notes for a future post

One of the future posts that I wanted to write before was what are ways I've increased storage in my bathroom and I wanted to show pictures. But that's not happened yet.


So I'm going to write some quick highlights of what I've done with a full detailed post with pictures coming later.


-Shower has a caddy that hangs off shower head.
-Hook on wall for detangling comb and loofah.
-Curtain rod that hangs over doors- we use it only for clean dry towels, wet towels go on shower rod and then floor in a rotation so that a towel isn't getting used more than 3 times before going on the floor. It also has some hooks that I use to hang our belts and my bras on.
-The tops of my two medicine cabinets aren't set into the wall so you're able to store stuff there that won't fit inside the cabinet. The giant bottle of peroxide? Yup. Dry shampoos, leave in conditioners? Yeah. Possibly back ups of body wash, shampoo and conditioner? Why not? Though we store ours in the laundry room closet because that is convenient to us right now.
-A hook on the wall by toilet for the toilet brush handle to hang. It isn't a reusable brush, it holds the disposable brush so when it's hung on the wall, the brush is gone.
-When I lived alone here I had a metal holder for the side of the toilet, it hangs from the toilet tank and holes two extra rolls. I don't have any hidden under sink storage in the bathroom. Now that there are two people here, I use that and I have a metal holder that sits on the ground and holds 6 rolls.
-Hooks on the wall for hair brush or comb if it has a hole in the handle. Hair ties can get stored on brush handle or on a different hook.
-I hung a over the door type of organizer, it's adjustable and can either be over the door or screwed to the wall. It comes with 4 shelves and a rod that is for 4 hooks. The piece that is attached to the wall is the same thing that is on the back of a door. They can be made to hang 6 feet long or 3 feet long (guessing) door or wall. I did 6 feet on a door at the old house. For the bathroom I did 3 feet and I'm able to use 3 of the shelves and the rod that has the hooks. Currently my hooks are holding hair ties, hair brush, lint roller, scissors and a shower cap. Sometimes they'll hold my rings during my shower. The 3 shelves pack a lot punch. They hold skin and hair samples, toothpaste, perfume, mouth wash, razors, q tips,
-Since floor space is limited I use a small dollar tree laundry basket in there and when it's full I dump it into a bigger basket or straight in the washer. We tried a big on but it was always in the way!
This used to be a pool bathroom so it wasn't getting used on a daily basis. When the pool fell into (or caused) a sink hole she never replaced the pool and so the pool room and pool bathroom became an apartment. So the bathroom here design wise was great for pool parties. But as apartment dwellers?


Bathroom has been painted.


I've been working on getting the medicine cabinet fixed. It's so damaged that paint isn't able to cover everything. My plans is to buy 1 or 2 medicine cabinets to replace those 2. If I do 1, I want it bigger that these are.


Once I do that. I want to repaint the entire cabinet to see if it can be made to look good. If not, the 2nd cabinet hasn't been cleaned yet so I would try different paint on it.


THEN I want to reuse one of them in the bedroom. Dry shampoo, hair brush, deodorant, make up and make up brushes can go inside and/or on top. Dental picks could be kept in there. Gum for when you're leaving to go somewhere with someone. Also you can put hooks on the cabinet's sides or on the wall for them to hold your brush and hair tools. My location doesn't have an outlet on that wall so I'm not sure where I'll solve that. Hang the hair dryer, the curling iron on hooks on the wall and maybe with an outlet near by or use an extension cord. Just remember to unplug devices before prolonged of no usage. Don't forgot the lint rollers, sunscreen and scissors.


Maybe a garbage can near by or a small one for on top or inside of the cabinet,

I need to repurchase the velvetfrogg domain. I need to start blogging again. I have a computer now. I can take better pictures with the camera and upload and write on the computer and I can edit the look of the website easier. Like adding a social media widget. I can't do it on an iPad. Maybe now you can but two years ago I couldn't. I need a second job and I need to sell some things online. If I can start bringing home extra money it can go towards my credit card debt.

Okay I think it's time for me to put the iPad down. My eyes are finally ready to close.

Ug I'm sick.

There's been a few times where I randomally throw up. This time I almost did then I didn't and had diarrhea instead. I have to work tomorrow and if I don't then I lose my holiday pay. I don't know why it's happening though. One of the other tenants smokes and I can smell it in my apartment and it makes me nausea but I can't remember a time I've thrown up. But whole time that could be now.

Plus my day sucked. Friends, family and my own depression caused it.

New computer.

