Birchbox Breakdown: September 2011

Now that I have had some time to try out the products in my Birchbox I thought I would give you my opinion on the treats I received.

This is the card with the details of what I received and they also include the price of the full sized product (I really love that).

#1. So let’s start at the top of the list with the Incoco nail Applique’s…..the style that I got was like this

They are made out of real nail polish and they are supposed to last up to 14 days.  So if you know me you know how much I LOVE nail polish and this was right up my ally. Look how cute they are on…

My opinion: The first nail or two were tricky and then I got the hang of it. After a week of them on my nails they held up perfectly through laundry, dishes, cooking, and hair washing (he he). I don’t know if they would have held up the entire 14 days because I got antsy with the growth on the cuticle side because my nails grow super fast and removed them. But I loved them so much that I bought these two different patterns…

#2. The Jouer lip enhancer is supposed to plump, hydrate, and condition all in one step. If there is anything that can compete with my nail polish collection it would be my lip gloss/balm collection.

My opinion: I was so excited to try this and to be honest it was a little bit of a let down. I didn’t think it was anything very special and certainly did not fee that it offered any plumping whatsoever. I didn’t love it or hate it, to be honest it was just blah. So no I will not be purchasing more. I feel like that is so mean to say but hey I am just being honest.

#3. LIV GRN perfume in Earth. Can I just say I hate these little sample bottles they make a mess when you open them.

My Opinion: I tend to like really fruity sweet scents but I have to say that I love this so much and I will most likely get this in the full sized version.

#4. Pangea facial cream (I think that speaks for itself )

My opinion: I don’t love it or hate it. Much like the lip product it was just okay.

#5. Friendship bracelet

My opinion: I love love love the bracelet. I have worn it a ton already and am working on my own version inspired by this so stay tuned because it is going to be so cute and so simple.

Birchbox September 2011 (my new love)

Okay so I have become obsessed with makeup and beauty channels on You Tube (if you have favorites let me know) and I was watching one of my favorite “guru’s” the other day and she was talking about something called Birchbox. Have you heard about this? It is AMAZING.

No I haven’t been prompted or paid in any way to blog about this but I love to pass things along that I enjoy or am currently obsessed with so today you get this treat

So Birchbox is “Hand-picked deluxe samples delivered to your door for $10 per month”. That explanation is directly off of the website and it is the very best way to describe this fun monthly gift. So this month is my first month and I thought I would share with you what came in my box.

This is straight out of my mailbox…

This is the box inside the shipping box….

This is what you see when you open the box…

 

Every box comes with a very detailed card that describes the products in your box that are handpicked for you based on your beauty profile…

 

 

 

I am so excited about everything in my box. If you want me to show in detail what I received or if you want my opinions on any of the products I would love to share. For now I will keep it simple and just give you a peak of what I got.

Have you ever tried anything like this?

Labor Day Fun and Crystal Digging

Hi! I hope you had a fantastic Labor day! We did a little camping, fishing, and hiking….but the highlight of the trip was digging for crystals. Right here in Montana we have a really fun place where you basically get to be like a kid in a sandbox looking for treasures. They don’t plant the crystals so you really have to search them out to find the bigger ones but they but it is truly addicting.

I pulled some information off of the official website just because I thought it was so interesting. “The prospect of finding buried treasure is always just one shovel scoop away here in this public sandbox high in the Pioneer Mountains.  The treasure is the quartz crystals that are scattered liberally through the decomposed granite of the unique 220-acre site that's been reserved by the Forest Service for the popular hobby of rockhounding.

Look at me in all my camping glory lol

These are some of the fun treasures we unearthed….

   

We had a blast. Now I need to figure out a way to add these to a fun project…maybe jewelry?

Favorite Things Party 2011

I recently hosted one of the most fun parties I can remember throwing in quite a while. It was a Favorite Things Party have you heard of this idea? I am sure there are several variations of this idea but I wanted to share with you how I went about this.

I stated with an Evite (I am in love with these) it is so easy to track who you invited and if they are attending and it’s a great way for everyone to communicate about the event. My invitation said:

We're sharing our "Favorite Things"!!
(Think Oprah's favorite things show) Please come prepared to share with us what your "can't live without" item is and bring three of them to share. The idea is that you leave with three different items that just might become your new favorite things! The possibilities are endless but some ideas would be cleaning supplies, kitchen gadgets, makeup/beauty items, or even fashion accessories.  Also please bring your favorite appetizer, dessert, or side dish to share (because you know my favorite thing is food). Feel free to bring friends just have them bring their own items and let me know in the comments so that I know how many people to plan for. Thanks to Holly for the idea (even though I changed it up a little). I hope you can all come and I can't wait to see what you bring :)

Everyone that came brought yummy food including this beauty…

I made chicken taco’s and we started by just eating and chatting. Then we played a game of “get to know you” bingo. I tried to gear the questions around the girls that attended so that we could have fun answers. I also used a penny as the “O” and I will get to why in a second. Here are the card I made….

I know nothing fancy but hey it worked and it was fun.

Then we got down to business. I had gift bags like this set out together…

I had each person describe their items (I think we all spent $5-$10 they were supposed to be small things that you love). After the explanation was given I had each person put one of each item in a different bag and when the bag had three items we then moved it out of rotation. After everyone was done we broke for desert and I put tissue paper in each bag so that it would be random what each person would take home. Then we all gathered together again and I had each person choose a bag and the order was determined by the year of penny that they had on their penny on the bingo card (so cheesy but it worked).

