Casual Costume- Person In An Ugly Holiday Sweater

I wanted to write about ugly Christmas sweaters, but it just felt wrong to make it a gift guide, so its a Casual Costume instead. Call it, Person Wearing an Ugly Christmas Sweater Unironically, or something. I think its great that stores intentionally make ugly sweaters every year. I don't have the occasion to wear one, I don't know anyone that throws Ugly Sweater parties. I'm always grateful that Target makes sock versions of their ugly sweaters, I usually just buy those. This year I did buy the Feliz Navidad sweater from Target thats down below though. I just couldn't resist those smiling cacti! I'm hoping that I'll have somewhere to wear it soon.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters by krystellemt 

Gingerbread Pullover-Modcloth / Santa pullover-Modcloth / Elf pullover-Modcloth / Mossimo Supply Co. Men's Gnome Sweater / Mossimo Supply Co. Men's Cactus Sweater / A Christmas Sweater-TeeFury / Holiday Mix Vol. 1-TeeFury / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Snowflake Sweatshirt / Vader Lack of Faith Sweatshirt

These came from Kohls, Target, Modcloth and Teefury. Some of these sweaters and sweatshirts are men's, it seems like they get the ugliest sweaters lol. The Modcloth sweaters are female, and the Teefury ones have the option to be bought in either men's or women's sizes.

Gift Guide- Subscription Boxes Pt.2

I had so much making the first gift guide about subscription gift boxes that I thought I would make another one! The thing is, there are a ton of subscription boxes out there. Its so difficult to choose just a few a great ones, because there are a lot of great ones. But there are also a lot of crappy ones floating around out there too. So please do your research and make sure that you're choosing boxes that fit what you're looking for and know that they are a gamble.

For the kiddos-
Kiwi Crate. These boxes come in a variety of age appropriate choices starting from three years old and going all the way up to sixteen years old. Each box contains enough materials to complete a project, and some other fun stuff depending on the age group. Subscriptions start at $19.95/month with free shipping.

Little Passports. For the world traveller in training, this box has everything. Its a great way to help a child explore different parts of the world without breaking your bank to actually take them there. There are different plans for different age groups, and each age group seems to cost different amounts, so check your prices accordingly. The first month in the first two age groups, the child will receive a suitcase and passport with their first lesson, after that its letters, etc.

For the cat lady-
MeowBox. This box is expensive, but if you love your kitty kitty then its worth it! A monthly box is $32.95 here in the States, but they are shipping from Canada. Each month a little box of treats will come for your cat, and a small portion of sales from these boxes goes to animal rescue.

For the makeup enthusiast-
Ipsy. This fun little bag comes with a few different beauty finds for just $10 a month. You take a quiz to determine your beauty style, and samples are sent based on that quiz. If you like what you receive in your bag, you have the option to buy the full size product at a discount.

Julep Maven. This box is similar to Ipsy, but it comes with two price options, My Maven ($24.99), and Maven Deluxe ($34.99). Each box comes with beauty items tailored to your style profile (yep, you get to take a little quiz to start this subscription too!). These are full sized products though, which is why the subscription price is a little high.

For the hero supporters-
HeroCrate. A bit like Loot Crate, except each month is dedicated to one specific hero! And, you don't have to have a subscription to get the box. You can buy your boxes as you want at 29.99 a month (although, there is a three month bundle at 27.99/month if you prefer). A teeshirt is guaranteed in every crate, plus four to six other items. And rumor has it that a VillianCrate is in the works.

So I'm sure there are still many more amazing boxes out there, but I am running out of time!! What are your favorite subscription boxes?

Five Fandom Friday- Gifts I Want Santa To Bring Me

Christmas is so close, its crazy! Today's Five Fandom Friday is about the presents I'd like Santa to bring me. To be honest, I had a difficult time thinking of things. I'm more of a gift card person, you never know when those things can come in handy :)

1. A Range Rover. Santa will need to park this one in the garage, not under my tree! My poor, beloved Honda Accord is on her last legs of life. A new car for me isn't a stretch, but that new car being a Range Rover probably is. I like SUVs because they're higher off the ground and have room for my kids and all their kid stuff. They aren't super great on gas though, which sucks when I'm trying to convince my husband to buy one. My first car was actually a truck (an old Silverado), so that kind of ruined me on cars forever.

2. Canon Selphy CP910 Printer. One of my goals for next year is to try a version of Project Life that I think I can stick to. This printer would help me so much because I would be able to print my pictures at home as soon as I need them, instead of having to order them from some online place like I've done in the past. And this one is blue, which is my favorite color.

