Julep Maven review

    As a mom, it's important to remember to take time for yourself, for a little alone time or some pampering. It's hard for me to make that a priority so it's rare that I buy stuff for myself or take time to go get a manicure or pedicure. When I ran across Julep Maven the other day with a promo code to receive my first box for just a penny, I figured it would be a fun way to spoil myself with a little gift in the mail. And to feel a little pretty even when I normally have all manner of snot and other baby residue on me. 

     Julep Maven is a beauty subscription box similar to Birchbox, except it's just for nail products and you get full-sized products. Also, instead of the contents of the box being a surprise, you get to choose which box you receive or skip it that month entirely. It's perfect for someone who likes to receive mail, but is a little hesitant about paying for a surprise every month that they may or may not like. Or for someone who wants to only receive a box when their budget allows. 

    I signed up for Julep Maven and the box came within a week and was packaged nicely. The two nail polishes I received were wrapped in bubble wrap and I also got toe separators and Julep The Best Pedi Ever pedicure cream. Also in the box was a welcome letter from the Maven program and a card detailing all the products in my box. If purchased separately on the website, all of the contents of the box would have cost more than $40. The polishes are priced at $14 normally. Because I used a promo code when I signed up, I got it all for a penny (see below to get the code).

     The two nail polishes that I got were: Niecy, a bright pink color, and Susie, a mint green creme. The polishes are typically named after celebrities and a lot of them are based on a color that the celebrity wears a lot or of an iconic look they wore to an award's show. For instance, the nail color Blake (named for actress Blake Lively) is yellow, a color she wears frequently. And the color Gwyneth was inspired by the dress Gwyneth Paltrow wore to the Oscars.

    The formula goes on well, if a little thin, and dries quickly. All of Julep's polishes are four free, meaning they do not contain formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, toluene, or DBP. I really love the mint green color and think it is a perfect color for spring. I was a little apprehensive about it at first because I'm normally a red, pink, or nude polish girl, but I am digging this color. As far as chipping goes, the polish lasted for several days, though it got chipped while I was working on the cabinets. Oops!

   The Julep Maven program is very easy to sign up for. You start by taking a style quiz [here] so the company can best tailor your monthly boxes to your preferences. When you complete the quiz there are five styles that you could fall under - Classic with a Twist (mine), Boho Glam, American Beauty, Bombshell, and It Girl.  

    The Maven program is really neat compared to other monthly subscription boxes. What's great about this program is that they let you see what products are available before they are mailed out for that month so you can make your own decision to either keep the box based on your style, switch to a different style, gift your box to a friend, or skip the month entirely and not be charged. The subscription is $19.99 a month if you choose to receive a box. Of course, if you just want to get the first box for a penny and then cancel, you can do that too. 

      If you use the codes PENNY or COLORS4ONE or COLOR2012, you can get your first box for just one cent. You may have to pay tax depending on what state you live in, but your box should still be less than a couple dollars. 

     * Julep did not pay me for the review. I just really enjoyed the products and wanted to share the deal with you. 

Random Friday

1. Owen eats. 

     A Battle Royale has been going down at the Rumely house this week. Owen has been spoiled by Cheddar Bunnies and yogurt and has been refusing to eat anything that isn't sweet or salty. So we cut him off cold turkey and he has been putting up a fight every meal time by spitting out pretty much anything we feed him. He is done with baby food and refuses to eat any of it, but he doesn't seem to want to eat anything else either. Things have improved in the past few days little by little. He really likes eating whatever we eat (though sometimes he can't if it's too spicy or too difficult for him to eat). I have also found that he will at least try most anything if I put it on his baby fork and let him feed himself. He recently ate broccoli and tilapia with us at dinner the other night. And in the morning, instead of sweet fruity yogurt or oatmeal, I've fed him turkey sausage and scrambled egg. I still give him fruit as a snack, but nothing that is artificially sweetened. You hear that Dad? No more sneaking icecream to the kiddo! The picture below is of him eating lunch yesterday. Turkey meat in a whole wheat pita with tomato and mozzarella cheese.

 

2. Oprah's Book Club 2.0. 

     While searching for my next book to read, I came across an announcement for Oprah's new online interactive book club. (Look under your chair - "You get a book, and you get a book, and you get a book!") I was intrigued because Oprah has the ability to really influence people when it comes to reading and I thought her first pick, "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed, looked pretty interesting. I told my sister-in-law Leah about it last weekend and I think she might do it too. 
Here's a synopsis:

"A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an eleven-hundred-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe—and built her back up again. At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she'd lost everything when her mother died. Her family scattered in their grief, her marriage was soon destroyed, and slowly her life spun out of control. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, Strayed made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker--indeed, she'd never gone backpacking before her first night on the trail. Her trek was little more than 'an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.' But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her."

