I was contacted by Dakota’s Personalized Gifts asking if I would be willing to do a product review for their company. Once I visited their website I was thrilled to have the opportunity. The hardest decision was what product I wanted to review! They have a large selection of items for men, women, babies, weddings, graduations, memorials…. There are a pile of options to choose from.
The first thing I noticed when the package arrived was how soft the shirt and shorts were. They were soft like my favorite t-shirt. They weren’t stiff like some brands. The seams of the outfit were sewn straight and the rhinestone decals were placed nicely. I chose the letter R for my name. I love the outfit! It’s so comfortable!!
About Dakota’s Personalized Gifts:
We started in a spare bedroom about 5 years ago more as a part time hobby than a business with The Anniversary Rose making roses for the traditional anniversary gifts (i.e. 1st year paper, 2nd year cotton, 5th year wood etc) cutting rose petals by hand with scissors. It quickly grew from a part time hobby to a full time business, adding help and equipment to keep up. Then, we started expanding into personalized anniversary gifts. We started getting many requests from our customers for personalized wedding, Mother’s & Father’s Day and Christmas gifts etc. That’s when we started Dakota’s Personalized Gifts. Soon the business took over a second bedroom and the garage, the following year it occupying two bedrooms, the garage & a full basement. With no room left to expand we were forced to move into a commercial location in 2009. We continue to expand with new products and updated equipment all the time which allows us to produce most of the personalized items in house.
10OFF50 for $10 off when you spend $50 15OFF75 for $15 off when you spend $75
GRD-OCT31 for free ground shipping when you spend $35
Win It: Dakota’s Personalized Gifts has been kind enough to offer one lucky Dozenroses13 reader a choice between a $50 gift certificate and free US shipping OR a T-Shirt and Shorts set as shown above.
If you’d like to enter to win this prize, please follow this link to my new and improved blog site to enter. I am planning to migrate all further posts over there.
Good Luck!
**I received no monetary compensation for this post. Dakota’s Personalized Gifts provided me with sample products for my review. The opinions expressed herein are my own.**
This is Oscar. He is a “robot” at the Dutchess County Fair.
He moves slowly, but is great to watch for a while.
I don’t know his schedule, but when I saw him he was in the horticulture building.
If you look closely you can see he is wired for power
While I was watching he waved me over to shake my head.
Next he borrowed my sunglasses and struck a pose.
He’s a great attraction.
Have you visited the fair this year?
What’s your favorite attraction?
I’ve been going to the fair my entire life and I’ve only missed 1 year. (my best friend got married that weekend – she was from Dutchess County, she should have known better!! LOL!!) There are certain things I look forward to every year. One of the major food vendors that I love were MIA this year, but my other favorite thing is the baby animals. These babies certainly didn’t disappoint!! There are 13 babies in the first video!!
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, minced
1 Small fennel bulb or 2 celery ribs, minced
1 carrot, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ounce ham, minced (optional)
4 cups chicken broth or vegetable brother
2 cups diced and seeded tomatoes
2 cups grated zucchini
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, fennel, carrot, garlic, and ham. (if using) Saute until the vegetables are soft and fragrant, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the broth and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes
3. Add the zucchini and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until the zucchini is cooked through, about 15 minutes.
4. Serve hot.
Serves 4
I modified things a bit…
I used butter instead of olive oil
I opted to use 5 stalks of celery instead of the fennel or 2 celery ribs
I forgot to buy a carrot…
I used about 10 cloves of garlic
I didn’t use ham
I probably used about 6 cups of chicken broth and could probably use a bit more due to all the extra stuff I added – most of it absorbed the liquid….
I used a 24 oz. can of diced tomatoes
I used about 6 cups of zucchini
I added a 10 oz. container of sliced mushrooms
I also mixed in a pound of mini shell pasta
It came out really really yummy!
I highly recommend….
Do any of you have any good recipes that use ingredients from your garden?
I’d love it if you shared.
If you enjoy cooking, please feel free to join Rose’s Recipe Group over on Facebook.
A story which caught my eye was about a product that made millions, but the inventor only made $400.
Walter Hunt 1796-1859
His Product Made Millions. He Made $400.
One day in 1839, Walter Hunt was fooling around with a piece of wire and came up with a new kind of pin. He called it a dress pin, but the world came to know it as the safety pin.
Hunt patented the safety pin, and that patent went on to be worth millions of dollars. However, shortly after receiving his patent and before the money started rolling in, Hunt sold it for $400 because he owed a man $15 at the time and didn’t have the cash. Hunt paid his creditor $15 and was happy to pocket $385.
What’s worse, Hunt had invented a sewing machine years before and had thrown away a fortune when he didn’t patent it at all. His reason was that he feared it might cause unemployment among seamstresses.
But don’t be too worried about Hunt’s misfortune. He eventually became rich with his inventions of a fire alarm, knife sharpener, icebreaker, and fountain pen.
Not many people have heard of Hunt, but this New York mechanic was one of history’s most unusual and ingenious inventors.
I read things like this and it kind of makes me sad. I think of ideas all the time and say “someone should parent this or that” and of course I should be the one to patent the idea, but never do….