Get $50 in clothes, free. Seriously.

(Wow- it's been a long time.  I've got exciting news: I'm pregnant!  So that explains why I haven't blogged in months and months. I've instead spent that time throwing up.  More blogging soon.)

So one of my budget boards posted this and I couldn't not share!

$50 in clothes for free.  I actually spent $2.87 (for 2 dresses, 5 shirts and a pair of pants!), but only because I didn't want to give them CC information for $0 in charges. But if you get your cart right, it is totally free.  My sister-in-law has gotten an order from them previously, so while I can't review my clothes yet (I will) - this is legit.

Here is what I got. You can also see the totals, so you can see what I paid.

(The website also tells you the retail value of the clothes. Lesson learned: Holy crap, maternity clothes are overpriced.)


Get your free clothes:

Here's how to do it:
1) Click the link https://www.schoola.com/stitch/rf551692. That gets you a $15 credit (and me one too).
2) Click the Collection tab at the top, and at the bottom of the dropdown it says Create New Collection. A new screen will pop up and on the left side where you can click create a collection and select your preferences. Make sure and save the collection - this adds another $10 to your account. Then you don't actually have to do anything with it.
3) Add $50 worth of clothing to your bag.
4) Checkout and use the code ‪#‎schoolasummer‬ This gets you half off. Half off $50 is $25, and from above you have $25 in credits, so it ends up free. You also get free shipping for more than $25.


Edit: The #schoolasummer is over, but you can still get $25 credit.

And, I got my clothes in and they are seriously awesome. 1 shirt did not ship, and they gave me a $20 credit to make up for it.  The other 5, well 4 of them fit perfectly (one I just don't care for, but it is not the shirts fault.) And every single piece is in such great condition I would have never known it was used!

Fat Quarter Shop 12-pound Grab Bag Review

I recently ordered a grab bag from fatquartershop.com.  If you read my other grab bag review (from Craft Connection), you'll know I was disappointed- a lot of the fabric was poor quality and it didn't amount to much savings per yard.

This review is the opposite of that. I bought a 12-pound grab bag from Fat Quarter Shop. The UPS label said it weighed 13 pounds- so they did a great job filling this box up!

This box doesn't look that big...

http://www.fatquartershop.com/12-pound-fabric-grab-bag
It cost $78.99 with shipping, so not cheap (right now though there is a coupon code ddapron, I believe- It would have saved me $14!!! but I looked all over for a week before I ordered and couldn't find a code. Now I'm kicking myself of course.)

This fabric was all top quality, first rate fabric. Name brands like Michael Miller, Timeless Treasures, Moda.  Almost everything was yardage - selvedge to selvedge cuts. So little of it was other cuts, I actually didn't include them in my totals.

Non-selvage cuts: one 10" square, one 1/3 yd x 1/2 yd rectangle, two 6.5" x 10.5" rectangles.

So what about the rest? There were 75 pieces. They ranged from 5" to 32". The length I got the most of was 18", with 20 pieces. The second most common length was 23", with 9 pieces. And the third most common was 16", with 6 pieces. Typing out this paragraph makes me want to break out my Fathom statistical software. I could tell you all kinds of statistics about the fabric lengths (such as the average length being 16.5" inches, or the median being 18"- which as I already pointed out is the mode.  Do you want to know how many are within 1 standard deviation?)

This stack really doesn't SEEM that big...

But that would be boring.  More interesting might be to know that in all I got 34.3 yards of fabric. Which means the price works out to $2.30 per yard.  Since all of it is great quality useable fabric, I'm pretty happy with this. Even the designs I won't use will be great backings for small wall quilts. (My wall quilts always have absurd backs.)

And even more interesting might be pictures of the fabric:
Polka Dots

 Geometric Prints

 Solids (wish I got more of these!)

 Stripes and Chevrons:

 Floral and Leaves (the second from the left on the bottom row is my favorite fabric- a gorgeous tree print that I just want to frame as is.)

 Novelty fabrics:

 A group I couldn't categorize (I LOVE this peacock!):

 Kids fabrics:

 Another group I couldn't really categorize:

I am just SO in love with this box.  Once I use a quarter or half of it, I might buy another one.  But I think I am going to be really patient and wait for a coupon code!

