Sample provided.

Nothing says the holidays like Teleflora!  I am always excited when I get a knock on the door and there is floral arrangement from Teleflora greeting me.  This year I received the Sparkling Star Centerpiece chosen from a myriad of other beautiful arrangements.  I particularly love Teleflora’s Christmas bouquets because they bring that delicious scent of Christmas…without the fire hazard of a well-lit tree!

Their holiday bouquets are wonderful gifts for loved ones or that hard-to-shop-for friend.  They also make excellent appreciation gifts for co-workers (such as your school secretaries!), or even a house guest gift!  For those of you with a mother-in-law, this. is. perfect.  They are beautiful centerpieces for holiday dinners, whether that is New Years Day, Christmas or even Thanksgiving!  Best of all, the delicately crafted and classical looking mercury glass vase goes with any decor and is a timeless piece that can be used again and again!

Photo Credit: Scott Clark Photo

Photo Credit: Scott Clark Photo

Take a peek at teleflora.com and order your holiday bouquet today!

Samples provided.

Back to school has never been more crazy than this year! Not only are my days filled with lessons, assessments and a classroom of new students, but it is back to school for me to learn about wine!

Amidst the chaos and grading I am squeezing in time to read Wine Folly by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack while sampling a delicious array of Banfi wines. And trust me, it is an interesting new hobby as well as a fun conversation maker as I argue with friends on Friday game nights about the scent of a particularly tasty wine!

While I am usually a creature of habit unwilling to deviate from my secret margarita recipe, I have had tons of fun the last few weeks sampling different kinds of wine and learning where the different flavors come from! I even learned a little about pairing different kinds of wines, and had an extra fun excuse to throw a dinner party! (Homemade Indian curry and Bolla Rose anyone?)

I’ve learned about the effect of tannins (natural compounds found in grape skins) on my tongue and consequently that I apparently have too many taste buds (bitter!), thus I favor the sweet deliciousness of a fruity red or white wine with fewer tannins. I learned about the acidity and sweetness of wine. The more acidic the more shriveled your mouth will feel. (Fun fact: Did you know that the higher the alcohol content in your wine is, the more watery your mouth will be?) I also learned how to look for clarity by tipping your glass and looking at the wine from an angle to judge color and depth.  I also read something about finding the dominant scent of the wine.  Funny thing is, I (drunkenly?) read that you should sniff the inside of your elbow and then smell the wine. And better yet?  I made my whole family do it before I let them drink any.  Clearly that day I could not handle my alcohol.  Please DON’T do that. Instead, smell the wine once, to cleanse your palate before inhaling and looking for that first delicious aroma.

Lastly, I learned that the finish is that lingering taste that stays with you after a sip. I like a nice, long, sweet finish to my wines.

After all this learning and sampling, I have concluded that in this wide world of wines, there ARE perfect wines for me!

Of the six most delicious wines I tasted from Banfi, I naturally favored the sweeter, lighter wines, particularly the Lambrusco Emiliano and the marvelous, amazing Rosa Regale. If you want a wine that tastes like a cup of juice or sparkling soda, these are the darlings for you! I am in love with these babies. They paired well with pasta, my specialty asian sweet potato cheese tonkatsu rolls, and chocolate cake. They also made quite a fine dessert on their own!

I also received a couple of dryer wines that made excellent dinner companions. The Bolla Rose paired well with exotic spices and the Banfi Centine paired well with my garlic breaded tilapia fillets. These wines are good for a person who doesn’t have quite the sensational sweet tooth that I have.

Lastly I had a yummy Pacific Rim Dry Riesling and Natura Chardonnay. The chardonnay went well with a long day at work and a waffle shaped like a Death Star. This delicious wine can be paired with the meal of a tired spinster or make a delicious companion to a fancy steak dinner. It isn’t too sweet, and not too bitter. It has an excellent balance so even the amateur wine drinker like myself can handle it on its own or with a meal.

And with the Pacific Rim Dry Riesling? I won’t lie, I’m saving it for Thanksgiving. Partially because the bottle is beautiful and partially due to knowing its flavor will go well with my turkey next week and I would like to share it with my family.

As for me, the first 9 weeks of Back to School are up and I think I passed my Wine 101 course. But like with anything there is always more to learn. For now I have only a dream of going to the Castello Banfi Vineyard in Tuscany, Italy and sampling their beautiful wines and foods in a graduate level wine tasting course. So I will keep at this wine thing and maybe someday my dreams will come true.  There are so many more flavors to try!

If you don’t know how to start wine tasting, first things first, you’re going to need a manual! I highly recommend Wine Folly – The Essential Guide to Wine. It is a great beginners guide which explains different aspects of wine and gives you a nice chart and information regarding pairing wines and dinners. And don’t forget to pick up a wine tasting notebook! I have become silly in love with my wine tasting notebook and love to challenge myself to pick out those unseen details in a glass of wine.

