I had the sickies

I've been meaning to write here for some time now (over a week), but every time I sit down and think about what I should wring about my brain goes all blank and I've got a bit fat nada. So I'll tell you why my creative/foodie/randomness has been absent for a bit.

I got sick. It started with what I thought was just some seasonal allergies a couple of weekends ago and slowly progressed into "that crap that's going around." I had the typical sneezing, runny nose, etc. that comes with seasonal allergies and my husband and sister had the same thing going on so I didn't think much about it. Apparently they were both smarter than me and took meds to help with it.

I, on the other hand, decided to "tough it out" and didn't start taking anything until things were starting to go further downhill. By Tuesday of that week I had a rough, scratchy throat, a voice that sounded like an old man and a runny/stuffy/draining down the back of my throat nose. Great! By Wednesday I had all of the above, plus no voice. On Friday I decided I'd had enough of my husband calling me Silent Bob so I needed to go to the doctor.

My wonderful doctor gave me an antibiotic and told me to drink lots of cold liquids and cough drops. Thankfully it started to work almost right away and by Sunday I could talk pretty well - much to the dismay of my husband. I've still got the runny/draining down the back of my throat nose and a bit of the cough, but it's nothing compared to what it was a week ago and for that I'm thankful. =

I keep debating if I need to call and ask for a recommendation for a good decongestant/cough suppressant/something to help me quit coughing but I think I'll give that until Friday.

An Apology - Foodie Friday

This week's Foodie Friday will be missing. I ended up with a bad throat infection and have been unable to do much all week. Hopefully there will be one next week.

May 2012 Birchbox - Gossip Girl Theme

I was so excited to get my very first Birchbox this month! After reading all the hype and being jealous as friends posted pics and Tweets about the goodies they've gotten in the past, I was so ready to get my own little goodie box.

 I wasn't disappointed either!

According to the card that came with it, my box was themed for a "chic Sunday brunch."

So what's in the box?

• Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm
• Color Club Nail Polish in Disco Nap
• Dr. Jart + Waterfuse BB Cream
• Ojon Volume Advance Volumizing Shampoo
• Notecard

First thoughts/opinions?


Algenist Complete Eye Renewal Balm - I'm not even 30 yet (it's close but I'm not there yet) and the wrinkles and dark circles under my eyes must make me look 45 some days so needless to say, I was extremely excited to see this in the box. It says to use twice a day and that you only need a pea sized amount, so hopefully this little jar lasts a long time. I was also pleased to see that the sample is 7 ml and the full size is 15 ml. So this sample is just shy of half the size of the full size. Impressive. Full size, $65

Color Club Nail Polish in Disco Nap - I already have a metallic silver polish (not from this brand) and it's hard to work with, so I was a bit disappointed to see this gold one. I haven't tried it out yet so I can't speak to its ease or difficulty. Also, after looking at the Birchbox website and seeing there is a pink color as well, I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get pink instead. I don't even know if pink was being sent in this month's boxes or not, but if it was, I would have wanted that instead. Full size, $8

Dr. Jart + Waterfuse BB Cream - I was also very excited to see this in the box so I went to try it out right away. I ended up very disappointed in this product, mostly because I don't feel I could try it out properly. I squeezed and squeeze and squeezed the tube again only to have a teeny, tiny amount finally come out of the tube. The product itself seemed pretty good, however I was barely able to get enough out of the tube for one application, let alone a second so I could form a better opinion. There seemed to be very little product in the tube and apparently what WAS in there was wedged somewhere near the top and was refusing to come out. Full size, $32

Ojon Volume Advance Volumizing Shampoo - The last thing I need right now is a volumizing shampoo. My hair is a ball of frizz at the moment. However, my mom would probably love this shampoo so I'll likely be passing this sample off to her. I do seem to remember thinking it smelled pretty good, though due to a stuffy nose my sniffer is a bit off. Full size, $22

Notecard - It's cute, but if you read my blog on any sort of normal basis, you'll know that I make my own cards so I don't have much use for this one. Also, I'm not sure that I would be willing to pay so much for printed, mass produced notecards. I'll probably use this to send randomly to a friend. Set of 12, $10

Junkin' for Gems - Week 1

This past Saturday my mom and I headed out for a few hours of garage sales before we had to be at a Mother/Daughter Tea for Mother's Day. Newspaper in hand, we'd marked off 3 or 4 we really wanted to stop at for something that caught our eye in the paper. Of course we were also open to checking out things that weren't advertised and/or part of our initial plan.

A quick drive by of the first one on our list showed not much. There was one table inside a garage and it didn't look to be full of much of anything. Perhaps all of the good stuff had already been sold or maybe they hadn't started with much anyhow. Whatever the case, we kept on a drivin'.

