Summer Abroad with Kids :: Blacklane Car Service

In the summer of 2016 our family set off to spend 8 weeks in London. We would explore the city and live like locals, renting a flat in Westminster. This was a far cry from our beach home in Florida and took a little adjusting to. We thrived in our new home away from home and had a jolly good time with many adventures along the way. This post is one installment in my series: Summer Abroad {with Kids}.

Blacklane :: Making Travel with Kids a Breeze

Hands down my least favorite part of traveling with kids is dealing with transportation. When we planned to spend the summer in London I knew we wouldn’t need a car because of their excellent public transportation system (hello, tube & bus). But I also knew that there was no way on earth I was going to take 2 kids right off the red eye and all our luggage on the hour+ train ride from Gatwick airport into the city.

We looked into Uber. Since we’ve used Uber in the States, it would probably be easy. But not knowing London or if Uber even worked the same way we decided to pass. I decided to research car service options and that's when I discovered Blacklane, or as I like to call them, the company that saved my sanity.

Blacklane operates in 180 different companies and offers 4 different classes of service; Economy, Business, Business Van/SUV and First Class. We chose the Business Van/SUV because with 4 people, 4 large suitcases and all of our carry-on luggage I knew we’d need all the space we could use. I booked my reservation online using the Blacklane website. It was easy to use and in a few minutes I received my confirmation email. They also offer an app, which I later downloaded so all my information would be available on my phone.

Can you see our Blacklane driver rolling my suitcase?

Once I made my reservation I kind of forgot about Blacklane until we arrived in London. When we arrived our driver was waiting for us as soon as we exited the terminal. Not driving around in the pick-up area, he was waiting with a sign with our name on it as soon as we walked out of the international terminal. He immediately introduced himself and helped with our bags. We walked to our ride, a Mercedes Van that was immaculate on the inside. Our driver navigated us through the city with ease and delivered us to our flat in record time.

Our van pulling up to pick us up.

As a parent who has done a lot of traveling with my children I cannot even begin to tell you how much I loved Blacklane’s service. We will be using them in the future anytime we need car service in a city we’re visiting.

My 9 year old enjoying the ride, not having to worry about us getting lost. 

Thank you Blacklane for offering me a free service in exchange for review. All opinions are my own.

5 Reasons to Love Dollar Shave Club

A few months ago my husband asked me to sign him up for Dollar Shave Club. I was skeptical at first, but now that we've tried the service, I can honestly say that we love it. So here are my top 5 reasons why you should give Dollar Shave Club a try.

1. Everything Comes Right to the Door

That's right, no more forgetting to pick up new razors at the grocery store. All of your razor blades and any other items you might want are shipped directly to your house for free.

2. Minimal Packaging

Have you ever tried to open one of those plastic cases that razors come in when you buy they at the grocery store? I've cut my hand on one on more than one occasion. Dollar Shave Club ships their razor blades with minimal packaging and NO PLASTIC.

3. Bathroom Notes

Every shipment from Dollar Shave Club includes fun publication called Bathroom Minutes. Just what you need for reading in the bathroom.

4. Free Shipping on Extra Products

Not only do your monthly razors ship for free, but if you want to add any extras to your monthly box those items also ship for free. I love this feature because I can order my husband some of their awesome shave butter or shave lather and it will arrive with his regularly scheduled box.

5. You Only Buy What You Need

I love that you don't have to buy a new handle each month, but you can add one to your box at any time. Dollar Shave Club makes it easy to personalize your box each month.

I can't say enough good things about Dollar Shave Club, you can customize your type of blade, frequency of delivery and extra items you need. So what are you waiting for? Sign up today and give Dollar Shave Club a try. 

This post contains referral links for Dollar Shave Club. If you order through them, I get a small credit.

Gear Up for Winter with a $20 Credit from thredUp

Are you ready for winter? If not, thredUP (my favorite site for online consignment) is currently offering new members a FREE $20 credit whenever you sign up for a new account. With this credit, you should be able to score great deals on kid’s jackets, boots, handbags, and more…

Shipping is a flat rate of $5.99 or FREE on orders of $70 or more and the $20 credit cannot be combined with any other discounts. So get shopping, there are lots of discounted name-brand clothing, accessories, shoes, and more available!

This post contains my affiliate link for thredUP. After you sign up, you can get your own referral link and earn even more thredUP credit by sharing it with your friends.

Splurge vs Steal with thredUP

I have a confession.  I'm obsessed with a very specific dress from Lands End. It's called the Fit & Flare Dress and I bought one at full price (gasp) a while back on the recommendation of a friend. I love the material, and how well it fits. It was a home run for me, and that doesn't happen very often with online shopping. 

Once I decided I loved this dress I wanted more of them. More colors, more patterns, more. But who can afford to shell out $60 on a simple knit dress? This is when I turned to thredUP. What I love the most about shopping on thredUP is being able to search a specific brand, size, and even color. They make it so easy to narrow down and find what I want, I can tell in just minutes if they have what I'm looking for in stock.

