Posts Tagged ‘seeds’

Prospurly July 2016 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Still playing catch-up here… this is a look at the July box, which I’ve had for some time. I’m hoping my schedule will allow me gaps on the weekend to get back into a rhythm with blogging.

Prospurly is just under $45 per box (with code for 10% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with artisan foods, bath & body items, home products, and other sustainably crafted items. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

prospurly july 2016 box open with products showing prospurly july 2016 info card with product details

Essential Oils for Beauty, Wellness, and the Home book – This will be a great resource for me as I explore different types of home remedies. It’s full of recipes for all sorts of things ranging from digestive health remedies to kitchen cleaning to personal care.

St. Tropica Coconut Hot Oil Hair Mask – I look forward to trying this out on my hair soon, since it’s been a bit dry. I’ve never tried hot oil before, so this should be interesting! I’ll have to dig out a shower cap from my hotel soaps stash.

Masala Mama Chicken Jardaloo spice kit – For now, I have no time to cook, so I’ll have to table this until I get some more time. I look forward to having a little cooking party sometime to try this out though!

Lotus Naturals After Sun Body Spray – I’ve had some activities recently that were out in the sun and I should have tried this after. I’ll put it out so I remember next time I’m out in the sun, which I’m sure will happen somewhat regularly now that I’m back in LA.

feedingsmiles Divine Facial Steam – This smells fabulous and I kind of want to make tea from it, but I’ll resist and use it for steaming my face as recommended. I look forward to taking some time to pamper myself with this and a face mask.

Wildflower seed bombs (bonus item) – I’d gotten this before and it looks like they included it as a bonus item this time. I think I might go get a little pot to plant these in. Or maybe I’ll throw one in the yard when I’m visiting my parents next time!

SudsBucket island punch bath bomb bundle – How cute is this packaging?! It looks like little peas in a pod and I love that I get a little face/hand towel as part of the bundle. These smell amazing and I can’t stop sniffing them.

MyChelle Refining Sugar Cleanser – I’m a fan of this brand and I’ve been using this cleanser at home, so this will make a great travel companion.

I’m pleased with the variety of products and I’m happily incorporating them into my life, one by one. What do you think of this month’s box?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Prospurly April 2016 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Oops, I almost forgot to write about this one! It’s been here since the weekend and I opened it up, but then got distracted with the busy work week.

Prospurly is just under $45 per box (with code for 10% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with artisan foods, bath & body items, home products, and other sustainably crafted items. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

prospurly april 2016 box open with products showing prospurly april 2016 info card with product details

Holy Schmidt Coffee Co. Costa Rica Rio Jorco – Alas, I’m not a coffee drinker so this will have to go to someone else. I don’t know much about coffee, but I like that this is ecologically responsible.

Heather Lane Cosmetics Hand & Cuticle Salve in Garden Blend – This is a great item for spring. I like the unique ingredients, like plantain and mallow leaf. It’s wonderful for the rougher skin you might get from working outside or even washing dishes. My cuticles will be very happy with this!

The Moontree Jasmine Rose Cleansing Facial Serum – How cool! I love the actual flowers and petals floating in the serum and I’ve never had a cleansing serum before. I guess it’s sort of like the cleansing oil I use. I didn’t really smell the flowers though, so I wish they’d added some essential oils for an extra boost. I enjoy rubbing it in and feeling it sink in, softening my skin.

Rishi Tangerine Ginger tea – Totally saving this for school, when I think I will be drinking tea all the time (at least I’ll try). This one’s herbal so I’ll keep it for drinking before sleeping.

Lotus Natural LifeBlends Essential Oil in Allergy – This came at the perfect time. I was having an awful time with allergies I developed recently and I needed everything I could get that would help alleviate the discomfort. This roll-on helps with sinuses and it just feels soothing to apply to areas that I’m itchy too.

