September Sub-Box Recap

Cutting it close on the last day of the month, but here's my September Sub Box recap! There are a bunch of them, so get ready for it!

My Glam Bag... err, Ipsy?
Firstly - apparently My Glam changed their name to Ipsy? I don't know. What I do know is that I am so over getting a Circus neon nail polish three months in a row. At least they've all been different colors, but still, can we just put something else in there please? I liked the eye shadow and the smudge brush though. The jane lipgloss was surprisingly sheer, though I tend to shy away from a lot of glosses because I don't exactly want to look like I just scarfed down a bucket of (pink?) fried chicken haha Split-end menders seem to be a popular item in a lot of sub boxes and I think they're onto me. My hair needs a bit (lot?) of a trim so I'll be able to report back on these more after I use them a bit longer. Overall, a "meh, but okay" box. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. 

Luv My Box *
I was sent this box for a review consideration and I didn't know if I'd be sharing it on here or not. Not because it's adult items or it might offend/spook some, but because I wasn't sure it'd appeal to me (us?) at all. Luv My Box is a "fun and flirty" monthly curated subscription with "sultry" items to appeal to couples worldwide. At $34.95 a month, it's not much of a steal, though I can quickly see where the items may greatly exceed the quality/variety shown here. I think the premise of the service is a great one, and maybe it was just this box that fell short, but I wasn't "wowed". To be honest all of these items could be purchased separately (and for cheaper, I'd think) at any adult store or even Spencer's in the mall. The site looks more promising than the September box but with a lot of sub services it's impossible to form an opinion after just one delivery. (If I did, I'd probably have canceled them all! haha) BUT with that being said, I think this would make a great/fun(ny) gift to any couple you know that are getting married or something. Even just for novelty's sake. Overall, I think it'd be a fun service as a gift or as a gamble, though I don't see myself subscribing full-time.

Love Club *
I shared my first Love Club box last month and in my review I stated how I liked the box and the idea, but I felt like the packaging was very haphazard and messy. Well, that was certainly not the case this month. Everything was neatly tucked in a bag, sealed with cute washi tape, and stacked in a way that felt more like opening several small gifts as opposed to a cluster of stuff popping out of a box. This month's offerings were super cute. My absolute favorite were the decals (up top). I'm a sucker for decals and have always wanted to learn to make my own for Honeybean, and these were darling. Also included were notecards, small gum, fragrance, heart stickers, a tealight candle and a print. I loved the packaging, for sure. 

GlossyBox
Oh Glossy. With the exception of the (absolutely perfectly colored) nail polish, I was just kind of "mehhhhh" about this box. Nothing special, though I feel like if I were to give these products more time/a chance I may be pleasantly surprised. The sub-box thing is hard when you share everything after getting it. I don't want to rush into sharing because duh, I want to give a review, but also because I'm on a schedule. I think I'll explore these more and really share once I have solid opinions. More hair serums and face serums, too. I actually canceled my GlossyBox after this month because I wasn't "wowed" enough to keep paying $20 for stuff that will sit in my Samples bin in my office. That nail polish though? I'm going to wear the heck out of it!

BirchBox
I was not impressed with this package and I feel like I don't even need to go into details as to why. I don't get the hype over the elastics, and the Tilli bags are just fancy Ziplocs (sorry, but true, right?). The body whip did smell nice, and I actually don't mind the color of the nail polish. The face blotting tissues will be nice for my bag (especially on our wedding day), but overall, I just felt super underwhelmed. I prepaid a year's worth of boxes back earlier this year so I don't have to worry about canceling, but hopefully October's is better! At the end of the day I still think BB is my favorite subscription box.