Craft Connection Scrap Bag Reviews

I just realized I never posted these reviews- I got these scrap bags in October 2013.  Someone on quiltingboard.com had recommend CraftConn.com as a place to get some good scraps. We had just had a guild speaker talk about scrap quilts- and really, I don't have many scraps :(  So I want to build up the collection just a bit.  This definitely helped do that!

Since getting these bags, I actually haven't done any scrap quilts, but I've used a lot of the solid fabrics to back small quilts. Usually it has had to be pieced (often just with itself to make a different dimension), but it has been getting used :)

So here is what I got:

Now let's talk about it is.
I got two 1 lb solid scrap bags ($4.14 each), one 1 lb bright scrap bag ($10.50), and one 1 pound pink scraps bag ($8.00).  Shipping was $12.35.  In retrospect- the bright and pink are kind of expensive because at the time fabric.com's 3 pound scrap bag was $19.99 (though it is now double that), and fatquartershop offers a large grab bag for a lot less per pound (but a higher cost over all).  However, in the case of craftconn, you get what you pay for. The scraps in the bright and pink bag are just much better fabric than the solids. The solids are pretty shabby- many of them are pilling already- right out of the box!  I was pretty disappointed by that.

I figured out that the fabric cost me $2.95 a yard overall.  Since I'm using it, it isn't that bad, but fabric.com often has sale fabric for that price- so I could have just gone and selected a few of those cuts if I want it for backing and test blocks. However, since I wanted a variety of colors and patterns, that wouldn't have worked for me here.

Since I planned to review the scrap bags (and I PLANNED on being more prompt) I measured all the fabric. The bags ranged from 3.2 yards to 3.5 yards each.  I split the shipping cost per box and a pound ranged from $2.06 to $4.12 per yard.

Here is what I got:
Solid bag #1 (1 pound; weighed 1.01 pounds)
17" cut of yellow, pink, green, blue
1 Fat Quarter of blue (very faded, unfortunately)
9.5" cut of black, and two of white
6" cut of black
14" cut of thin muslin
This was 3.2 yards, the bag was $4.14 + $3.09 for shipping or $7.23 total; $2.26 a yard.

Solid bag #2 (1 pound; weighed 15.9 ounces)
17" cut of brown, beige, yellow, pink, green, blue
15" cut of white
11" cut of black
3" scrap of black
This was 3.5 yards, bringing it to $2.06 a yard

Bright bag (1 pound; weighed 15.9 ounces)
16" cut of pink and rainbow
15" cut of stripes, red, and orange
7" cut of green
9" cut of green and dolls
6 Fat Quarters
1 9" square
This was 3 1/3.  The bag plus shipping was $13.59, bringing it to $4.12 a yard.

Pink Bag (1 pound; weighed 15.9 ounces)
5"- one cut
17"- 2 cuts
2 Fat Quarters
14 Fat Eighths
This was 3 1/3 yards. The bag was a total of $11.09, making it $3.33 a yard.


So overall- I can use what I got, but I don't plan to buy a grab bag from this place again. The solids were crappy fabric, and the other fabrics were too expensive for unknowns.

Thread Reviews, #2

I have more thread reviews today. I have to apologize. I picked pretty colors for the photos that 1) I thought would go together and 2) that were new spools so you could see relative size, and then I realized the light pink and light purple wouldn't show up well on my test fabric.

Here are today's spools.  This includes two threads that I use A LOT: Essential and Isacord.  I have tons and tons of both of these threads, they are my 'tried and true's.  These samples were made in the same manner as the last, but I think I had Bottom Line in the bottom.

Connecting Threads Essential, Isacord, MetroEmb Sigma

 Onto the reviews:

 

Thread Name: Essential

Brand: Connecting Threads
Yardage: 1200 yards
Material: 100% long staple cotton
Where did I buy it: http://www.connectingthreads.com
Cost: $2.79 per spool, free shipping with $50 order. They are often on sale for even less, or available in discounted sets.
Cost per yard: 0.2325¢

Overall Impressions: A great bargain thread. Matte finish.
Pros: 
1) Runs nicely through the machine.

