Every journey begins with a single step..

As 2013 comes to a close tomorrow night and with it begins a brand new year most of us are taking this time to clean out the old and plan for the new. So I figure what better time to start my new blog series I've been tossing around my brain. It doesn't have to do with subscription boxes or makeup (well makeup will be part of the end of the series).
I've mentioned before that I am blind in my left eye due to glaucoma. Around October 2010 my life started to change in a huge way when my doctor informed me that my left eye was legally blind. She had me make some decisions at that time which I believe included surgery to remove scar tissue from the first shunt she had placed in that eye. That surgery did not help as much as we hoped so a more invasive surgery to insert another shunt in a different part of the eye was recommended. I still remember bursting into tears in the office and that at first I was against doing the surgery since we couldn't save the vision in that eye anyway. My parents were behind me no matter my choice but after more discussion with my specialist I said yes to the surgery. That shunt went in the beginning of January 2011 and thus started my aversion to ever wanting to look at my left in the mirror ever again.
My eyes vary greatly now (not so much in their pressures which are thankfully doing amazing!) but more so in appearance.  I'd always been told from a young age that my eyes are beautiful and cool looking which can probably still be said for my right eye. My left eye however is not a thing of beauty but more of grayish where it should be white. It's also been described by several specialist as bumpy and lumpy which aren't terms that I think make anyone beam with pride over said eyeball lol. The biggest reason I rarely look at it us because my second shunt is clearly visible on the front of my eyeball since it could not be hidden under my lower eyelid. Any time I do look at my left eye all I see is this is big white square in the corner staring back at me that no longer blends into my grayish eye.
This aversion to my left eye led my mother and I to discuss the possibility of having my eye removed. After much thought on the subject I'd decided this was the best choice for me but alas you need health insurance for that kind of crazy expensive surgery. Which led us down the disability rabbit hole since every other insurance company denied me on the basis of all my pre existing conditions. This process was long and tedious and took one day shy of 2 years to finally to get my approval this August! Excitement and hope blossomed anew for my mother and I not even minding having to wait til January to start the surgery process. Well I mean there is one more little hurdle that was put in my way back in 2012 when my eye started to have days that it was extremely painful.  We found out from a cornea specialist that September that I have corneal blisters which are causing all this pain when my body is trying to heal itself after one pops. I still remember getting in the car when my regular eye Dr had stated that's what she thought they were and upon telling my mom the name her saying 'just the name of that sounds painful.'
I tried what are called contact bandages and at first those helped til it accidentally got poured down the drain in our hotel bathroom in Mexico lol. I'd gotten a replacement when we got home but they just kept falling out so now I use an eye ointment to help my eye heal when the pain starts and relieve my discomfort. But now after over a year of dealing with this pain the new year brings with it new hope as my insurance kicks in!  I have a consultation with a surgeon next week so I will be posting about that experience as the next entry in what shall tentatively be called the Eye for an eye series since I will be replacing my blind painful eye with a new glass and pain free eye! This has been 3 years coming and I have to say though I am excited for the future the surgery is getting me nervous...
Live. Love. Stay Asp-tastic!

What I'm loving Wednesday

So this week I decided to link up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for what I'm loving Wednesday since its one of my favorite posts she does every week.

What I'm loving:

Diamond candles cupcake scent- I just got this in the mail today along with a surprise candle I bought for my mom. I started burning this one as soon as I got it out of the box since it smells so amazing and I can't wait to get to the hidden ring inside!

Catfish the TV show- OMG this weeks episode was insane. Right when I'd heard on the commercials that this girl thought she was dating the rapper bow wow I was like there's NO way it's now wow. Then as I was watching it just got crazier by the minute. What do you guys think if you watched it? I think this was one of the craziest episodes right after the one where that insane dude was trying to catch cheaters and make them change still surprised he had a gf lol

Pumpkin pie spice creamer- so my favorite thing to get at Starbucks is the PSL with extra pumpkin spice but I rarely get to Starbucks to get one so this is an amazing alternative. I also found out recently that Starbucks has the ingredients to make PSL all year round you just have to ask so I may try and see if I can get one outside of the regular PSL season lol

VC Andrews Roxys story- I got this in the mail last week from amazon (it was just released the last week of October) I loved the first book in this series and found the mini ebook that goes with these two a little underwhelming I was expecting more from it. But thankfully do far this book is really good and I find it hard to put down.