Free Mountain Seeds Wildflower Seed Bombs – Perfect for Earth Day and spring in general, these seed bombs will be fun to plant! It’s so exciting to see something sprout and grow, though I’m not good at keeping things alive beyond that initial stage. Still, these will be great to use when I want an assortment of flowers. I’ll probably save most until I’m done with school and have a place to garden. I wonder if my mom would like them…

The Moontree Blush & Blossom Rose Clay Mask – I like how this mask smells and having it in powder form makes it easy to bring along. I love that I can mix it with things other than water, like honey or yogurt. That sounds like fun! I look forward to trying that out.

I enjoyed this box and found many items to be very timely for the season. I’m not sure I’ll be able to give this subscription up! What do you think of this month’s box?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Yogi Surprise February 2016 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Well I’ve had this box for three weeks and somehow forgot to blog about it. I really need to keep better track of which packages I’ve posted and which ones I haven’t.

Yogi Surprise is just under $36 per box (with code for 20% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with yoga gear, skincare, food, and other lifestyle products. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

contents of yogi surprise february 2016 box with info card yogi surprise february 2016 info card with product details

barkthins dark chocolate almond snacking chocolate – Yum! These are nice and crisp, giving a satisfying break when you bite in. The thinness helps with making me feel like I’ve eaten more than I actually have and the flavor is a rich chocolate. I do sort of miss the crazy sweetness of holiday peppermint bark though.

Zhena’s Detox Renew Me tea – You can definitely taste the cranberry in this tea. I’m not sure if my liver needs much cleansing, but hey herbal tea can be good for keeping everything functioning well, right? I like that these pouches have no string or paper or staples. Tea bags should really move away from that and use compostable materials to make a bag with nothing else.

emmy’s raspberry macaroons – I’ve got to admit, I’m scared to try this. I’m not typically a fan of raw things and this type of macaroon is not usually something I enjoy. I’ll try to get myself to eat these once I sign up for a barre class! Which reminds me, I need to email about that…

Aura Cacia Chakra Balancing insightful third eye aromatherapy roll-on – Ah, what a soothing and mildly sweet scent. This is just the type of thing that we end yoga practice with and a great way to relax the mind. I will enjoy using this before I sleep at night.

Joshua Tree Healing Salve – This is supposed to be good for all sorts of cuts, scrapes, even minor burns. I don’t have any of those at the moment, but I will absolutely pull this out whenever I do hurt my skin the next time. It smells somewhat herbal and reminds me of a Burt’s Bees product that my cousin loves.

Dive in Deck – These cards are all wacky designs with either a question to provoke discussion or a statement followed by “Dive In.” For the statements, I’m not quite sure what the conversation would be, but I guess the point is to let whatever comes to mind flow. I think the most confusing one is “As above, so below. Dive In.” I wouldn’t know what to say to that since it doesn’t really mean anything to me. Overall the cards get you to think about interesting ideas about your personal philosophies in life.

Yogi Surprise Blooming with Love yoga sequence series card – I haven’t practiced yoga in a long time, but these cards are so fun to collect that I really should try them out. Go to their instruction page to download this sequence and the old ones too. That way you can use them too!

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds Kohlrabi – Whoa, how cool! I had kohlrabi and apple salad in one of my boxes once and it was quite good, but I’ve never seen purple ones. Purple being my favorite color, I am totally excited to plant these eventually.

There are some items I really enjoyed and some others that were interesting but might not be to my taste. Which of these items would you like to have?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Prospurly December 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Ok, with all but one application submitted, I’ve got some time to tell you all about the most recent Prospurly box that I got. I haven’t had time to really dig in with these items, but I look forward to it!

Prospurly is just under $45 per box (with code for 10% off your subscription – use my referral links from this post) and comes with artisan foods, bath & body items, home products, and other sustainably crafted items. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program that earns you free boxes.

prospurly december 2015 box open with products showing prospurly december 2015 info card with product details

The Savvy Heart peppermint body resurfacer – This leaked a bit in transit, so there were some refreshing oils left in the box. It’s a lovely mint scent that is very refreshing and the granules of sugar rub well into skin. It leaves a cooling feeling that’s great after working out or to start your day invigorated.

