UncommonGoods Review and Giveaway!

Contest closed –
Winner Announced

The awesome peeps at UncommonGoods saw the nice things I said about them and offered to have me do a review and giveaway for my blog. Uh, yes please! I was VERY excited not only because I love their stuff, but also because I love that all their great gifts come with incredible customer service. Just as a personal example, I ordered a tea cup and saucer for my mom for her birthday and unfortunately one of the pieces was chipped. This was at least 10 or 12 years ago, so I can't recall which piece. I sent an email about it and got a response back very quickly. I offered to send the piece back but they pish poshed at the idea and just sent me a whole new set, no questions asked. I was stunned. They were so nice and laid back about the whole thing, I became an instant customer for life.

As part of my review, I was able to have my choice of products (up to $50), so I picked the stainless steel skewers and the stackable lunch pot. First, let's talk about the skewers. (Hint: UncommonGoods has OODLES  of Father's Day gifts. If your dad is anything like mine, he's notoriously hard to buy for; they make it a lot easier!)

Photo from UncommonGoods site

Kabobs are something Dwight and I say we should have more of, so I jumped at the chance to try these skewers out.

They can't hold a lot on each tine, but overall, you get at least as much and sometimes a bit more on them than you can on a regular skewer. They're stainless, so clean up is great and the handles are supposed to be cool to the touch... but we screwed that up and had the entire thing on the grill. Don't do that.

Defeats the purpose! The ends are long enough that you hang them OFF the end of the grill. Oh well. The kabobs came out great and the flatness of the skewers made them easy to turn and stay put. Needless to say we had a delicious lunch!

Next up is the stackable lunch pot. I take my lunch almost every day. Way cheaper than eating out, generally healthier, and most days I work through lunch, so I eat at my desk. The lunch pot comes with two containers. The small, bottom one holds a full 8oz/1 cup and the top holds 16oz/2 cups.

This really has my lunch in it. I was about to head out the door and realized I had a good photo op.

I had yogurt and milk in the bottom and a bunch of fruit in the top - smoothie lunch! I keep our stick blender at work and it's AWESOME. I bring frozen fruit, milk, yogurt (and spinach when I remember), then mix it all up with some vanilla protein powder. So. Good.

(This is empty - I took this photo at a different time.)

The lunch pot worked great. Full disclosure: it did sweat a little because of the coldness of the contents. I love the handle and the spork is a great addition. I used the bottom container as a cup for my smoothie. I'm really happy with it! It's BPA-free (YAY!) and microwaveable, too.

As I mentioned, UncommonGoods is a go-to gift giving source for me for just about anything. Summer is nipping at our heels which means lots of graduation and and wedding gifts  (like these) to buy. I love that the UncommonGoods site has a way to search not only by occasions but price points - I use that feature ALL the time.

Speaking of graduations, my oldest niece is graduating from 8th grade this year. *sniff* While dads can be difficult to buy for what about teenagers?? UncommonGoods to the rescue with an entire section of kid and teen gifts. I already picked out what I'm getting K. In fact, I'm going to buy two – one for her,  one for me. It's the 642 Things to Write About book. She LOVES to write—she's writing a novel!—so I thought this would be just perfect for her. And I thought it would be a fun way to get me writing more, just for me and/or to share here. Win/win!

Now here's the best part. UncommonGoods is letting me give away a $50 Gift Certificate to one of my readers - that's YOU! 

Here's what you need to know:

Mandatory entry:
Leave a comment on this post telling me what you'd get with the $50. Would you keep it for yourself or use as a gift?
Please leave your email in the comment if it's not in your profile - I need a way to contact you! If I don't know where to find you, I'll have to pick another number.

For additional entries:
1. Like UncommonGoods on Facebook
2. Tweet a link to a family page (ie. http://www.uncommongoods.com/gifts/by-recipient/gifts-for-men for example, and/or other family pages on the left side of the home page)
3. Follow UncommonGoods on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/uncommongoods/

Leave a separate comment for each entry. I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner. You have until May 30 to enter – I'll announce the winner May 31.

GOOD LUCK!

Contest is open to US residents only. Sorry guys!

Disclaimer: UncommonGoods gave me the skewers and lunch pot for the review, but my opinions are my own.

Kelly out!