My dad bought me a computer for my birthday and one of the things I want to do with it, is get back into writing blog posts and be able to actually my blog design. Before I was very limited on what I could do because I was using an iPad. I couldn't even figure out a way to add a widget for social media using the iPad but now I shouldn't have any problems. The other thing the computer is for is so that I can use it as my TV too. I still need to purchase an actual TV that can double as a computer monitor. Right now I'm just using my old monitor and it's fine for using the computer itself to watch shows but our apartment is supposed to have cable TV in it but we don't have a cable box yet so no TV service yet in here. Once I get the cable box and a TV, I can hook my TiVo up and I'll be one happy Tricia.

Some posts that I want to write are:

-bathroom storage ideas.

        -Our bathroom is small. You walk in and to your right is a toilet and a pedestal sink and they're close together and nearly touch the walls on the sides. Across from them is the shower and there's no tub. There's also two doors so I can't even put a hamper against a wall. I want to write a post on what I've done to store things that I can't store in there.

-

travel toiletries.

        -We're flying to Chicago on July 6th and we're only doing carry on luggage so we have to figure out how to bring enough products that are in liquid form to last us 4 nights and 5 days.

-favorite products.

        -I have a few products that I've been using and love but they're things people might not realize are awesome. I also don't mean cosmetic products or any type of consumable product. I mean like a storage bin or something else you use long term.

I think that's all I've got. So I want to say I'm back finally but no promises. It's been a while since I've typed any sort of blog post on a regular basis.

Any ideas on what you'd like to see here in the future?

An apartment update of sorts....

So I was all hopeful at first that we'd have a nice looking apartment for me to blog about. The opposite happened. The walls are BABY POOP BROWN. Plus they didn't do a good job. They ran out of paint. So you can see the white underneath the first coat of the brown paint. The kitchen cabinets are in need of being repaired. There's water damage to the bottom ones and the uppers are okay, they're just old. There are brown upper and lower cabinets and those are over 30 years old. I THINK they were first installed somewhere in 1979 and then in the 90s when the apartment was built they were installed here. Then there's a newer white cabinet that is just a lower cabinet. It's okay for the most part. It has tile on top and the side/back of it. There are some loose tiles on the side that could probably be fixed easily enough. The ceiling fans and lights are outdated but work for the most part. We have three windows and they all have blinds but one needs to be replaced because it was damaged by the last tenant but J and I bought and installed two new ones for the other windows. There's 12 feet of sliding glass doors and the tracks need to be cleaned out so that the doors slide again. It has vertical blinds and some of them are broken, yellowed and/or have roach poop on them. Sigh. Let's talk about the roach problem now (quickly and then I'll move on)... When we moved in there were so many roaches in the kitchen and bathroom. We got rid of all of them finally. It still scares me to put stuff in any of the kitchen cabinets. I did finally start using the bathroom medicine cabinets though. Then the roaches came back to the bathroom last week. I've been dealing with that again. UUUUUGGGG. My landlady (S) has pest control coming out tomorrow. I won't be here but J will be so that he can let them into the apartment. So moving on. The bathrooms has some damage in the shower that needs to be repaired plus it needs to be repainted, including the doors. There's a couple renting a bedroom on S's side and the man does handy man type stuff so he's been doing a lot around here and I'm going to have him work on things in my bathroom. I'm going to have him just paint everything white again. The front door needs to be painted but I don't know what color because of the house color. The colors I would want don't go with any of the house colors. 

I really want to make the apartment pretty but I don't even know where to start since it actually needs so much love. I figure I can start with the bathroom. I can probably paint the medicine cabinets myself and change out the light switches/covers and outlet and its cover. Then the guy can do the painting of the walls, ceiling and doors and do the tile work that needs to be done. I want to buy a new light and he can switch it out. Also I'm supposed to have a new faucet installed BUUUUUUUT S's daughter brought over a bathroom sink that S wants to try to install in my bathroom. It's a round copper sink and is really fancy and I have no idea if it would work. It would need some sort of base for it plus we would need to create some sort of countertop with it. If we used it, that would change all of the other updates I would do in there. I like silver as my metal color but I'm not going to mix silver with copper. So we'll see. 

I've got to go work on some more laundry and some other things. Olivia (oh my god, I need to make a post about her!!!) is at the vets today getting spayed and I can pick her up from 330-5 and S is taking me. I'll take some photos of the apartment and post them as before pictures. Maybe, it all looks so bad that I'm not sure if I can handle people seeing the apartment.

I hate everything.

