Terror Trader Arizona's Year Round Horror Marketplace!

 

As someone who is a fan of horror movies, spooky things & lover of Halloween I am so happy that Arizona has had a few horror & gothic style stores pop up within the last year or two. One of the horror themed stores here in Arizona is called Terror Trader which is a year round horror marketplace. You'll be able to browse & shop selections from a number of local small artists all under one roof. They are located at 941 W Elliot Rd Suite 3 Chandler, AZ 85225. 

Along with having a large variety of products to purchase there are also free photo opportunities with their life sized props including a coffin in one of the small rooms that you are able to stand in to snap a phot. There is also a small room which features a mini museum of oddities that is pretty cool to check out. 

Everything in the store was well organized & each local seller had their own little section that featured their products. You could find pretty much everything including trading pins, taxidermy, clothing, jewelry, props, masks and more. This spot is a great place to pick up a few creepy, spooky or awesome finds all while supporting not only Terror Trader but all of the local artists who sell their products in store. 

All of the staff were friendly when we were there, the store was easy to navigate. There were one or two small rooms that felt a little stuffy if too many people were in it at once, otherwise the store has plenty of space to roam around and look at everything. We enjoyed visiting & we will definitely be back the next time we are in the area to pick up a few more things. If you want to add another stop on your terrifying route, be sure to stop across the street to visit Spooky's Swirls where you can grab some horror themed baked treats and see their collection of props as well. 

Terror Trader also puts on events through out the year including larger pop up markets where vendors will set up their own booths and special horror movie nights at a local cinema. Be sure to check out their page to see what events are coming up, you won't want to miss out on their Spooktacular events! 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

★ This is not a sponsored post, we paid for this on our own. I enjoy sharing new places we explore with my followers.

Tianyu Lights Festival Phoenix Review!

 

The Tianyu lights festival has arrive in Phoenix & it is an event you do not want to miss! This event features gorgeous luminous art installations that are not only beautiful to walk through, but there are also several different areas that are interactive, fun for children and adults alike. We spent a little over an hour and a half exploring all of the wonderful worlds they created. Adult priced tickets are $18-$28 depending on the day & children's tickets are $18-$20 however they have a discount family pack of tickets available. They are closed on select Monday & Tuesdays otherwise they are open the rest of the week from now until January 5th! They are open from 5:30PM until 10PM. There is a bag policy so be sure to check their website before heading out & no outside food or drinks are allowed. 

They are located inside of the Camelback Ranch located at 10710 W Camelback Road Phoenix, AZ 85037. Depending on which direction you are heading from google maps may take you to the wrong entry point, the entrance for this is located next to Camelback Road & 107th Ave. You can buy a parking pass online for $10 or buy one when you arrive for $15. 

The trail is one mile long & around the halfway point you will find a small marketplace where you can pick up handmade goods along with find a small food court for drinks and snacks. The market has a lot of neat things for sale! We picked out a beautiful lantern and an awesome wire dragon to bring home. All of the prices were very reasonable. 

I have way too many photos & videos I took when we were walking the trail to fit them all onto this post, so I will narrow it down to some of my favorites and there will be a reel up on my IG for you to check out. We absolutely loved that they had not only photo opportunities set up along the trail, but many of the spots were interactive. They had two huge parakeets perched on a branch that had two small trees in front of the display, if you walked up to one of the trees and spoke into it the bird that was in front of that tree would mimic what you said. 

There were light swings, a dance floor that lit up when you stepped on each square, bubbles filled with fog that would pop & make little whisps of smoke in the air and more. I highly recommend taking your time walking the trail, if you rush you will miss handy of the hidden details in the displays. Many of the displays are on timers that will activate and do different effects, for example one of the giant dragons would breathe fire and roar. Kids are sure to love the 100-foot-long shark you can walk through! 

Some of the trail is along a dirt path & some of it is along concrete, the trail is both wheelchair & stroller accessible. It is so hard to say which of the themed lands was my favorite because there were so many spots that I loved & enjoyed. We are so happy they decided to come to Arizona, because this event was 100% worth the visit and I'd even go back to see it all again, especially now that the weather is finally starting to cool down a bit.

