Our first Bark Box

We got our first Bark Box  in the mail yesterday and we were super excited to let the dogs open it. If you want to know how Bark Box works you can go back to my blog post here and read all about it. 

On to the goodness. For the money we think this box was worth it. Each box comes with a card that tells you not only about the products but how much they cost. The value is at least double what we paid for the box subscription. Also on top of that, we went out to places like Petsmart, TJ MAXX and local pet stores to find items or items similar to price compare and I was shocked at just how much you'd pay more for these types of items in store. I'd much rather get a Bark Box and have a fun little surprise for my pups each month.

So like I said each box comes with an information card like this:

Front and back of the card

After we pulled out the cards we just kind of let the dogs explore and sniff around. 

They started to think this box might be for them when I made them sit with it. These two know how to pose when I pull out my phone or camera.

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Pudge was first to check it out. He must have smelt something good.

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Sammy made his way over to sniff. 

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And they are in.

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Sammy pretty much shoved Pudge out of the way.

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But Pudge wasn't having any of that. 

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Here's our haul.

Both dogs REALLY love the 2 bags of treats and we'll have to see who ends up getting that bone. Pudge is enjoying the toy, yes that would be a Baboon butt. It has a squeaker and it crackles. Now if you know Pudge, you know that he love to rip plush toys to shreds.  This is day 2 of him playing with this thing constantly and there isn't a hole insight. 

Over all my hubby and I are really enjoying this box for our dogs and think it's well worth the money. If you'd like to check this box click the link here and give it a shot. You can cancel at anytime. 

Now everytime we get a package delivered to the door Sam and Pudge this it's for them! 

Bark Box love! 

Sammy snuggled with the box for a while after all the fun and treats were put away.

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Ipsy Bag July

I've been a Ipsy bag subscriber since 2012. I enjoy them much better than the Birchbox I use to subscribe to. Trying out new makeup and skin items is always a lot of fun, and when it comes to products and lines I'm not familiar with, this is a perfect way to try.

I'll be sharing the Ipsy bag I receive each month here for you to check out!

July's Ipsy Bag

New Couch For the New Place

     We needed to find a couch since we sold our set before moving. The set was nice but it was very grand and getting really old to where you could feel the wooden base when you leaned on the back. You couldn't tell by the way it looked. We wanted something cheap but nice quality, something that if we got rid of it after the year of living where we are, we'd have no problem selling it for next to nothing.

Our one day mission to find a deal:

     We started our journey by seeing what IKEA had to offer. We are NOT fans of the low to the ground couches at all that IKEA is known for, but they had some other styles. Well turns out it costs just as much to ship it as it would to buy it. So IKEA was out.

    We checked out a chain furniture store in town that I am not a fan of at all because of the pushy salespeople but according to their painted windows they were having a sale, so we went in. I had to tell the SAME PERSON 4 times as she followed us around the store, that we are just looking and the last time I gave her the "teacher look" so she would back off. We left not soon after that. You know even if that store had nice quality pieces which it really didn't, and the prices were reasonable, which they were not, I still wouldn't buy from them because of the poor customer service.


    Next we went to a local furniture store that was going out of business. Employee was super friendly until he wouldn't let my husband and I look around. He wanted to be our guide and that is not what we wanted. I told him we were just looking, and he proceed to ask me what department I was looking for so he could point us in the right direction, I again told him that we were just looking, and he then tells me that it's a big 3 story store (It was an old building that was a split level.... not 3 stories). I told him we'll manage and that again, we were JUST LOOKING. After he could tell I was getting frustrated with him, again the teacher look was given, he backed off and left us alone. This store had nice, quality furniture, with the prices to match. So we looked around the entire store at everything just for fun and left.

    I get, I really do, these people work on commission, HOWEVER, that does not mean you badger the customer until they cave. I am a teacher.... I work with 20+ students 5 days a week, I do not cave.

    So, back tracking to a few days before yesterday we were at Big Lots. Don't underestimate that store. It's been around since before I was born AND it is still kicking after a few name changes. You never know what you are going to find there..... they had Keurig coffee makers there for less than $100... get what I'm saying. That is a MAJOR SCORE in itself. So we went to grab something basics, tape, push pins etc. and the woman at the register gave me a 20% off coupon for my entire purchase for Sunday, July 13th only.

