September Birchbox Review

I absolutely love getting both the Birchbox and the Ipsy Glam Bag, because they come staggered during the month...allowing me to really enjoy both boxes/bags and their contents. This month's Birchbox did NOT disappoint to say the least! 

Seriously though, they wrap the boxes up so nice and pretty. It is really hard not to love just looking at them when you open them up.

Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish - $9.00

I was honestly very unsure of what to think with this product, having never heard of a cleanse & polish or Liz Earle. I was excited when I read the super-easy two step directions.

The product seemed very all-natural, and actually reminded me a bit of my grandmother, who always knows the best skincare products. I couldn't stop thinking "I've got to tell Grandma about this one!"
It worked GREAT. Not only that, but the day I tested it out, I had a chemical burn my face and it totally helped with the redness and painful feeling! I'm in love with this product!

POP Beauty Aqua Lacquer (in Floating Rose) - $14

Per the description on the Birchbox website, it says this is long-lasting, non-sticky lip gloss.

So I put it to the test.

In the end, they were right...but not at first. When I first put the lip gloss on my lips were super sticky, and felt heavy and over-glossed. It took about five minutes before the gloss didn't feel as thick and my lips quit sticking to everything, but once it was settled, I LOVED the color and how long it lasted! 

Chapstick Moisture in Vanilla Creme - $2.99

I grew up on Chapstick products, so I was really excited to get a product that I know and love in this month's box as an extra. Chapstick is so affordable, long-lasting and easy to find and replace. Here in Utah, when the winter comes, my lips need some Chapstick!

I still haven't tried this product yet, but I do have to say, its BIG. I am really excited to give it a shot here soon!

Oh my goodness, this perfume is DIVINE. I usually wear something really teenager-ish (I'm not proud) like Roxy or Hollister, but I LOVE this scent! It's taken over as my new favorite for work!

Sponsor Spotlight: Mr & Mrs Crafty RVing

Biography of Jorge and Evielynne Sanchez

Jorge & Evielynne Sanchez consider themselves to be the luckiest two people on the planet. We know of many people who would agree. In fact, just ask any customer of their fantastic love child on Etsy, MrsCraftyRVing.com. That is right… Jorge & Evielynne Sanchez are the driving force behind what is fast becoming the most popular Party Favors (Crafts and Hobbies) websites on the planet, along with their other children, the Barbie Emporium, (.com) and Christmas101.

Of course, getting to this point in their lives was not all peaches and puppies. Not ones to complain, very few have been privy to the difficult road they have traveled to bring their passions to ecommerce, the perfect forum with which to share their love of crafts with the entire world. Boil some water, drop a chamomile teabag in a cup, and lend us an ear. Here is how your favorite Party website came to be.

Jorge and Evielynne met a little later in life and are so grateful that they did. Evielynne, the Army brat who moved constantly as a child, loves living life settled down. Jorge, who moved to the USA at age four from Cuba, is an avid pilot, sewer extraordinaire, and loves whatever Evielynne loves. Together, they make one fantastic team. Ever since the day that Jorge, who was sewing items for an arts and crafts website, said aloud… “I can design and make these much better than this.” The idea of working for themselves rather than someone else set into the backs of their minds.

Jorge had always been good with his hands but a severe condition called Rheumatoid Arthritis very often prevented him from being able to lift so much as a gallon of milk. Evielynne, who could not sew herself into a paper bag, made up her mind that she would help her man follow the dream that formulated into both of their minds and immediately began to learn to sew. With Jorge as her initial teacher, it was not long before she was sewing up a storm, which is saying a lot.

With so many wonderful designs and ideas in their creative minds, they went to work and soon had so many items in their arsenal that they decided to open a website and sell on their own, rather than someone else getting the lion’s share of the money and all of the credit. www.etsy.com/shop/mrscraftyrving.com was born of love, determination, and a desire to make it on their own… together!

One of Jorge’s many talents is design. Realizing what a gold mine idea they were sitting on with MrsCraftyRVing, they separated his gift for creating, designing, and making clothes for Barbie and company, (The Barbie doll) and the website www.etsy.com/shop/barbieemporium debuted with incredible results. Teaming with the incredible social commerce website Etsy was one of the best moves they could have made and their business soon took on a life of its own.

There was one problem though… they still had excessively much wonderful product for a single website to handle. The solution…(?) they separated all of their fantastic Christmas ideas and opened to incredibly popular website… Christmas101. (.com) If you hold the spirit of Christmas in your heart the way Jorge and Evielynne do, check out www.etsy.com/shop/christmas101

Evielynne spent a lot of time teaching herself the art of sewing, taking online lessons in sewing from Crafty-Sewing, Joann’s, and even YouTube.com. Always the artistic type and loving the arts, in her youth she danced for Disney! Thinking outside the box, she purchased and ran a construction clean up business and won the prestigious “A Happy Home is a Clean Home” award. There is simply veryr sewer… Jorge!

Jorge worked for a well-known company out of Miami Florida in the Food Brokering industry for 20 years winning numerous awards and bonuses for his outstanding work there. He is a pilot, and using those skillful hands, he designed and upholstered the interior of his Cherokee 180, single engine plane. He has his pilot’s license with an instrumentation rating.

Together, their hard work and persistence has paid off as they have surpassed their 4000th sale on the websites. This is a great milestone and one for which they have been looking forward. You can celebrate with them on their FaceBook page at https://www.facebook.com/MrsCraftyRVing which is loaded with information and wonderful tips and ideas. As successful as they have been, it pales in comparison of the love that have for each other. Together, there is nothing that this talented pair could not accomplish. Stop by FaceBook and give them a shout. They love to talk to new friends. In fact, it is their customer service skills that make them so tremendously popular, that… and the high quality, awe inspiring, tremendously creative work that they do.

