Tie dye with Horizon Group USA + A Giveaway!

Horizon Group USA sells a wide range of products for boys and girls of all ages, I've purchased some of their products in the past as Christmas gifts and the kids have always been pretty happy with their kits. I was lucky enough to be added as a Giveaway Guru with Horizon Group USA which means anytime I receive a product to test and review with my kids, I also get one to giveaway to one of my readers! Today I wanted to share their "Just My Style Radical Rainbow Tie Dye Kit" which can be purchased on Amazon for $7.99 (also available at Walmart and other stores).

This kit comes with three dye bottles; one red, one blue and one yellow. It also came with rubber bands, one pair of gloves, a iron on patch and instructions. This dye can be used on a number of clothing and accessory items from shirts to shoes, however it works best with 100% cotton. I picked up two white cotton shirts for my kids from the children's section and we set out with our kit! When this arrived in the mail the cap was off of the red bottle and a bit of the dye mixture was lost, but not enough to effect the end product.

I decided to do this in the kitchen sink because the dyes can and will stain other clothing, title, and more, so the stainless steel sink was my logical choice. Since there is only one pair of gloves you may want to pick up an extra pair depending on how many people are using this kit. Both of my children used a pair of gloves which we put on after we tied off the shirts how we wanted them. Each of the three bottles needs to be filled up with water and shaken around to mix all of the dye up with the water. Once you've thoroughly mixed the dye you can begin using it on your shirt.

There are several different ways to tie your clothing so I'd check the instructions guide to see how you'd like your pattern to come out. We went with a simple roll and tie method, both of my kids picked a different direction to roll their shirts up. The dye was easy to add to the fabric, once it starts absorbing into the cloth you can really get into a groove and you'll be done with your project in no time. The colors are easy to mix so you can achieve different shades of green, purple and orange.

After completing the two shirts we still had some dye leftover so I decided to take three white cloth face masks I had and make them tie dye as well. We let these sit for 24 hours before unrolling them, they were still slightly wet so we put them on hangers so that they could completely set. After they were dry, they were put through a cold rinse followed by a hot rinse until the water ran clear which helps get rid of extra dye before putting these into the washing machine for a final wash before wearing them.

The photos above are before they went through the rinse and wash cycle, you will lose a bit of the color in the wash which is normal. They came out a bit lighter than when we put them in otherwise they seemed to hold onto their color pretty well compared to photos of other reviews I've seen. Here is what it looked like after everything was said and done:

We had a lot of fun with this kit, I think it this is great for a family project or as a gift. Want to win one of your own? I am giving away a kit to one of you!

Giveaway Alert: One lucky winner is going to win a Tie Dye kit.

This is open to US Residents only! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! This giveaway is hosted by ME and is not associated with any of the brands mentioned above.

This giveaway ends on 09/12/2020

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment telling me what you'd like to create with this kit.

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Disclaimer- Horizon Group USA provided a the dye kits for the review + giveaway free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Tuzigoot National Monument in Clarkdale, Arizona

At the moment many of us are not traveling out of state because of various reasons related to covid. I personally won't be traveling out of state for a while because my work would require me to go on a two week isolation, however I am allowed to travel within the state so it is the perfect time to explore some local tourist spots while the tourists are away.

One of my favorite areas to visit is the Cottonwood/Jerome area because it is absolutely beautiful, there are some amazing spots near the river to explore, lots of hiking trails, wineries and more! My husband has never been to the area so earlier this summer we decided to go on a weekend trip up north to see explore and go fishing. While we were up there one of the spots I wanted to stop was the Tuzigoot National Monument, which is located in Clarkdale, Arizona. The monument isn't that far from old town Cottonwood that has some neat attractions as well. The address for Tuzigoot is 25 Tuzigoot Rd. Clarkdale, AZ 86324.

What exactly is the Tuzigoot National Monument? Tuzigoot is a 2 to 3 story tall pueblo ruin built between 1125-1400 CE. by the Sinagua people. It was designated as a national monument on July 25,1939 by Franklin D. Roosevelt after a three year period of being excavated and prepared to be on public display. When you arrive to the monument you will find a parking lot, several picnic tables and a few small buildings which consist of the main tourist building, a storage building and a gift shop. In the first photo below you can see a small storage room they created to blend in with the ruins themselves. The entrance fee is $10 per adult, and free for children under the age of sixteen. Depending on the amount of adults in your party I highly suggest investing in the annual pass which costs $35 it allows entrance for the pass holder plus three adults to both the Tuzigoot national monument and the Montezuma Castle Monument which is located Camp Verde,Arizona.

