Quaker State and Canadian Tire Get You on the Road

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CanadianTire #QuakerState #CollectiveBias

This summer we plan to visit family quite a bit, so the first thing I need to ensure is that my car is in tip top shape.  Sometimes you don’t have the choice of being at a standstill when traffic issues block your way, but you definitely don’t want to have your trip come to a standstill due to some easy preventative maintenance you could have done beforehand.

And who really wants to be sitting in the dealership during their summer break?  If you can do a few of the maintenance items in the comfort of your own driveway, you can at least enjoy the sunshine while you are doing it.  So head on over to your local Canadian Tire.

One of the first maintenance items you need to check off your list is ensure your the oil in your car is clean and up to date.  Your local Canadian Tire will have all the items you need including Quaker State® Advanced Durability™ Motor Oil  for your at home oil change.  Quaker State is a great oil but also a great price especially at Canadian Tire.

When it comes the oil in your car, it isn’t something you want to skimp on quality.  Quaker State oil helps your car get through all those kilometres of stop-and-go traffic, the idling and extreme temperatures that are a true test of toughness.  Quaker States tests its oil in all of these conditions and also in taxi fleets across North America to ensure it delivers even more protection for your car.  Quaker State® Advanced Durability™ Motor Oil has been proven to deliver twice the protection of the industry standard.  Your car is not a small investment, so you want to ensure have an oil to protect your car.

Be sure when you are at Canadian Tire you pick up any other of the items you may need for your oil change.   It’s your one stop shopping store and the last thing you want is to be part way thru your oil change and find you don’t have everything you need.  Doing your own oil change isn’t as easy as just pouring oil into your car, and you need to ensure you following all the safety steps like ensuring you have something blocking your rear tires to prevent it rolling away when you have it up on the jack.  Be sure you consult your car’s manual to ensure you are using the proper oil type for your car.  And don’t forget to follow your community guidelines when it come to disposing of your dirty oil.

I always like to do a quick check over of my car to ensure it has everything it needs before we head out of any trip.  Making sure that your windshield wipers aren’t coming apart, ensuring you have plenty of wiper fluid, making sure all the lights are working and tires are fully inflated are just a few of the items.  I have a little checklist that I keep on hand to make sure that I don’t forget anything.

I go around the car and check off that everything is working and clear so that I can fix anything that needs fixing prior to hitting the road.  Fluids, replacement bulbs and wipers are just a few of the many things you can pick up as well at Canadian Tire.

The last thing you want is rain dampening your trip but even more important, you don’t want to be in a situation where driving becomes dangerous due to faults with your car.  While you’re at Canadian Tire picking up any of your maintenance needs, you can pick up anything else you might need for your trip.  Road snacks are always a treat and if you trip involves a little fishing, don’t forget the worms!

You never know what kind of weather and conditions you’ll come across when travelling so it’s nice that Canadian Tire is Made for Life in Canada.

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Making my own style with Cricut Explore Air

Graphic tees seem to be all the rage these days. I am always seeing these great t-shirts with cute logos and hashtags on them. Unfortunately a lot of them come from the US and shipping to Canada isn’t always an option. So how does a girl stay in style? Use her Cricut Explore Air, of course.

I decided for my latest Cricut project that I would up the style game for my son and myself and make us both graphic tees.  Cricut has their Iron On vinyl in a variety of colors including glitter so I was ready to go.  All I needed was a t-shirt for each of us and I was ready to start creating.

My son being the huge penguin lover that he is, I knew that we had to find him something with penguins on it for his shirt.  I found a cute little logo on Etsy and got that one for him.  Once I was able to upload it to Design Space, I was able to use the Set Canvas function to select a child size tshirt to ensure the size of the image would set properly on the t-shirt.  This is such a great feature so that you aren’t guessing and wasting supplies or time.

One I was ready to print, I made sure I selected to Mirror image my logo so that it would cut properly.

You need to cut your image with the shiny side down of the iron on vinyl or you will end up with the iron on material on the wrong side.

Once I had the image cut and weeded, I was able to place the image on to the t-shirt to place it properly before ironing it on.

