Graze Box Review

As I wandered tumblr a few weeks ago, I saw some posts mentioning graze.com. They are a company who delivers a box of healthy snacks each week. They stress being environmentally conscious, as well, with 100% recyclable packaging. Their package also fits in my super tiny mailbox, which is better than most of the subscription boxes I receive. You can also review snacks you've received or blacklist/trash snacks you don't want.  Before I received my first box, I went through their whole list of snacks and only removed one I don't want to try, Rock the Casbah, which has dates in it, which I hate.

Graze isn't currently open for the public, but is available with a referral code. With a referral code I found on tumblr, my first box was free. They also note that your 5th box will be free. The box is $5 a week, delivered to your door. If you are interested in a referral code, leave a comment on this post, and I'll send it to you via e-mail. The code gets you a free first box, and me either $1 off my next box or a $1 donation to the graze school of farming.

One important thing to note is, if you have a nut allergy, graze is not for you. Their FAQ page tells us: "We can't guarantee that our products are free from traces of nuts and sesame ingredients since everything is prepared in the graze kitchen. So if you suffer from a nut allergy, you will not be able to graze."

So how did the graze box look? What snacks did I get? Did I like them? Read ahead to find out!

Front of box

 Note the plastic strips -they did an excellent job of keeping the box closed in the mail.  And, though the box feels rather thin, it held up well to shipping.

Back of box

 I love the note that says "turn me over before you open (or you'll make a mess).  The top right has a printed FDA notice/declaration, while the bottom has a quick description of the box.

Inside of box

I think the printing on the inside of the box is beautiful.  The top has what I believe is a date, and under the snack pacs is a grass print and a napkin.  They also include nutrition facts.

Can I also say how much I love the whimsy of the illustrations on the snack pacs?

Here are the snacks I received this week:

Herby bread basket: I love the basil baguettes and garlic croutons, but there was something overly sweet about the oregano rice crackers.

 Florentine: Love this whole snack, but I wish the chocolate pieces were smaller.

 Chilli & lime pistachios: MMMMMM I love pistachios, and these are no different.

Tutti frutti: Eh. I'm not huge on dried fruit. It's a textural issue for me. The cherry raisins and regular raisins are great. The blueberry cranberries and pineapple are just OK for me.

Overall, this is a subscription I will definitely be keeping with.  I love the variety of snacks available, and I love that I can trash things I don't like.  The little snack pacs will be perfect for me to toss in my desk at school for when I'm hungry.

Pin Win: "It's My Special Day" Plate

Sometimes, your year throws some curve balls.  I completely intended to be an active blogger this year, but my caseload is a little heavy, and I would rather take a break than be overwhelmed and inconsistent.  Married life is also great, but hectic.  We bought a house in September, are trying to get pregnant, and recently had our basement flood.

With being so busy, I tend to get overly stressed and incredibly anxiety-ridden.  I've been struggling all year with keeping calm and on task, especially after stressful weeks.  I've tried all sorts of different things - pedicures, reading, baths, chiropractor, asking husband for backrubs - yet nothing had helped.  Then I thought back.  One of the things that best relieved my wedding planning stress was making my wedding party gifts (which reminds me - I never finished posting those!  I was pretty darn proud of the results) at the pottery painting place in town, Artful Designs.  I decided earlier on in the week to go there on Thursday or Friday night.  Well....the house flooded Wednesday, so Thursday was out to meet with the people drying out our basement.  So I headed to Artful Designs last night to paint.  But first, I had to consult Pinterest for some painting inspiration.  I happened upon the following plate design:

From asyouwishpottery.com

I decided it would be perfect for some stress relief.  My friends Meghann and Alex had a beautiful baby girl late last year, and I think that each child deserves some kind of special day plate, mug, cup, or bowl.  Off I went to Artful Designs to paint my plate.  Instead of the plain paint like they used in the original pin, I used the speckled paint.  I just love the look of it.  I used what I think was called Lime Lizard for the rim, Blizzard Blue for the background, and a speckled yellow for the star.  I then used bright kiwi for the spots and a dimensional paint for the writing and outlining.  I like how it looks before firing, and I will update this post at the end of the week, once it's done firing.  I also like that it's bright, festive colors, but not pink and purple.  I guess because I was so resistant to girly colors when I was little, that I always push that on gifts for little girls that I make or buy.

My plate, before firing

My plate, after firing

You might notice that this post's title begins with "Pin Win" - it's because I love the blog Pinstrosity, and when I saw that they were holding a contest, I decided that I would look around for some pins to try.

The Little Things: Blackhawks Bridesmaid Gift

For my girls' gifts, I wanted to do something personal and crafty.  Enter Artful Designs in my town, which is a paint your own pottery and ceramics place, or any place like it near your town.  I love painting pottery, and it had been a long time since I was able to do it.  My mother and I decided to go together, and I sketched things out and painted details, while she painted large sections for me.  I wanted to get something that all of my bridesmaids could use, so I settled on travel coffee mugs.  They all drink tea or coffee, and putting something personal would make it even better.

