Month: June 2015

June 23, 2015

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic – Cutie Marks Quest with Giveaway!

Doesn’t it feel like everything old is new? I remember playing with My Little Pony ponies when I was a little girl. My Mom still has my collection! I couldn’t wait to receive My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Cutie Mark Quests.

In this new feature film, join the quest that is so important to the Little Pony, to find their own cutie mark!

In Equestria, being true to yourself is the key part of earn your cutie mark, but staying true to yourself is just as important. Join Twilight Sparkle, Apple Jack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash as they journey to find their own Cutie Marks, take on the spirit of chaos and disharmony.

The DVD runs for an hour longer and contains five episodes, that includes:

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: The Show Stoppers
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: The Return of Harmony, Part 1
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: The Return of Harmony, Part 2
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: The Cutie Map, Part 1
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic: The Cutie Map, Part 2

While my boys do love a good adventure story full of magic, this was actually perfect for my niece who is a HUGE My Little Pony fan. So I could not wait to drop this off for her to watch with her Mom. She loved every minute of this movie and couldn’t wait to share her thoughts on the show with us. The movie was in full colour and told a lovely tale of finding and being true to you are.

I love how not only is this a perfect show for young children because of their love of the characters but it also teaches the valuable lesson of being true to yourself. To know and love yourself for who you are is so important for every individual. Even more so these are important lessons and skills for our children to learn and utilizing a favourite character for children is the best way to accomplish this goal (in my opinion!).

Shout Factory now wants you to win your own copy of this DVD set to release June 30th, 2015. My Canadian readers can now enter via the Rafflecopter form below – GOOD LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You can connect with Shout Factory on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this DVD in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

June 23, 2015

Dragons Race to the Edge #WW with linky #StreamTeam

This weekend, we walked the red carpet for the Netflix premiere of Dragons Race to the Edge. This Netflix original series is based on the very popular How to Train Your Dragon movie.

Netflix truly knows how to put on a party! We had so much fun face painting, sheep tossing and getting comfy to watch the premiere. Here is a glimpse of our afternoon:

And if you are not familiar with this series, check out this trailer – you wont be disappointed! The series is out on June 26th, 2015.

Make sure you link up below, so that I can visit you too!

June 23, 2015

Exile Book Three of Guy Erma and The Son of Empire

Exile, Book Three in the Guy Erma and The Son of Empire series has been released and is just as fantastic as the first two in this series geared towards youth.

About Exile: Guy Erma and the Son of Empire

“Someone somewhere has decided that the Sas Darona plague could be used as a weapon”.

“They called them poison pills”.

“These plague pills went beyond deadly. They were planet killers”.

Teodor has managed to escape from his kidnappers but how long will it take before he is home safe? Guy Erma has run away from everything and the only home he has ever known. What could his future hold? Their adventure has forged an unexpected friendship but can they really trust each other? Their paths have now become one when they discover a deadly terror.

My Thoughts

FANTASTIC! I love my sci-fi novels (actually I am no book snob and love pretty much every genre) but this series geared towards young adults is amazing. The series is full of adventure and constantly keeps you guessing from start to finish. There is never a dull moment or will you ever find yourself wanting to put the book down for another day.

The two boys discover a terrible, hidden secret during their escape in this series. This secret has the potential to destroy everything they have ever known. How this secret came to be is just as shocking as the secret itself (while I wish I could spoil it, I just can’t – you have to read the book!). It is this deadly truth that brings the boys together. Sally draws you right into the plot and has you trying to guess whether the two youths can trust each other. While it should be easy for them to trust each other, their differences and their pasts that brought them together is what holds them apart. In order for them to escape they have to trust each other, but this is much easier said than done.

While this is book three in this series, the end does leave you wishing for more and hanging on, so hopefully there will be a part four in this series! Sally definitely leaves enough room for more to be written and I truly hope she picks up where this novel ends.

