Everyone knows the pickle company Vlasic, but did you know they came out with an awesome new line of pickles?

Perfect for fall, the new line is unlike anything you have seen before at the grocery store. It is more like what you would find at your local farmer’s market!

If you can’t get to the farmer’s market this fall, you should definitely get to the store and try Vlasic’s Farmer’s Garden line.

I was sent two jars from the line. The Classic Dill and the Bread and Butter Chips. What I love about these pickles is just how authentic and homegrown they taste. It reminds me of when my mom used to can things when I was a child. There are not only pickles in the jars, but also all the veggies that make them just right pickled right in the jars! My husband loved the pickles peppers and garlic cloves that came in the jars.

I also love the labeling. Normally, I don’t pay much attention to packaging, but this labeling and packaging is absolutely wonderful. Vlasic really kicked it up a notch when they decided to go with the homegrown labels. These just add to the authenticity of the taste. I posted this photo on Facebook above and several people thought they were pickles I had canned myself!

These pickles are by far the best I have ever had from a big name company. Bravo to Vlasic for being so innovative and getting back to basics! You can find Vlasic’s new line of Farmer’s Garden at your local grocery retailer. If they are not there, I highly recommend you ask for them! Keep up with what is going on with the Vlasic Stork on Facebook, too, and hear all about the new line!

Cats are amazingly funny and entertaining animals. As far as dog person vs cat person, I am most definitely a cat person.

I tend to spoil my cat a great deal. He has over 10 different flavors of treat bags in this house, including some freeze dried shrimp. I was very happy to come across a website that will allow me to spoil Mr. Whiskers more!

Ace Cat Furniture has probably the biggest selection of cat beds, trees, scratching posts and tunnels I have ever seen! I was sent a couple scratching posts for my kitty along with a cozy bed for him to try. The posts and bed are both of superior quality.

I loved that the larger scratching post that I was sent has a ball (I am guessing!) inside that makes noise. My big guy had fun using his hind legs to kick it and get a great sound. I wish I had taken video of it. It was so hilarious! The smaller scratcher is perfect for hanging on a doorknob.

I was also sent a great bed for him. I personally love that it matches our decor in our home and that it looks very comfy. I also liked the suede outer section. The inner cushion is not attached and this is great for laundering!

Ace Cat Furniture sells a huge selection of items for your spoiled little kitty! I loved the “Cat Clouds” products. I consider myself a little over in love with my cat and I have this dream of one day being wealthy enough to have a room just for him in my home and that would be one thing I would put in there.

Make sure you check out Ace on Facebook as well!

And now, an entertaining video of my cat enjoying his new bed from Ace. Don’t mind my silly baby talk to him. I told you I was on the verge of crazy cat lady.

Do you know that 1 pedestrian is killed by a car-pedestrian accident every 120 minutes in the US?

This mostly happens at night, even on well lit city streets.

The easiest way to prevent these kinds of tragedies is to wear a reflector and e seen. Check out this video and you will see the difference between someone wearing a reflector and those who are not.

I should tell my readers a personal story here. When I was asked to do a review and post on Safees, I immediately jumped at the chance. I knew the products that I would be sent would not be my normal minimum value of $20, but this subject is so important to talk about.

When I was 17 years old and a Junior in High school, I was hit by a car as a pedestrian. I was on a well lit city street. In fact I was in the downtown area of my homecity. I was in a cross walk. The driver was speeding. I was hit so hard that I went through his windshield and broke out his headlight. I flew around 90 ft from the scene. I was knocked unconscious, and had broken my collarbone, had two black eyes, road rash on one side of my body (the clothing I was wearing was rubbed off) and very badly bruised hips. I was actually in a wheelchair for several weeks following my accident. Had I been wearing a reflector, this may have been avoided, as the driver said he did not see me.

I am lucky to be alive and walking.

Safees is a low cost way to provide piece of mind for you, your pets and your kids. It would be an excellent option for those that ride their bikes at night. Its amazing how such a simple concept can prevent so much tragedy. Isn’t $6 worth it?