Does this look like an event you'd love to visit? 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

Disclaimer-  Tianyu Lights Festival provided this experience to us 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.

Cuteness alert - Super Kawaii Pets the card game!

 

Today I have a short & sweet review to share with you about a cute kid friendly game called Super Kawaii Pets. This is a quick and easy animal themed card game sold by Arcane Wonders for $14.99 up to four players can play at one time and games last twenty minutes or less, it is recommended for ages 8+. 

The goal of the game is quite simple, you need to adopt (draw) sad animals that are looking for a loving home. After you draw a sad animal card, you need to collect the help cards that match that animals needs which could be a vet visit, food, or some love from a human. Once their requirements have been meet you can flip them over to their happy side! You will also try to match some of your animals to location cards. The first player to reach a combination of ten happy animal cards activates the end of the game, everyone will take one last turn then count their victory points to see who the winner is. 

This game & it's rules are simple and easy to learn, it is a great game for families especially families with younger children wanting to get into the world of card games and board games. Seeing as how it is geared towards younger children it is also nice that rounds can go fairly quickly and doesn't have any complicated steps. The game box is also small so this would make a easy one to take along on trips to play in a hotel room or out camping. 

If you want to find more great board games like Super Kawaii Pets head over to check out my Board Game Reviews section.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Arcane Wonders 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.

Artkive - Save space while displaying your child's artwork!

 

It is no secret that kids love to create art whether it is drawing you a card or painting a picture & as a parent of two I've been given lots of artwork by my children. Between their personal art pieces, they've done at home & artwork they've brought home from school, there just isn't enough space to keep everything. I've kept quite a bit of it & have a box full of artwork in the closet, but I always feel bad there isn't a lot of room to display some of it. That is where Artkive comes in! 

One of the services they offer is that you can send in a stack of your children's artwork, which will then be professionally photographed and made into a hardcover book which can be pulled out & looked at any time you want. I recently received the opportunity to work with them to see how the process worked. I was offered a twenty-five-page book in exchange for my review & both of my kids along with my husband and myself were excited to have some of the kids artwork in a book. I sat down with both of my kids to go through some of the artwork we've saved so we could pick out what we wanted in the book together. The kids also decided to give thirteen of the pages to my oldest & twelve of the pages would display my youngest's work.  

So how does it work? The first step is to head to their website & start the book process which will include paying a first initial payment then waiting for a box to be sent to you. The box has a plastic bag to place your artwork so that if anything happens to the box the art is still safe, along with a prepaid label. Books start out at $75 for twenty-five-pages and additional pages cost extra. If you use code MOONLIT20 you will get $20 off your book order. After you send in your artwork, you will receive updates via email letting you know where your book is at in the process. Our book got stuck for a little while on one of the steps, but everything was sorted out. It takes about two months from the time you send in your artwork to the time you get your book back.

Before they send out your book, they will send you an email asking you to proof the book. This step allows you to adjust the lighting on any photos if you wish, add a description under the artwork, and select a cover photo. When you hit submit, your book will be printed & mailed back to you. I thought the process was very simple to understand & was easy to use. Our book turned out great, I love being able to grab our Artkive book off the bookshelf to flip through the artwork. When we've had family over, we've been able to put it out on the coffee table & they've enjoyed looking through it as well. 

The point of these books of course is to free up some space in your house, so unless you select to pay an extra return free the original artwork will be recycled. My kids are ages eleven & fifteen, so they didn't think it was that big of a deal not to get the original work back since we had a copy in the book. However, some people are more attached to things like this and may want the work back, so it is completely up to you. These books would make a great gift for a family member or as a gift to yourself. Along with kids art books they have an option where you can get it turned into a framed mosaic. There is also another option called cards by Artkive where they will do the same as they did with this book, but with old greeting cards instead.

Does this sound like a service you'd use? 

Disclaimer- Artkive provided me with an art book 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.

Spooky's Swirls a horror themed bakery & mini museum in Chandler, Az!

