CAMiLEON Heels–Now I Can Wear High Heels Without Breaking My Leg On The Subway Steps!
Jan 10, 2013 Product Review
My new CAMiLEON Heels
People who’ve known me for years have probably never ever seen me wear heels. Sure, I’ll wear pumps – low, chunky heels that can get me down subway stairs and through pedestrian traffic without twisting my ankle. But actual high heel shoes? Never. Well, almost never: In the last five years, the only time I remember wearing heels was when I attended a party in the hotel where I was staying. All I had to navigate while teetering on my cute shoes was an elevator and a hallway. Which I was able to do, but just barely.
So, as much as I would occasionally like to sport high heels at a fancy event or party, I just couldn’t. Not without risking embarrassment, broken shoes, and possibly broken bones.
Until, that is, CAMiLEON sent me a pair of their new convertible heels to review. These shoes are genius: I can wear them as low heels while commuting or driving, but then, in a matter of seconds, I can convert them to high heels! It really is that easy. Watch:
When worn as kitten heels, they’re low enough that even I can walk around the city in them. And unless someone were lying cheek-to-sidewalk, they’d never notice that there was anything “different” about my shoes. But then when I arrive at the ball (um, blogging event), I can make myself a couple inches taller and join the ranks of those people who seem to live in heels all the time. (I think they belong to that same sub-classification of human who can Rollerblade without pads, and not end up with hideous scars).
The shoes themselves are gorgeous and come in many colors and styles. I think I might buy this pair:
I love my CAMiLEON Heels so much I’ve worn them even when I ‘m not planning on converting them – they’re just cute, comfy shoes. Plus, there’s a metal bar running through the heel, so they won’t break like normal high heels. And they’re available in wide sizes, if you need that.
I can’t wait to get more! You can see all of their current styles here.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: CAMiLEON Heels, fashion, shoes
Fit For Forty: RunPhones
Jan 9, 2013 Product Review
There are only six-and-a-half weeks until the Disney Princess Half Marathon. And while I’ve definitely been slacking off exercise-wise for the past month or so, I’m still very far ahead of where I was at this point before the last two races. Today I did three miles and while it was very hard, it was doable.
I took my new RunPhones for a spin. They’re a cross between a headband, earmuffs, and headphones. Training for the Princess Half kinda sucks if you live in the northeast, because you’re doing most of your training during winter. The RunPhones definitely helped.
Of course even in the cold I get sweaty while jogging, but these are easy to clean. You open up the little Velcro pouch holding the headphones and take them out, and throw the headband in the washing machine.
My only complaint about them is that they occasionally slipped back from my ears about a half inch. They were easy enough to adjust, but I feel like if they made the back of the headband a little thinner they would stay in place better. But still, this is a minor complaint – they worked very well, kept my ears warm, and sounded great.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Disney Princess Half Marathon, exercise, review, RunPhones
T-Fal Deep Fryer Review
Sep 4, 2012 Product Review
I’ve been talking a lot about what I’ve been frying so far in my new deep fryer. I posted pictures of my first attempt at veggie tempura (it was awesome), and I wrote a whole post about my three tries at making great French fries. I’ve done hush puppies and even battered bananas (they were to die for). The kids are begging to deep fry Oreos. My husband (who was initially against the fryer) is hoping for fish & chips.
But I haven’t written much about the fryer itself. It’s a T-Fal Ultimate EZ Clean. When I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted a deep fryer I checked out pretty much every single one on Amazon. I kept going back to the T-Fal for one simple reason: it claimed to easily filter and drain the oil for you, and just about all of the parts could go in the dishwasher. I know myself and what’s likely to relegate an appliance to the basement. A complicated cleaning procedure would do it for sure. Could this one really be that easy?
There were a lot of Amazon reviews claiming that the filtering and draining process really was spectacularly simple, but there were just as many claiming that after using the fryer for the first time and leaving it to drain, they’d come back to find the oil all over their kitchen!
WHAT?!?
How could I even think about buying a fryer that might leave me with that kind of mess? But something else had to be going on. How could so many reviewers love the thing and so many others have such a huge problem?
I read through every review, and a couple people had solved it. Under the fryer there’s a plastic reservoir that you’re supposed to drain the oil into. It has two openings: one in the front that slides open when you turn the fryer’s lever to the drain position, and one in the back to pour the oil back into the fryer. That second opening has a screw-on cap. If you leave that cap on when trying to fill the reservoir with oil, the air inside the container has no place to go. The oil bubbles up around the front opening as the air tries to get out, and most of the oil spills outside of the fryer, making an unimaginable mess.
And here’s the kicker: nowhere is this mentioned in the directions. They never tell you to leave the cap off while draining the oil.
Had I not read those reviews, it would not have occurred to me to take the cap off. The reservoir slides nicely into the fryer with the cap on. HUGE design flaw.
