July 2014 Stitch Fix Review

My Stitch Fix box arrived a day early this month-yea!!! As soon as I got my email, I went online to try and find out what my stylist sent me. I was excited to see that she had paid attention to my requests at the end of my last fix (Thanks, Connie!). I asked for slacks and matching shirts. I also happily saw that one of the shirts was one I had pinned on my Pinterest board. Also, there was a polka dot dress that I had a bit of difficulty finding online. However, I love polka dots, so I was excited to see if I would like the dress.
  
See here for my previous reviews.

Here was my first glimpse of my box:

Pretty, right??? Okay. Let's get right to the nitty gritty.

 Margaret M High Waisted Tall Trouser $98

These pants are fairly thin material wise and do not have buttons, like maternity pants, if you have ever been pregnant. I wasn't sure if I would like them, but I kept a pair of Margaret M pants before that they sent me, though they are a bit pricey. I tried them on, and though a bit long, I loved them! I folded under the bottoms and decided to wear them to work the next day:) I paired them with an previous item that I received from Stitch Fix.

This picture was taken after work, so my shirt is a bit wrinkled. The pants still look pretty good, though! Obviously, I kept them. I do think they are a bit overpriced, but I really liked the fit and that they didn't have buttons! I felt like I was wearing yoga pants to work:).

Collective Concepts Amira Polka Dot Flutter Sleeve Dress $68

 

My initial impression was, oooh, very pretty!  I wondered how it would look on and whether the hubby would like it, since he does not like ruffles.

 

Both the hubby and I liked the dress on me. The price was also decent. I'm not sure if it will be a perfect work dress, but it definitely is something I can wear on a date or to church. So, I decided to keep it.

Pomelo Dot Print 3/4 Sleeve Blouse $48 AND Ecru Pull-On Springfield Pant $158

I was very excited to see this blouse. However, it looked big to me when I grabbed it out of the box. It's a medium and I said earlier that I'm now a "Medium," instead of a "Small," so I thought maybe I was just underestimating my size, since I sometimes forget I'm bigger after two kids.

My first thought when I saw these pants online was there was no way I was paying $158 for a pair of pants. I thought, "These better be the best fitting pants on the planet for that price!!" Oh, and the style card is marked incorrectly on these pants, in case you were wondering.

So, first, let's talk about the pants. Unfortunately, I really liked them. They fit great! They are a bit looser in the leg than the Margaret M and are a thicker material, though more cottony than polyester feeling. They also have no buttons and are so comfortable!!! Sigh. I really wanted to keep them. However, I decided that I just couldn't justify $158 on a pair of pants. I am, however, going to try and find them online on sale. Oh, and if you google them, you will find at least two links saying that they are, in fact, the best fitting pants around. Sigh.

As for the shirt, well, it just doesn't fit right. You can see, the sleeves are big. Last month, the Pomelo shirt was boxy, too. I felt pregnant in this shirt. I don't want to feel or look pregnant when I'm not. I even tried it with a belt and it still didn't look right. I think I'm going to request small shirts from Pomelo, at least the ones that are blousy like this shirt.   

Skies are Blue Carly Mixed Print Sleeveless Blouse $54

This was the piece I was least excited about when I took my sneak peak, but it was prettier in person. The details on it looked interesting.

 Ugh, another shirt that made me look pregnant. Too boxy!!! I tried it with a belt, too.

 No, no, and no!!! I kept playing with the location of the belt. It still was a no. Plus, the shoulders are a bit weird/big and I feel like I look like a linebacker.

So, I kept only 2 pieces this fix. I requested my same stylist. I think she did well and listened to my feedback. I like that. I'm also updating my pins on Pinterest on the Pomelo and Skies are Blue brands to try smalls in certain pieces to see if they will fit better. 

I'm already looking forward to next month's box!

Soap Making Sunday

Years ago, when I was in graduate school and didn't have money for expensive gifts, I took up soap making. I bought molds, scents, etc, and had fun with it. I hadn't made soap for years, however. I decided to take up making soap again because I have been trying to find a nice exfoliating bar with a loofah like I picked up during a recent trip to Barbados, but I haven't been able to find what I want. I get ingrown hairs on my legs quite a bit and I also have a bit of keratosis pilaris on my upper arms. That's fancy for the bumpy things that look like acne but are not. I use a lotion with an alpha hydroxy product in it, Eucerin +, and it helps, too.

I decided to buy a Goat's milk soap this time to try out. During my previous efforts, I used only glycerin from craft stores like Michael's or Joann's. I bought this soap on Amazon because, after all, I am a prime member, and it requires very little effort on my part. In case you haven't figured it out yet, I love Amazon prime! Here are some pictures from my efforts today. Soap making is actually pretty darn simple if you buy it in bars ready to melt. I've never done it the hard core way using lye.

