Products

Better Essentials Oil Review

September 8, 2016 by Kathryn

I have a complicated relationship with essential oils. Several friends whom I respect and adore love them! There is a neverending stream of stories about how they have improved people’s health and well-being. They smell and feel amazing. I own a ton of essential oils…

But I’m not totally convinced that they do everything people claim they do. And I don’t really like the business model of several of the companies that sell them. And I don’t know that there’s a good way to tell across the different companies which one has the superior product. Because they all say they have the superior product. And they all say they can prove it.

I have been pretty faithful to one brand because I have so many friends who sell it and they swear by it. Its packaging is also pretty and they swear they are totally superior in every way to other brands. And I’ve had success with a few of the oils.

Grapefruit energizes me. Their digestive blend relieves my kids’ stomach issues consistently. Peppermint and frankincense mixed together sooth tension headaches.

I even signed up to “sell” it, although I’ve never sold a bottle, just so I could get the “discount” and accrue points. But every month I have to place an order, even when I don’t actually need anything. Otherwise I lose my points. This bugs me.

If the product is so good, why do you have to use tricky sales tactics to get people to keep buying it? And, if all the people who are signed up with the company “above” me get a commission off my purchase, why don’t they just charge less for the oils? The prices have to be massively inflated for so many people to be making so much money every time I buy a bottle of lavender.

So, when I got an email from Jen at Better Essentials, I wanted to give her oils a try. She sent me a few sample bottles and I really liked them. They are well packaged, pour well, and smell and feel similar to their MLM brethren.

The thing is, I do not have a deep-seated belief that essential oils cure everything. I don’t know of a good way to scientifically test them. But their extraction processes seem similar to those of the other companies and on the surface they seem comparable.

Now let’s talk about pricing. Better Essentials market themselves as being high quality with a lower price and they are a lower price than full retail of the other companies. But no one really pays full retail with the big companies. Either you sign up to get the “wholesale” discount, or you get the discount from one of your friends who sells the oils.

Better Essentials oils are very closely price-matched to the wholesale prices of the other companies. So, essentially you paying the same price, but you don’t have to sign up and pledge your loyalty to The Man. If you want to buy something, you just buy it. The end.

So check them out. I liked the free samples they sent and I will likely buy from them again sometime in the future.

***I received free product to sample for this review. All opinions expressed are my own and I received no monetary compensation for this post.***

Pete the Cat’s Magic Sunglasses – Put Me In The Story

July 19, 2016 by Kathryn

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I’ve been a little bit obsessed with personalizing things lately. For Christmas I got all my nieces and nephews InchBug labels with their names on them. Then for birthdays this year, they all got monogrammed fleece blankets.

One of my favorite new things to personalize are books. So, when Put Me In The Story reached out to see if I would be interested in having them personalize a Pete the Cat book for one of my kids, I was excited to volunteer.

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Thusly, I am on the official book tour of Pete the Cat’s Magic Sunglasses.

My daughter adores Pete the Cat so I was thrilled to upload her picture and share a few personal details so the book could be printed with her in mind. The process was really simple. I think it took about 5 minutes and then I waited for the book to arrive.

I think it got to my house in about a week and I saved it until a moment when I thought she could really use a special pick-me-up.

Well, since my surgery, she’s been a bit of a basket-case, weepy, whiny, needs her mom to help her with everything. (And she’s not the only one!) So, as I’ve gotten more mobile, I’ve been pouring on the love. Lots of extra hugs and special story times, and today I pulled out the book.

She freaked out as soon as she saw it was Pete the Cat.

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And then she noticed that her name was in the title.

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AND THE BOOK WAS DEDICATED TO HER!!!

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Every page brought huge grins and excited gasps, smiles and giggles.

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She could NOT believe that they had a street called THOMPSON PKWY.

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And she was the sunshine.

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Overall I thought they managed to personalize the book just enough without going overboard or cheesy. It felt fairly seamless and Wanda was thrilled with it.

I would consider this a home-run gift, a gift she clutched to her chest and carried around for a good chunk of the afternoon.