Aimee’s Home Cookin’ Germania Gluhwein mulling spices – Ooo it’s the perfect time to use mulling spices to make some apple cider! I love that it comes with its own little reusable pouch to keep the spices in when brewing. The scent is very aromatic and I feel like this would make awesome potpurri. Any chance there’s enough scent left after boiling that it can be dried and used as such? Doubtful, but we’ll see. I can’t wait to try this out since I’ve been loving apple cider lately.

St. Fiacre’s Farm organic loose leaf peppermint patty tea – Whoa, peppermint chocolate tea. Now that sounds interesting. What’s up with this minty theme in the winter? Is that common? I’m trying to stay warm over here! For now I’m keeping this sealed as I work through other teas I have, but come February or so I’ll probably break this out.

Melisa’s bundt cake soap – Mmm, this smells sweet. I think bath products shaped and scented like desserts are awesome. It’s really cute that she includes a recipe for a pound cake on the tag! Now that’s tying in the theme.

St. Fiacre’s Farm Winter Balm – This is a hand balm that smells like none I’ve had before. It definitely reminds me of the holidays and the formula is perfect for winter. Letting a bit start to melt with my body heat, I can then rub it on my hands to keep them nice and soft. I like that this is lightweight yet packs a punch. It’s super cool that it uses natural disinfectants so I can also help ward off some germs every time I lotion up!

jpants Crimson Clover seeds – I’m a little confused because there’s supposed to be stickers and “other goodies” in this pouch according to the card, but what I got was seeds. Did they miss something with mine or perhaps change their mind after producing the cards? Well, whatever the case, I have some nice little clover seeds that look like they will produce flowers! I like that prospect, so I’ll add this to my “to plant” pile and figure out when I want to actually do that. We don’t get much good sunlight indoors, so I don’t think now would be a good time.

jpants Dwarf Mugo Pine Bonsai Tree Kit – Now this is just the type of thing I was hoping to receive from a box like this. I’m all about cute, useful items that I wouldn’t find on my own! Since it takes awhile to grow get this to germinate, I can do some research and then get started later this winter. We’ll see if I’m successful! Usually I can get a plant to grow to a certain stage, but keeping it alive seems to be the hard part. Plus with travel plans, it’s not easy to keep plants well-maintained.

I’ll likely use everything from this box, though I miiiiight share the tea with someone else. I look forward to taking a bath at some point to give myself time to relax and use the scrub. This week has been long and tiring. What do you think of these products?

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Homegrown Collective April 2015 review

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Hmm, I guess they reverted back to printing out inserts. This box is similar to a combination of two previous boxes (my very first one with sprouts and one with almond milk). I like that sprouts are completely different ones and the focus was a unique theme of raw foods.

The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX is $39 per box + $9 shipping (or as discounted as $429 for an entire year, with options in between) and comes with fun and easy projects to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program you can apply to join.

inside of let's get sprouted homegrown collective 2015 box with the info sheets on the inner lid contents of the homegrown collective march 2015 box with let's get sprouted theme

Project #1, growing sprouts/sprouting: Wow, there are so many different sprouts to try! I’ve really only had bean sprouts and alfalfa sprouts before (pretty sure brussel sprouts aren’t actually sprouted). I’ll have to test each of these to see which is tastiest. Maybe they all are, and that would be great. These would be super easy to throw in a salad or atop my regular meals. Seeds are powerful things and I have no doubt that sprouts offer great health benefits.

the homegrown collective april 2015 project growing sprouts info cardthe homegrown collective april 2015 project sprouting specifics info cardthe homegrown collective april 2015 products for sprouting

Project #2, chocolate almond milk: While I am not a fan of almonds, especially anything made from them, I’m curious how a chocolate milk would be. I started to try to make the original one I had from the other box, but I left the almonds sitting too long and it grew mold so I had to throw them away. I haven’t quite gotten around to retrying just yet, but I will!

the homegrown collective april 2015 project chocolate almond milk info card the homegrown collective april 2015 products for chocolate almond milk

 

These are simple projects yielding all sorts of edible results. I would have liked to see one project using some of those seeds and making a face mask or something from them. Otherwise, this box was good, with a variety of easy plants to deal with.

the homegrown collective april 2015 project living and raw foods info card

Interested? Subscribe to the Homegrown Collective get your own projects!

