Introducing 'Cents and Sensibility'!

Hello my lovely followers! I need to write up my current In My Mailbox, only got a few books so no big deal. I'll try to do that tonight. Any who, I'm posting today to let you know that I've created a new blog! Yes, reading is my passion. But do you know what else I enjoy doing? SHOPPING! Trying the  newest and coolest products! Therefore, I decided to create a Blogger blog dedicated to just reviews of products (read: anything that can be bought and used) I've used, either by purchasing, borrowing, or promotional copy. Cents and Sensibility is up and running. I went back to some of my Amazon.com reviews and copied them over. I have a bunch more product reviews to transfer over but it's been slow going. I also have quite a few recent purchases I want to feature too. Today's review is of Trend Micro's Titanium Maximum Security software. I'd be honored if you'd hop on over there, read a review or two, comment, and follow me via Google Friend, Twitter or even Facebook, all 3 would be amazing! I don't have a blog button yet so please follow the below link!

Visit Cents and Sensibility!

I Heart Heartsy!

I know I just shared Heartsy the other day but I can’t not share the shop that’s up for grabs tomorrow.

Solocosmo is a brilliant artist. Her designs are stunning and I can’t wait to receive the prints I ordered today. I plan to frame then and hang them in my kids rooms. Most of them are for my son’s room.

Heartsy features 4 new Etsy shops each day. You have the opportunity to purchase store credit to use within 3 months of your purchase date.

Membership is free, however, there is a VIP option for $10 a month you get $10 MORE store credit than a non VIP member. Plus you get to access the next day deals one day before all regular members. As well as access to VIP only shops.

So, it works like this for the Solocosmo shop tomorrow:

For $16 you receive $40 of store credit. VIPs receive $50.

It’s a great deal and the VIP membership pays for itself right there in that first transaction! I just signed up for the VIP today because I HAD to get these prints! There was only 1 available so I wanted to be sure I got them. I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow and risk not getting them.

Here are the ones I purchased. All in the mini size except the boy with the frog is 8.5 x 11 and the mermaid is 5 x 7.

Tell me these aren’t beautiful!? I can’t wait to see what else she makes.

Adorable Booties! And a baby update!

I haven't done much of a personal update about my pregnancy for a while but I just ordered some of the most adorable booties I've ever seen and I must share them!

I found this Etsy shop via a Pregnancy blog I follow, which is Pregnancy & Newborn: Baby Buzz.

Bison Girl Shop hand makes these adorable baby booties and I just had to have a pair. So I ordered these:

And then I saw that she also makes custom pairs too! So, I had her go shopping for some cute frog fabric, we picked our favorite and she went right to work! Here are the custom froggy ones:

Discount!

Erica (Bison Girl Shop) has offered 10% off her shop for my readers! Just enter COZYREADER11 before February 1st! Thanks so much Erica! She was such a breeze  to work with and I can't wait to order more of these! (psst... they're only $20!)

Our nursery theme is frogs and we already have a few froggy outfits so these will be  perfect additions.

You're probably wondering about our theme and thinking...hmm, frogs and blue and green are awfully boyish things. That's because we're having a boy!

We've already picked out his name: Rylie Shane (Shane is my hubby's middle name).

We're so excited about his arrival. We've started to transform our 6 year old daughter's, Madison, playroom into her new room. We've started painting and should have it done this weekend. Then we'll start on Rylie's room. We've ordered the bedding:

Click picture to see close ups.

We also ordered the matching crib mobile as well as the mural pattern as seen in this picture.

We also love the furniture in this picture so much that we tracked it down and hope to either order it ourselves or hope that maybe the grandparents can help fund the purchase. We have our old furniture but we'd love to get this dark wood as well as the advancement in safety this crib has to offer.

We had our 20 week anatomy ultrasound just before Christmas. Obviously finding out he's a he, we got a few great pictures.  Here are just a few:

To see the rest, feel free to check them out on my Facebook album. It's public so no worries about having to sign in or create an account.

All is well with little Rylie, however, my amniotic fluid measured in one point above normal so they want to double check it at 28 weeks, which will be February 7th. We're hoping to get another peek at Rylie. I'll be calling to find out if that's possible, otherwise I'll want to schedule a  private 3D/4D ultrasound with StorkVision, which we did with Madison and would hate to not have one for our son.

As of right now I'm 24 weeks and 2 days. I've been feeling good, definitely feeling pregnant. I've been sleeping pretty good since I treated myself to a maternity pillow. I haven't gained too much, about 10 lbs., so I don't feel like a whale quite yet. I gained 70 lbs. with Madison. I'm really hoping to get no where near that!