     I've never been much for reading nonfiction and memoirs, but I think this looks interesting and I'm willing to give it a try. I haven't started reading yet, but I will hopefully get some time this weekend to read a little. 

3. My birthday.  

     I will be turning 27 on Monday. I can't believe that I'm on the downhill slope to 30. It feels like I just graduated college yesterday. Sometimes in my head, I still think I'm 22 or 24. And then I remember, oh yeah, I graduated from college, worked two jobs, got married, moved across the country, bought a car, had a baby, moved back across the country, bought a house... So I guess I've accomplished a bit in the last five years. We'll see what happens in this coming year. 
     We don't really have plans so far for celebrating my birthday, but I'm hoping that maybe we can come up with something fun to do. We celebrated my birthday with my parents last weekend while they were in town. It was so much fun just hanging out with them, relaxing on the back porch, talking, laughing, drinking some local Kentucky wine, and playing Kinect. My parents were both good sports and gave it a try. It was awesome. Anyway, this weekend, I'm thinking it might be fun to make a day trip to Lexington or even Louisville. We'll see...

4. Photo challenge.  

     Alright, I confess. I haven't been really committed to the daily photo challenge from Stylized Portraiture. I have done a few, but some haven't really appealed to me. "Self-portrait"...please. I'm not a fifteen year old taking pictures for my Facebook profile. But, I will say that it has gotten me to pick up my camera a little more often and that's how I've gotten some super cute pictures of my little man.

5. Housewarming gift.  

     We recently got a set of adirondack chairs from my inlaws as a housewarming gift. They look so pretty out in our backyard in our little sitting area off the back deck. Now that we have a yard bigger than a postage stamp for the first time, we spend so much time outside relaxing and playing. We also eat outside on the back deck a lot. It's so nice just to sit and read in those chairs or watch Owen play with his water table. We love them! And as of a couple days ago, we got another surprise in the mail from them - a miniature adirondack chair just for Owen. It's so cute. 

6. Cabinets! 

     We're done! We're done! We're finally done! Cue happy dance. We finished hanging all the cabinets on Wednesday night and we have started putting away all our dishes and pots and pans. The cabinets look so good. (A how-to blog post with our step-by-steps and a cost breakdown is forthcoming). I keep finding reasons to go into the kitchen just so I can look at them. Of course there are still a lot of things we need to do in the kitchen like repaint the walls and replace the ceiling fan with a light fixture, but for now we feel very accomplished and we're really happy with our results. Here's a sneak peek!

7. Decoration inspiration.  

     I love reading decorating magazines and finding ideas for decorating our house. Unfortunately, it normally ends there and I forget about the things I see in the magazines. I have been toying with the idea of a home inspiration notebook after my sister-in-law Leah mentioned making one on her blog. After considering several different ways of doing it, I settled on making one of my own using a sketchbook with blank white pages (the perfect backdrop). I didn't want colors or lines distracting from the pictures. I also made tabs to divide the book by room using paint swatches that I picked up at Lowe's. Now when I see something I like in a magazine or a pretty paint swatch, I can glue it into the notebook and keep track of it there until it's time to work on that room.

8. Umba Box reveal.  

     My mom got her first Umba box last month for her Mother's Day gift and will get her second this month for her birthday. (She'll get a third in July just because she's a great mom).     Her first box came with a set of handmade thank you cards and a peach-scented candle. 
     The cards are from El y Ella Paper Designs. You can see her stuff at http://etsy.me/elyellapaperdesigns. The candle was made by Evoluxe. You can see her candles at http://bit.ly/evoluxe. I was really happy with what my mom received. They might not be what I would have picked out myself, but I think she is really enjoying receiving a surprise in the mail each month. If you're interested in trying out Umba Box, use the code SWEETSUMMER for 20 percent off your first box. 

Wittlebee subscription box deal

    I got a really great deal on a new subscription box this morning from Plum District and wanted to share with my mommy friends. Plum District is currently offering a voucher for a two month subscription to Wittlebee ($80 value) for $45. 
    Wittlebee is a monthly kids clothing club where you get eight items a month or more valued at more than $100. I did a little research online beforehand and reviews for this company are really great. Also, I had a question about something and called their hotline and spoke to a real person after less than a couple minutes on hold.
   When you sign up, you complete a style quiz and fill out information about your child's size, favorite colors, style (preppy, sporty, hipster, diva, princess, etc.) and then they send you a specially curated box of clothes each month. 
    The best thing about the Plum District deal is if you pay with a Visa credit or debit card and use the code VISA10, you can get an extra 10 percent off. Which means you're basically paying $40 for two months of the service, a 50 percent discount! That's $2.50 per item of clothing in the box. I can't think of anywhere where you could get a price like that on new clothes. If you're interested in the deal, click through this link. 

