Leanne, Author at Rave & Review

Jumping on the bandwagon: a note from a new Seahawks fan

Last fall, a dear friend posted this on my Facebook profile, which basically sums up how I have always felt about football.

But, then something happened that changed everything: my kids became Seahawks fans. It started with scrounging our closets for anything remotely Seahawks colored for “Blue Fridays” at the elementary school where they wore blue and green before big Seahawks games. From there it turned into Sundays spent watching the game at different locations around town and eventually it culminated in a party for the Super Bowl {or Super Ball, if you're my daughter}.

Acrylic photo gifts make your photos pop

When we moved into our house 7 years ago, I went out and spent a fortune professionally printing pictures and then getting them framed and matted. Then we planned out large photo designs and hung them gallery-style across our wall. And we haven’t done much else since.

But, recently my walls got quite the shakeup when I was given the opportunity to create an acrylic mounted print that doesn’t require a frame. A relatively new medium for displaying photographs, acrylic photo gifts are turning photo displays on their heads.

Unlike what might first come to mind, photos on acrylic aren’t just a standard printed photo laminated or incased in acrylic sheets. Rather, the photo is printed directly onto large acrylic sheets {think plexiglass} via a flatbed printer. I would describe the end result as like hi-def television, but in a photo.

Karmin G3 Salon Pro hair dryer makes styling quick and easy

While some people complain about how their hair takes forever to dry, I’ve always held the record for the fastest hair drying, ever. We’re talking less than a minute and my hair goes from dripping wet to perfectly dry and I’m ready to style. Of course, this is awesome on the days that I don’t have time to spend drying my hair but don’t want my hair dripping for the walk to school with my daughter, but I never really thought about what all this super high heat did to my hair until I tried to grow it out.

My hair is now longer than my shoulders for the first time since elementary school, and now I’m seeing all the effects of years of high heat – damaged, frizzy hair, split ends, and flyaways galore – that make me want to drip dry my hair every single day. Or at least I did until I got my hands on this:

The Karmin Professional G3 Salon Pro Hair Dryer makes me ridiculously happy. And, not because it cut down the time to dry my hair… but because it now takes longer.

Say what?

Goodyear Eagle Sport All-Season tires make any road trip epic

While we have a lot of fun trying out new cars whenever the opportunity arises, the truth of the matter is that we really love our car. It may not have all the fancy features available on newer models, but my wife and I both agree that our car still just feels right, for both of us.

Having an older car that we both love is great in so many ways, but most important is that its paid for. Of course, the other side of that coin is that we are long out of warranty, so maintaining the car is fully our responsibility.

We recently had to replace the tires for the second time since we've owned it, and boy was it an eye opening experience. The first time we chose some tires that were a little sportier than stock and we loved the results, so this time around I asked our neighborhood tire guys for something similar, but they really missed the mark.

The tires we left with were a much softer tire that allowed waaaay more roll and weight shifting side to side. Thinking maybe we could enjoy a softer ride we tried them for a while, but couldn’t believe how much tires affected that perfect "feel" that our car had before.

Lucky for us, Goodyear came to our rescue in the form of their new Eagle Sport All-Season tires. I couldn't wait for them to arrive so we could upgrade to high-performance, sporty tires just in time for an epic road trip down to Portland.

The gift of freedom with the FiLIP Smart Locator Watch

Growing up, we would disappear for hours, playing in the neighborhood, our friend’s houses, and off in the woods until dinnertime. Even at my children’s ages, I had a freedom that my kids don’t know these days in our urban neighborhood where the dinner bell doesn’t send the kids running.

Maybe this is why so many young kids have cell phones now, starting as young as elementary school. I get it, it’s for convenience for the parents first and foremost, but kids having cellphones is just not for me… at least not for a few more years. I’m not ready to police text messages, restrict game usage, make sure the kids don’t have open access to the internet, or worry about them losing expensive electronics by allowing them to have their own cellphones.

But this year, I’m giving them the gift of freedom in a way that is age appropriate with the new FiLIP from AT&T.

It may look like a fancy child’s watch, but don’t let that deceive you. Once you know what the Filip does, you will understand why I’m so excited about it and why we feel it is a great buy for anyone with a child aged 5 to 11.

Girl of The Year 2014 Isabelle arrives at the Seattle American Girl store

Like a small child counting down the days until Christmas, we were counting down the days until January 1st. Not because we’re huge into New Years’ celebrations, but because American Girl announced their Girl of the Year {GOTY}.

We look for any reason to party around here, especially when the party is for a doll as elegant as this one:

Meet Isabelle, the Girl of the Year for 2014. Isabelle Palmer loves ballet and everything fashion. Her story involves a new school, struggling to stand out in the shadow of her older sister, and figuring out how she can use her unique talents to shine. Since my daughter would like nothing more than to be a dancer, Isabelle's story really struck her and she's now smitten with this beautiful GOTY doll.

New Years sales at Simon Malls

Did you think all the sales and deals ended with the holidays? If so, you’d be wrong, because the sales are in full swing at Simon Malls. This past week I took the family out for some post-holiday shopping at Northgate Mall in north Seattle and we found good deals everywhere we looked.

Gymboree is having their Red Balloon Sale, Victoria’s Secret has their Semi-Annual Sale, Nordstrom has their men’s sale, Lane Bryant has their Ring It Up, Ring It In sale event, Eddie Bauer has their Semi-Annual Sale, Old Navy has their Active Sale, Things Remembered has a New Years’ Sale, and even Starbucks has a year end sale going on. And the sales go on and on and on…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

You may have noticed we haven't been around here as much these past few days as we took some time off to enjoy the holiday season with our little ones. This is my absolute favorite time of the year and I was happy to be able to spend some time with our family and friends near and far.

Wireless sound with TRACKS AIR headphones from SOL REPUBLIC

By Tyler, editor and reviewer

Who doesn’t like a good, quality surround sound that makes music and movies come alive? Someone whose movie room shares a wall with a baby’s room, that’s who.

This is the problem with our entertainment room, designed for movies and thumping sound, but that just so happens to be located right next to our son’s bedroom. These days, the only thing playing at Rave Central theater is children’s movie matinees in between nap and bedtime. It’s a sad fate for a room with such promise.

So, what’s a movie loving guy like myself to do? Make a plan to revive our indie movie house with the arrival of these new TRACKS AIR headphones from SOL REPUBLIC.

Corolle dolls offer a best friend for every age and stage

My daughter is a hard-core doll fan. She spends nearly all day with her Corolle dolls, and they have quickly become more than just mere dolls; they are friends.

But, while my son is still very much into baby dolls, my daughter alternates between playing mommy and playing with her more grown-up dolls, like the Corolle Les Cheries dolls. These beauties have become my daughter's new favorite toy and she is on a mission to collect every single one Corolle makes.