2) Comes in tons of colors 

3) Inexpensive and easily available, with free shipping

4) Nice for piecing where I don't like to use poly.

Cons: 
1) Thick.  It says it is a 50 wt, but it is SO much heavier than anything that size.  Not good for much travel stitching (those thick lines in the sample are traveling ONCE) or micro-quilting.

2) Occasionally I will get breakage. I had one color that broke 5 times in an hour of quilting.

3) Can be linty.  Just clean your machine every bobbin.
Will I buy it again: Yes.  This is an affordable thread and I love to use it for quick stippling on a charity quilt.  I match the bobbin thread to my top thread and it always looks great. I also use it for most of my piecing. 

Thread Name: Metro (the purple in the design)

Brand: Metro Embroidery
Yardage: 1000 meters
Material: 100% polyester
Where did I buy it: http://www.metroemb.com/store/

Cost: $0.89 + $0.89 shipping (Shipping was $1.78 for two spools)
Cost per meter: 0.178¢

Overall Impressions: For such an inexpensive thread, it performed pretty well.  Kind of in-between shiny and matte.
Pros: 
1) Super fast shipping. I ordered on Wednesday and got it on Friday. 
2) Incredible price. One of the least expensive threads I've ever seen.
3) Available in big (1000 m) or bigger (5000 m) spools.
 Cons: 
1) Wasn't the smoothest thread, but a HUGE improvement over the metro.
2) Made in China
Will I buy it again: Probably not. I just like other options more, and even though this is so much cheaper, I think it is worth spending the money for something better.

Thread Name: Isacord

Brand: I don't know, I've only ever seen it called Isacord.
Yardage: 1000 meters
Material: 100% polyester
Where did I buy it: https://www.imachinegroup.com

Cost: $3.45; shipping I paid $7.48 for 10 spools; $4.20 total
Cost per meter: 0.42¢

Overall Impressions: This is a wonderful thread. It was my favorite up until recently and now I think it is a tie (you'll read the others in the next review).  Fabulous for fine detail quilting.
Pros: 
1) Thin thread, wonderful for travel stitching and micro-quilting
2) Runs great through my machine.
3) Available in big (1000 m) or bigger (5000 m) spools.
4) Inexpensive, readily available (including semi-locally for me, but more expensive)
 Cons: 
1) ?????
Will I buy it again: Yes. And I'll use the huge number of spools I already have. I love this thread. But, I decided on a different one for the Play With Color quilt.

Thread Reviews

I am looking for a thread to use for the Play with Color quilt.  I usually use Isacord, but thought it might be neat to try something new.  So, I found a bunch of other threads and bought/requested samples.  I figured, if I'm stitching out samples of all those threads, why not stitch out samples of other threads I have too.  So the next few days, I'm going to do a bunch of thread reviews.

My husband did some pictures for me, and he grouped them by color, so that's how I'll review them.

Metro Embroidery Metro
Sulky Rayon
Sulky Holoshimmer
Mettler Polysheen

For all samples I used my Bernina 430, freshly cleaned and oiled, with upper tension set at 2 and a 80/12 Universal needle, Seralene in the bobbin, unless otherwise noted.

Test Design Name: Spaghetti and Meatballs

Thread Name: Metro (the green/blue in the design)

Brand: Metro Embroidery
Yardage: 1000 meters
Material: 100% polyester
Where did I buy it: http://www.metroemb.com/store/

Cost: $0.89 + $0.89 shipping (Shipping was $1.78 for two spools)
Cost per yard: 0.178¢