Kitchen Mood Boards

    As we're nearing the completion of our kitchen cabinet project, I've been trying to decide what I want our final kitchen to look like. We still have a ways to go, but I think it's important to have a clear vision in your head before you just start doing projects and making purchases. I made three mood boards for our kitchen because we'll probably be painting the walls soon and I wanted to have an idea of what the rest of the decor might be. Which of the three is your favorite?

Owen is fourteen months old!

    I haven't been posting monthly updates on Owen in a couple months and I wanted to get back in the habit of doing it. At least so I can remember and then use it to fill out his baby book later. Once I unpack it. :)
     At 14 months old, Owen weighs 23.7 pounds. I'm not sure how tall he is. He will have another appointment with the pediatrician in a month. He is growing and changing so fast.     I don't have stickers for Owen's onesies anymore, so I'm just going to post some pictures I took of him in the last month. There aren't a lot because we've been pretty busy.


Eating: 
Owen eats mainly baby food still because it is just easier for us at the moment with the kitchen in disarray. But he is starting to eat more and more "grown-up" food. He loves eating oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast. He can eat pasta, small bites of chicken, peas, bits of ground beef, potatoes, and other soft-cooked vegetables. He had zucchini recently and seemed to like it okay. He loves strawberries and grapes. He has his sippy cup available most of the day and drinks either water or a mixture of water and juice. He doesn't love milk that much, but he is off the bottle and formula. His favorite snacks are Cheddar Bunnies or Goldfish crackers. 


Sleeping: 
Owen is still a champ at sleeping through the night. He will sleep for a good 12 hours every night. He typically naps twice a day. His morning nap starts at 10 or 10:30 and lasts for an hour to an hour and a half. His second nap is in the afternoon and it lasts for about 45 minutes to an hour. Sometimes he refuses to take a second nap, which is okay since he sleeps so long in the night. For his bedtime routine, one of us takes Owen to his room and turns on his Sleep Sheep and his Scout Pal lullaby music for ten minutes. Then we wrap him in his special blanket and rock him and sing to him. Then we lay him down and he will fall asleep on his own pretty easily. 


Other Things I Want to Remember: 
Owen is in size 3 diapers. He wears either size 4 or size 6-12 month shoes right now. My mom bought him a pair of Crocs recently, and they are so cute. He wears size 12 months and 12-18 month clothes. 
     Owen is walking really well now. He has even started to run if you pretend to chase him. He crawls pretty rarely now. 

     Owen has lots of "tricks" he can do: blow kisses, give kisses on the lips, clap, high five, wave, pull his shirt up and pat his belly if you ask, "Where's your belly?", and he can point to your nose if you ask him where your nose is.
      He has started learning some sign language and can say "more," "please," and "all done." He does them pretty fast now so it can be hard to recognize them sometimes. He also has morphed them into his own signs, so please doesn't look like it should, but we know what he means. 
     Owen has a few words under his belt now. He can say: Momma (rarely), Dada (rarely), book, uh-oh, and boo (as in peek-a-boo). His newest word is cookie.
     Owen has 10 teeth now. Four in front on top and bottom and two molars on top. He will be getting a molar on the bottom soon. 
     Owen's favorite thing to do is read books. He spends all day bringing me books to read him. His favorite books (based on the ones he brings me most often) are: "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," "Snuggle Puppy," "Pat the Bunny," "Heads," "Tails," "There's a Wocket in My Pocket," and some book about trucks with sliding windows. 
     Owen likes playing with his Poppity Pop Musical Dino and has gotten really good and putting the balls back into the dino. He also likes pushing around his walker. We recently unpacked his Jumperoo and he has had fun playing in that again. Otherwise, he doesn't play much with his toys. He likes trying to get into the kitchen trash can and bring me "presents." He likes going into our bathroom and stealing my hairbrush. He likes trying to get to the TV remote, our cell phones, and our laptops. 

     Owen enjoys bathtime. He could play for hours in the tub. He likes to try to stand up in the tub, so I spend the entire time sitting him back down again. 
     Owen loves being outside, but he still doesn't like the feeling of grass. Mainly we play on front porch. His favorite thing to do is throw his toys through the slats on the front porch into the mulch in the front flowerbed. 

Random Friday

     My parents are in town visiting us this weekend. I'm really excited to see them and to have them see Owen's new tricks. It's been about four weeks since we saw them last and already Owen has changed so much. Otherwise, here's what's been going on this week in our lives.


