I learned about Flex Seal and thought to myself – hmmm. I thought to myself, well, if it works it could be good, but is it as good as they say it is?

I had a bunch of things that came to mind that I could use it for. The first group of items was the rather long list of “honey do” items that always seem to take forever to get done. The other list of things was things that we wanted to fix, but just didn’t have the money.

For example, our fishing dinghy. It was getting older, and we had so many other things to spend our household fixing budget on, we just couldn’t do them all at once. It’s just how things go – they get left by the wayside because we can’t be spending a few hundred dollars here and there to get everything done.

I wasn’t sure if it would work. I didn’t want a band-aid that would just work a little bit and only give us a few weeks leeway until we had to break down and get repairs don.

But I have to say, I was really impressed with Flex Seal. The first thing we tried it on was the bottom of our boat. After applying it and letting it dry, it formed a nice seal and covering, and our boat was water-ready. The kids have been playing in it all summer now, and it’s really held up. That means I saved the few hundred dollars that they were going to charge me to patch it.

Another thing I used it for was to help with insulation. We have some joints that don’t quite match up and when air gets in, our heating and air conditioning bills go up. I didn’t want to use that spray foam because that stuff puffs out and expands like crazy and although this may sound petty, it looks terrible. I hate having things look like a foam monster took up residence.

The Flex Seal is really easy to target to a specific area and it looks good. It actually smoothes things out o give them an even surface. It makes things look better than they did before, and not just like an ugly stopgap measure. I really appreciate that.

We had a pipe that wasn’t exactly leaking a huge amount, but there were some water drips coming out. We sprayed the Flex Seal on it and the pipe is as good as new and there is no water leaking out anymore. Ka-ching goes the cash register in my head as I add up the cost of the plumber bill we would have had to deal with.

My husband went on the roof and took care of the gutters with it. I’m not exactly sure what he did there, but while he was up there he was able to spray it around the two skylights that we have. I didn’t even realize that we had some openings in there, which would have gotten worse and ended up causing water damage to our roof which would have been hundreds or thousands of dollars to fix depending on when we could have caught it.

I definitely am glad we got the Flex Seal, and it’s helped us a lot.

Order Flex Seal

There are some people, the Martha Stewarts of the world, who have what I consider to be magical kitchen skills. They execute even the most difficult kitchen duty perfectly and with flair. Me, I can’t even get cling wrap to cling (to anything other than me).

When I am performing kitchen duties, I imagine a panel of judges holding up scorecards, and I usually end up getting a 5.6 if I’m lucky and the East German judge is having a good day. I marvel at other moms, how they just seem to do everything effortlessly. Me, not so much.

I was a little wary of Eggies when I first saw the ad, though. It seemed like a good idea, but did I really want even more useless kitchen stuff cluttering up my already full kitchen storage? I have pretty strict rules about extraneous items. Kitchen implements have to pass quite a few hurdles before I will welcome them as part of my everyday life.

They have to be useful and they have to make life easier and thirdly, they have to be something that I will use all the time and not just one or two times. And lastly, they have to be something that even I, with all my ineptness, can use.

I am happy to report that after many years, I can actually hard boil an egg. But it’s the peeling that gets me every time. My eggs end up taking forever and looking like they’ve gone a few rounds with the rototiller and lost. The egg sticks to the peel and then it just becomes a giant eggy (not Eggie) mess.

So with that in mind, I thought I would give Eggies a try. One of the reasons I wanted to use them was that we eat a lot of protein in this house, especially for breakfast. We stay away from a lot of carb-y stuff and a lot of sugar, and eggs are one of the best sources of protein around. I have noticed that all of us have more energy during the day when we eat protein for breakfast, and my lunches are also high in protein, so we always buy the giant flat of eggs, as we go through so many a week.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Eggies passed every single one of my tests. They are easy to use, I use them all the time, they add benefit to my life by helping me save a lot of time, and they have been incorporated into my everyday kitchen cooking, and even a kitchen klutz like me can use them successfully.

I love being able to give my kids hard-boiled eggs as a snack or meal. It is so good for them and so easy. My kids were even interested in the Eggie-making process, so we had a lot of fun working together making a batch of hard-boiled eggs. And, my kids inform me, the eggs taste better when they’re Eggie eggs. They taste the same to me, but if it gets them eating and enjoying eggs, all the better.

Order Eggies

I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I saw the advertisement for the Gyro Bowl. It showed bunches of little kids eating out of it, with the gyroscopic action always keeping the bowl level so that whatever was in it wouldn’t fall out. Surely, I thought to myself, they have not encountered a real two year-old. A bowl could have invisible self-levitating rockets and my kid would find a way to empty it.

