Graze Nibblr Box Review + CODE FOR A FREE BOX!

Graze Box Review

Graze is a fun, cheap way to try new healthy fun snacks.
Every 1-4 weeks (you choose) you get charged 5$ for a little nibblr box (ALTHOUGH--I HAVE A COUPON CODE AT THE END OF THIS BLOG SO YOU CAN GET YOURSELF A FREE BOX!)
Each box contains 4 unique snacks, these snacks are based off of your profile. You can like, dislike and approve to try the different snack combinations they have on their website. Although, I personally like trying anything they give me, so I just let them send me whatever they please.
Here is my May box (everyone's is different):

 This is how Graze graces you in your mail box, very sleek subtle brown packages with their logo on the corner--your address comes on the back and it advises you to turn the package over or your snacks will fall out!

This is the friendly delicious view I'm greeted with upon opening the box. Limes, delicious delicious limes. It comes with a little slip with nutritional value on it, and coupon codes to hand out for your friends to get a free box! Here was what was in it-

The first I saw was a fruit & seed flap jack. It's a 'rustic rolled oat flapjack with mixed seeds and dried fruit'. Looks basically like a dry granola bar. Not sure how to feel about it, until I try it that is!

The next was the triple berry smoothie! Sounds great! It contains mini strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, & banana. This is something all 3 of us will enjoy trying!

I saw this one next and was super excited--something about dipping things, I dunno, just.....excites me. This one is called My Thai, and contains a sweet chili sauce with baked soy bites, I think I'm most excited about this one!

Last but absolutely not least is The Big Cheese! You had me at cheese! Cheese Cashews, Cheese Croutons, & Salsa Sticks--I'm in heaven!

All of those yummy looking snacks were 5$. Totally happy once again!

TO TRY YOUR FIRST BOX FREE GO TO THIS LINK--

https://www.graze.com/us/p/VZRCXWNGU

A Little Rant About Subscription Boxes

Here's a point I'd like to make about subscription boxes. You may look at them and cringe in fear due to prices and addiction. But let me tell you, I may get quite a few boxes, but I really don't pay much monthly for them. I use huge coupon codes when they come out (25-50% a subscription or 1 free box etc.) and generally get 6-12 month subscriptions (paying ahead for months to get much MUCH better deals) at a time.  Not to mention you can dig around the internet and find codes for free or heavily discounted boxes ALL the time. I can also even justify the expense that I do have.
The main boxes I get every month are Citrus Lane, Dollar Shave Club (For my Fiance), Love With Food, Graze (& now Ipsy). When I get extra spending cash, I'll buy a splurge box (something I don't usually get), I always find a coupon for a splurge box so I'm paying little to nothing for a fun, much needed little material escape. I can justify these buys as I was saying.
For example, when I bought my Citrus Lane subscription this year, I waited for a 50% off coupon code. I bought a 6 month subscription, used the code, and when you buy a 6 month subscription, you virtually get 1 free box. I ended up only having to pay for 3.5 boxes. Plus, this is all stuff I would buy anyway-- Citrus Lane is an eco friendly 'mom box' meant for babies toddlers and young kids. You get eco friendly toy,s snacks etc. All of the stuff I get, we would have bought anyway, a toy as a treat, some new snacks, some dish soap, It's GREAT. Same with LWF & Graze, I counted those boxes toward my food bill for the month since they provide me with the snacks I would have bought anyway!
It's a great way too discover new things, where you would have spent the money anyway--and for CHEAPER (most of the time). Anyway--there's my little justification for sub boxes, I highly recommend them. There has not been a change in our monthly budget, just some moving around. Also, who doesn't love a good surprise?

1st Ipsy Glam Bag Subscription!