So I bought some stuff to make me feel better. I bought four bottles of a nail strengthener from a brand called Qtica, Zoya is their parent company. I bought the large bottle, .5 oz and it's normally $20 a bottle but they had a sale of 70% off so it was $6 a bottle. !!!! An amazing deal because that's even cheaper than buying OPI's Nail Envy which is about $8-$10 on Amazon. So it would be $80 full price and I only paid $24 and I think shipping was $6. 

I also bought two packs of facial wipes I got in my Ipsy this year. Woo. I bought some Klorane shampoo too. I tried the shampoo out from my Allure box.

Greatest post ever!!!

We moved! I'm so flipping happy about it. We moved back into my old apartment where I lived December 2006-July 2010 by myself. J lived there with me from July 2010 to January 2011. The entire apartment needs a lot of work and love. There were only two tenants after us and they didn't take care of it. The one who moved in after me was a hoarder and then after that was a young couple with dogs and later on a baby. They didn't clean ever it looks like. The kitchen has German roaches and that is my worst nightmare. They broke a bedroom window that still needs to be fixed. They kicked in the shower and it needs to be fixed. When the shower was kicked in, they didn't say anything, they just put plastic over it and kept using it. So then mold happened and it effected the drywall. So my friend's fiancé is supposed to be fixing it. But... He hasn't finished yet. He started on Friday and then never came back. The last tenants painted all the walls brown. Ugly brown. Not beige. Brown. We also have a lot of stuff that is dirty too because it's been in storage for almost 3 years. So we're unpacking and having to clean everything. It's going to be a lot of work but I am excited to be able to make it into our home.

I don't know if I want to post before pictures, lol. 

Japanese stationery!!!

So I'm not sure how widely this is known outside of family and friends but I LOVE stationery. Paper, envelopes, stickers and stamps- love, love, love! I have a friend who I have been writing to for over ten years. It's less than 16 but way over 10. I'll say 13 years. She's lived in several states and cities and I've moved a few times but all in FL and we just keep writing letters and postcards to each other. We're FB friends but we don't really use that to keep in touch nor do we talk on the phone, sometimes we text but not often. We just write! 

Well in two weeks she's going to Japan and I am so excited for her. I just sent her some money through PayPal so she can buy me a ton of stationery. She asked me what did I want and I told her it didn't matter and then said what do you want because I'll just be mailing it back to you, lol. 

Japan has the BEST paper products. They have washi tape! I don't have a ton of washi tape and I don't use it much but that's mainly because I didn't buy any until we moved in here and so I don't have a big use for it but I'm sure if I had the space to do stuff with it I would buy more of it. I don't have a planner either right now. Maybe when we move, I'll get another one and then I'll have another use for it along with having the space to do DIY and craft projects and can do cute stuff with the tape. 

Anyways. Yes, Japan has the cutest stuff especially all of their stationery supplies. 

It's my birthday!!!!!

We're on our way to Sea World for my birthday. And we've got a hotel tonight in Orlando. It's our favorite hotel, Holiday Inn Express. I don't know what else we're doing in Orlando. We might see Civil War again at either unversial or at Disney springs (used to be called downtown Disney). We might also go to a mall, I wanted a new bra for my birthday and so we can go to Victoria's Secret and get one or two there. Maybe some new pretty underwear too. 

When we get back home tomorrow I'll take a picture of presents and cards. But for now here's a picture of the best card ever. 

It's from Jacie and Dean and their son (my future nephew) Mason. 

Maybe I should blur my birth year out so no one knows how old I am. 

In other news hopefully when I get back to work I can start my pharmacy training again. It's been two weeks since I did anything with it. I was sick and then this week I only worked Sunday to Tuesday. Sunday is tags and then front register. Monday was front register because someone else was on vacation and then deliveries. Tuesday was supposed to be floor working on truck but then the photo person had to go to Miami for something so I was in photo but then the front person went home and I was up front 12-3 and then did deliveries. Luckily my store manager got the deliveries ready and one of the shift leads went to two places and I went to 3. But the third person wasn't home. 

Then I am on a five day vacation so hopefully Monday will resume my training. I thought I was going for my pharmacy certification. To do that I have to go to classes and have books, books that get ordered through the store. But I asked my store manager about it but he said he's not having me do the certification and I'm just getting registered. I asked J about it and he said it's not his choice that I have to do the certification for the designated hitter program and that even if I'm just getting registered that I would still need to take the classes and have the books. So I'm just going to talk to my pharmacy manager about it. 

