Support Your Local Shops!

Today is Small Business Saturday! Support your local shops by purchasing gifts, groceries and other items from the local businesses within your area! I prefer to pass on Black Friday, I tried shopping on a Black Friday when I was younger, and it was not my cup of tea!

I love to stroll around the Grand Rapids area and finding the local markets and stores that have the unique and out of the ordinary items that I can’t find in a regular big box store. We’d love to give a shout out to a few of the local shops and markets around here in Grand Rapids:

• Russo’s International Market – Now with two locations
• Horrocks Market
• Kingma’s Market – Now with two locations
• Art of the Table

We also are giving a shout out to some friends waaaaay up north from us, Cup of the Day! You will find them up in Sault Ste. Marie in our Upper Peninsula!

Are you local around here? Where do you like to shop? Are you one of our local retailers? Tag us and we shall tag you back! Making connections, locally, nationally and globally is what we are all about.

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Vegan Gummies? Yes!

First off, I have to admit, nobody in my family is vegan, but sometimes there are food and snack options that we will check out. We do like to have other options to give our children and ourselves. We try to find options free of preservatives or food coloring and that are more healthy for us.

J. Luehders of GermanyVegan Gummi Snacks are free from gelatin and contain no artificial colors or flavors. Parents can be relieved to know that there is a tasty treat without the worries of added ingredients and food coloring. Offering such flavors as Exotic Fruits, Red Berries, Fruity Flowers, Exotic Smoothie and Ruby Smoothie, there’s plenty of choices for everyone! These candies are vegan, contain no gelatin and are soft and delicious!

And I can, in fact, say these are really delicious! Along with my two sons, we decided to taste test these gummi snacks. The three flavors were tried were: Red Berries, Fruity Flower and Exotic Smoothie. They were super soft and chewy! These gummies do pack a punch of flavor, and will not disappoint! My oldest gave his dad one of the gummies out of the Red Berries package, and even dad enjoyed the flavor and said it tasted pretty good (and he can be picky, since he’s not a big fan of candy or sweets)!

Luehders Mixed Fruit Smoothie Vegan Gummi.

Luehders Fruity Flowers Vegan Gummi.

Luehders Fruity Flowers Vegan Gummi.

Luehders Red Berries Vegan Gummi.

My youngest son, who just turned 4, said he loved every flavor that we tried. He did not have a package that we tried that he did not like. As for myself and my oldest son (he’s an eight year old expert of treats), we both liked the Exotic Flowers best! We will have to go pick up some more flavors the next time we hit the market!

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Speaking of markets… For those in the local Grand Rapids, Michigan area, Kingma’s Market has these in stock in their brand new location in Ada! That is where we picked up our three packages of Luehders Vegan Gummies. Nibble, nibble! (You can see we ate them all…!)