Safees come in all sorts of designs and colors. There is sure to be one that you will find fits whom you are getting it for

Please take my advice, with our precious kiddos going back to school, and many of them will be out walking to school at dawn and low light, get them some Safees. $6 really is worth it. Because I care about my readers so much, I have a special discount code to save 15% off the already low price. Just type in “Safeesbacktoschool2012″ in the checkout.

Stay Safe!

I love kitchen gadgets and Ozeri makes a lot of them!

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try the Ozeri Fresco Salt and Pepper mill set. I loved that this set was two separate pieces and they both fit nicely in my kitchen. Stainless steel styled items are my favorite for kitchens because they are easy to clean and look nice and classy. I had to add rainbow peppercorns to my mill so I could how you how nice they look in it.

I found this set easy to fill. Just unscrew the top “bulb” and take the lid off, fill, and replace lid. This makes the set easy to clean as well.

For scale, I have put one in my hand so you can see that this set is not huge. I love that it is small. Just think how great this would be to take on a picnic. No more lugging bulky large mills with you and now you can enjoy fresh salt and pepper!

This design is simple, sleek and timeless.

Ozeri has a wonderful line of kitchen products from woks to scales. Make sure you check out all they have to offer on the website!

I personally don’t take a packed lunch too often and my daughter actually prefers to eat hot lunch at school, but I was very excited to be given the chance to try Rubbermaid’s newest line of lunch box solutions called Lunch Blox!

The Lunch Blox delivers just what you are looking for in a food packing system. It has an ice pack to keep things cold and it saves space because all the prices fit together and stay together. I loved how the peices just snap on each other and even the ice pack snaps on! Look how well it stayed snapped on!

I love that in the kit i was given to try there was all these cute little containers. The kit I tried out was the Sandwich kit. It contains a container for a sandwich, the Lunch Blox ice pack, a smaller container that is half the size as the Sandwich container and two little containers. I thought this would be perfect for packing dips for veggies. I am always weary of packing dips or any dairy in lunches because I worry they won’t stay cold enough. With the Lunch Blox, I am no longer worried about that. I actually did an experiment just to test it out. Even though I don’t take lunch very often, I put the ice block in the freezer until it was frozen, then I packed a lunch and put it out on the counter at room temp for approx 4 hours. When I actually did a temp check on the ranch dip, it was 38 degrees. 38 Degrees is below the “temperature danger zone”. I was very pleased!

I would recommend anyone gets a couple sets of these especially since school is gearing back up. This is a very innovative way to make sure your lunches stay cool and safe to consume!

Please keep up with all the wonderful products Rubbermaid has to offer on their website as well as twitter and Facebook!

I was given a Lunch Blox from Rubbermaid to try and share with my readers. Although I was given this product from the company, all opinions are 100% my own. I was not required to give a positive review in exchange for free product.

Lately, I have been doing a lot of reviews on candy! You can’t tell at all that I am loving this, can you?

Although I have diabetes, I still love candy. Its a battle. Unlike most people think, a diabetic can enjoy whatever they want, it just has to be in moderation. That’s why, if I do eat candy, I eat the really good stuff.

One of my favorite brands is Panda Licorice. I love soft licorice and Panda makes the best in my opinion. I was given the opportunity to review for them and I had tried the black licorice before, but never the raspberry. Let me tell you, I found my new favorite!

Panda Licorcie is soft and is made with real fruit puree. There is no dairy or nut products. In fact, Panda Licorice Raspberry only contains these simple ingredients:

Molasses, wheat flour, raspberry puree, citric acid, natural flavor, black carrot juice, and licorice extract.

What I love most about the Panda brand is the texture of the licorice. It is soft and gourmet tasting. It is easy to chew and not “gummy”.

After looking at the Panda website, I noticed they now have a Blueberry flavor. I couldn’t find that in my local stores, but after trying the raspberry flavor, I am eager to try this one!