Go here for my review of Music MagPie.
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| Some birds over at Music Magpie cleanin' house and gettin' rich. |
Music Magpie sponsored this post but all opinions are my own.
Music Magpie Review: Sell your CDs, DVDs, Games and Blu-Rays for Cash
The post where I share my favorite dumped purses, give away an awesome$120 purse AND a pretty vintage dress from Shabby Apple!
If you follow the Kelley's Break Room Facebook page, you surely have seen a dumped purse or two by now. There have been 90 purses dumped and captioned so far. There would be more if I could get my act together this summer.
Here are a few of my favorites, though I love them all. For real. All of them.
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| This purse belongs to Abby from Abby Has Issues. I love, love that she took a picture of a water heater and vegetable steamer as objects that she carries around in her purse. She might actually carry those around in her Marilyn Monroe bag. She's sort of a crazy one. |
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| Patti's purse has all sorts of interesting things inside it, of course. I *just* realized that her Vinnie bag that she carries her tampons in actually said "Tampon Case". I just thought it was something she used for her tampons. Her purse is like a traveling joke shop. (By the way, I got her website name wrong in the picture. It's just www.insanemombrain.com.) |
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| This one belongs to my friend, Wendy, and has got to be my VERY favorite. If you didn't see her purse the first time around, maybe you can make a guess about what you think that circled object could be? I will put the answer at the end of this post. We'll make a little game out of it.
Not long after I started asking people to dump their goods, Brooke Linville asked if she could sponsor the posts, which was very generous of her. She sells Grace Adele purses at her website, Home Purse Business. Grace Adele is part of the Scentsy family and offers a large variety of really pretty and versatile handbags. Brooke graciously offered to give not only a handbag away, but a clutch, too! The value together is $120.
 This picture shows the solid black purse ($80) with an interchangeable zebra clutch ($40) situated in the outside pocket. You can see the solid black purse here and the zebra clutch here on her website. So cute! Since Brooke was kind enough to give a purse to one of you guys, I thought I would throw in a cute dress, too. Shabby Apple contacted me recently and asked me to show you guys some of their vintage clothing. I had the privilege of looking through some of their dresses and picking one of them to give to you. I loved them all. These dresses make me think of the days my grandmother and grandfather were dating in the 1940s. They met in Tomball, Texas but then moved all over the country with their family. He was in the Navy. I love looking at pictures of them from so long ago. My grandmother had beautiful dark brown hair and was definitely a catch for my handsome grandfather! I narrowed down the dresses to two. If you are the winner of this giveaway, you can choose which dress you would prefer. 
This dress is called TIBER , is white with navy stripes and regularly sells for $88.00. It is currently on sale for $48. I love, love it. So simple, so elegant and so classy.
This dress is called HEART OF ME and it regularly sells for $109. It is on sale now for $79. I love the color, fabric, cut and flow of this dress.
I feel like a gold mine just exploded here in the Break Room, except I can't keep any of the gold. Not even to buy a Coke out of the vending machine. It's okay, though, because, for one thing, I want you to have them and, for another, gold doesn't even work in those vending machines.
If you would like to get your hands on that purse and yourself in that dress, just enter using the Rafflecopter below!
*Are you still wondering what that mystery object is inside the baggy in my friend Wendy's purse? That would be an UMBILICAL CORD STUMP. She hasn't always carried it around. (Her younger son is 8.) She found it while cleaning out some boxes. Her husband said he wanted to throw it away and she said, "No! Don't throw that away! Let me put that in my purse!" So, there it sits. I wonder if it is still there... Wendy? Are you there? **If you are interested in dumping your purse and sharing it on my Facebook page, let me know in the comments below or e-mail me at kelleysbreakroom@gmail.com. |
The Dialect Quiz: We Want To Hear From YOU!
Tomorrow (Friday, 6/7) I am going to host a link-up that will start at 6 a.m. central and will run for a week surrounding how you say certain words or what you call certain things. This is based on a recent Huffington Post article surrounding Joshua Katz's work. I have always been fascinated by words, vocabulary and accents. It would be SO MUCH FUN if you recorded yourself answering these questions and then linked up your video tomorrow morning here in the Break Room! If you don't want to show us what you look like, show us anyway. If you really don't, you can just record your voice. (We want to see you, though!) You can link up the video that is in a blog post of yours or you can link up a YouTube video- whatever you would like to do. After we're done, I will grab a bowl of popcorn and just stare at you guys for hours!