Okay, so, I did discover that if you fling the bowl into the wall or on the ground you can get stuff to spill out of it. But aside from really trying hard to throw it, it actually does a really good job. I think what finally made me decide to get it was when I was picking out cheerios from the floor mats for the 935th time. Surely there is better use of my time than this. Surely.

The kids love the bowl. That’s sort of a no-brainer. In fact, they sometimes get distracted from their food just to play with it and spin it around. It’s nice because we have been able to educate our older daughter about what a gyroscope is and how it works. She had seen one at the Exploratorium and was thrilled to have one in the home, so we were able to incorporate a little bit of a science lesson. I love that.

What I wasn’t expecting was that we adults would like the bowl so much, too. I am always very safety conscious about having anything around the pool that can crack or shatter, like glass or even ceramic dishes. I am adamant that all of that stays far away from the pool.

When we were having out friends over for swimming, we were able to re-purpose the Gyro Bowls to accommodate our poolside snacks. Our friends got such a huge kick out of it – and let me tell you, they are a godsend when you’re slipping and sliding on a floating air mattress. We got a real chuckle out of using the kids’ bowls for our chips and dip.

I think overall these are a really handy addition to our household and definitely worth the money. I have a lot less mess to clean up now (I never realized how much time I spent cleaning up little spills and food bits before).

Another aspect to them that I especially love is that they come with lids. I love this because it makes transportation easier and I have lost the lids to my other Tupperware bowls. With these, the colors clearly show that they are Gyro Bowl lids so I don’t have to go rooting around in the drawer to try and match lids.

Our Gyro Bowls have taken a lot of abuse, and I’m impressed that they have maintained their gyro-ness. I was expecting that over time they might stop gyro-ing or break, but they are sturdy little things. I will for sure be keeping these around.

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You never realize sometimes how the little things in life can be improved. A screen door is a screen door, right? Not necessarily.

At first I thought the Magic Mesh would be a sort of frivolous purchase. I actually only got it because one of my screen doors was torn so I had to replace it anyway. I figured, what the heck, it’s kind of a cool concept, why not?

Now that I have it though, I have to say, it’s pretty awesome. One of the benefits of it that I totally didn’t realize was my dog. We don’t have a doggy door, so every time my dog wants to go in or out we have to open and shut the screen door. Occasionally this can get annoying.

But, with the Magic Mesh, she has learned to walk right through it! Not only that, but the original reason that our screen door was busted was because my dog saw a raccoon one night and plowed right through it, tearing it open in the corner and destroying it so that one corner became a permanent flap.

But because of the magnets on the Magic Mesh, she can go in and out and no one has to open the screen for her and the screen does not get damaged. It’s pretty awesome. And she loves it.

So aside from the dog being thrilled, I am too. It is one of my huge pet peeves when people go out the door and leave it wiiiiiide open. It’s not rocket science, people. The door opens. The door shuts. It takes very little wrist action. And yet, this seems to be beyond certain people in my house who, I guess, seem to really enjoy having flies buzzing around inside all day. It makes me want to scream.

But no amount of screaming, yelling, or handy flow charts have gotten them to stop leaving the screen door open, so when I put in the Magic Mesh – aha – that infuriating problem went away. They walk through, and the magnet thingies just make the screen shut behind them.

I don’t have to hear my husband say any more: “But Honey, I was carrying all these steaks for the barbecue, I didn’t have a hand free”. Wah. I don’t have to have to constantly look around and see what I can use to fashion a fly swatter any more (my husband’s fishing magazines usually).

Summer always brings a lot of bugs to our house, and I hate to see them flying and crawling around and getting into the kids’ stuff. It’s gross and unsanitary and just yukky. I love the Magic Mesh for this reason. Everyone can trundle in and out to their hearts’ content, and the door just seals shut behind them.

I never realized how awesome it would be to have a self-closing screen. Like I said, I was a bit skeptical at first that it would make a huge difference, but I’m definitely a convert now. My house is definitely a Magic Mesh house now.

Order Magic Mesh

So, not everyone has the ability to shell out the money needed to replace their cloudy headlight covers. My car is kind of old, but I keep it in good shape but one of the things that was bothering me is that it was so hard to see at night. My headlights would barely illuminate the road in front of me, unless there was someone behind me with xenon lights and then I was just totally blinded. Argh.

When I took my car to the mechanic they offered to buff out the lights but I am totally on a budget and could not afford to pay the price for them to do that. Then someone told me about FastBrite. They said that you could use it to actually buff out all the scratches and fogginess on your headlights so that they would work better.

