Must Have for May 2014!

I got my May 2014 Popsugar Must Have Box yesterday!  Popsugar Must Have is a monthly subscription service that costs $39.95/mo. with free shipping.  You save a little money if you purchase a 3 month, 6 month, or yearly subscription (with the yearly subscription, it works out to $50 saved!).  Each subscription comes with full-sized products and is worth +$100 in total.  The contents of each monthly box vary widely, but the most consistent products (in my opinion only) fall in the jewelry/jewelry-related, cosmetics/bath, and snack foods categories.

Shall we dive in?  Lets...(sorry about the lighting)

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics  Nail lacquer in Pool Boy ($10)

Never heard of this makeup/nail polish, oh excuse me, LACQUER line.  :-D  The blue is a very pretty shade of blue, close to Tiffany Blue, if you ask me.  I'll be trying this on when I give myself my next pedicure.  Can't put it on my nails since I have Japanese gel nails (more on that in another post) and some other stuff going on on my nails.

Kerry Cassill Sleep Mask $24

Mmmm, yeah.  I wouldn't pay $24 for something I could easily sew myself for a fraction of the cost. Not sure what the fabric is made of yet (I haven't unpacked it from it's plastic sleeve), but it is a paisley print.  I have never used a sleep mask before, maybe I'll give it a try.  I can't really knock something I haven't tried out, the only thing I don't like right now about it, is the price.

Edited to add:  It's a blue print and 100% cotton.  So not worth $24 in my book.

Smellbent St. Tropez Dispenser $45 50ml bottle

I'm not loving this scent.  It's ok, just not loving it.  Yes it smells like a beachy day.  Think summer, bikinis, tan lines, and pina coladas. Not something I'd wear every day.  Weekends, maybe.  Definitely on vacation...at the beach.  But it's not something I'd wear regularly.  This is something that would probably languish at the bottom of my weekend beach bag.  Maybe I'll regift.  Wait, hubby thinks it's not bad.  Guess I'll keep.

Tone It Up One Day Fat Blast $15

I have a treadmill and an iPad.  I'm not really into exercise videos.

Citrus Zinger (28oz) by Zing $17

THIS.  This I will actually use!  This water bottle unscrews at the bottom and has a mini "reamer" (stop laughing) in it.  What you do is you cut a piece of fruit like a lemon or orang in half, stick it on the reamer and then screw it back on to the bottle.  You fill the top part of the bottle with water and VOILA!  You have fruit infused water.  Perfect for anything.  Office, gym, hiking.  It's easy to pull apart to wash.  Not sure yet if you can put it in the dishwasher...haven't gotten that far into the directions yet. ;-)  I would be in heaven if this thing came in glass!

Hi I'm Skinny Sticks Multi-Grain Sweet Onion $4

I only have a picture of this because hubby has already absconded with the bag and tore it open.  He declared it delicious.  40% less fat than potato chips and 15g of whole grains per serving.  Guilt-free snacking at it's finest!

And since I ordered the Must Have Resort box (that was shipped UBER LATE), I got a bonus in my May Must Have box.

vbeaute' Lip Spread Anti-Age Tinting Lip GLoss $19

This is listed as a "mood ring" for your lips!  Depending on your chemical structure, this lip spread will turn a light pink or berry red.  It turned light pink on me.  It was a little too light and too bright for my taste.  What I DID like about it was that this lip spread isn't sticky, gooey, or makes me want to lick my lips all the time.  I also didn't get to work this morning feeling like I needed to wipe my mouth.  I put it on and pretty much forgot about it.  The pink isn't so bad...I may just deal.  I'm pretty picky about the texture and feel of lip gloss or lipstick and this works for me.  I think I can deal with the color, I think...it is pretty bright.  On second glance, I can't handle the color...it's completely not a pretty sight.  Oh well.

All in all, I really enjoy getting Popsugar's Must Have boxes each month.  I'm pretty psyched about the Citrus Zinger bottle!  I've seen it on Joyus and have been contemplating getting one.  Now I don't have to! :-)

Now to get through my Friday work day!  Tonight, hubby and I are off to Las Vegas for his birthday! We're going to see Rod Stewart this Saturday.  Other than that, we have no other plans for LV except hang out, shop, eat, and people watch!

An Almost FO!

