Gallery Direct Review #2 & Special Offer for You!

The wonderful team at Gallery Direct invited me to be a part of their ambassador program ~ I was very flattered and definitely interested! They are currently offering a great special ~ get 75% off beautiful wrap-around canvas prints through 2/1/2012 with coupon code: photo75. I submitted this photo of me and Bryce. I think the contrast between the white and the bold colors will look beautiful printed on canvas.

Monday, January 9th at 10 PM est, @GalleryDirect is hosting a twitter party, using hashtag #GalleryDirect. Six lucky winners will win a free photo canvas print valued up to $200. For more information, visit Thrifty & Chic Mom.

To learn more about Gallery Direct, you can visit their website, "like" them on Facebook, or follow on twitter.

Follow-up: Here is my beautiful canvas print, which now hangs above our sofa in the family room. I absolutely love it! The colors are so bold, yet the print itself has a nice softness to it. I received the "medium" print, which is a great size for a featured piece of artwork. This really makes a beautiful gift -- and with such wonderful customer service and speedy delivery, you can submit a picture and receive your print in the mail within 10 days.

* I received the aforementioned product for free to review. The opinions expressed are honest and provided without monetary compensation.

Gallery Direct Review

I joined a recent twitter party, and the topic of conversation was Extreme Makeover - Home Edition. The episode was about a family who had children with autism. The makeover team did a great job creating a sensory room, bedrooms, and outdoor play area to accommodate the children's needs. During the party, Gallery Direct gave out several $100 prizes, and I was fortunate enough to be a recipient. The $100 prize was a credit to their website to purchase anything I wanted...but what did I want?

I decided to go with wall art for Bryce's room since he had one completely blank wall. There were lots of works of art to choose from - classic to modern, pop art to impressionism. Something for everyone! I wanted to stick with the outer space theme, so I chose Van Gogh's Starry Night. The bold colors are perfect for a child's room. They have several options to choose from in terms of materials to print on - canvas, wood, paper, mirror, acrylic, and aluminum. For something different and to capture a cool space look, I decided to get an image printed on aluminum. The great thing about this website is that although they may seem a bit high-end at first, they have so many great sales. I just happened to purchase my print on a day that they had 33% off and free shipping. Great deal! Our artwork was quickly printed and shipped within just days.

We hung it on the wall yesterday, and it looks beautiful against the bright blue wall color. What a great addition to Bryce's outer space room!

To learn more about Gallery Direct, you can visit their website or follow on twitter.

Review of the Big Toy Book

I contacted the generous people at The Big Toy Book to see if they could donate a toy to Abi's Place (the nonprofit where I work) that I could review for my blog. They responded by sending me the Baby Genius All in One Musical Band, which contains two shakers, a flute, 2 drum sticks, and a tambourine - all within a drum!

This super-cute instrument set is great for all young children, but is especially effective with children who have disabilities. When teaching our children, all of whom have moderate to severe developmental delays, it's often difficult to find toys that are motivating and interesting to them. Most of the toys that do interest them stimulate or calm specific sensory needs. That's what is so great about instruments - most of our children love music, and instruments allow them to make their own music. How does that help the teachers and children? Well, we can teach so many great skills using instruments as the teaching tools. Here are a few:
1. Following one-step directions: bang the drum, blow the flute, shake the tambourine
2. Imitation: the teacher taps the drumstick on the drum and the child imitates that action
3. Communication: for our children, communication usually begins when children are motivated to use their words to ask for things that they want - so they can learn to request music through words, sign language, or pictures

These instruments are so cute, with a child-friendly animal theme. Here's Ryan playing with one of the instruments during our interactive circle time:

Thanks to The Big Toy Book for allowing us to review one of your awesome products! The kids love their new instruments. The Big Toy Book also carries many other toys for children of all ages, including eco-friendly toys, bath toys, board games, baby dolls, action figures, and more!   They also have a great blog with guest bloggers addressing a variety of topics. Additionally, they host regularly-scheduled Twitter parties with really awesome giveaways. This week's Twitter party features Toy Story 3!