Yumvelope *
Yumvelope is a natural snack subscription service and it's super no-frills (which is kind of nice). Your items come in a padded mailer and there's no confetti, tissue paper or ribbon. While I love all of those things (okay, maybe not the confetti. It gets everywhere!), the simple approach to the packaging fits with the theme of simple snacks. I have to admit I'm not big on cashew butter and while I like the occassional cup of tea, I'm not an avid drinker, I liked what I've tried. My thumbs go way up for the cookies and Fig bar, and the Bliss Bar too. The subscription is $19 a month but I feel like the quality and amount of product you get is well worth it, especially if you're all about natural + fair trade items. I also think the experience would be much better if the branding + website was more aesthetically pleasing. (Ridic to judge a sub service on their site look, but then again, tons of other people are doing it, too! I think it has the potential to be something so much bigger with the right branding and marketing.)
Nicely Noted *
Nicely Noted is a letterpress stationery subscription service that delivers 3 greeting cards to your mailbox each month. I actually totally forgot to photograph the 3 stamps that came with the box, but they were great. As a designer I love all things that are well-executed. I love letterpress and feel fortunate to live just across the river from one of the oldest working letterpresses in America (Hatch Show Print!). I loved the idea for this box and even with the price tag ($18). What made me love the box even more: The cards themselves! The Thanks A Million is cute, but the other two just take the cake. I'm one of those people who hoards my pretty stationery because I don't like to part with it, but these cards are truly worth writing in and giving away. Worth every penny in my book!

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Got any sub boxes you'd like to share? I'd love to find a few more off-beat ones to try!

* denotes the subscription box was courtesy of the brand for review consideration. All other boxes are purchased with my own money. As always, opinions are my own!

People You Should Know...

Please take a moment to check out this month's featured sponsors below! A crafty mama, a baking extraordinaire, and an online boutique where you can get a whole new wardrobe for less than an outfit at other stores. It's been such a pleasure having these sweet ladies on board with LCH this month. I think if you take a chance to see what they have to offer you may just find your new favorite blog/shop! 

LOVENELL // (an "honest" !!!) online boutique
"We know that whatever the occasion is, wearing something new always makes us feel nicer and a little more confident. We know that buying something new isn’t always affordable or being smart with your money. We truly believe that you don’t have to spend a lot to look amazing. Thus, we consider ourselves an “honest boutique”. Which means: we promise to always be “honest” with our prices. 
We also know that people shop online for two reasons:

1. To buy something that‘s different {something that’s not the same as everyone else or something that’s hard to find} and...

2. Because it’s probably a better deal than it would be to shop in person. 
How do we do it? We handpick quality items ourselves and we cut out unnecessary expenses on our part {middlemen, expensive buyers, an unreasonable amount of employees, etc.} to keep costs low.
Because of this, you are purchasing some of the same items from higher priced boutiques, but at a much lower price.
You may see a lot of boutiques initially price their products high, only to later mark these items on sale. We feel that being honest from the beginning is the best policy. Don’t get us wrong, we love a good sale. But we’d like to keep you as a customer by avoiding unnecessary mark ups. And even though our prices are great, you will always have the promise of boutique service. 
Based out of Southern California, we like to think of our style as “airy” and “light” but we also love ruffles and bows and aren’t keen to being lumped into one classification of style.

Take a look around. Visit our blog. Send us requests or just drop a line to say hello. We love new friends."
** A few of my favorite items: this dress, this clutch, this shirt! **

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Saturated Canary // crafty + talented mama

"Hello! My name is Krista. I draw. I like coffee and diet cokes. My kids are kinda goofy and pretty much my whole world. And my guy, well, he is my heart. I also like tattoos, and I love Jesus. My blog is a fun way for me to savor the best parts of my days. I'd love if you hung around for a bit and said hello. I love to meet new friends!"

Krista has an 8 year old daughter, 6 year old son, sweet hubby she met on a blind date (!!!) and is one of the most talented illustrators I've seen. She has a penchant for drawing the sweetest characters (she even drew me once! I cherish that little thing!) and her blog is the perfect documentation of her life with her adorable family. She's a free spirit and continues to be one of the nicest gals around the blog world. She's also totally stunning and has such effortless style. Am I gushing enough?

**My favorite SC posts: this one, this one and this one (respect!)!  **

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Dermie Pie // vegan baking queen

Andrea just recently traded her New York homestead for a fresh start in Los Angeles. Her blog, Dermie Pie, documents her adventures in vegan baking. I think her blog tag line sums her up perfectly: "1 part floral, 2 parts tattoo, equal parts vegan and girly. A dash of baking and a sprinkle of sweetness. Mix and enjoy." Pretty cute right? You'll find a delicious list of baking ideas in her blog, and it may cause you to rush to your nearest grocery store to stock up on supplies. Those doughnuts up there? What the what?! My tummy is growling already.