And don't freak out about the link-up process. It's as easy as making Ramen Noodles.
Here are the questions:
1. What is the generic term for sweetened carbonated beverages?
2. What do you call the miniature lobster that you find in lakes and streams?
3. What is that thing called that kids drink water from in the hallways at schools?
4. What do you call rubber-soled shoes that you wear to the gym? Or to run? Or to go to Target?
5. Does someone cut the grass? Cut the lawn? Mow the grass? Mow the lawn?
6. What is the general term for that big road where people, like, drive really, really fast?
7. What do you call a group of two or more people?
Here are the words:
How do you pronounce:
8. Syrup?
9. Pecan?
10. Pajamas?
11. Mayonnaise?
12. Lawyer?
13. Crayon?
14. Marry/merry/Mary?
*15. Doesn't Pepto Bismol taste really, really good?
*Total bonus question.
It may be helpful to have the questions/words written down on a piece of paper so that we can follow along with you better. It's up to you. I don't want you to think I'm getting all bossy or something.
I can't wait to see and hear you! I'm doing split leaps because I'm so excited!
The Kia Soul 2013: Great for Humans *AND* Giant Hip-Hop Loving Hamsters
The nice people over at STI contacted me again, y'all. They asked me to review another car. It's out-of-control!!!!!!
Okay, so this is only the second car.
(The first one was a Mazda Mazda3 with SkyActiv Technology.)
I'm still excited because talking about cars is not something I often do, so writing a review takes me out of my normal nonsense zone and helps me focus on something practical. Fortunately, the car they sent me sort of combines fun/nonsense with practical, which is a great combo and something I'd order if it were listed on Sonic's menu.
Remember these guys?
They liked the Kia Soul so much they danced around to Party Anthem. When I was given the heads up that they were going to send me a Kia Soul, I wanted to dance to Party Anthem. I did hesitate for a moment, though, and thought, "HEY, WAIT A MINUTE. ARE YOU SAYING I LOOK LIKE A HAMSTER?" I know I have these teeth, but I wouldn't go as far as to say I look like a hamster. I could stand to lose 10 pounds, sure. I mean, maybe I resemble the one on the far left because she's wearing jeans and I have jeans. She likes pink. I like pink. I own running shoes. She's wearing them.
It turns out they just wanted me to drive it around for a week and give you the scoop on the car from my perspective, which I agreed to right away. The car came to me at the right time, too, because we were about to head toward Galveston and Kemah for a little day trip with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend who had driven in from near Oklahoma. We live in Houston, which is about an hour or so away from Galveston.
I'm telling you, I'm not the only one who enjoyed our trip to Galveston. Here is the Kia Soul livin' it up right beside Galveston Island's Historic Pleasure Pier. That car can surf!
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| I bought those large sunglasses at Sam's Wholesale Club. |
It was nice taking the car down there because the gas mileage is great on the vehicle. It gets 30 miles per gallon on the highway, whereas I am used to getting only 22-23 on the highway with my SUV. I also loved all of the little extras, like the sun roof, Sirius XM radio and the GPS.
I also really love this little handy-dandy, one-side-of-the-seat-down feature:
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| There was more room in the back than I thought would be at first. I was able to pile all of my groceries back there without a problem. |
I also loved this feature because it saved me from hearing the "How did you not see the bike?" question from my husband:
And, also this one because there were lots of places to plug things in, especially when my husband and I were both in the car. It was also great having a little well there in front of the gear shift for feathery party favors.
I could see younger people really loving this car, too, because you could transport your bike, surf board, etc. in the side of the car and still have people sit in the back seat. Since we still need a booster seat and my other son is a real stickler about not riding on top of the car, it is a little difficult to do both- take kids and bicycles in the same vehicle.
Actually, I know younger people love this car. The other day, I went to my favorite furniture/house goods consignment shop, Still Goode Consignments, and thought I parked in front of a mirror! I know they get some really great large pieces of furniture, but I had never known them to get a gigantic mirror and then sitting it out in the parking lot before! Were those Still Goode people going hog wild?