Mystery boxes and swaps- So this week julep announced their new mystery zig zag boxes and I couldn't help myself. I'd wanted to get one of the galaxy mystery boxes but I didn't cause the add on I wanted wouldn't go in my cart lol I know what your thinking 'why is she complaining they wouldn't take more of her money?!?' I also recently found a wonderful julep swap group on Facebook and have a mystery polish box from one of the girls in that group on the way to me. As well as signing up to take part in winter/ holiday mystery box swap. I'm already thinking of what to do for my box. I think I'm even going to do a cool design on the box!

Live.  Love. Stay Asp-tastic!

Glossybox August bohemian summer

This review is a little late because I didn't get my box til a week into September. After I got the box I then had to wait for them to send me a replacement item for the busted eyeshadow I received. So this review will include the items in my original box as well as my replacement items that I finally got in the mail today.

Guess denim pouch: this bag is very cute and I hadn't realized guess was still around and still making denim products too bad the coupon code they sent expired the day I received the box.

Anatomicals spray misty for me facial spritz: I was skeptical when I saw this in other reviews but I ended up actually liking this product and I tend to keep it in my purse now.

Novex Brazilian keratin hair care treatment  cream: I will probably ended up trading this for something else cause I don't really have any use for this.

Jelly pong pong lip blush: haven't opened this since I'd gotten a pop beauty lip crayon in ipsy recently and I have plenty of lip products that I am trying to use so it will be awhile before I can get to this. I should really use one of my glossyboxes to gather up all my lip products in one place since I always seem to misplace them and find them at random times.

ModelCo eyeshadow duo in bronzed goddess: this is the product that arrived busted and was the item I was most looking forward to trying. They had run out of this product when I contacted them so they sent me two products to replace it. But I was lucky enough to find an extremely nice person in one of the swap groups I'm in who is sending me her duplicate of this eyeshadow and her duplicate sue Dewitt pressed powder.

Sue Dewitt triple c-weed pressed powder: I ended up giving the one that came in my box to my best friend S who says I'm spoiling her since I give her some of the makeup and products I get in these boxes.

Replacement products:

Sparitual nail polish (adore): I really like this pink color but I don't do well painting my nails with pinks this shade since its so light and hard for me to tell being half blind how well I've covered my nails so I will ask my mom to help me paint my nails with this color or I might take it with me next time I go get my nails painted at a nail salon but that's a very rare thing in the past few years.

Feel like honey moon skin base: this is a moisturizer and makeup base and I am looking forward to trying it. I don't remember seeing this in any past boxes so I'm wondering if this is possibly one of the September products that they decided to send me early.  I could be wrong and it may have been in one of the limited edition boxes.

This box had some hits and misses so hopefully they do better with this months box.

Taste guru September box

Today I got a huge surprise when the first of my two free taste guru boxes was dropped off on my porch! Their customer service said I wasn't going to receive this months box so I was happy to see it.

Being on the autism spectrum I've heard numerous times how a gluten free diet can help with so when I saw the deal for 2 free months just pay shipping I figured it was worth a shot since I've been considering gluten free for a while. 

They had me excited by the first look and I couldn't wait to dig in to see all the full sized goodies so let's get into it!

~Toufayan bakeries gluten free wraps: I'm excited to try these cause I love wraps and tortillas. They also included a recipe in the box for grilled veggie and hummus wraps that look very tasty.

~Rocky mountain company popcorn company butter popcorn: I love to have popcorn while watching a movie although I don't tend to buy popcorn at the movie theater since I found a mouse running around in the kernels once when I worked at a movie theater, so I'd rather not risk a mousy surprise in my movie treat.

~Glutino gluten free strawberry breakfast bars: I am interested to try these and see what they taste like.

~ Sea Fare Pacific smoked salmon chowder: I've never had salmon chowder before so this should be interesting.

~ Cooksimple tamale pie: I think I'm going to make this one night next week and not tell my dad that its gluten free and see what he thinks of it.

~Viviana gluten free and vegan sweet potato fettuccine: omg they've combined 2 of my favorite things sweet potatoes and pasta! I will probably make this next week although I'm wondering what kind of sauce would be best with this since I'm not too sure that red sauce will go too well with it, any ideas?

I think I love this box company so many great full size products that I can't wait to try and I am looking forward to seeing what they send next month!

