Notice anything different?

I decided that it is time to try and step this blog up a bit. First thing that needed to be changed was the template. I wanted something simpler and sleeker and a bit more welcoming. Thank you to Blogger for providing some beautiful designs to chose from, pretty darn nice for free if you ask me!

Now, I'm not new to the world of blogging, I've had this blog for a few years now but never really gave it much attention. It was just a place to share aspects of my life, review products I get to try, and basically write whatever I felt like writing. I think now is the time to turn up the professionalism and make this blog a more interesting destination.


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Trail Mix My Way

I don't like 99% of all store bought pre made trail mixes as 99% of them have either raisins or cashews or both. The other day the boyfriend had a great idea of making our own trail mix for something different to snack on. So we did...

I made mine with:

Pepitas (Raw, Hulled Pumpkin Seeds)
Sunflower Seeds (Raw, Hulled)
Slivered Almonds
Sweetened Shredded Coconut
Honey Roasted Peanuts
Dried Cranberries
Plain M&Ms
Dove Dark Chocolate Covered Cranberries

The majority is the pepitas and sunflower seeds and almonds. I wanted something sweet so the coconut and honey roasted peanuts were added. To add some interest I added a few M&Ms, dried cranberries, and Chocolate covered cranberries.

All I can say is YUM! I thought I'd share this yummy, somewhat healthy snack idea!

#FrostyVoxBox Wrap Up Review

I was very excited to be selected to participate in the #FrostyVoxBox campaign! It was so funny as I had just commented on a photo Influenster had posted on Instagram of the Vox Box about how much I would have enjoyed trying that particular set of items, then within the next couple days I got my invite! Yay!

Contained in my VoxBox was:

• No7 Protect & Perfect Advanced
• NYC Expert Last Lip Color in Sugar Plum
• Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane Decaf Green Tea
• EcoTools Hair Brush
• Rimmel Gentle Eye Makeup Remover
• Rimmel Scandaleyes Waterproof Kohl Kajal Eyeliner
• McCormick Gourmet Thyme (hehe, they sent me Time in a Bottle)
• Fruit Vines Bites

I was most excited to see the Rimmel products, as I am already a huge fan of their makeup line! It is affordable, but offers a great selection of quality products! I was also in need of a new waterproof black eyeliner pencil, so the timing couldn't have been better. The eyeliner of course did not disappoint! I will post a separate, more in depth review of the Rimmel Products in my next post!

The NYC Lip Color was a surprise like as I was worried it would be too dark for me. I am not much of a lipstick wearer because it is a pain, and I can never pick a color that suites me. When I put on the Sugar Plum color, I was surprised how it looked on me, it was a few shades darker than my natural lip color but not so dark it looked silly. I was also very pleasantly surprised how creamy and smooth it felt. Normally I don't like the texture and "taste" of lipstick but this was was actually quite nice. It didn't last as long as I hoped, but a quick touch up would have brought it right back. For the price ($1.99) it is totally worth the purchase in my opinion, even if you have to touch up once every few hours. I would definitely buy this product again. 

The biggest hit for me was the Ecotools hair brush. I am picky about hair brushes as I get a lot of tangles and knots with my way-too-fine hair. I was skeptical about this brush, which is the Sleek and Shine Finisher model, but I love it! It is my new go-to brush for everyday use! It doesn't necessarily detangle but it does an awesome job of making my hair not look greasy and "clumpy" like the brush I was using. Ecotools claims it speeds up the hair drying process, but as the only hair dryer I own is in my craft room and I have never used on my hair, I can't verify the claim! 

While strawberry is one of my least favorite flavors, I did like the Fruit Vines and plan on purchasing the cherry flavor in the future. The texture was just right, not too sticky, not too hard. I ended up eating a lot more in one sitting than I had planned lol, especially as I dislike strawberry. 

I have yet to try the No7 serum as it is a tiny pack so it will be nearly impossible to talk about how well the product works. I could say how it initially feels, but one or two applications isn't going to lead me to give a good opinion. 