The second one on our list was quite a bit more fruitful. They had advertised Saturday as being 1/2 off day! I was able to score all of these finds for less than $1!

 $0.50

$0.05

And then it was on to the next!

We met a super cute older guy who was really into antiques. He had a bowl like one my mom has that was passed down from my grandma. He was able to give her a little history of the bowl, as well as tell her which other ones went with the set - she knew there had been at least one other in the set. We also found out that the bowl we use for gravy is actually the smallest bowl in the set - we didn't even know they went together!

Moving on. I was able to get this score at his sale.

$5

It's not as good as the one I currently have, but it has some functions that my current one does not. It'll make a great back up in case anything goes wrong with the one I have and it may become my dedicated filming camera. And how can you go wrong for $5?!  (I know it says $15 but he had it on a "everything on this table $5" table and said to disregard any price on an item unless it was lower than the posted price for that table.)

Our final stop was unplanned because we saw a nifty sign and a bunch of cars parked. We had also just decided to skip our last stop because it was too far away for us to be able to make it to the tea on time (say that 3 times fast!).

Apparently 4 or 5 families had decided to clean house and have a garage sale in order to be more green and eco-friendly. Hey it works for me! I was able to score some scrapbooking/crafting storage and a few things I'll use for making Christmas cards this year for less than $5!

 $0.50

 $2

$0.50

In total I spent less than $10 on all of this great stuff. I'm excited to get the drawers cleaned up so I can start putting stuff in them and hopefully clean up my mess of a craft space a little bit.

Did you go Junkin' for Gems this weekend? Is there anything you can cross off your list? Feel free to comment about your finds and link to your post about your finds.

Pineapple Outside In Mini Cupcakes - Foodie Friday

I actually made these cupcakes sometime around Valentine's Day, but I'm just now getting around to sharing them with you. If you love pineapple upside down cake, you'll love these cupcakes too. It's the same basic flavors, just a twist on the delivery.

Please note that these instructions are for mini cupcakes with a mini cupcake maker. You could totally use the same instructions for full size cupcakes, just skip any steps that are specific to the mini cupcake maker.

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix prepared as directed on box
1-20oz. can crushed pineapple - drained. Save the juice and use it in place of water in your cake mix for an added punch of pineapple
1/4c - 3/4c brown sugar - You may not need a full 3/4c. but will need at least 1/4c.
3T margarine
Maraschino cherries (optional)

You will also need an injector of some sort - I had one from something else, but you'll need one with a big enough nozzle for the crushed pineapple to fit through. I think that a bag/tip set up like for decorating a cake would also work if the tip had a hole big enough for the pineapple to fit through.

New Cards This Week

I'm not going to lie, I've been a slacker lately. I LOVE the creative process of making things but when it comes to listing them on Etsy, I slack. I'd much rather focus my energy on creating than photographing and listing when I'm in "the zone."

But alas, I've actually gotten 3 out of 15 new cards listed! I loved making all of these cards. The process I used was so different from my usual creative process. It was also so much easier.

What did I do different? I started each day by choosing  3 or 4 coordinating papers - solids and prints - and a piece of white for a bit more room to play. Then I sat down with a sketch book of sorts I had started and went to town. Several of the sketches I got from other places online and some I got by deconstructing cards I found that I liked. I've come to realize that a lot of the cards I like could easily be recreated in many different ways by using the basic structure/layout of the card and changing up the details.

But enough about me. Here's some info about the cards. Click any of the pictures to be taken to Etsy where you can find more info about them.

What's in my Target Beauty Bag

Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to snag one of the Target Beauty Bags they were giving away on Target Style's Facebook page.

All of the samples came in this adorable bag. The colors are more pink and orange than the purple and coral it seems to me in the pictures. Below you'll find all of the samples that were in my bag. It's my understanding that overall the bags contained similar products, though there may be slight differences (shampoo v. conditioner for example).

Neutrogena Visibly Bright facial cleanser - I'm excited to try this! I've been looking for a cleanser that will perk up my skin a bit so hopefully this is it.

Simple Cleansing Facial Wipes - There are 7 wipes in the sample, which is quite a few for just a sample. I've heard lots of good things about these and I'm also very excited to try these too.

Pantene Color Preserve Shine Conditioner - It smells really good, but I don't have color treated hair.

Nivea Extended Moisture lotion - I haven't heard anything good or bad about this specific product, but I've heard good things about Nivea lotion in general. It'll make a great little lotion to keep in my purse.

L'Oreal Magic Lumi Light Infusing Primer - I'd never heard of this particular product before I received the sample. If it makes my face look half as good as it does the girl on the back of the package I'll probably buy stock in the stuff.

