FREEE

Ok who loves free things? Bernie Sanders, and everyone else in the world. I always see posts about receiving a whole box of full sized products for free to test out for companies, but every time I have tried to sign up for those awesome deals, I never qualify for anything. So I went out and searched on my own and found some of the most random but useful free samples on the internet, and now I'm going to share them with you! And of course all of these are totally free; no shipping, monthly contract signup, or tax charges. Feel free to check out my pinterest board and follow it to get updated whenever I find something new! I always update pins to "tried" when I actually get the sample in the mail. (*A lot, and I mean A LOT of free samples go quick, so I am sorry if any of these don't exist by the time you find them :( *)

• Hair Product

L'oreal always has some kind of a sample. All you do is make an account, pick your skin type or some other random beauty related question, and give them your address and they will send you something! I got the total repair shampoo, conditioner, and ceramide samples. It's enough for about 1.5 shampoos for shorter hair. They also send a 2$ off coupon!

•  Tape Measure

This is a company that makes suits and will gladly send you a free tape measure so you know your exact sizing when ordering. This came in super handy for me with trying to figure out my bra size, waist inches, and skirt lengths. I have to say it's pretty good quality for a freebie!

• "Peanut" Butter

This is a sample of "Wow Butter", an imitation peanut butter spread - without using peanuts. It comes with two packages and got here within 3 weeks for me after I had requested my sample. Super excited to taste test it!

• Nivea Lotion

The "face, body, hands" creme is targeted towards men but I assume works just as well for women! This comes with a little sample of the creme and of course a coupon to get a full sized shaving cream, after shave, of the sampled creme lotion in stores.

• Breathe Right & Sinus Relief

This sample came fast! It's a two pack of these nasal strips that supposedly help you breathe when you have a stuffy nose. The other is a bottle with a little mixture that you spray into your nose to relieve your sinuses. I haven't had a stuffy nose yet to try either of them out yet, but hey, free.

• EO Product Samples

This came with a small variety of samples! There is a hand sanitizer, face lotion, shower gel, and body lotion! Lot's to test! They also mail you a 20% off an online purchase coupon to try out the full sizes or anything else they sell.

• Ring sizer ruler & Ring sizer plastic rings

With online shopping being my new addiction, I hate not knowing my correct sizing on things. These jewelry companies will send you a complimentary ring sizer where you punch out the plastic rings with their labeled sizes, and test to see which on fits your fingers best, or the other is an actual soft plastic ruler you tighten around your finger to see the measured size!

• Plant Vitamins

HB-101 Plant Vitalizer! I got this and it's some cute little bottles filled with ingredients that you mix with water then feed to your plants! Only time will tell how good this stuff works for my indoor plant friends, Bernard and Kevin.

• GotPrint

Get a free sample pack of all the different types of paper, cards, stickers, brochures, postcards, etc. This isn't a sample you can really do a lot with, but I was in the process of ordering invitations and it was really great to be able to see the paper options in real life so that there wouldn't be any surprises with ordering 500 invites online. This company has some really good priced options if you are looking for any type of business card, wedding invitations, graduation announcements, etc. I use them all the time for my graphic design bulk projects with my clients.

• Feminine Hygiene Kotex & Poise & Depends &  Tena

 Click on the link to fill out the form for Kotex to mail you some free pads, liners, or tampons. They give you 4 different choices to pick from. I haven't received them yet to photograph. However I did receive my box of 5 different sized Tena pads of varying absorbance, 3 different Poise pads that came in a cute little purse, and a box of 2 absorbency Depends full underwear pads. The last three samples are for leakage from the bladder, but can easily be used for menstruation purposes as well. And of course they all came with 2$ off coupons!

• Free Noosa Yogurt

This yogurt is amazing. They have such a random variety of flavors with some spicy jalapeno with fruit, lemon, blueberry, raspberry, etc. They mail you a coupon and you just bring it in to any grocery store, grab your yogurt, check out with the coupon and it's free! You can send them to your friends too! Everybody gets a yogurt!




Thanks for checking these out! A lot of companies will also mail you free stickers, which I have gotten a lot of! It's always fun getting mail and little presents, and even cooler saving money. Enjoy!

Grandma's Paintings

My grandma is such a talented artist. For Christmas last year I asked her to paint me a piece to lighten up my college apartment. I showed her some pictures to get an idea of the floral design I was imagining, then my idea to do it on three separate canvases, and she out did herself! My grandma is awesome for all the patience, weeks, effort, paint, time, and love put into these. I love the final result and I love my sweet grandma.

POX

How fun is it to start the second week of your crazy semester with the chicken pox?! As a 21 year old?! For the second time in your life?! Not fun! 

My younger brother came down with them about 3 weeks ago. We thought since I had them before (a light case when I was a baby but when we are talking chicken pox you hold onto any thread of hope) that I would be good, and I moved to Idaho again, got settled, got pox.

