Word on the Street Junior Review by Crafty

When I received my March Awesome Pack, I mentioned that I wanted to review each of the games as we played them. We played Word on the Street Junior shortly after the box arrived; in fact we have played it several times, but I am just getting around to the review now.

Update from Boxy

Hi all!

Things are really busy here and with the move, I just don't have time to deal with much else. I also paused most of my subscriptions so I don't have a great deal to review anyway. Crafty will be keeping up the blog, I'm sure, but there may be a bit of lull until I get myself settled! Hope to see you this summer once I'm out from under boxes!

My Geek Box Review: April 2015

I think this was the April My Geek Box, but it may be March since getting from the UK to US takes forever sometimes. I have to admit that I was so disappointed with this, but mostly because I had high expectations. My Geek Box only recently started shipping to the US again and I've seen some of their boxes and wanted to sign up so badly. I noticed they often included candy and British candy is hard to get here, especially now that we're not allowed to have Cadbury, and they also tended to heavily gear themselves toward British stuff like Doctor Who and Sherlock. I feel like this stuff is sorely lacking in all the geek boxes I get, so I was really excited when this arrived. Sadly it wasn't great British fandoms, but mostly more of the same.

I will say that the shirt is pretty nice and the design is great. Although I'm inundated with Avengers, I understand that every box is kind of capitalizing on the movie release right now, which makes sense. Hopefully they'll all do the same when Doctor Who returns in the fall.

Companion Tees Review: April 2015

I may have said this before, but Companion Tees is the best subscription ever! They always send perfect shirts, whether in their monthly grab bag or in the monthly subscription like this one. Since their monthly grab bag, for me, includes three shirts, I get that one in a box, but the regular subscription comes in the TARDIS. :)

Hatchery Review: March? April? 2015

The reason I'm not sure which month this box is for is because I signed up for one of those online deals for three months with Hatchery, but it auto-renewed. After two months, I canceled so it wouldn't auto-renew because I didn't want to be worrying about while moving. However, in doing so to avoid being charged, the system also canceled my last box.

I recently realized I hadn't received that third box and contacted Hatchery. They not only replied in an hour, but also had a box in the mail that day. Talk about awesome customer service! I'm actually a fan of this box and think it would make an awesome gift, but the last thing I need right now is to worry about another address change.

Each month, with the Tasting Box, you are sent five small samples of cooking items or food ingredients from artisans around the US. There's always a great variety and Hatchery provides suggested recipes as well.

My first item was a bottle of Michigan Apple Pie shrubs. I've never really used these, but it sounds interesting and I don't mind trying it out. Now that summer's on the way, maybe I can make something yummy and sit out on the porch!

GeekMeBox Review: April 2015

I was already planning to cancel GeekMeBox, mostly because I have too many of these and I haven't found anything to really hook me with this one, but then they announced that April's box would include Game of Thrones and Harry Potter, so I stayed on. I'm not sure it was really worth it, but it wasn't terrible, either. I can't really say anything negative about GeekMeBox, but I just don't feel like there's anything really unique about them, either, and they're more expensive than others that offer basically the same thing.

The first two items were a Hulk POP and some Legend of Zelda socks. I really like these items, but I think we have this POP. He's a bobblehead, though, so we may not. I do love that there are figures in the GeekMeBox subscription, because I get really tired of the kid-friendly stuff that isn't transferable to adults in some of these boxes. At least figures can be collected by someone at any age.

Fandom of the Month Club Review: April 2015

Fandom of the Month Club, for those who've missed it, is a jewelry/accessory subscription box that caters to nerdy fandoms. It's all for less than $15 a month, which is pretty amazing. This month's fandom was Harry Potter.

Recently, Fandom of the Month Club had new boxes made rather than their old padded envelopes and the owl image comes at the perfect time!

SH&SH Pizza Cutter Review

So I like to make homemade pizzas, because 1. I love pizza and 2. I like easy meal prep. Of course when you make homemade pizza, sometimes the crust can be tough to cut through and although we have some knives to do the job, the end result isn't always pretty. Therefore, I was excited to review the pizza cutter from SH&SH.

Geek Fuel Review: April 2015

Sadly this wasn't my favorite Geek Fuel box, because it's all about superheroes. For me, superheroes and superhero movies are a perfect example of too much of a good thing. I enjoyed the first Avengers movie and even kind of liked the early X-Men movies. I didn't even mind the first Iron Man and actually loved the original Spiderman. My husband is definitely the comic book geek here, but I never minded seeing the movies with him because even when they weren't great, they were generally entertaining. But now I am just so, so sick of them. There seems to be a new one every month - and they rarely offer anything different. We will be seeing Age of Ultron, but even my husband - who has followed the Avengers since he was a small child - didn't care about seeing it later. We went to the midnight release for all the Harry Potter movies and Spiderman and Lord of the Rings and, of course, Star Wars, but he just figured he had to work Friday morning. However, we have both gone to work on no sleep from a movie before, but it's too much. You can't stress about every movie and Marvel, like Disney, just doesn't know how to give people a second to breathe. The dilution of excitement comes from the fact that they have movies every month or two. Part of what made the others exciting was that they didn't.

ANYWAY, long story short, the emphasis on superheroes in this month's Geek Fuel subscription box felt the same way. I'm getting so many Avengers items and I just don't care enough about them. My husband doesn't care enough, either, because again, too much of a good thing.

