I was especially eager to open my Stitch Fix box this week.

That little box of goodies was shuttled straight upstairs where I placed it in Caleb’s room, so I could do an unboxing video on Facebook Live. (All other rooms were either occupied by my family or have terrible Wifi reception).

As soon as I got my make-up on, I was called to help a son with a math assignment. Then there were second grade papers to take a photo of and upload. Emails and phone calls came in related to the boys’ schooling. I had to run to the school to pick up science materials, and before you knew it, it was time to make them lunch. Lunch soon led to more tech help, and by the end of the day I was way too emotionally beat up to do a video. I had done my face so nicely that day too.

The next day I was not nearly as prepared. All high hopes for my day were replaced with more realistic ones. I put on eyeliner and mascara only and not even contacts, but by golly, I got my Facebook Live Stitch Fix video done! (Update: Sorry! I deleted that page, not realizing how much I would lose, so it is no more.)

I was annoyed at getting three different grey tops.

This sort of thing has never happened to me before, and I have been using Stitch Fix for three or four years. It is a hit or miss thing, letting someone else pick out your clothes for you!

But this is very much the perfect year for trying a shopper service like Stitch Fix.

So I purchased two items from the box and sent the other three back in the return envelope they send you with your box. Then I went online, told them what I did not like, and I ordered another box. That’s right. I am giving them one more try in helping me with my winter wardrobe. I asked for the same things I did last time: accessories and cozy clothes. We shall see if they get it more right this time.

Here is what the clothes looked like on:

Which do you think looks better? Tucked or untucked?

I actually do think this shirt is cute, but I did send it back. Three grey shirts is not what I want. Hard years need colorful clothes to help cheer us up!!

Yet another black and grey shirt, but this one just fell right on me. It is SUPER comfy, and I thought it was flattering from all angles. That is a keeper. Sorry these photos have such terrible quality. I did not realize how bad they were until I uploaded them.

If a shirt makes you feel good about yourself, you keep it.

Now do not let that first pic fool you. I am not into false advertising. This top only looked good on me from that one angle. Otherwise, it made me look like giant walking hips. So, no thank you. Back to Stitch Fix you go.

Maybe I could have salvaged this shirt by ripping off the bottom eight inches, like Trinny does. But it was not worth it for an ugly colored top with drawstrings. Bleh.

So what do you guys think?

Would you have kept all those grey tops? Do you crave color as much as I do right now? 2020 demands brilliant color, I think. It brightens your day.

I will keep you all updated when I get my next box. Maybe it will be a whole lot better. Here’s hoping!

If you would like to give Stitch Fix a try for yourself, click here to get $25 off your first box of clothes. That code applies whether you buy one things or five, does not matter.

For more Stitch Fix Posts, see below:

Stitch Fix Review for Summer 2020

Stitch Fix: Yea or Nay?

The post Stitch Fix Winter 2020: I Hope You Love Grey appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This was probably my tenth or so Stitch Fix box, and shorty shorts aside, this box was an exciting hit. This box had two adorable tops, two dresses that fit perfectly, and a terrible pair of Daisy Dukes.

Since Alan was working from home on Friday, he was able to take photos for me. He was quite helpful and actually gave me input as to what I should keep. His favorite dress was the blue flowered one. John David agreed. The only thing Alan and I disagreed on was the shorts. I did not take a photo of me in the shorts because me in those shorts is not happening. Only a man would be like, “Yes! Yes, wear the shorts! They’re perfect for when we go to the creek.”

Every woman knows when her time comes that she no longer looks good in Daisy Dukes, and that time arrived for me quite some time ago. Actually, thighs have always been my thickest area, and I have never felt comfortable in little shorts. I live in cropped pants or capri pants in the summer. Those are my uniform. I am a firm believer in wearing what is flattering more so than what is currently trendy.

Here are all the outfits. I am no model, friends, but I did put on eyeliner for this. A little foundation would’ve been helpful. But hey, what is a pandemic good for if it’s not an excuse to wear less make-up?

The bra question

I mentioned in the video that I normally don’t wear shirts like this because I do not do strapless bras, nor do I have any other types of specialty bras that I wear for longer than a two hour wedding or such. However, I noticed wearing a sports bra with this top almost worked perfectly. What is needed is simply a racer back style bra, so I went online and found one on Soma and ordered it. It was on sale, had five-star ratings, and came in tons of colors and sizes, so that sounds pretty perfect. Click here to order one for yourself. No, I don’t work for them and won’t make money if you buy it. Maybe I should look into that though…I’m always looking for more advertisers…

Alan and John David both liked this dress best, and that is why I am keeping it because really I wasn’t that impressed. Yes, it fits perfectly, but the material is only okay. I will probably wear it to church, whenever we finally get to go back to church.

This one is my FAVORITE. I am wearing this shirt at this very moment. It’s lightweight but not see through, and the material is super cute. Love it!

This is the kind of dress that I LOVE, and Alan and J.D. were like, “Yeah, it’s good, but not as good as the blue flowered one.” I don’t care. I like it best and will wear it more often. Maybe clothes that aren’t body-hugging are to me what hoodies are to middle schoolers…they just feel safe and cozy.