It's been a few years since I seriously picked up knitting needles.  I was tinkering with crocheting for awhile, and even bought a hairpin lace loom!  I first purchased a loom from Amazon.com.  It's a Clover brand loom that will make a "braid" about 3/4"-3 1/4" wide.  I'm using old stash of a Tilli Tomas yarn called  "Pure and Simple" and "Disco Lights" in the American Beauty Colorway.  I know, a bit expensive to be testing out a new craft, but, hey...I like to live on the wild side!  Anyway, things are really shaping up and the shawl I'm making is coming together!

Shawl in progress.  Ignore the white yarn, it's waste yarn that I'm using as a place marker.

But like I said, I've picked up the knitting needles again and have restarted a project that I started over 4 years ago.  I started a project that was featured in Knitty's Fall 2007 (yes, it's sat for 7 years...shut up) called "Cherie Amour".  This pattern created by Ashley Adams Moncrief had a distinct 1960's feel which I loved!  So I ordered my yarn (handpaintedyarn.com bulky merino in Carmine Red), and commenced to casting on.  I got the body done, but when I finished the sleeves I noticed that the sleeves were a bit smaller than the armhole.  I knitted the sleeves up again, and again, they came out maybe 2" short of actually fitting into the armscye.  By that time, I was JUST. DONE. with this pattern.  I frogged the entire thing vowing to take a step back, figure out WTF was wrong and then start again.  Yeah, 7 years later...

I happened to stumble across the yarn while digging through my stash.  It's a miracle that I remembered what pattern this yarn was for since I am, you know, getting up there in years.  hah!  Anyway, I printed the pattern again (it's free on Knitty) and cast on, hoping and praying that this time I wouldn't just toss the entire thing in the fireplace and have a mini bonfire (it's happened).

I got the body of the knit done pretty quickly.  I started this maybe mid-April (?).   Oh, forgot to mention that I picked the size small.  I quickly knitted up a sleeve, and guess what?  Yeah, it was STILL smaller than the armscye by 2"!  What. The. F????  Soooooo...I frogged the sleeve and sat and thought about it.  I decided to try and just knit the sleeve a couple sizes bigger.  Instead of a size small sleeve, I knit it in a size large and OMG it actually went into the armhole NO PROBLEM!

I finished the second sleeve this morning and just now have it sewn in.  The sleeves are a little on the long side.  I didn't expect the sleeves to "relax" that much after it was knitted up.  I finished at about 20" and I think loosely measured, they're 23" now!

About this yarn...I'm not sure if handpaintedyarn.com is making this anymore, but it is soft!  Soft and easy to knit.  However, having sat for 7-some years, some of it got eaten by moths (I don't know for sure, but how else would yarn just happen to get chewed up).  I noticed this while knitting.  Spots were coming up worn looking or hanging on by one ply.  Luckily, the moths didn't find this yarn tasty enough to completely destroy so most of it was still intact!

Stitch Fix Subscription box

In my first post I mentioned subscription boxes that I receive.  I get two boxes that I receive each month.

Today I'm going to write about one that I've tested out a few times that I had mixed feelings on.

Stitch Fix is a monthly clothing/accessory box.  I liked this box because you don't have to commit to receive a box every month.  All you have to do is sign-up and fill out a style profile.  You can get more information on what all is involved, just click the linky! :-)

My initial impression:  What a great idea! 

All you have to do is fill out a style profile and "a personal shopper" picks clothing and accessories out for you to try.  The cost is $20 per box.  They will send you 5 "fixes" (articles of clothing or accessories).  You try on, keep what you like, and send the rest back.  Returns are free and a plastic mailer with postage is included with every fix.  If you keep nothing, all you will be out is your $20 styling fee.  Keep one or four pieces, your $20 styling fee will be applied to your purchase.  Keep all 5 pieces and you get 25% off the total as well as your initial $20 fee applied.  They also give you plenty of opportunities to offer feedback.  The more feedback you give, the better your clothing/accessory matches.  You can also pick your price point, which is a big plus.  Prices run from, "The Cheaper, the better" to $200+ per item.  I opted for the $50-100 range with a note to the stylist that I was willing to go outside my range if something OMG fab came up.

The Reality:  At the $50-100 price point, there was more miss than hit.  I only kept the entire contents of one box (March) out of the 3 or so I have received thus far.  Totally things I could wear and use (2 dresses that I can wear for work, and I need to mention that one was a colorblock dress), but nothing that was worth getting super excited over.

The dress was cute, I decided to keep it.

The last box I received (April), was a complete miss.  I ended up keeping a chunky necklace out of that box that I thought was a little expensive for what it was.  I'm not sure they keep track of things that they send you because I got A SECOND colorblock dress in that fix.  The dress was made well, but it was in a medium to heavy knit that made me go, "REALLY?  It's 80 degrees outside and you send me a knit dress suitable for way cooler weather like fall?"  Granted, the dress was sleeveless, but still, nothing I would wear in warmer weather.  The knit was just too heavy, and also, I don't need 2 colorblock dresses.  VARIETY, people!!!