When we were visiting Tuzigoot we went to pay, but found a sign stating entrance was free. I am assuming it is due to covid and trying to cut down on the amount of face to face with visitors, they also have signs asking visitors to stay at least six feet apart. Tuzigoot does not offer any shade or escape from the sun so it is best to visit during the cooler months or early in the morning during the summer, we arrived shortly after they opened so there were only two other small groups of people and it was easy to maintain social distancing.

The monument has it set up to where you are able to walk around and even through the Tuzigoot ruins, you walk along side the ruins and get to see everything up close and personal. You'll find several informational signs along the way with information about the ruins, the Sinagua people and the surrounding area. There is a staircase where you are able to climb up to the third story of the monument to look out at the valley, there is a large room at the top of the structure that used to be open to enter however they are currently working on reinforcing the roof of the room so it is closed for the time being.

When visiting the structure or looking at photos you might notice that only one or two of the rooms have doors, so how did they get from room to room? Instead of using doors they used ladders to get from room to room, most of the ladders are no longer there because of the age of the ruins and the fact it might encourage visitors to climb on the ruins.

When you are visiting you'll find dozens of colorful lizards of various sizes and you might get lucky to see a few other critters on your journey.The length of your visit depends on how you'd like to experience the monument, if you are there just to see it and snap some photos you'll spend about ten to twenty minutes depending on how quickly you walk. If you take your time to read all the signs and enjoy the beauty of the surrounding area you'll be there for a closer to forty to fifty minutes. Is it handicap friendly? Yes and no, Tuzigoot is set on a hill, most of the trails through the ruins are easy to manage on foot, however a few of the spots are extremely steep so it may be difficult for those who have issues with walking or at in wheelchairs.

What is one of your favorite places to visit in your home state?

Camp in comfort with the Arizona GT 7/8 tent by NTK Global.

My family and I love being able to camp when ever we can, just before the lockdown for Covid happened we went on a family trip to the lake for a weekend of camping. On our camping trip we brought our new Arizona GT 7/8 Family Camping Tent by NTK Global. This tent retails for $349.99

Usually when we camp we have two tents that we set up, one for the kids and one for us which can be a lot of work because who wants to put together and take down two separate tents? Plus my car doesn't offer a ton of room for camping equipment so it is nice to cut back on the equipment a little.

The Arizona GT 7/8 is large enough to fit two double mattresses + two singles, or a queen mattress and two singles. Honestly you could probably mix and match depending on how many people you are planning to have in the tent, when we went on the camping trip at the lake our kids slept in the RV with their grandparents which left the tent for my husband and I. We had a queen sized mattress in the tent and still had a ton of room, we could easily fit one queen size mattress on each side of the tent with room in the middle and sides still.

The image above shows our tent set up with our queen sized mattress placed in the corner, the tent almost makes the mattress look tiny in comparison to how much space is still open. A big issue with a lot of tents is once they are set up and you put the air mattress or sleeping bags in there isn't a ton of room to move around, in our old tent once we had the air mattress all set up there wasn't a ton of room between us and the roof which made getting changed difficult. This tent is 6.2FT tall in the middle section, both my husband and I are under six foot tall so once we are through the door we can completely stand up in this tent without any issues! I am only 5'5" so my head doesn't even hit the roof when I am standing, which makes moving around, getting dressed, unpacking/packing everything a breeze.

A big tent means it is a pain in the butt to set up right? Wrong! This tent is actually fairly easy to set up and it doesn't take long to get the tent up, put the tarp on and get the cover to the door up (takes ten minutes or less to do everything). Taking it down is pretty simple as well, but like with most tents the worst part is getting it back into the bag it came in, I always seem to have an issue with getting any tent I've ever owned to fold up just right to fit back into the bag properly. With a little help from my husband I can get this into the bag and zipped up, and I will tell you that this bag is large and actually a bit heavy. If you have a generator or decide to stay at a camping location with electrical hook ups, it is nice to bring a fan/heater which means running a cord into your tent. With this tent instead of having to leave the door unzipped a bit to run a cord into, it has a small zippered flap in the bottom of one of the corners to make running a cord into the tent easier. (As you can see in our backyard camping photo above, we had an extension cord in the tent with a fan and a radio on).