I know you can’t wait to hear about my item right? Well I couldn’t choose because if you know me you know that I love nail polish and  lip gloss/lip balm. So of course I had a bottle of my favorite brand of polish Nabi. It dries fast, goes on smooth, stays on for days, and comes off easily with remover. And I read that Nabi in Korean means butterfly and that makes me smile.  I also included my favorite lip balm of the moment and it is the EOS lip balm. I have the lemon flavor always near by me because it has SPF in it and my “bestie” says I need to use more SPF so she should be proud, but all of the flavors are delicious. I also included a small hostess gift in each bag just for fun. I love the ELF makeup brushes they are inexpensive and work sooooo well so I made sure everyone took one home.

Last but not least here is the list of what everyone else brought just because it was so fun to see what everyone loved (I am not including names because I forgot to ask permission).

* Country living magazine

* Home magazines (House beautiful, Real Simple, and Better Home and Garden) and itunes gift card

* Burt's Bees chapstick and Starbucks gift card for vanilla steamer with whip cream and caramel sauce

* Stash brand Licorice spice herbal tea (found at Rosaurs and Good food store) and mug

* Glass pitcher and fun pot scrubber

* Loves the Dobie sponge (but couldn't find) with Dawn oil of olay/ brought Coconut lime body butter by Tree Hut (found at most drugstores and at costco around the holidays)

* Was talked out of bringing her favorite stone scrubber for the toilet with the white handle from Albertsons / brought fresh/raw tortilla and Nutella

* Body Basics scent infused lotion

* Kirkland brand makeup removing wipes, LA's totally awesome cleaner form the dollar tree, and Turbie twist towel

* Loves cellophane wrap and brought it as the gift bag for the purse hook

This was such a fun party to throw so go and plan one of your own and if you have any questions about how we did it don’t hesitate to ask!!

I am in love (again)

Hi friends! I hope that everyone is having a great summer. Mine has been very fun but very busy lol. I have to admit though that I have been cheating on blogging with my new current love……

Oh my word are you part of this? Have you checked it out?

This is literally my new favorite way to save all of the fun things I plan to create, cook, craft, sew, or just plain drool over. I would love to hook up  with any of you there!!

Red, White, and Blue Gift

I thought I would show you a fun gift that I delivered this week for Independence day, because I love how it turned out. I had a local popcorn company make some red, white, and blue berry flavored popcorn and then I made a cute tag so they would know what office it came from

I hope that everyone a safe and happy holiday!!!

Summery gift box decor

I had a local bakery make these amazing coconut macaroons…..

and yes they taste just as good as they look. The problem was that the box was so plain. So I decided to spruce it up

I cut strips of paper 2 inches by 12 inches and folded them accordion style……

Then I connected the ends together to form a circle….

and the fun part comes next. I cut some circles out of cardstock and had my glue gun ready and then I flattened out my circle (yep that’s the best way I can describe it lol)

After adding a few embellishments I came up with this….

Movie Certificate Holder

I needed to find a fun way to give a movie gift certificate and came up with this…

I used a small brown paper bag and some decorative scissors and stickers.

Crafty weekend

I know how excited you must be to find out about the crafts I eluded to in my last post right? lol

Well like I said before my “bestie” came to visit and we have the same craft disease/obsession and the result of that was some crafting bliss.

First we made the cutest fridge magnets out of bottle tops look how fun and easy they were….

 

all you need is a bottle cap, some cute paper (she cut her circles out of magazines so they were fun and shiny), a magnet, and some hot glue.

We also made these rings out of wire and beads…….

 

I made the first two and Brandi made the cute flower

Don’t you love them? I was thinking about doing a giveaway but it’s hard to get the sizing just right unless I fly you to Montana and used your finger (ha ha), but I am debating on doing a little tutorial if anyone was interested?

The Handwriting Game

I know I have been the worst blogger ever lately but between Easter, a funeral, baseball, work, and oh ya know life {ha ha} things have gotten out of control. But hang in there because my “bestie” and I did some fun crafts last weekend and I can’t wait to show you the pictures. Until then enjoy this fun game I was tagged with by my blog friend Jandy. I really don’t love my handwriting but this was to fun to pass up!

Pretty easy, just answer these questions in your own handwriting...

1. What's your name/blogger name?

2. What's your blogs URL?

3. Write "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

4. Favorite quote?

5. Your favorite song?

6. Your favorite band/singer?

7. Anything else you want to say?

8. Tag 3 bloggers to participate.

I will post my fun new projects very soon I promise!!!

Plate Pedestal

I had the fun chance recently to visit my mother-in-law (and no I’m not being sarcastic she really is fantastic) anyways she shares my love of crafty creations and was prepared for my visit with a this box…..

filled with cups, candlesticks, and old plates that she found at second hand stores.

We used these to make the cutest pedestals and we put them together with glue that was like this….

 

If you can suffer through a picture parade I will show you the combinations I made and where I put them in my house (aren’t you on the edge of your seat? lol).

If you stuck around until the bitter end then you must really love me Happy Crafting!