Do you Bulu?

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Have you tried Bulu Box? Bulu Box is the first health, nutrition and weight loss discovery box designed to help you feel your best. Each month, you’ll get a custom box filled with a new mix of 4 to 5 premium samples from top brands to try, and the Box comes in two versions - a general heath & nutrition box and a weight loss focused box.

I signed up for a 6 month subscription for the weight loss box, and my first one arrived today! My box contained:

GU Chomps - high performance energy chews in Strawberry 

PowerIce - frozen electrolyte bar in Orange Blast

EatGreenTea - organic whole leaf edible green tea

Twinlab Power Fuel - pre-training formula drink mix in Electric Blue Raspberry

Thera-Gesic Pain Relieving Creme 

Shapeology Burn Blend - weight loss supplement

There was also a card with a checklist of healthy items to keep in stock for your kitchen, as well as a couple yummy sounding recipes - but as a vegetarian I won't be trying either of them. 

Overall I am pretty thrilled with this month's box, though I am unable to use the Power Fuel or Burn Blend due to the caffeine content so I will be passing those on to the hubby. The energy chews will be perfect on my 3-Day next month, and I will likely also take the pain relieving creme 'cause my knee will likely need it. I look forward to enjoying the PowerIce after my next run or bike ride, and as I love to green tea I am looking forward to adding the edible tea leaves to my next smoothie!

I should have expected that a "weight loss" box had a high probability of having stimulants in it, but it was certainly still worth the value I paid, especially since I picked up my 6 month subscription for only $30!

So have you checked out Bulu Box? If so, what do you think?

This post contains affiliate links

Lifeway Kefir

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

I recently received a voucher from Influenster for a free product of my choice from Lifeway Kefir (as well as a second coupon to save $1 on two products). I was pretty excited to give it a try to I walked over to the Target across the street and picked up the Low-Fat Raspberry Smoothie as I thought that *might* be the flavor that my husband would also enjoy the most. I could not have been MORE correct, we both LOVED it! The first taste was a little odd as it's a very thick consistency (not quite yogurt, but certainly thicker than the average smoothie) but the taste is marvelous. The bottle I thought would last us a couple weeks was gone in less than a week, and I'm now looking forward to trying more of their products. I am especially intrigued by the frozen kefir and will be looking for that next time I journey over to Whole Foods for sure.

Did you also receive the Lifeway Kefir voucher? If so, which product did you try, and how did you enjoy it?

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

Update on Palmolive Fresh Infusions

I have been using the Palmolive Fresh Infusions Lemon Tyme dish soap for a couple weeks now and I have to say I am impressed so far! The smell is quite nice (no strong chemical or soapy smell) and it gets the job done nicely. It even works well to let the crockpot or large pots & pans soak for a while - and let's face it I am HORRIBLE about letting things 'soak' for far too long.

I have not tried it for anything but dishes at this point - my regular blue Dawn gets used all over the house for spot removal and laundry - but for a dish soap it does the job without making my hands dry and it smells nice so I call it a win! I have yet to try the other scents, I let the hubby pick out which one to try and this was his choice.

Now available at Walmart!

Disclaimer: this product was provided by Influenster for my honest review and opinion.

Palmolive Fresh Infusions

A few days ago I was cleaning out my spam folder and found an email from Influenster telling me that I was selected to try out the new Fresh Infusions line from Palmolive. Imagine my surprise today when I opened my mailbox to find not one but THREE full size bottles of dish soap!

The three scents are Lemon Thyme, Ginger White Tea, and Lime Basil and they all smell incredible. When I first opened the box the lemon thyme had leaked just a tiny bit (the lid was not completely closed) and I was quite surprised by how good it smelled, more like fresh cut citrus than soap or a faux/chemical lemon smell.