As for the tea, I really don't like peppermint flavored anything other than the little starlight candies, and even those need to be mild, so I did not try the tea. I know Celestial Seasonings is often regarded as an excellent choice and they have a huge variety of flavors, so I'm certain this Candy Cane Lane tea would be very good if you like flavored teas. I just don't. 

The same goes for the McCormick Thyme. I know McCormick makes a high quality product that is worth the extra money, I just don't cook with seasonings very often, and even less often needing Thyme. Had it been garlic salt/powder, that would have been tried and tried. I don't have a sensitive palate, so the cheap-depot spices are for me as it is insanely rare I use them. I would like to try the McCormick Cilantro though as I love to make my knock-off Chipotle cilantro-lime rice!

Overall I enjoyed the products in my Frosty VoxBox! I suggest you go out and try them!

2014

So I'm a couple days late on my 2014 wrap up....but oh well. Not sure anyone actually reads my blog anyways!

2014 was a good year and a bad year. It was a great year as far as love goes, which is the most important thing! However medically, not so good. I've struggled with extreme exhaustion. For 2015 I'm looking for answers! There is no reason for a 29 year old to be falling asleep at inappropriate times, like riding on the back of a motorcycle.

The biggest thing that happened this year was moving into our little mobile home! It is my first house, so that was very exciting. I think my favorite part is being able to customize everything to be how we want. Our living room was the first project as it was just primer white when we moved in. We picked a pretty slate blue. The next project was the bathroom. First thing to go was the awful fake gold knobs and fixtures. Then we removed the old lady pink floral wallpaper (bleh!) and painted a nice shade of green on the walls, one shade darker than the to-be bedroom color. We are going for a country cabin outdoor theme.

The most fun this year was going on motorcycle demo rides! I sold my Vespa at the beginning of the season due to the aforementioned medical issues. I did have a couple days where i felt better and was able to test ride 4 models of Harley Davidsons (Sportster, TriGlide, Softail Slim, Softail Heritage), and 2 Indian motorcycles. I fell in love with the Indian Scout. It was the perfect fit for me in both size and power, plus the price is somewhat reasonable.

My boyfriend and I had a blast touring around NH and parts of ME on his motorcycle. We got to see a lot of beautiful scenery and eat a lot of ice cream. The weather actually cooperated without it being too hot or too wet on the weekends so we went out almost every one!

As far as what 2015 will bring? I'm not sure. I am hoping for financial relief. I am going to work harder to pay off my debts so I can be in a better position to maybe upgrade my car and buy a motorcycle. Sad thing is if I didn't have self-inflicted stupid debt (credit cards, student loan) I could easily add that motorcycle and pay for my share of life expenses. Not sure how I'm going to achieve it other than physically cutting up my cards.

Hell has frozen over. I have started going to the gym with my boyfriend....and even scarier....I don't hate it!! Not only is it something to do, but I actually feel better after going. It's only the first week, and I haven't had to work all day before, but so far it's not so bad!

I know the best part will be having my boyfriend by my side. We have so much fun together! Even my cats love him!

My Favorite "Holiday"

Today is traditionally considered Black Friday, a wondrous day of best price of the year sales. Recently, stores have started their sales as early as Wednesday and most big stores start their sale on Thanksgiving. I am "old fashioned" as far as in store shopping....Friday is the day. I got up at 5:30am to start my shopping spree.

Me being me, I had bookmarked a wonderful site called bfads.net which had leaked ads. I created a spreadsheet of all the deals I was interested in, I collected coupons, I made a "day of" checklist; I was prepared; and boy did it pay off!! Combining sales and coupons I saved $352.41, an average savings of 49% at 8 stores including Walmart and Target. The majority of my purchases were very boring; household supplies at CVS, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. But the savings in that area were massive....an average of 62%, my best transaction was 84% at CVS! Very exciting to watch the numbers drop. We now have a year supply of laundry detergent, plenty of toilet paper, and plenty of paper towels! Luckily my bf was able to finish building the shelf in our laundry room cabinet this morning so I had a place to store all this stuff.

