Whimseybox - not very whimsical...

On June 2nd I signed up for WhimseyBox. You can read all about this company at the website but basically, in a nutshell, this company sends you a box chock full of "new and best-selling craft product samples". The box is supposed to inspire you and your crafting ideas. I was really looking forward to my first new box so I could see what they sent and maybe inspire me to try something new.

First off, according to their website, they ship out on the 16th. Well, I cut them some slack because they are a new company but I didn't get mine until the very end of June. That's not the problem I have with them.

The problem I'm having is that they literally sent me a fantastic re-usable box all decorated and packaged nicely with nothing in it but a scrap of leather and a baggie of studs with step by step directions on how to make a leather wallet. Well, that's not very inspiring!

I understand that I'm not going to get something that interests me every month but I was HIGHLY disappointed with this box and seeing how it was my first box, well you can imagine my disappointment.

I'm going to give them another month, maybe 2, to send out boxes that truly inspire me but if nothing comes of it I'm just going to cancel my account.

I'd rather stick to my BirchBox, MyGlam or even try BirchBox for Men!

Anyway, I'll keep all interested parties up to date. I don't mind being the guinea pig!

A change will do us good

Gary and I are starting the Paleo diet around the 2nd week in July. It's going to take some planning as well as purging of the kitchen pantry and cabinets and then we have to re-stock with Paleo friendly items.

Just to name a few things we won't be eating anymore: dairy, cereal grains, almost all beans, POTATOES (cry), commercial condiments and dressings, fatty means (bacon - cry) and sugars.

I call this the nuts and berries diet as a joke but honestly the recipes I'm researching look delicious. It's just going to be difficult at first to learn to cook with all different ingredients and not with things I'm used to using.
Gary said he'd help with the menu planning (since he's so picky), shopping at first and obviously the cooking. He better keep up his end of the deal. <.<

Why? Well, for a lot of health reasons including my Fibromyalgia, arthritis and a few other things.

So, from now on 99% of the recipes I'll be posting will be "Paleo Friendly" and if you run across any that look delicious please feel free to send them my way!

~ Rachel

p.s. I'm NOT giving up my Diet Pepsi (yet)

p.p.s. Here are some of the books that I've purchased.
The Paleo Diet Cookbook
Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Paleo

What's this? An update??

Oh man, where to start.....

First off, most of you know about Quagmire. He was my baby boy Yorkie for 6 years. Well, he's been sick on and off for 3 of them but at the end of February he got really sick again and stayed sick all the way up to May 1st. He was VERY sick. He needed a LOT of care. So much care that I didn't even leave the house other than vet visits and a quick run to Walgreens here and there. Well, his last vet appointment was the morning of May 1st and we had a long talk with his vet and the inevitable hit us smack in the face. May 1st, 2012 we decided the best thing for him was to let them put him to sleep. When I look back through my life I know this was in the top 5 horribly difficult decisions and things that I had to do. I mean shit, it's been almost 2 months and I'm crying  just typing this.
I miss him so much.

On May 4th Gary got me a kitten. He made the pain of losing Quagmire soooooooooooooooooooo much easier than I thought it would be. We named him Walter so meet Walter!!!
He's the most precious, precocious, hyper little guy you can imagine. He's also a little piggie. Gary and I are used to smaller cats. Monster weighs in at about 7 lbs and he's lean as can be. Walter was 1lb 7oz when we got him (6 weeks old) and yesterday I put him back on the postal scale and he's sitting in at 3lbs 7oz... TWO pounds in 6 weeks. That's a lot for a cat. He's gonna be a big boy. I love him so much.

So where have I been since then? I've been SO busy. My sister (Amanda, my youngest sister) was deployed to Afghanistan mid-March. My nephew, Timmy, stayed in Hawaii to finish the school year and then came here. He got here May 21st and will be headed to Texas on July 1st. Also, Gary was TDY in Florida. He had left on May 19th and was there for 2 weeks. I never thought a 14 yr old boy would need SO much attention (and not in a bad way). When it's just Gary and me meals are sporadic. We eat when we're hungry. Well, when you're in charge of a child you pretty much have to keep a schedule. It was weird to get used to that but nice though because hopefully after 6 weeks we can keep it up. It's been a blessing having him here and I'm going to miss him when we put him on the plane. Hopefully, he'll be back to visit again soon. :)
So we've spent the month doing fun things like movie nights at home, we went out to the movies once, we went to the zoo and aquarium and just a bunch of other things to make his visit fun.


I've been so busy and preoccupied that I took a little break from swap-bot. Other than postcard swaps I've only done about 5 all month, but now that things are starting to slow down I'm running 5 swaps and joined a bunch of other ones. The 5 that I'm hosting can only be found in the I LOVE Kawaii group on swap-bot. If you're interested in joining the swap and meet our reasonable requirements to join the group please request an invite to the group! Here is a list of what I'm hosting. :)

Kawaii Sticker Flake Bags - June/July
~ILK 35 x 3 Kawaii Sticker Flake Swap~
Love That Deco Tape #2
High Dollar Large Kawaii Swap #6
20 Letter Sets Swap #1 

They should be a lot of fun!

Anyway, I should be updating the blog more often, especially because we have a lot of new things coming up in our lives. Stay tuned!!!

~ Rachel

p.s. I HATE THE NEW BLOGGER SYSTEM! THAT IS ALL!

Pardon Me While I Rage...

This has been one of the worst weeks in my entire life. I'll go into that later but it's prompted a LOT of emotions and today is anger.