   Fast forward to yesterday again, I remembered I had that coupon and suggested to the husband that we go check it out, though I was skeptical because in the past some their furniture has not been awesome. I should have listened to my own words of wisdom "You never know what you are going to find there" because we found a Simmons Sofa and love seat but we only wanted the sofa. They were selling it for $360 then with my 20% off it knocked the price down to $288! Yeah I said $288 for a Simmons Sofa. It's high quality for a bargain basement price. Here's the website photo of the sofa and then the display model in store:  It does come with the two pillows as well.

The actual color is a mix of the brown on the top and the brown on the display model. It's neutral and perfect for our Coastal themed family room. It should come in 1-3 weeks. I'm hoping it'll come this week and it's not damaged from the ride here, so we can get it in. We've got our first house guest coming to stay for a few days next week and it would be nice to not have to sit in rolly chairs while we relax and watch TV.

Moving = Getting New Stuff

When we lived in Texas, we were 10 minutes away from an IKEA, which was heaven. We bought our pots and pans from there and let me tell you, for the price they were awesome. Since we moved to CA, we are no where near an Ikea...........hold on, I need a minute, sniff, sniff....................ok I'm ok, really. So since there is no Ikea to get me some pots and pans, I went to my next place for deals, Amazon.  There I found this 10 piece T-Fal set for $59. Not the best deal ever, but for sure A LOT cheaper than going somewhere in town to buy and with Amazon Prime I get free 2 day shipping.

photo taken from Amazon

Review Nature Box- First Box

Recap of What Nature Box is:  They send you a box each month of healthy snacks. You can get a box of snacks they choose or you can look at the pantry online (if you create an account, not buying anything just creating an account you have access) to view all the snacks they offer. From there you can choose your full sized 1-5 of your snack bags you'll get sent to you or you can pick a few and let them pick a few for you or do what I did for my first box and let them pick them all for me. After you try snacks, if there are some you REALLY love and want every month you can add them and you'll receive a bag of that snack each month.

Not only do they give you 5 full sized bags of snacks, they also have options to only get snacks that meet your dietary needs as well which is awesome ( gluten conscious, 15g carbs or less, no sugar added,vegan,soy free,milk free,non gmo,nut free). Depending on what option you choose (buying monthly, every 3 months, etc.) will depending on how much it will cost. Obviously, the more months you buy the cheaper it is. 

Onto the review: 

Snack 1: The Coconut Date Energy Bites

These little guys are great to curb your sweet tooth. They are sweet, soft, chewy (in a good way) and have a great coconut flavor. I taste more of the coconut than the date. If you don't like coconut, this snack is NOT for you. 

 

Snack 2: Dark Coco Nom Noms

These little chocolaty goodies are great and you only need one before you are feeling satisfied. It's almost like a chocolate rolled oat type of a cookie. It's very soft, moist and chocolatly. I don't taste the bitterness of dark coco at all, which is good. I'm not a fan of the bitter taste. 

 

                                       

Snack 3: Lemon Tea Biscuits:

These little biscuits are heavenly! They are small, and rich and a few will be all you need. They taste like a buttery shortbread cookie with a hint of lemon. They are small, but the quality ingredients really make you feel like you are eating more than you are. 

                                   

Snack 4: Black and White Granola

OH WOW, this is so amazing, sweet perfection. The Vanilla and Chocolate Granola is yumo! You could put this over some plain yogurt as a snack, or eat it by the handfuls. It reminds me of one of those sugary cereals you ate as a kid, or in my case always wanted to eat without all that guilt. I was a bit hesitant about trying this granola because when I've bought granola in the past it has been REALLY hard to crunch and my mouth would get tired of chewing. After trying this, I am going to assume that all the granola I had been buying was stale???? What do you think? 

Snack 5: Salt and Pepper Lentil Loops

Ok, I've had lentil "chips" before and loved them, so I thought great this is right up my alley. I am going to tell you that these cute little spirals are great. It has that great lentil chip flavor..... however.... the salt and pepper flavor is probably not the best for me. It's great when you are eating it, but that pepper comes back with a pop and makes these crunchy treats spicy. If you are not a fan of pepper, or spiciness, then I'd probably steer clear of this treat. With that being said, they are a great crunchy snack, but I would eat them by the handfuls. 