I didn't paint my nails for my birthday but I brought everything with me so that I can paint my nails later. 

Birthday wish list.

I don't normally do a birthday wish list but I was thinking maybe I'd make a list of things I want to get myself for my birthday.

A new ring or bracelet. Something silver. I just want something new, I haven't bought any new jewelry in a while. I need to start wearing my rings all the time again. 

Some nail polish but something specific and something special that I wouldn't normally buy. I don't mean Sinful or Rainbow Honey. Something like a new indie brand.

I want to purchase my domain name again. I just want to find a new host I think.

A new book.

Something on etsy but I don't know what.

So obviously I've put a lot of thought into what I want, lol. The only thing I know for sure is the domain name, everything else is just a vague thing.

Some sort of jewelry but nothing specific. 

Nail polish but not a specific brand or color.

A book but no clue what or even what author.

Something etsy, no category, just something, anything on etsy, lol.

J asked me several times what I want for my birthday and I think the only thing I told him was I wanted to go to Seaworld and I wanted to my domain name back. 

I need to update more often.

I don't know why I've stopped writing. I stopped writing on my livejournal too. I've been sick the past few days. My throat was sore on Tuesday but I ignored it and didn't buy any cold eeze which has been MY JAM the last few years (more than a few, over 6 I'd say) and I think it has helped me not get sick. I used to get a cold once or twice (or more when I was in school) a year and from about 15 years old to 27 I would stay sick longer than a normal person would. I would usually have to go to a doctor once a year at least for medicine. Antibiotics, cough medicine and once I got an inhaler. One time they took X-rays of my lungs and one lung was completely full of infection and the other lung was like 2/3 full of infection. The doctor wanted to put me in the hospital! I didn't have insurance though so he said since I didn't and since I was young (like 22?) he would give me antibiotics and cough medicine and then if I didn't clear up within a certain time frame, he would put me in the hospital. Luckily the medicine helped quickly. I was coughing so hard I had bruised my ribs and throwing up, but there wasn't usually anything to throw up so I would just dry heave. 

No idea why I'm telling sick stories. But I've got more! 

I was about 15? I got REALLY sick and I went to school, don't know why but I remember being in my 10th grade history or social studies class, whatever it was, world history maybe? His name was Mr. Drummond (I could see him marrying a student later on in life. Like I was 15 and he was 33? So if he had been teaching for a while he would have students older than 18 and closer to his age. I could see it. ANYWAYS!!!! I was so tired in his class that I fell asleep in his entire class one day and he didn't care. I left and somehow got home. I don't think my coughing was that bad but there clearly were white marks in my throat so I got home from school and crawled everywhere. I called my mom (who did have insurance on me so she said she was taking me to hospital.) So I remember I was laying at the front door throwing up and my mom got me and took me to JFK hospital. I had pneumonia that time. 

Lots of stories like that. Then while J and I were new, less than a year I got sick. I had to get antibiotics and couch medicine. I think that's the last time I got that sick. 

Now when J is sick or someone at work that likes to get touchy touchy feeling, I buy cold eeze. There's a girl I used to work with who whenever she was sick she wanted hugs and she wanted your hand on her forehead to see if she has a fever. She'll come up and lay her head on your shoulder. Basically she goes around and touches everyone when she's sick and I'm just like stay away from me! 

More interesting personal tidbits? 

My position at work changed so I make more money. It's the designated hitter program at work, I can get two raises out of it. First is the training period timeframe. Then when you do your 160 hours and take the classes, you'll take a test (100 ??s I think) and if you get a 80% I think you pass? I have to do all this to get certified in pharmacy. After I get certified I'll make another dollar an hour!

We want to buy a house. But I don't want to go into many details because I don't know want to jink ourselves. J has to pay off 5 credit cards so we did two and then on Thursday we'll do another card. I'm cashing out a retirement loan, that'll take a few weeks to get here and then we'll pay what we can for the rest of the cards. After that's done, we can start shopping.

We should probably be in a house before 2017 but we're hoping for something sooner. 

When this happens, it's going to be one of my biggest dreams happening. 

Rainbow Honey's cosmic microwave sky review

I plan on writing on several mystery bag reviews this week but tonight I'm sleepy. I wrote a description of the January mystery bag and some brief opinions about what I felt toward certain things. Then I'll write February and March's review on the mini bags and April will be on the large bag.

Tonight's 2nd post is about a specific gorgeous color. 