I used my regular iron set on the highest (Cotten/Linen) setting and made sure to iron the shirt just prior to placing the logo so that it was warm.  Once I placed the logo in place, I used a tea towel over top to protect the plastic transfer paper.  I ensured to use a lot of pressure to make sure the iron on vinyl set properly into place.

After letting the transfer cool a bit, I removed the transfer paper and the shirt was ready to wear.  It looked great and my son loved it!

For myself, I just went into Design Space and found a font that I like and using a phrase that I liked, I printed up a t-shirt for myself using the same steps as I did for my son’s.

Both of shirts have now been washed (inside out) and the transfers still look as good as new.   So now keeping up with the graphic shirt style is easy for us.

There are so many great ideas on the Cricut website to use for inspiration, I can’t wait to figure out my next project.  Stay tuned.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Cricut. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Spring Cleaning with Mrs. Meyer’s and a Giveaway

When I moved earlier this month, it was the muckiest of days and by the end of it all, the floors were an awful mess.  With spring also just around the corner, it was the perfect time for me to do a move in version of my spring cleaning and getting the house in to visitor ready shape.

Luckily for me, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day household cleaners are now available in Canada to help me spring clean my home.  Not only do they do an amazing job in cleaning, the smell amazing.  Mrs. Meyers is a real person and is the name and face behind these great products with scents that are inspired by her own Midwest backyard garden.

“It wouldn’t make MUCH SENSE to put my name on something that didn’t WORK HARD and SMELL NICE.  No reason to ruin MY REPUTATION this late in the game.” – Thelma A. Meyer on Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Products.

Their scents of basil, lavender, lemon verbena and honeysuckle are derived from plant ingredients and essential oils to give you that uplifting feeling when you are cleaning.  Their products do not contain chlorine bleach, ammonia, petroleum distillates, parabens, phosphates or phthalates. They use concentrated, biodegradable formulas and at least 25% post-consumer plastic in our bottles and they do not test on animals.  So not only do they smell amazing, but they are environmentally conscious.

They have a full line of amazing products from hand soap, dish soap, multipurpose to laundry detergent and fabric softener.  I have to say that the Basil Scented Multi-Surface Everyday Cleaner is my absolute favorite.  It smells amazing and cleans really well on all surfaces.  This one is used daily at my home.

My son’s favorite (luckily for me) is the Lemon Verbena hand soap.  You know how little boys never want to wash their hands, well I make sure I keep this at the sinks to entice him to make sure his hands are nice and clean…and smell great like a fresh, spring day.

I am really enjoying the laundry detergent and dryer sheets.  The dryer sheets are somewhat stiff and paper like and I was a little skeptical at first but they work amazing.  No static cling and the clothes come out smelling great.  I also like that fact that the laundry detergent doesn’t contain chemicals that will irritate our skin.  And with a little boy who loves to get dirty, the detergent does a great job in getting the clothes clean.

So now that my house is clean and smelling amazing, it’s time for you to try it out for yourself.  Head over to my Instagram page and you can win a collection of these amazing products for your home.

Disclosure:  Although products in the post were provided to me, all opinions, comments and photos are strictly mine.

My Kitchen Makeover

The kitchen always seems to be the hub of activity in my home so when it looked like it was fresh out of the 70’s, I knew it was time for a drastic makeover.  I wanted to make a huge impact but didn’t have the huge budget.  Thanks to the people at Home Depot, they were able to point me in right direction to make the most of my limited resources.  I showed them a few of my “before” photos so they could get an idea of what we were working with.

We determined based on my budget that painting the walls and cupboards would make the most impact.  I had already decided that I wanted a clean and fresh look to the kitchen and had white cupboards and grey walls in mind for the color scheme.  After looking at some paint samples and decided on the perfect shade of grey, it was time to get my shopping cart and load up on supplies.

The Home Depot Associate determined that we would need to prime the cupboards first due to the color and age of the doors to ensure the actual paint color adhered properly and didn’t have any issues.  With a few more pointers and words of wisdom to ensure everything turned out the way we wanted it to from the Associate, I was ready to go.

Before I go any further I must say that none of this project would have been possible without the assistance of my Mom.  There was no way I was going to be able to tackle this project and finish it in the weekend time frame allotted without her help.  Thanks Mom!

