Exclusive Holiday Shopping Experience with RBC Avion #AvionVIP

Have your ever dreamed about hassle-free holiday shopping? Now it is a reality thanks to RBC Avion Holiday Boutique. No more exhausting trips to malls, searching for a vacant spot in the parking lot, heavy winter coats, bulging bags with gifts in your hands while you are trying to check next product you like. All those become history because RBC Avion invites you to experience modern shopping style. They are here to make our holiday shopping enjoyable and fulfilling with its Avion Holiday Boutique.


The Boutique offers free services to Avion cardholders including valet parking, coat & parcel check, gift wrapping services and VIP lounge and café. If you are not an Avioner yet, it is good time to become one and experience all benefits of being VIP.


For last ten years of shopping at Yorkdale Shopping Centre I really appreciate exclusive services RBC Avion Holiday Boutique offers during holiday season. They save us time and money. We drive to the mall, go directly to valet parking, leave winter outfit at the Avion Holiday Boutique and ready to shop. If we are tired and with our kid it is definitely happen, we go back to Avion Holiday Boutique to relax in the amazing VIP lounge, drink some tea, coffee or hot chocolate while our gifts get new holiday covers. There are some books and magazines at the lounge to read. Teddy likes variety of Christmas books for children there.


You know, what is also very important at the Avion Holiday Boutique? It is a relaxing atmosphere, the holiday atmosphere we wait for a whole year to come. You can feel it from live music played by a pianist (we love a grand piano at the Lounge), holiday decorations, comfortable chairs, lovely Christmas trees, snowflakes and ornaments. Friendly staff you meet at the Boutique also contribute to holiday atmosphere and make you feel welcome.


You can experience RBC Avion Holiday Boutique benefits without Avion card for a small pre-set fee where all coat & parcel check and gift wrapping are donated to charities like SickKids Foundation. RBC Avion Holiday Boutique is already open at the Yorkdale Shopping Center & Square One Shopping Centre in Ontario and Coquitlam Shopping Centre in BC and operates till December 31, 2014. Avion Holiday Boutique at Halifax Shopping Centre will be open from December 1 to December 24.


New feature to the Avion Holiday Boutique this year is the RBC Rewards display. It presents some of the most popular items from the RBC Rewards catalog from iPhone 6, fashionable handbags to kids’ toys. The Boutique visitors have an opportunity to participate in the “Not-so-secret-Santa” Twitter contest and nominate someone to win one of the items from the display. Just take a photo of a product features in the display, yourself in front of the display or of the Boutique and use the #AvionVIP hash tag in combination with one of the product hashtags to post to Twitter and nominate a recipient to receive the item. Winners will be announced after December 31, plus each winner will receive a $100 RBC Visa Gift Card in addition to the product they were nominated for.


Good luck, Avioners! Enjoy your shopping and Happy Holidays!

Disclosure: I am part of the RBC Avion Holiday Boutique Blogger Campaign with Mom Central Canada and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.

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Safety 1st Car Seat Giveaway US only

Welcome to Safety 1st Holidays Car Seat Giveaway hosted by:  Confessions of a Messy Mama!

Alpha Elite 65 Convertible Car Seat (RV $169)
Sponsor:  Safety 1st

Here are some tips from Safety 1st to help you survive the holidays:

“According to AAAnofollow last year 94.5 million people were on the roads, train tracks or in the skies during the holiday season.  That’s a lot of people! Then add your own kids into the mix of congestion and for some it can mean holiday headaches.  However, Safety 1stnofollow has some tips to help fight some of those headaches this season.

1.      Avoid peak travel days –Try not to fly or drive the days immediately before and after the actual holiday.  Those are the busiest travel days. However, if you fly or take a train you might save money by traveling on the actual holiday, the roads are less congested too.

2.      Prepare your child for the trip – Holiday parties can be overwhelming with sensory overload.  Especially for young children it’s good to talk about the upcoming trip days even weeks in advance.  This will help him or her get excited about the journey.  Show photos of family members or friends your child has not met yet, this way the new face might be a little familiar on arrival.

3.       “Are we there yet?” - To help avoid that dreaded phrase an hour into your six hour trip reserve a bag just for the kids, include books, toys, diapers a change of clothes and snacks.  Pre-load a tablet or smartphone with kid friendly apps or games. If you are driving keep all necessary items such as wipes, hand sanitizer or tissues easy to reach in a second – there are times you may not want to be digging through the bottom of a bag for such items. The Safety 1st Car Door Sanitation Station nofollow is a great solution.