It's called Cosmic Microwave Sky and it was in the March mystery bag. It was in both the mini and large bag. I got the mini so I am missing a third color. I'm glad though I got this one because I FREAKING LOVE THIS COLOR.

I love blue and I love jelly and I love square glitter. I am going to love looking at this on my nails the next few days. 

The pictures aren't the greatest but I just wanted to show it off tonight. Maybe tomorrow I'll take daylight photos or use my camera. 

Also the only negative about this polish was it's a little thick but I paint my nails right under an AC vent and when the AC comes on, the cold wind wrecks havoc on my polishes. So when it did that I stopped and when it was off I resumed. It seemed to help but not enough. It's not something that will make me stop using it. I can and have continued using many polishes that were thick. Or I can fix it with nail polish thinner. 

But since it's a mystery bag and the products are pro types and testers, they welcome feedback like this. They'll know to either add more base and/or less glitter. Just don't take away the square glitters RH, lol. 

**edit on May 10th, 2016**

I've still not written the posts I was going to write! I've been super sick, finally went to the doctor today for antibiotics so hopefully I start getting better. But that's not why I wanted to add something here. What I wanted to add is that cosmic microwave sky is now being sold at rainbowhoney.com as part of their Space Collection. There are a lot of previous mystery bag colors (including my favorite grayspace) in this collection. I think it's 10 polishes total (11 if you want to count the May limited edition polish too since it's called Interstellar Ice) and 4 new colors. Of the mystery bag colors, I don't have 2 of them.

Rainbow Honey January mystery bag- no pictures or reviews.

I had canceled my mini subscription in December so I didn't get a bag but I don't want to skip a post so I'll pull from social media and write what was in the bag that month. But I won't take their pictures. I'll still credit where my information is from.

This information is from mysubscriptionaddiction.com, http://www.mysubscriptionaddiction.com/2016/02/rainbow-honey-mystery-subscription-box-review-january-2016-2.html 

This is for the large mystery bag that was $25 a month for subscribers. But starting in May, subscribers will pay $22! I'm not sure of the new prices for the other subs but I do believe they're changing too. 

They sent three whipped cream soap in foil packets along with 3 little plastic spoons. I've never used any of their products in foil packets so I don't have an opinion on it. I do like that they think ahead and include the spoon. The scents were pate de pistache (never smelled this), juicy orange pop (I've smelled their juicy orange pop in hand soap and it smells like orange soda, I prefer the citrus type of orange smell) and the final flavor was Sakura Matsuri. I think I have a cuticle balm with that scent but haven't used it or opened it, smelled it and didn't like it. It's a very popular scent though so if you got this hand soap, try it! (Oh maybe I have some soap in this scent....)

Then they sent cucumber melon lip balm and cucumber melon sugar scrub. I am not a fan of their lip balms but I know many people are. I've traded several of them for other things or just for money, lol. I tried a lemon sorbet sugar scrub they had in 2015 and it was fine but I wasn't a fan of the gritty on my lips so I also trade those now. Some people do like them and try to trade for that. I think I did hear that this batch didn't have enough sugar in it? Not sure. Since these products are being sent to be tested, RH welcomes feedback so that they can improve their products such as this one. If you got a sugar scrub with no sugar, let them know!

Caramel Forest body spray- I don't have anything in that scent so no idea.

The 3 colors are forestal, planet m and caramel forest. 

I'm not wowed by how these colors photographed so I didn't feel like I needed them. Forestal is a matte green, light olive green if that makes sense? Then planet m is pink with some shimmer? Hard to tell but it's not the first pink with shimmer I've seen. Then caramel forest is brown, gold, yellow, orange and white glitters I believe. It sounds interesting for someone that likes warm colors. I am not one of those people. 

I'm not sad I didn't get this bag. But don't know why, I got mini bags of February and March once I knew what they were and then I signed back up the large bags. Mini bags still get two large bottles so I'm still upset about that and that's why I went back to the large. Sometime this week I'll write posts about February, March and April's mystery bag. 

*edit: planet m is now available for purchase on the rainbowhoney.com website!!*

Oops.

I was supposed to post pictures of the packages I received in December. I never did. Oops. I am sorry.

Let's see what I've got...

There's a picture of J putting his tie on Sylar. Sylar is such a laid back cat. He pretty much puts up with anything crazy we do to him. He's even getting used to Mason giving him hugs and kisses! Though I am never home for that. Anywho... Where was I?

There's some of the pictures I took of the 3 Marvel boxes we got in December. 

That's the only picture I have of my Pahlish order. 

