Wednesday Review: The Honest Company

This company, honest.com, is about a year old, and there is a lot of hype about it online right now. It is partnered by Jessica Alba and is geared toward moms and families and the eco-friendly, organic, natural, ethical shopper.

The company offers a free sample of 5 of their cleaning and/or body products, and also a diapers and wipes sample pack, and all you pay is $5.95 shipping for both. The catch: by signing up for the free sample, they sign you up for their monthly bundle deals. You can check that out on their website. BEWARE… you have to call to cancel. This was a pain because the woman I spoke with was sooooo pushy. I had to tell her about fifteen times that I wanted to cancel.  So just be aware of this when you sign up!

Their “thing” is that they don’t use a lot of nasty bad chemicals in their products, they have some organic options, and—the thing most attractive to me—they are TRANSPARENT. I am not sure about a lot of brands, but I know that it can be pretty dang hard to find a list of ingredients on your laundry detergent bottle, or on your new pack of diapers. I would love to support them just for that reason.

I got both sample packs. I must say, the company is all about cute design and packaging, and their diaper designs are really cute. My husband and I are planning to use cloth diapers, but we want to have a brand of disposables that we can use in certain situations. Depending on how we like these, this may be our brand. Supposedly they are more biodegradable and made with fewer “bad” chemicals—I’m no scientist, though, and I’m not really going to comment of how accurate that is or not at this point in time. I need to look into that aspect a little more. We have to wait till after Christmas for the diaper and wipes review anyhow…

Ahhhh, aren’t they cute?

photo credit:http://www.foodfitnessandfamilyblog.com/tag/the-honest-company/

As for the product samples, I really love the body and face lotion. It has a light smell, and has some really fabulous oils and vitamins in it. It goes on clean and soft, not greasy or anything. I will absolutely get more of it, and it was my favorite in the pack.

I was able to get two loads out of the laundry detergent sample. We have been using either homemade detergent or All Clean and Clear. I couildn’t tell much of a difference with The Honest Company detergent and All- both are scent free and the clothes came out fresh and clean.

The healing balm has rave reviews online for winter skin and also for use as a diaper ointment. It is too humid here for dry skin right now and we have no baby to test the diaper ointment purpose. It has a clean smell and definitely goes on thick, but other than that I didn’t really think much else about it.

The hand soap is probably my second favorite. It smells awesome and has a great feel.

Shampoo and body wash– my hair is oily, so this shampoo didn’t really work well. It is okay as a body wash, but there are so many other products out there to choose from. I am not sure what would set this apart as a great one to use.

Aaaanndddd the best thing, I just found a local store that carries the products! So I stopped by yesterday and got the multi purpose cleaner, the toothpaste, and the full size bottle of lotion. AND!!! They had a limited number of canvas totes, I got the last one! they were giving them away for free.

Task Tuesday

Goals Today/This Week:

+Meal plan for the week:

Tuesday: Spaghetti pie

Wednesday:  Roast and vegetables

Thursday: steak quesadillas with leftover meat

Friday: parmesian crusted tilapia

Weekend meals: chili with rice, leftovers

Monday, Tuesday: pizza, turkey as pre-gaming for thanksgiving!

+Make pizza dough for freezer

+Make out shopping list for groceries and errands

+Start Christmas gift list for family and friends

     I’m really not great at shopping. I get overwhelmed and frustrated and feel poor and can’t find what I am looking for anywhere… so I am going to try really hard this year to be organized and think out what to get ahead of time. And get it.

+Finish Bible study lesson

+Organize winter and summer clothes

+Organize baby clothes and things into dresser

Goals/Plans

+Go to TRADER JOE’S! Which opens this week in our city!

+Visit Currie to check out more of the Honest Company Products in person (look for a review of their samples tomorrow).

No One Ever Taught Me to Be a Housewife

Some thoughts for all you stay at home housewives and moms.

No One Ever Taught Me to Be a Housewife.

Music Monday

My favorite current song is Dying Now, by Noah Gunderson. It is a stunning, quiet, beautiful duet between brother and sister. The harmony is lovely. Also, it is a PERFECT cold rainy autumn day song.

Sail on, gypsy of my heart. You’ve been hanging around, you’ve been with me from the start.
Sail on, sail on, Silver Girl, you’ve been spinning too fast, like a tilt a whirl.

I’ve done a lot of living in this town, I’ve done a lot of flying with my feet on the ground.
You can’t build your bridges after you’ve burnt them down- I’ve done a lot of living but I’m dying now.

How long, how long will it take for you to learn your lessons from all your mistakes?
How long until the well runs dry? Your bucket’s coming up empty, and you’re wondering why.

You’ve done a lot of living in this town, you’ve done a lot of flying with your feet on the ground.
You can’t build your bridges after you’ve burnt them down- I’ve done a lot of living but I’m dying now, dying now.

