Product Review: White Balance Lens Cap

I started this post last October intending on saving it as a draft, but instead published an incomplete post. Sorry about that!

One of the challenges of learning photography is being able to correct White Balance. For those of you that don't know anything about it, this is being able to have the colors appear "true" and not distorted by different wavelengths of light. Objects will appear to be different colors in different types of light (fluorescent, incandescent, sunshine, etc.). When the White Balance is off, you can get some crazy color casts in your photos which can be a major pain challenge to try to correct.

I did a search and found the following link which was a big help in deciding whether or not I should get a White Balance Lens Cap.

How Photojojo's White Balance Lens Cap is Saving Both My Sanity and Editing Time

Here are the links to the White Balance Lens Caps that I bought (one for each lens that I own):

58 mm

67 mm

Unfortunately, I lost the smaller White Balance Lens Cap when we went to Florida. However, I can still use the larger one over the smaller lens. One day, when I get around to it, I'll buy another one of the smaller White Balance Lens Caps.

I don't have any pictures to show you at this time to show what a difference it makes (go to the first link to view her photos), but I'm very happy with the results. It is VERY easy to set the White Balance using the caps.

Product Review: Kindle Fire Cover

My brothers and I got my mom a Kindle Fire for Christmas.  She has been reading on it every day and loves it!  (I'm so glad!)  She doesn't yet use it to its full potential since she doesn't have internet, but once she comes to visit, I'll be able to show her how to use the internet stuff.

My friend Lori who blogs at Frog's Lilypad made a cover for her Kindle Fire recently.  I was so impressed with it and immediately decided that my mom needed one, too!  My mom's favorite color is purple, so I picked out a fabric that I thought she would like.

Here is the final product:

Click on the photo to go to A Pocketful O' Posies Etsy Shop

I think it turned out great!  Lori put in a card saying something like, "Dear Grandma, I hope you enjoy your new Kindle cover.  Love, Gracie."

I love surprises (getting and giving), so I didn't say anything to my mom about getting a package in the mail.  I didn't have to wonder when she got it, because she called this afternoon.  "I need to speak to Gracie!"  (That's the quickest hand-off I've ever gotten!  LOL!)  She thanked Gracie profusely over the phone (I had it on speakerphone), and Gracie stared at the phone like she'd lost her mind.  She was somewhat clueless about it all.

Lori is planning on selling more Kindle covers in her Etsy Shop.  This would make a great gift for someone you love, too!

Product Review: Sony BabyCall Monitor

When I was pregnant with my daughter Gracie, I spent hours at the local Babies-R-Us (as well as the baby departments of Walmart, Target, etc.) trying to decide on all of the items to get for my little one.  My husband and I knew that we would get a monitor of some sort.  Robert wanted to get a video monitor, but I didn't really see a need for it. (Now that she's an adventurous toddler, I can see where the video monitor would be helpful!)  We kind of procrastinated getting one.  Then, one morning, I had gotten up and was checking email on the computer and went back to my bedroom to check on Gracie.  She was hollering her little head off.  I felt terrible because I had not heard her.  She probably had not been crying all that long, but I still felt terrible.  I did some research, read a lot of comments on Amazon, and settled on the Sony Baby Call Nursery Monitor.

The Sony BabyCall Nursery monitor is a fantastic monitor!  It is highly sensitive to sound and can amplify sound enough to wake up the dead.  I like to keep it on wide open high volume so I don't miss anything, plus to make sure she wakes me up.  When the central a/c/heat is on, we can actually hear that noise as well.  It acts almost like a white noise machine.

It is a durable monitor.  Somehow, ours got a scratch on the front, and the antenna on the receiver is somewhat coming out (the antenna is not supposed to be used as a handle, but it's so convenient!), but it still works great.  If Gracie bangs it on the table, the channel settings can get out of place.  That's an easy fix, though, and she doesn't do it anymore.  I have to be careful not to have my iPhone lying too close to it or the monitor will spew forth snap, crackle, pop sounds when the iPhone is fetching data.

All in all, I highly recommend this monitor.  The only thing I wish I had done differently was to get two receivers.  If we have a boy in the future, I will get another monitor just like this one, will set the channels the same and will use the two receivers in two different rooms (my bedroom and the living room).