I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to doing some dishes so I can try them each out! It will take my ages to get through all this dish soap but at least my kitchen will smell fresh and clean in the process ;)

Let me know if you are interested in trying out Influenster, and I can send you an invitation! This is the second time I have been selected to test out new products and it's a lot of fun, plus it introduces me to things I wouldn't normally tried (I'm pretty loyal to the original blue Dawn so I don't know that I would have picked these up) and I've found some new favorite items that I now can't live without.

January Julep Maven - It Girl

This month's Julep theme was Neons & Nudes - neither of which are my favorites - but I liked the It Girl offerings so I made a switch from my usual American Beauty.

Inside were three polishes (2 neons, 1 nude), a sheet of the new "swatch me" stickers, and three neon pony tail holders. The bottles also have one of the stickers on the lid, which is a new feature from Julep that makes it easy to swatch the top of each polish bottle so you can easily see which bottle is which color when they are stored standing upright in a drawer or container. I love the concept, but I already swatch my bottles with contact paper and a hole punch (paint the polish on the contact paper, and when it dries punch out a circle to stick on top of the lid) so the extra sheet will likely never get used. I've read that they will be including the stickers on all new bottles from now on,  so we'll see if my compulsion to have everything match will get the best of me since the stickers are difficult to remove! Yep, I might be a little C-D-O (like OCD but with the letters in alphabetical order - as they should be!)

Quick swatches of the new polishes:
2 coats of Amelia
3 coats of Nina
3 coats of Nikki
2 coats of Color Club's Tweet Me (since it arrived the night before)

Nina and Nikki both tried to a satin finish, not quite a matte but not the usual Julep shine either. They are not nearly as NEON as I was expecting, and I'm honestly quite happy about that fact as I wanted more bright cheery color than in your face, day-glo 1980s style so they work quite well in that regard. I'm interested to try them over white "undies" to see if that makes the color pop more as well as to avoid having to do three coats - especially since Nikki still has a visible nail line after three coats in the swatches above. The only minor complaint I have at this point is that I had painted my toes with Nikki and the removal left a pale yellow tint all over, it looked like a highlighter had leaked all over my fingers! Nothing that a good scrub with soap and a nail brush couldn't fix, but it took a surprising amount of remover to get the bulk of the color both off my toes and my fingers from using the cotton balls. I'll be sure to go with my usual method of soaking small bits of cotton in remove and leaving on each nail for a minute method, rather than trying to use one cotton ball for more than one nail, as that's how the transfer occurred.

Since receiving this order I also got my "end of the year" sale order of Olivia and Mischa, so expect more swatches soon!

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

Quick and easy nail art

My Mash nail art dotting tool set arrived today, so of course I had to try them out!

I used the largest tool for this quick and easy mani, with Zoya Zuza and Julep Georgia.

Just a little something to brighten this damp cold weather and remind me of summer!

The kit comes with 5 tools, each with two different size ends. Quite the deal at $3.98! MASH 5 X 2 Way Marbleizing Dotting Tool Pen Set for Nail Art Manicure Pedicure

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

Julep New Years Mystery Box

I swear Julep will be the end of me! They had a 72 hour sale on a New Years Mystery Box that was guaranteed to contain a never before released glitter polish and a minimum total value of $100 up to a maximum of $500 with one box containing an iPad mini.

My sweet, sweet hubbin said to go ahead and order one, but  if I got the iPad that it was his. Considering he bought me the iPad mini as an early Christmas gift already I figured that I was still getting the better end of that deal so I snapped one up!

My box arrived today and I'm quite happy with it. Inside I found:

• Age Defying Hand Brightener
• Matte top coat
• Isla
• Portia
• Hoch
• Mystery glitter
• Silver glitter pot
• 3 nail polish remover pads
• 2 foil package samples of Age Defying Hand Brightener
• Reusable Julep shopping bag

I already have both the matte top coat and Hoch, so those will likely be swapped out for shades I don't already have. All in all I really enjoyed what I received, and while I'm not really a fan of glitter polishes these are so different than anything else I already have that I'm sure they will be put to good use. Ironically I was just getting ready to buy a white polish so I'm pretty excited to give Isla a try!

