Kashmir Dreams

I met this woman online, and she seemed pretty cool...we chatted every once in a while, as you do with online "friends" - especially those who are far, far away. Anyhow - then she asked me to check out her webpage. I looked at it, thought the rugs were nice and left it at that.


Then, she asked me if I'd be willing to review a rug -- which I have no problem doing -- except -- the value of the rug that she sent me exceeds my $50 limit that's set upon me by BlogHer, so I'm placing a note here on the fanpage, and will copy/paste this into my Delusional Mom review blog as well.


The facebook site for Kasmir Dreams is here, or you can go direct to the website here.


The carpet came to me late last week -- and wow -- am I ever impressed! It's colors are fantastic...so deep and beautiful -- and the material is amazing. The whole thing is made of teeny tiny chainstich - you cannot see the background material of this thing. A bonus? It came with a fabulous bag (the rug was rolled up inside of it -- I don't know that this would happen for larger rugs though!)  The only drawback for me is the "wool" smell -- but that's something that I know will dissipate in time.  I took a picture of the bag, rug and my black berry -- for perspective.


Here's the great thing about these rugs -- you can wash them in the washing machine. Can you believe that? Her instructions to me are "use it, love it, get it dirty, wash it." All you have to do is toss it in the wash on a gentle cycle with a little woolite...you can even put it in the dryer! How fan-friggen-tastic is that??? I will be the first to admit that I am both lazy and cheap - so I will not pay for someone else to clean my rugs, but don't like doing it myself. The thought that I can toss this thing into the wash is a life saver to me!!


And -- something else that I want to stress -- there is no child labour used to make these rugs. Andrea knows these families...and well...I'll just copy/paste her comments regarding this:

"Most important! Our products are not produced using child labour!! So many people just assume they are made in sweat shops!grrr! I know our craftspeople personally, I have been to their homes, yes, the kids are involved in the craft because they are surrounded by it. Instead of tv (which many families do not own)after school or weekends, the adults clear a space, salt tea is consumed, the hookah is puffed and the fingers are stitching, more often than not with a pile of kids playing around them or having a go themselves as they get a little older, but not not NOT child labour!"

If I can get a quiet moment to myself later today (or this week) I'll try to do a vlog about it. These rugs are fabulous and these pictures just do not do it justice! Oh, and they also make curtains, pillow covers....whatever you need!

The rug that she sent me was what she called "prayer rug" size -- but it was bigger than that (2.5 x 4 feet).  My husband is upset that I am using it -- he thinks it's too beautiful to use and should be hung on the wall instead.  I'm not saying this isn't an option - but I plan on using this rug!!  The one that I got is made from wool, and the colors therefor, are flat.  Andrea tells me that you can also get ones that are made from cotton and have a bit of a sheen to them.

The whole system of making the rug is supporting an entire village.  One family makes the cotton (preshrunk, which is the reason that it can be washed), prints the design on it and then sends it out to other families in the village to stitch.  Other families collect the wool and dye/spin it, and then get together to stitch as described above.

Costume SuperCenter Review

So, at the beginning of August, I was contacted by Costume SuperCenter to see if I'd like to review one of their products in exchange for a "fair and honest review" ← my kinda deal, as I would hate to lie to you all!  So, I said yes.

Being a mom and daycare provider - shopping for myself is out of the question, so I headed straight over to the kids costumes (which are all adorable, by the way!).  I don't know about you all, but I have a really hard time finding boys costumes.  There are all sorts of girly costumes out there, princesses, rock stars, everything -- but finding something for boys is pretty difficult. Sure, you can get superhero suits by the dozen, but I was looking for something more lasting, so I clicked my way through to the boys Halloween Costumes.

I was quite impressed by the selection - a fireman, a policeman, a doctor...I've seen these all at other stores, but they are, quite honestly garbage -- made of crappy plastic bits and parts...so I was a little bit skeptical when I ordered the Jr. White Astronaut Suit Costume for Isaac.

We waited, it took about 2 weeks for it to get here (from California, that's pretty good, I've had things take MUCH longer to reach me) -- opened it up and was very pleasantly surprised at the quality of this thing!  It's made of a nylon type of fabric (read easy to wash) but is strong enough that he can perform moon jumps, space leaps and God only knows what else his imagination comes up with.  There are pockets and zippers all over - the badges are sewn on well and look very official, a funky zipper pull that says "NASA" on it  -- and it even came with a baseball hat (because as Isaac tells me, "Astronauts get messy hair in their space helmets so the hat keeps the citizens from seeing that messiness")

My only complaint on this would be that it's a bit on the small size -- Isaac is 6 years old, and I know he's a tall boy -- I've been buying size 8 pants for him for school -- this suit is a size 6-8, but is pretty short -- I'm sure it would fit "normal" sized children, but it's a perfect size on my long/lanky boy right now -- it will probably be small on him next week!  However, I don't see that as an issue with the company or it's product, just my bean pole of a son!

Overall, I'm very happy with it, and so is he...considering that he has only taken it off for baths (putting it back on again to sleep.  I must say, it makes a lady feel pretty special to have dinner with an Astronaut!