I have to wear my Clarks sandals with everything. Those in the photo are the ones I ordered especially for my plantar fasciitis. It was getting much better. Then last week I decided I could walk the whole block in my Clarks flip-flops, you know, because I was feeling so good I decided to behave like an idiot. Three years ago I toured all of Israel in Clarks flip-flops and felt great. This year I cannot even walk a mile in tennis shoes. Feet problems are no joke.

So how much am I keeping from this Fix?

All in all, this Stitch Fix box was an enormous mood booster for me. Even though I may never wear the shorts, I am going to keep the entire box. Why? Well, the way it works is they subtract 25% off your order if you keep it all. The amount that I save keeping the shorts is ten dollars more than I would get back if I returned the shorts. It is literally cheaper for me to keep it all than to send one item back.

Biggest change I noticed from this recent Stitch Fix:

The prices seemed to have gone down. Normally, a whole box adds up to right around $200. This time my entire box was only $155, after the discounts. That is a significant difference, in my opinion. I don’t mind paying it either because shopping is tricky with the coronavirus restrictions. Places aren’t doing returns or opening fitting rooms, and with Stitch Fix you know what fits, and returns are super duper easy.

My best tips for getting a great fix like this:

1. Fill out every little question they ask you on your sign-up forms with as many details as possible. Tell how you like your clothes to fit you, what your problem areas are.
2. Make requests. If you know you need shorts but don’t want to end up with shorts like the ones I got, tell them you want shorts with at least a seven inch inseam. If you never wear dresses, make sure you specify that. Tell them what you know you need more of.
3. If a top they send you is super cute, but it turns out to be too baggy or small, you can exchange it for a different size. Write that on your online check-out after you have tried everything on, and send in your exchange in the free envelope they provide.
4. Make a Pinterest board, pin outfits you like, and include the web address to your Pinterest account on your Stitch Fix profile. My stylists have mentioned looking at my Pinterest boards and website.
5. Take the style surveys on Stitchfix.com. I take them for fun every now and then, but it helps build a profile of my preferences.

A new Stitch Fix option I used this time:

What I really still needed in my wardrobe is more summer bottoms, and what I love to wear most are cropped pants. While I was surfing around the Stitch Fix site after putting in my order, I noticed that you can now click on items you have purchased and order the items they picture to go with them. I clicked on my navy top, pictured above. They paired it with a classic looking pair of gray capri-length pants. It even looks like they have a sleek tab waist that may be elastic. Even though they cost a little more than I would normally order, I ordered them! I know they will match most anything, and every single time except for once the pants they have sent me have fit perfectly.

From the Stitch Fix website, once your in your profile, click on “Shop”, then click on “complete your looks.” It will display an entire outfit to go with each item you have purchased. Pretty cool, huh?

All right, I am off to do some house cleaning. Let me know if you order a fix for yourself and what you think! If you would like to learn more about how the process works, see my very first Stitch Fix review here.

The post One of My Best Stitch Fix Boxes Ever I Kept it All!! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

After the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are over, you can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or 2 or all of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry! Best of luck! Winner will be announced in a week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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The post Beautiful Personalized Gifts for Christmas with Giveaway! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Plus, I’m paying for THREE private school tuitions, so do not even say the words “shop” to me. There will be no shopping.

Here are my options. The wedding is outdoors. I am told the groomsmen will not be wearing ties, and it all takes place at 4pm.

my personal fave. But I do realize it looks pretty casual.

Don’t you think it’s too much black?

I like it, but Alan says it looks like a Halloween dress (because it’s black and orange). Sigh.

That’s it, y’all. That’s all I have!

By the way, can I just say how excited I am for this bride???  I won’t spoil her privacy by posting her name or photo. (But if she gives me permission, I’ll show you pictures on Sunday!!)

So, okay, 2 things, no, really 4:

1. Please tell me which dress you think I should wear in the comments, or Facebook comment.
2. Do know that I’m probably going to disregard what everyone says and where what I want anyway….Why? Why do I even ask then??
3. In answer to #2, I don’t know. It’s a sickness.
4. Pray for me to stay sane and not lose it with any sweet little men this weekend because there’s going to be a lot of forcing them to wear nice clothes and sit still, and well, we’ve discussed that before!!! There are four of them. Take what two little boys are like, times it by two, and that’s what we’re talking about here…..at a wedding!!!  (But don’t get me wrong. My children are of course perfect angels from Heaven and would never so much as sneeze as this wedding, I’m sure. Especially the three-year-old, I am absolutely sure he won’t start crying because he bumped his finger and not stop until the whole wedding is over…) Oh, what am I even worrying about? I’ll spend the whole event half a mile away from it to keep everyone from being “distracting” anyway.

But I should look good while hiding, so tell me which one to wear. Thanks!!!

The post What do I wear to the wedding? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

This is me, showing off my Jamberry nails.

You’ve probably heard about this craze called “Jamberry”. I kept seeing it in my Facebook feed. I have a couple of friends, both which live far, far away, that sell Jamberry. I’ve seen their promotions, sure, but I didn’t get it.

