My storage....photo heavy.

*Nothing to Disclose*

Good evening, darling readers.  I hope this Friday is finding you all well.  It's a rainy evening here in the southeastern part of central Ohio and I've been listening to the thunder bounce around in the hills where I live. Most of the time it is really hard to tell where it really originates from because it echoes so much.  I've had a lot of people tell me, that until they've come to this part of Ohio, they didn't realize we had so many hills and valleys.  Yep, Ohio is hilly in some spots.  And we have some wonderful places to explore all over the state.  I just happen to like our part of the state because we have caves, cliffs, and a lot of lakes to go fishing or swimming in.  I live just a few miles outside of what is known as The Hocking Hills.  Besides the state of Vermont, this area is known in October for having some of the best fall views in the US.  Unfortunately, because of my physical limitations, I can't enjoy it as much as I did when I was younger, but we do go for drives down in the hills a lot just to enjoy the views and get out of our own little world for a bit. Sometimes that is just what the doctor ordered.  :0)

More after the jump.

April NAS Gold Ticket Prize!

DISCLAIMER:  Items received in this post were received as a prize in a monthly subscription plan of which I pay for out of my own pocket.  This in no way influences my opinion of the product one way or the other as I will always provide honest feedback.

Good late Friday night/early Saturday morning, darling readers.  I hope this evening/morning is finding you all well.  It seems that summer has found it's way to the southeastern part of central Ohio already.  It's been hot and humid all day despite a thunderstorm that started the day and fog so thick you couldn't see your hand when you waved it in front of your own face.  It's late evening/early morning and still 70 degrees outside.  If it weren't for the fact that my hubby works in the furnace room of a glass factory (it can be upwards to almost 300 degrees in some areas in there for brief periods of time) and he tends to get cold when it's under 80 degrees, I would turn the a/c on.  Time enough for that later, I suppose, when the weather gets warmer since it is only May, right?  I have a feeling this is going to be a HOT summer.  Thankfully I have nail polish and y'all to help distract me this year.  :0)

Last month, when I received my April Nail Art Society (NAS) kit, I also was one of five people who also was lucky enough to receive a gold ticket in with my items.  This gold ticket entitled the holder to an extra goodie, provided they followed the directions and properly claimed their prize.  As of the last time I heard, only four people had come forward to claim their prizes so NAS was going to come up with an alternate way to give the 5th prize away.  I probably should go check to see what they came up with, but haven't done so yet.  Anywho, I finally got my prize in the mail about 10 days ago.  I would have posted about it as soon as I received it, but there was a slight little problem with it and I had to wait on part of it to be replaced, which it finally has been.  So now I can share with y'all what my Gold Ticket prize from my April NAS kit was.  :0)

Without further ado, the photo's of my Gold Ticket prize:

The bubble envelope bag my prize came in.  Mr. MoJo has decided to be guard kitty instead of inspection kitty this time.  After I took this photo, he didn't want me to touch the bag and kept attacking my hands every time I reached out for it.  lol

Mr. MoJo finally lost interest in the package and decided to knead bread on the red fleece blanket instead.  Thankfully I wasn't under it that time.  I still have a couple of bruises from the last time he decided to knead bread while I was under the blanket.  He mixes bread quite hard!

The first item I pulled out of the bag was for the LVX brand.  I had heard of it before, but didn't know much about it until after I received this.  Still don't know a whole lot, but like what I know thus far.  :0)

Are these fancy boxes?  I was surprised to receive two!  I decided to keep the boxes just in case I decide to trade later on.  You never know.  :0)

This is a 3-in-1 treatment and this is how it looked when I took it out of the box.  It had leaked and just under 1/4 of the bottle was gone.  I sent a message off to NAS on their Facebook page and had a response back within minutes, letting me know that they would have a replacement out to me as soon as they could.  This sells for $18 on their website.

And here is the replacement.  I received this either last Friday or this past Monday.  And guess what I got in the mail yesterday?  Yes, a 2nd replacement bottle.  I sent another message today asking if I should return it to LVX or to NAS and was told to keep it or to share it with a friend.  So guess what is going into the box of items I have stashed away for a give-away I want to do soon?  ;<)

And this is what was in the other box.  This color is called Viridian and is an Emerald Green opaque creme.  It's based on the Pantone Color of the Year for 2013, which is Emerald.  This is $16 on their website.  I don't usually wear a green color unless it is on the darker side, but I did promise Tia at NAS I would try it out and I am actually wearing it on one hand right now and it doesn't look too bad.  This one looks more like  green, green grass than an emerald green but I do believe there are several different shades of emerald green that range from a pale green and goes all the way  to almost a pine green.  I will try to post the  mani  I'm currently wearing within the next few days.