I just got into Ipsy, as some of you may know, I am a subscription box addict, on a budget.
I have gotten so many different subscription boxes, and have yet to blog about them until now so fresh start should start with a new (to me) box, right?!
Okay so in case you aren't familiar with subscription box services (albeit this one is more of a subscription bag service) you pay a certain amount of money to get (generally) a mystery box/bag full of stuff based on whatever service you signed up for monthly (sometimes weekly/bimonthly etc).
Ipsy is a subscription service just for ladies. They give you trail and full samples of beauty products based off your glam profile online (your preferences determined by taking a short quiz when you sign up). What I think is awesome about this, is not only do you get 4-6 beauty products, but you also get a 'glam' bag each month which is a little make up bag. This is all only 10$
I've heard people raving about Ipsy, so I figured I'd give it a shot for 10$ this is what I got-

My Ipsy package arrived

 in the mail box in a fabulous shiny pink bubble wrap. My 1 year old walked with me to the mailbox, and is generally kind of ticked off when we walk away because he is OBSESSED with the mail box. The first thing I thought when I saw this package was 'SCORE AWESOME DISTRACTION!' to which it was. We didn't even have to creepily stand at all the mailboxes, I just picked him up and he was absolutely content playing with the shinny bubble wrap (aren't we all?).

 When I opened it, this is the glam bag I got! It it PERFECT. Totally my style and really cute. I'll absolutely be using it from now on.
Anything with plant/floral patterns I fall in love with, it's like they were trying to lure me into more subscriptions with green plant print (spoiler alter- it worked).

Inside was all this beauty 'swag' (heh). Plus a 'fresh picks' note. At first glance I was super happy, these looked like trail sized mostly but I was happy regardless 5 (6 with the bag) products for only 10$.

The first thing was Hang Ten SPF 50 Sunscreen. Now I have A LOT of sunscreen, so this was probably my least favorite item, but I WAS happy that it was a nice travel size. this is SPF 50, works for 80 minutes under the water. This trial size is 1 oz, the full sizes are usually 6, so I'll price this at $2.50

The next item I was excited about. It's call 'Hey Honey take it off" peeling mask. I love facial masks! This is a exfoliating honey mask. Meant to moisturize and pull of dirt and grime. I'm super excited to try it. The full size is 1.7 oz, while the trial size was 10 ml. The full size is $35 (ouch, at least I get to try it out) so I'll price the trial as $5.

This is the next product, which I had no idea WHAT it was. 'Therapy Session Hair Mask' Hair mask? Sounds kinda weird. When I looked it up I found it's a cream that Deeply conditions, repairs, and strengthens dry and damaged hair. Absolutely something I will be trying. The trial size I got is 2.3 oz while the full size is approx. 17 oz. priced at full at  $15, I priced this trial size at about $2.

 This. This I was confused about. 'Eau Thermale Thermal Spring Water' Do I drink it and gain full perfect breasts and flawless skin? Do I get powers? No? Okay, well I had to look it up. I found it's a facial spray (I'm not sure how I feel about spraying something on my face) that soothing and softens your skin. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but hey it's worth a shot. This trial size was approx. 2 ounces. The full size is about 5 ounces, priced at $12, making this worth about $4.

The last was make up! I was really excited about this. I love eye shadow and it happened to come in my fvaorite color (violet purple) and a color I where pretty often (white). They are both a bit shimmery which I like. I couldn't find a price so I'll guess it to be about $3.

The total of my bag was 16.50, with the bag which I would price at $5 a little over 20$. Absolutely worth the $10 value.

Overall I'm really pleased with this even if there were no full sized products. This is to promote products and the site provides coupons if you do chose to buy full sized products. Ipsy is fun and I will absolutely be using it again.