There's my Zoya Black Friday order. It had several full size products and the value was great for what you paid for. But I don't like their remover, I just bought their lip repair balm (that I don't use) so now I have two, I don't like any of the colors and I haven't tried out the Naked Manicure set they sent but it's supposed to be good so one day I will try it. 

The really crappy Walmart box, luckily it's only $5. I also received the best box out of all the styles they send so I guess there's that. I do like that mini sample of face wash they sent. 

And my two December Ipsy bags. I didn't like the bag itself in December or January but the February one is AMAZING and I'm glad that my last month of two bags ended with an amazing bag. 

There's the bag itself from February. Amazing right?

Okay, my back hurts so I'm going to lay down again.

Allure Beauty Box (the bonus one!!)

Allure magazine has a beauty box like Ipsy and Birchbox. But it is $15 a month whereas the other two are $10. I tried out Birchbox last summer and didn't stick with it. I started Ipsy the following month and I have stuck with it. Birchbox was pretty much all samples and they weren't good sizes either. Ipsy does more full size items and the samples they send are decent sizes usually. I signed up for Allure the same time I signed up for Ipsy I think. I got July and liked it but wasn't impressed enough to keep it. So I canceled but then I saw a spoiler for August and promptly signed up. It had a Butter London nail polish. I kept it until December. I think I skipped only December. I saw the spoiler for January and signed up again because it included a Trust Fund Beauty nail polish. The Butter London was a mini whereas the Trust Fund was a full size and their full sizes are 17 ml instead of the normal 13-15ml. Awesome. Also I had received an email from Allure in January that said they were sending out bonus gifts every month. I wasn't subscribed yet but I signed up the same day I got the email (after looking at spoilers) but I didn't get anything extra in January. I got the February box. Oh before I go on I want to say that I have liked all of the Allure boxes I have received. And they are a great value for the $15 you spend. Moving on!

I received an email this month stating they were going to send out a bonus beauty gift that included the brands Cover Girl, SK-II and Wella. I found out through an unboxing video on Allure's YouTube channel that it's called the Red Carpet Beauty Box. 

And holy cow, it's actually an amazing box of goodies. 

At first, it looks small. 

When you open it though, it's full of goodies. Most of them are or can be considered full size. There are four Cover Girl items, two SK-II items and one Wella item. Here's the list of what this box included:

Cover Girl:

Oh Sugar! A tinted lip balm in shade Soda. There were five possible shades you could get. Value is $8.99

TruBlend face primer for oily skin. The other option is combo skin. Value is $8.49

Intensify me! Liquid eye liner. Shade is intense black. Value is $8.99

Plumpify blast pro mascara in shade very black. Value is $11.99

SK-II:

One facial treatment mask. Value $17. Yes, one mask is $17, 6 masks are $95!!!!!!

1oz of facial treatment essence. Value is $42 and it's not a full size but it's still a big bottle. I think the smallest bottle they may sell is 2.5 oz for $105.

The Wella item is a smoothing oil for your hair and it is also 1oz. In the book it doesn't list sizes and it just says $40 for the price. But when I researched this, it seems that it is $40 for the 3.5oz size and that the 1oz sells for $21. 

The value I get for this box is $118.46 but you can find the Wella item for cheaper than $21 on Amazon from some sellers. But still, the value for this box is INSANE and it was free. Well to an extent. I am a subscriber so I do give them $15 a month for the regular monthly boxes but that's it. I post Instagram photos some months and use their hashtag but I have never written a blog post (I don't think) and I have never entered any of their giveaways. Well I take that back... I entered their back to school huge month long giveaway in August but that was separate from the Allue beauty box sub which has its own monthly giveaways. Those I have never entered. So all I'm saying is that I didn't win this box. 

Two local stores...

Two stores in my area are going to start carrying the entire Boots No7 brand and I believe Soap & Glory! J wasn't sure and he said something that could be that. I hope so!!

2016 Resolutions.

         http://velvetfrogg.blogspot.com/2015/01/2015-new-year-resolutions.html    

Arg bangs head against wall                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

December's Rainbow Honey mystery bag.

So just to remind you all, RH has two size bags. Large is $25 and includes shipping. The mini is $10 with $2.95 shipping if you have a subscription. But if you don't have a sub and you just buy the bag, it's $12.95 and.... I don't know. I think it said that was free shipping but is it?!? Then I thought maybe if someone bought stuff before then added a mini bag, it would be $10 and then they get shipping which would probably end up being $3.75? So if you raise the mini bag to $12.95 and they buy stuff then you're getting to charge them $3.75 plus the $2.95 you added to their bag?! I don't know. I'm sure if I went to their site, I could find an answer. Lol.