I tried this cap theory out using water before I ever put oil in the fryer. Even after proving it to be true, the first time I drained the fryer I put it on a baking sheet just in case. But not a drop was spilled. I’ve drained the oil three times now, and the process really is that easy. Plus, the oil gets filtered so well it looks like new each time I pour it back into the fryer. I don’t know how many uses I’ll get out of it, but I’m keeping it in the fridge so I’m hoping to use it for a while – peanut oil isn’t cheap!
It’s also important to note that the reservoir only holds a tiny bit more than the Max fill line in the fryer. You shouldn’t overfill a fryer anyway, but if you do, it will leak during the draining process.
Once you’ve drained the fryer, you wipe the heating element off, and everything else goes into the dishwasher. Couldn’t be easier.
It takes up practically the whole dishwasher, but it fits!
The fryer itself is very easy to use. If you’re worried about splatter you can even raise and lower the fry basket with the lid on. The basket holds a decent amount of food, but you don’t want to crowd the basket, especially with anything battered.
Veggie Tempura
The fryer heats up quickly (less than fifteen minutes for cold-from-the-fridge oil) and returns to its max temperature quickly as well. However, my oil never got up to the 374 degrees listed on the dial. It stopped at 330. I’m not claiming that my thermometer is exactly right, but I’m confident that it is not off by as much as forty-four degrees!
Still, that was hot enough to cook all of my foods well. I’m going to do some testing at some point to see if the thermometer is simply inaccurate, or if it is accurate but the heating element simply isn’t powerful enough to reach the max.
The other small problem is the placement of the “on” indicator light – I can’t see it! It’s basically behind the dial. Very awkward.
But otherwise, this fryer is excellent. Reading over this review it seems like I spend a lot of time complaining and not much time praising, but the good points of the fryer are very simple: it fries well, it cleans up easily.
I highly recommend it.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: Deep Fryer, Food, review
Fix A Broken Suitcase Zipper Pull Easily
Aug 25, 2012 Product Review
No matter how much I spend on a suitcase, the sipper pulls always break within a year or two. Such a pain in the butt. After losing both main sipper pulls on my favorite suitcase, I finally decided to try to fix them myself.
I found Zippermend on Amazon, and it was so inexpensive I figured it wouldn’t work, but also that I wouldn’t waste much money trying, so I bought two. Here’s what happened:
Keep in mind, you still need someplace not broken to attach the new zipper pull to. When zipper pulls break they usually rip off, taking half of the piece that was holding them. But if you’re lucky, you’ll still have the rings that you’re supposed to put your lock into to keep the suitcase closed (you know, the ones we used to use before the TSA said they had to get into our suitcases and go through our underwear).
Tags: broken zipper, review, Travel
Test Drive: GMC Acadia Crossover
Aug 13, 2012 Product Review
I’m going on another road trip this week, taking my kids to Western New York to see family. The last time we did this trip, last month, we did it in a loaner from the GM Northeast Team. I don’t like to test drive vehicles in NYC unless they’re the type I would actually consider buying while living in Brooklyn, and I’ll say up-front that I would never buy the Acadia or a similarly-sized vehicle while living in the city. But that didn’t stop me from loving it.
My view of anything larger than a station wagon changed when I discovered crossovers: built on a car platform, they generally have less ground clearance than SUVs, and don’t make me feel like I’m driving a tank. The Acadia I was given for a week to test out was configured as a seven-seater, with bucket seats in the first and second rows and a bench seat in the back.
I have two kids who do nothing but get on each other’s nerves when in close quarters, and I can not overstate the importance on a road trip of having separate rows for them. They couldn’t touch each other, or get in each other’s space, and that cut out 75% of the problem right there. I’m not a great lover of road trips, but if I could take a few more without listening to the kids fight, I could become a fan.
Tags: Acadia, Road Trip, Test Drive
Cake Pop Stands from KC Bakes
Feb 28, 2012 Product Review
I’ve been making cake pops for a few months now. They’re fun, easy, and incredibly delicious (and a nice morning treat with my current “dessert with breakfast” diet). But the one thing that bugged me about the whole process was the Styrofoam blocks I was going through. I tried wrapping them in packing tape and poking holes through with a sharp pencil so that they wouldn’t fall apart so easily. I tried buying the denser blocks used to make “fake” wedding cakes. I even tried making the cake pops upside-down, which gives them ugly, flat tops.
Then I found the pretty, practical, affordable cake pop stands by KC Bakes. I purchased three of them at a discount, with a promise of a write-up if I found them useful. And oh my yes, I do. So does my number-one cake pop helper.
First of all, they’re infinitely reusable, as opposed to Styrofoam, which breaks down rather quickly with all of that poking and wiping. If you’ve been using Styrofoam, these stands will pay for themselves after not that long.
The holes are the perfect size for regular sucker sticks. They’re well spaced so that you have access to each cake pop. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.