So long, everything must go, but I can’t leave it behind if I’ve never really known… and so long to nothing matters now, who knows if I stand a chance but I’m trying anyhow…

I’ve done a lot of living in this town, I’ve done a lot of flying with my feet on the ground.
You can’t build your bridges after you’ve burnt them down- I’ve done a lot of living but I’m dying now.

I’ve done a lot of living, but I’m dying now.

Changing Table

This is our beautiful changing table we inherited from my in laws! My mother-in-law painted it for us. I love the porcelain knobs and how sweet and bright it looks. The natural lighting in our apartment is awful, so again, you can’t really tell how lovely the color is “in real life.”

With the help of one of my friends who is well-versed in paint and colors, I choose Benjamin Moore’s “Chantilly Lace.” I’m not going to lie, I may have made my final decision based on the name because it is so beautiful!

The other color I looked at was “Simply White,” also by Benjamin Moore. It is similar, just a little bit creamier.

 

Even though we don’t have a house, I really love picking out color samples and pictures of rooms to plan for the future! I absolutely love greys, whites, pales blues and greens. And planning the non-existent nursery is fun too- that is a main reason for painting this white, so it gives us flexibility based on wherever we find ourselves in the next couple of hours.

New Shelf and Fall

I bought this beautiful shelf with some birthday money! The lighting in this room isn’t the best, so you really can’t see how beautiful and fresh the yellow color is in “real life.” I also bought the frame at a little booth at Vendors in Brookhaven, MS. The flowers were handmade by my mother in law for my wedding, and the little figurines were our wedding toppers, made by my sweet friend Lauren.

Also, I am so excited about fall! We live in a TINY space right now, so I have kept the decorations minimal. We have two sweet little pumpkins and some festive magazines.

Soon it will be time to make homemade pumpkin pie pop tarts!

Thursday Pinterest Favorites

EDIT: Frustratingly, the embedding feature wordpress is supposed to have in place for pinterest is not working, so you are stuck with links. Gross! And sorry.

Time to share some of my favorite pins, things that I hope to introduce into my life!

I really hope to be able to do this. It would help so much throughout the week, and not just breakfast, but dinner as well! It is the best feeling in the world to pull out a bag from the freezer, toss it in the crock pot, and walk in the door that night with dinner ready.

As for breakfast, I am NOT a morning person, and this would make it easier on days when I just can’t make myself cook eggs for the husband.

I. Love. Succulents. I really want to do something like this for inside the apartment somewhere. It is stunning.

One of the most difficult things for me as a clutter-freak and pack rat is organization, particularly in “hot spot” areas like the kitchen, bathroom, by the front door, and… anywhere in the bedroom. So if I had the space, this would be awesome. I may eventually make some sort of variation that is suited to my cluttery lifestyle.

[Book Nerd Links] Literary Links for a Cold Autumn Evening

Looks like something fun to browse.

A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea.

• 50 Books to Inspire Artists of All Kinds [courtesy FLAVORWIRE]
• The 10 most dramatic deaths in fiction [courtesy THE TELEGRAPH]
• Autumn Pairings: Fall Drinks & Novels [courtesy HPB.COM]
• 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Maurice Sendak [courtesy HUFF POST BOOKS]

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Banner

Since moving into a new space, we haven’t had a whole lot of storage. Sooo most of my craft stuff has been in storage.

A few weeks ago I did make this banner, though, and wanted to share it. It is hanging above our bed. I am all about EASY, so I cheated and cut corners to make this. I am not a perfectionist, so I kept it simple and it doesn’t look perfect, but that is how I like it!

To make at home:

Fabric

Scissors

Hot glue gun

yarn or twine

Basically, I cut out a paper triangle, placed it over the lace and fabric, and cut out triangles with scissors. Then I hot glued the pieces to some teal yarn I had. Easy! Even hung it with thumb tacks.

Life Update

I realize it has been over a year since my last post…

Several things have changed, some of the more dramatic and life altering being that we packed up and moved into an apartment. So, sadly, no more horse, goat, and even our puppy was killed last summer. It was hard to move, but we have been so much more mobile and anxiety-free without worrying about who will take care of animals and gardens while we are gone.

I miss my herb garden the most!!

So now we live a pretty different lifestyle, to say the least.

We have a new dog, Roux, who is fun and keeps us entertained. He is my little buddy.

I have been trying to learn to become more minimalist, very hard for a cluttery pack rat like myself. I am currently surrounded by to-do lists, mail to be sorted, and a very messy kitchen. I will get there someday!

We lost a few of our friends as well, they have moved on to other states. We miss them, for sure!

And I am hoping to get back into blogging after the long no-writing-crafting-funk I’ve been in for the last several months.