The only problem with getting the box today is that now I'm itching to swatch the new shades, which means taking off the lovely Scarlett polish that I've been enjoying for the last couple of days! This was one of the new microglitter shades for December, that I picked up at the Warehouse sale.

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

Beauty Army

Last week I decided to cancel my Ipsy subscription (formerly Glam bag) and subscribe to Beauty Army instead. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with Ispy - each month I received a cure makeup/travel bag FULL of makeup - but I honestly got more pink lip glosses and black eyeliners that I can use for a good long while so I thought I'd switch subscriptions for a while to get some new items.

Beauty Army is a little different in that you get to choose 6 products to try each month from 9 options, and if you don't like the options you can redo your profile to get another set of 9 products to choose from. My first kit arrived tonight and I'm looking forward to trying out some new products!

The samples I chose are as follows:

• Lipsi Cosmetics Aphrodite Powder
• Nelson J Beverly Hills Argan Oil 7 Non-Foaming Shampoo
• Whip Hand Cosmetics Loose Pigment Eyeshadow (Green Beret)
• Enspri Moisture Duo
• Mark Hook Up Lip Gloss (Blow Kisses)
• GG Gatsby Raise Volume Conditioner

The Mark gloss is full size, and they even threw in the connector that you would use to connect another gloss at the other end. I'm actually a Mark rep (though I never sell anything - just buy products for myself) and I've been a big fan of these glosses for years. The formula is great and it's a perfect sheer red that is nicely buildable. As far as glosses go it's actually slightly less sticky than some other formulas (I'm looking at you, Bare Minerals) and the wear time is pretty good for someone like me who can't seem to keep lipstick color on for more than a half an hour.

The eyeshadow pigment is a nice green, slightly lighter than I expected from a color with a military theme but I'm actually quite happy with it and it will go nicely with the pearl pink eyeshadow pigment I got from Ipsy last week.

I'm almost out of my Bare Minerals Mineral Veil so I'm looking forward to trying the aphrodite powder, and I'm always interested in trying out facial serums and moisturizers so the Enspri duo will also be put to good use. While they are in foil packs they are a good size and should give me at least a couple uses.

Normally I would not get a conditioner without the shampoo but I got a volumizing shampoo without the conditioner from Birchbox last week so the timing on the GG Gatsby sample couldn't be better! And the argan oil shampoo is really a multi-use product that claims to take the place of shampoo, conditioner, and treatment all in one! I absolutely love argan oil for my hair so I'm anxious to see how this compares to my current Organix products.

All in all this costs me $12 a month, I can choose what products I want to try, and since they are based out of CA the kit arrived within days. Each month on the 11th (the day I signed up) I will receive a notification that the selection window is open and I can select my products, or I can choose to skip for the month. This service is very much like Julep in that aspect, though instead of selecting from several pre-selected boxes I can choose exactly what I want! While most of my products were deluxe sample sizes it seems that they also include full size products, so I feel that this subscription is a great value for the money!

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

Julep Maven Program (aka my newest obsession)

I signed up for the Julep Maven program back in October, right before I left Portland to move to Seattle (home of Julep). While I've only received two subscription boxes so far (my intro box in Oct and my first Maven box in Nov - I skipped Dec's glitters box) my collection has already grown to 23 Julep polishes - my husband calls it my newest obsession!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to get to attend Julep's warehouse sale at their distribution center here in Seattle, where I bought 12 polishes and some miscellaneous beauty products at a huge discount, most of the polishes were only $3 (regular price $14) so I just could not resist! Not only did they have tables upon tables of polishes and products for purchase, but they also had cupcakes and mimosas, a DIY nail art table, and a free gift for everyone who purchased. The first 50 in the door got a free goodie bag, but when we arrived 30 minutes before they opened there were already at least a hundred people in line! It was absolutely PACKED but everyone was so nice and friendly and there was plenty of opportunity to look at everything and pick out exactly what you wanted. At one point the CEO of Julep was actually standing right next to me but I was too chickenshit to say hello (did not want to go all fangirl on her and totally embarrass myself), though it was really awesome that she was out circulating with everyone. I took one of my coworkers from my new job with me and we had such a great time, I jokingly told her that I had a budget and she had to keep me reigned in but she was an enabler and ended up with a nice haul of her own (though mine was much bigger).