Many of the books on the site are picture books, so they would be a fine gift for younger kids as read-alouds but I think the magic happens when you give one of these books to an emerging reader, someone who can discover all the places where her name appears and be delighted.

Apart from the personalization, it was just a really sweet book with a great message about looking on the bright side and deciding what perspective you will have on life. Do you want life to be awesome? Then look for the awesome!

Put Me In The Story is currently running a giveaway of a couple of personalized books and a book bag. Here’s the link to enter. I’m going to do it because I’d love to give away more of these books as gifts.

Enter via the Rafflecopter by doing any of the following:

Sharing your Sunglass Selfie! Share a selfie of you and your child wearing sunglasses with the hashtag #MagicSunglasses
Sharing a Tweet
Signing up for Put Me In The Story’s newsletter

*I received free product to review for this post. However, I only ever give my real opinions on this blog and none of this text comes from the company.*

40% Off Drops of Awesome Books for Mother’s Day!

April 30, 2016 by Kathryn

6tag_150316-142725 Familius is offering a discount of 40% off both Drops of Awesome books plus several other great titles now through Mother’s Day. They’ve curated a nice collection of Mother’s Day gifts.

As a bonus, if you order two books, you get a copy of Motherhood Realized for free.

I like free stuff as much as any Oprah audience member so I thought it was only right to pass this along.

MY Best vs. THE Best – 523 Ways to Be Awesome

April 5, 2016 by Kathryn

Today is the official release day of 523 Ways to Be Awesome! It’s the second book in the Drops of Awesome series and I’m super excited about it.

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I guess you could say that today is the book’s birthday and since I wrote it, David Miles designed it, Stephanie Yan edited it, and Christopher Robbins (not Winnie the Pooh’s homie) masterminded the whole thing, we are all accepting gifts and salutations through midnight tonight.

The book is doing well on Amazon already thanks to you Awesome people and Familius has been working hard to get this book and the last one into some epic retail locations. I’m not naming names, but someone I know has been stalking the book shelves at Whole Foods because… ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!… any minute every Whole Foods in North America will have one of these bad boys.

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The whole thing is totally surreal to me.

Free range happy bacon.

$10/ounce soy cheese.

Handbags and leggings fashioned out of Kale and Hemp fibers.

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s by Kathryn Thompson.

All things that belong at Whole Foods.

We’re even working on scheduling a Costco book signing! You guys! I may get to hang out at Costco like the Blendtec guy, hawking my wares while people try to avoid eye contact and then eventually succumb to David’s gorgeous design and buy my book.

All of this is thrilling and I’m stoked. However, in some ways it puts me in a place where I desperately need to apply Drops of Awesome thinking.

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The truth is… there is always something more I could be doing to send this book out into the world more effectively. In fact, there are so many things I could be doing to spread the word about 523 Ways to Be Awesome that it can be really overwhelming. I slip into focusing on everything I’m not doing, which is ironic, considering the theme and content of the book.

Yesterday I sat looking at the list of marketing tasks I wanted to do before the book was released. The list was vast. And the check marks were… not as vast. And I was a day away from launch. And I didn’t have long to focus on it because I had to make dinner and get my son to baseball so I could go run a softball practice for my daughter.

In situations like this, it’s easy to think, “I’m not doing my best to launch this project.”

But then you have to dig further, “I may not be doing THE Best, but am I currently doing MY Best?” These are not the same thing.

THE Best is a notion that there is one perfect right way. It’s rarely realistic and frequently frustrating. MY Best is an honest assessment of what I am capable of doing based on my current circumstances, knowledge, and abilities.

And maybe My Best isn’t as good as I want it to be. So, what can I realistically do to increase my capacity today without beating myself up about what my capacity looked like yesterday?

To help with this process, I’ve been keeping a weekly to-do list, rather than daily. I write down everything I hope to accomplish for the week. Then, each morning I break my day down into time chunks that work around the flow of my non-negotiables and appointments.

Then I add as many items from my weekly to-do list as I can fit into those time chunks.

