Product review: Sojos Complete Turkey Cat Food Mix

Our cats do not like human food. They like dry food and learned to like a little bit of wet food. I was not sure what their reaction would be to this food, which is kind of falls in the middle between dry and wet food. It comes dehydrated and need to be soaked for 15 minutes in warm water before serving it. The instructions on proportions appear on the package. In attached video you see half a cut of dry good mixed with 3/4 cup of water. After 15 minutes of soaking we drained the water that was left in the food. It has been 12 days since we introduced this food. One cat eats it, the other one still has no interest even if we mix it with something she likes. She just eats around it.

For the first encounter with the good we removed their favorite dry cat food leaving them no choice. At first the cats were not interested, but a few minutes later one of the cats returned and ate so I was able to record it. Then we left the motion activated camera pointed the food ball and left them alone. The camera caught that one of the kitties returned several times and ate it, the other cat was not interested. As most cats our cats are finicky eaters and do like different things. So the fact that one of them like it right away is pretty impressive. Not all of the food got eaten and now we use 1/4 cup portions.

This product is provided by SoJos, a Minnesota based company specializing in "homemade" pet foods.

Our cats give it one paw up.

♦ Feline product rating system:
★ two paws up - both cats like it
★ one paw up - one cat likes it
★ no paws up - neither one of the two cats liked it

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆

Product review: Selens® 168 LED Dimmable Ultra High Power Panel Digital Camera

own several light panels and Selens has several features that made it the one I use most often.

The most useful feature to me is the ability to change the amount of light that the panel generates with a simple turn of the knob. This allows me to have perfect lighting in different situations. In the attached video you can see how easy it is to find perfect lighting.

The second thing that I find very useful is the two filters that are included with the panel. The one I use most is the yellow filter that give me warm light. I really like that the filters fit snugly and stay in even if you turn the light upside down. In my other light panel the filter can slide out of I tilt the light and I had to tape the filter so I don't drop it as I move the lights.

The light panel can run using several different types of batteries: six AA batteries, NP-550,LP-E6,EN-EL15. I am using it with rechargeable AA batteries. Another useful feature is a battery test button on the back - I can tell how much juice the batteries have. I can recharge the batteries in advance of a long photo session if needed.

The light panel generates continuous light. Once you turn it on the light panel stays on. This panel does not communicate with the camera like a flash. It can be mounted it on the camera shoe, but I use it mounted on tripod so I have more control of where the lighting goes and my camera is lighter for a steadier shot. In my video you see how I use this light on a small tripod for the table top photography.

The photo panel is 6" by 3.75" and 2" deep. The light weighs 1 poin 0.3 oz (with six AA batteries installed). It has 168 LED lights.

Overall, I like this light very much. It is easy to set up and easy to change the amount of light I get to fit any situation.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Pair of Terse Silk Pillowcase 19 Momme Mulberry Silk by Lilysilk

I am very pleased with the pillow case. It feels great on my face. The silk is thick and luxurious. I got the blue color and it is a beautiful shade of dusty blue. The workmanship is very good, all seams are very neat The for for a standard pillow is perfect (see photo).

The descriptions mentions an envelope closure at the end. It is there but it is about 4 inches away from the end of the pillow so it does not hold the pillow in. If you are looking for envelope closure it will not work without some alterations.

Care recommendations:
1. Hand wash
2. Cold Iron
3. Do not dry clean
4. If using machine wash, then use cold water and gentle cycle
5. Do not tumble dry

It is super nice! The pillowcase comes in a box and the package looks very attractive so it can be used as a gift.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Boulder Triple Insulated Stainless Steel Water Bottle

EcoVessel stainless steel bottle has a insulated stainless steel body and cap. The cap can be either totally removed or opened to reveal a drinking spout. The drinking spout is not a sports cap, it is just a fairly large opening with a plastic edge. Because it is large it is easy to drink from. The cap forms a good seal and does not leak.

This is a thermos bottle. Its construction is two stainless steel walls with a vacuum between them. This construction is similar to the old glass Thermos bottles with steel replacing the glass. The thermal conductivity of glass is lower than steel so the glass thermos keeps the temperature better, but stainless steel is unbreakable.

To answer the question how well EcoVessel thermos keeps the temperature I filled it with hot water and measured the temperature several times over 20 hours with a temperature probe. My temperature probe shows both time of day and temperature, in the table below I am rounding the hours but you can precise times in the video if you care.