So yeah, I pay (well paid bc as of right now I'm canceled) $12.95. I canceled because I was tired of the small bottles and tired of not getting the same items as the large bags since they decided to make up the small bottles getting sent out. I think if they had just explained everything in the beginning and maybe said hey, for the next few months, the large and mini bags are going to be different. Mini will two large bottles of the three that the large bag gets all of. 

I never took pictures of it. I guess I'll do that another day. Sigh.

My packages!

So I finally got all of the packages I mentioned in my last post. Which ended up being 7 since Marvel Collector Corp didn't send the boxes together. 

So that list was this-

-watch band from Amazon- I have to return this because it didn't fit my watch. The measurement was 12 mm which fits my watch. But the leather on the new band was wider than what my watch had before. So while I could the springs to fit I couldn't squeeze the leather into it. I ended up finding one the night the package got here. It came from Kohl's. I didn't know they sold watch bands, I was in the jewelry section trying to find a replacement watch. So Walmart and Kohl's sells watch bands. Target does. Replacing the band and the battery is cheaper than having to buy a new watch every time one of those dies. I've been doing this for YEARS. At least for 10 years. I think I get 12 months out of a leather band and 18-24 months from a battery. I think I've bought 3 watches in the last 10 years. Watch bands are less than $10 and batteries are also less than $10. It is getting hard to get the battery replaced though. It was so easy before. I could go to Walmart and someone in the jewelry section would replace it for the cost of the battery which were $3. Walmart doesn't seem to have someone in that section all the time anymore though or someone trained to replace batteries. Sears has a watch repair place and I think it was $8-$10 to get it done there. A kiosk in the mall is a rip off. It's like $25 dollars. I can replace my watch for $25-$35. The batteries have gone up in price at Walmart though. It was $5 I think then $8? I'm not sure. I couldn't get the battery done last time so I ended up just buying a new one.

So there's all the information on watches you didn't know you wanted!!

-marvel packages. I signed us up for the subscription to get the December Guardians of the Galaxy box and saw that you could order past boxes. I ordered Ant-Man (for me) and Secret Wars (for J) and they ended up being shipped in December but a week before the December box was shipped. We've now received all 3 boxes though at the time of my last post only the old boxes were on their way. I have some pictures and will write a separate post on it. 

-rainbow honey mystery bags. I got the Just Soaps bag that I won and the soaps are big. Way bigger than I thought. I just am not a fan of any of the scents. Everyone got Carnival Candy (this scent was from Feb 2015) and Peachy Sangria (this was from a Bliss Set in the spring of 2015). Then the third and final soap was different for everyone. There were four possible scents and you would get one of those. It was all from their summer drinks collection. I really wanted Pina Coco-colada and I got Juicy Orange Pop which ended up not being that great. I love oranges and thought I'd like it but I guess I don't because it's orange SODA which to me is a "fake" Orange scent whereas regular orange is the citrus type of scent that I love. I didn't even take photos of the soaps. 

The other bag is my subscription bag of the mini bag. (Which I've canceled as of now, too many disappointments since the September bag). It took over 10 days for my bag to actually get to me. It had the label created for it on the 9th and it got here today. Never mind that they shipped them out later then normal anyways. So yeah I got my bag today and I didn't take pictures of it either. But I will since I always post at least one picture of it. 

-Zoya mystery box from Cyber Monday, it got here on Friday. I guess I like the box?! Not sure, lol. I don't think I'll ever reach for the polishes. At least for 2014's I use the polishes for nail art. They were just basic cremes but nail art! This year? I will probably not use them. I have pictures of it and will post the contents in another post. 

-my Black Friday purchase from Pahlish also arrived last week. I like most of my colors but feel like they misrepresent what the colors look like. It's sometimes hard to post accurate color photos but I feel like their swatchers all end up taking and posting photos that are not correct and then Pahlish uses them. I like what the photos show but then I get colors that are slightly different and it's a disappointment. Plus I ordered 2 mystery polishes (because they're cheaper!) and one of the colors is almost an exact match to one of the mystery polishes I received in my first order. Any normal person would say they were the same. I can see differences and I don't even like the color and now I have two of them. I'm sure that they are the same color but since they are test batches they end up being slightly different because the creator has tweaked the recipe to try to get the polish to look how she wants it to look. I bought 8 colors and haven't taken pictures yet of the bottles. I guess I'll wait until Saturday to take pictures because I want to do it when there is sun and I doubt I'll be able to take them before then. Well maybe on Christmas Eve? 

