Renee's (Mostly) Socially Responsible Holiday Gift Guide

One of the things I love about having a blog is getting to spread the word about really cool stuff so, since it's the season of gift buying, I thought I'd list a handful of recommendations. They're all cool things on they're own, but most of them happen to have a socially responsible component to them as well. You know, if you're into that kind of thing.

1. Envirosax - This is probably the hundredth time I've mentioned these wonderful reusable bags, but hey. I love them. They're a good size (pretty big but not overly so), heavy duty (I load mine up with ridiculous amounts of groceries and they don't ever rip), safe to carry food in, stylish, and they fold up very small (and very easily). Oh, and they're super lightweight. They come in pouches of five or as singles (makes a great stocking stuffer!). I get asked about mine all the time when I use them for shopping.

2. Kiva - Kiva is a really cool site where you can lend money in small or big amounts to people all around the world to help them accomplish their life goals. Sometimes the loan requests are for the basic necessities--housing expenses, etc. And sometimes they're for opening or expanding a new business. The cool thing is that Kiva combines monies from all different lenders to fulfill each person's loan, so you can make a real difference in someone's life with as little as $25. Their site is easy to use and I've found it really fun to surf around through the various loan requests to decide who I want to lend my money to. When the money is repaid (and it most often is), you can simply reinvest it in another Kiva loan. It's truly a gift that keeps on giving. You can purchase a Kiva card (like a loan gift certificate) for someone on your list and then they can redeem it and decide how to spend the funds (i.e. whose loan to fund).

3. The Cup Cooley - This is a reusable silicone beverage sleeve. It's way more environmentally friendly than the paper ones that get thrown out and it does a better job of protecting your hands from your scalding tea or half-cafe double decaf with a twist of lemon. I have a green one and I love it.

4. Skullcandy headphones - I know I've also mentioned these at least once but the recommendation bears repeating. I <3 my Skullcandy headphones. I use the Ink'd style in-ear ones. The sound is great and they come with three different sizes of, um, thingies (??) so that they actually stay in your ears comfortably. The only drawback is that mine didn't come with a case (not sure if others do), though it's not really a problem for me. I just wrap mine around my iPod when I'm not using them.

5. Soft Hands, Kind Heart hand cream from The Body Shop - This is a great non-greasy hand cream. I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a hand cream alone. But money from the purchase also goes towards helping to stop human trafficking. Per The Body Shop, 1.2 million kids and teens are trafficked every year for sexual exploitation and cheap labor. You can learn more (and sign a petition) here.

6. A Terra Pass - Terra Pass funds carbon offset projects. You can buy a Terra Pass that will offset the carbon footprint of your car (or a loved one's car, etc.) for a period of time. It's pretty cool. Ben got me one for Christmas a couple of years ago. On a related note, the online shoe shop PlanetShoes.com offers an option to offset the carbon cost of your shipping. (And they have good prices, good sales, good service, and good shoes.)

7. United Animal Nations - This organization is like the Red Cross, but for animals. They train volunteers who then travel to disaster areas to care for affected animals (among other services). It's a great organization to donate to in someone's name.

8. Heifer International - Another great charity. This organization provides sustainable economic solutions to underprivileged areas, largely in the form of animal husbandry. What I really like about it is that they basically operate on the whole teach-a-man-how-to-fish principle: they provide animals and also teach the recipients how to care for the animals and turn them into a prosperous business. The recipients are also encouraged to (perhaps required? I can't remember.) share their profits with their neighbors, again in the form of animal goods. For example, you send a bunch of guinea pigs to a cool dude in Peru. That dude learns how to care for the guinea pigs and breed them. Some he uses for food and other goods, some he sells. When they have babies, he gives or trades some of the babies to a neighbor and teaches the neighbor how to raise the guinea pigs, etc. And so it goes.