You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon. You can find my reviews for Book One and Book Two on my website.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Sally was born in Wallasey, England in 1964 and moved to the South of France when she was eleven. She spent her teenage years in Monaco learning the languages and cultures. As an English girl in a French school, she would spend her English classes at the back of the class writing stories thus inspiring her love of writing. Sally now writes marketing communications and manages large international websites. Sally currently lives in Farham with her husband and two children. You can connect with Sally on her website, Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

June 18, 2015

For the Dad Who Loves His BBQ Comes The Meat Cookbook from DK Canada

Both my own Father and my husband love to BBQ. It is almost like they have a countdown to spring so that they can fire up that grill and get outside making new tender recipes of their favourite cuts of meat. The perfect book for them? The Meat Cookbook!

The Meat Cookbook from DK Canada holds an incredible 300+ recipes covering everything from pork to lamb to beef. The Meat Cookbook is loaded with authentic recipes from a variety of cultures.

The cookbook itself is large, about 9.5×11 inches, and is heavy. It has this almost masculine feel to the cookbook and I loved the weight of the book. You can just tell from picking it up it is loaded with deliciousness.

The first part of the Meat Cookbook is devoted to advice and tips. This also includes a section on why good meat matters, which also entails where and how the animal is raised. A happy animal produces better meat and one of the reasons why I make sure to always purchased Canadian raised meat with a label on it (even better when it is local). This has always been the strongest purchasing factor for me when it comes to buying meat.

The Meat Cookbook also includes advice on how to properly cook meat (because let’s be honest, how many times have you destroyed a steak – myself countless times!), expert advice from butchers and tips on flavour pairings.

You can find The Meat Cookbook at the Father’s Day Boutique on DK Canada, as well as an assortment of other great titles.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

June 18, 2015

Four Things I Miss From My Youth

Time flies and it is sometimes hard for me to believe that I was a child of the 80’s! Even harder to believe that I just admitted to that on my blog!!!

There are a few things that I wish I could pass on and explain to my kids how much I loved them (or dreaded) that they may never even know.

First, let’s talk about the electronics, where do you even start?! We had a giant television in our family room and not giant screen but giant big wooden box with a small screen in the left hand side and dials (no remotes here!). The kitchen television with its antenna that only picked up certain channels and even then it was full of static. Or the worst (which I am reminded of every time my child complains about the poor battery life of his iPod) – Walkmans. How hard was it to go for a walk with those, trying to listen to your jam and the cd kept skipping?.

Then it is the cartoons, oh the cartoons in the 80’s and 90’s were incredible! Let’s talk Ninja Turtles, Garfield and The Smurfs. I learned all my best terminology from these shows and not to mention my super ninja powers. How many of you spent hours watching cartoons especially on Saturday morning? These were some of my fondest moments and as the toy industry increased production of branded toys we could play out the cartoons together after the show was over. Which my Mom kept so it has been pretty awesome comparing our old toys to my kids newer versions.

And then there was the slang! Ace, airhead, cowabunga, jet and so many more. I still find myself dating my age when I use some of my favourite sayings.

Oh, the fashion. And the hair. Well, I don’t really miss the hair to be honest, all those pictures of mile high hair with hairspray, I can leave those in the past. But I miss the bright fun colours, ability to choose and be who you are. My favourite t-shirt was my off the shoulder, ‘Don’t worry, be happy!’ number that I would wear all the time.

Netflix did a recent study on Canadian Dads (and since Father’s Day is coming up, had to give them a mention!) which looked at how they felt watching cartoons with their kids and what were their favourite cartoons. There were some surprising answers in there:

65% of Dads watch cartoons when streaming with their children
76% of Dads feel like a kid again when watching cartoons
79% of Dads watching cartoons with their kids are re-watching cartoons of their youth
48% of Dads says their kids love watching movies with them as this is an important bonding time

And their favourite shows to watch? Scooby Doo, Spiderman, The Smurfs, Transformers and Alvin and the Chipmunks! All of which are now streaming on Netflix (woot woot!).

What do you miss from your childhood?

Disclosure: I am a Netflix #StreamTeam member and receive perks with this affiliation. All opinions expressed are my own.