What’s a Jamberry exactly? Is that a fruit? It is a real thing? Ok. It’s a nail product. Is this like Lee Press on Nails or something? What is it?

I googled it: “what is a jamberry”

Well, when you google it, all you get is virtual posters of the pretty nail designs, like this:

Anchors away!

or this:

They come in many team logos!

I think I NEED these.

Call me corny, but I’m TOTALLY considering these teacher styles. Is this the equivalent to the ’90s denham jumper with apple appliques?

You can get more classic patterns too:

I could post pics of the amazing designs all day. I’m FASCINATED!!

By the way, I’m also stubborn. I HAD to know if there is actually a jamberry fruit. Guess what! There IS!! It’s like a yellowish/purpleish Mexican tomato. Good luck google-ing it because Jamberry Nails definitely has the market cornered on the search engine results.

But that’s neither here nor there, really…..

So my friend Kristina sent me a free sheet of “nail wraps” to try out.

Have you met my friend, Kristina?

Yes, she’s pretty, but she’s also tough. This is a goat farming, home schooling three kids, sweet, Christian, home remodeling, Jamberry selling, Rheumatoid Arthritis AND Psoriatic Arthritis fighting, POWERHOUSE.

Yes, powerhouse, just ask ANYONE who knows Kristina. She’s amazing, she’s very down to earth, and you can’t not love her.

So when Kristina asks you to try on her Jamberry wraps, you try on her Jamberry wraps:

-even though I hadn’t done anything but trim my nails in like 9 years

-even though I didn’t know what a Jamberry was

-and even though I have never been to a Jamberry class and had NO idea how to put them on.

(Yes, I like diamonds too.)

Many people get to go to a class where they show you how to put these things on, but Kristina lives in Tennessee, and I live in California, so I was on my own. She did send me a YouTube video, though, of how to do it:

They are basically like stickers, but you heat them with a hair dryer before and after you put them on. I have teeny, teeny, tiny fingernails, so I used the smallest five wraps. Then I trimmed almost all of them with fingernail clippers, all the way around. I am a freak, I think. I need to buy my next set from the little girls’ section. The smallest one fit my pinkies perfectly, but after that I trimmed them with nail clippers, and that worked just fine.

They come on a sheet of paper like this:

First, I gathered my materials:

alcohol to clean nails: Well, I searched the house, there wasn’t any, so I just washed my hands and carried on….  I’m sure that’s against the rules, but the wraps are still working great.  😉

scissors: You have to cut each wrap in half: half for your left hand, half for your right.

finger nail clippers: to trim the wraps to fit your nail

nail file: finishing touches

hair dryer: to set the adhesive– You use this right before you put the wrap on and right after you put it on.

pretty nail wraps

My Tips:

As you see in the above pic, I goofed on my thumbs. Those were the first two I did, and I had no clue which wraps to use. That’s the advantage of first times. You only have to do the first time once, and then you are never a first timer again. Now I know that I only need the 5 smallest wraps for my hands.

I trimmed the excess with nail clippers, and all was well. I got the wrinkle out too. The key is to go smaller than your nail, not larger.

My only other tip: I think this will be a lot easier for someone who has experience with things like manicures and any sort of press on or stick on nails. I’d never done any of it, so it was all new to me. I remember, even on my wedding day, nails were such an after thought. I asked my friend Leigh, “Can you bring some polish or something and do my nails right before the ceremony?”

The Results

I am SO happy having pretty fingernails, I am not sure I will ever be able to go back to not caring. Having such festive fingers has been surprisingly fun. It is a MOOD lifter! I look down at them and remember that I am NOT one of the boys. Remember, I rarely get to be around another estrogen-filled person!

I’ve mentioned that I now work with middle school girls on Wednesday night. Well, let me tell you, they were IMPRESSED. I didn’t say a word about my nails, and I got so many compliments–lots of oooo’s and aaahhhh’s– on my flowery fingers.

Even my little boys have noticed! Well, sort of. Caleb asked, “Um, what is that? On your hands?”

I didn’t even know how to explain. I’m not sure what I said. Caleb replied, “Oh yeah, you’re a girl.”

OH YEAH!!!! And it’s high time I have a little more fun with that whole girl thing! 🙂 Maybe tomorrow I’ll wear a dress at home or something…..nah…

girly, girly, girly

By the way, here are a few FAQs for ya:

Jamberry wraps:

-Last 2 weeks

-Made in the USA

-completely water-resistant or proof or something….Water slides right off

-Do not chip!

-Do not contain harmful chemicals.

-Never animal tested

-Latex Free

-Non-Toxic

-Over 250 designs

She posted this photo of her Jamberry-covered nails, to demonstrate how well they hold up to the rigors of farm life:

She said this: “Just birthed 3 goat kids this week, 2 were pulled. My jams have been on for 9 days! Still look awesome! We may live in a barn but we don’t need to look like it!:)”

I thought that was pretty impressive! Thanks for the fun, Kristina! Mine have been on 5 days. I haven’t birthed any goats, but I did have my hands in lots of bread dough and diapers…..not at the same time…..ewwww…..and they are holding up great!!

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