Get more tips HERE!

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Disney’s Cinderella Exhibit Visits Toronto #CinderellaTheExhibition

Last month we had the opportunity to visit Disney’s Cinderella Exhibition. I think we are very lucky that Toronto was chosen the only North American stop for this beautiful collection.

From the beloved 1950 animated fairy-tale original artwork, designs and sketches to breathtaking costumes and the original set-up from upcoming movie Cinderella, you are ready to join adventures of young lady. It was interesting to notice how much influence of 1950s made on the characters outfit and hairstyle. The exhibit is a set of rooms smoothly changing from one into another following the events unfolding in the fairy tale.


While in The Heritage Gallery you feel like at the display room, everything changes when you enter The Entrance Hall, forget that you are just a visitor and be ready to become a real character of the fairy tale. There you meet Ella’s stepmother, Lady Tremaine (played by two-times Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett), whom Ella’s father re-marries many years after her mother passes. Cinderella’s stepsisters Anastasia and Drisella, selfish and mean girls without good manners are always with their mother.


Lady Tremaine’s costumes are luxurious and extravagant with dominating green. The Hall also features Ella’s childhood toys including the butterfly toy, her favourite toy from childhood given to her by her devoted and loving father. Ella’s dad was an avid traveller and you can find there his map and magnifier.


Next room is the Cellar where Ella spends most of her time - dark, cold and dump place. All days long Ella cleans, washes, irons and cooks for the whole family. She has a set of bells on the wall always to know which room the call is coming from.


In The Garden you meet a beggar woman which transforms into Fairy Godmother to help Cinderella to get to the Prince’s Royal Ball. The Fairy Godmother’s costume is adorned with 10,000 crystals and was illuminated with lights during filming. It is a fantastic experience when you enter a giant pumpkin and go out from a beautiful carriage. Everything inside and outside is so beautiful and shiny. The sizes of exhibits are impressive too, knowing that they are from the movie coming to theaters March next year (spring needs this film).


The Ballroom is the place I always wanted to be, the room of elegance, beauty, music, dance and beautiful costumes. Welcome to The Prince’s Royal Ball organized by the King (Derek Jacobi – worked with Kenneth Branagh on Henry V, and more recently starred in My Week with Marylin and Grace of Monaco) hoping his son will meet a Princess who he shall one day marry to bring peace throughout the kingdom. The Prince (nicknamed Kit) is a gallant young gentleman, played by Richard Madden – Robb Stark of Game of Thrones.


Princesses from around the world are at the ball to meet and impress the Prince. Lady Tremaine and her daughters are invited too. Even though it is just a gallery of mannequins, you can feel the atmosphere of the magic and love in the air.


The beautiful ball costumes were designed by three-times Academy Award winner, Sandy Powell. Cinderella wears an entrancing gown adorned with butterflies, 10,000 Swarovski crystals, 3 miles of fabric and 24 layers. The Prince dances all evening with Ella but at the stroke of midnight Ella leaves the ball losing one of her glass slippers. The Cinderella slipper (the only connection to the pretty girl) made by Swarovski astonishes with beauty and shine.


The last room is Modern Day Princess Gallery which represents a stunning shot of Lily James who plays Cinderella fleeing from the Ball taken by globally renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz.

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Buttons Cloth Diapers: Affordable & Stylish Cloth Diapers for Modern Babies

Cloth diapers became much more sophisticated in design for the last decade. No matter that disposable diapers hit the market, cloth diapers is still pretty popular because in quality and style they are often much better than disposable ones. I like that nowadays parents are pretty flexible in their choices what type of diapers to choose, the selection offered vary in styles, colors and designs including favorite cartoon characters.


We used different types of diapers, disposable and cloth ones for different needs, for example at home we prefer to have cloth diapers but when travelling we stitch to disposables. Recently we were excited to try one of Buttons Cloth Diapers products. We received a one-size diaper cover and a snap-in cotton diaper insert. First thing I really like is that the cover is one size and can be adjusted according to any baby bum and grow with your kid up to 35 lbs thanks to snaps along the cover. Every kid is unique and grows differently, for example Teddy is very skinny and tall but his cousin is a lovely chubby baby so we can easily get perfect diaper fit using Buttons Cloth Diaper cover snaps.


Elastic on top of the cover and at the back is created for convenience to fit baby belly and back with no pressure. Plus it helps to avoid leakage along with double leg gussets. The diaper cover has two layers of wipeable PUL , very soft, waterproof but breathable.