The Julep Maven program is a monthly subscription for $19.99 (plus tax if you live in WA, so it's $21.89 for me) where you take a quiz to find out your style profile - mine is American Beauty - and each month you will receive at least 2 polishes plus another beauty product. On the 20th of each month they allow you to preview what you will receive for the following month, and you can either take your usual style profile or choose from one of the others (Classic With a Twist, Boho Glam, Bombshell, or It Girl). If none of those strike your fancy they will occasionally offer another Maven's Choice option, or you can choose to skip for the month at no charge like I did for December. In addition to your monthly subscription you can also add on up to three additional polishes or products at a huge discount, and you save 20% off the regular price and get free shipping on any other purchases through their site throughout the month. They also offer a secret store once a month for those Mavens who purchased that month's box and there are some fantastic bargains to be found there as well!

Over the last couple of months I've seen Julep pop up on several other websites such as Coterie.com and Zulily.com, and they were even featured as one of Oprah's Favorite Things under $100! It's absolutely amazing to me that a local company is doing so well, and I absolutely love supporting the local 'girls' and spreading the word about Julep's great formulas to everyone who comments on my polish.

I've never really thought of myself as a girly girl but I have been absolutely loving my pretty nails and switching my polish up every few days so I can wear something new, who knew I had it in me? ;)

Julia - American Beauty December 2012

*Disclaimer - links contained within this post are referral links, and I will receive credit for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

The new and improved Influenster

I've developed a serious addiction to online monthly subscription boxes - currently subscribing to Birchbox, Ipsy (formerly MyGlam), and Julep - where you pay a monthly fee and you get a box of goodies in the mail. Mine are all beauty boxes, and have varying degrees of customization so you get to try new products that are geared to your own personal skin type, preferences, or interests.

Another fun player on the scene is Influenster, which has recently been revamped and is better than ever! What makes Influenster different is that it's a free service - you sign up as a user and fill out your profile for the chance to be selected for a VoxBox of products. Each VoxBox is matched up with registered users of the site to find the best possible match for the products that are being featured, and when you are selected for a VoxBox you will receive it free of charge. In return you simply review the items provided and share your experiences on your various social media channels. You get to try new products, and the brands get free advertising and word of mouth - a win/win situation for sure!

I was lucky enough to be picked for a VoxBox earlier this year and am still enjoying several of the FULL SIZE products I received. I'm still exploring the newly redesigned site and filling out the enhanced profile, and wanted to share the news for those who have not yet checked out the site.

It seems as though Influenster may be invitation only at the moment, so if you are interested let me know and I'll send you an invite!

June Birchbox

 

I'm a couple weeks late in posting this month's Birchbox and my feelings are a bit mixed on this one.

This month's haul included:

• Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream (sample)
• Eyeko Fat Eye Stick (full size, brown)
• BORGHESE Bagno di Vita Body Soak (two sample packs)
• theBalm® cosmetics Stainiac (sample, beauty queen)
• LUNA Bar (chocolate peppermint flavor)

While I certainly enjoy the products I received I have to admit I'm a little jealous of some of the other boxes I've seen online. My boxes seem to be a bit on the skimpy side when compared to others, and I'm pretty disappointed that I did not receive the men's cologne sample that most of the boxes included. I've received a brown eyeliner and hand cream two months in a row now so I'm hoping that next month's special Glamour magazine edition has something fun and different to try.

