If you are a long time reader of my blog, you know I love this time of year. Thankgiving and Christmas are my favorite holidays. Now that doesn’t really make me special, in fact, I imagine that you probably also love this time of year. Vacation days, parties, baking, delicious food, gifts, time with friends and family—what’s not to love?

I recently was contacted by Minted.com which is a website that sells holiday cards (other cards too, but hey, it’s Christmas card time, isn’t it?). I’m no stranger to photo Christmas cards as it’s my favorite card to send and receive, and this site has a great selection!

From the company: 

MINTED; the world’s premiere marketplace for crowd-sourced independent design and art. Artists and aspiring designers from around the world have their work featured on Minted. We believe in providing the best service to our customers and uphold that ideal by using only the finest materials and products. Minted is dedicated to the celebration of life’s most important events – whether birthdays, weddings, or reunions – we’re there every step of your life’s journey.

Though the cards are more expensive than some, I think the designs are generally really beautiful and artistic! If you have had a new baby or a special event this year and want to showcase your photos to share with your friends and family, I’d definitely take a look around the site—they have so many varieties of cards in various shapes, sizes, and paper options that you are sure to find something you love. Visit the website to take a look around.

(I was offered a merchandise credit in return for sharing Minted.com with you guys, but I do think they look like a great site to get quality cards.)

Minted.com currently has a discount code for a short time. If you use the code BACKERFS (only until Nov. 4 so act fast!) you can get free card backers and free shipping on your order. I’m betting after that expires there might be another code too…

Oh, let’s see, I promised you some Caturday too…remember, send me your pictures to be featured! I have a few that I’ll save for next time, but my sister Leslie sent me this awesome one of her cats that REALLY makes me want to get a kitten for Fatty to play with…or murder…

I presume that Catalunya (black cat) survived the attack.

Thanks to Yoplait for sponsoring this post and for the opportunity to try Yoplait Fruitfuls.

What’s not to love about fruit? It’s sweet, cool, juicy, and delicious. And what’s not to love about yogurt? It’s creamy and you don’t have to waste a lot of time chewing it. So I’m glad to see that Yoplait is is dedicated to providing even more REAL FRUIT in its newest product, Yoplait Fruitful.

One of my favorite memories of Yoplait yogurt (not this product, because it’s new, but the regular kinds)—when I used to live with my sister Leslie and my two cats, we ate a lot of yogurt. After we’d finish a container of yogurt, my cat Heifetz would spend HOURS licking the inside of the container. She loved it so much and would try to get every last yogurt smelling morsel out, and struggle to get her mouth inside the tiny opening. We got so much entertainment out of watching her do this that it enticed us to eat even MORE yogurt. I wonder if Heifetz (rip) would enjoy the fruitfuls as much. I imagine so.

Facts:

1/3 cup of real  fruit in each serving.

Yoplait Fruitful is just fruit and yogurt—no artificial flavors or sweeteners.

Flavors include blueberry, mango, cherry, strawberry, peach (love love peach!), and pineapple.

I love eating yogurt for breakfast (mixed in with my oatmeal, of course) or occasionally as a late night snack or afternoon pick-me-up.

Are you a yogurt lover? Or a fruit lover? OR A FRUIT AND YOGURT TOGETHER LOVER? Do you want to try this new product? I have a coupon to offer you—it’s unfortunately not for a free yogurt, but for 30 cents off. Follow this link to learn more and download the coupon! (Yoplait Fruitful is currently only available in select Midwest and Central regions. To find out if your local store carries Yoplait Fruitful, use the “where to buy” feature located at the bottom of the Fruitful landing page.)

When do you like to eat yogurt? Has your cat ever tried to eat yogurt?

I think it’s important to moan and groan about Monday as much as possible, right? Especially when, as regular readers know, I don’t really have much on Mondays. It’s the official DAY OFF for the symphony, so Chris never has rehearsal on Mondays (unless it’s an extra gig, of course) and so I TRY to keep it clear to be lazy with him. (Then he goes golfing, which means I end up sleeping in and then guiltily and frantically responding to the masses of emails that I let pile up over the weekend…)

But I digress. As usual.

Okay, business first. I received some free stuff that I need to review. It’s from Vitacost.com which is an online discount site from which you can get all kinds of health and beauty stuff from.

I was sent two different drinks to drink. Celsius Sparkling Orange and Celsius Sparkling Wild Berry. They claim to be calorie reducing drinks. I tried them after runs to rehydrate and refresh, and they were both really tasty. (I love a sparkling beverage of any sort.) Do they, as claimed, burn up to 100 calories? I doubt it, because if that was really true, why, the person who created them would be absolutely rich—burn 100 calories by drinking this tasty drink!—everybody would be on board. But who knows. I did lose a few pounds in the past few weeks.

The drinks were tasty and made me feel better after my runs (I had four samples) so that’s good enough for me.

(I was provided the product free of charge and not obligated to write a positive review.)

My last post got weird and I don’t know what happened. I’m hoping this post publishes correctly or else I’m going to have to really work to figure out what went wrong (I did make a change in the meantime…). Blogging and computers are indeed hard work!

(Reminds me of the Titanic quote “Women and machinery do not mix.”)

As a blogger, I can’t resist occasionally taking advantage of opportunities to try and review new products (I’m a musician too, we LOVE free stuff…or at least free food!). Unfortunately the trying is easier than the reviewing! So I’m a little behind but here’s a few products that I’ve been trying lately. I’ve read some good books recently too and I’ll talk about those in the near future.

1. Nature’s Bakery:

I was sent a bunch of their fig bars to try out. These are actually really good! Leslie and I both tried a few as snacks while she was here and I bring one occasionally with me to work.  My favorite is the raspberry flavor, but I’ve liked all of the flavors I’ve tried. There are two to a pack and they are like fig newtons except more natural and more delicious! This link takes you to the nutrition information. I appreciate that it’s a fairly short list of ingredients.

2. Influenster VoxBox:

As part of the Influenster program I was sent a box full of various samples. It included Vaseline Spray and Go lotion, Colgate Optic White Whitening system, Nectresse sweetener, Dickinson Witch Hazel towelettes, and Belvita Breakfast Biscuits.

I actually haven’t tried ALL the products, but I’ve tried

Vaseline Spray and Go Lotion: it’s pretty neat, and I was already using the pump version of the product so I was thrilled to get a free sample!,

Colgate Optic White whitening toothpaste and mouthwash—with the amount of coffee I drink, I need a constant whitener! I like the texture of the toothpaste and I do believe it is working.

Leslie tried the Nectresse in her coffee (I don’t really have any use for artificial sweeteners and only use sugar for baking) and liked it so much she took the whole box home with her.

I did NOT know that! Each packet of nectresse contained a fun fact.

Though I received the above products for free I was not obligated to post a positive review.  I was not compensated beyond the free products. All opinions are my own.