And if you, like me have no idea what wine to start tasting? Check out http://www.banfiwines.com/ I highly recommend the Rosa Regale and the Lambrusco Emiliano, but there are so many delicious flavors to try. And the only way to find them is to sample, sample, sample!

Sample provided.

Mother’s Day is just around the corner!  Not sure how it crept up on me this year but I looked over my shoulder this morning and there it was, chasing me down!  Thanks yet again to Teleflora, I am prepared with an amazing bouquet of lilies and lavender to surprise my mom! From the gorgeous vase to the color and flower selection I was more than pleased with the Luxurious Lavender Bouquet!  And my mom loved it, too!  (Unfortunately my #onetoughmother is a bit camera shy…)

Motherhood is a tough job and I’m pleased to celebrate my mother on Mother’s Day.  I know how much she gave of herself and her dreams to make sure my siblings and I such an amazing chance at life.  Thanks mom!

Although I’m only a parent to several furry 4-legged beasts, all I have to do is look around me at my friends and their children and the parents of my students to see all the amazing mothers that are giving their all to help bring up the citizens of tomorrow to be loving, respectful people.  Thank you for all you do!

Teleflora is a great way to show your love and appreciation for the special ladies in your life.

Check out this awesome video for One Tough Mother  and then head on over to Teleflora and check out their beautiful Mother’s Day selection before it is too late!

Day 5 : Blooming!

Sample provided.

Ever since teaching a unit on plants, I have been very into flowers. As a true cat lady must, I often buy them for myself because my cats are lacking in coin. I get orchids in the fall, poinsettias in the winter, tulips and hyacinth in the spring. I collect handfuls of daffodils in March and all the wild flowers and bleeding hearts around my home in the summer and make a poor-man’s bouquet all on my own.

So naturally, when my favorite florist, Teleflora offered to send me a bouquet of Valentine’s Day flowers, I could not refuse. Last summer, I greedily hoarded left-over bouquets from BloggerBash and had the great pleasure of sharing their Christmas special last year. Despite these small floral pleasures in my life, I have to say TeleFlora’s Wrapped With Passion Valentine’s Bouquet absolutely trumps all. The flowers compliment each other perfectly and it is so relaxing to sit down and literally smell the roses after a long day at work. If someone, perhaps a handsome cat, were to send me a bouquet I would be quite pleased with them. And if I were generous enough to send someone else flowers (rather than hogging them to myself) I know my loved one and I would be 100% satisfied with Teleflora’s product.

Day one : Delivery

As a special offer, if you order between the 3rd and the 12th of February, you can receive a FREE “Love Note Concierge” to help pen that special note for your darling this Valentine’s Day. Just call (1-844-IT-IS-LOVE) to have an important note accompany your bouquet!

Teleflora bouquets are hand-made bouquets by local florists and delivered right to your door! You can’t go wrong! My lovely arrangement was made by the local Erickson Floral in Astoria, Oregon.

I urge you to take a peek at Teleflora.com and call the Love Note Concierge (1-844-IT-IS-LOVE) to pick out a special something for that lovely person in your life.

GO.  NOW!  Celebrate your love with Teleflora.com and the Love Note Concierge!

Samples provided.

Sports fans!  May I have your attention, please?

I’m so excited to introduce SoftJox to our readers just in time for the heat of the football season!  SoftJox are your very own loveable sportsmen for your kids to hug and cheer on their favorite teams.  Not only are SoftJox quality-made, but they are far softer than you could ever imagine and make quite the comfortable and adorable pillow to snuggle.

I met SoftJox owner and creator, Mike Friedman at a recent blogging conference and learned the story of how SoftJox came to be.  He and his family were spending time with his brother’s family and they noticed how the children loved both sports and stuffies, but found that there wasn’t a lot of mixing of the genres – thus the idea for SoftJox was born!  Next (and this is what I think is the coolest part of this whole story) the children started developing the concept art for the product!  Design artists later used this concept art to draw and make this dream a reality!

It took four years for the final product – the footballer – to be finalized and created.  The customizable aspect of this character is what makes it so much more special than it already is.  Schools have ordered customized SoftJox with team logos or school logos for a fun and unique team gift.  With more designs in construction, I can’t wait to see the future prototypes from SoftJox!  (I’m anticipating the Hockey Player myself…)

As an educator, the idea of customizable sportsmen caught my interest.  When I found out some schools bought them as end-of-season gifts for their sports teams, I immediately thought of my own students!  How cool would that be for the kids to have a SoftJox of themselves!   However, SoftJox are also awesome for children who are more interested in sports as a spectator.  How cool would it be to have such a personal toy to express your interests?

They are super cute, soft and extremely loveable in person.  I have to fight my dog for cuddle rights to them at night.  I can’t say enough just how pleasant they are to squish.  With soft, fabric and strong construction, my SoftJox have traveled cross the USA twice this summer and are staying strong!  I’ve got my fingers crossed  and hope to someday see a Martial Artist SoftJox!

Please visit SoftJox.com and see what they have to offer!  I just LOVE my 20” Footballers!