Stitch Fix Review

I am so excited to have gotten my first Stitch Fix over the weekend! For those of you who do not know what Stitch Fix is you can check it out here: Stitch Fix 

In a nutshell: You pay $20 for a stylist to choose five items of clothing (or accessories) and mail them to you. When you first sign up you answer some style questions. You can also make a Pinterest board specifically for your Stitch Fix stylist to understand your style better. I made this board for my stylist: Stitch-Fix-Inspiration When the items arrive you have three days to try them on and decide whether or not you want to purchase them. If you do purchase something your $20 goes towards that item. They include a self-addressed mailer bag so you can put the items you don't choose in the bag and return them through the mail. It is seriously easy! You can choose how often you want the boxes to arrive.

I was giddy when my box arrived last Saturday. I took it up to my room, closed the door and had a moment. So much fun!

Pretties inside...

I found five different items in my box, a letter from the stylist and cards that show two different ways I could wear each item. I feel like, for the most part, my stylist did so well! I have heard some people have a bad first box but then after more communication w/their stylist they have had a lot of success.

My Items

I received one dress, one skirt, two tops and a jacket.

I have a 7 year old photographer.

 This dress is seriously adorable. I wore it Monday to work! {This jacket did not come in the box.} I really like the quality of the dress and the material is soft.

 I would definitely wear it w/o the jacket if summer would only grace us w/her presence here in Michigan.
The other item I adored is a sheer button down shirt in a floral pattern. It's a little out of my norm but I really like it. I believe the stylist attempts to get items w/in your style but still give you some different looks to try out.

$Money$

Now, here is where the rubber meets the road for me - price. I'm all about the deals. I'm more quantity than quality when it comes to clothes. I rather three trendy {poorly made} shirts over one high quality classic one. I get bored w/a lot of styles sorta fast so it works out for me. But in my {ahem} older age I am realizing I need some good pieces that are cute but also not made like crap. When you sign up you can tell them what price ranges you want. I think I will go down to the lowest price range for my next box to see what that brings. All of my pieces were from $68-$78....yeah, that's not cheap. I talked myself into getting these two pieces and using some of our tax money that I was able to put aside for clothes.  We always take a little bit out of our tax money for clothes - don't judge.
I did not mind the skirt they sent but it was not worth the money. It was just a light knit skirt. 

 The gray top looked cute until I put it on. It hung all weird and I looked pregnant - not the look I'm going for.
The jacket. Well, the jacket is where the stylist went terribly wrong. The good thing about the process though is that you give you feedback on each piece to the stylist. My feedback on the jacket went something like this, "This jacket looks like something out of the 80's and not in the good way. It is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen." I mean, tell it like it is so they know. And just a side note: Am I the only one who is so over the word "chambray" - seriously, can we just call it jean?
Anyway. I will add a few pics of the style cards they send so you can see the other items they mailed me.
I hope this is helpful to all those who have asked. If you want to try it out you gotta hook a girl up! Their referral program is awesome! Here is my link: Stefanie's referral link

 In the end I was so happy w/the whole process. I was going to do every other month shipments but I decided to get my next one next month. Then, I'll probably go back to once every other month...probably.

Ice Marbles

Have you seen that pin where you can make big ice marbles? You are to fill balloons up w/water and let them sit out in the cold. After they freeze you break the balloon and have big round ice marbles for your kids to play w/in the snow. I thought this sounded like a perfect project for my two boys this winter.
I snagged some balloons and began to fill them w/water. I had forgotten how hard it was to fill balloons with water under the faucet. Water water everywhere! I wanted to have different color marbles so I filled a few of my balloons w/food coloring. I put the food coloring in first then the water.
The first thing I realized was that the balloons were not round once filled w/water. They were more like ovals. Hmmm?

Frozen Water Balloons

We were having below freezing temps so I put the water balloons out in the snow. I left them out for two days. We were having another snow storm and I was excited to break these out for the boys.
To my surprise two of the five balloons were not frozen. The smaller ones I had done were still completely liquid. I brought in the other three balloons and started to get to work.
I cut the first balloon only to realize I was having liquid spill out. (Thank goodness I was doing it over a bowl.) It was obviously not completely frozen. I kept going to see what I had...
The whole balloon did not freeze. I figured after two days in 10 degree weather they would have frozen! Luckily, there was still enough frozen water to keep going.
I was unhappy w/the shape. The pin made it look like you could have these beautiful circular glass looking marbles. But even if they weren't circular they also had a flat bottom from resting on the ground.

"Ice marbles" sitting in all their unfrozen liquid.

