Honey - Takes the work out of online Shopping!!

I've never reviewed a product like this before, but I've just discovered it and I am LOVING it. I have to share it with you. 

Honey is an EXTENSION for Google Chrome. This extension takes less than five minutes to install, and it will save you tons of money! 

It's really simple how it works. You go to your favorite online store, put the things that you want into your cart, and when you get to check out, Honey will prompt you and apply a multitude of codes to your cart! I found that if I already had a coupon code in the cart, there wasn't going to be an additional code for Honey to apply. But if it was an order that didn't have a coupon code, 9/10 there was a code that saved me money! 

I would highly recommend this extension. It's something simple, safe and free. I cannot tell you how much time I have spent scouring the internet for just a few dollars off! This takes all the guess work out of online shopping. I know that I am getting it at the best price possible! 

Join today!! 

Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers Review

Punderdome:
A Card Game for Pun Lovers

By: Jo & Fred Firestone
About the Game (taken from here): From the daughter-father duo that created Brooklyn's beloved live pun competition comes Punderdome, the "Punderful card game [that] will replace Cards Against Humanity at your next party" (Mashable.com).

One part game, one part conversation starter, you don't need to be a pun master to master Punderdome: the goal is to make bad jokes and have fun along the way.

A player (the prompter for that round) draws two prompt cards from the deck, and then reads the prompts to the rest of the group, who have 90 seconds to create a single, groan-worthy pun that combines the two prompts.     

When time is up, pun makers share their puns with the prompter, who awards the prompt cards to the player whose pun he or she likes best. The winner then draws the next pair of prompt cards and the process repeats. Players win by obtaining 10 pairs of cards.

Every Game Set Comes With:
·         200 double-sided cards (100 White and 100 Green)
·         2 Mystery Envelopes with fill-in prize slips
·         2 80-page pads for drafting puns
·         1 instruction card and 1 pun example card
·         A stu-PUN-dous time for 3 or more players

My Review:I asked to review this game from Blogging for Books, because it was the first time I'd seen something on there that wasn't a book! My father and husband are also very good at making puns. It is something that they do very often. The rest of my family isn't as good at making puns, but I thought we'd give this game a try. 

We sat down to play this game on Father's day. I've never watched the LIVE Game Show, that it references. When you first open this game, it's a little intimidating. The set up is a little confusing, I had read a review that it will replace Cards of Humanity, so I assumed the play was like that. It's almost like that game, but instead you are making a pun of the two words and the winner of the pun gets to be the next person to pick the cards.

There are a few things NOT included in the game, that you NEED to play. The first thing you need to bring are prizes! We decided that the prize would just be the satisfaction of being a winner. You also will need a TIMER. This is important because in the beginning of the game, you also win extra time! 

The first few rounds we tried, you can see that we didn't really understand (well at least I didn't) how to make a pun out of the two words. I just tended to make sentences that connected the two words. We ended up giving everyone a minute and a half to come up with a pun. It took longer than we thought. We even took breaks in between rounds to do more "warm up" puns. 

The last two rounds were really fun. I'm not sure that we made puns, but we came up with really funny one-liners. We also made sure that the person who got the puns read them out loud, so that we could all laugh at them as well. We also just went around the table for the "presenter" instead of the winner of the round. It made the game go smoother for us.

After we finished playing the game, I went around and asked everyone to rate the game on a scale of 1 to 10. (names kept anonymous) 

1 - didn't enjoy the game at all

10 - best game ever made

L - 1

I - 6
A - 0
N - 3
D - 5
H - 4
Out of a total 60 points, it got 19/60.
We rate this game about a 32% replayability. 

I think with the right group of people, this game could be a lot of fun. We had fun just making jokes between the two topics! This will be a great hit at an organized party with prizes! 

So why don't you take a turn?? I would love to hear some of your puns between "Drawing" and "Celine Dion" !! Comment below.

About the Author (taken from here): JO and FRED FIRESTONE, a daughter-father duo, are the creators and hosts of Punderdome®, NYC’s Most Puntastic Competition—part of New York’s comedy landscape since 2011. 

JO FIRESTONE, named a “comic to watch” by Comedy Central, is a regular contributor to The Chris Gethard Show on Fusion TV. Her radio show, Dr. Gameshow, can be heard every Monday night on WFMU, a freeform New Jersey radio station. 
 
FRED FIRESTONE is a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, who specializes in customer/client satisfaction, branding, and ethical selling, for corporations across the country. His clients include AT&T, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Hewlett-Packard. He enjoys impersonating Rodney Dangerfield.