BLOG // TWITTER // TUMBLR

** My two favorite DP recipes: blueberry biscuits and apple pie coffee cake! **


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If you're interested in becoming the featured sponsor (or any size for that matter!) for October, shoot me an email and/or check out the sponsor page! I'll only be taking new ads for 2 more days! 

Cottage Tour : Bedroom etc.

For the final installation of our cottage tour, I'm combining our bedroom with our bathroom and Toby's room, too. I'm keeping them pretty short as we didn't get a chance to photograph everything but that's probably for the best...
Up first: Toby's room. It's a "shark" theme (very loosely). He liked the idea of the stuffed sharks and the Ryan Berkeley artwork, so that worked out nicely. He loves stuffed animals and he looooves books. He has loads of each. It's not really the perfect room, but considering he came to live with us when that room was piled to the ceiling with Honeybean inventory, we think we've done a pretty good job at turning it into his own little space. While you can't see it in the photos, he has ample shelving in his room. There's a huge bookshelf parrallel to his bed which houses all of his toys and Power Ranger swords. He's very particular about where those items go, too. Next to that is a vertical paper tower light, then his dresser and another small table. Across from that is a short bookcase under his light switch, then the wall turns and it goes to his double door closet.

My parents bought his bed + dresser at Walmart when he first came to live with us and the bed has storage underneath so it's perfect. The floor is painted concrete so we just put down a huge rug we had in our loft. The room was an addition to our house so it's about 4 inches lower than the rest of the place. The windows are such awkward sizes so we don't have curtains on them, but the blinds do their job. (Remind me to get better pictures... these are so horrible and so incomplete haha)
Now here's our bedroom. I've shared some Instagrams of it in the past. Nothing special. We each have a side of the room that we kind of "decorated" (I use that term loosely). As I've said a million and seven times, Mike is really laid back about the decor so we agreed on white + grey bedding, then he let me have all of my floofy pink pillows. He has a lot of Ron Swanson art and guitars on his side. He did all of the arranging on the wall perpendicular to our bed, too. Our Nashville prints are all from Anderson Design Group here in town. You can see a third Nashville print in Toby's room, and then our final (and favorite!) is sitting framed in the living room... just not hung yet. Doesn't make much sense, I know. But we want to make sure we find the perfect home for it. (All but the one in Toby's room is re: the Nashville flood in 2010. It's a great reminder to us on how far we've come since losing everything. They'll always be really special to me. The one on the left is the 1 year anniversary print, and the one on the right is 1 in a series of 3. Sadly I only own 2 of them!)

The awesome moose head up top is from White Faux Taxidermy! It's one of our very favorite things in the entire house. I wish I would've caught a glimpse at this one earlier because that would so be on our wall! Two thumbs way up on that! All of the other artwork in our room is from various Etsy shops and Fab.com. I'll list all of those below! Our bed sits on 4 flat wooden pallets that we put down as a foundation. Mike loves lowwww platform beds and I most definitely do not, so this was our compromise haha A lot of people ask how we secured them and to answer that: we didn't. We just laid them down and plopped our mattress + boxspring on top! $5 project, boom! 

You also can't tell but on either side of the dresser/Nashville prints there is a closet. Both of the closets in the bedroom are Mike's so he has ample storage space, too. I promise I don't hog all of the closets in the house! Just the one in my office!

Then finally, a couple peeks at the bathroom. Our home is pretty small (1011 sq ft) for the three of us, and it only has one bathroom. We know it's not that small in comparison to some places but we definitely make it work for us. In our loft Mike kind of let me get away with a "cat" theme but this one is minimally girly I guess. At least when compared to the other one! I know it's time for me to part with this Cynthia Rowley shower curtain but I just can't! I've been scouring the internet for a replacement forever but with no luck :( I'm going to hold on for dear life haha. Also - note my dried carnations in the milk glass. Whoops!