I have to admit, I was skeptical. I mean, the product was way cheaper than having someone do it. I figured it was probably one of those things that might help a little bit but in the end wouldn’t make that much of a difference and mostly I would just get a lot of exercise from all the headlight buffing I would do.

Oh my gosh, was I wrong. First of all, I had no idea how much of a difference it would make. After I used FastBrite I was expecting that my headlights would look nice but would give about the same amount of light as I got before. No! It was like I had replaced my old headlamps for ones with a brighter wattage. I seriously could not believe the difference.

I had no clue that just by using the product it would seem like my headlight power increased a few fold. It made such a difference that when I am driving at night I am no longer terrified of being blind and not able to see. Serious peace of mind, there.

Another thing I liked about FastBrite is there is not much to using it. It doesn’t take a huge amount of technical know-how. I just rubbed it in and hardly had to use any elbow grease at all.

This is definitely a good thing to do for any headlights that have been in use for awhile. Even if they aren’t that bad, the FastBrite stuff will totally make a noticeable difference. I never realized that all the scratches and oxidation were actually blocking the light from getting out, I just figured my headlights were really dim.

Another thing I really like about FastBrite is that it has saved me a lot of money. The mechanic’s price was reasonable, but it was still way more expensive for them to do it than for me to use FastBrite. I ended up not having to spend a lot of money, and with the product, too, a little goes a long way. This is definitely worth it for the cost and I am going to use it all the time to keep my headlights in tip top shape.

Go to FastBrite website

The Ronco Showtime Oven is the latest version in the famous “Set it and forget it” line of products. It is a rotisserie oven that promises to cook any kind of meat evenly to get the most taste and flavor out of each meal. We wanted to know how our Ronco-cooked chicken would match up with one of the pre-cooked variety. We got our hands on a twelve-pound chicken and put it to the test.

The Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven consists of a string of hot coils along the back wall of the stand-alone oven. You stick skewers through whatever it is you’re cooking, be it chicken, turkey, duck, lamb, roast, ribs, fish, anything. Place the skewers inside the oven and it rotates to cook everything evenly.

Who Is It For?

The Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven is ideal for people who find themselves cooking a lot. Especially if you make meals for the entire family, do a lot of hosting, take care and interest in what you make for dinner. It is especially ideal if you have to make a lot of food.\

Cooking whole chickens, turkeys, roasts, ribs, fish – if you find yourself making food like this on a regular basis, you will find your workload greatly reduced by the Ronco oven. You simply dress the food, stick the skewers through it, set the timer and cook. This

What You Get For How Much

The Ronco Oven comes with a whole bunch of tools and optional accessories. The main unit is the oven itself, and this is what the commercials promise and do the bulk of the work. The main oven consists of coils along the back wall. What you do is use the Ronco stand, which consists of two spear-like kabobs. Place this through the meat you are cooking, then lock it in place (see our video below).

Once you have the food ready to go, place it in the oven, on the rotating track. It will then cook all sides evenly and do a pretty good job at that. This is the basic unit and if all you want to do is cook chickens, turkeys, roasts, kebobs and other meets that can be easily skewered, this is all you’ll need. The basic order retails for $99.95 (or five payments of $19.99) plus shipping and handling, which runs an extra thirty dollars. In addition to the oven, the basic order comes with:

• Nonstick rotisserie basket to place food in after cooking
• Barbecue gloves so as to not burn yourself removing food
• Twelve elastic chicken ties
• Eight compact kabob rods
• One liquid and one solid flavor injector

You are also offered a series of optional accessories (at an additional price), which I’ll explain here.

• Upgrade to the standard oven. This oven is larger than the compact, ideal if you’re making larger turkeys, roasts and chickens for dinner parties or families larger than six.
• Add the rib basket, thermometer, four dozen ties, flavor injector and 240-page cookbook for $39.95.
• Add marinade packets, char rub and apron (choice of blue, red or green) for $39.95 and free shipping.

We think the best deal is with the rib basket, flavor injector and cookbook, especially if you don’t already own one.

How Does It Hold Up?

We cooked a chicken with our compact Ronco oven, filmed the process and put it to a taste test. Here is our video:

All in all, the Ronco Compact Oven cooked a very tasty chicken in a quick and safe way. The best part about it was that the kitchen smelled like a roasting chicken was cooking. When we ate, the inside was moist, tender and delicious. The oven definitely cooked a chicken well.

Positives

The Compact Oven is basically like having your own rotisserie cooking unit in your own kitchen. Think Boston Market or your local supermarket, except, y’know healthier and you can choose your own tasty and healthy meat.