Disclaimer: I received this book free as part of their Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255

The Aetherlight - Online Game Review

Title: The Aetherlight: Chronicles of the Resistance

Created by (taken from here): Scarlet City Studios

Scarlet City Studios is a small New Zealand-based gaming studio with an epic goal: to take the greatest story ever told and re-tell it for a digital generation. Established in 2012 to advance the historic mission of a postal Sunday school ministry, Scarlet City took the grand tale of the Bible and reimagined it as a steampunk, allegorical story that would be entertaining, educational, formational and creative. With the launch of The Aetherlight: Chronicles of the Resistance, the studio’s ongoing mission is to tell great stories, nurture genuine innovation, and foster rich encounters. For more information, visit www.scarletcitystudios.com.

About the Game (taken from here):
Once a beautiful land, Aethasia is now covered by a sickly pervasive fog that corrupts everything it touches. But all is not lost. Rumors are spreading of a fledgling Resistance, who have the courage and audacity to try and restore Aethasia to its former glory, and to reinstate The Great Engineer back to the throne of Aethasia.

And that Resistance needs you!

Review:
I received this game for review from BuzzPlant. I only received the first episode/chapter/part but I did not complete it. There are two people that played it, my son Brayden (who is 5 turning 6) and myself.

Since this game was for children who could read, I had to play with my son when he played, but I also played by myself several times. Both of our opinions are scattered throughout this review.

My son Brayden has been playing video games since before he was 2 years old. He started playing Xbox (even if he wasn't holding the controller correctly.) 

 Once he got the hang of video games, he can pretty much play any system now. He can play Xbox 360 and One, Playstation 3 and 4, Wii and Wii U, Computer, Ipad, Phone etc. He is pretty well versed in the way that games work, even if he cannot read yet. He can pick up pretty easy sight words, but can't read anything yet. When we first started up Aetherlight, I realized that this was a game for kids that could read and understand. Their target audience isn't displayed anywhere on the site, but from playing it I would say that 8+ would be the audience for this game.

You create the character/account for you child online. Then you can sign into your parent account to view their account and control their online interactions. I like that you can turn off the chat (there is no reason for my 5 year old to chat online) and you can see what they are doing. They also send you emails as your child progresses through the game. These emails contain information that I didn't see in the game. They explained things in a more descriptive manner that made way more sense that what they tell you in the game. I knew things about the game that I wouldn't have known, by just playing it. Which I thought was very interesting. They expanded on topics in the game, gave scripture and different things for you to talk about with your child. This was a very cool aspect, sometimes its hard to talk to your child about a game that you are not playing. With these emails you can stay in the loop and even hint to things that can happen further on in the game. ;) Earning you a greater level of cool. Making you essential to make this game make sense.

Brayden started up the game and it took him about 15-20 minutes to truly figure out how to game worked. The game starts up and it gives you a little bit of backstory, and then just throws you into it. You aren't show how to control the characters, or where your toolbars are. The progression in the beginning is slow and arduous, having to watch several things happen. They try and introduce your HUD to you, but it's not laid out in a very eye catching way. When they introduce the top left hand corner where people will talk to you, my son got stuck for a few minutes. Wondering why he couldn't move anywhere. Because of his age, I did have to walk him through the beginning of the game. It had an interesting setting. Aethasia is a downtrodden land that is kind of steampunk-esque. You are a part of a revolution that you don't really understand but support for some reason. Once you can leave the beginning part, then you can start to fight.

The fighting style is pretty simple to catch on to. Again, there isn't much explanation. They just kind of expect you to know what to do. You have to click on the colored spot for it to actually hit the enemy. You have a few weapons in the beginning and they also introduce clothing. You can change what you are wearing, and then you can pick up things to change the colors. (Don't really understand that, you don't get a description of things when you pick them up. I've always just accidentally used the color changer item to change the colors)

 When you win battles you get chances on the gears to win different objects. These are essential because you do not find lots of places to pick up items. You need these resources throughout the game, but they are scarce and hard to find. You would think that the resources would regenerate after 45 mins -1 hour, since this is a game that they expect children to play online with their friends. But in my experience the resources would not show up again until the next day.