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated in any way for this product review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Product Review: TaDoodles Crayons for Toddlers

Before Gracie was ever born, I saw these neat TaDoodles Crayons for Toddlers, and knew I would want to get them for her as soon as she reached the right age.

I like the idea of celebrating "half-birthdays" since I always became very excited when I turned another half-year older when I was a child.  This milestone was doubly exciting because it also meant that Christmas was right around the corner!

Gracie turned 18 months old on July 27th, and I bought her these fun crayons and markers.  (I also wanted to buy something school-related since all the Back to School stuff was out.  Last year I bought her a cute little Hello Kitty lunchbox to use for her bottles and snacks.)

I didn't get to give her her new crayons and markers until a week after she turned 18 months because things were kinda hectic around here.  The day I introduced them to her, I had hoped it would entertain her enough so that I could get some work done in my office.  That was wishful thinking!

Gracie enjoyed coloring (scribbling) some.  The round holder made it easy for her to grab onto and move around.

However, within a couple of minutes, to my great disappointment (but not too great of a surprise), she was able to pull the crayon out of the holder!

"Mama, fix it!"

And, so, with some jiggling, I fixed it, along with the red one, and the yellow one.  And in so doing, I got crayon marks on my hands.  I'm not sure if this is a particular trait of washable crayons, but I've never had crayons smear so easily on my hands like that.  And of course, they were on Gracie's hands as well.  They did wash off pretty well.

Gracie actually had more fun manipulating the crayons and markers, putting them in a row.....













...and then putting them in a little basket.

I tried out the marker to see how it would do, and it marked quite a bit on the paper.  It did not bleed through the paper, but with a toddler at the wheel, it probably would.

"Uh-oh, it came out.  I will fix it."

"I like carrying them around."





















Overall, I was disappointed in the product.  I didn't like how easily the crayons came out of the holders.  I didn't like how easily the crayon smeared on our hands.  The markers did the same thing, but that's to be expected.  It's a cute product, but I wouldn't recommend it.  I will probably take the crayons out of the holders and just let her play with those.  Balls are one of her favorite things, after all.  As for the markers, until that ink dries up, I can't even re-purpose those.

Disclaimer:  I was in no way compensated for this review.  I bought the products myself.  All opinions are my own.

Product Review: Gyrobowl

Please tell me I'm not the only person who has seen the commercial for Gyrobowl and thought, "That is SO COOL!"  It wasn't until my daughter was old enough to carry about her own snacks, but not old enough to balance the containers well enough to keep them from spilling that I finally broke down and ordered them.

I ordered them from their main website,  http://www.gyrobowl.com, taking advantage of their "buy one get one free" special.  Even though they said there would be a 3-week delay, they arrived within two weeks' time.

The one thing that happened that I did NOT like at all was they called me personally to tell me that they were on back-order (that's not the bad part) and then proceeded to try to sell me a membership in some money-saving club thing.  The girl talked SO FAST that I couldn't really grasp everything she was telling me, then she wanted me to verify my credit card number that I'd used to order the gyrobowls.  Ummm, no!!  I got off the phone with her, and then thought, "I better make sure they understand that I did NOT want to have my card charged for anything more than the gyrobowls."  I called them back, and actually got the same girl, and she assured me that I would get no other charges.  I kinda wish I had given her some friendly proper-customer-service advice, but I didn't.  (Don't hate me because I used to be a telemarketer!)

Sooooo, on to the review.....as you can see from the pictures below, the Gyrobowl is a great hit with my daughter!  It is, however, not entirely spill-proof.  The Very First Time she used it, she crammed her hand in the bowl which made the contents come up the sides and spill out. Other than that, as long as she shows a little bit of restraint, it does work quite well.

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated at all for this review.  All opinions are my own.

Product Review: In search of baby-friendly cups!

  Pictured above are just a FEW of the MANY cups I have bought for my daughter over the past year or so.

The three in front on the left with the hard spout and handles would probably work well now, but when I started Gracie on drinking from a cup, she had a hard time sucking on that hard spout.  Also, the valves were rather leaky.  When she first learned how to use a straw (just after she turned one), I got the cups in the back that have the straw.  She LOVED them!  The problem was that she also loved to play with them.  Rather than calmly drinking from it, she would make exciting discoveries such as, "Wow! I can take the straw out!  And when I shake it or turn it upside down, my drink comes out, too!"