Trying something new

Testing the Blogger app and posting from my iPhone

Also trying a new look - I rarely paint my nails and can't decide if I like this combination or not

Out and about

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here for the last few weeks (the rain is back this week, but for a 'Bama girl this isn't enough rain to bother me) and we've been getting out and exploring our new town.

Some of the fun places we've been and things we've seen in the last few weeks:

• Tulip Festival in Woodburn
• Tillamook Cheese Factory
• Oregon Zoo
• Seaside
• Iris Festival in Keizer

This weekend starts the Rose Festival here in Portland and we're planning on going to see the fireworks on Friday night, then seeing the Alabama Shakes on Sunday. Not sure what we'll do for Memorial Day, but I'm sure looking forward to a long holiday weekend!

Beauty JACKPOT!

Got home from a hectic day at the office to find not one, but TWO boxes of beauty goodies in the mailbox! I LOVE getting mail and packages, so I've been stalking the mailbox for a few days waiting for these goodies to arrive.

The first was my May 2012 Birchbox, shown below. If you haven't checked out Birchbox yet you are missing out! For $10 a month you get a box full of generous samples or full size products to try out, customized according to your own beauty profile. 

This month's box included:

• A sample of Kérastase Cristalliste Lumiere Liquide leave in hair serum
• A sample of BVLGARI Omnia Crystalline Eau de Toilette Spray
• A sample of Caudalie Hand and Nail Cream
• A sample of Kiehl's Abyssine Cream + moisturizer
• A full size stila sparkle waterproof liquid eye liner in "Rock Candy" (chocolate brown)
• A cute note card with matching envelope

I'll be trying out the products over the next few days, but overall I am thrilled with this month's items! I would never have picked out a liquid eyeliner but the color is gorgeous and the brush seems like it will be easy to apply. I use a hair serum, moisturizer, and fragrance every day so new ones are always fun to try, and I keep a hand and nail cream in my purse so this will get a lot of use as well.


The second package was the Spring 2010 Beauty VoxBox from Influenster, and is my first time to receive one of these packages. Influenster is a similar concept, but you sign up for free and may be selected to receive a package of items to try out based on your profile. While you receive the items at no cost, you are expected to share your experiences with the items on your social media platforms to help the brands get their name out.

This VoxBox included (all products were received complementary for testing purposes from Influenster):

• ChapStick Lipshield 365
• Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips in a fun zebra design
• SOYJOY soy and fruit bar in Blueberry
• Sheer Cover duo concealer in Light/Medium
• Bath & Body Works Fragrance Mist in Japanese Cherry Blossom
• Dr Scholl's For Her ball of foot cushions
• Aveno Daily Moisturizing body wash (travel size)

I'm a complete lip balm freak, so I've already tried out the ChapStick and have to say I'm extremely pleased with it. I usually stick to Burt's Bees but the Lipshield goes on smooth (not waxy) and leaves my lips feeling soft but not heavy with balm. I'm a big fan of Bath & Body Works fragrance mists and the Japanese Cherry Blossom scent, so I'll be giving that a try tomorrow when I'm getting dressed for work. I've been using the ball of foot cushions for years so another pair is always a good thing in my book, and I've been needing to buy a new concealer so the timing couldn't be better for the Sheer Cover concealer. The SOYJOY bar has already been claimed by the hubbin, but I'm hoping to at least get a bite of it! I don't usually keep my fingernails painted, but I've been dying to try the polish strips so this will be a fun experiment for me!

Starting a new adventure!

This blog has been dormant for FAR too long, so I'm hoping to resuscitate it and get back to blogging about my adventures and interests.

Some of the major changes in my life since my last post - I'm now living in my 4th state in two years, was in Houston, TX when I last posted, lived to Oklahoma City, OK for a year then Minneapolis, MN for 9 months, and now Portland, OR. Each move has been a result of a new job, and I've started and completed a Masters degree in Project Management through Penn State along the way as well. I'm now an AUNT to the most precious niece (my brother) and nephew (husband's sister) ever and I love spoiling them rotten.