 

We are in the midst of spooky season, so it is the perfect time to talk about our visit to Spooky's Swirls! Spooky's Swirls is a horror themed bakery & mini museum that is open year-round for all spooky lovers to enjoy. They offer delicious treats featuring characters like Ghost Face, Slimer, and more plus slices of cake, biscotti and more. Gluten-free guests will be happy to know they are a gluten-free bakery. Alongside their delicious treats they also have some products for sale like earrings, mints, etc. and they have a collection of horror themed props in the store that you can check out while there. They are located at 3029 N Alma School Road #117 Chandler, AZ 85224.

While we were in the area recently, we decided to stop by & pick up some sweet treats! Everything in the store ranges in price, but everything is labeled clearly. There are so many delicious sweets to select from, you'll have a hard time trying to leave with just one thing. We each found something we wanted to try & we were all quite pleased with what we had picked out to take home. Not everything is pictured on this post, but you can see most of what we picked up to try out. 

Sometimes products that are gluten-free can taste a little off, but that wasn't the case with their treats. Everything was sweet and had a lot of flavor. I also loved the little designs on a lot of the products. They do have quite a few products that are staples of the bakery & won't get swapped out, but they do also rotate through other products featuring different movies and themes so there will probably be something new each time you stop by. 

The mini museum is pretty neat as well, they have a decent number of props, replica clothing and more on display along the walls of the store. As an added bonus they also have a small selection of products for sale including horror themed earrings, hair clips, mint tins, and more. The store is family friendly & the staff were all very nice and were happy to answer questions. We will be visiting again the next time we are in the area! 

What horror character or movie, would you like to see featured on a baked good? 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

★ This is not a sponsored post, we paid for this on our own. I enjoy sharing new places we explore with my followers.

Battle it out with family & friends at Game Show Battle Rooms!

 

My family & I are big fans of game shows, from old shows like Family Feud to new shows like The Floor we love watching them together. We've always thought it would be amazing to be on one, & my husband and I were actually able to audition for one once. We recently learned about an awesome family friendly entertainment spot called Game Show Battle Rooms. You are able to put together teams then compete against one another to see who the champions are. They have several locations spread out across the US, so you may be lucky & find one near you. We were able to swing by the location located in Chandler at 6909 W Ray Rd Suite 29 Chandler, AZ 85226. It is located in Chandler, but on their website, it is listed under "Phoenix". 

They offer two different game show experiences, you can select the Classic show down which includes games such as spinning a giant wheel & completing a phrase or answering survey questions. Or you can book a Prime-Time showdown which includes games like sixty second skill games. It is $36.95 per person & each game show session last for one hour. If you have an extra-large group, a little bit more time will be added to your session to give everyone a chance to play. 

We did the Classic Show Down & had eight people in our party, which we split into two groups of four. Upon arrival you will be able to come up with a team name & each person will be given a name tag. We were asked to not put our legal names instead come up with something fun for a stage name. My nickname is Luna, so I ended up going with "Luna Mistress of the Dark" and it was funny hearing them call it out while we were playing. Before heading into the game show room, they have a bathroom you can use, and they also have a section where you can buy drinks. Our team names were the X-Force & The Iron Maidens. 

The game show room itself looks fantastic, it has everything you need to feel like you are on a live game show minus a live audience behind you. There are spotlights, all of the game pieces, two different team tables, plus two game show hosts and fun upbeat music of course. Our game show hosts JD & Talon were fantastic! They were very energetic, had some great jokes, played fun music and did a fantastic job pairing up people for the head-to-head competitions. One of the head-to-head team ups we had was the battle of the moms where it was my mom verses my husband's mom. You'll be pumped the entire time you are playing, everyone was hooting & hollering, clapping and laughing together. 

Everyone in our party had an absolute blast! Every aspect of the hour we were here was amazing, we had a great time competing against each other guessing answers, playing plinko and even dancing. After our session was over, everyone was already talking about coming back to try the other type of game shows. We were also told by our hosts that even if we booked the same classic game show that every session is different so there will be different questions, different products to price, etc. This is a fantastic spot for a friend's game night, birthday party, company team building and more. 

If you pop over to my Instagram page, you can find a reel with some footage from our game together! 

🌵 If you live in Arizona check out the "Things to do in Arizona" section of my blog to find entertainment, restaurants, vacation spots & more. (Click on the name or locate it on the right-hand side of my page).

Disclaimer-  Game Show Battle Rooms provided this experience to us 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.