I was also able to buy 115 pounds of cat litter, 16 pounds of food and a couple toys at a lovely 50% off at Petsmart.

As far as the fun stuff, that was limited this year due to a lack of fundage, but I still managed to get some nice things at an average of 38%. Much of that was purchased online Thursday as many sales went live. The best part was being able to get exactly what I wanted while avoiding crowds and traffic.

We definitely won't need to buy M&Ms anytime soon lol! I think 6 bags will last us a while. I was very happy to find an inexpensive Wall Mount for the bedroom TV. I will no longer have to worry about the cats knocking it off the bureau! Yay! My best find was a camouflage lightweight hoodie for $10 at Walmart. They were sold out online and in the first Walmart I went to. Even in the second Walmart there were none left anywhere, except one that I found mixed in with the women's jackets! Lucky for me, it just happened to be my size!

Now, to wait for my online orders to arrive....

My Worst Thanksgiving I Can Remember

Let me start by saying that I know there are people much worse off than what I am considering "my worst Thanksgiving". I am very lucky to have most of a roof over my head (I'll get to that in a minute) and to have my two awesome cats, and to have my boyfriend. However, today is really testing my thankfulness.

It started early this morning, like just before 5:00AM when we were awoken by a huge crash. Last night with the snow we got to learn just how horrifying the sounds of a mobile home are in a wet, heavy snow storm. I mean, these sounds cause me to jump every freaking time. It's crazy! I have been  in metal roofed indoor riding arenas that are less scary than this. Every time it sounded like the roof was caving in! Well, my fear ended up being justified....back to the pre-5AM crash. I didn't think much of it, other than the fact my heart was racing and I couldn't get back to sleep. He got up and checked the living room and picked up the trash can the poor startled kitties knocked over. As I couldn't sleep I figured I'd check on the kitties. I looked all over the house for them, and when I went to look in the spare bedroom at the other end of the house, boom, there it was. A tree branch sticking through the ceiling about 4ish feet into the room. 

Not cool. I tell my boyfriend about it and he starts making phone calls, insurance company, trailer park owner, fire department, roofers. Well, of course it's a holiday so you can't get anyone to come out. The fire department said no as it wasn't an emergency and they had been busy all night. The park owner said no because of the fact the insurance adjuster needed to see it first (which guess who don't work on holidays?). I took a boatload of photographs, inside, outside, in the dark, in the daylight. I want to make sure to document all the damage. I even took a screen shot of his phone trying to call different roofers. Looks like we are stuck for the time being with a tree stabbing our poor house.  Fail. On top of that it's above freezing out so now the snow can melt right into our spare room. 

I am thankful it was our spare room and no kitties were hurt (other than the trauma of the crash...Hobo is still in hiding more time than he is not, poor baby; I think he was in the room when it came through as that is where his favorite bed is). 

 The next fun experience of this Thanksgiving was while we were standing outside discussing what to do next. See the pic with the stairs? Yeah, guess where we were standing when we heard the crack of the branch breaking? Yup, right at the bottom of those stairs! Luckily we took a few steps backwards and avoided any injury besides a blast of snow on my poor laptop. (Luckily no damage). Scary. So at this point, I am scared of trees....not good as we are literally surrounded by them. Wish us luck in convincing the park manager to remove them, maybe the insurance company will help us with that part....

I decide that while he is clearing the snow from the driveway, I would participate in what has become my Thanksgiving morning tradition, getting a cup of coffee and the newspaper with all the Black Friday ads. I usually sit and enjoy my coffee while perusing the deals. Nope. I did get the coffee, but the newspapers had not been delivered to the store yet. They were due at 3:30am, it was after 7am when I went to the store. Fail.