9. Etsy.com - This is quite a broad category because you can find freaking everything on Etsy. But Etsy is essentially an online marketplace for individual craftspeople. The goods offered there range from the kind of stuff you might see at your church bazaar all the way to artisan quality crafts. The reason I like shopping there is that more often than not, I'm supporting a person who is trying to make a business out of something they love--not unlike what I'm doing with my writing. And all those catalogs we get at this time of the year? I guarantee you can find at least 60% of that stuff in a similar form, hand made, at equal or better quality, for half the price on Etsy. Here are a couple of my favorite shops:

The Clay Collection - A gaming geek's paradise. Earrings, cufflinks and other cool things made from polymer clay in perfect miniaturized replicas of current and retro game controllers, gaming characters, and other whimsical things.

Flawed Jewelry Designs - Cute, tasteful jewelry made from recycled and re-purposed vintage jewelry and materials for great prices.

10. And, of course, books. :D I think that giving someone a book that touched you in some way is one of the most thoughtful gifts you can give.

Remembering my years

So I did this really cool thing a couple of weekends ago. I made a 2009 Year in Review photo book.

I took all the pictures I'd taken in 2009 and uploaded them to Shutterfly (who I wouldn't necessarily recommend but I had a coupon so, yanno...). Then, in chronological order, I made a digital layout for each photo or group of photos that were representative of my 2009. I included everything from weddings, births (baby nephew ftw!!), and goodbyes to pictures of Ben and Logan cuddled up on the couch. I captioned pictures that had inside jokes or that had a larger story attached to them--things I'd be likely to forget in ten or twenty years without a reminder. And I dated everything, based on the date stamp feature of my camera.

I freaking love this book. I scrapbook in the traditional way, also. However, I'm IMPOSSIBLY behind and will never ever ever catch up. There's no way that i would have scrapped half of these pictures and, even the ones that would have gotten done, would have been done so far from when the events happened, I wouldn't have remembered half the details I do now.

I'm not quite ready to abandon my traditional scrapbooking for good, but this will definitely be an annual tradition in our house from now on. I strongly encourage you to do the same. It was a pretty powerful experience to see my year laid out before me. I love having the everyday moments captured as well as the big events. I even took a couple of pages just to journal my thoughts on some of the major things that happened to me last year (one page on my writing journey, a page on Ben's motorcycle accident...).

I'm not crazy about Shutterfly's user interface. Everything is small and I found it really difficult to get an overall sense of how the book would be in its final form. Also, there is a typo in the finished version (ARGH!!!) despite the fact that I read through it at least three times. Another testament to how difficult it is to really see everything you've laid out. My critique partners can attest to how thorough and picky I am at typos and grammatical stuff! They do have a lot of layout choices for your pictures, however.

If you have a Mac, I'd definitely recommend using their software. I've made a book for Kaz through iPhoto before, and also received one as a gift from my sister-in-law. Their interface is easy to use and has many choices. It was easy to see how the book would ultimately look. My only complaint about theirs is that you only have a month or so to order extra copies of any book you make. For example, I was out of luck when I decided almost a year later that I wanted a copy of the book I'd made for Kaz. On Shutterfly, your book is there forever and you can re-order it forever (as far as I can tell). You can make similar books through many other sites - Snapfish, Kodak, etc.

Anyway, I highly recommend this. Especially if you have kids. It's well worth the time and money to preserve your memories in a meaningful way where they can be enjoyed again and again, instead of just dumping your pictures onto your computer and never (or rarely) looking at them again.

Friday Five: Things Renee Loves

I thought I'd try to balance out a little of the LJ karma after two rants in one week by giving you five things I've been absolutely loving lately:

1. CABOT Garlic and Herb Cheddar on Kashi Heart to Heart crackers. NOM NOM NOM. Goes especially well with wine. Any wine. The cheese and crackers are not picky. ;)

2. The Rejectionist. Oh. My. God. I'm quite certain The Rejectionist is the funniest publishing-related blog to ever have existed. Perhaps just the funniest blog, period. I have just discovered her scathing wit this week but I'm sure many of you have been reading her for ages. This entry is one of my personal faves so far. As is this one. Rejectionist, I <3 <3 you.