Here's the type of soap I bought. It's supposed to suspend items in the soap evenly. It did a pretty good job of that, as you will see later on in the pictures. It does not have much of a scent, either.

These are some basic molds that I picked up from Michael's several years back. I sprayed them with cooking spray before putting the soap into the molds to make them easier to get out. You could also use melted coconut oil or some other oil, if you prefer.

I used almost the whole container today. The directions on the soap tell you how long to melt it. I melted enough for 6 bars, so I had to use one of my other molds, too. I melted the soap in my microwave.

I added this Sweet Orange essential oil to the mixture once it melted to give it a nice, clean scent. You can use any essential oil you want. Or, you can use vanilla extract for vanilla, cinnamon for cinnamon. Lemon zest is also nice and looks pretty, especially in clear glycerin. You can also add food coloring if you want to dye the soap. 

I ordered some loofah on Amazon, but, uhm, it wasn't prime, and is apparently being shipped from China. So, I decided to just use oatmeal. I ground it up a bit in the blender before mixing it in with the melted soap.

I also decided to use a funnel to help pour the soap into the molds. I sprayed the inside of the funnel with cooking spray, too, so the soap would not stick too much going down into the molds. I'm not sure if the funnel helped or not, to be honest. I had a harder time judging how much soap to put in the molds.

Here's the finished product. If you chill in the refrigerator, it slows down your waiting time for the soap to harden in the molds. It doesn't take very long for it too harden-maybe 15-30 minutes in the refrigerator? I left mine out for about 15 minutes, then put it in the refrigerator for a little bit. Also, when you put the soap in molds, you can get air bubbles out by tapping the molds gently-similar to how you get air bubbles out of candy molds, if you have ever made chocolate lollipops or something like that.

After it hardened, I just wrapped each piece in some tissue paper. Also, there will be soap left in the bowl you use. I shaved it off and put it in another soap dish we have in our bathroom. You could also package it into small shavings and keep in your purse in a small metal container. I know I bought soap shavings once and kept them in my purse...for situations where there might not be any!

Let me know if you have any questions! 

Thredup- Is It Worth It?

I posted earlier about my closet clean out and trying Thredup for some of my items. There are tons of reviews online about this service. Some are very positive and some very negative. I decided to try it out a few weeks back. It's an online consignment option for those of us who do not have the time or the patience to sell stuff locally.

I sent in my first bag about two weeks ago and just received their email that my stuff had been processed. They kept most of my bag and I made about $52 minus the cost of a $12.99 return bag for the rest of my items. I figure that I can donate whatever is left locally. They are also keeping one item on consignment for a potential sale.

I couldn't decide whether to wait for a Paypal credit or use the cash there. However, I got an email offering me 40% off my first purchase, so I ended up using the money to buy some winter clothes for my oldest daughter. I bought 4 shirts and 4 pants with my credit. Not too shabby for about $40! Three of the items were brand new with tags:)

So, is it worth it??? For me, Thredup was worth it since I had enough other clothing for a tax deduction. If you don't, then it may not be worth it to you. I'm going to send in another bag of items this week. All in all, I think it's a decent option for very little effort on my part. The reviews on the items purchased from there are mostly very positive. Hopefully, the clothing I bought with my credit will be in good shape or I might have to write a follow-up post! My thrifty husband will probably be very proud of me since I buy most of my girls' clothing on Zulily. 

Road Trip

My husband is away in Spain for a week (poor him, right?) I'm home with my two kids...and my parents came in to town to help me out since taking care of two toddlers by yourself for more than a few days can be tasking. I don't know how single parents do it! After more than a couple of days by myself with the kids, I miss my husband dreadfully. Heck, who am I kidding??? I miss him sooner than that.

We decided to check out Gilroy Gardens since my friends with young kids say it's a lot of fun . Gilroy also has some outlet malls, which will be fun for me and mom:) I decided to leave a day early so we could get an early start the next morning at the park.

We start the drive and decide to stop at one of my favorite places, Casa De Fruta. Casa de Fruta is a total tourist trap and I love it. Besides fruit, they have ice cream, candy, fruit, and other goodies. They also have  a little train that you can ride on, and a carousel. I always like to buy candy there. They have lots of sour gummy candies and chocolates of all kinds. Yummy!!! It isn't cheap, but it's fun. My sister calls it Casa de Expensiva:)

We finally arrive at the hotel and, after a late dinner, we get in bed around 9 p.m. Now, if you have kids, you know that stays in hotel rooms are never fun. Kids are out of their usual space and they never seem to want to go to sleep. I had the foresight to book the family suite. It has 3 queen beds, one of which is in a second room with a half bath. I figured one girl would sleep with me, one with my mom, and my Dad would sleep in the 3rd bed.