★ start ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 185 degrees
★ 8.5 h later ~~~~~~~~~~ 132 degrees
★ 20.5 h later ~~~~~~~~~ 102 degrees

EcoVessel thermos holds the temperature well, on par with my favorite old thermos.

The bottle holds 20 oz of water and weighs 12 oz when empty. The bottle's base is 2 7/8" across at the base. This bottle fits into the bottle holder of my car. The bottle is 11.5" tall (from the base to the top of the cap). One unique feature of this bottle is that include a stainless steel strainer, so if you want use the bottle to brew tea or keep the ice from touching you lips the strainer will do it.

The instructions say that this bottle should NOT be washed in the dishwasher and hand washing is strongly recommended.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: AROCCOM® Advanced LED Plant Grow Light - 13 days grow diary

In attached video you can see a 13 day dairy of two plants (cucumber seedlings). One plan is growing in a sunny window, the other one in dark area under a Aroccom grow light. The grow light was turned on for 14 hours a day on a timer (off at night).

I did this experiment with four different grow bulbs and one control plant in the sunny window. At the end of the video I include the last day of the plants grown with other grow bulbs for comparison.

As you see at the end of 13 days all plants are healthy but the plant in a sunny window is bigger. My video shows the set up for all 4 grow bulbs. The conditions for all plants were the same, they were watered at the same time, the timers were set up on the same schedule. There are slight differences between the size of the plants that grew under different grow lights but the differences are not big. For example, 12W bulb vs 15W bulb did not make a big difference. So I would say shop based on the best price.

Aroccom 12W Grow light fits into a regular bulb fixture. The light is 5.5" long, and 5" wide. The light feels well made. The finish of the bulb looks neat, and when I shake it nothing rattles.

Even though the sunny window did best in my experiment often a sunny window is not an option and in that case grow lights do quite well. All plants look very healthy.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: Erligpowht E27 12W Led Grow Light - 13 days grow diary

In attached video you can see a 13 day dairy of two cucumber seedlings - one is growing in a sunny window, the other one in dark area under a Erligpowht grow light. The grow light was turned on for 14 hours a day using a timer (off at night).

I did this experiment with four different grow bulbs and one control plant in the sunny window.
At the end of the video I include the last day of the plants grown with the aid of the other grow bulbs for comparison.

As you see at the end of 13 days all plants are healthy but the plant in a sunny window is bigger. My video shows the set up for all 4 grow bulbs. The conditions for all plants were the same, they were watered at the same time, the timers were set up on the same schedule. There are slight differences between the size of the plants that grew under different grow lights but the differences were not big. For example, 12W bulb vs 15W bulb did not make a big difference. Based on this experiment I would say shop based on price.

Erlighpowht 12W Grow light fits into a regular bulb fixture. The light weight 9.15 oz and is 5.5" long, and 4.75" wide. The light feels well made. The finish of the bulb looks neat, and when I shake it nothing rattles.

Even though the sunny window did best in my experiment often a sunny window is not an option, and in that case grow lights do quite well. The plants look very healthy.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★

Product review: HHE E27 15w LED Grow Lights - 13 days grow diary

In attached video you can see a 13 day dairy of three cucumber seedlings - one is growing in a sunny window, the two others in dark area under HHE 12W and HHE 15W grow lights. The grow lights were turned on for 14 hours a day on a timer (off at night).

I did this experiment with four different grow bulbs and one control plant in the sunny window.
At the end of the video I include the last day of the plants grown with the aid of the other grow bulbs for comparison.

As you see at the end of 13 days all plants are healthy but the plant in a sunny window is bigger. My video shows the set up for all 4 grow bulbs. The conditions for all plants were the same, they were watered at the same time, the timers were set up on the same schedule. There are slight differences between the size of the plants that grew under different grow lights but the differences were not big. For example, 12W bulb vs 15W bulb did not make a big difference. Based on this experiment I would say shop based on price.

HHE 12W and 15W grow lights fit into a regular bulb fixture. The lights feel well made. The finish of the bulbs looks neat, and when I shake them nothing rattles.

Even though the sunny window did best in my experiment often a sunny window is not an option, and in that case grow lights do quite well. The plants look very healthy.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★