There were also several Target coupons for the same, or similar, full size items that were in the bag. I'm not usually a Target shopper since the closest one is over 30 minutes away, but they were nice to get.

Overall, I'm excited to use a lot of these products and see how they work. I like trying new beauty things and this is a great way to check out several at once.

This is not a sponsored post, in fact Target probably has no idea I'm even writing this.

POTD: Undercover

(I'm not sure why it's kind of grainy. It only shows this way here.)

 Excuse the chips because they've been painted for a couple of days. The color is Wet 'n Wild's Megalast in 206C Undercover.

I'll be honest, it's a bit of a mature pink, more like a dusty rose to me but I like it.

Junkin' for Gems...An Intro

It's the first weekend in May and garage sale season is upon us! This excites me more than I care to admit. If you couldn't tell already, I LOVE a good deal and good deals are usually to be found at garage sales.

My mom and I usually hit up a few garage sales each summer. It's a hobby of sorts we picked up together when we were planning my wedding. It's amazing the things people are getting rid of and for cheap! But I digress.

I thought it would be fun this summer to play a game of sorts with garage sales. I'm in the process of compiling a list of things I'd like to buy this summer - from craft supplies to random house decor items - as well as putting together a budget for these items. My goal will be to purchase as much of my list for as cheaply as possible.

I won't be going to garage sales every weekend, but it's my goal to do a shop and tell of sorts each time I do so that you can see what I was able to get and how much I spent. Hopefully you'll keep track and play along all summer to see what good deals I can score and hopefully share yours as well.

As I said before, I'm in the process of putting together a list of "must find" as well as a budget. I'm aiming for 25 - 50 items and will then figure out a budget for the summer. I'll be posting the master list and budget within the next few days.

You'll find all the information about this in a link at the top of my page.

ETA: The master list and budget is now up and you can find it here (also by clicking the Junkin' for Gems  tab at the top of the page)

Will you play along?

Mio Liquid Water Enhancer - Blueberry Lemonade Review - Foodie Friday

I am not affiliated with Kraft Foods, makers of Mio Liquid Water Enhancer. I received this product for free as part of a Facebook giveaway. All items mentioned were purchased with my own money and all thoughts/opinions are 100% my own.

I was extremely excited to see that this was a full size sample and not just a packet or two of single serving samples. According to the package, it contains 24 servings and 1 serving is about 1/2 tsp. It also indicates that you should use 1 squeeze per 8oz. of water.

I got so excited about this sample that I ripped open the box, got myself a cup of approximately 8oz. of water and went to town. The very first thing I will say about this is to be careful. For some reason I thought it would come out in drops, or at least a bit slowly. It does not! It shoots out like a water gun. I ended up with blue flavoring all over my hand and fingers because I tilted it instead of holding it straight upside down to squeeze. Lesson learned.

I started with one squeeze, stirred and tasted. Too watered down for my tastes. I could barely taste anything. Added another squeeze and stirred. Better and I could start to taste the blueberry, but not quite enough flavoring for me. Yet another squeeze added and stirred in. This was just about right as far as strength of flavor goes. I added another to see if four would be too much and it wasn't. It really tasted about the same as three.

The water above looks far more blue on camera than it did in my cup. In my cup it was more of a purple or lavender, however this could have been due to my lighting or any other number of factors.

Once I got down how many squeezes I needed, I sampled the water as it was. 8oz of water and 4 squeezes of the Mio. It tasted pretty good, though a lot more blueberry than lemonade flavor. In fact, I really didn't taste any lemonade. It was mostly blueberry. I wouldn't have known it was supposed to be Blueberry Lemonade except the package told me so.

As an aside, and not really a negative, I drank this at about 11am and for the rest of the day, every time I burped I tasted blueberry. While it wasn't necessarily unpleasant - there are far worse things one could burp - I was surprised that the flavor had lasted really that long.

Have you tried the new Blueberry Lemonade Mio? Though I haven't looked, I'm somewhat under the impression that it may not be available in stores just yet, so will you be trying it when you're able?

Check out some of the other delicious sounding Mio flavors:

Feel Better Soon - Tutorial Tuesday

Thanks for checking out this week's Tutorial Tuesday. With all the spring colds and allergies going around, I thought a get well card would be appropriate. Below you'll find a supply list with suggested paper colors, though you can really use any coordinating papers you already have on hand, as well as the video tutorial itself.

Enjoy!

Supplies needed:
A2 card base (4 x 5.5) - white
3.75 x 5.25 solid rectangle - yellow
1 inch squares: 5 patterned and 6 solid - pink
2.25 x 3 solid rectangle - white
2.5 x 3.25 solid rectangle - green
Sentiment stamp
3 small acrylic gems
Adhesive