This arrangement would have worked great, had my oldest not wanted to sleep with me, too. So, we all three decided to try and sleep in the same bed, with me in the middle, of course. Two hours and several bed changes later, I fell asleep. My mom informed me later that my 2-year old didn't go to sleep till around 11:30 pm. I fell asleep a little after 11, when I thought she fell asleep.

As you might have guessed, both girls were exhausted today. They actually did pretty good at the park today, to my surprise. Near the end of the day, my 2-year old started to exhibit signs of complete exhaustion and I knew she was going to crash soon. Sure enough, she fell asleep shortly after we left the park.

Here is a pic of her napping after we got back to the hotel room:

Pictures like this remind me of why I decided to have kids. Of course, it's now 9:24 p.m. and I'm now listening to both girls argue over who gets the Ariel doll. Sigh. Here we go again.

Repurposing Mismatched Toddler Socks

I'll start off by acknowledging that I don't sew. I'm sure that there are a ton of things that can be done with old, mismatched socks if I did sew. However, I realized last night while giving my girls a bath that their socks are the perfect size to hold a bar of soap. I had this "epiphany" after reaching in to the tub to get the bar of soap out of the tub water for what seemed like the millionth time after my daughters kept dropping it. I used to buy this Johnson and Johnson soap that has a mesh around the soap, but decided to switch them to Cetaphil since my oldest daughter's skin has gotten dry and she frequently refuses to put on lotion.

Tonight, I decided to try out my idea. My husband laughed at me when I went to get the Ziploc bag with the old mismatched socks out of my younger daughter's dresser, but even he admitted it worked pretty well.

The best part is that I can take it off to wash it. Does one need to wash an item that surrounds soap? I imagine that the part not touching the soap might get germy. At least I have lots of spares:) The girls thought it was funny using the soap in the sock, but neither one of them dropped it. Mission accomplished!

Why People Using Illegal Fireworks Suck

So, after I wrote my last post describing the dessert I made for the 4th of July, I got ready for bed. This means going to find my cat to put her to bed. As I walk by my front door, I see flashing lights and open my door to see this:

I walk outside and to my left, almost directly across the street, I see that my neighbor's house is on fire!!! I run in and get my husband and he gets up to go talk to my neighbors. They are renters and they are all sitting outside. One of them happens to be an elderly lady who must be in her 80's. There are also a bunch of other people outside and 4 fire trucks. 

After talking to my neighbors, my husband comes back inside to tell me that they were all asleep and awakened by the smoke alarm. Apparently, the sparks, whatever, from an illegal firework landed on their roof and started the fire.  This is scary and makes me angry! We have a tile roof and never have I appreciated it more since it apparently lessens the risk that fires like this can happen. My husband tells me later that some of our other neighbors were watering down their roofs when the fireman were there. Ridiculous! No one should have to do that.

I don't get why people have to do the illegal stuff. There are plenty of places you can watch cool shows locally. Even the legal stuff is fun, though perhaps not as impressive. Now this poor family is out of a home, albeit temporarily since the owners are now having to put them up at a local hotel till everything is fixed. And, since I'm an owner of a rental locally, I wonder if I might get a call in the middle of the night telling me that my condo is on fire. I'm grateful everyone was safe and that their smoke alarm was working. 

The only good thing about the end of my 4th of July celebration is that both my children slept through the whole thing.

Red, White, and Blue Parfait

Today was a great day for the 4th, with the exception of my 2-year old waking 2 hours earlier than her usual wake up time, and today's blistering high of 108. Nothing to do but try to get her to take a long nap and head over to the in-laws to jump in the pool.

In the tradition of all great 4th of July celebrations, my father in law barbecued. My husband decided to bring over salsa, some blue corn chips, and a sour cream dip. His "red, white, and blue" dish, if you will. I decided to make a strawberry, whip cream, and blueberry parfait for mine. Here's some pictures of how they came out:

They really didn't take much time to make...30 minutes tops? It's a good idea to refrigerate to keep the whip cream the right consistency. I usually try to make it near the time I'm ready to serve it. You could also use Cool Whip or some other product. I've made a coconut milk whipped cream in the past. 

I think that next time, I will add more sugar to the whip cream. I made it the way I usually do, which is to throw heavy whipping cream, vanilla, and some powdered sugar or Agave nectar in and just add more if it's not sweet enough. It's not really a recipe per se. However, I think that I would have liked it sweeter because of the tartness of the berries, although they tasted pretty good on their own. Some pound cake added in is also good-I did that last year.

We ended the night with my husband attempting to read The Declaration of Independence to us and, fireworks. My kids really were not into my husband's reading, and, frankly neither was I. Don't tell my husband ;) Now, here's hoping the kids sleep later tomorrow!