I ended up cutting all three balloons open and having so much liquid spill out into the bowl. I was nervous the whole project would be a bust. 
Once I cleaned up the mess of the colored water I put the now "ice marbles" in a clear bowl to deliver to my boys playing outside.
In the long run these did not turn out anything like I expected, but the boys still thought they were cool. In fact, they buried them in the snow and played a treasure hunting game w/them. I was happy to see them still get played w/even though they were far from perfect. I'd like to try again but I'm not sure what to do differently. I could try it w/different shaped balloons and maybe just put them in my freezer for a few days instead of outside?
Either way, it turned out to be a fun experience for the boys and a messy project for me! Seems like that is usually the way it goes though. ;)

Final product

The boys burying the "ice marbles"

House Deodorizer

I have been intrigued by different pins that have homemade deodorizers to make on your stove.  I think it sounds lovely but have never done it until today. I found an easy one that didn't take too many ingredients and the ingredients were common.
Williams Sonoma House Deodorizer
I substituted lemons for limes because that is what was in my fridge. In fact, I used a lime that I had already squeezed from preparing this meal I found on Pinterest.
Honey Lime Chicken
What in the world did we do before the beloved Pinterest??
I boiled my concoction and then have let it simmer all day.
A lady dropped by my house for a pick up (whole other kind of board addiction). As she stood outside my house she said, "Wow, have you been cleaning all morning? Your house smells great!" The deodorizer had only been on the stove for about 45 minutes and it was that strong of  a scent! WAY easier than cleaning all morning!!
I'm super happy w/how it turned out! 

Crayon Art

I know we are about a year late to the party but the boys did some crayon art during their day off yesterday. They absolutely loved it!
I was thrilled to see that white canvases were buy one get one free at Michaels this week - Bonus!
I made a special trip to the hardware store to buy some blue painters tape. Only to find out that they were out blue painters tape. Really? So I purchased some green painters tap. I wanted to have their initials on the canvas. I taped their canvases up and had the boys choose what colors they wanted to use.

Not yet glued to the canvas

 They took longer choosing their colors than I expected. They took it very seriously. :) Once the colors were chosen we hot glued them to the top of the canvas. I made sure that they all were facing the right way (tips down/the word crayola showing). I had the boys help put them on once I glued them so they were not exactly in a straight line but still looked good.

The boys were most excited about revving up the heating tool and melting the wax.
We were surprised how quickly the wax started to melt and drip. It took just a few seconds. It didn't take long to realize that the tape, that I made a special trip for, was not working. You could see the wax under the tape. Bummer. Ezra decided to abandon his "E" and just enjoy the process of melting. He loved watching the colors "race" to the bottom.

Aidan decided to still try out his green tape. We pushed it own extra hard to make the best seal possible. Nope, green painters tape sucks -- at least when it's put up to the task of keeping out hot wax. We quickly just ripped the "A" off and went on w/our business.
It was really fun an the boys were thrilled to make their own art for their walls.
 Aidan decided he still wanted an "A" on his canvas so I painted a small black "A" on the corner. I think it looks pretty cute.

A few tips:

1. Obviously, number one, no not use green painters tape. ;)
2. I used two canvases, once box of 64 crayons and one box of 16 crayons. There were only about 6 crayons left. 
3. I have seen that you can use a hair dryer but if you have a heating tool from the old stamping days I would suggest digging that out. Mine worked perfect.
4. The wax does splatter! So make sure you do the melting in a box and in a UN-carpeted area.

 FINAL PRODUCTS:

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!
I can't say enough how much I love my dad! He has been my biggest fan my whole life. I was born on Father's day and always figured that made me extra special. Now that I'm older I'm pretty sure all my siblings feel like they have reasons to be extra special to my dad - but I never thought of that growing up. I just always knew he thought I was the best Father's Day gift a dad could get. Everyone should grow up feeling as special as I did. He is, annoyingly so, the most positive and energetic man I have ever met. I grew up a pastor's daughter and would not trade that for the world! He is an amazing man of God and I grew up seeing other people adore him. I never doubted why people loved him so much - it was obvious!
I'm not saying there were not normal mundane usual days in our home. We were a normal family w/a messy house that got on each others nerves. But the undercurrent was always love and acceptance.
My dad is the kind of dad that when you woke up in the morning all puffy eyed and snarled hair he would say "There she is! Miss America!" and he would mean it, and I would usually just snarl. I'm not really a morning person. :)
I remember how I loved to make my dad laugh. I'm fairly quick witted and pretty darn sarcastic - and my dad, usually, thought it was amusing. Just recently, last April, I realized I still like to make him laugh. I guess I always will.
All that to say, he's pretty great. Both my parents are wonderful and that makes me a truly blessed girl!