3. My Skullcandy ear buds. A. They act like ear plugs so you can effectively and comfortably drown out cubicle neighbors who shout on conference calls, cubicle neighbors who insist on taking every. stinking. call. on speaker phone, and annoying bus riders like The Sniffer. Oh. Oops! That sounded an awful lot like ranting, didn't it? Moving on!! B. The music sounds great. C. They have THE MOST ADORABLE TEENY TINY SKULLS ON THEM YOU'VE EVER SEEN!!!! Not as adorable as Peepshi or miniature donuts (!!) but close. Very close.

4. Puzzle Quest on the XBox 360. Best. Time Waster. Evar. (It's my second time playing through.) (I know.) (Sssh.)

5. My WIP. But I'm not so self indulgent that I'm actually going to expound on that one. ;)

Wedding picspam and my husband's new crush

Before we get to Ben's new crush, a quick word about my weekend. We went to a wedding on Saturday. The coolness factor of the event (and, really, the couple themselves) can pretty much be summed up by these two pictures:


The placecards. We decided Ben was the Storm Trooper.


Champagne? We don't need no stinking champagne! These were the choices to toast with. We chose the Guinness (OBviously. Guinness is nectar of the gods. Besides, Baileys provokes Biological Events of Which We Shall Not Speak (tm). Fricking dairy.)

Our "placecard" only lasted long enough for me to photograph it.



Me: OMG! Are you eating my ass??
Ben: *big innocent eyes* No! I'm lifting you.
Me: Pffft. Whatever. Hey! Cool. I have both guns. Ha!

But Mr. Storm Trooper's work wasn't done for the evening, oh no:



Last, a pic of the Wishing Wall we got the couple, which they cleverly brought to the wedding:



This environmentally friendly cardboard frame has a corrugated honeycomb inside and comes with lots of colorful slips of paper. The idea is, your friends and family (or you or whomever) write wishes for you on the paper, roll them up and slide them into the honeycomb slots in the frame. I'm madly in love with this idea and want to buy them for everyone for every occasion -- weddings, babies, new houses, etc. You like? Check it out at Uncommon Goods (super great company, btw!).

Onto the new crush...

You need to understand that we're working our way through the seasons of Battlestar Galactica, which is really great and you should all go rent it right now, amen. I suppose what I'm about to say contains minor spoilers though, really, you can see them coming from a mile away so feel free to read on even if you haven't watched the show yet. ;)

So here we are in bed last night, lights out, snuggled up*, expressing our love in the typical Sweet style:
Me: I promise I'll never divorce you for Lee Adama.
Ben: I love you! I promise I'll never divorce you for Captain Thrace.
Me: I lov--
Ben: Because you're pretty and black.
Me: O.o

Yup. Ben's got the hots for Dualla.



Me? I like Starbuck. Dee's too...nice.



Have you watched the show? If so, who's your crush?


*Well, as snuggled up as two people can be with a 30 pound terrier between them.

Lynx. Rawr.

I've been hard at work on my query letter in between the Day Job and other events, such as visiting the bundle o' sweetness otherwise known as Baby Nephew. Therefore, I present a random smattering of links and things I've generally been meaning to post here for a while. Ta-Da!

~~~
The lovely and talented Karen Mahoney has a short story in a YA Vampire anthology coming out this summer called The Eternal Kiss (hint! click the link to pre-order now!). Here's the gorgeous cover:

Srsly (tm). Is that cool, or what?

She'll be joined by twelve other talented authors: Kelley Armstrong, Holly Black, Libba Bray, Sarah Rees Brennan, Rachel Caine, Cecil Castellucci, Cassandra Clare, Melissa De La Cruz, Nancy Holder & Debbie Viguie, Dina James, Maria V. Snyder and Lili St. Crow. I can't wait!