Man these things itched. One night I didn't sleep because I was so terribly uncomfortable. And I had nothing to fix it! Luckily my roommate Courtney got me some cooling lotion that helped a bit, but when it's itching that bad there's nothing that can help (maybe Morphine or some kind of hard core unconscious knock out drug). And I basically have been in my room for a solid week because I don't want my roommates to have to witness me in this state of blister scab grossness (seriously though, any form of self esteem you have received over your lifetime, pox takes it, rips it, burns it, and smashes it into the ground, because you've got some yucky stuff happening all over your entire body).

My poor long distance boyfriend, working two jobs, listened to me whine constantly for the past six days about how miserable I was, skyped me multiple times throughout his insanely busy long days, mailed me things to help my pox, made me laugh while I was dying, literally told me I'm pretty even with blisters all over my face (it was not pretty FYI), and loved me through the worst of it! I think God messed up somewhere in my paperwork because there's no way I deserve this guy in my life (but shhh don't tell, he's the best I'm keeping him around). 

And of course my parents texted me every day to see how much itchy nasty torture I was going through that day and ask for pictures. I'm not upsetting them anytime soon because those pictures are some serious black mail material. Mom mailed me some good healing cream and oils. If only she could mail me some food, then I would be living the dream.

So many people helped me through this and offered their services, from my roommates just being kind and buying me Popsicle's to cheer me up, to some random priesthood holders I had never met come give me a blessing. It's so cool to see God's hands touching your life through his servants!

10/10 would not recommend getting the chicken pox.

Idaho II

So I'm back up in Idaho after a nice 5 month break of just working, doing hair in Arizona and saving up to come back to school for another semester. It's been a cold adjustment, this winter is definitely a lot colder than the last one. My first week of classes it was in the -15 range. My nose hairs froze!

I have a new apartment with all new roommates (since my last ones all got married or refuse to come back here for another winter) who seem pretty cool so far. There's two sisters from the East Coast, one just got engaged this semester, then there's the other two who are both from the West Coast, and then my room-roommate, Courtney, who is so sweet and from our very own Idaho. 

Since I flew up to school this time (instead of drive through crazy snow for 15 hours) I had to leave so many things at home! Luckily SouthWest let me bring two 50LB checked bags, my carry on, and a personal item all for FREE! Woot! I flew into Salt Lake and had to carry all of those things (by myself - through the snow - in the cold) to the Salt Lake Express shuttle bus to catch my ride up to school. It was a good four hour bus ride that I slept a lot on (6am flight aka 3.5 hours of sleep, can you blame me). Then my old (married) roommate came and helped me with my bags and took me to my apartment, then to Walmart to get groceries ($200 - gone (and I feel like I still have nothing to eat all the time???)). She was a blessing because there was no way I would have been able to walk all my suitcases through the snow to my apartment by myself as originally thought out (#feminism).

And now I'm back in the cold missing my Arizona, enjoying my new scenery, studying hard, and Pinteresting harder.

Broods Concert

When I saw one of my favorite indie bands was playing in Phoenix, I grabbed my girls went! We had an awesome time at the tiny venue and were up close and personal with the stage. Music and friendship is good for the soul. 

Check out Broods on Spotify here!

Yellowstone

My family decided to make a vacation out of the long trip to pick me up from BYU-Idaho at the end of the semester last week. We drove all around Yellowstone National Park on Friday. It was amazing to see raw nature! Here's some pictures I took of our drive around the park!

Family group shot

While driving around the Lower and Upper loops through Wyoming and Montana, we were able to see different wild-life.

Animals spotted: Buffalo, Caribou, Squirrels/Chipmunks, Moose, Tourists, Foxes, Deer, Geese, a Black Bear, and even an Alex!

Majestic

Santa?

A rare sighting of an 'Alex' - very vicious

This buffalo was walking down the middle of the road, causing traffic

As we ventured out of the car to view the natural wonders, we all got nice pink sunburns! The sights were worth it. We had a good time driving around for NINE hours because of a wrong turn or two, and were happy to get back to our beds at the end of the night.

Evie at lower falls

Upper falls

Sulfur hot springs

Yellowstone Lake

Old Faithful

Caution: HOT

Behold!

Last weeks

It's finals week! This semester has been a lot of ups and downs. Isabel and I were thinking about it yesterday and we have made a lot of new friends who take us to do outdoorsy things. We have gone camping twice, we hiked all over, have gone on at least 5 different river trips, and just got out of the house a lot more this semester. When it's not snowing outside there's so many things to do! Now as we pack up our room to move back home for fall, we realize how much we are going to miss it! Our Spotify jam sessions, running at the gym, combined dinners, Instagram fame, wandering aimlessly around Rexburg, mental breakdowns, trying to figure out life, cats, lipstick colors, and everything else. Spring semester was Fergalicious.

Prepared hikers

Wandering

Room-mates

Enjoying Spring time

Darby Wind Caves

Serious shoppers

Chill out

Roomate Camping Trip

We came up with the great idea to do a girls camping trip. We planned, packed, and took off to the nearest campground this weekend. We had a lot of fun starting a fire, making hobo dinners, roasting marshmallows, and floating down the freezing cold river. It was a nice relaxing get away from the crazy stresses of school. We had an awesome time!