These stands clean up easily. If you drizzle chocolate on them you just wait for it to dry, and it lifts right off cleanly with the help of a fingernail. If you drip chocolate into one of the holes, it can be picked out easily with a toothpick. This was the biggest improvement over my Styrofoam blocks: those were nearly impossible to clean.
The “skinny mini” six-hole size is also perfect for gift giving, at $15. If I’d had my act together I would’ve bought a half dozen of the small ones and given them to teachers for Christmas, filled with cake pops, of course. End of the school year, perhaps.
If you’re a cake pop maker – or want to be – I’d definitely recommend these stands. They’ll make it so much easier to produce pretty, professional-looking cake pops. Your friends and family won’t believe you didn’t buy them from a bakery.
Plus, I can’t wait until my next party: the centerpiece of the buffet table will definitely be a gorgeous display of cake pops!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 1. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Gorgeous, easy curls with The BeachWaver
Jan 26, 2012 Product Review
I’ve wanted curly hair longer than I can remember. I’ve gotten more perms than I can count. I’ve purchased at least ten curling irons in my lifetime. But have you ever seen me with curly hair? Rarely. Even the irons that do work take so long – I have a ton of hair and hate to do anything to it besides throw it in a ponytail.
Then along came Sarah Potempa. She’d been telling me for a while that she and her sister were working on a revolutionary new way to curl hair, and now it’s here!
I bought Sarah’s new BeachWaver Rotating Curling Iron the day it went on sale on QVC. I played with it a little bit last night, but took it for a real spin today – and video taped the whole thing! It took me only twenty minutes to do all of my hair, less than half of what it took with my old iron. But, I was doing it without a mirror! I could barely see myself in the little camera monitor. I bet with a mirror I could get this down to under fifteen minutes, easy.
I’m thrilled with this purchase, and can’t wait to wear my sexy hair to an event or a party or…the grocery store! Anywhere!
Check out this before and after:
Soft, easy curls that don’t look like they’re trying too hard. And that was without any product what-so-ever.
Watch my video to see how easy this was. Trust me: if I can do it, anybody can.
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 0. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
Tags: BeachWaver, hair, Sarah Potempa
Bing Travel: It does the guessing for me
Dec 5, 2011 Product Review
A few weeks ago I was presented with an in-depth look at Bing Travel. This was not the first time I’d heard of it – I go to a lot of Microsoft events and it’s always being demonstrated – but all of the other times I’d pretty much ignored it for shinier, flashier things. Why would I need Bing Travel when I have a bunch of other sites that I always check?
This time, though, I was a captive audience, sitting in a comfy chair with nothing else to pay attention to. I swear, I’m like a toddler sometimes. If you don’t take all of the other cool stuff out of my line of sight and make me sit still, I won’t focus. So, I paid attention this time, and I have to say it was rather revelatory. I had several batches of plane tickets to buy, and I couldn’t wait to get home and give Bing Travel a whirl.
For starters, Bing Travel looks at hundreds of sites when searching for your flights, so I didn’t have to check all of those other sites (but I did the first time anyway, just to make sure Bing was finding what it was supposed to). I was kicking myself for having waited so long to book my flight to Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but was thrilled at what Bing Travel found:
$408 round trip on Virgin America? Score! And yes, I know what you’re thinking, I would’ve found that flight on one of the other sites I routinely check (and I did). But then I clicked on the Fare Predictor and saw this:
Confirmation that if I’d purchased my tickets back in October, I could’ve saved about $180. And while that’s not exactly good news, I was fascinated that I was getting that info with my search. It even told me that it was 75% sure that I should buy my tickets now. So I did. The search results gave me several choices of where to buy my tickets from, so I picked buying directly from Virgin America and clicked over to their site, where my chosen tickets came right up. It was really easy.
Next I searched for tickets for a trip to Florida. These worried me even more than the Vegas tickets. Not because I’d waited too long, but because in the past we’ve paid wildly differing amounts for tickets between NYC and Fort Myers. I never know when to buy and I know I’ve totally overpaid some years.
The search found lots of options, but they were all more than I wanted to pay. The Fare Predictor told me that I should wait, though, and it was 80% certain! So, I’m waiting. I’m going to check it every few days and see what it says. I got the same results – 80% certain I should wait – for a third trip I need to book. So, I’m doing lots of waiting, but based on the past ticket prices I’m not worried.
I also tried out the Bing Travel Hotel Search. While not as excitement-inducing as the Fare Predictor, everything was very organized, and I ended up choosing my hotel from that search.
The one complaint I have about the hotel search is that I re-sorted my initial results by distance, and after clicking over to read more details about one hotel, I had to re-sort again when I went back to the search results. From then on I remembered to open the details in a new tab, but I think that should be done automatically.
Other than that small complaint though, loving Bing Travel. Can’t wait to plan more trips!
Originally posted on Selfish Mom. All opinions expressed on this website come straight from Amy unless otherwise noted. This post has a Compensation Level of 8. Please visit Amy’s Full Disclosure page for more information.