~~~
A list of "empty adverbs," courtesy of Holt Uncensored via Editorial Ass: actually, totally, absolutely, completely, continually, constantly, continuously, literally, really, unfortunately, ironically, incredibly, hopefully, finally. Run to your WIPs, my darlings, and CTRL F your little hearts out. This list was part of a Ten Mistakes Writers Make post that's really worth checking out, whether you've got 70 books under your belt or 70 words. Click on the Holt link for the full version or the EA link for a slightly abbreviated list.

~~~
This is really random, but Mother's Day is approaching so I thought I'd take a second opportunity to pimp one of my favorite products: Envirosax. I featured Envirosax in my first Product of the Week post and I'm going to be completely annoying and ask that you click the link for all the info because I'm short on time. In short, they're really freaking cool reusable bags. They're running a special right now if you buy one pouch of five bags, you can get a Retro Kitchen pouch free. And the Retro Kitchen pouches are on sale. So, you can buy a Retro Kitchen pouch on sale and get one free! That's a heckuva deal for a product I love and a company I love to support. Go buy your mother something she'll love *and* use for Mother's Day. And, um, if a certain Mother-in-law happens to be reading this particular entry just, uh, pretend you never saw this. ;)

Product of the Week: Tom's of Maine Toothpaste

Reminder: Today is the last day to enter the Carrie Jones contest. In honor of Carrie, Tala and Need, I've chosen a Product of the Week from Maine, where Carrie and Tala live and where Need takes place.

Product of the Week:

Tom's of Maine Toothpaste

What is it?
Toothpaste produced by a socially and environmentally responsible company. Tom's has a pretty extensive line of personal care products, but their toothpaste is my favorite so I've chosen to highlight it here. Check their website to view the entire line.



Why do I love it?
Let me count the ways!

1. Tom's is a company I can really get behind. 10% of their pre-tax profits are donated to non-profit organizations. Employees are eligible to use 5% of their paid work time to perform volunteer work. They don't test on animals--in fact, they even successfully petitioned the FDA to accept a non-animal-testing alternative for their fluoride toothpaste, according to their website. They're environmentally conscious with their product packaging (see below for more on this one). Oh, and they allow their employees to bring dogs to work. How much better can it get?

2. Packaging. I'm increasingly dismayed at the amount of waste produced on a minutely basis by packaging in this country alone. Tom's takes a pretty sensitive approach, minimizing packaging where possible and producing the majority of it with carefully selected materials that are either recycled, recyclable or both. For example, their deoderant sticks are packaged in a single type of plastic (#5) so that the entire thing can be recycled - an industry first, according to their website.

3. I can read a lot of the ingredients. Phew! Unpronounceable synthetic chemicals are definitely on the axis of evil for this body.

4. It's darned good toothpaste. It has a light, natural, pleasant taste and keeps my teeth clean. Tom's also offers a really extensive variety of toothpastes -- everything from sensitive to children's.

Where Can You Get It?
These days, just about any place that sells toothpaste. Whoo-hoo for responsible alternatives making their way to mainstream, commercial shelves! If you can't find it at your toothpaste retailer of choice, there's always Amazon.

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.

Product of the Week: Marcal Paper

Product of the Week:

Marcal paper products

What is it?
A line of responsible paper goods (napkins, toilet paper, paper towels, etc.).



Marcal Paper Mills, Inc. is a fourth generation family owned(see below) company based out of New Jersey. They manufacture 100% recycled paper products, most with 30% or more post consumer content.

Why do I love it?
I try to live responsibly, but sometimes convenience weighs out over environmentalism: paper napkins instead of cloth, tissues instead of handkerchiefs. For the times when I do rely on disposable products, I want to have the peace of mind that some good is coming out of my weakness. :) I've found Marcal products to be high quality and very affordable -- without a high environmental price tag attached to them. And the fact that it's a family owned business is even better. *Marcal filed for Chapter 11 in 2006 and has been owned by Highland Capital Management since 2008. (Thank you for the heads up, anonymous commenter!)

We regularly uses their napkins, toilet paper and tissues. I find their products to be soft enough for everyday use and I love that the recycling process makes their tissues almost lint free--those of you who have ever tried to clean a pair of glasses with Kleenex brand tissues know what I'm talking about here.