Our game plan was to get the doors primed on Friday evening, give the cupboards 2 coats of paint and the first coat of paint on the walls on Saturday and the second coat of pain on the walls Sunday morning and have everything back into place by Sunday afternoon  The first step,  once we had all the supplies ready to go was to remove the handles off the cupboards and attack them with some SOS pads.  I swear there was 20+ years of dirt and grime built up on them.  With a bit of elbow grease, it was astonishing to see the difference.

Being that the cupboards were so dark to begin with, I was glad it was suggested to prime them first.  The last thing that I wanted to have to do was give them coat after coat of paint just to get the right coverage.  I was glad it was a fairly mild evening as the primer was oil based and we needed to open up a few windows to give the area some ventilation.

By the end of Friday night, we were on track.  Cupboards were primed and we were ready to hit the ground running on Saturday morning.  I am not going to lie, when I first walked into the kitchen on Saturday morning, I had no idea how were going to stay on track and get it all done in a day.  But we plugged along and although when we finished that evening, we were completely exhausted and paint covered, the kitchen already looked completely different.

With the second coat of wall paint completed on Sunday morning by lunch time  we were able to get things back into place and I was astonished how great everything looked.

It was goodbye  70’s dark and dreary and hello bright and modern looking.  I felt even more accomplished when my son saw the new kitchen for the first time, his reaction was “Mommy, it looks AMAZING.  You and Nana did an awesome job.”

So next time you have a home renovation or makeover idea and aren’t sure of where to start, head over to your local Home Depot.  Their Associates are more than willing to point you in the right direction and  you’d be surprised what you can make happen in your home.

Disclosure:  Although products were provide to me from Home Depot, all opinions, comments and photos are strictly mine.

 

Get the goods (and the deals) on Groupon

Disclosure: Although this is a sponsored post, all opinions and comments are mine.

I don’t know about you, but when I first think about Groupon, I think of getting some pretty great deals for local activities and getaways.  I have taken opportunity of these deals many a time.  But what I having been missing out on is taking advantage of the major deals that you can find on the Groupon Goods area of their website.

Always searching for more bang for my buck, I was thrilled to find that Groupon has amazing deals on all types of goods, from electronics to jewelry to health and beauty items.  I think my favorite find so far was in the “battery” section of the Groupon Goods.

Being the Mom of a young boy who loves to play, I am constantly having to replace the batteries in my video game console remotes and TV remotes and a number of his electronic toys.  It never fails that the batteries die at the most inopportune moments and there are none left in the house.  I found this great deal for a 50 pack of batteries.  Something tells me that these will keep me well stocked for quite a long time.  And let’s be honest, if I don’t have to face the busy stores and am able to have delivered straight to my home, even better.

So if you are looking for some great deals, you should head on over to the Groupon website and check all the great goods deal that you can find.  You can also get more Groupon information on their Facebook page and Twitter account.

 

Saving more with Groupon Coupons

**This is a sponsored post.  All opinions are mine. **

As a single Mom, I always need to make sure I use my income wisely and get the best deals possible.  Coupons, price matching and savings websites are this girl’s best friend.  Who doesn’t want to save money on things they are buying anyways?  One of my favorite savings websites is Groupon.  Now, not only does Groupon offer great deals on getaways, local deals and goods, it now has Groupon Coupons!!!!

There is a huge list of retailers with numerous coupons available to you.  If you child is anything like mine and growing like a weed, the coupons from Foot Locker  and Carter’s are a dream when he seems to be growing out of his clothes and shoes on a weekly basis.  And what little girl doesn’t want an Elsa doll or a Princess dress?  The coupons from the Disney Store are the perfect way to save money and make your little one happy all at the same time.  It’s a win-win.  There are even coupons for TurboTax and H&R Block to make tax time less dreadful.  And with all the money that you have saved, you will have money left over to buy yourself something nice.  Don’t forget to use the coupons from JC Penney and Kohls, to buy yourself even more!

To check out the full list of coupons available check out Groupon coupons on their website, Twitter and Facebook page.  You won’t be disappointed with the savings that you will find!