TOBY'S BEDROOM:
Bed + Dresser : Walmart
Nashville print : Anderson Design Group
Rug : Walmart
Shark illustrations : Ryan Berkeley
Various thrifted tables + accents

OUR BEDROOM:
Pallets : dude at our storage unit
Side tables : repurposed from thrifted pieces + sewing table
Nashville prints : Anderson Design Group
Moose head : White Faux Taxidermy
Artwork : Nan Lawson, Eine Der Guten, etc
Lights : Target
Throw Pillows : TJ Maxx

BATHROOM:
Shelves : Fred's clearance section (years ago)
Fake plant : Ikea
Cat figurines : yard sale
Cat print : Fab.com (forget the artist!)
2 smaller illustrations : Scathingly Brilliant / Flapper Doodle
FLYNN letters : Hobby Lobby
Shower curtain : Cynthia Rowley

We decided to skip the kitchen and hallway (if you can call a tiny little square a hallway) because they're awkward spaces. Our kitchen is laid out really poorly and we've never really done much to fix that. We have a stand alone pantry that just sticks out like a sore thumb, and it has the doors to our little laundry room, too. It's just a super weird layout and we don't even have a dine in kitchen. Looking forward to when a dining room table is possible but until then, we're making the most of our little home here on the East side. Thanks for taking a look!

Things I Love Thursday

this is all this TiLT needs. f'real. ♥
this pretty picture. ♥
the cutest couple! (so many cherry blossoms!) ♥
this! ♥
this happy kitty. ♥
this is where i wanna go. ♥
this photo project. (thanks for the source becky!) ♥
these shoes! ♥
these rings. ♥
the most famous cat on the internet ♥
THIS! i love bulldogs ♥

// Wanna know why I'm not afraid of how my tattoos are going to look when I'm "old"? Check this out.  Ballin'.

// If this girl isn't the cutest thing you've ever seen then I don't know what is.

// If you're interested in supporting a very good cause (for children!) + getting a beautiful piece of artwork in return, please check out Krista's most recent blog post.


// Beth is giving away a $20 Target giftcard!

// Lindsay shared an e-design for a "rustic and fun" living room. I love the colors she chose!


// I am in looooveeee with the outfit Roxy wore to this gorgeous wedding.

// Repurpose a dining room table into a farm table for only $30!


// I think I may just utilize a cheese grater for an earring holder at Honeybean's next event! It's kind of cute!

// Offline love: being part of a surprise party for our dear friend Merissa! -- the wedding being only 9 days away (!!!) - the weather forecast has cleared up for our wedding portraits saturday and the wedding weekend! (please stay that way!) - get so much crafting done thanks to my helpful soon-to-be-husband - having so much support and help from friends and family - going to dinner with my sweet friend maya tonight - going to get my nails done today (if i get around to it...) - oodles of craft store coupons - morning coffee from a shark mug - banana nut + chocolate chip muffins.


What are you loving this week?

Cottage Tour : Office/Studio


I feel like I should pre-face my office tour with a big ol' disclaimer: It won't look like this (hopefully!) for much longer. One of the first projects I plan to tackle post-honeymoon is rearranging + organizing my office. Right now there are just too many shoes and not enough area to cut fabric and store it. Since Toby came into the picture in February I've realized how impractical 6" platform shoes are. I plan on keeping around a handful of pairs, because the tag line of this blog does include "ugly shoes" afterall haha Mike and I are planning on expanding our online offerings via Etsy and a more legitimate e-commerce site later this Autumn so work and storage space is a must. I'll miss being surrounded by those shoes though!

I also am not sharing to many photos of my closet. It's huge (15"+ wide) but it's still a mess from getting rid of nearly 70 items last week. It also has shoe storage at the bottom of it, too. I'm really proud I was able to part with that much, so I'm trying to keep the trend going. The purses you'll see up top? Totally haphazardly thrown... and it's kind of embarrassing. I'll be cutting those down majorly and getting rid of some via Kaelah's Closet and the rest will be donated or given to friends. I see a lot of things changing for me over the next week or two, but I'm saving that for another blog post!

Anyway! Here's where I spend 8-15 hours every. single. day haha!



Desk + sidecart : Ikea
Chair : Reupholstered yard sale find
Tall cubbies + shelving : Lowes / Target / Walmart
White bookshelves : Walmart
Pink dresser : Restored thrift store find
Mugshot print : Larken on Etsy (via Renegade '11)
Dog breed illustrations : Tiny Confessions on Etsy (via Fab)
Dream Big caravan watercolor : Ella Masters
Gertrude / Taxidermy : yard sale + some paint + a wig

I didn't think about doing a resource list from our living room, but most of it was made/thrifted anyway. If you have any questions about the source of anything else (in this room or otherwise), feel free to ask below :) You can also see past home tours HERE! Happy Wednesday!