A word on their paper towels: I used to buy them religiously. Recently, I've switched back to another brand, however. The Marcal paper towels are a bit on the flimsy side and I found I was having to use twice to three times as many to clean up the same spill I could tackle with a single Bounty sheet (for example). I'm still not sure I made the right decision--is one paper towel made from trees better or worse for the planet than three paper towels made from trash? But, there's my full disclosure, for what it's worth.

Where Can You Get It?
I can usually find their products at Shaw's and Stop and Shop (two of the three major grocery store chains in my area). You can also buy it on Amazon (even in bulk!) and, likely, other online retailers.

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.

Product of the Week: Wintersong

Product of the Week:

Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan
Still on a holiday kick here at Product of the Week...

What is it?
Sarah McLachlan's long anticipated Christmas album, released in 2006.



Track Listing:
Happy Xmas (War is Over) John Lennon cover
What Child is This? (Greensleeves)
River Joni Mitchell cover
Wintersong original song
I'll Be Home For Christmas
O Little Town of Bethlehem
The First Noel/Mary Mary
Silent Night
Song for a Winter's Night Gordon Lightfoot cover
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
In the Bleak Midwinter
Christmas Time is Here featuring Diana Krall

Why do I love it?
I was listening to this the other day and thinking for the billionth time about how much I love it. This is amazing, because I'm incredibly picky about Christmas music. I've probably thrown away more Christmas albums that you've ever owned. Srsly (tm). It's a good selection of songs, a mix of old favorites and some non-traditional cuts. Her vocals are very mellow and a little melancholy. This definitely isn't a jubilant disc, buyer beware. Wintersong is beautiful and very sad. I keep it in my MP3 player year round, because although it mentions Christmas in the lyrics, it isn't really a Christmas song anymore than Joni Mitchell's River is. In addition to her beautiful vocals, I particularly like the original arrangements she's done on some of the songs. The First Noel/Mary Mary has an exotic sound to it, which I love. And if I didn't have a strict Christmas-music-only-during-Christmas-time rule, I'd listen to her version of In the Bleak Midwinter year round.


Where Can You Get It?
Any music retailer should carry it and you can preview the songs on Amazon or iTunes.

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.

Product of the Week: Cranium

Product of the Week:

Cranium
In light of the upcoming holiday season, I thought I'd highlight a product with great gift-giving potential.

What is it?
A super-fun, wacky board game that sort of combines Trivial Pursuit, Charades and Pictionary with word games, clay and humming.


The box lists it as recommended for 13 and up, but I suspect that's due to some of the knowledge required and not any inappropriate content. Four or more players are needed since it's a team based game.

Why do I love it?
This game is seriously fun and it literally has something for everyone. There are four categories of things to do in order to advance around the board. Green is variations on charades, typically requiring you to act something out or impersonate someone to get your teammate to correctly guess the answer. Red is like Trivial Pursuit -- all sorts of fact based questions in either true/false, multiple choice or straight up answer the question forms. Blue is like Pictionary with a few twists: you either have to draw something (sometimes with your eyes closed - I'm a champ at those!) or sculpt something with clay to get your teammate to guess the correct answer. Yellow is word based: you have to spell a word backwards without writing it down or unscramble a word puzzle, etc.

Add a bottle of wine (or three, as we did at my in-laws on Sunday night) and let the hilarity ensue. I feel I should warn you, though. Playing this game could cause you to reveal serious character flaws, such as your complete inability to draw a poodle:



Yeah. The top one's mine, the bottom one's Ben's. You can guess who won.

Where Can You Get It?
Amazon's got the cheapest price I can find, at $14.99. The box is a bit heavy, so I would definitely recommend buying it somewhere with free or flat shipping.

This would make a great holiday gift for anyone on your list!

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.

Product of the Week: Cool Feet

Product of the Week:

Cool Feet

Interestingly, the same friend who introduced me to Envirosax also pointed me in the direction of these babies after I'd complained of my laptop digging into my wrists. She's a keeper.

What are they?