I know I'm not perfect, I know I'm not the perfect daughter in law but good grief, thanks for making us feel like garbage.
The only time we've talked in the last 12 months is when WE call YOU. You didn't call us for TEN months. You forget your son's birthday and then when you realize it you call 3 or 4 times a week for 5 weeks to apologize until we finally decided to answer the phone. Since then? Well, we haven't heard a freaking word since then. In fact the ONLY thing we have received are 2 mass texts and a bunch of pictures of your grandchild.

I was totally right when I said "out of sight, out of mind". I'm so sorry that we don't live "right down the street" and I can promise you that we never will. It doesn't mean that we're garbage though. It doesn't mean that we don't like to hear from and about family from time to time.
Six weeks since the last phone call from you ... S.I.X. Weeks!!!! Have you bothered to ask how Quagmire is doing? Nope. Have you bothered to even call and see if we're ok now that he's passed? Nope.
You're too damn wrapped up in the lives of your perfect son, daughter-in-law and grandchild to give 2 shits about us.

Well, I have news for you. The ONLY reason the phone gets answered when you call is because *I* answer it. He sure as hell doesn't want to and now I don't want to anymore either. So, I hope you're happy. You can get your few random updates about us from FB or from word of mouth because I'm not answering the phone until I'm not angry anymore and who knows how long THAT will take. I'm a Scorpio, I can hold a grudge FOREVER.

Mother's Day is in one week. Don't expect anything. Seriously, just don't. And if it makes you feel any better to blame me for the fact that you don't talk to your son then knock yourself out. *I* know the truth and if you can't face it then just blame me because I don't bloody care anymore.

I'm still here!

I haven't forgotten about blogging again, I've just been incredibly busy and sidetracked. Every time I think about making a post I find myself elsewhere doing something more important. I do have 2 recipes to post this week though so stay tuned!!! :)

More Swap-Bot Stuff

After some thought I've decided to NOT post pictures of what I'm sending. Most people like "surprises" and if they happen to sneak a peek over here they're going to see what they're getting. :)

Last night's post was made about 15 minutes before I was going to bed so I didn't have time to get into what I actually like to swap. Most of my swaps consist of Kawaii. Kawaii means "cute" in Japanese. It covers a wide variety of items including, but not limited to brands such as: Sanrio, Crux, Q-lia, Kamio, Pool Cool, Cram Cream, etc.. If you don't feel like googling it, think "Hello Kitty" who is probably the most popular Kawaii character in the US. My favorite characters are of course Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma and lately I've also been into Fairy Tale World, most especially Alice in Wonderland and Little Red Riding Hood.
I'm also big into swapping stationary items. I run a "note card" swap every month and I try to run a pen swap or at least join one every month. This month I went a little overboard and I'm in 4 pen swaps. Probably because I have a new love. The PaperMate InkJoy pens and I'm bound and determined to make sure all of my friends get one... lol

In the last few months 90% of the swaps I've been in are group only swaps. I'm tired of getting flaked on (when your partner doesn't send out their items) and I'm tired of people not sending the required items or just flat out sending garbage.
That being said here are the swaps I'm in at the moment. If you see one you'd like to participate in and you're not in that group just send a request to join. As long as you meet the rules of that particular group you're most likely going to be invited. :)

• Pen Swap #2a (USA only)
• The $15 Pen-Pal Supplies Swap
• I❤K: February Kawaii Sticker Flakes
• My Favorite Pen
• Another Addy Label Swap
• I❤K: February Kawaii Sticker Sack
• I❤K: February Kawaii 4x6 Memos
• ♫ Kawaii Slams for February ♫
• ⤳ Leap Day Kawaii ⤳
• Leap Day Postcard Swap – International
• Luck o' the Irish Notecard - 100 Rated US Swappers
• Pens! Oh Pens! How I Love Thee!

I also really enjoy profile swaps and if your rating is good enough and you have enough swaps under your belt I'm into higher dollar private swaps.
I'm easy though, if you're interested in any sort of private swap just drop me a comment (with your username) or send me a message on swap-bot. My username is rachelcdoyle. :)

Happy swapping folks!
Rachel

Things I like to do!

So, I've been a member of Swap-Bot.com for 4.5 years now. I was pretty inactive for awhile because of health issues and I was just too busy to be able to devote time into participating.
For the last 10 months or so though I've been swapping left and right.
Since I started blogging again, I've mostly kept to recipes and not too personal information. I had A LOT of crappy things going on in my life for the last 3 or 4 years but things are starting to fall back into place and so as I'm passing my blog address around to my fellow swappers you regular readers might be seeing things that confuse you.
I could take a crap load of time and space explaining to you exactly what swap-bot is but I provided a link and if you're really *THAT* interested feel free to follow it and check it out. In a nutshell, swap-bot is a pretty cool website that you can use to meet other people who love sending and receiving "snail mail" as much as I do. I used to pen-pal quite a bit but since the internet took over the world that really died down. Some people think it's the end of the world to have to write a letter with a pen on a piece of paper and actually put a stamp on an envelope. I, on the other hand LOVE IT!
At swap-bot you can swap pretty much anything you can think of. Letters, crafts, craft supplies...ok I could go on and on but really, I linked to it already.

The point of this post is to introduce people to swap-bot as well as say "hi" to my fellow swappers and start posting pictures of some of the cool stuff I get to send and receive.

If you have any questions though, feel free to drop me a comment or an email and ask away (rachelcdoyle@gmail.com).

Thanks!
Me <3