Then I ended up getting 3 (4?) PinchMe sample boxes last week PLUS my Ipsy bags. Yup, bags. I signed up for a year subscription during Black Friday weekend and prepaid for the whole year and I haven't canceled my monthly sub yet because I am trying to use up my points before I cancel it. I got my new sub bag on Friday and the old sub bag on Saturday. But both bags were shipped without me getting an email with tracking. I don't have pictures of these either but I will take them and write a post about them too. Plus I want to make a post about products I've used from past bags. 

Plus now I have a new list of packages I'm waiting on. My dad sent me and J stuff for Christmas. J got his four Pop Vinyls out of five today that are from my dad. He has one more on the way from my dad and then I have stuff from my dad too but they're being shipped tomorrow. My mom ordered stuff on Amazon too for us and had a $100 Target gift card that she wanted to use on us. I picked out an assortment of stuff that was all basically for me because J didn't want anything. Plus two of my Christmas gifts from J are still on the way. My three gifts for him are on the way too and my dad's calendar is on the way. I have bought him a calendar for Christmas every year since I was in high school. I don't think I have skipped a year and at this point, it's a tradition! This year he got chickens which is a totally new calendar topic, lol. In the past I've given him movies (Christmas story, wizard of oz), bands (Beatles), cars (sports, mustangs), Alaska was 2013, sports (Dolphins, hurricanes) and TV shows (stooges) and some of them get repeated. I think he's had about 3 different stooges calendars and probably 2 or 3 Dolphins and Hurricanes ones. So this year?!?!?!?! Completely different!!! But he likes chickens and so I know he'll like this one. He had a pet chicken when he was growing up and will still talk about his pet chicken to this day. And whenever we go to the fair we look at the farm animals they have and the chickens are always his favorite. I hope it gets here in time for our trip there on Christmas Day. 

What other stuff do I have on the way?? More PinchMe boxes probably. I have a Walmart box on the way but I already saw unboxing pictures and it is a disappointing box. The boxes are always "boring" but it's always stuff I'll use. I LOVED the deodorant I got in the first box and it is now my favorite and the only one I'll buy. It was full size too ($5 box and that is an $8 deodorant) and I actually now have two more FS back ups of it and they were actually FREE from PinchMe. I also have (had?) a travel size of it too but I don't remember what box it came in. Maybe PinchMe. I'm pretty sure I used it all up. I bought a FS of this stress release version from Target when my first FS ran out. But it ended up being completely broken and then I couldn't twist it up anymore. I think that's when I used up my travel one. I was going to exchange it at Target but never did. I ordered a new one of the stress release scent from Amazon and that's what I'm using right now. When I got the FS ones from PinchMe I just threw away the broken one. I knew it was going to take me months to ever remember to exchange it and I had two free (FREE) ones (that were full size!!!!!!!) so I figured the world exchanged it for me and I could throw it away. I thought that when I got the "samples" of the deodorant on PinchMe that they were going to be travel sizes but nope. That was a happy surprise since the site is for free samples. 

Yeah so where was I? Idk. My hand is cramping. Lol.

Packages!

I've got 6 packages on the way. Hopefully they all get here this week.

I ordered a watch band on Friday from Amazon and it'll be here tomorrow. So yay, I'm almost ready to lose my watch.

I signed J and I up for Marvel's Collector Corp box and we ordered two previous boxes. Secret Wars and Ant-Man which is the one I wanted. J wears a 2XL and that's the size our sub is for but we got to pick our sizes for the two older boxes. He told me to get his size for both of them. But Ant-Man didn't have a 2X, so I went with a medium for me. 

 I think every box comes with a shirt and an exclusive Pop Vinyl which we've collected so many Pops the past two or three months. We got 3 just in the 2 Marvel boxes! We both have some on our wish lists.

I have two rainbow honey mystery bags coming my way. I have my mini bag (I canceled this sub but I'm sure I'll sign up again in January) and I have my free Just Soaps! bag that I won. 

Then I ordered the Zoya cyber Monday mystery box and a duo of their lip repair balm (which spoiler alert is in the mystery box) and the Qtica nail strengthener. The mystery box was $20 and the lip balm and Qtica base coat was $20. 

I also placed a Black Friday deal with Pahlish. I am completely having second thoughts on this order now. Sigh. 

I need to get ready for bed.