Crockpot Frito Chicken Bowls

Truly, what is better than a crockpot dinner during the cold weather?

I'm telling you, not much.

Today I want to share with you a new found family favorite around here. Crockpot Frito Chicken bowls, and trust me, they are delicious!

What You'll Need:

2-4 frozen chicken breasts

1 can chili

1 can black beans

1 can corn

1 can tomato sauce

1 bag fritos

1 pkg taco seasoning

Cheese (as desired)

How to do it:

1.In a crockpot, mix chicken, chili, beans, corn, taco seasoning and tomato sauce in a crockpot. Cook on low for 5-6 hours, or high for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally (if possible).
2. At about hour 5 on low, or hour 3 on high, remove chicken, and shred it. Return to crockpot and stir well. Let the rest finish cooking for another hour.
3. In a bowl, place a small layer of Fritos on the bottom. Add crockpot mix, and then top with cheese and more Fritos. Serve while warm and enjoy!

P.S. This meal freezes really well too (without the Fritos on the bottom), so freeze some for leftovers! 

Enjoy!

Toddler Activity: Bathtub Paint

It's really no secret that I have a little boy who loves to be outside.

And we all know that it's fall, and its getting cold out.
And we live in Utah.
And its already snowed, TWICE.

And that means, we're inside a lot more.

And honestly, little dude does NOT like it.

So we've been working hard to find some fun activities for our little dude to try!

Like this Bathtub paint!

How to do it:

Mix shaving cream and food coloring in a muffin tin. Stir with your finger or a spoon, then paint!

Some secrets to success:

Keep it off the grout. It WILL dye the grout, but not the tiles or the inside of the tub.

As long as its stirred well, it will NOT dye the baby. If they do get it in their hair (like Little Dude did!) use Dawn dish soap and warm water, it will come right out!

I'd share more photos, but they weren't really "blog friendly," if you know what I mean. He had a blast painting the tub, and himself! After it was done, we drained the tub and used the shower head to rinse him and the tub down. He's actually asked to do it again since then, so we know we have a fun activity for winter now! 

Have you ever tried this before? Did it work for you?

Varsity Voxbox Review

I hate to say it, but there is really nothing more fun than getting a Voxbox in the mail! It's always a surprise, and the goodies inside are always worth the anxious wait! Here's what came in the Varsity Voxbox! 

Airheads Extreme Bites - Rainbow Berry

These are fantastic! I love Airheads, but rarely get to enjoy them, so these fun, bright and tasty little treats made a big impact on some long nights catching up on blogging!

NYC- Big Bold Plumping Gloss

NYC Gloss? YES PLEASE. I actually really like NYC lipsticks and glosses and purchase them fairly consistently. I was really excited to see this fun shade in my Voxbox! It went straight into my purse where I've been using it daily... needless to say I LOVE IT.

Tide Pods

I was really excited to try this out! I usually use dollar store detergent (because we can and because our washer doesn't take a lot of detergent anyways) and I used this on a load of Brayden's clothing just to REALLY test it out. I was shocked and how good his clothes looked afterwards and how good they smelled! I have GOT to go try some more!

Confession: I use the same old facewash every morning, and have for the last two years. I was really getting tired of using the same stuff, but it worked AND it was affordable. Why change?

And then the Clearasil Refreshing Superfruit wash came in this box. And I washed my face with it (btw, a little bit goes a LONG way! I got three washes per packet of the sample!), and fell in love. It's great on my sensitive skin, it smells amazing and even better- its cheaper than my usual brand at the store!

I really want to write a great review on these nail dresses, I really do, but they simply weren't that great for me and my busy lifestyle. They took twice as long as other nail stickers/dresses to put on, didn't nearly last even that evening, and the following morning (all I'd done was sleep!) I had to replace two of them. While I loved the style and pattern I just wasn't sure about these as a purchase in the future!

I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes.

Mani Monday: Kiss Nail Dresses

I received these Nail Dresses in a Voxbox from Influenster. I was so excited to try them out, because I'm kind of bored with my polishes as it is .Nail stickers and dresses have seemed so easy and so fun, so I was stoked to try them!

That being said, I was really disappointed in the quality. They didn't file down nicely, didn't stay on (this is the next morning, and they're already chipped and flaking off!), and didn't look clean. I ended up using the whole package just to get a semi-clean looking mani. 

That being said, from a distance they sure look fun! 

Do you like nail stickers and dresses? 

Baked Cinnamon Toast

I've been struggling to find a great recipe for breakfasts at home with Brayden. He's going through a phase where each day is a different food he doesn't like, so making meals is always a gamble. I found this recipe for baked toast on Pinterest (I wish I would've saved the pin so I could link it, her tutorial is so much better than mine!) and thought I'd give it a try.

Ohh boy, did he LOVE IT. 

Baked Cinnamon Toast

What You'll Need:
Bread (I do about 4-5 slices at a time
1 stick of butter (softened)
Cinnamon & Sugar 

How to do it:
1. On a baking sheet, lay out your bread. Spread your softened butter over each piece of toast
2. Sprinkle with Cinnamon and Sugar
3. Broil for 5-6 minutes

4. Remove from oven, sprinkle more Cinnamon and sugar over the top, if desired. Let cool, cut in halves, and enjoy!