Stuff people have sent us

As Heather referred to in her post about Bloggers Give Back, there is a fair amount of free stuff offered to bloggers by marketers in hopes that we’ll write about it. Our RookieMoms.com New Year’s Resolution is going to be to stay truer to ourselves and ignore more of the offers that we find only a little bit interesting. We will not write about stuff we like just a tiny bit, because — what do you care? You’re not going to go out and buy because I say it was average or decent, right?

So in the spirit of today being the first day of the rest of {this blog’s} life, here are some honest opinions on recent free stuff.

• Smashies sent me two samples of their organic apple sauce for kids that comes in a cool to-go package. I allowed my son to eat his in the car – that’s how highly I thought of the packaging. My daughter (17 months) got the hang of it, but not well enough for the car. No added sugar, eco-friendly packaging, cute brand. Great product. Love it.



• Mabel’s Labels of which I am generally a fan, launched spice labels in a category called Household Labels that made me say to myself “I want those.” I saw them on the website and they look so great. Then, the generous folks at Mabels sent me a set as a surprise holiday gift, and now I realize I’ll never use them. I wish I could, but I’m simply not going to store my spices and other pantry items in unlabeled packaging. I don’t have a use for them. If you can think of a good place to donate them, let me know. Keep at it Mabels! I’ll buy your clothing labels anyway.
• See’s Candy sent me two boxes of chocolates. I asked for an extra box to gift to someone deserving and they gave it to me. So thank you, See’s, for being generous – and the hardworking firefighters at my neighborhood firehouse thank you, too. Pros: you can get a box in a specific category like Nuts or Dark Chocolate and the good ones are really good. Cons: there is no “map” of the chocolate box, and the crap shoot is disappointing much of the time. Overall, there are just as many yucky flavors as yummy ones.

Next year: look forward to more personal reflections, stories from our pasts, and less product reviews unless we really love something and are feeling like the whole world needs to know about it.