Daytime Inserts made of microfiber for better absorbency and can be easily attached to the diaper cover using two snaps. The diaper can fit two snap-in inserts small and large so it is like buying one diaper but different size insert for a good fit of a growing baby.


Overall, we like this two-in-on diaper system, besides being good quality, leak-proof (what is very important), all Buttons cloth diapers are affordable, diaper cover is $11 and inserts range from $3.50 to $7.75. Plus designs are for modern and stylish babies to keep them dry and parents’ life easy and simple.
For our readers we have a fantastic giveaway, enter to win Buttons Diapers’ one-size Diaper Cover & Insert (same one you can see on the pictures above, color may be different) using Rafflecopter form below.

The giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only & ends November 28,2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Become a Better Writer with StyleWriter4 #stylewriter4

I love writing and being better writer is one of my biggest wishes, hope Santa knows about it. Beautiful writing requires practice, patience and dedication. Great that with all tech applications and new software developed every year, we can rely on software like StyleWriter4 to write in a clear and neat style, expressing properly your thoughts and ideas. StyleWriter4 is the best editing and proofreading software on the market. Designed by professional proofreaders, editors and experts in plain English, StyleWriter4 brings together the techniques used by the best writers.


Honestly speaking, I cannot say I am a good writer; mostly I am on the level of a writing student and eager to learn more. StyleWriter4 helps to edit your phrases and sentences, deeply checks for spelling errors and spelling inconsistencies. It highlights jargon phrases, difficult words and acronyms and abbreviations. It offers to improve the writing offering word phrases and word combinations suitable for your writing.

This software is a great tool to create comfortable and encouraging writing environment no matter if you just a beginner writer or experienced journalist and professional editor. I like that StyleWriter4 helps to get rid of long, complex and wordy sentences by highlighting them and pointing that something need to be changed. StyleWriter4 also measures the readability and writing style and then offering an advice how to improve and what areas need it in your writing documents. To me this software has endless opportunities and I am going to learn more as my writing improves.

If you like to learn more about this program, you can visit StyleWriter4 web site. The company offers free 14 days  trial download of StyleWriter4. It comes as add-in to the Word program and can be used in the familiar settings.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Our Adventures in Italy Day II - Borghese Gallery, the Pincian Hill, Piazza del Popolo, Dolce Vita Stroll #familytravel

Our second day in Rome started with visiting Borghese Gallery. Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana and located in Villa Borghese gardens. We booked our spots online one month in advance. It is very popular place and it hard to get ticket if you don’t book it in advance. Only 300 people can get inside the Gallery at the same time every two hours.


So we had only 2 hours to enjoy Borghese collection of paintings, sculptures and antiquities. First floor is dedicated to sculptures many of which are Bernini’s work. Second floor is allocated for paintings with Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael, Rubens masterpieces among others. We were inspired to connect with sublime pieces of art. Teddy liked it too and asked if the painter Raphael and sculptor Donatello related somehow to Ninja Turtles.

After our two hour visit, we headed to back yard of Borghese Gallery – nice garden with statues, fountains and lemon trees. We were surprised to see a lot of ready to eat lemons on the trees.

After small picnic we headed to explore Borghese gardens – which is the third largest public park in Rome (80 hectares or 148 acres). While working, we saw a lot of monuments, enormously high trees and even mounted policemen.


We planned to watch puppet show at the Il San Carlino theatre, but it was closed on that last Sunday in July 2014 and how we understood will be opened only in the fall. Fortunately it was small entertainment park just few steps away. Teddy took carousel ride, bounced for a while in jumping castle and rode a horse.


Then we walked to the Pincian Hill in the south part of the park and enjoyed one of the greatest views over Rome. Taking stairs we walked down to Piazza del Popolo. An Egyptian obelisk of Ramesses II from Heliopolis stands in the center of the Piazza. Teddy got wet in fountains and noticed a man who made gigantic bubbles using two rods and rope between them. First Teddy joined a group of kids that tried to catch and destroy bubbles, but then he asked bubble man to try it with him. Teddy was able to make few quite big bubbles.


It was Sunday evening and we took famous Dolce Vita Stroll walking along car free Via del Corso. On the way to the hotel we stopped in restaurant at Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore with nice Basilica view. Next day was dedicated to Vatican.