This gives me a realistic picture of what I actually have time to accomplish in a given day and I’m not quite as hard on myself when I find that I can’t do EVERYTHING. Time is finite and all I can do is use my time well. Sometimes this means changing my non-negotiables, cutting down on the appointments and commitments, and saying “no” to a few more things so I can say “yes” to different things.

I don’t have all the answers to this because I still get frustrated sometimes when I know there is a better way to do something and I just can’t quite get there. But I do know that I am happier when I focus on what I’m doing right and on realistic positive change.

I wrote a book. Drop of Awesome.

I gathered a team of fabulous friends and supporters to help promote it. Drop of Awesome.

I have been studying and planning and learning how to better execute social media strategy and I become more focused every day. Drop of Awesome.

Thank you so much to everyone who is taking this journey with me! Let the launch day festivities begin.

Christmas Gift Idea Smackdown

December 1, 2014 by Kathryn

Raise your hand if you’ve been planning and shopping for Christmas presents for months. If you’re like me, you feel like you’re behind if you’re not done your shopping by December One. But it’s December One and I’m not done. I want to spend that month celebrating, not fighting over the last Queen Elsa’s demonic disembodied head hair salon. So we need to get moving.

Let’s help each other out. I’m gonna throw out some gift suggestions I’m excited about and then you show me yours in the comments section. If you’ve blogged gift ideas, include a link to your page. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. It’s just stuff I like and think you might like too. Also keep in mind that you can give pretty much everyone on your list a copy of my book and I won’t judge you for your lack of creativity.

For Babies

Silicon Bibs – I had this style of bib in hard plastic for my kids and I loved that you could just scoop up the food from the pocket and shove it back in their mouths. These silicon versions should be more durable, less hazardous, and they are stinkin’ cute, yes?

Orbit labels by InchBug – I’ve given these as gifts countless times. You personalize the bands and they can be stretched around cups, sippy cups, bottles or sports bottles. For the second line of text, I now put my cell phone number. I have been called multiple times when we’ve abandoned the One True Sippy Cup at Target or track camp. Kids won’t love them, but their parents will!

Sophie Giraffe – Classic, Sweet, must have for a new baby.

For Kids

Snap circuits – My kids have built alarms, fans, and light switches with these versatile, durable electronic toys. Hours of educational fun and with the simple instructions they can do it themselves at an earlier age than you’d think.

Break Your Own Geodes – We ordered this specific set from Amazon when my son turned 9 and became obsessed with crystals. Every rock had beautiful sparkly joy inside and it was really fun to discover.

Zoobs – If your kid likes legos, check these out. These are probably the coolest kids building toys I know of. Their creations can pivot on hinges and there are so many cool projects they can build.

Party Machine – So, I bought this for me. And for a wedding present once. But the kids LOVE it. I probably really bought it for them, right? The sound quality is good, but not amazing, and it can hook up to your phone or MP3 player over blutooth or with a patch cable. The lights are really fun and it’s turned our Saturday chores into a dance party.

For Old People Like Me

Fit Bit – I keep giving these as gifts. I’m not sure why. It’s like I just want other people to count their steps and sign up to be my friend on the fitbit app so they can pound me. I am only asking for trouble. It’s fun to keep track of my movement during the day and sleep at night and compete with my friends and family. I’ve used the One and the Flex and I prefer the One.

*Punk Wireless Speaker by Sol Republic – I’ve tried several wireless speakers and I loved this one. It’s rugged and has great sound for a device this small. Give the gift of kitchen dance parties.

Glass Water bottle – We love these bottles and have given them as gifts several times. There’s no better way to drink water than out of a glass container. It just tastes better and these are so cute.

For Everybody

Woot Shirts – There is a Woot shirt for everyone.

Experiences – Indoor Skydiving, Laser Tag, Memberships to your favorite Museum, or Waterpark, tickets to a sports event, concert, or other performance

Something You Were Going to Buy Anyway – Sometimes I think about what I’ll need to buy for the person in the coming months. Buying it for Christmas and wrapping it up eliminates the need to “come up with something” to give someone. For example, I may give my kids supplies for band or ballet or baseball. They’re excited to get something useful to them and it saves me time and money. Clothes items are great for this too.

*Sample provided to me by manufacturer.

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