Overall Impressions: My machine hated it.  The sample 5" square wasn't even completed I was worried I would break my machine it was clunking so bad.  It was horrible.  I had done multiple samples at this point with Seraline in the bobbin. I changed it to Isacord, didn't work, wound a bobbin to use the same thread (like I usually do on quilts) and it didn't work.  I adjusted the top tension looser and tighter; still horrible noises and horrible stitches. I rethread top and bottom. I even re-cleaned and oiled the newly prepped machine.  This thread was NOT working for me.  If you enlarge the sample, you can see the bottom right has horrible tension problems with the white thread (which is insanely thin) masking the color, and even after many tries at fixing it the top right has blue Isacord dots. There was also terrible eyelashes on the back, which I haven't gotten in forever with any thread.  The design is very choppy because the thread stitched so unevenly it was hard to control.
Pros: 
1) Super fast shipping. I ordered on Wednesday and got it on Friday. 
2) Incredible price. One of the least expensive threads I've ever seen.
3) Beautiful on the spool, incredible shine.
4) Available in big (1000 m) or bigger (5000 m) spools.
Cons: 
1) My machine hated it. I thought I was going to have to take it in for repairs it sounded so bad (but it recovered with a new thread.)
2) Could never get tension right.
3) Skipped stitches
4) Made in China
Will I buy it again: NEVER.  Probably won't even use it.  I really wanted to like this one because of the low cost, it would be great for Play In Color, but it was awful.

Test Design Name: Freehand feather

Thread Name: Rayon

Brand: Sulky
Yardage:  250 yards
Material: 100% rayon
Where did I buy it: Joanns
Cost: $4.99 (I don't know, but I'm sure I used a 50% off coupon, that's the only time I buy thread there.)
Cost per yard: 2¢ (1¢)

Overall Impressions: Shiny, but not for me.  I found it difficult to work with, my machine didn't purr nicely (though what I thought was 'bad' was nothing compared to when I got to the Metro thread- I used this one first)
Pros: 1) Available locally
2) Lovely sheen.
3) Thread didn't build up too badly with travel stitching
Cons:1) Didn't run smoothly in my machine
2) Skipped stitches
3) Expensive-ish
4) Small spool size
Will I buy it again: No, but I might use what I have.

 

Thread Name:Holoshimmer
Brand: Sulky
Yardage: 250 yards
Material: Polyester Film
Where did I buy it: Joanns
Cost: $4.99 (I used a 50% off coupon)
Cost per yard: 2¢ (1¢)
Test Design Name: Giant Snail

Overall Impressions: This stitched out much smoother than I thought it would. And I LOVE how much sparkle it has. I was pleasantly surprised.
Pros:1) Super sparkly
Cons:
1) A few skipped stitches
2) Very specific, can't use this a lot.
3) Expensive-ish
4) Small spool size.
Will I buy it again: If the project calls for it, yes.

Test Design Name: Amazing Daisies

Thread Name:Polysheen
Brand: Mettler
Yardage: 220 yards (200 meters)
Material: 100% Polyester
Where did I buy it: It came with my machine. (Available at Fabric.com)
Cost: Free for me; $2.28 at Fabric.com
Cost per yard: 1.04¢

Overall Impressions: No complaints here.
Pros:
1) Lovely sheen
2) Very nice stitch out
3) The threadplay on travel stitches looks great
4) Ran through my machine really nicely.
Cons:
1) Not enough yardage on the spool.
2) A bit expensive for poly.
Will I use it again: Yes, when I know that I only need a small amount of one color.  I won't use this for my Play in Color quilt.

Thread...

I'm stitching out free motion samples in tons of different threads to review.

I just found the first thread my machine does not like.  I actually didn't even finish the 5" square for worry of my machine.  It was making the most awful clunking noises. I rethreaded top and bottom, I oiled, I changed tension to heavier, I changed tension to lighter, I used 4 different bobbin threads, I changed the needle, and still the machine CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK.

It's not the machine, switched to another thread and it is running smoothly again.

This is the first time I've really understood what people meant when they said their machine didn't like a thread!


More coming soon! (Including tell you what this thread is!)

Year in Review

Everyone else is posting a year in review, so I thought I'd do the same.  Or at least a review of stuff I blogged about :)  I finished A LOT of projects this year.  This will mostly outline the projects I completed, but I added in a few other main points. 

January:
In January the only project I made completely was the Stupendous Stitching wall hanging from the Craftsy class (my favorite class to date, and I've done a lot of them.)  I also made a jelly roll race quilt top.  The non-highlight of January was that I badly sprained my wrist.  That sucked.