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

Homegrown Collective August 2013 projects

laelene Posted in reviews, subscriptions,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1

Are you ready to see the results of my Homegrown Collective August box?! I sure had a ton of fun with it. 🙂

The Homegrown Collective GREENBOX is $39 per box + $9 shipping (or as discounted as $429 for an entire year, with options in between) and comes with fun and easy projects to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Boxes are sent monthly with no option to skip. They offer a referral program you can apply to join.

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for growing alfalfa sprouts with instruction sheet

I started off with the alfalfa sprouts project.

pile of alfalfa seeds in layer at bottom of glass ball jar

I put in just enough to cover the bottom of the jar.

pile of alfalfa seeds submerged in water in glass ball jar

I then filled with plenty of water to submerge them, though I had some floaters.

collage of alfalfa seeds submerged in water after one day then getting water strained out

The next day, the water had browned and I poured it out. It was hard to get the screen on underneath the lid! It’s a tight fit. I rolled the jar and shook it so the seeds got spread around.

collage of alfalfa seeds sprouted in glass ball jar after two days

By the third day, they’d sprouted! I was so surprised I actually gasped out loud when I saw it.

collage of alfalfa sprouts growing in glass ball jar

On the fourth day they continued to grow and I tried to get the remaining seeds to sprout by giving them more space.

collage of alfalfa sprouts growing in glass ball jar filling area

By the fifth day, I noticed that they had orientated themselves upwards even though there was no sun where I kept them. Guess they just knew which way is up!

collage of alfalfa sprouts full grown in glass ball jar and removed

Just six days in and they were definitely full grown and ready to come out. I let the brown seed covers float up and dumped them out.

tray of full grown alfalfa sprouts with green heads after getting sunlight

I then let them sit out in the sun and the heads went from yellow to green. Ready to eat! I had some but gosh, this was waaay more than I could handle.

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for making green tea & lavender epsom salt bath soak with instruction sheet

Next up was a lovely bath soak to pamper myself!

pile of green tea mixed with fresh lavender for bath soak in muslin bag

I put together a few scoops of green tea and some lavender flowers in the muslin bag and mixed them up.

collage of green tea and lavender bath soak with epsom salts and muslin bag filled with tea and lavender flowers in tub

I ran really hot water, put in epsom salts that quickly dissolved, let the tea bag sit in the running water, and then let the bag float around the tub.

green tea leaves and lavender flowers emptied from inside of muslin bag

After my relaxing soak, I flipped the bag inside out to get the tea out, rinsed the rest off, and let it dry for next time.

the homegrown collective august 2013 products for dark chocolate pomegranate wonder cup snacks with instruction sheet

Finally, I got around to trying the pomegranate chocolate cups!

collage of steps to peel pomegranate from cutting skin to removing seeds and soaking in water

It was a slow process ensuring I got the seeds out as whole as possible, but I was rewarded with a nice pile of them.

collage of melting chocolate, drying pomegranate seeds, and putting pomegranate seeds into paper cups

I don’t have a double boiler, so I melted the chocolate with a bowl in the pot. I boiled the water too much and water got in, but it turned out ok. I nearly forgot to pat dry the seeds before putting them in the cups!

collage of melted chocolate and pomegranate seeds then pouring chocolate over the seeds in paper cups

I poured the melted chocolate over the seeds and just about overfilled the cups. I generously sprinkled the salt flakes on top and put it all the in fridge. It came out looking not much different and tasted fantastic, even with my messed up chocolate.

silicone cat-shaped ice cube tray with pomegranate seeds inside

I decided to have some fun with it and make some with my cat-shaped ice cube tray! I accidentally messed up the chocolate again so it didn’t turn out to well, but I’m totally trying again later. Nom!!

So what do you think? Jealous yet? 😉 I loved each of these projects and will definitely be doing them again. I’m also looking forward to the upcoming box!!

If you’re interested in getting it yourself, sign up here!

[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]

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