One of my bridesmaids is a HUGE Blackhawks fan, so a Hawks mug was truly the only answer for her.  I painted the detail of "Commit to the Indian" with a small brush, then sketched out the feathers and passed it on to my mom to paint the black and the base of the feathers.  I then used their smaller writing bottles to go over "Commit to the Indian" again, drew the lines on the feathers, and wrote "Bridesmaid 8.4.12" on the bottom of the mug.  One week later, it was ready for pickup after firing.

In coming days, I will post the other 5 bridesmaid gifts, as well as the ringbearer and flowergirl presents.

Long time, no see...

I had so much crafting to do for the wedding, that everything else fell by the wayside.  Now that it's done, in the next few weeks I'll be sharing stories and pictures from the wedding, then get back to my regular nails and school posts.
To tide you over until I can post more, here is the story of the Dome of Silence.

That thing on my head is the Dome of Silence.  It's becoming a running joke in my family for almost 10 years Before my cousin Jamie got married, we had a family fun night that included paper footballs and a cookir container.  There were some adult beverages involved, so someone decided we needed to protect our heads...with the cookie container.  It ended up being called the Dome of Silence by the end of the night.  Someone joked that Jamie should wear it as her wedding.  My cousin Carlea took it home and added a paper crown on the top, then gifted it to Jamie at her wedding.  Jamie kept it, and, 7 years later, decorated it with flowers and gifted it to Carlea at her wedding reception.  2 years later, Carlea gifted it to me after adding ribbon on top.  We were able to confuse the heck out of both my bridesmaids and my photgrapher, and I was able to be reminded how much I love my family (after a couple of years of family drama made that hard to recall at times)...we're unabashedly weird!!

The dome is also the gift I was most worried about getting back, since I hadn't seen it after we took pictures with it, and it kind of looks like it could be garbage  Pretty garbage, but still garbage.  No worries...it ended up in the gift pile!

Exciting times ahead

I've been a bit busy the past few weeks preparing for two exciting things coming up... I also had shellac on, so no new nails to post up.
The first exciting thing is of course my upcoming wedding (omg a little over a month and still all of the things.) The second (and the reason I'll again be gone for a week) is that I am heading out to the National Education Association Representative Assembly (NEA RA) as the delegate for my school's teacher union. I will join 9000 other educators in our nation's Capitol over the 4th of July. As an early service teacher this is a big opportunity for me and I'm hoping to have some beautiful pictures and stories when I get back.
Also be on the lookout for the headband and clips I made for the 4th.

Stash or Trash: Julep Kylie (magnetic)

I received Kylie in my Julep Maven box.  It looks like a frosty deep mauve in the bottle, and that's what the polish looks like when you first paint it on your nails.  I did 2 thin coats and let them dry, then did one generous coat on each nail one by one, then used the magnet.  It was sheer after one thin coat, and opaque after a 2nd, but I wanted a deeper color, and that's what I got with 3 coats.  I also held the magnet at an angle, instead of having the stripes straight on.

A comment first on Julep bottles - their bottles are tall thin rectangular bottles.  This makes for a very precarious paint job - it's very easy to tip the bottle over, so I end up holding it in a bit of an awkward manner between my pointer finger and thumb.  Also, if not received through the Julep Maven program, these polishes are darn expensive at $18 a bottle.  I don't find too much special about the polish to justify that high a price.  OPI runs between $8-$9 a bottle, and I much prefer their formula, color selection, bottle, and brush.

I don't think I'm sold on this whole "magnetic" thing.  My hands are just barely steady enough to almost competently paint my nails, but even the slightest tremor when you're holding the magnet super close to your finger is enough to screw this up.  For this reason, a couple of nails have a 4th coat.  Plus, Julep's magnet doesn't have a lip on it as a guide.  Also...I don't know if it was how close I held the magnet, the magnet, or the polish, but I can feel the texture from the peaks of color. There is a slight raise where the magnet pulled the iron in the polish, like the iron was trying to climb out of the paint.

This looks OK, but it was a pain to do.  After I was done, I still had to wait almost an hour to put top coat on, and even then some of the design got a bit smeared.  I don't like sitting like a glass princess for that long.  I like to slap on my fast dry, and get going after 10 minutes or so.  Add that to the fact that I'm not crazy about the color or the bottle, and this one ends up in the trash for me.  (Ok, you caught me.  The giveaway/trade with friends pile.  I don't throw things away.)

The pictures are actually from my second day of wear, and it's grown on me a bit.  The wavy stripes look neat.  But....it still doesn't make up for how tedious this polish is to use.

And a few more pictures to try to catch the angles and how the design turned out.

Stash or Trash: OPI DS Extravagance

In the shade...you can see the little speckles that light up in the sun

In the sun...blurry, but you can see the beautiful shine

I love this polish.  I've actually worn it many times before.  When the sun isn't on it, it's a very classy wine polish.  But when the light hits....oooooh boy shiny.  I sit and stare at my fingers when I have this one on.  This was two coats, and it wears like iron.  Of course this is a stash for me.