This is second post about our summer vacation in Italy that took place from July 26th to August 7th,2014. Related post can be found here: 
Our Adventures in Italy Day I: Rome, Piazza di Spagna, Spanish Steps, Fountain Trevi, Pinocchio Store

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Greet Holiday Season with Coolest Imports Dragon toys - Johnny Test, The Zelfs & Shopkins

There are some toys which become an essential part of our lives. Toys the names we use in our everyday conversations and name events and situations happening to us. Recently we received a set of Imports Dragon toys to play and now I cannot even imagine how we lived without them before. Holiday season is almost here and we are all on the search of the hottest and coolest toys to ask Santa to bring under our Christmas tree for being very good the whole year.


If you already familiar with The Zelfs, fancy characters with amazing hair to take care of. The Zelfs appear in a secret garden called Zardenia - an enchanted world of magic Fabitats. In the magic Zardenia, The Zelfs can be found sipping potions at Witchbrew Bistro, rocking out at Buttershy’s Flitterpad and being their fabulous Zelfs. Glad to know that each Zelf has its own unique personality that's matched with an equally unique power. For example, Buttershy has the power of positivity and Dorothy-Doe Caring has the power of caring for yourself. We had a chance to know Tressa with her pretty hair salon and a dragon to help make fancy hair styles. A set of hair accessories is included to the toy. Hair extension, clips, crown and brushes can be found in the salon to make Tressa’s hair look fantastic. The chair with a button is designed to turn around while the dragon-stylist creates the lovely hair style. The drawers are to keep all the accessories neat and handy.


Second set of toys Teddy loves playing with is Shopkins. These little super cute small characters live in a big shopping world. Our edition is grocery one, so we have a good time playing with our little Shopkins pretending we are at the grocery store filling our bags and a cart. We have fun looking through our grocery list and checking if we have yogurt, pear, toothpaste and other items in our bags.


In the morning Teddy often says that he has all up Zelph’s hair, or asks take Shopkins for shopping or what we are testing today like Johnny Test.


Following adventures of Johnny Test, an 11 year old boy with super genius 13 year old twin sisters in a popular children’s series, now we have fantastic toys to play and create even more ways to explore the world with Johnny and his friends. This holiday season Imports Dragon introduces a wide variety of Johnny Test toys. Real fans will appreciate all the collectables presented by the company, where you can find over 80 figures and vehicles to collect. You can always recognize fiery hair and a turbo charged backpack, Johnny Test is always busy with new adventures. We received a set of toys from Johnny Test product line. Teddy is excited to create his own stories with Johnny Test, how they ride cars, fly into the sky, fight villains and save friends.


All Imports Dragon toys are available at the major Canadian retailers like ToysRUs, Walmart and on-line. Holidays are fast approaching, now it is time to think about presents and find the ones to reward kids for being very good this year. I am sure all kids would love to get Johnny Test collectible toys, play Shopkins shopping and join the magic world of The Zelfs.


For our readers we have a fantastic giveaway. Thanks to Imports Dragon, three prizes are available to win:

1. Pack of Shopkins 
2. The Zelfs S2 assorted medium 
3. Johnny Test pack with accessory 

The giveaway is open to Canadian residents only and ends December 1, 2014.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Customize Your Shower with Insta-Mount Shower Slide Bar #AquaCare

There are lots of innovative products coming out to the market to make our busy life better and easier. Our home should be the most comfortable and convenient place to live in. When it comes to home improvements and renovations nothing makes our life exciting than easy to use bathroom filled with all kinds of products from hot tubs and Jacuzzi to soft towels and candles.


For us it was interesting to find Insta-Mount Shower Slide Bar which can be instantly mounted to the wall without drilling due to high quality locks. It simply sticks anywhere in a shower with adhesive tape. We set this mount on in our shower tile wall in few minutes without any drilling and handyman devices.


With our family members having different heights and we found this Shower Slide Bar is perfect to use, no more struggling to reach it and putting the hand shower back. It can be easily adjusted to your height, even kids found it is convenient to take and easy to reach. The holder can be moved up and down to fit your height, so that you can stand under the shower without bending and hands-free. This Shower Slide Bar can be securely installed on any smooth surfaces including glass or ceramic, so you can put it on your glass door or a bathroom wall. The quality of this Shower Slide Bar is amazing; nothing can beat shiny stainless steel in a bathroom.

Another pretty handy feature is that you can change the position of this Shower Slide Bar, for example you need to clean your bathroom or want to move it to another wall. It can be easily repositioned and removed. Want to give some customization to your bathroom? Then consider 24" Stainless Steel Height/Angle Adjustable Shower Slide Bar, it lets you personalize your shower by adjusting the shower's height and angle in few easy steps.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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