I return home and decide to see what online sales were live. I had my cart all ready for Walmart with the items I wanted to order. Of course they had already sold out of the two main items I wanted (an air compressor and a camoflauge hoodie). Fail. Guess I should have gone online when I couldn't sleep at 5am. Maybe I'll get lucky tomorrow and be able to buy in person. I did have success at Best Buy even though I didn't plan on buying anything there, got a great deal on a Kinda HD Fire Tablet, Case, and screen protector. As I spend so much time at work, I decided an inexpensive tablet would be nice to throw in my bag to keep me entertained. Target was also an online success, got the 2 movies, a sweater dress, and the blanket I had wanted. Yay, maybe my day was turning around.

Nope. I start feeling like crap. My neck hurts, dizzy/nauseous, sleepy. My boyfriend decides to stop by his work to see about plowing. I was originally going to go with him but as I felt awful I figured riding around in the plow truck would suck. 3 hours later, he's still not back and I'm thinking I should figure out how to start dinner...so much for a 5:00 dinner time. Oh well, it's just the 2 of us and the cats which is my favorite way to spend the holidays.

I feel a little better so I head back out the store to see if they have the newspaper in. Victory! I grab my copy. I decided to go for the more local paper. Bad choice. They didn't have the one ad I really wanted (Walgreens), and there were like 3 copies of other ads. I'll stick with the Union Leader from now on. I never had that issue. Disappointing.

I started finishing up my Black Friday list. I double check the coupon/rewards policy for Walgreens. There goes my deals. They make you wait to redeem the rewards from buying certain items. Well, I don't wanna! Oh well, if today is any indicator,  I'm sure none of my deal scenarios will work as they will be sold out of whatever it is I have on my list.

So yeah, this is my worst Thanksgiving I can remember. And I was really hoping our first Thanksgiving would be a nice, special, fun, together sort of day.

Influenster: The experience

If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you will see that I am an active member of the Influenster online community. What is Influenster you ask? Well, it's an awesome online community that gives you free stuff to try, and who doesn't love free stuff?

My first VoxBox...
Spring Beauty over 2 years ago!

Influenster is a place for people to share their opinions. When you sign up you gain Impact by connecting your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc which help you to qualify for programs. Don't worry if you don't have thousands of followers (cause I certainly don't),
you will still qualify! You also earn badges by answering survey questions, reviewing products, completing campaigns, sharing products on social media, and answering other people's questions. You can become an "expert" in categories such as Eco, Beauty Queen, Gamer, Techie, Sweet Tooth, Decorator, Jetsetter, Pop Culture, and Tastebud.
When you participate in the site on a regular basis, you can qualify for VoxBoxes. VoxBoxes are the best part of being a member of the community. You are mailed a box of usually full size items for free to test and review. After each box is mailed out, you receive a list of tasks, usually very simple like "Like" a company on Facebook and post a review, or post to Instagram. The tasks build your impact score. As well as the VoxBox tasks, you receive brand specific tasks as well, which are just as easy. Sometimes you have to photograph a display in a store, or write a blog post review; none of the tasks take up much time or energy. I personally find the tasks to be fun. If you don't have a certain account, or are not comfortable with the task, it's ok to skip it. I never post to youtube. I am extremely self conscious of my voice recorded. Yet I still manage to qualify for more boxes, and I have even won some of the brand challenges!
In the past couple months, Influenster released a mobile app, making it even easier to stay connected! The app has a built in scanner so you can read reviews and compare prices right there in the store.

I love being a member of Influenster Nation! They reward you for your honesty as well. It's perfectly ok to say you don't like a product! I always review each product in my VoxBox honestly. There are products I have absolutely loved, like the Dr Scholls Cozy Cushion insoles, and the Sinful Colors nail polish, but then there are products I have not enjoyed at all. They want your opinion as it helps the company to make better products. Give your reasons as to why you say what you say, and you will go far on this site!

If you are interested in joining, send me a message with your email address and I will email you the information! It's a great opportunity!

Sunkissed Vox Box

Kimmel London Brand Challenge Prize

Kiss Brand Challenge Prize

SurfsUp Vox Box

Rose Vox Box

Brand Challenge Prize!