1. Owen's new carseat.  We ordered Owen's new carseat earlier this week and got it on Wednesday. We ordered the Britax Advocate 70CS in Opus Gray. It has really great reviews and even though it is really expensive, as Tim said, "You can't put a price on your kid's safety." We are so excited for Owen to be able to sit up higher and be able to look out the windows better. And we're hoping the gray doesn't heat up as much as the black version would. Unfortunately, while the girls have tons of color options, boys pretty much get either black or gray. There was a blue pattern, but it looked really feminine so we decided against it. Owen seems pretty confused now that he's in the new seat facing forward. I'm not sure whether he likes it or not. 

2. Holidays galore! Tim's and my family have tons of birthdays/holidays to celebrate in the summer. It's pretty much nonstop gift buying for three months from May through July. In June alone, we will have my birthday and both my mom and my father-in-law's birthdays in addition to Father's Day for three dads now (It's still weird for me to have to remember to buy Tim presents for Father's Day now). Last week, Tim and I ordered presents for my father-in-law's birthday and for his Father's Day. I bought one of his gifts from Joss & Main, which is such a fun website. It mainly has deals on home decor and furniture. Also in June, my mom will be getting another Umba box for her birthday. So that leaves Father's Day presents for my dad and Tim. Then in July, we have both my brother-in-law's and my sister-in-law's birthdays as well as two of my best friends' birthdays.

3. Julep Maven. If you've read my blog often, then you have probably noticed that I am obsessed with the concept of subscription boxes. I recently signed up to try one called Julep, which gives you three nail polishes or nail care products a month for $19.99. I'm really excited about it because summer is the best time for nail polishes. Right now, you can sign up and receive your first month for just a penny! You just fill out the questionnaire so they can tailor the items in the box to your style taste (I'm classic with a twist, though you don't have to stick with your results) and then enter the word PENNY in the special promo section when you check out. You may have to pay a little for tax depending on what state you live in, but in Kentucky, I didn't have to pay tax. You can then either keep the subscription, skip a month (if you don't like the options for that month) or cancel at any time. Here's a link for you to sign up if you're interested. I get points for getting others to sign up, so if you would like to, please use my link so I get credit for it! 

4. Blog2Print. Having my blog run out of space for photos last week really made me start thinking about the future of my blog and what I plan to do with all the information on it, particularly stuff about Owen. I was really excited recently to find the site Blog2Print, which takes your blog and turns it into a book. I really want to make a book of all my pregnancy posts and of Owen's weekly updates, etc. I did a little preview of what my book might be like, so I may go back and alter some of my previous posts to spread out the photos and things to make it look better. A 20-page hardback book is $24.95 and extra pages are 35 cents each.

5. Grilling our dinners. Tim and I have really been enjoying grilling our dinners and eating at home again while we're completing our kitchen cabinet renovation. So far, we have made I think five dinners on the grill. We have done garlic shrimp, paella, jerk chicken wings, tilapia, and hobo dinners. They have all been pretty fantastic and really easy. 

6. Photo challenge. The photographers who did Owen's one year photos recently posted this 30-Day Photo Challenge for June on their blog and I'm thinking about joining in. I thought I might post the photos on the blog instead of Facebook, though. I think it might be kind-of fun and hopefully get me back into taking pictures more often. I've gotten pretty burnt out trying to take pictures all the time during Owen's first year and I've realized that I've hardly taken any photos in the past couple months. That probably has a lot to do with being in the hotel and moving, but it's partly because I've gotten tired of trying to remember to take photos and drag the camera around wherever we go.

7. Cabinet update. We are finished painting the cabinets! Yay! We painted last weekend and a couple days during this week and we finished our second coat in the kitchen last night.  Now we have to wait between 3 and 5 days for the cabinets to cure before we put the hardware on and attach the doors back on. I can't wait to see what it looks like. We will also be painting the windows and the wainscoting so that they will match the cabinets. They are currently an off-white color and the whiter cabinets make them look a little dirty. Our countertops don't look that great with the new cabinet color either, but we knew that was going to happen and we're hoping to replace the countertops at some point. 

Free summer playlist

    Hi friends! If you are interested in some free summertime music, check out the link below.   USA Today is offering a free 10-song playlist from iTunes. I had a little trouble getting it to download at first, but I just reloaded the page and used a new download code and it worked the second time around. The playlist includes some great bands like The Band Perry, Feist, and Young the Giant. I don't know any of the other bands and singers on the playlist, but I will be listening to all the music when I get the chance. The playlist features all the songs listed below. It seems to have a good mix of folksy music, country, and pop.
   

Click here to download the playlist now!