Need space to put your glasses, phone, flashlight, etc while you are sleeping without setting them on the ground to be possibly stepped on? No worries, this tent has two mesh pockets in the corner of the tent along with a hanging mesh hammock at the top of the tent for your smaller items. The mesh hammock in the middle of the inside of the tent also has a hook to hang your light on to make it easier to see at night.

The tent has two doors (one on each end of the tent) along with windows on both sides of the tent, it comes with a waterproof cover to put over it and it has a little gray mat (Seen in the first photo)  that comes with it for outside of the door. The windows on the side do not have zippers instead the fabric rolls up and it has little plastic hooks that hold onto it. The tent comes with several orange ropes to hold the tent up and in place, you don't have to use these the tent stays up just fine without them however your tent might not extend out it's full amount. Adding the orange ropes to the tent and securing them to the ground helps add an extra few inches on the length of the tent and helps open up the inside of the tent.

Covid has made it to where we haven't had a chance to go out and go camping, but earlier in the summer before the heat struck we set up the tent in our backyard for a night of smores, board games and sleeping outdoors. Which was nice because we had an actual bathroom near by for when we needed to go.

We are pretty happy with this tent, and we look forward to using it for years to come because it seems well built and very sturdy. NTK Global has tents of various sizes to fit all of your personal and family needs and they also sell a wide variety of other camping goods, I highly suggest taking a look at their site.

Do you enjoy camping? What are some of your favorite things about camping, or your favorite spots to camp?

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by NTK Global for review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

Summer time reads for Kids from CandleWick Press!

Reading is not only an important way to help keep your mind engaged, but it is always an amazing way to explore new worlds and beyond using your imagination and the words on the page. I am the type of person who gets excited seeing kids who want to read as many books as possible so I love buying and gifting books to my friends and loved ones. Today I wanted to share some great kids books with you!

Madame Badobedah; This book is by Sophie Dahl and it is available in hardcover for $18.99. I enjoyed reading this book with my kids, it was quite a fun adventure that will make you smile. The main character is a little girl named Mabel, her parents own a hotel and she loves pretending to be a spy learning about all the new guests. One day a extravagant older woman named Madame Badobedah moves in and she is very mysterious because she is a private woman who keeps to herself and often stays in her room. Over the course of the book Mabel gets to know her and they go on a lot of heart felt adventures together making their friendship grow as the book goes on. This is a great book that teaches first appearances aren't always as they seem.

One Mean Ant; This book is written by Arthur Yorinks and is available in hardcover for $16.99. My kids highly enjoyed this book, it is one of their favorites out of the batch of books we are featuring on this post. As you can guess this book is about a very mean ant, he is so mean that leaves fall off of trees when he walks by, and none of the other critters like being around him. One day ant is so busy being mean and telling everyone what to do that he gets lost, while he is lost he meets a fly that tries to be friends with him. The fly helps break down a bit of the ants rude demeanor and they do end up becoming friends.

Dot Unplugged; This book is available in hardcover for $16.99 and it is by The Jim Henson Company. Dot is a character in a great series of books that are colorful and entertaining to read for young children, each book holds a new adventure. In this book Dot, her friend and her parents have to figure out what to do to keep themselves entertained when the power goes out in her house due to a storm outside. What in the world are they going to do without any electronics to keep them entertained? They decided to celebrate a day of being "unplugged" and look for things to do at home that don't require electricity. Through out the day they play games, do crafts and more. I think this is a great book highlighting non-electronic activities to do!

The Blunders A Counting Catastrophe! This book is available in hardcover for $16.99 and it is written by Christina Soontornvat. This book is about a family that has ten children, the mom is trying to clean the house the children have made a mess and they are driving her a little nuts so she asks them to go play outside for a while but keep an eye on each other. The children go out to play and when it is time to come in they go to count themselves to make sure everyone is there, but one of them is missing! Each child takes a turn counting each of their siblings and they can only count nine of them. I like that the book not only counts in English but other language's as well as shown above. The children don't realize that when they are counting they are not including themselves in the count so they believe someone is missing and go home to tell their mom they lost a sibling, which is when she reassures them that they are all there.

Follow Me, Flo! This cute book is for younger children and it is available in hardcover for $16.99, written by Jarvis. Flo and her father are on their way to visit a family members new nest, her father instructs her to follow him otherwise she will get lost. While they are walking she entertains herself by singing and telling stores but she gets so wrapped up in her story telling that she wanders off and becomes a bit lost. The illustrations in this book are quite bright and the characters are darling, and the book has a happy ending of course.