What hasn't changed? I'm still sewing and knitting and crafting up a storm, though I've added an embroidery machine and a Silhouette digital cutter to my ever-expanding craft room. I've been documenting my crafty adventures on Facebook and I plan to use this space to document in more detail as I'm sure my husband is getting tired of pretending to know what I'm babbling about ;)

I've fallen off and gotten back on the fitness bandwagon a few times, but living in this perfect climate has the urge kicking back in to high gear so I plan to get back to the gym and hopefully into biking or running over the next few weeks. I've already become obsessed with my Fitbit and Polar fitness computer (Thanks to Little Bit Funky and BlogHer!) and I'm working on convincing my new coworkers to form a team for the upcoming Color Run that's taking place here in September.

Wine is still very much an interest of mine, and now that I live in the wine country I'll be visiting various local wineries much more often than my previous once a year trips. There are so many things to see, places to go, and festivals in the area that I'm getting a lot of use out of my camera already!

I've also become obsessed with Pinterest, BirchBox, and Influenster so I'll be sharing other various fashion, beauty, and just plain girly things in the coming weeks.

It's great to be back!

kicking my own ass.....

I'm about halfway through a new dress (McCall 4768) and it seems from the time I took my measurements until now either a) the dress has shrunk, b) my ass has grown, or c) the pattern measurements on the envelope are just off by an inch or two.

I'm going with option C personally, but that doesn't make me feel any better. While the dress does technically 'fit' there is no way in hell I'm going to wear this out in public looking the way it does. I'm no Mariah Carey, and 'sausage casing' is not a good look for me.

So the dress has been put aside for the time being and I started day 1 of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred to see if I can whittle myself back down into it. Stranger things have happened! Plus I'm just coming off my cycle so that always makes me swell a teensy bit anyways.

On the sewing room front - I got a new ironing board and (cheap) iron today so I can return the good/expensive one back downstairs for every day use. Figure I'll do most of the major ironing of fabrics as soon as I pull them from the dryer so I can use the Rowenta downstairs for that and just use the new one upstairs for seams while sewing. Also hung two of my photography prints (one of my own, one of my old photog prof.) on one wall and framed two of my old sorority cross stitch pieces to hang on another wall when Stephen is available to help me hang my shelf. I've also got an old painting he did in the first grade that his Nana had mounted and framed that I plan to hang as well, it's really cool!

what's new in my world...

I FINALLY got a sewing table, and was able to set up my space in one of the spare bedrooms upstairs!


you can also see the new serger I got Friday as well ;)

Also finished something new (and stop reading if you are my brother or sister-in-law, or are married to or was a groomsman in my wedding) just a few minutes ago -


Actually made two of them, but since they are identical I'm only showing one, kindly modeled by Betty and my cowboy

why I have the BESTEST husband evar!!!

I just ordered a serger!


Brother 1034D

Since my free trial of Amazon Prime is still good for another 9 days I was able to get one day shipping for $3.99, so she will be delivered on Friday and I get a whole weekend to play with her!

gremlins!

we seem to have gremlins in our house, or maybe a mischievous leprechaun?

whatever it is, something has swiped my potato peeler, and now my skirt/pant hooks are missing!

I've finished another skirt (McCall's 5429) but I can't find the hook closure, and I KNOW I have some since I bought a new pack when I made the last version of this skirt!

The last one was denim and was cute, but I wasn't very happy with the fit or the cheap denim I picked up at WalMart. This new version is a really nice stretch cotton-blend khaki, and (as well as I can tell without the closure) fits absolutely perfectly. The pattern makers seem to assume that all women are at least 6 feet tall so I've got to cut a few inches off so I don't look uber-religious, but again that requires the closure so I can accurately measure where to cut it...

guess I just have to console myself with this glass of wine and the homemade brownies that are currently baking...

FINISHED!

The fleece jacket is finished, just in time for this warmer weather ;)



McCall's/DIY Style 5714 in polar fleece