Feburary
I managed to get a number of projects done this month: Pajama Pants for Kevin Headbands for Courtney,Embroidered Towel for Melissa, Butterfly Shirt for Me, Bib for Violet, and a Mug Rug for Swap

March
In March I finally finished the first twin quilt for Mom, made Vogue 1224 for me (love this dress!), and some snack baggies for Courtney.  The non-highlight of March was getting a retry (fail) on my bronze freeskate test.

April
The highlight of April was seeing my family, meeting my new niece and going on a cruise.  I also made a wine bottle bag and Vogue 1208 dress (which I was proud of at the time, and wore, but Kevin has since told me doesn't look good on me.)  I also completed a mini wholecloth quilt, my first micro quilting project- this would turn out to be the year of microquilting! 

May
In May I finished second twin size quilt for Mom, one of my favorite quilts ever, and quilted the colorful quilt I made for myself last year.  I also made a dress for Josefina and started a dresden plate quilt, which has since been abandoned.  I wonder where it is...

June
In June I started my shadow trapunto snowflake quilt.  I did all the prep work for each block andfinished snowflakes 1, 2, and 3.  This is also the month I took up rowing and the highlight: finally passed my bronze freeskate test!

July
In July I made a wallet, a rosin bag for Cole and snack bags for Kristen.  I also finished Snowflakes 4 and 5.

August
In August I finished the Jelly Roll Race quilt, did the project from the Painted Quilt class from Craftsy (love it), and finished Snowflake 6, 7, and 8. Kevin made me a spool stand which is one of my favorite sewing accessories (he says he made it in June.  I wonder why it took me so long to post).

September
This month I only finished Snowflake 9.  I started Snowflake 10...and then the snowflake quilt entered UFO territory.

October
October was a low project month because of an awesome project- we moved to a new house!!!  We had the shortest house hunt ever.  I emailed our realtor at the beginning of August that we were sort of kind of thinking about moving, and would he be willing to give us an idea of the market.  By Oct. 1 we were in the new house.  We are SO happy with it- six years in the old house we put together a wishlist of exactly what we were looking for, and as an added bonus, we have the greatest neighborhood.   In random updates, I also attended my first hockey game.


November:
This month I finished a pair of knitted socks (well, I haven't closed the toes yet, I should do that tonight to finish them before the new year.)  And made the project from Quick Strip Paper Piecing class on Craftsy.com- it is hanging in the entryway.  We also joined a gym and I am really enjoying the aerobics classes.

December:
The big news for December was that I switched jobs.  I am enjoying my new position and it seems like it will be a good fit.  I also did a number of projects, the Side Setting Table Runner, a fabric wreath (possibly my first pinterest craft?),Violet's stocking, fleece blankets for Violet, Rylee, Conor, Luke and Brody, and a pennant for Cole.  I finished snowflake 10 and 11, dyed my first fabric and

began Mario Quilt.


So entering the new year the projects I have in progress are the Mario Quilt, the Snowflake Quilt, and the Dresden Plate.  I have also done a few Craftsy classes that I haven't done the project yet (Jeans, Alterations, Thread Art) and would like to.

Overall, it was a good year!

Wow, Amazon! That was quick.

So yesterday, I was thinking about a free PDF from Sew Mama Sew- The Blossom Bag. The bag is INCREDIBLE, so much so, that rather than just make it up from the pdf, I wanted the author to get paid for the work, so I bought the book.

I ordered the book from amazon yesterday a little before lunch. And today, I assume a little before lunch (because that's when Kevin brings the mail in) it arrived at my house. We do have Amazon Prime- but that's 2 day, not overnight. What speed!


So, what do I think of the book? Well, the Blossom Bag is without a doubt the best project in it. It's not a very expensive book (especially considering how expensive Amy Butler patterns are), so it might be worth it just for the pretty pictures, but there aren't too many projects that jump out at me. But- the Blossom Bag is advanced, so I plan to make one other one first. And there are two others that I like.

The book's subtitle is "12 easy ways to 26 wonderful bags"
It might as well say infinite wonderful bags, because what it considers a variation is very slight- in most cases, it is a change of handle, possibly a change of size. If a long handle vs short handle is a variation, so is a fabric change- that's how I calculated infinite!

The book contains a pocket in the back with all the pattern pieces, full size. It will be tough to get them all back into the pocket after unfolding, but a much better idea then printing the patterns scaled down in the book- scaling up is a PITA.