Christmas

It's January 6th and I'm still working on getting Christmas out of my house. I enjoy putting up decorations - well, I did this year! It was a lot of fun to decorate our new house for the holiday. What I don't enjoy is taking them down. Big time bummer. I'm not sad Christmas is gone, I just don't want to do the work. So, here I sit deciding to do a blog about my decorations and presents I made for the holidays. Will not help get my decorations down faster but will make me happy.

We did not get a tree this year because we went to PA to be w/my family for Christmas. I love my photo ornaments though that date back to way before we had kids. I figured I would display them on our little shelf so I could look at them all through December - even w/o a tree.

I had fun decorating the mantel this year!!

The Cannon Ladies (3 out of 4 of us only Cannon's by marriage) get together every September to make the best salsa you've ever tasted. It makes for a great gift for the men in my family too! My brother in laws (Crandall side) enjoyed getting these for Christmas this year.

I was feeling a little crafty this year and wanted to do a few other homemade gifts. I decided on a Lemon Sugar Scrub and a Brown Sugar Vanilla Scrub for the ladies of the Crandall side (Cannon adults don't do the gift thing). These were super easy to make! I have used them myself and they work great too!   All in all it was a great season! I hope you got to do a little of what you love during it!

 

 

 

2011 and All it's Wonder

2012.... Oh My!
January 1, 2012. A new beginning. It always feels nice to start fresh but I also love looking over the year and remembering the highlights. Here a few that pop into my mind when I mentally scan through the months...
In February I had a cousins Valentines Party. I love Valentines Day and I love my nieces and nephews. I had so much fun planning for the party.

Then I think of St. Patrick's Day. See, I'm not a fan of the huge holidays where a lot is expected of me. I like these little one day holidays where I can surprise and have fun with very little expectation. :) On St. Patrick's day we made our own pizza's and talked a lot about naughty leprechauns.

In April I went for my 3rd year to help run Answers WorldWide's International Training Seminar. It's a lot of work but so rewarding. It's one of those things that after the week is done, and I've met Christian's from all over the world, I sit and think... "And I get paid for this!?" 

Then in late April I made a 10 hour trip in the car with my two little boys. Brian was not able to get the time off work and I was itching to get outta Dodge. The boys and I packed up the Malibu and headed to Pennsylvania to visit my parents for the week of Spring Break. We had a great time!

In late May my boy Aidan finally decide to trust enough to learn to ride his bike. It had been such a huge ordeal and bone of contention amongst us all - as silly as that sounds. But finally one day he just decided to listen to the instructions of his father and then, wonder of wonders, it worked!

June brought on the end of school for Aidan and family vacation for the rest of us. We had a wonderful week in Grand Haven, MI at the beach. Ahhh.... really miss that at this moment!

 Then summer zoomed. We went to the zoo, to the museums, we had baseball, karate and playdates. It was a great summer. I planned lots of activities to keep us busy and out in the warmth. It was great. VBS came and went along with Aidan's birthday and a visit from my parents. It really was glorious! (Have I mentioned how much I love summer?)

Aidan, at just barely 8 years old, decided he wanted to show the world he believed in Jesus. He was baptized the end of August. Nothing really can make Christian parent's hearts happier.

Throw into August a trip to Cedar Point w/Brian's brother and family and all in all it was magnificent.

 September came with a new school year. Aidan for second grade and Ezra his first year of 'real' preschool. Where does the time go  - why are my babies old enough for school??

And then it happened. Late September after lots of stress, worry and frustration... we bought a house. US!? A HOUSE! It was so scary but kept praying that only the Lord's will be done. A nd here we are, in a new, real, house! Craziness!!

Fall brought on field trips and apple picking. It was a nice fall which helped my transition from summer fun to school and fall a bit easier! :)

In came October and my babies birthday. He turned four and somehow that made him more sassy? Oh, that boy is a trip! 

And who doesn't love a little Halloween? We had a good Halloween w/Aidan as Anakin Skywalker, me as Queen Amidala and Ezra as the evil counterpart to Mario as Wario. Honestly, dressing up is the best!

We spent Thanksgiving at home with the Cannon Clan. I am no fan of Thanksgiving but it went well and was almost relaxing.

 And then Christmas. Oh, how December was full of craziness, planning and parties. Spending too  much money, eating too much food and trying to capture the season. For all my dislike of the craziness and expectations... it was a really nice season. I made an advent calendar that kept us doing little things together or doing things for others. It really helped keep me grounded. The kids loved it. We traveled to PA this year to be with my family. It was great. So much love and insanity abounds when we all get together!

What a great 2011. Of course, we don't take photos of the bad things - but that doesn't mean they didn't occur. But with so much good, I really can't complain. The Lord has blessed. And every year that I can make it through with my family in tact is good... no, great!