Cool little suction cup feet for your laptop. They come with sized-to-fit plastic stick-on discs in case you don't have a smooth surface laptop. Mine stick to my Mac just fine without the discs. They also come in a handy (though cheaply made) little carrying pouch.



Why do I love them?
Two reasons. First, they come in sets of four with two larger and two smaller feet. This enables you to tilt your laptop ergonomically. Bye-bye sharp Mac edges! Bye-bye wrist strain! I use all four (big ones in the back, small ones in the front), but you can use just two--either the bigger or smaller ones--in the back if that's what feels better for you.



I use a crappy, broken lapdesk when I write, making it very easy to use the Cool Feet. The manufacturer's website shows a picture of a guy using them balanced on his knees. I've tried this and don't find it comfortable, so that's something to keep in mind.

Second, they allow air to circulate under your laptop (hence the name -- Cool Feet). I didn't buy them for this reason and can't personally back up their manufacturer's claim that they'll extend your laptop's life. But I can verify that my laptop stays much cooler when I use my Cool Feet than when I rest it on my lap desk or my lap directly.

Where can you get them?
They retail for $12.95 through the Blue Lounge site, but this price came in about a dollar more than I could get them for from Amazon with shipping. Please note: they're sold through an Amazon partner, so they're not available for free shipping or Amazon Prime. You'll spend around $14 for a set. Not a bad holiday gift for a laptop user, eh?

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.

Product of the Week

I feel there are very few ways we, as regular citizens, can exercise immediate, tangible influence over the world. Voting is one of them. Carefully choosing where you spend your consumer dollars is another. To that end, I’m instituting a new feature here at Words from the Inside Out: Product of the Week. Once a week, I will highlight a product that I love and want to pass the word about. Occasionally, I may also highlight a product I’d like to warn consumers about. I encourage you to do the same – sort of a weekly meme. :) So, without further ado...

Product of the Week:

Envirosax

I found these amazing bags a couple of years ago through my friend April and they remain one of my favorite products.

What are they?

From their website: "Lightweight polyester, portable, waterproof, and weighing just 1.4oz each, these groovy bags are available individually or as a series of 5 contained within a handy pouch. With reinforced seams, each surprisingly large bag can hold a weight the equivalent of two supermarket plastic bags."

Why do I love them?

They're environmentally friendly. I keep the handy sack of five in my car and take them with me into the grocery store. I've never needed more than the five bags, even for my biggest shopping trip. Some stores will even credit you per bag for bringing your own. Buying produce? Skip all the wasteful clear plastic bags and devote one of your envirosax to produce. The bags dry out quickly and you don't have to worry about any germs getting on your food except your own.

They're convenient. The carrying sack is small -- you can even tuck it in a larger purse. The individual bags roll up to a very small size, definitely small enough to fit in all but the tiniest of purses. And the material is a dream. It dries out quickly and wipes down easily. Convenient for carrying dirty serving dishes home from a party.

They're heavy duty. I can fit a ton in these bags. Srsly (tm). I've amazed baggers all over CT with how much I can pile in, without even straining the seams! I've also used them to carry extra shopping items at a scrapbooking convention, cooking supplies to a dinner party, I could go on and on.

They're fun. They come in all different colors and patterns -- there's even a set that's designed for kids! And they're attention-getters. I can't tell you how many people have stopped me at the grocery store to ask what they are and where I got them. Speaking of which...

Where can you get them?
At www.envirosax.com. They're sold in sets of 5 with the handy carrying sack (which also holds my coupons and my Weight Watchers Points calculator, incidentally) for $37.95 or individually for $7.95-$8.50. That might seem a little steep, especially in this depressed economy, but I've found them to be worth their money. Envirosax also donates a portion of its sales to charity, so your money is going to a good place.

*Disclaimer: The content of Product of the Week is based solely on my opinions of the product(s) and is in no way meant to represent an endorsed or sponsored advertisement by the product manufacturer or any other company; nor is it meant to represent the findings of a research study, poll or other widespread fact gathering mission. This is how I feel based on my usage and/or knowledge of the featured product. If you’ve had a different experience with the featured product(s), feel free to say so respectfully in the comments.