I also did a little internet research on some of the fixes they sent in my boxes.  I received in the March box an asymmetrical zip cardigan in a grey heather color.

I also have it in dark grey (above) from a different website clothing vendor.

I kept the light grey cardigan because I loved the style.  However, the dark grey cardigan bought from the other site cost LESS.

In one of my first fixes, I kept one item.  It was a pair of skinny jeans from a vendor that's new to me called, "Kut From the Kloth".  Searching for the jeans via Google, I discovered them on another website for $20 less...and ON SALE.

Oh, and they also sent me a polyester scarf (granted it was SUPER CUTE and I wanted to keep it) that cost $60.  For real?  I expected at least 100% wool or a predominately wool blend for that price.  The last box also included a $98 100% cotton top (like a light sweater), also cute, MADE IN CHINA.  Really?  Made in China and near $100???

Anyway, from scanning other bloggers who LOVE Stitch Fix, a lot of the fixes look pretty similar to each other.  Some stuff that made me say, "YAY, cute!"  But mainly other items that I thought looked great on the blogger, but would probably not look so great on me.

I googled reviews on Stitch Fix and found only positive review.  No one really had anything bad to say about the service or the clothing.  I think all the clothing I've seen have been pretty good quality.  Worth the price?  Arguable.  You could probably find the same pieces somewhere else for cheaper.

I really want to try Stitch Fix at the next level price point, which is $100-$200 and see if the styles and selections are more up my alley.  But I'm kind of skeptical.

PROS:

Convenience!

Great service

Good Quality

CONS:

Product Price - Way overpriced in my opinion

Hit and Miss

First Post

A few years ago, I had a blog called, "Plays well with yarn...and sometimes others."  I wrote for a few years and then just sort of gave up on it.  I just deleted it a year or so ago and regretted it.  Everything posted gone.  Oh well.

Just to update everyone, I got married in 2012, after having been single for 20+ years.  Yup, TWENTY PLUS.  My husband is a good man.  I really don't know how I managed that! lol  But I guess after twenty years, it was time.  Thank you, God...I no longer have to date!!!  My son is well on his way to being 23.  Where has the time gone??  I'm stepmom to two twin girls who just turned 13.  I still knit.  Got out of it for a few years, but am back into it again, with a vengeance!  I also sew so I've been stashing fabric as well (Amy Butler has been a favorite so far).

Lately, I've felt the urge to write again.  I've had stuff to say, and nowhere to put it.  I've join a few subscription box sites.  Some good, some not-so-good.  At least one of the sites I haven't found anything online that was negative, which is a surprise.  Mmm...service-wise, the site was GREAT.  Product-wise, not so much.  I'll get to that a little later.

We are now in the midst of spring and husband and I are trying to fix up our yard.  For the past 4 years or so, we've planted tomatoes.  This year is more of the same, but he just built us a raised garden bed about 8' long by 4' wide (and about 12" high).  We plan on growing vegetables this year, or at least try!  We decided on a raised bed garden because since we live in a canyon, we have a BAD gopher problem.  :-(  I've lost maybe 4 or 5 rose bushes to gophers.   I fricken HATE gophers!  So our raised bed will have a gopher barrier in it which consists of a metal screen-lined bottom.  

While weeding yesterday, I flipped over a brick and found this little fella.

A friend told me that it was a rubber boa and that they were that shade of pink when they were young.  It was probably about 6 or 7 inches long.  The first time I saw one of these things, I put the rock back over it and called it a day! haha  I'm getting used to seeing them now.  Last year there was a bigger one hanging around, and a few years ago, I think there was one in the cypress tree either trying to eat a bird or trying to get into it's nest.  There was a huge commotion in the cypress and I heard birds squawking and even saw the snakes tail whip out of the tree!  I call it a day on that one too and went inside after that.

We are also trying to get the house in order and fix and update.  Recently we got rid of a HUGE and ugly secretary that husband's ex left behind and replaced it with another secretary desk which was smaller and less clunky.  We just finished bathroom remodels, both master and guest bathrooms (the girls' bathroom).  Next up is the kitchen and it is going to be MAJOR.  All countertops, appliances, window covering, and paint.  We replaced the floor 5 years ago, so we're going to wait another 5 years and re-do again.

So anyway, welcome to my blog!