Here are the 12 bags, and my thoughts:

Cosmo Bag - I loved this bag on first sight. On second sight- it's HUGE! I wonder if there is a way to scale it down. It has two variations: long handle, short handle

Reversible Everyday Shopper- Cute pattern, probably one I will make. No variations, but it is reversible.

Origami Bag Set- Six different sizes of zipper bags. These don't seem too different from the zillion different zipper bag patterns you can get on the internet, but a lot of variety all in one place means you won't google forever for the perfect pattern, I suppose.

Beautiful Balance Checkbook Cover- An outdated idea (not many people use checkbooks anymore), but I'll probably make this one just because it's cute. Right now I just have a loose book of checks floating in my skating bag.

Perfectly Pleated Clutch- A cute purse, but I'm not a clutch person. It looks very formal, and cloth bags aren't formal- are they? 3 size variations.

Teardrop Bag- a cute bag, I'll probably make one of them. It has 2 size variations, but no handle variations. If they had done short handles, they could have claimed 28 bags. Short handles would look good.

Key Keeper Coin Purse - This is kind of goofy looking because it's the same shape as the teardrop bag, but it's a coin bag. It looses cuteness in the scale down.

Fringed Hobo Bag - This bag is absolutely absurd. Who needs a bag this big? Available as small or large, but both sizes are huge. And the fringe is so not my thing.

Blossom Handbag/Shoulder Bag - the bag from the pdf above- Gorgeous and a must have! 2 strap size variations available.

Everything Wristlet -This appears to be a formal clutch with a wrist strap. I think there is a disconnect between formal clutch and cotton print fabrics. I expect to see this in bridal silk or something. Two sizes.

Miss Maven Ruffled Handbag- I like the idea, but it's not my thing. Again, it's a very large bag for the style. (2 sizes, but both seem big). Maybe if the person carrying it was a very stylish person they'd pull it off, but I'd look silly.

Take Flight Handbag/Shoulder Bag- I love this one, but the retro look is something I'm unlikely to actually do. Comes in 2 sizes.

Bath Product Review...

A long long time ago I ordered from Praireland Herbs and posted about it here. Then, I used two of the shampoo bars and posted about those here. Well the things are so gosh darn long lasting, that I was never able to use the last bar. I've finally run out of the first two bars (let's see- I ordered mid August, and it's now mid March and I've used two bars... hmm- seems long lasting to me! I wash my hair everyday now that it's short.) So, I just recently tried the Aloe Fresh shampoo. I put this off until last, becasue it doesn't have a pretty smell and just seemed so boring. This was a mistake: the Aloe Vera is AMAZING. SO much lather- TONS of lather, and a great clean feeling without that kind of sticky feeling the peppermint one sometimes left. While I didn't always need a conditioner with the peppermint or the rosemary shampoo, I often felt like I wanted one. With the Aloe Vera, conditioner is completely unnecessary. I still have about 2/3 of the bar left (I shared 1/3 with a friend)- so this is going to last me awhile. I do wish it had a smell though. A pretty smell is a huge reason to love bath produts.

When I went to New Jersey in January I bought some LUSH products. (And talked about them here.) I'm sad to say, these were not long lasting at all. Most seemed to disappear very quickly in the shower, even though I take great care to keep my soaps out of the stream of the water. An intro to the products I bought is here. So here are my LUSH product reviews.




Jungle Conditioner
I love the smell of this! (Notice my initial impression was that I did not like the smell. But I love it!) But I'm not sure it's a product I need. I switched to it from using regular conditioner every other shampoo, and used it every other shampoo, but now I use it just once a week. Honestly, I don't notice any difference. Maybe that's a good thing- and it works as well as regular conditioner, but maybe it means it just doesn't do anything other than smell great. It's a bit ackward to use- you break a piece off in your hand (being careful not to get the rest wet, as it has no preservatives and will harbour gross growth- I broke a medium size piece off and leave the rest outside of the bathroom) and then add water in it making a sort of paste, then I do my best to get it to different parts of my hair and try to rub it in. I'm not sure how affective I am at actually distributing it through my hair, so I try to put it in 3 different parts of my head each time, and changing those everytime. I think I'm going to try to "whip" some of it up and do a leave on conditioner like some websites have suggested. My biggest disappointment is that this has SLS in it. Getting rid of my SLS use has made my head so much less itchy, and adding this back in I haven't noticed that itchy scalp coming back, but I only use it about once a week now, so maybe it just isn't enough. I'm not "scared" of SLS like some extremist websites are, but when I cut it I noticed a difference. I don't really want to add it back in too much.





