Beauty Swap?

As you have seen if you have been reading for any length of time, I love beauty boxes. Usually I get about 3 different ones a month. That’s a lot of beauty products and samples!

That being said, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I won’t like every single thing I get. And I haven’t. Sometimes things just aren’t the right color for me or I just find no use for them or I just have too many of that kind of product already.

So……I propose a swap! Does anyone else have beauty products they just don’t want or think they will use? I’d love to swap with you!

I think it would be fun to get several girls in on this and maybe do it once every couple of months.
If you’d like to swap, just comment below and I will get it set up!
 
We can decide on a specified amount of items (so someone doesn’t get slighted) and also discuss if you are cool with them being slightly used (as in I tried this on and I hated the color – not l used this every day for two months and there is barely anything left!).

I think this will be fun!

Orlando!!!

So...C's team won their playoff game and they are headed to the Arena Bowl!

That being said I am currently sitting on a plane in the Charlotte airport after flying 4 hours through the middle of the night. It's 4:45am Arizona time, yuck!

I am going to take a bit of a break from blogging the rest of this week. I'll update you all on their (hopefully) big win next week!

Next stop, Orlando :)

Glossy Box Review - July

I got my third Glossy Box :)

I’ve been carefully reviewing this one since I started getting it, mainly because it’s so pricey.  I want to make sure it is worth it to ME.  If you don’t remember, this box is $21 a month, which is a little more than the others. Yes, they are considered “high-end” beauty products, but still.  In the last review I wrote about how you can go to their site and do little reviews of their products and earn points.  I thought that if you do all of the reviews every month, your six or seventh box will be completely free. Well, lo and behold the second box only had one survey for me to do.  I definitely didn’t get to earn the same points as the first box, which was a bummer!

This month’s Glossy Box theme is le grande Bleu and has quite a beachy vibe to it.

So without further ado….July’s Glossy Box! 

1)    Brazilian Blowout Acai Deep Conditioning Masque– 30 ml

Ooo I like this!  I always try to use deep conditioning masks once a week or every other week.  I think it’s a bit pricey, but hopefully it will do awesome things for my hair!

Full Size: $40.00 240 ml My Value: $5.00

2)    Bvlgari Eau Parfumee au the Blanc Shampoo & Shower Gel– 1 oz.

This smells good.  I’m not sure I trust products that can be BOTH a shower gel and a shampoo though.  It seems like it would be pretty crappy shampoo to me!  I’ll probably just use it as a shower gel. Again, this is a pretty darn pricey product. Not something I would ever buy. 

Full Size: $42.00 6.8 oz. My Value: $6.17

3)  Dr. Brandt BB Matte with Signature Shinerase- .25 oz.

I like this too!  I’ve been wanting to try some different BB creams so I’m glad I got this.  Now I can compare cheap ones to this expensive one!  That’s really the only thing I like about it….I’d never pay full price for this.

Full Size: $39.00 1 oz. My Value: $9.75

4)   Figs & Rouge Cherry Blossom Tinted Lip Balm Tube – .42 oz. (FULL SIZE)

As I said in my last beauty box review, I love lip products, so I was excited to see this.  I am a little bummed that the color looks so bright in the tube but it so plain on my lips. You can barely tell it is there. It is 100% natural which is awesome.  The only weird thing is that if I were to describe how this feels I would totally say it feels like petroleum jelly. It’s kind of thick and sticky.  The packaging says its petroleum free. I’m not convinced!

Full Size: $9.00 My Value: $9.00

5)  Nails Inc. Baker Street Nail Polish – 4 ml

I will never wear this.  Way too bright for me.  I’m a classic kinda girl.  Bummer.  At least it goes with the “blue” theme??

Full Size: $9.50 10 ml My Value: $3.80

6)  Nicka K New York Absolute! Make-up Cleansing Tissues – 10 sheets

It says this is a bonus.  I’m not too enthused, but I guess you can never have enough of these towels, especially for travel. They are quite nice. I won’t complain about these.  My guess it they had to add these as a “bonus” because subscribers would be mad if these counted as one of their “high end” beauty products!

Full Size: $6.99 60 sheets My Value: $1.16

Final Cost: $21.00

Final Value: $34.88

Wow.  This is not a great value considering how great other boxes could be. Especially when you think about how high priced these items are just because of their “brand name.”

Whelp, I think I am going to cancel this box too.  Hopefully I can find a better beauty box to start getting!

