols*, which are specifically approved by the government for medical purposes, still are propelled by CO2, and household use items like hairspray and fragrance mists do not have such horrible propellants. According to Glade, this spray is not that bad for the environment.

So, the technical chemical stuff aside, how does it work? I picked the Cotton and Italian Mandarin which, to me, smells like fresh laundry. It is AMAZING. I have put this container in the bathroom, which now smells like fresh towels every time I spray. The smell lingers for a couple hours and is not overpowering in the least.

Would I buy this again? Yes

Will I finish the sample? Yes!

On to the Glad Expressions Oil Diffuser. The first one I picked up was Pineapple and Mangosteen. It smelled very sweet. The problem was getting the paper into the oil. The plastic coupler didn’t work correctly and wouldn’t lock into place. At first I thought it was right, but the more I thought about it the more I realized it was wrong.  I was worried that my husband and I were just somehow not strong enough to do it correctly. To be sure (before I wrote the review) I bought a second one with a coupon from BzzAgent. This time I bought the Lavender and Juniper Berry because I felt the Pineapple and Mangosteen was too sweet so I didn’t want 2 of that same fragrance.  When I pushed the paper into the oil, this time, it went quite easily with a satisfying click. You can see in the photo below the difference in the couplers. On the left is the defective one, and on the right is the correct one. The Left has the extra area where the plastic didn’t join properly. Hopefully this was a fluke and not a trend.

On to the product (minus the defect)…The Pineapple is too sweet for me, but does come with the prettiest container, the wood grain one. The Lavender and the Apple scents both come with the white container. I don’t know how the apple smells, but I do like the Lavender, it is floral but not too much, it reminds me of a summer field. The scent lasts for (they claim) about 30 days. I haven’t had  mine that long yet, more like 15, but it is still going strong.

Would I buy it again? Maybe, I’d love to see them have the Cotton scent in the oil, and then I would

Will I finish the sample? Yep, they are nice.

And here are a couple of coupons in case you want to try them yourselves. (The link will take you to a “coupon printer” application, so if you don’t want to accept that application you’ll have to dig for coupons in the paper or in better homes and gardens).

Save $2 on Glade Expressions® Fragrance Mist

Save $4 on a Glade Expressions® Oil Diffuser

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policy for further clarification.

*Source http://www.nationalaerosol.com/aerosol.htm

A brief summary of the back-story of UNREAL is that a 13 year old kid tried to explain to his dad why candy wasn’t bad for him, but in researching on the internet he found it was bad for him. He decided he wanted candy that had less junk (in their words, hydrogenated oils, corn syrup, artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives). He eventually found people to help with the goal and UNREAL was born.

They claim that the less junk the better the taste of the candy, so I decided to put it to the test and tried each of their 5 varieties side by side with the name brand equivalent.

Here are my opinions:

8-Chocolate, peanut, caramel, nougat: Not as good as the name brand

5-Chocolate, carmel, nougat: Not as good as the name brand

41-Candy covered chocolate: Equally as good as the name brand

54-Candy covered, chocolate, peanut: Equally as good as the name brand

77-Chocolate and peanut butter: Better than name brand

I appreciate that the candy was much better for you (as far as candy goes) but I really hoped that it would all taste better than the name brand. I eat candy so infrequently that the healthiness doesn’t matter too much for me. I definitely will get the chocolate peanut butter again and maybe the candy and chocolate covered peanuts.

On 41 and 54 the colors are derived from things in nature so they are not as vivid as the name brand version, but that doesn’t affect the taste at all, and the colors are actually pretty – they remind me of fall.

Would I buy these again? 54 and 77 I would, assuming the price isn’t out-of-line – the others probably not.

Will I finish the sample? I did on 41, 54, and 77, but 8 and 5 I did not.

FTC Disclosure: This review contains a sample product sent for consideration by PR (bzzagent.com). My priority is to you, and I honor that commitment by being honest! I do not conduct paid reviews or guarantee reviews. I promise to remain truthful with you. If you are uncertain what this all means, I suggest you to read my Disclosure Policy for further clarification.