Karma Soap


An amazing scent! Kind of smells like a flowery hippie. The shape of this made it tough to cut for multiple uses (like I said- these soaps all melt so fast in the shower, even keeping them out of the water. So I cut them up, so as not to expose them to too much water). 1/3 of the chunk I bought lasts about a week. That's just way too fast for me to buy it again even though I really loved it. Whats nice about this one is the scent kind of stays on your skin and you can smell it throughout the day. Soaps are usually "wash away" and only provide scent in the shower. Plus it leaves my skin nice and moisturized.

Angel Delight Soap (not on the website as it's a holiday thing)


I have to admit, I bought this because of the pretty. It was so lovely. The scent was hard to make out. But in the bathtub, I decided I didn't really like it. Another review called it "flintstones kids vitamins" that seems about right to me. Kevin says it smells like green tea. Maybe, but I don't like green tea either... This one 1/3 of the chunk lasts about a week and a half. The chunks are larger than the Karma, so I don't think it's necessarily any more long lasting. With this one though I'd be okay if it just melted away, but it's too expensive not to use. The good news here is that this one is a wash-away soap, I don't smell it out of the shower, and though I don't like the smell it leaves my skin feeling nice, and not too dry.

Honey I washed the Kids Soap

They say caramel and honey scented, I think it's toffee and honey- either way the scent is light, but very very nice. This is definetly my favorite bar. The honey come on top was too rough for me, so I removed it, but this bar produced a very very light lather (all of the lush soaps were very low lather- almost in a "did I get it on me" sort of way) but an incredible result. Super soft skin. Kevin quickly stole this one from me, as he has super dry skin. The bar I had lasted only about 2 weeks, which was very disappointing, Like I said, I take great care to keep my bars on draining soap racks out of the stream of the water, and these just melted away. This is one of the best soaps I've ever used, but just way too expensive for that use rate.

Wiccy Magic Muscle Massage Bar
I have mixed feelings on this one. First- I love the idea. The melt against your skin softness of the massage bar was excellent. It was the perfect amount of moisture to get a great massage going, without being drippy like oil. And it was really moisturing to the skin, so it acted as a lotion too. The thing I didn't feel happened was anything promised by the LUSH advertising. They almost make it sound like an alternative to icy-hot ("Cinnamon will warm things up, peppermint will stimulate sore bits and the aduki beans will massage in like little finger tips to loosen knots. Once you get used to the minty tingling")- there was no warming, no tingling, and the beans are really too small to do anything at all for the rubbing. (Also, they fall out and get everywhere). Last, the smell, especially as it was rubbed in was completely overpowering, and kind of sickening. Way too much cinnamon, not enough peppermint. I think I'd like to try other massage bars, just not this one.

Overall, I'm not as in love with LUSH as I thought I would be just looking at their products. Not a bad thing, since that stuff is expensive! (I am very glad I caught a sale on the soap. Otherwise I think I'd have a pretty negative impression overall)

What I did on my winter vacation: Part 1

Hey look! I still exist! I'm going to try to do 3 or 4 posts about my super trip to NJ. We left New Years Eve (Kevin and my 5th anniversary) and came back on the 4th.

So what will post 1 be about?

SHOPPING! My Aunt Nancy needed to return something to Macy's and I jumped on it. Their Macy's carries LUSH! products: something I've been dreaming of getting my hands on since I found out solid shampoo exists. Although many of their products still contain "bad" ingredients, LUSH is a socially conscious company. They've eliminated SLS from some of their soaps and shampoos. (I didn't pay attention to which ones though) and recently they've eliminated palm oil from others- in an effort to help save the orangatans. Additionally, if it's possible to not use plastic to package their product, they don't!