He is so active it's crazy! I've been able to feel him move since about 14 weeks and it's like he hasn't stopped since! He's so active I thought maybe there was something wrong but the doctors insist that it's not a bad thing when they move regularly, even if it's forceful, but to worry when they aren't moving enough. I'm glad that's one thing I don't have to worry about right now. :)

I'll be sure to update you with any more cute purchases as well as  updates from our next ultrasound.

Technorati Tags: baby booties,booties,Etsy,Bison Girl Shop

LuShae Jewelry – The Edwardian

This is a product review.

LuShae Jewelry contacted me about reviewing a piece of their jewelry. I took a peek at their selection and decided, “Sure, why not!”.

Let me begin at how hard it was to pick one thing. LuShae Jewelry has a nice selection of:

• Rings
• Pendants
• Earrings

My New Bookcase!

CSN Office Furniture sent me a LOVELY bookcase to review! I got to choose which one I wanted (with a budget of course!) and they shipped it to me free of charge so long as I did a honest review of the bookcase.

This is the Winsome 9245 - Espresso Wide 3 Section Storage Shelf, SKU # WN1023 $95.00. FREE SHIPPING!

Overview (CSN Office Furniture.com):

With its classic, sturdy design, this elegant shelving unit fulfills both style and functional requirements. Its three sections hold the Espresso Large Storage Basket or two Small Storage Baskets perfectly. Mix and match with the other Espresso Storage Shelves, both narrow and wide.
Features:

• Three sections plus the top display shelf
• Smooth, sleek design
• Espresso finish
• Dimensions: 42" H x 25.25" W x 11.25" D

NOTE: Please be aware that we are unable to ship this product to Puerto Rico.

I chose this bookcase for several reasons. The first would be because of the color. I love dark wood. The second was the number of shelves. I liked that this one has 3 shelves and it's not too tall. I have a 5 shelf bookcase in another room and it's massively tall. And lastly, I would actually pay $95.00 for this bookcase.
This bookcase is 100% all wood. It's not laminated press board or anything like that. It's fairly heavy and sturdy. The finish is very nicely done. There are some minor flaws that are to be expected of real wood ie knots and grooves.
It came shipped in a nice and tight box. Upon opening the box I did notice that the protective sheeting was ripped and I was concerned that the finish would have been scratched as well but no, all was well!

Putting it together took about an hour. I put it together all by myself, bright and early this morning. It came with the required screws and the allen wrench. It was a bit tricky to get the allen wrench to work properly but no real hick ups.

I did end up moving it to the dining room table because to turn the allen wrench you needed space between the shelf and the floor.
I decided to put it in my living room beside the fish tank. I can now see my books from my seat on the love seat. The top row are books that need to be read and reviewed. The middle are books I've won and one or two that I've purchased. The bottom row are books I've completed and already reviewed left side standing or need reviewed left side laying down.

So there you have it! A great little bookcase that's functional, elegant, and not too pricey! When you factor in that the shipping is free you can consider this a bargain!
Thank you CSN Office Furniture for the opportunity to review a wonderful product from your online store!

ETA: All links were deleted per request on 12/08/11.

Answers to comments:

Donna -

Nope, not all my books. These are the most recent additions and I still have a few that didn't make it on here. I hope to swap a few to the "already read" shelf to make room for new books! Most of these have been given to me as contest prizes or review copies. I own a Kindle and I hardly ever purchase physical books anymore. There's only one book on there that I purchased!

Time for a new Bookcase!

I've been wanting to get a new bookcase.

Money has been tight and space is another factor.

I wish money wasn't an obstacle and I could have a few things that I really would love to have. You know, the big stuff that costs lots of money and depletes the monthly income by half? Yeah, I'd love a new house. A bigger house. With a wrap around porch and an indoor swimming pool and lots of acres for a cow, goat, chickens, and maybe even a pig. And most definitely a library. A big library with the ladder and rail system. Can you see it? I can.

But the reality is that I'll probably never have those things and that is one of the biggest reasons why I love reading. Books are pretty cheap and most of them have the ability to take you far, far away. Books need homes too. So, we buy bookcases! :)

I was contacted by CSN Office Furniture to pick out a piece of their furniture for review.

I took a peek around their site and boy do they have some cool things. Again, if money were no obstacle I would own that house and furnish it with these:

But taller and all around a huge room with big comfy sofas and love seats.

CSN Office Furniture has tons of stuff from bookcases to office desks and even seating.

I'm going to pick out a cute little bookcase for my review. Check back and see which one I pick and what I thought about it!

For now, take a peek at CSN Office Furniture's site and see if there's anything you can afford to give your books a new home!