Halloween Planner Haul

If you don’t know October is my absolute favorite month (aren’t you surprised?). And I go all out for Halloween in my planner, just like in the rest of my life. I’m so happy that October has started that I wanted to share with you what spreads I have planned, so here’s my Halloween Haul.

The first spread I’m using is this kit from PrintyInPink. What drove me to this kit was that it seemed to be a perfect in between from a unicorn kit into a spooky scary kit. I absolutely am in love with it, and the spread turned out really nice.

Although I’ll be doing a full review on the shop, right now I will honestly say that the only downfall is that they don’t have a ton available. I hope to see more from them soon and can’t wait to see what they come up with.

The second kit that I picked up was this one from StickToThePlans. I haven’t used this kit yet, but I’m really excited to in the near future. It has a lot of functional and decorative things in it, so I hope that it will make a really nice spread to work with. It’s a very nice traditional black and orange Halloween kit, which I’m always game for. I also love that there are decorative half boxes, which I kind of like even though they look like they may be a challenge to use. This shop looks like it has a lot of affordable printables so I can’t wait to pick up a few more and try them out.

The last kit I’ve bought right now is from AndreaNicolePrintsCo, and is her Nightmare Before Christmas Kit. I’m going to be honest because this isn’t my ideal Nightmare Before Christmas set, but I also wasn’t planning on paying an arm and a leg to get what I really wanted (that and it was from Germany and wouldn’t get here in time). I do have high hopes for this kit, though and I hope that the spread turns out well.

 

What is your favorite kit that you’ll be using this October? Any suggestions on kits you’ve found that I could use the week of Halloween? I’m still looking for that perfect one, so leave ideas in the comments.

See you soon,

~Amanda

NiteangeL® Small Animal Activity Playground Review

Earlier this summer I decided to purchase the NiteangeL® Small Animal Activity Playground, Suspension Bridge, Climbing Wall, Rope for Lucia off of Amazon. When I purchased it I didn’t have high expectations, but what I got let me down.

If you have a hamster you pry know how hard it is to find toys and activities of appropriate sizes that you can actually use. I had high hopes for Amazon, and after spending days searching through pages of search results I found something within my budget that I had some hope for.

When I finally got the package I was left almost in tears. I didn’t expect anything great, but what I did have was not what I wanted.

When I first opened the package everything was cool, it had a little bit of glue that I noticed right off the bat, but Lucia doesn’t chew much so it wasn’t going to be a problem. As I tried to put the toy together I started finding all sorts of issues. To start I couldn’t get it together. Nothing lined up and it wasn’t until the next day when I saw my boyfriend that we were actually able to put it together (almost breaking it, but hey).

The day after he left I really started to look at the toy, and found that one of the ropes (the one with the wooden piece) had tape in it. I wasn’t sure how Lucia would react to the rope, and since I was afraid she would chew on it I tried to get the tape out so that she wouldn’t be able to chew on that piece. Let’s just say my frustration continued when I broke that piece and ended up having to throw it away.

If you’ve seen recent pictures of Lucia’s cage you know that this toy is still in there because she really does love it, but I won’t be buying another one for her for a long time. I honestly feel as if I wasted my money and I don’t want to do that again. This toy isn’t 100% safe, and you need to do a lot of work to make it safe before giving it to your hamster.

Honestly this product gets a 2/5 and I will not be buying it again.

Have you had an experience like this? What’s your favorite place to buy hamster toys?

See you soon,

~Amanda

 

Fall Updates!

So let’s just get this done because I don’t 100% know what I’m writing to be honest.

Jobs

If you don’t know I recently started a new job at the mall and I have been working hours upon hours upon hours there, so that’s sort of why this blog has been put to the side for a little bit. Luckily the job is going wonderfully and besides the hours I’m having so much fun at it and I absolutely love it.

School

School has begun again and it’s going well enough. I like the majority of my classes and I’m having a good time in a lot of them. They are a lot of busy work but not a lot of thought work, and I’m finding that it’s a lot easier this semester than I thought that it would be.

Kurt!

Kurt is still doing as well as he can, he’s taking his class for the third time and the professor is being very very good about making sure that he will pass. I’m thankful for this and I know that this time he will pass and I’m excited for him to be done. He’s having some family… differences (?) that are making it hard for him to focus and do well, but he’s doing his best and having fun.

We are talking about what the next step is for us and what we’ve managed to agree on is that once I graduate we are pry going to get an apartment together. We aren’t sure about how long this will last but it will be just for a short period of time, but that will be the next step for us.