Since I love my solid shampoos from praireland herbs, I didn't get any of theirs (man are they pricey! And no sale on them this time around). I did get the one thing I was really hoping to try. Jungle conditioner. It's a solid conditioner- one place I haven't gotten rid of plastic bottles yet. The smell is, uh, different. But my shampoo right now is rosemary, so I tend to smell like a pizza, so I think it will be okay. I'm not sure how to describe it. But when I think "organic" (even though I don't think it is) this smell fits right in. The website says to slide it along your hair, like a shampoo bar, but the saleswoman recommended getting a small amount in your hand and mixing it with a tiny bit of water to make a creme.

Then I got a solid massage bar. It's basically just massage oil. Your body heat melts it, and then it rubs in just like any other oil. Very cool! This one is supposedly good for sore muscles, which is why I picked it. The smell might be a BIT strong for me. A massage right before bed and the sheets smelled yummy for 4 days- which means that first night it was really strong.

Then I got soaps! The soaps were buy 1 get 2 free. And thank goodness, because they are expensive. (The one I paid for was almost $12 and the two free ones were about $10) I've been told their soap is hard and lasts though, and it all smells amazing. I went with "Angel's Delight" a Christmas special, "Honey I washed the kids", and "Karma"- their most popular scent. They are all "bulk" products, and they are all so pretty. Some of them were precut so I picked an affordable piece of Angel Delight, and when the other two didn't have any pieces close to the same price, I asked her to cut some that would cost abou $10. (The conditioner was like that too).

No pictures, but I also got 4 new votive candles. Aunt Nancy burned tons of candles and it made me wanting yummy scents in my house too. I got Christmas scents from Yankee Candle- a store I usually don't go in because the smell is too strong!

A somewhat expensive foray into bath and body products, but I don't do it much, so I'm thrilled!

Oh, gross.

If you read food blogs, especially diet ones, you've likely read Hungry Girl. Hungry Girl has some good ideas but uses TONS of processed foods, LOTS of Splenda, and mystery products I've never seen in grocery stores, so I rarely actually use her recipies. (NOT a fan of splenda)

Today, at Hy-vee, I found one of the mystery products: Tofu Shirataki noodles made by House Foods Every pasta-swap HG raves about these noodles, and they feature her logo on the back. I was excited to see them, because I am a noodle-aholic. They cost $2.19 for a 2 serving bag, but it looks like 1 serving to me, and I got the "spaghetti" size. I could not wait to try them, so I decided to prepare them tonight. The full bag: only 20 calories.

I decided to make them for dinner, and even though she recommends cream sauces most of the time (not all the time, she has some red sauce recipes) I prepared them the way I eat 90% of my noodles "Shanna Style": cook noodles, add tomato sauce. (Like Hunt's tomato sauce, not a spaghetti sauce). For more flavor I added pepper and paremesan cheese.

Let's back up a step; before I could "cook" these (they are pre-cooked and microwaving takes 1 minute) I had to prepare them. First cut open the package, drain and rinse. Okay, no problem. OMG- disgusting. These noodles REEK of fish. It is disgusting smelling. Like a bait shop. I am not exagerating. GROSS. They are tofu noodles with yam flour. I'm not sure how either of these ingredients gets a fish smell. So I rinse them in a colander and then pat them dry. Everything I read said to get them REALLY dry. (One site recommended a blow dryer). I used about 10 paper towels. (Between the rinsing, the paper towels and the plastic packaging, these aren't really going down well with tree hugger me.) Then I stuck them in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then another 30 with sauce.

The taste test: 1 took 1 bite, and even though the fish smell was gone, they tasted like eating fish. Disgusting. I actually spit it out. I tried another, and I also could not choke it down. They are also very chewy and difficult to break with your teeth. I will not buy these again.

(Kevin tried them and said "they don't taste like fish to me")

Having read more reviews it seems they do well in Asian dishes like Miso soup or shrimp stir-frys, things with a fishy background to begin with, and things I don't eat anyway.

Two thumbs DOWN, and $2.19 into the trash.

(Okay- Kevin made a shrimp stir-fry with the rest of them and I asked him what they thought. His response "They're...not...great... they don't taste like anything but chewyness")