Product Review: Missy Mila

Katie February 17, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Recently I got the chance to check out the Missy Mila Twisted Tales Volume 1 DVD.  The DVD runs 101 minutes and is great for kids – but it is probably best if you watch just one or two stories at a time.  (I had trouble sitting through the whole DVD in one sitting).  Mila is an 8 year old girl and she tells some fairy tales with a bit of a twist at times.

Mila sometimes even pops up in the middle of the stories to add information. I thought that this was a cute addition, to try and get more interaction.  In between stories she plays games as well – there was a simon says (Mila Says) skit after one story that I think would really engage kids.

I also really liked the animation and illustrations of the story.  Some of the characters are a bit unique looking which added a nice touch.

The DVDs are made by a French company and I did find that some of the characters have accents but not so much so that an english speaking person wouldn’t be able to understand them.  Organa, the company that makes the DVDs, was established in 1995 with the mission of introducing American families to characters and cultures from around the world through multicultural stories with universal themes.

Missy Mila is recommended for children ages 5-8, available for $19.95 per volume. For more information visit www.organa.com 

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Mila is an 8-year-old quirky, energetic tomboy who loves to tell you traditional story-tales but with her own twist. Kids will be inspired to use their imagination and to become storytellers themselves. Audience participation is triggered by Mila’s direct-to-camera asides all along the episode; her questions and games bring kids right into the story. Join Mila, laugh at the zany dialogs and fresh art in this innovative series which explores the world of classic tales.
Traditional tales are timeless stories that everyone loves to delve back into, generation after generation. Far from old-fashioned clichés, the series “Missy Mila: Twisted Tales” revamps this cultural heritage through the imagination and spontaneity of a present-day little girl. Mila’s stories are peppered with spicy anachronisms and offbeat re-interpretations. So, don’t act surprised if you see a prince applying hair gel before setting out to rescue a princess, unless the latter is a kung-fu champion, that is! As for the dreadful Minotaur, Mila prefers to picture him as the Toupouloupou, a sweetie pie with a sweet tooth. And why do the wolves always have to be depicted as the bad guys? And, in her very personal adaptation of the Three Little Pigs, Mila swaps the awfully shy big bad wolf for an affable bull that… rocks!
Missy Mila Volume 1 includes the episodes: The Hidden Princess, The Toupouloupou, Baba Yaga the Witch, Djoha’s Last Lie, Piboule and the Bear, Strabiwolf the Telltale, the Donkey and the King, The Houses of the Pig Brothers, Elvis, Captain Bloody-Nose the Pirate, The Leprechaun’s Treasure, Aurel the Mocker, Pancho Pimento’s Riddle. Volume 2 includes Toadette the Frog, Prince Gabo, Miss Lazy, Bigmess the Ogress, The Mermaid’s Secret, The Ghost Who Couldn’t Scare, Quentin and his Dragon, Tounde the Ginormous Elephant, Rodolphe and Carlo, Chantal and Noemie, Greedy Liza, Tinytiny, The Two Tinanooks.
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Product Review: Cook’n Recipe Organizer + Giveaway

Katie February 13, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Do you have trouble keeping your recipes organized? I know that is a problem for a lot of kitchens!  Let me tell you about Cook’n Recipe Organize Software.  I’ve been trying it out for the past couple weeks and if you are trying to get organized as one of your New Year Resolutions – this is for you!

You can use this software to organize all your recipes. You can create a cookbook for your family recipes, share your recipes with ease, create menus and meal plans in advance, add photos and stories to help enhance the recipe AND get the nutritional facts for your recipes.  This is a huge one for many who are trying to eat healthy and are counting calories.  A lot of times you don’t know what that home cooked meal might contain calorie wise – this software will help you figure it out!

With your meal plan you can save time because you can organize a shopping list and know exactly what you need to buy. You won’t have to run out and buy any last minute items  that you forgot about! Planning in advance will also give you more time to plan healthy meals rather than rummaging through your cabinets when you get home from work to see what you have and what you can make from it.

Have you been pinning recipes like crazy on pinterest? You can automatically import all your Pinterest recipes with just one click and sync the two so that any new recipes that you pin will AUTOMATICALLY appear in Cook’n!  (It’s not magic, but it’s pretty close to it!)

So I know what you’re thinking – Katie this all sounds great but what about all my magazine and newspaper clipped recipes? Do I have to type everything in to Cook’n? That will waste all the time you say I will save with this software!  But wait! The Scan-It feature makes it easy to get printed recipes in to the software. Scan  them or take a photo with your mobile phone and use the Scan-it feature to translate the scanned recipes to text and then just a few clicks will get them pasted in to Cook’n!

And there are even more tools than that – I just feel like I am starting to sound like an infomercial!

Now with Cook’n 11 you can print your recipes and make them look great! You have the option of printing out 3×5, 4×6 or full pages with your recipes. (Want to share them with relatives? Print and make them a cute little book to give them for their birthday or the next holiday!) Or if you prefer to share things electronically – you can share to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and many, many more!

I have to admit. This software all sounded a little bit too good to be true for me.  But it really is as easy to use as it sounds, once you figure out what all the buttons and menus do 🙂  Just poke around and click everything to figure it out – that’s what I did! And you’ll be cook’n in no time!

Below is a screen shot of one of the recipes I imported from Pinterest. I was skeptical it wouldn’t get the recipe in there – but it did!  (You can see on the left bar that I have the Ultimate Cook’n Cookbook and my pinterest board titled “FOOD” (Maybe I should have separated out my pins a bit more. It would make things much more organized!)

Win your own copy of the software!

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I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.