The Long Distance is sort of hurting us and is making everything difficult, but we’re doing our best to work through it and we are doing our best at the end of the day to make sure that we both are ok and doing well.

My Family!

lol- we’re insane, but that’s not an update.

Shawn just went off to college and completed his second week of classes without a glitch. He is making friends and everything is going well.

My niece Kaley is getting close to her due date and I can’t wait to meet my new great-niece.

My dad is doing good and trying to stay out of the hospital.

 

That’s all that I can think of right now, if you have any questions let me know in the comments 🙂

See you soon,

~Amanda

StickWithMe Shop

On August 22nd I ordered from StickWithMe Shop on Etsy. I have ordered from this before and I was rather happy with the products, but after a year I decided to go back and order some more things.

The processing time didn’t take very long, but I did get really scared because I didn’t know when it would ship. It didn’t help either that on her Instagram she released that the postal service was going on strike again and she was going to have some issues. I think I might have been a package that had an issue or two because it took almost three weeks to get to my PO Box here on campus. I do live in Minnesota, so I was sort of upset because I don’t really live that far away from the border of the USA and Canada.

By the time the stickers got here I was so frustrated that I didn’t really care, and was just sort of mad while I was opening it. I did receive two freebies in the package which were super cute, but it was still sort of annoying.

The stickers themselves are on matte paper and are super cute, I love the peak-a-boo collection and as much as I want to say I won’t order from her again I know that I will because at the end of the day it wasn’t really her fault that the shipping took forever.

I do love these stickers and I can’t wait to use them, but to me it’s just a little infuriating at the end of the day that it took so long to get here.

I do like this ship and will be ordering again.

What’s the longest you’ve waited for stickers? Let me know in the comments!

See you soon,

~Amanda

Volcano View Hedgehog Toy Review

Welcome back to regularly scheduled programming! Today we’re going to talk about a Toy Set that I got from Volcano View on Etsy.

This toy set was difficult to buy because when I decided that I was going to buy it the shop was on vacation because they were restocking and what not. It drove me insane to wait, and I almost couldn’t do it.

Once I ordered it it was really quick to ship (too a while from once they actually shipped it) and got to me in a reasonable amount of time.

The package came in a white bag and seemed sort of a step down on shipping to be honest, but everything inside of it was safe.

At the end I wouldn’t buy this again, because I felt let down a little by the products. Gatsby loves them and has fun, but they all just sort of seemed a step down from what I expected. Not sure what I was expecting, but I was slightly disappointed.

The one thing that I pry will buy again is the cuddle buddy because Gatsby seems to love it. It’s defiantly something I will do in the future because I will be sort of making Gatsby a new cage theme-thing once I move into an apartment with Kurt after I graduate.

So over all I won’t be buying this exact thing from Volcano View again, but it does give me some great ideas for toys that I can buy for him in the future.

See you soon,

~Amanda

Hello Again

Hello!

I’m so sorry that I haven’t been here for literally two weeks, but in those two weeks I’ve worked 50 hours in total and it’s been insane with school.

I promise that I will be back from now on, and I promise I am doing my best but it’s just been a lot to go on.

Please stick with me, I promise this will get better.

See you soon,

~Amanda

10 Things for College Freshman

I wanted to sit down and talk about 10 things that I wish that freshman knew that first week of college. This isn’t meant to offend anyone or make them upset, but I wanted to talk about it really quick just to clue you in on somethings that really annoy me.

1. Don’t be loud, there’s no need for that. I know the seniors guys do it but guess what they shouldn’t be doing it either. It’s annoying.
2. Don’t complain about the bus, that’s just how it is and you can’t change it.
3. You’ll learn to love the food. Please be quiet.
4. You don’t need to go hard on the first weekend, to be honest it’s scary and your friends are more likely to take you to the hospital.
5. Yes, you will get to the point where you’ll steal from the cafeteria. Yes, the workers know about it, no they aren’t really going to stop you.
6. Get involved! It’s fun and you make friends.
7. Write everything down. Keep a journal because these moments where you are scared of everything will pass, and you will grow. Keeping a journal to track what you’re doing is a great thing to do.
8. Think about the tattoo. Yes the other people have them, but think about it before you get it.
9. Get some sleep, your body is going insane right now while you’re adapting, and it’s under stress. Take care of yourself to make sure that you don’t get sick.
10. Call your parents, they want to know what you’re ok.

So those are my 10 tips for freshman. I hope that this helps you and will make your first week away from home a little bit better.

What would you tell your freshman self if you could? Leave it in the comments to help our little freshman out.

See you soon,

~Amanda