I will be getting another Nature Box next month for sure. It's a great way to snack without grabbing something filled with garbage. Want to give this Nature Box thing a try? Here's the link.

Nature Box, Box 1

It came, my first Nature Box came today! I am so excited. I opened the box and can't wait to taste all of the goodies inside. A review will be coming shortly.

Here's what the box looks like when it comes in the mail.

Erin Condren Address Labels

New city and state requires new address labels. I just ordered mine from Erin Condren . This is my second time ordering address labels from this website and let me tell you why.  Not only are they adorable, but they high quality, and last for years. I bought my first set 3 years ago and the few I have left look just as good as the first day I got them.

They have small/large circular shaped labels and one size rectangular shaped labels as well.

The first set I ordered all those years ago looked like this:

image from erincondren.com

The only difference is I did not have the block letters for my name and zip code. 

Very cute, love the colors, the font and the images. Now that we've moved to the coast I thought something more oceany/beachy was in order, and I went with these.

image from erincondren.com

Go check out Erin Condren's website and look around. You'll love what you see. If you'd like to get $10 off your first order either leave your email address below and I can email you or click this link and your $10 off your first order will be taken off when you go to pay. 

I can't wait to get my new labels in and use them!

I'm back and we've moved.

I am back! It's been a while since I've posted. The life of a teacher is a busy one for sure and usually doesn't leave time to share with you. It's Summer Time now and I am back and ready to share, share, share! So in this post I'm going to share with you that, WE MOVED. We are no longer in Austin, Texas, but back in California on the Central Coast. It was a long and not so fun move... I'll fill you in later on this week.

We rented a Rig to cart all of our belongings to California for us. So as of now, I have some clothes, and we're sleeping on an air mattress. Our Rig is suppose to drop off our stuff sometime today, so we're in need of some helpers to move things up and down the stairs. The hubs is in charge of that so I'm leaving it to him.

Before moving back to California, I had been really getting into subscription boxes. I had 2 beauty boxes for a while and got rid of one I didn't care for. I now have an Ipsy beauty subscription and I really enjoy the monthly bag that comes in the mail filled with fun new products to try. If you want to check it out click here. This is a link straight to the website.


If you're new to my blog, or you can't remember because I haven't posted in so long, I have two dogs. Sammy (Golden and Corgi Rescue dog) and Pudge (Yellow Lab).

The boys.

So I thought since I'm having so much fun with my beauty subscription box, I thought I'd do a little research and find one for the boys to try out. After looking at several I settled on Bark Box. We just signed up for 1 box that Sammy and Pudge will share. The box comes once a month with full sized products (around 5 products) that are geared to the specific size of your dog(s). The boxes can come with toys, treats, gadgets, etc. I'm excited for the boys to get their first box. If you want to get a box for your pup(s), you can use my referral link for 10% off your first box, and help me earn a free box. I will do a review as soon as we get our first box in July. 

After ordering the Bark Box the next subscription box I wanted to try was Nature Box. My hubby and I living in a new place and with a new places comes new starts and we want to try and snack healthier. I'm not a HUGE snacker, but the hubs is. When we do decide to snack, it's usually a bag of something we can reach our hands in and grab a handful of. So why not reach in and grab a handful of something healthy....... right? Well Nature box gives you that option. They send you a box each month of healthy snacks. You can get a box of snacks they choose or you can look at the pantry online (if you create an account, not buying anything just creating an account you have access) to view all the snacks they offer. From there you can choose your full sized 1-5 of your snack bags you'll get sent to you or you can pick a few and let them pick a few for you or do what I did for my first box and let them pick them all for me. After you try snacks, if there are some you REALLY love and want every month you can add them and you'll receive a bag of that snack each month.

Not only do they give you 5 full sized bags of snacks, they also have options to only get snacks that meet your dietary needs as well which is awesome ( gluten conscious, 15g carbs or less, no sugar added,vegan,soy free,milk free,non gmo,nut free). Depending on what option you choose (buying monthly, every 3 months, etc.) will depending on how much it will cost. Obviously, the more months you buy the cheaper it is. I am doing 1 month at a time because I want to see if this is something I'd like to continue. I'll keep you posted, but if you want to check it out here's the link.

I'll have a Nature Box review after our fist box comes in July!


If you have stuck around through my absence, thanks so much. If you are new, hey there, and welcome.