Guidecraft Moon & Stars Media Carousel (Review & Giveaway)

Contest Closed.  Congratulations to #707 - Tj and Amy

Our family room is a really odd shape.  It is open to the kitchen, has a back stairway off of it, with many windows and fireplace along the other two walls.   There isn’t a lot of wall space, and we struggle with finding ways to store Emma’s things in a neat and tidy way while preserving the look and feel of our family room.  In other words, I don’t want the room to end up looking like a toy store when we’re entertaining our adult friends after the kids have gone to bed. 

Emma has become quite the little reader, and so we chose the Moon & Stars Media Carousel to store all of her books.   Upon delivery, we noticed that it was very well packaged.  Each piece was wrapped for protection.  All of the parts seemed to be high in quality, and the wood parts have smooth rounded corners and are splinter-free.  Assembly took about a hour.  It involved deciphering a diagram and all of the parts were numbered, so it was straightforward and easy to understand.

We did have a problem with one of the pieces being defective.  It's the very top wooden circle that is exposed when assembled.  So I called customer care about it yesterday, and they’re shipping out a replacement part for us.  Unfortunately, we’ll have to reassemble the unit all over again, but these things do happen.  I am kind of glad that it did, so that I could give Guidecraft’s customer service skills a test run, and I can now say that they passed with flying colors! 

The Moon & Stars Media Carousel is perfect for our small space.  It’s a real, hardwood piece of furniture that stores books, cds and dvds.  And here’s my favorite part: It rotates on it’s base so everything is easily accessible.  This is huge.  It’s round shape allows it to fit anywhere, even in our small space in the family room.  It stands 31 inches tall and is about 20 inches in diameter.

It’s a beautiful piece of furniture, and a nice addition to our family room.  So bright and colorful, too!

GIVEAWAY!  One very lucky person will win the Moon & Stars Media Carousel from Guidecraft – valued at $200!

Mandatory Entry:  Comment below telling me your favorite product from Guidecraft, other than the Moon & Stars Carousel.

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WIN the Moon & Stars Media Carousel from Guidecraft, a $200 value! Great for books and it rotates too! @GirlGonemom – http://bit.ly/9f4NI5

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No compensation was received for this post. The sponsor provided a product sample to facilitate my review. Contest is open to US residents age 18 and older and closes at Midnight EST on October 4th.  The winner will be selected using Random.org. See giveaway rules before entering. GOOD LUCK!

IKEA South Philadelphia Tour and 2011 Catalog

This past week Emma and I visited the IKEA store in South Philadelphia for a special blogger tour.  I love IKEA, and I knew this would be a real treat.  With beautiful high quality and well-designed products at recession-friendly prices (even pre-recession), this store is any home dweller’s dream come true.  I own several pieces of IKEA furniture that I purchased almost ten years ago and they have held up all this time. 

We arrived a little early, and the tour was scheduled for noon, so the first thing we did was grab a bite to eat before meeting Jennifer, the local marketing manager.  The food in their restaurant was delicious.  We decided on chicken fingers, fries and milk and it was about $6.50 or so for the meal, and there was plenty of food to share between Emma and I.  Yum!  First impressions on visiting the IKEA store for the first time as a parent?  It’s very kid friendly with the availability of food and drinks, humungous elevator space and convenient exits in case you need to make a break for it.

Jennifer going over all of the great features in this room geared toward college students.

The tour itself focused on learning about the new IKEA products for 2011.  Jennifer showed us a few of their smart ideas used in the rooms that are created for shoppers like me.  I love how they set up the room settings to help you envision how a piece might look in your home.  Especially with the space saving/organizational tools.  I’m always struggling over how to better organize my life and home and I left feeling inspired and hopeful.

The solar-powered work lamps come in bright colors for $19.99.

We had our stroller with us so I couldn’t shop as much as I would have liked.  Trust me, if I had a shopping cart, it would have been filled to the brim!  We did buy this childrens stool and a few toys – their toys are great by the way. Here are some of the great new products that caught my eye:

The LATT table and chairs set – a complete set for only $29.99.  Unbelievable price!
My bad back needs this SULTAN FINNVIK memory foam mattress.  It’s $449.00.
CHOSIGT funnels are 2 for $.99!
STORNAST buffet is $449.00.

The bloggers attending received swag bags filled with a few cute toys for our kids and this wok.  It’s only $5.00 and works really well.  Stay tuned for a future product review and giveaway from IKEA!

For Emma, the blueberry basket was the highlight of the day!

I was not compensated or coerced in any way to write to post.  I simply wanted to share the fun experience we had touring the store and meeting with Jennifer and the other bloggers there.  A big thank you to Jennifer and IKEA for the opportunity to peruse the new catalog and tour your fabulous store.