3. A gym membership. I have tried to work out at home, but it just doesn't work for me. I get too distracted by things here and then the workout never happens. Plus, I get motivated by the fact that money is being spent on the membership, is that weird? Like I don't want to waste the money, so I might as well go....This year has been a particularly rough one in terms of my health, and I know that part of it can be cured with a little (okay, more than a little) weight loss. Maybe Santa will feel my pain and put a gym membership in my stocking. 

4. Razer Black Widow Chroma Keyboard. I hope I get a new computer soon, since my laptop is also on its last legs (whats with all my stuff deciding to crap out at the same time?). If I do, I really want this keyboard. Its designed for gaming and its so pretty! It has a rainbow colored backlighting, and I've never had a keyboard thats been backlit before, so I might as well start off with a bang!

5. R2D2 Ring from Her Universe. I love R2D2, hes just so cute! And this ring is fabulous! I would wear it all the time if I had it.

What presents are you hoping to get from Santa Claus? Are they mostly practical items, or are they for fun?

Casual Costume- Katniss Everdeen (Mockingjay)

I like The Hunger Games movies, even though they seem to be in competition with The Twilight Saga for worst consecutive endings ever in a movie franchise. Today's Casual Costume is inspired by Katniss Everdeen's Mockingjay outfit. Its pretty easy, since the whole thing was black. I think its a good outfit for a day when you need to feel tough (or you need to ride a Harley). Big angel wings might be hazardous in everyday life (unless you're a VS model), so I chose to have them as a necklace instead.

Katniss-Mockingjay by krystellemt 

My Thoughts On Warlords of Draenor So Far

Warlords of Draenor has been out for a few weeks now, and I haven't said too much about it. When the expansion was first announced, I wasn't too eager to see it really. The only thing that sounded interesting to me were the garrisons. As the expansion neared, Blizzard started releasing these mini movies that gave some background into the upcoming expansion. Those were actually pretty cool, and they got me interested in seeing what the expansion had to offer. I have to say though, that excitement was short lived once patch 6.0.2 went live. You can read about all the changes here, but basically Blizzard wanted to take WoW back to its roots. So we all got hit with the nerf bat and everything sucked. Especially when the dungeons in Panda Land hadn't been fixed yet. That was miserable. And the race remodels. I really didn't like them. My humans looked like taller dwarves, and my undeads just looked....weird. But like with anything in WoW, you complain about it for a while, and then you get over it and get used to it.

So the expansion finally released, and I waited a few days to try and log in. I didn't care about being any kind of server first (besides, most of those went to people that a-beta tested and knew the general gist of how things worked already or b-work for wowhead), and I knew with the amount of people trying to log in, it would be a nightmare. I waited four days after launch to log in, and it still took me hours to finally get onto my server. It was worth it though. I started out with a Horde toon of mine, and shes actually my highest toon right now (94). The quests were pretty easy to do, although I found myself taking a lot of damage from mobs at times, and I'm not used to that lol. But I guess thats part of Blizzard's "taking it back" thing. I remember when I first started playing, mobs were hard to kill. Once you get out of the starting area (and thats not an immediate thing), you go onto Frostfire Ridge (Blade's Edge Mountains). When I started the quest line on my Alliance character, I was expecting to go to the same place. So it was really nice to see that after getting out of that starting area (because you do start the same way, no matter your faction), you do go to a different area to start building your garrisons. The Alliance start in Shadowmoon Valley. I haven't gotten too far into the quest lines with my Ally toon to see how different they are, but at least you have the change of scenery.

I really like the garrisons and all the quests you can have your followers do for it. Yes, followers! You earn them from quests, and they help you complete tasks. The achievement whore in me just loves it because there are so  many achievements related to the garrison and your followers. You can also kill beasts out and about and they give you garrison supplies, plus you can just find them while questing. Also while you're questing, bonus objectives can pop up on your map, and if you complete them, you get gold and xp, which is good. The addition of the reagent bank is super awesome, but I've already filled mine up on my 94, so thats a bummer. That reagent bank saves you a ton of bag space though! It really comes in handy, well worth the 100 gold to get it.

Some things I don't like about the new expansion is that the characters light up when you hover over them. Thats just distracting to me, and it reminds me of EverQuest. Actually, most of this expansion reminds me of EverQuest, which is pretty crappy. Its like Blizzard couldn't think of anything new on their own, so they went to rip off another game instead. I also don't like how squishy I've become. I get hit so hard by mobs, its really difficult to quest alone. I'm not horrible at my class either- the mobs just hit harder. And like I mentioned above, I don't like how any of my toons look remodeled. I like how they looked before.