(Also, I swear I’m not a review blog….I just like sharing these fun things! I have not been compensated for this review.)

Football Life

 

The Rattlers won their playoff game!!!! Yay! Only one more to go (which is tonight) until the Arena Bowl in Orlando. I am so darn nervous!!

I swear these games are one of the most stressful things ever! It’s hard to sit there and watch knowing how much this means to the guys. Plus, there is always a very real fear of them being hurt. You obviously never want that to happen!

Ok so now that you know a little about Arena Football, I thought I’d talk a little more about C and his involvement.

 

C did play in the NFL after college, but for several teams. He played with the St. Louis Rams, the Detroit Lions, and New Orleans Saints, but nothing really stuck. After deciding that he wasn’t getting enough playing time he left the league and decided to pursue other things.

In 2008 the Tampa Bay Storm (an Arena Football team) called him up and asked him to play. He decided to give it a try. He played that year and really enjoyed it, but internal issues caused the entire league to shut down in 2009. Thankfully, that only lasted a season and C played in Tampa for the 2010 and 2011 season. In 2011 he was the Defensive Lineman of the year!

After the 2011 season C was treated unfairly in Tampa and demanded a trade. Since he was such a valued player, he was able to list his top three teams and demand to play at one of them. On February 7th, 2012 (my birthday!) he was traded from Tampa to a team not listed in his top three. He refused to play there, so they traded him to Arizona, which was on the list. He was traded from the second team on February 9th, 2012 (my mom’s birthday!).
 
I still love that he made his way to Arizona on both mine and my mother’s birthdays. Happy birthday to us!

 

He made it to Arizona on February 24th and I met him 4 days later on February 28th! I snatched that one up right away :)

Anywho, back to football.

 

As I said before, C is a defensive lineman, which means he’s a big dude. As you can tell from the many pictures I post, he towers over me. I am about 5’7 and he is 6’4! I love it. I always said I wanted to be with a tall guy so I could wear heels. Turns out I am really not a fan of heels since I wear them all day at work. I think I’ve worn them around him maybe 10 times in our year and a half together!

There are 4 other guys on the team that play the same position (well roughly – there are minor variations) and 4 of the 5 guys are out on the field at a time. That means there is one “backup.” Even with C’s arm being in a club they still have him play the entire game. I think that says a lot. The guy with one arm is better than the backup!

Speaking of the club, a few games ago the broadcasters called it his “hand cannon.” I could not stop laughing! I call it that all the time now. It’s basically a real cast that completely covers his hand so he
can’t bend his wrist at all. They saw the cast in half so he can get it on and off. During games it is wrapped in padding to make it softer, because really, that thing is quite the weapon!

 

So there you have it! Next time I will talk about the juicy stuff like crazy fans and football bimbos :)

Is there anything else you would like to know?!

Good luck to my love and the Arizona Rattlers tonight!  I know you will all kick butt!!

A Lovely Blog Hop!

Welcome to A Lovely Blog Hop, where each Thursday we have the grand opportunity to meet and connect with lovely new bloggers, such as myself! Now you have something to do and somewhere to go on Thursdays!

 Enjoy!

Rules (Not really rules but a guide):

1. Follow your host and any co-hosts (if it applies). Co-hosts will be the first 3 to 5 entries.

I am your host,  Rekita @ Her&Nicole and I am the first linky. 

Feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself!

Sponsor Co-Hosts:

Cece @ Jayla Jolie Says...

2. Link it!

Link up your blog or anything else you find lovely. Share your family, fashion, food, crafts, or anything that you love this week. Please, please, please, share the love and include a link back to this blog hop.

3. Spread it!

This is a blog hop after all, so hop around! Visit other blogs and say Hi!

4. Grab it! 

<div align="center">

<a href="http://www.herandnicole.com/" title="Her & Nicole"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2DhLkeb-HIYB-ZOQvZhuGGDuKmvkwuGRRu7FIN14PP5igXgo6ueWcQGKM2il1uQGAKoG2cryGhgkesuzprlTBVVlj5lnq0nuWbtCjL6bKd2xVDUCFJx60EYOCAuiAeSksjLApwK5rbE/s1600/new+blog+hop+button.png" alt="Her & Nicole" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Grab the button and place it somewhere in your blog or add just the link. Preferably in your blog post. 

This will help us promote this blog hop, believe me, the more the merrier! Or post the link somewhere in your blog. 

5. Tweet it!

Tweet

Please help me to promote this blog hop by sharing it to others. 