• Chicken cooked evenly, tender and warm on the inside
• Flavor injector added seasoning within meat
• East to clean
• Smelled delicious
• Quick and safe
• Recipe booklet and instructions made cooking faster and easier
• Stainless steel

If you don’t own a stove, want something classier than a heating grill or want your own rotisserie unit, Ronco definitely holds its own. It will cook chicken, roasts, fish and turkeys very well and if this is what you want, then you’ll be satisfied with the results.

Negatives

The negatives are not with its performance, but rather with the obvious part about what you’re buying. It is very versatile in terms of what it can cook, and the standard oven is larger if you’re making bigger foods, but it still only cooks one thing at a time and doesn’t have the space of an oven. If you don’t have an oven and you want to cook meat, then this is great. You won’t be able to bake things like lasagna and cookies with the Ronco oven since it is not a stove.

Final Verdict

This is a good oven, but it’s not for everyone. The important thing to do before you buy is evaluate what kind of a product you need. If you have an oven, but you want to cook more meats better, then it’s for you. If you don’t have an oven and you only cook meet, it’s good for you.

However, if you are going to be cooking a larger variety of food (like stuff that usually sits in large pans or trays for a long time), then maybe you should pay the extra money for a big stove.

The Ronco Rotisserie Oven lives up to its billing and cooks food as well as it promises. It is easy and effective and the food was delicious. You just want to be sure that you get your money’s worth and can have the full and complete dinners you want with this product.

How to Buy

The Ronco Rotisserie Oven is available at ShowtimeOvens.com.

Milani Hair Extensions bills itself as being the only hair extensions made from one hundred percent human hair, which caught our attention because we wanted to know if that necessarily makes the extensions better-looking in addition to whether or not they are more ethical. We assumed that this meant the hair extensions would feel better, but would that translate to longer-lasting and sexier hair?

We ordered a package of Milani Hair Extensions to see how they would look, how they would feel and if they were worth the price tag. We put it to the test, with seeing how it looked in the sun, indoors and how they held up under water and we feel as though we have a full and complete review of Milani Hair. Milani Hair Extensions are actually named after their inventor and spokeswoman, Leyla Milani, one of the models on Deal or No Deal. Not to be confused for Milan, Italy runway models, not that this really makes a difference.

Who Are They For?

Simply put, Milani Hair Extensions are for women who want a fuller head of hair. That might seem obvious, but don’t think that these are just for girls with short hair that want a quick growth spurt or for girls with thinning hair. Instead, there is enough hair that they can be used by people with almost any type of hair. The most important thing is that you match the color shade enough. You can use just one strand to add highlights and cut and style to fit what looks best on you.

If there’s anyone this is not for, it would probably be girls with extremely short hair. Shoulder-length or longer would be ideal, since Milani Hair works best when it fills out a head of hair to look lush and full. If your hair stops at around your ears, then the extensions might add some length but wouldn’t provide the richness that they promise.

Real Natural Human Hair Vs. Synthetic Hair

Milani Hair Extensions are one hundred percent organic human hair. They are of a higher quality and presumably of slightly better ethics than synthetic hair. We say more ethical because one never knows where synthetic hair comes from. Synthetic hair can be made from acrylics or plastics, which can be bad for the environment. They also can come from animal hair (especially the tails of horses), which may turn some people away from wanting to dabble in synthetics.

Human hair uses hair donated or bought from people who could use the money, generally people looking for some extra income and willing to sell off their long hair. It’s unknown how much these people might be earning for their contribution, but it would seem like the better choice over plastic production or using the hair of animals.

The professional shot that advertises the product

When it comes down to a quality test, human hair wins hands down. Synthetic hair gets eviscerated by heating and straightening irons. Synthetic hair is more difficult to clean and care, plus if you have real human hair extensions, then it feels more natural when you run your hands through it. All in all, the real hair seems like the better choice, although they come at a steeper price.

What You Get For How Much

Milani Hair Extensions advertise themselves as the “Do-it-yourself hair extension solution,” which is pretty much what they are. The order includes:

• Seven hair pieces that are twenty inches long.
• Each hair piece includes clips that you attach underneath your hair
• Instructions for how to wear the extensions
• Straightening iron (if you pay in full, not if you pay in installments)
• Available in ten different hair color shades

This does all come at a cost, though. When you add everything up – the full payment and shipping for both the hair extensions and the straightening iron, it comes out to around two hundred dollars. Throw in tax in certain states, and the total price tag hovers at around $217.

This goes back to the question of whether you are willing to spend some extra money to have a more ethically correct product. Hope that doesn’t sound like a guilt trip or anything, but you get higher quality albeit at a higher price.