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!

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!

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. 

Companion Tees/Once upon a Tee Monthly Grab Bag: April 2015

I don't remember how I found Companion Tees originally, but man am I happy I did! Each month, I get two shipments from them: a Whovian shirt and a three-shirt grab bag that is a mix of Whovian shirts and plain old geeky stuff from Once Upon a Tee. This month's grab bag is AMAZING!!

The first shirt is "I Geek, Therefore I Am." A. I love this because making the already geeky Descartes even geekier is awesome and B. I love the franchises featured. You have Star Wars, Sherlock, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Firefly. Um, yes, please? LOVE THIS.

The next shirt is a Whovian one and it's awesomely inspirational. I agree, too. So the Doctor can show up anytime, because I'm ready. I already have a bag packed. :D

Finally, I couldn't be more excited about the last one. I saw this design and actually sent it to my husband as an image because I loved it so much. It's hard to see in the picture, but it says "Still Waiting for" and then there are nine things: screwdrivers (sonic, of course), acceptance letter (with the Hogwarts seal), super powers, magic balls, minions, pet dragon, perfect neighbor, cake, and Season 2 (with the Serenity). This is perfect.

My Geeky Goodies Review: April 2015

Geek subscription boxes can be tough, because these days, everyone seems to want to be part of geek culture. It's ironic, since most of us who grew up geeky were tortured about it for years, only for it now to be the thing to do. So there are a variety of boxes and they all tend to be similar, but there's something really special about My Geeky Goodies. (I would say this goes for Geek Fuel, too). Take out things like Custom Fan Box, which is customized and therefore going to appeal to you since it's based on your interests and not random themes, and Collectible Geek, which is a more expensive collectible box, and you're left with several mystery geek boxes in the $15-$30 range each month. How do you stand out then? I think it's easy for My Geeky Goodies, because they advertise as a box FOR geeks BY geeks - and they mean it. 

A lot of people love Loot Crate and that's fine, and from a casual observer's standpoint, there may not be much of a difference between something like that and My Geeky Goodies. In April, both boxes included a shirt, a value item in the $10 range, and some filler. But for me, as a hardcore nerd and gamer, there is a dramatic difference - and it comes down to something very simple: curation. 

I've had a hard time explaining this, but I am going to do it this way. My parents and in-laws don't really know or care much about my interests. I don't mean that in a bad way, but we're all people living our own lives and I don't really know much about theirs, either. When the holidays come, unless someone asks for something specific, there's a lot of generic gift giving happening. Beyond gift cards (the savior for when you have no idea what to buy), we tend to shop on a superficial level. My dad likes to garden and my mom likes taking baths. That's kind of shallow, but I know I can pick up some gardening supplies and bath products and they'll probably like them. I can't, however, select specific seeds. My mom collects these weird wooden figure things and birdhouses or something, but I couldn't tell you which kind or which ones she has. And it's the same for us. They know I play video games. They know I love Harry Potter and Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. If you asked my parents to name a house in either Harry Potter or Game of Thrones, they wouldn't have a clue. (My dad could tell you about Tom Baker, since he got me into Doctor Who as a child, but he didn't even know it was back on.)

How does this relate to geek subscription boxes? Well, it relates a lot, actually. A set of Game of Thrones magnets or a Harry Potter luggage tag is something my parents would get me for Christmas. It's fine, but they don't have a clue what the different magnets mean or what 9 3/4 is. Last month, Geek Fuel sent a dragon glass arrowhead. My parents would NOT buy this, because it means nothing to them. It means a great deal to me, though, as a fan. THIS is the best way to explain the difference in curation. I feel like the people sourcing items for My Geeky Goodies and Geek Fuel get it; the people sourcing for Loot Crate are not appealing to fans, as much as they're appealing to generic concepts and franchises. And really, superficial enjoyment of popular franchises is, for me at least, the absolute antithesis of geekdom. Again, it's a slight variation, but little bothers me more than corporate greed. 

