March 2014 Ipsy Review

When I got home on Friday, my first Ipsy Glam Bag was in the mail! I was very excited.  It was a nice way to end a rather stressful week.

Ipsy is fairly similar to Birchbox, but there are definitely differences.  It's a monthly subscription service that runs $10/month.  They promise to ship by mid-month, so I got my bag right on time.

March 2014 Birchbox Review

Thursday was a pretty exciting day in our house.  Geoff came home from California and my Birchbox arrived!  My pictures are a little better this month, but I still need to work on them!

I got the tracking number on Tuesday and it said it was probably going to be delivered on the 10th or 11th (still good as the company promises to ship by the 10th!)  Then I saw the beautiful box in my mailbox on Thursday!  What a treat!

A quick review of Birchbox in case you've never heard of it... It's a $10 monthly subscription.  They send you samples of nice brands once per month.  You fill out a beauty profile and they send you products based on that.  You can see my February Box here.

Carnival Dream Cruise - Final Thoughts & Wrap Up

I thought I would do a separate post for my final thoughts on the cruise and hopefully answer some questions in the process.  Spoiler alert - I didn't love the cruise.  A lot of the things didn't affect our day to day enjoyment of the cruise, which is why I left it out of my daily recaps, but are certainly worth consideration.

Cabin: B

I loved the location of our cabin and the class of cabin.  The Cove Balcony was really nice. It was tucked away and felt private.  I loved being so close to the water.  Everything was clean and though I never actually saw the Steward, he did an excellent job (to clarify, I had no need to actually see him, we had no special requests.)

The not so great parts about the cabin?  The bed was not comfortable.  You could feel where the beds came together.  And oh the bathroom!  I hated the damn shower curtain.  Trying to shave my legs was a challenge every day.  And it was tiny. It was the exact same bathroom that's on the Legend, but I didn't love it then either!

Carnival Dream Cruise: Days 6, 7 & 8 - Sea Days & Debarkation

Since the majority of our Sea Days included a lot of being lazy, I decided to combine the end of our trip into one post.

Day 6 of our cruise involved sleeping in, reading in our cabin and out on the balcony, and then going to the Main Dining Room for Brunch.  We decided to go a little later on this day so we could try more of the lunch options.  Honestly, I thought they did a better job with Brunch than Dinner.  I got the mac & cheese (I'm sure this comes as a shock to no one) and Geoff got the Steak and Eggs.  Both options were really tasty.

Our next stop was to grab our books and head up to the Lido deck.  One of the things we liked on the ship was the Serenity Adults-only space.  We were able to find a shady spot to curl up a read for a bit.  It was crowded up there since it was a Sea Day, but there were still plenty of chairs available.

February 2014 Birchbox Review

Just for fun, I thought I would start putting up reviews of my Birchbox each month.  I like seeing what everyone else received, so why not!

If you're unfamiliar with Birchbox (referral link if you're interested) it's a monthly subscription service.  Once a month I receive a box with fun samples to try - usually 4-5 plus a lifestyle "extra."  It's $10 and includes shipping.  You set up a beauty profile and I really recommend playing with if you're not crazy about what you're getting.  It asks you about your hair, skin, what you love, your proficiency with beauty products, and what your style is.  My coworker also gets Birchbox and her box was completely different than mine except for one item.

I promise to take better pictures next month!

Carnival Dream Cruise: Day 5, St Martin

Our St Martin day started with a lot of confusion.  We booked a tour through Bernards Tours.  Our Tour was supposed to leave at 9am (Atlantic Time.)  Our ship docked at 8am (Eastern) and St Martin, through Daylight Savings Time, was now an hour ahead of ship's time.  We hurried to get off the ship and over to the tour desk, because I am nothing if not obsessed with being on time.  We checked in...and waited. For an hour.  Oh well.

We finally got going on our tour.  My goal was to go to Maho Beach and Marigot, the tour was surprisingly the most economical way to do both - so everything else we did was just fluff.

Our first stop was at the Iguana Farm.

Posing

The Iguana Farm was fun to see, but I would never go out of my way to stop here.

Carnival Dream Cruise: Day 4, St Thomas

This was our favorite stop on this cruise.  We woke up to an absolutely gorgeous day a little before we actually pulled into St Thomas.

I loved watching the waves break along the front of the ship. 

Before too long, we were nearing land.  Geoff and I went up to the Lido to watch us sail in.