After a little searching I found 3 of my favorite dresses for sale at thredUP. The best part, they were just a third of the price that I had paid when ordering directly from Lands End. So I got 3 for the price of 1! Here they are, all lined up in my closet. Can you tell which one was the splurge and which one was the steal?

Free $20 Credit from thredUP

For a limited time, thredUP (my favorite site for online consignment) is currently offering new members a FREE $20 credit whenever you sign up for a new account. With this credit, you should be able to score great deals on kid’s clothing, women’s shoes, handbags, and more…

Shipping is a flat rate of $5.99 or FREE on orders of $70 or more and the $20 credit cannot be combined with any other discounts. So get shopping, there are lots of discounted name-brand clothing, accessories, shoes, and more available!

This post contains my affiliate link for thredUP. After you sign up, you can get your own referral link and earn even more thredUP credit by sharing it with your friends.

Getting Ready For The Extracurriculars with thredUP

Yes, I realize it's only July.  But the truth is that we have a little over a month until school is back in session and with back-to-school also comes back-to-extracurricular.  In our house that means dance and soccer.  Lucky for me thredUP has my covered in this department.  Not only can I shop for back-to-school clothes for the kids, but they also sell gently used athletic and dance shoes and apparel.  

A quick search for dance items found me plenty of leotards, as well as tap shoes.  If you've ever purchased new tap shoes for your little one you know that they can be very expensive and they grow out of the so fast.  To get you started I've created a style shop with lots of dance items linked for purchase.  You can check it out here.

Both my kids are going to play soccer this year so that's another extracurricular activity that I'm going to need to shop for.  Once again, thredUP comes to the rescue.  With a great selection of gently used clothing and shoes, the kids will be outfitted for their games at a fraction of what I would spend at a sporting goods store.  I've also put together some of my favorite pics from the sports section of thredUP.

So there you have it, back-to-school and back-to-extracurricular-activity shopping made easy with a little help from thredUP.

Finding Winter Deals in the Summer with thredUP

I love shopping for deals.  I mean love it.  One of my favorite ways to save money is to shop for seasonal clothes at the end of the season.  I try to stock up on bathing suits in October when they are on clearance and I shop for winter coats in May.  

Lucky for me thredUP makes it easy to shop for off season items any time of year.  Recently I picked up new jackets for the kids at 60%-70% off retail prices.  The coat I bought for Cole was even new with tags, and still marked over 60% off!  

thredUP makes it easy to search for winter wear on their site by simply using the sort function.  You can search for boys, girls or women's - outerwear - and then just look for the type of jacket you want.  In addition to coats, you can also pick up hats, gloves, tights, boots, and even more winter necessities at far below retail prices.  So what are you waiting for?  Get shopping those off season items and get ready to save.

Gear Up for Summer with thredUP

Here in Florida winter is long gone and summer is in full swing.  Warmer temperatures means it's time to take stock in the kids' closets and stock up on those summer essentials.  

If your kids are like mine, they grow like weeds.  It seems like the clothes I saved for them to wear again this summer are already tight.  Good thing for me thredUP carries a wide variety of clothes for boys and girls.  But the really great thing is that thredUP also carries clothes for ME!

So hop on over to thredUP and create an account.  You'll actually get $10 off your first order just for using my link.  You can search for shorts, bathing suits, even sandals.. pretty much everything you need to kick off your summer.

Spring Cleaning {with a little help from thredUP}

Ahhhhh spring, my favorite time of year.  Not only does it mean beautiful weather and playing outside, but it’s also the time of year I go through and gut my children’s closets.  Since here in Florida our temps can go from cool to down right hot in the matter of a week it seems like by mid March I’m ready to pack away the winter clothes and bring out the bathing suits and shorts for the season.  But once the closets have been cleaned out, what do you do with all the extra clothes?  Since I have a boy and a girl (and no plans of adding any additional kids to the family) I rarely save items to be passed down.  So what do you do with all your outgrown clothes?  That's where thredUP comes in and saves the day!

When you go to thredUP.com and create an account you can request one of their adorable polka dot clean out bags FOR FREE.  I actually keep one in the bottom of my daughter's closet at all times.  Fill it up with all the clothes your kids have outgrown and then drop it off at the post office.  Postage back to the thredUP warehouse is free.  Once thredUP receives and processes your bag (and know that this can take several weeks) they'll offer you a payout which you can use in their online store or you can opt to cash out to paypal.  There you have it… spring cleaning made easy with thredUP.

thredUP {Great Deals On Clothes & $10 for New Members}

Do you know about thredUP?  Well, not only is it one of my favorite places to shop, but it's also one of my favorite ways to earn money on clothes that the kids have outgrown.  Right now you can earn $10 towards a future thredUP purchase when you sign up through my link.  {Full disclosure - I'll earn $10 too}  

Even if you're not interested in shopping right now, I would recommend that you sign up and request a clean out bag.  I make sure that I always have 1 in the kids' closets so that as they outgrow clothes I can just pack them away to send in. 

This year thredUP has invited me to be part of their ambassador program.  I'm excited to share my love of thredUP and even some tips & tricks on keeping those closets organized.