Pet Box Special Collection Review

My cats are super antisocial lately because they know something is up with the move. Fortunately it's not all that far, but they're not going to be thrilled about a car journey. So when I got an email from Pet Box promoting a special collection they had, I signed up. I figure maybe they'll be distracted by toys. I don't have pictures, though, because they wouldn't come down and play until much later. 

My Geeky Goodies Review: March 2015

My Geeky Goodies is definitely one of my favorite geeky subscription boxes. For the same price as the bigger boxes, they offer a much better value, I feel. Sure, some of the items are small and may still be a hit or miss based on personal preference, but it's a lot less marketing swag and more actual items in this box. 

The theme of this box was Monster Apocalypse and it was a pretty great collection! It started with vintage Dinosaurs Attack cards from nearly 30 years ago (complete with a warning from MGG not to eat the gum!). Although maybe if you ate the gum, you could become a comic book villain with super powers, right? 

Little Lace Box Review: March 2015

Little Lace Box is kind of like a special club these days, since they have closed subscriptions. I'm pretty happy about that personally (although I admit I also got in when they still had them and may not be happy if I didn't), just because it means that they are focusing on quality. I know a lot of people have been complaining about the items in the boxes these last few months, but I feel like this is a subscription box that always has value even if you don't use the items. You will get at least what you paid for in the box and the items are nice enough for gifting!

There actually wasn't much in the box this month, since the big item has to be ordered separately. It's a canvas mounted print of an image you upload. I'm excited about that! I am still sorting through photos for the right image to select. 

There were a couple of variations in the March box, which was themed "Here Comes the Sun." The first was in the color you got for the Kate Spade glass water bottle. I like this item, but sadly got the color I least like. It's a glittery gold but because it's only somewhat glittery, it just looks kind of blah. People were throwing fits about pink and although I'm not girly, I would have preferred pink, but I'll still use this bottle regardless of the color I got. 

Pet Gift Box Review: March 2015

This month, Crafty surprised my kitties with a birthday present from Pet Gift Box. This is actually a subscription box, but you can also do one-off gifts, such as this. They also offer subscriptions and gifts for both dogs and cats, which is nice. 

Orange Glad Review: March 2015

Orange Glad sends these lovely cards with each subscription box delivery that explain each item, as well as offer suggested "enjoy by" dates. This would be useful... if I didn't polish off the box in one sitting! ;)

We subscribe to the double treats box because otherwise my husband would never see the box. This way we can enjoy the treats together and we don't have to fight to share.

To be totally honest, I had all kinds of issues with the Orange Glad system this month, and I eventually ended up canceling for something that was really a complication on my end and not theirs. Through the whole process, Andy was so nice and helpful and after the entire mess, I resubscribed and now the system and everything seems in place. I want to make this clear because they could have basically ignored me or just been quick to resolve the issue, but they really did go above and beyond to help me with something that I seem to have made far more complicated than it needed to be! I appreciate that a lot, because running a business is hard enough and to have the kind of service that really does take time for customers personally is a major perk for me.

The Teacher's Box Review: February 2015

The Teacher's Box is really such a great subscription box and a unique gift idea for the teachers in your life. I love that it's versatile enough to work for teachers at any grade level or subject area for the most part, too. 

Wil Wheaton Quarterly Box: WIL01

I'm not really one for celebrity anything, having little interest in people just because they're famous. I was torn on signing up for the Wil Wheaton Quarterly Box, especially given that it's $100. However, he's only a couple years older than my husband and they basically grew up liking all the same things. Of course, Wil Wheaton got famous and my husband became a high school teacher, so there's that.

The point is that I was wary about this subscription simply because I don't really care what Wil Wheaton does or does not like. I respect that he's doing a lot, especially for tabletop gaming, but at the same time, he doesn't know me and I don't know him, so spending $100 just because he likes something is pretty dumb. When he announced, though, that each box would follow the decades of his life, starting with the 1970's, I figured this would be a great box. I like the cultural and historical element of that, so it felt like it would be a good present for my husband.