First Birchbox!

School started on Wednesday, so I decided to pick blogging back up as a procrastination technique. I just signed up for Birchbox and Ipsy, so I'm pretty excited to do some reviews of the contents. I was put on the waitlist for both, but I got off Birchbox's waitlist just in time to get the August box. I won't get my first Ipsy box until sometime in September. My first Birchbox arrived today, and I was pretty excited to open it.

My first impressions were as follows:
I love how it's wrapped up like a gift! It makes it a little more exciting, and I'm a preschool teacher so tissue paper never goes to waste.
Everything in it is TINY. The Hair product (which is the largest thing in there) isn't quite even travel size, and the little travel bag is neat but everything else is free sample size, 5-7ml.

The products I received were:

UniqONE All in One Hair Treatment.
This is the product I'm most excited to try. I have frizzy, dry, totally unruly hair and I'm always on the lookout for products that might help repair and tame my hair.

The second product in my box was Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel Sensitive. I've never done any sort of at home peel, and I'm interested to try it. I'm glad that it's for sensitive skin because I'd be nervous to try a harsher peel at home. I've never used any Juice Beauty products, but I'm excited to try it.

The third item in my box was Dr. Jart + Premium Beauty Balm. I don't usually wear primer, and my skin is naturally oily so most moisturizers don't work well for me so I'm not sure if I'll use this or not. It's worth a try, but it's probably something I'll end up passing along to a friend who wants to try it.















The fourth item in my box was Coola SPF Sport- Mango. Sunscreen is something I'll always use, and anything that smells like Mango is something I want!




The final item in my box (which I didn't take a seperate picture of) was a ziplock bag from the Tili Bags small collection. They're marketed as a cute way to carry makeup and beauty products when you travel, because they're perfect airport carry-on size. It's a cute idea, but it really doesn't strike me as something I'll use and the pattern isn't really my style. It'll probably end up in Aiden's playroom. 




Overall, I was pleased with the products chosen, but I wish I'd gotten something larger than 7ml. Looking at the other possible boxes, I'm pretty jealous of people who got the Stila lipstick, and the people who got the It's a 10 hair product. I'm excited to try everything though, and can't wait to use posting reviews of these items as a procrastination tactic. 

Check Birchbox out for yourself!

S'more blondies

I decided to try this recipe the other day:
http://diana212m.blogspot.com/2012/06/chocolate-smores-cookie.html
I love the idea of having s'mores in cookies, they were kinda tricky to assemble that way and they didn't stay together the way I wanted when I cooked them, which made it hard to get a bite that had all the components in it.
I decided that since it didn't work out when I made them as cookies, I'd make it as one big s'more stuffed blondie. I made the cookie dough from scratch, but didn't refrigerate it or anything.
I split the cookie dough in half, and spread the first half in the bottom of the cookie pan.

 I think I did the bottom layer a little too thick, as I ended up running out of dough (because it took more to cover the top and squish the marshmallows) and it was hard to get the bottom fully cooked without burning the top.

I cut the marshmallows in half before putting them in the s'mores, and squished them down on a plate before I put them on there.

I ran out of dough for the top layer, so I had to use premade dough that I had in the freezer. I heated it up in the microwave to make it soft enough to work with, and ended up heating it a bit took long, which is why the right side looks so weird. (It still tasted great though).

I cooked it at 375 for about 30 minutes. The top looked done at about 20, but it took a little longer for the bottom to look fully cooked.

It still wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it's delicious! It's definitely something I'll make again. (Though next time I'll remember to save more dough for the top so it won't look so weird.)

Muffin Tin Pizzas

I've been browsing Pinterest a lot lately, looking for recipes and such and finally decided to try one. I wanted something easy I could make for dinner, so I tried the muffin tin pizzas http://pinterest.com/pin/6403624440984344/

I know some recipes have the potential to end up weird, so I figured that as someone who really isn't cooking inclined. I'd post the results of the recipes I tried.

They were great! I made some with pizza sauce and some with pesto sauce and the pesto was definitely my favorite. I mostly followed the recipe I found on pinterest, but with a few tiny changes.

I filled the little tins about halfway, a little less on some, and then pulled the edges up as they suggested. I was able to do 8 tiny pizzas with one 16 oz container of pizza dough. I'm a definite bread person, but for someone less into bread than I am, I would actually do it even thinner. I could probably have made 12 tiny pizzas if they were thinner.

I bought tomato sauce, instead of pizza sauce so I added a little pesto to it, some garlic, and some oregano. I didn't put a ton of sauce on, because I'm not a huge sauce person.

I wasn't sure how pepperoni and pesto would taste, so I skipped the pepperoni on the pesto ones. I did top one of them with some extra diced garlic.

I put them in the oven at 425 for about 15 minutes.  The top was fully cooked at about ten minutes, but the crust didn't seem all the way done until 15. They didn't turn out too pretty, but I thought they were great, especially the pesto ones.