http://www.ipsy.com/

Homemade Paints--A Lesson In Moderate Failure

Hello again, I guess....I'm....blogging now? I've been fairly consistent so far and It's highly enjoyable semi-productive things to do on my down time when I don't feel like melting in the couch (although don't get me wrong that's wonderful, too).
Well, here we go. I'm trying hard to incorporate DIY activities into Zavier's daily life to start getting him to focus better on the task at hand (He's umm not very good at that, he loves to go go go go go go go go).
Today, I decided to try my hand at homemade paint. It was easy, making it at least, was. I may be an artist, and am pretty happy or proud with a lot of the outcomes of work that I end up finishing, but let me tell you, I do not succeed at everything It try. I treat it as a lesson, as I should.
This was one of those lessons-take a look---
First, I gathered up my supplies which were simple-
*Flour
*Liquid Food Coloring
*Water
*Bowls
*Canvas (optional)
*Tape (optional)
*Paper (optional)

Here is the stuff I used. Take a spoon full of flour, and 3 spoonfuls of water (May have to adjust that) and mix it together, squirt a few drops of your liquid food coloring into the stirred flour/water mixture and stir until blended evenly, the stronger you want the paint the more food coloring you should use, I wanted a pale color. Next set up a spot to easily clean up the mess that's most likely going to be made. We went with the high chair.

I put a piece of paper down and let him go at it, and just put the bowls in front so he could dip his fingers in, which he did. He ALSO splashed the paint everywhere, but hey, it's paint and a toddler.

I was surprised he did what he did. Hes not a big painter or drawer right now. He mostly eats anything I give him and will do an occasional way of the crayon on paper followed by a giggle then proceeding to put it right back into his mouth. But, he actually painted with his fingers a bit! Didn't even try to eat the 'paint'.

As for the color, well it was much paler than I wanted, but hey it was my first try. It was also a bit watery, so I suggest tweaking your recipe.

Next we went on to the main reason I did this. I was making a little gift from my son, to my father for his 70th birthday coming up next week. I took a tiny canvas with an easel, cut out a heart shape out of duct tape stuck in the middle and let him paint it....well.....it didn't go so well....

 It kind of just turned out watery and pale. It also WASN'T drying. I waited and waited, and the paper was drying, but the canvas wasn't. So I forgot about it, when I remembered again, and looked, IT STILL WASN'T DRY. So my wonderful tired mind though- It's flour how about the OVEN. I popped it in at 300 for a few minutes, popped her out and--it was all cracked dry and weird. But still kind of had a tie dye pretty color.
It dawned on me then that I BAKED TAPE. Cursing myself, I carefully tore the little tape heart out of the middle, tearing the edges of the baked paint a bit. There was residue it didn't look like a heart and you could barely make out in impression with the pale colors. So I have to improvise. I had this cute imagine of a little white heart perfectly in the middle of a piece of canvas Zavier had finger painted on and it would be a cute piece. Frankly, it looked like crap.
I brought my creative mine together to *try* and salvage it...
I coated it in glitter glaze, painted the heart white, and did my best high school notepad doodle on it.
It does look much better than it did, but nothing like I had hoped. It's the thought that counts, right? ;)

Sensory Soap Bag

Hello! My lord are you surprised? I'm actually blogging- 3 times and 2 weeks that's a record.
As you may know I have an energetic little 1 year old at home who is hard to catch the focus and attention of.
I figured I'd make him something that he couldn't take his eyes off of.
I'd seen sensory bags before so I decided to make one--
So here are the steps and how it turned out, enjoy!-

First off this is the list of stuff we used, feel free to use whatever your heart desires.

*Ziplock Bag
*Paint
*Assorted Beads
*Glitter
*Gel Soap
*Pom Poms
*Foam Pieces
*Duct Tape

First, I gathered everything, Zavier (my son) played with every little thing I let him touch. I'm pretty sure shaking the bead jars was his favorite part.

After everything was gathered and shaking of fun noises had stop, I added a few droplets of paint in random areas of the Zip Lock bag.

(This was really tempting to squish around but I resisted and saved it for Zavier afterwards)

I then proceeded to let Zavier 'pick' out the bead and glitter he wanted to use, I added those, some foam pieces, some pom poms, and big beads

(He had finally noticed I was doing something interesting)

The next step was to add soap, I had some cheap Walmart brand soap I got when I was pregnant, that is too harsh on Zavier and I's skin, and my partner won't use it. It was kind of just sitting there and had a nice thick consistency so I used it. I poured about half the bottle into the bag and smooshed it around a bit so it covered the whole bag. LOOK AT THE BABY TOES.