You also receive missions throughout the game. This gives you some direction about where you need to go. But some missions my son would get stuck on for awhile, because it wasn't clear what you had to do. There were some that I didn't even understand. When you start the game you get this mission to paint a new sign, but no direction about how to get the paint. You can ask several characters where to get paint, and where to get the colors. After several attempts to figure out how to paint the sign, I am proud to say that I figured it out, but my son would never have been able to get it. It didn't even make sense to me. I didn't get it until I took all of my items and just kept dragging them onto the paint, until one of them worked. >< 

You could see several people online, and they would be running around battling. They were different levels, and in different parts of the game. When I would try and ask people to help me with certain parts of the game, they would agree. They would go to follow me to the area that I needed help in, we would be in the same spot of the loading screen. I would load to the next area, and then they wouldn't be there. My theory is that they did load to that part of the game, but because we had different missions completed we were not able to see each other. They had several versions of different locations, this made it hard to see other people online because we were at different parts of the same storyline, but in the same locations. I'm not sure if that makes complete sense, but basically it made it hard to play with people online. They push a lot about playing online with friends.

Once you get up past level 5 as well, the enemies get harder. You are up against 2-3 enemies every fight. If you are by yourself, you are outnumbered and easily defeated. I found it easier to battle alongside people, when they were in the same area together. I was trying to advance in the mission, but I kept getting killed by groups of 3 robots and I could never get anyone to help me. It was quite annoying.

All in all, the game was a good play. My son likes to go back and just fight the robots. He will go around with people online and join in their fights. You can call for help (people can see it if they are walking by your fight) and they can join in. 

I have gotten stuck in the story line, and I need to level up more before I can move on. It's going to take a lot of work, the aether meter keeps resetting when you go into the game, so you have to keep filling it up. In my mind, they expect this game to be like World of Warcraft, but safe and for kids. This is a game that they want kids to play when they get home from school every day. I think it was a easily constructed, pretty game. Not for first time players, because you need to know what you are doing. Enjoyable nonetheless, we are happy to have been asked to play this game and review it! The characters were fun to get to know, and the world was exciting to run around in. Check it out for yourself! 

Hairstyled: 75 Ways to Braid, Pin & Accessorize Your Hair by Anne Thoumieux

Hairstyled: 75 Ways to Braid, Pin & Accessorize Your Hair

By: Anne Thoumieux

Back Cover: 

Spruce up any outfit with your best accessory—your hair!
You don’t need to be a professional to get show-stopping hair. Hairstyled presents 75 deceptively simple techniques for creating your favorite high-fashion hairstyles. Dress up your everyday look with a ballerina bun or accessorize with a scarf bow. Turn heads at special occasions with the woven crown braid or a regal bouffant. 

Each style has how-to photographs that are easy to follow, and chapters dedicated to a variety of hair lengths and textures help you update your look whether you have a pixie cut or long, curly tresses. With product tips and countless ideas for accessorizing your ’do and inventive variations on classic styles, Hairstyled is your guide to getting gorgeous hair every day.

Review: My hair is longer than i've ever had it in my life. I've kept it this long for a few years now, and I still don't know how to do things with it. I picked this book out so that hopefully it would help me out. Before you get this book, you should know that you need several tools to get some of these hairstyles done. There is not a list of tools to get, you just have to look by the hairstyle. I was thrown off by this, I didn't have a lot of the tools that they were asking for. I was able to incorporate a few hairstyles into my daily routine, like the Looped and Low ponytail. A lot of these hairstyles were over my head though. I'm not very coordinated and I'm kind of clumsy. I don't have a lot of time to sit down and practice this hairstyles. If I got the right accessories I'm sure I could make these work. 

I got my mother to help me with the french braid and we took a few pictures. :) 

We also attempted one of the braid crowns, but were not as successful. My hair isn't the most cooperative.. :) 

Overall, I am happy to add this book to my collection. I am excited to try some of the other hairstyles when I have some time. I do think this should have been a spiral bound book. It was easier when I could hold the book open and my mother could do my hair. It would have been harder to do it by myself, it's hard to keep the book open to the page that you are on.

There are several sections to this book:
Buns
Braids

Headbands

Accessories

Curly, Wavy, and Kinky Hair

Short Hair

Mid-Length Hair

Straight Hair

Quick and Easy (My favorite!) 

For A Night Out

I am excited to keep trying hairstyles in the Quick and Easy section, and will work my way to the "For A Night Out". They have pictures of part of each step. It's hard to not watch them do it, it's almost like there is a slight step missing. If you know what you are doing though, these are just reminders of how it should go. Someday I will conquer the fishtail braid!! This book will help me get there... :) Although, I might look up some youtube videos for some help as well...

About the Author (taken from here):
Anne Thoumieux is a French beauty editor, blogger, and former TV host. She loves spreading knowledge about beauty and helping women feel confident and glamorous. She lives in Paris.

Disclaimer: I received this book free as part of their Blogging for Books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255