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| You know I had a lot of parking options but chose that spot on purpose. |
The store's owner approached me as I shopped around for the most perfect dining room table for the price of FREE (it's the only way I will convince my husband to get one at this present time) and asked me if that was my car. I told her the story of how I was essentially test driving it and she told me that the car I had parked in front of belonged to her daughter who is in her early 20s. She said she bought that vehicle for her daughter and had bought one for her son, too. She said they loved it! I asked if they loved the changing neon lights inside it, too. She said that must be an upgraded feature because there were no changing neon lights inside either of her kids' cars.
What?
No changing neon lights?
I couldn't believe it.
That was my favorite feature by far.
With no changing neon lights, a Kia Soul Disco would be a hard thing to pull off.
See what I mean?
That was like the icing on the lime green cake.
The bottom line of this post? I thought the Kia Soul 2013 was a great, fun, economical, fuel efficient car with lots of great extra features great for both humans and extra-large, hip-hop loving hamsters.
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An ALPHA-PHONICS Review & Giveaway (Teach your child to read!)
Just this morning, I asked the people that follow the Kelley's Break Room Facebook page what good teachers gifts would be and would not be. I directed this question to people that are teachers, to people that were teachers and to people that know how to spell "teachers". I got lots of great responses. It seems that the overwhelming majority said gift cards were great and candles/cups/pencil holders were not. Every teacher is different. Some teachers may actually love an all-in-one candle/cup/pencil holder, but, if you get this for your child's teacher, please warn her that it is not safe to drink the wax pieces that may break off.
Teachers like gifts. Teachers need gifts. Teachers appreciate good gifts. That was my whole point in asking that question. It helped me realize that the containers of Morton Salt and empty egg cartons that I had always gotten my kids' teachers in the past probably weren't hitting the spot.
We all know that teachers deserve something really great, but you REALLY realize they deserve something great when you try to teach your own child something. Some of you may be excellent at that and may even be homeschool teachers. That is awesome. I am not the best at it. It was only recently that I convinced my 8-year-old that getting his homework done as soon as possible in the early afternoon would make the rest of his day better. (And mine. Most definitely mine. The later it gets, the more cranky he gets, the more cranky I get and the more likely it is that I will want to sleep snuggled up to my chimney on top of the roof.)
When we sit down to do my 8-year-old's homework, my 5-year-old wants to do something homeworky. He is not in Kindergarten yet, but is all ready to learn. When I received an e-mail from Alpha-Phonics regarding their reading program, I got all excited. I would love for my child to be reading really well when he hits Kindergarten and I loved that there was a reading program out there to help me do that. Also, I loved that my 5-year-old would have something new to do while I tried to explain carrying one over in double-digit addition and whatever other math fact my 8-year-old was tackling at school that day.
They mailed this workbook to me along with a CD-Rom, that is basically the workbook but on a disk.
The only thing you need to watch out for are older siblings who think it is their job to grade your younger child's work. They tend to mark up the pages a bit too much.
To be honest, my 5-year-old and I spent a lot of time on this first lesson. (He just turned 5 a couple of weeks ago.) We spent probably too much time on this first lesson. He knows the alphabet, of course. Each time we would move on to the next lesson that was a bit more challenging, he'd suggest that we go back to the ABC page and review that again. I was like, "Child, you already know that. We aren't going to go over that again. We need to go over this page now." Yet...his little hand would flip the page back to the ABC page. I guess all of this exposure will help in some way down the line. I was just hoping he would be able to read dishwasher manuals and things like that by now.
We are getting there. The dishwasher manual will be mastered soon. I have no doubt in my mind.
You can see more of the book and of the CD-Rom in this video:
The website is great, too. There is a video of a woman who learned to read at 3 by using this Alpha-Phonics program (it has been around since the early 80s) and is now using it to teach her own child.
I also love that it is a family business. There are some cute pictures of children, grandchildren, etc. in the Alpha-Phonics office and at a family picnic. Love it!
If you have any questions, you can take a look at their "Frequently Asked Questions" video. It shows the owners of the The Paradigm Company, Peter and June Watt, answering questions in front of a roaring fire. I love that big time.
This Alpha-Phonics workbook and CD-Rom is $34.95 and can be purchased here. I think you will be very happy with the materials! But, of course, thanks to the generosity of The Paradigm Company, I am giving away a copy of it, too, to one of you guys.
If you are interested in receiving a free copy of the program, enter using the Rafflecopter below. If you haven't used it before and want some help, please ask me. Thank you!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
*I am required to dislose that I received compensation for this post. All opinions are my own.*
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