Overall though, I am enjoying this expansion a lot more than I thought I would. I feel like there is a lot to do in this one so you can't get bored with it super easily (like with Pandaria, even though I didn't even finish most of what was out there).I still haven't tried to do any of the new dungeons though, so that should be interesting. And leveling of professions is different a little now too. There are some items I can use from Draenor that have a really high level with no problem, but items from the old world, that have lower levels, require a certain level in a profession to use them. Its a little wacky how thats done, but I think it has something to do with the garrisons and work orders.

Have you tried Warlords of Draenor? What do you think of it so far? Let me know in the comments!


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Carol of the Bells

Last Friday I posted about my favorite holiday songs and I mentioned that I love Carol of the Bells. I even had a whole playlist dedicated to it once! I received a comment asking to see it, so I thought why not? Well, I couldn't find all the songs I once had, because it had taken me years to find all the versions of the song that I loved. And with my computer crashing like it did, and me being the nar-nar that I was and didn't back anything up, all of it was lost. So I created just a little Carol of the Bells playlist on Spotify that I'd like to share with you guys today. If you know of any versions of this song that you love and I didn't put it on here, please share! I am looking to make an even better playlist this time around :)

Gift Guide- Subscription Boxes

I think subscription boxes are really fun to give as gifts because you have the option of sending them for more than a month, and its always a surprise as to what's in the box. There are so many boxes out there though. These are the ones that caught my eye.

For the Paper Lover-
A Beautiful Mess Happy Mail Its a monthly delivery of stationery created by Elsie and Emma and produced by Studio Calico, so you know its legit. Available for monthly billing at $20, the price lessens if you can make more than a month to month commitment. Perfect for the letter writer in your life!

Studio Calico Scrapbooking Kits Speaking of Studio Calico, they create their own awesome boxes of goodies that they ship out monthly! They have a scrapbook kit, cardmaking kit and a Project Life kit and prices vary depending on which kit you choose.

For the Nerd-
Loot Crate (starting at $13.37 plus S&H) Probably the most popular of the "nerd" crates, but thats because it does have good stuff. Every month has a theme, and they try really hard to stick to it. Its just hit or miss, mostly based on your preferences. December's crate theme is Anniversary though, and its supposed to have a few exclusives and lots of other neat stuff.

Nerd Block ($19.99 plus S&H)This is another fun one, and it always comes with a teeshirt. Its a little more pricey than Loot Crate if you live in the States, because they ship from Canada. But whats really cool about this place is that they have a ton of different options. There are Arcade and Horror Blocks that cost as much as a Nerd Block, and then there are Nerd Block Jr's that are meant for children ages 6-11. The Jr Blocks are gender specific though, so that's kind of a bummer. They do cost less ($13.99) than the regular Blocks, but I think thats because they don't include shirts.

IndieBox For the nostalgic gamer, this subscription box offers collectible editions of indie games, with some other goodies thrown in. Their motto is "bringing back the box!" Its a cool idea and prices are about the same as the other boxes in this category. The picture below is one of the past Indie Box games.  

For the Eclectic-

Graze I love my little snack boxes. They're very customizable, you just tell the people at Graze what you like and what you don't, and they're pretty good about sticking to that. They have a variety of options for those of us that have food allergies, and there's a regular box and a lower calorie box for those that are watching their weight. Use my referral code (95LLHF2NP) and get your first and fifth box for free! Plus, once you sign up, you can start referring people and earning your own free boxes. 

Quarterly Curated boxes of things by celebrities. I first heard about it when Bill Nye started doing boxes, but now I'm hearing that Wil Wheaton may soon be curating some! The boxes range from $50-$100, and are sent every three months (or you know, quarterly). There are all types of boxes to choose from, so you could probably even find a box for that one friend or relative thats so difficult to shop for.

Barkbox If you have an avid dog lover on your hands, Barkbox might be for them! You chose the size of the dog, what type of payment plan you'd like (prices start at $29 with free shipping for one month, but lessens with longer monthly commitments), and they send a few treats and toys monthly for the dog. Plus their website says that 10% of their profits go to various animal charities.

KawaiiBox This box is full of all kinds of cute! Every month they'll receive 10-12 snacks, toys, stationery or other goodies from Japan and Korea. Its a full on Kawaii explosion right out of the box! Its $18.90 a month and free shipping worldwide.