So tweet it to show everyone where you link up on Thursdays!

6. The most important rule of them all, HAVE FUN BLOG HOPPING!

Best Thing Ever - Le Tote Boxes #2 and #3

Remember when I told you all about Le Tote?!?

Well….I still love it!  Seriously…it’s amazing!

For $49 a month you can get unlimited boxes of clothing shipped to you!  Each box comes with 3 articles of clothing and 2 pieces of jewelry.  You can wear them as much or as little as you want and when you are done, you just ship them back (you don’t even have to wash them) in the prepaid envelope and they send you another box!!  For $5 more you can even get insurance in case you rip or stain something. 

It’s totally Netflix for clothes J

What’s awesome is you can even go on their site and pick out things you like, so your boxes will be more your style or maybe thing you’d like to try, but would probably never buy.

C loves how excited I get when I get new box.  It’s so fun to make new outfits!

Anyways….I thought I’d share what I got in my second and third box this month.

Box #2

At first I thought the yellow top was pretty awesome because its not really a color I wear. When I put it on though, the color was terrible on my olive skin tone. It looked almost green-ish.  I was bummed, but wore it out on date night anyways! I didn't end up wearing this bracelt.  It was too matchy-matchy with everything else they sent and it felt a little circus-y to me.  I am kind of boring in the jewelry area.

The blue skirt was WAY too tight.  I couldn't even get it past my thighs.  My co-worker (who is teeny tiny) tried it on because she thought she might want to buy it but it was even too tight on her!  Bad sizing on that one. I LOVED the necklace!  It was so different from what I normally wear, but not too far out of the box for me.  I may be shopping for necklaces like this in the future!

This was my favorite item from the box. It was a racer back chiffon maxi dress.  I wore it several times before I shipped it back!

Box #3

I thought this bracelet was really cute.  It's not too big and clunky, but still fun.  I have a hard time wearing bracelets at work since I sit at a computer all day, but I did get to wear this for a little while.  This skirt was fun!  You can't actually tell in the picture but it was a lot brighter blue.  It was pretty sheer but had shorts underneath that matched.  It was a bit bold for me, but I took a chance and wore it out one night!

I actually wore these two together to work!  The picture is actually the back of the shirt, its just plain on the front. The zipper part had a black sheer fabric underneath (all the way to the top) so you could wear it a few different ways.  I really liked this necklace when I pulled it out of the package, but I wasn't in love with it on.  It just fell on my neckline wrong.  I'm sure it would look great on someone else! 

Obviously once again my favorite piece was a maxi dress!  I wasn't able to get the best picture of it, but you get the point. It was an ombre kind of look that turns into an even deeper purple on the very bottom.  Such pretty colors together! The center elastic was a tad tight, otherwise I would have bought this one!

See how amazing it is?!?!  What are you waiting for?  Go sign up!!  Let me know if you do, I'd love to see what you get in your boxes!

Food Across America

Speaking of my brother, he is moving soon! He has been stationed in upstate New York at a power plant (he is a Nuclear Engineer in the Navy) for years now.  He just got orders recently to go to Seattle. Yay! Seattle is so much closer to Arizona than New York!

That being said, he is planning on shipping all of his stuff straight from New York to Seattle.  Then, he is going to drive from New York to Arizona. 

He asked me to create what he calls….drum roll please….”The trip in which I will eat too much.”

Basically, he wants me to map out a path for him to hit up a ton of famous and tasty  food places along his route. There are a few routes he can go, so I want to find the one with the best food!

Here are some cities/states he could be driving through:

Trip One/Two

Syracuse/Rochester/Buffalo, New York

Erie, Indiana

Cleveland/Dayton, Ohio

Indianapolis, Indiana

Illinois

St. Louis/Springfield, Missouri

Kansas City, Wichita, Kansas

Tulsa/Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Amarillo, Texas

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Trip Three

New York City, NY

Trenton, New Jersey

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Wilmington, Delaware

Baltimore, Maryland

Richmond/Lexington, Virginia

Knoxville/Nashville/Memphis, Tennessee

Little Rock, Arkansas

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Amarillo, Texas

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Trip three is a little different because C and I will be in Maryland at the same time and I’d love for my brother to stop for a day and meet C’s family! It only adds 3 hours total on to the trip, so it’s not too far out of the way!

Does anyone know of any famous food places or must-eat restaurants near these cities? He’s not really worried about the fastest route, he wants the best food!

Oh yeah and today is his birthday!  Happy Birthday S!!!