Hazel and Twig: The Lost Egg. Written by Brenna Burns Yu and available in hardcover for $16.99. The sweet little mice in this photo remind me of a book that I read when I was younger so I really enjoyed reading this cute little book. Hazel and Twig are playing in a meadow one day when they happen upon a egg which they think is lost and they decide they'd like to hatch it themselves so they take it home. This book shows their adventure and what eventually pops out of the egg!

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Candlewick Press for review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

August Beauty & The Book Giveaway!

A new month, new giveaways! I want to first congratulate the winner of the July beauty and the book giveaway which is Tonya M. who has already replied back to claim her prize. This month I have another bundle of goodies for one of you to win including some of my favorite brands.

This month's book is called "A Season of Spells" which seems fitting since the cooler months and Halloween are drawing near! Along with the book you will win the following goodies:

• X + O Tic Tac Toe Makeup bag
• Bodycology body mist
• L.A Colors palette 
• Wet N Wild Makeup Brush
• ELF lipstick
• NYX lip butter
• Hemp Seed Lip Balm
• Autobalm Eyeshadow
• EcoTools Face Mask kit
• Pretty Vulgar eyeshadow
• L.A Colors nail polish
• LXMI Illuminator 
• EOS lip balm
• Mermaid Facemask
• Face peel samples

One winner will win everything in the photo (aside from the tray and letter board). Keep an eye out for up coming giveaways which include: Chill Boys Boxers, Kids toys, Canvas prints and more.

This is open World Wide! Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email! This giveaway is hosted by ME and is not associated with any of the brands mentioned above.

This giveaway ends on 09/08/2020

Giveaway entry question: Leave a comment telling me what your favorite ways of pampering yourself. (I personally like using a facial steamer 2-3 times a week followed by a face mask, and I like to keep my feet kept up + looking pretty).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This giveaway is sponsored by ME, none of the companies mentioned are associated or sponsoring this post. **

Creepy Crate April/May Box Review!

My favorite time of the year is slowly making it's way towards us, that time of the year is Halloween time! I love seeing all of the spooky décor and products in the store, the smell of pumpkin spice floating through the air and the cooler weather are some of my favorite things. If you love the Halloween season too and are looking for a way to add a little bit of the spooky feeling to your life during the rest of the year than the Creepy Crate is for you and for all of the Horror movie loves out there.

Creepy Crate is a True Crime/Horror subscription box that ships out on a bi-monthly basis. Each box could contain clothing, pins, accessories, house goods, books and more that is based on either a true crime such as the zodiac killer or on a horror movie such as Friday the 13th. You can purchase a three box subscription for $120 or a six box subscription for $240. (Single boxes are $40)

The April/May crate had several products that I highly enjoyed! One of the products in the crate is a coffee mug, however my brain can't quite place which Horror related movie or show it is from and it isn't on the sheet telling you what was included in your crate. If you have a guess please leave it in the comments below.

Also found inside of the box is a book called "The Beetle" by Richard marsh, this is a recently re-released new edition of the 1897 classic. I sadly hadn't heard of this book until now, and it sounds fantastically thrilling so I am very much looking forward to cuddling up on the sofa and reading this adventure. The kids of horror button pack features Charlie from Hereditary, Damien from The Omen, Gage from Pet Sematary and Regan from The Exorcist which is a nice collection of characters and movies. The button pack is a lot of fun, and they can be pinned onto bags, clothing, and more to show off your love of your favorite movies. The Cthulhu sticker included is also creepy, powerful and draws your attention to it, the sticker is about the size of my palm and seems well made.

Finally there is a pair of "Do you love me?" socks that feature a Voodoo doll. There are a one size fits all knee high sock, I've always had pretty muscular legs so knee high socks have always been a hit or miss for me, these fit although they are just slightly tight at the top so I wear them a little lower than you normally would. As an added bonus the crate came with a digital copy of the boom "The Monster Novels" by Robert R. McCammon. 

Overall I was quite pleased with this crate and I highly enjoy the fact that their crates not only come with collectables, wearables and home goods but they also come with books. Plus I love how the product packaging looks, you can spot the creepy crate right away when you pull up to your house after work or answer the door when it gets dropped off.

Disclaimer- Creepy Crate provided a box for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.