"Wrecking Ball" kind of love..

So I took a little break from blogging and there are a few box reviews I didn't do which I will be skipping since they would be a few months late. I'm going to get back into doing box reviews this month and should have my August glossybox review up soon since I just received it last week. 

This post however is a more personal one to help me explain and deal with some things going on in my life. So last November my ex J and I decided to give our relationship another try. I gave him my entire heart and one week ago after a great lunch date he blindsided me that night on the phone saying that he wanted to take a break from us.

Only 3 days later he already had a date for Friday with another young woman (K). Needless to say my heart felt stomped on until yesterday. Yesterday he told me that he thought of this as a break up not a break. I know some people may feel writing about this so soon is a bad idea but knowing myself this will help me more then staying silent.

My heart feels like it has been ripped open and left bleeding on the floor. He'd been my first love and at the moment I feel like I could never trust anyone enough to give them my heart and thus the power to hurt me so immensely. I am not writing this to get people to feel sorry for me. I am writing this to try to start working through all this pain that I am feeling. I'm not looking for people to tell me that things will get better as I have too many people already telling me this. Not saying that any of you are wrong I am just not in a place where my heart is listening to any of that. 

I know that I will get through this it will just take time and strength. Hope that you all are enjoying your September so far and that you will come back to read my upcoming box reviews!

Live. Love💙. Stay Asp-tastic!

Influenster 'Dasani Drops' Voxbox

I got an awesome surprise today when I went to my mailbox: a voxbox! I'd gotten the email that I pre-qualified last week and immediately took the survey. This time I hadn't received an email saying whether I was going to get the box or not yet. So at first when I saw the edge of the box in my mail I wasn't sure what it was then I saw compliments of influenster on the top. 

The actual outer box is probably one of the cutest voxboxes I have ever seen and I had thought the orange one I'd gotten before was adorable. It was blue on the outside with a ton of colorful drops all over it and the inside was white with the same colorful drops all over the place.

The products they sent are a 16.9oz bottle of Dasani water and two bottles of Dasani drops water enhancers one in grape and one in strawberry kiwi. Since I have actually already tried the strawberry kiwi which I have a bottle of at my boyfriends, I decided to try the grape. Both of these flavors are very good although I think my favorite is the strawberry kiwi. Not sure if they have any other flavors but if they do I plan to try more of them in the future since the ones that I have tried are good.

I'd been thinking about getting some more liquid water enhancers so this box came at the perfect time and now I won't have to go get any! So excited that they did pick me for this voxbox and that I qualified for my second voxbox so soon after the sugar n spice voxbox.  Also need to get to Walgreens soon so that I can pick up a SinfulShine polish to review for the other influenster program I was invited to. Thank you influenster for all these amazing programs that you offer and the amazing voxboxes that you put together!

Live. Love. Stay asp-tastic!

Popsugar must haves June box

So I decided to stick with popsigar for another month since I tend to love their boxes. This month is a great box and again it came before my estimated delivery date!

Gorjana and griffin zuma scarf- this is a cute and super soft scarf. Although it is so much bigger then I thought it would be so it looks like it would make a cute wrap for over a bathing suit at the beach or by the pool this summer. There is also a gift card for $25 for this site so I may have to check it out later.

Juice beauty stem cell repair moisturizer and 2 CC cream samples- I was surprised they sent the full size of this moisturizer and I am looking forward to trying it. Also very happy they sent samples of CC cream I love my BB cream so I can't wait to try this either.

Hard candy fitness addicted to sweat 4 DVD- not sure how I feel about this I may try it just to see what it's like but I will probably end up putting this up for swap.

Revenge wears prada: the devil returns novel- I was excited to see this book in the box since it just came out and I did love the movie for the first book though I never read the first one. So im on the fence wether I should try to read the first book first.

Project 7 quench the thirsty wintergreen mints- I will not be using this product since I can not stand the taste or smell of mint. I do love that this company provides clean water to people in need for every tray of mints sold!

Popcorn Indiana fit popcorn- this popcorn looks very tasty and it doesn't hurt that it's only 40 calories a cup and approved by the Biggest Loser.

I liked this months box and there are only 2 products I probably won't use but I'm sure I'll find someone who wants those. I will most likely stick with popsugar another month since I love it so far and can't wait to see what's in julys box!

Live. Love. Stay Asp-tastic!