I then made sure to rid of the air out of the bag and zip it tight. I covered all the angles in (owl because.) duct tape. The only part that is important is the part that covers the zip.

That's you finished product! Although I wasn't done yet. I let Zavier mix the colors together on the ground. I proceeded to tape the bag to a window so he could see through it.

(The duct tape leaves little residue on the windows and comes off easily with eucalyptus oil)

Zavier ended up really liking this, although he did get frustrated eventually when he couldn't take the pom pom out. It had his attention for a good bit of time and he keeps running back into his room and playing with it. I say it was successful.

Next time, I think I'll stick to bright colored paint, as it kind of turned purple brown, but that's not really an issue. If it stays on the window, most of it will sink to the bottom but then you can smoosh it back to the top.

He had fun moving the foam pieces and beads around, and I had fun playing with the soap gel with him

I recommend this for really any age!

Oil Pulling Day #6

GUYS! I didn't forget about you this time. This is me, actually following through on something I deemed important to myself and even REPORTING back on a blog no body probably reads, excellent. This is a step, guys.
So, I've been oiling pulling for 6 days now. 123456. 6 Days.
I'm LOVING it. Seriously, holy crap.
I'm going to share an embarrassing picture at the end, but heres the low down-
My morning breath is actually tolerable, seriously, that's a biggun.
I was waking up every morning congested, and VOILA--NO LONGER! I wake up with one little sniffle and I'm set.
My one cavity I have no longer hurts.
They feel SO CLEAN ALL THE TIME, even after I eat!
And the big one- I have a Vit deficiency so my teeth are always yellow, I can brush and floss 3 times a day and it won't matter, but THEY ARE GETTING WHITER. Nothing I've done has helped not even whitening strips but they are noticeably whiter.
Seriously, I can't wait to see the 1 month results, this is now a part of my routine.
I plot it in my mouth and whilst I pick up my room, make my bed, wash my face, get dressed and such, I swish it around, when it comes to brush my teeth I just spit it out, gargle with salt water brush and have clean pearly whites.
So here is the super embarrassing picture of my yellow teething getting whiter-
Enjoy!

Oil Pulling Day #1

Hey! I know I created this blog a ridiculous amount of time ago, wrote a few posts and forgot about it (like most of my life) but I've had so many things I've wanted to blog about lately, I figured I'd fire 'er back up!
I'll start with talking about oil pulling. I found it a bit ago while searching through the inter webs and it's been brought up a good amount of my facebook feed.
The main idea is you swish a tablespoon of vegetable based oil (In my case coconut oil as it's tastey and the most common) around in your mouth for 15-20 minutes, spit it out, rinse your mouth with warm salt water and brush and floss.
The health benefits are suppose to include-
*Healthier Skin
*Cleaner/Brighter Teeth
*Better smelling breath
*Healthier Gums
*May Help relieve headaches/hangovers
I started today April 10th- putting a glob of coconut oil in my mouth (that was the hardest part, the texture was pretty weird) once it melted I gently (you're going to be doing this for a while so don't be vigorous about it) swished it around my mouth for 15 minutes. It wasn't hard, the taste was pleasant (JUST DONT SWALLOW ANY OF IT) and I kind of forgot I was doing it while I checked my emails and went about my morning routine. Spit er out in the garbage (It can solidify back in the sink drain) swished with salt water, and brushed my teeth.
I already notice they are a tad whiter and they feel ridiculously clean. My mouth feels/tastes nice as well.
I'll absolutely be continuing this and updating you guys on how it's going. The only issue I found was my 1 year old wanted me to read him a book while I was doing it and well, that was kind of impossible, so I kinda just danced around with the book on my face- hey it worked.