Treatsie Review: April 2015

This is going to be a terrible review, because I have to admit something. I have a ridiculous Treatsie addiction. The reason the review will be terrible is because I didn't get pictures of the box, since I was so quick to tear the box open and start enjoying it! 

So every month, before your subscription box ships, Treatsie also invites you to add on treats. I gave in this month and added a few as well, and the shipment notice came in about a week before it arrived. On scheduled delivery day, I waited quite impatiently. The FedEx driver didn't come until after 7 PM!!! I asked my husband every ten minutes if the box had come, but thankfully it finally did. At which point, I opened and split the box between us and started enjoying my portion. Only to realize I didn't have my camera. 

One of this month's featured items were marshmallows between butter cookies and held together with caramel. Although this sounds yummy, these had gelatin and so they were taken to my husband's work with him to be given away. 

Another of the featured item's was the PB&J chocolate bar, which is made with peanut praline and raspberry pate. I haven't tried this yet but it sounds fantastic and knowing Treatsie, it will be. 

MagiKitchen Mesh Strainer Review

I was provided with the MagiKitchen Mesh Strainer for review a while ago and I've had it to review. As you can see in this picture, I was in the process of using it. You may also recognize the bags/labels from Plated, but this meal ended up being a disaster. I haven't reviewed Plated in a while because things kind of imploded with this particular meal. A bit of artichoke got stuck in the garbage disposal and rather than enjoy dinner, we spent the night fixing our sink. 

Anyway, I have had this strainer for a while but hadn't ended up using it since I hadn't made pasta recently. 

Fulmar Expandable Bamboo Cutlery Organizer Review

Crafty had just come to help us pack our house up for the move and when we received the message about the Fulmar expandable cutlery organizer, she knew it would be perfect. We currently have a smaller one in the drawer, but with the move, it's time to think about what we could use and this was something I commented that we needed. So it came at a perfect time!

How We Communicate (By Crafty)

Communication is a necessity in this world. It is a way to express and exchange thoughts, ideas, and information. Communicating effectively, though, is a whole different story. Recently, I taught my students about verbal and nonverbal communication. We also discussed active listening and the difference between hearing something and actually listening to it. In a world where we spend so much time on the computer or texting, it has become hard not only to communicate effectively with each other, but it also leaves us struggling to comprehend sometimes what another person is really saying.

Word choice is one of the things that, whether written or spoken, should be pretty clear. I choose the words I want to say, a person understands them, and we move on, right? Not always. Sometimes word choice can be over someone’s head or too technical. Other times the words that are chosen actually require a person to infer what it is truly meant. Just because someone doesn’t spell it out for you in simple terms, making sure you get the point of the message, doesn’t mean they are not communicating effectively.

Honestly, we have gotten lazy. We don’t want to have to infer things, and we want it all right there in front of us - usually as quickly as possible. It wasn’t always that way, but we have managed to dumb down society to the point where some people don’t even know what the word inference means.

Federico's Car Care Tire Gauge Review

My husband travels more than 50 miles each way daily for work, so I'm always concerned about him driving that much and always on the lookout for products that will help keep his car running. When I was given the chance to review the tire gauge from Federico's Car Care, I was excited, because we have definitely spent a small fortune on tires over the years. It's a simple product, but having something on hand to ensure that we can extend the life of those tires is nice.

Paws & Play Dog Box Review

Boxy's cats get spoiled every month. After all, they are her children. (Also, they are cute enough to deserve it - trust me.) However, when Paws & Play offered us a pet box for review, Boxy was kind enough to consider my dog. Thanks, Boxy! 

Balance Bath Pillow Review

I love to take baths. When we bought our new house several years back, I told my husband that if we did not get the upgraded bathroom for the master bath, I wasn't moving. I love to sit in our jacuzzi tub to read, without the distraction of the three kids, but I admit eventually my neck gets pretty stiff. Then I was sent the Balance Bath Pillow for review, and now my concern is falling asleep in the tub!

Goals: May 2015

There's been a lot happening for Boxy, and Crafty is also dealing with some changes, so we are in the process of adjusting our goals and our lives to fit those changes.

Little Lace Box Review: April 2015

Reviewing Little Lace Box has become difficult for me, because it's such a nice box and a pleasant surprise each month - and every time I see anything online about Little Lace Box, I find myself irritated. I don't understand why this box seems to get so much animosity from the same group of people, but I grow exhausted by it. It's well worth the value, the items are so nice, and it really does cater to a lifestyle of treating yourself well and appreciating the finer things. I suppose that's not something a lot of people do these days, but I really like this box and it makes me happy - and then the negativity that gets thrown at it feels draining. 

Anyway, other people and their issues aside, I thought this box was phenomenal. I smiled while opening it and my husband and I loved every item. 

UrthBox Review: April 2015

I had signed up for the UrthBox special promotion a few months back and these boxes are so loaded it's ridiculous. With the move, though, it's a good time for it to be coming to an end for us, because we were just saying that we have too much stuff!

This is only a small selection of the extremely full box. This box was quite heavy on the kale, which isn't a favorite in this house, but there were still some awesome finds. In particular, I will be looking into buying more from Pretzel Perfection!