Overall, even though it's a color I probably won't wear very often, I am really happy with my Gold Ticket prize and didn't expect the value to add up to what it has.  I didn't use the 3-in-1 as my base coat since I needed a ridge filler (I've devloped really bad ridges on 3 or 4 of my nails in the last couple of months) but I did use it as a top coat and it seems to be holding up really well despite washing quite a few dishes without using gloves (can't stand those things!), cooking dinner, washing more dishes, and typing quite a bit today.  LVX is definitely a brand I can see myself splurging on once in a great while.

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of my May NAS kit to see what kind of KISS products that were chosen for me.  I've already seen a sneak peek and it looks like it's going to be a great kit!

For those not familiar with it NAS is Nail Art Society, which is a monthly nail art subscription plan that cost $9.95 per month.  Right now there is a wait list so you have to sign up and they will e-mail you as soon as a spot opens up.  I have no idea how long it might take to come off the wait list though.  Currently, they do not have a referral program so I won't get anything special if you sign-up using the link at the bottom of this page.  If that ever changes, I will change the link to reflect that. :)

What do y'all think of my Gold Ticket prize?  Would you have been excited to receive it?  Have you ever used LVX before and if so, what do you like/not like about it?

As always, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to spend some time with me this evening/early morning.  Sleep well for those going to bed and for those staying up or already well into your day, please have a good day.  I shall return again soon.  :0)  Huggles!

Nail Art Society can be found here at this link

Three months of Ipsy, starting with May....

DISCLOSURE:  Referral Link contained within this post.

All items were paid for out of my own pocket and were not provided by any company mentioned.

Thank you for reading!

Good early morning (or late evening, depending on where you are) darling readers!  I apologize for being gone so long.  My surgery went well and I'm nearly healed.  My new SCS battery is working very well and doing a good job for me.  Right now I only have a few settings, but will be meeting with the company rep again at my next doctor's appointment to do some more programming and that will make me a very happy patient.  :0)  This new system I have is called an Eon Mini and is half the size of my previous system.  It's also rechargable, which means I can recharge the battery when it needs it.  I usually don't wait until it needs it however, I charge on a weekly schedule because it's easier for me to remember.  The old system, I would plug my charging unit into the wall and then put the antenna where it needed to be and sit as still as I could while it did it's thing.  This new system, I can take with me.  It's completely portable!  Once I'm done charging, then I can recharge the charging unit with a wall charger.  Kind of neat, but it's also kind of a pain in the tush because my charging sessions are now longer.  Before, they were 45 minutes to an hour long and now they are just short of 2 hours, so far.  I far prefer the shorter charging time even if it means the inconvenience of sitting still for an hour so if, in 7 to 10 years, when this battery reaches its end of life and there are no other options and I can have a choice, I am going to see if I can go back to the other type of system unless I can get used to this one in the meantime.  Okay, enough of my complaining about medical stuff and onto the nail, or in case of today's post, make-up, stuff!  :0)

Today, I have for you, three months worth of Ipsy! Back in mid-January, I read a review on someone's blog about a subscription service called MyGlam or Ipsy as it is now known.  For $10 a month, members receive between 4 to 6 deluxe or full-sized samples.  On the website, you can upload or view member videos and partipate in product discussions.  There is also a new referral system that just started in May.  If you would like to join Ipsy, you can do so here.  At the time I read about it, Ipsy had a waiting list, so I didn't get my first bag until I came off the wait list at the end of March.  But since I just received my May bag, I am going to start with that one and work my way backwards to my first bag I received in March.  :0)  Since this is going to be a long post, I will add a jump after I am finished with May's bag.

Without further ado, a photo of what was included in my May bag:

The theme for the month of May is:  Spring Fling!  I think the colors of the bag reflect this very well.  I probably wouldn't have bought it for myself if I had gone to the store, but now that I have it, I do like it.

Normally all Ipsy bags are very similar with only 1 or 2 items slightly different, but this month, there were quite a lot that were very different from each other as there were several different item options.  From left to right, these are the items I received with suggested retail prices.

Pacifica Coconut Crushed Pearl Bronzing Body Butter 2 oz tube $7

Zoyz Nail Lacquer $8

Yaby Concearler in Buff $5.06

Mirabella Perfecting Powder $30

Juice Beauty Reflecting Gloss in Pink $12

Total value of bag $63.06

Same items, but with the boxed items unboxed.  Now you can see the color of Zoya I received.  It's my favorite color, purple!  The name of it is Julie.  I'll be trying it very soon.

An inside view of the bag.  Very pretty!

And that is my May Ipsy bag.  Do you subscribe to Ipsy?  If so, what did you get that was different?  Were you able to take advantage of the referral program to earn either of the bonus items?