 

I found these great cups (Nuby brand) to replace the ones with the hard spouts.  Gracie had a much easier time sucking on these soft spouts.  They are valve-free and are spill-proof!  Well, mostly!  If the bottle is, for example, upside-down in a car seat or a diaper bag and the spout is bent, then the liquid will drip out.  I started Gracie on these at about 6 months and we still use them a year later!  I primarily fill these with water.  I also have one (not pictured) that is similar that has a straw.

You probably also noticed the cute name labels!  I ordered these through Inchbug.

 

Once I started Gracie on milk (at a year old), I quit using her regular bottles (Gerber), and searched for something that was all-in-one (no valves or nooks and crannies) so that it would be easy to clean.  Nothing grosser than icky dried-up nasty milk residue!  These Ziploc cups have worked out great!  UPDATE:  I really do not like the lids on these.  I began using a different kind that is similar to this, Take & Toss cups, shown below:

My daughter is now (November 2014) almost five years old, and, besides regular cups (and special cups with straws), we use these the most, especially for when we go somewhere or early in the morning when she's too sleepy to pay attention.  They are easy to get on and off.  Since Gracie is older, there's not as much of a worry if she turns it upside down and drips all of the liquid out.  I downsized down to five cups and that's just perfect for now.

 

I found these cute little guys in the juice aisle.  They actually come with packs of juice and you screw these toppers onto it.  I like it in that it is spill-proof, BUT if they are dropped in just the right way (which, of course, toddlers have a special gift of doing!), the top comes right off.  If it had a taller screw-on part with more threads, it would stay better.  I don't really like to give her juice that much, anyway.  I did keep a couple of the container parts for when I want to give her something using these toppers.  They also have Clifford the Big Red Dog and Thomas the Train.  I forget the brand name.

 

 I picked these up to use for Gracie's Valentine's Day and Easter gifts.  The Snoopy one came from Walgreen's and the straw one came from Target. Strictly for fun.  The Snoopy one did light up by pushing a button on the bottom.  It eventually got stuck in "on" mode and stayed that way for several days before the battery ran out.  Now it's a dishwasher-safe cup!

I bought these from Walgreen's a couple of years ago to give to my Sunday School class.  I no longer teach that class, but I kept these extra cups.  They were super cheap.  Gracie loves to take them and fill them with water from our water cooler.  Actually, anything that resembles a cup or water vessel is fair game for the water cooler.  (We still use these 3 years later as well as similar cups that we have collected at restaurants.)

 

Here are a couple of my favorite cups.  My husband is somewhat of a germaphobe, and he became very concerned that Gracie and other children in our church's nursery would drink out of each other's sippy cup.  He told me to "find something so unique that could be customized so that EVERYBODY would know it's hers," and he also said, "I don't care how much it costs!"  Searching on Amazon, I found these two Create-My-Own Cups -- one with a straw that can be hidden away and one with a regular spout. They both come with several pieces of paper that can be put under the outer layer (easy to do).  Some are coloring pages and some are blank.  I created my own on the computer using a picture of Gracie and her name in large print.  I went to my local Knowledge Tree to have the labels laminated.  The cups are dishwasher-safe, BUT the labels, even laminated, are NOT.  So, I take the labels out each time I wash the cups.  It works great both functionally and for the primary reason for getting it:  all of the workers know which one is hers and several of the other children know that it's hers as well.  Now they just have to keep an eye out to make sure she doesn't use someone else's cup!

Disclaimer:  I have not been compensated in any way for reviewing these products.  All opinions are my own.

Product Review: Tomato/Onion slicer

I first saw this handy-dandy little gadget in a catalog that I received in the mail.  (I do not remember which catalog.  Sorry!)  I thought it was a great idea, so I ordered one off of Ebay.  I hoped that it would make slicing and chopping onions a lot easier.

Unfortunately, it didn't.  Part of the problem lies in that when it holds the onion (or tomato or whatever) the two sides are no longer parallel which changes the angle of the knife cuts.  In fact, on some of the slices you can't line up the knife at all!

Bottom line: don't waste your money!