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!