Favorite Song of the Week

 

I've been a fan of Coheed and Cambria for many years. The lead singer has a unique voice but I had to share this song since I love it so much. I hope you like it too.

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

I won a $25 Ulta gift card from Batiste Nation. 

I bought two bottles of body wash that smell so good. Ulta has some really good products. 

Did you receive any freebies or wins this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

 

This time of year brings a lot of dark clouds and overcast days. Not that I'm complaining at all. I love  days like this. We didn't get any rain from any of these clouds.

That cloud formation was a lot bigger than it looks.

This was taken at noon and it was so dark. 

Low Carb Recipe: Cauliflower Toast

 

This is a repost from 2017 but I've changed it a little so I thought I would share it again since I've been eating this to stay low carb.

So this recipe was pretty simple but like with most recipes, I changed it to suit my taste. 

What you'll need:

2 cauliflower florets

2 eggs, divided

1/2 an avocado 

1 tsp. lemon juice

pepper to taste

McCormick Grill Mates Chipotle and Garlic seasoning

McCormick Roasted Garlic and Herb seasoning

2 TBSP oil

1 Tsp. butter

pinch of season salt

Pinch of salt for guacamole

1 tsp. mayonnaise

What to do: 

Grate the cauliflower add one egg, a pinch of salt, other seasonings, and pepper. Stir until mixed well. 

Heat oil and butter in a pan and add cauliflower mixture to hot pan. Shape into thin patty. Fry on first side for about 4 minutes or until golden brown. Flip and fry for 4 more minutes. 

In a small bowl add avocado, lemon juice, pinch of salt and mayo. Mash avocado and mix well. 

When cauliflower is done, fry 1 egg in the hot pan. 

Add avocado mixture on top of cauliflower patty and fried egg on top of avocado. 

It was an interesting idea but you have to make sure to season that cauliflower really good other wise it's pretty bland. That's why I added a couple of seasonings from the first time I posted this recipe a few years ago. I've made it a few times and it's not bad.

Would you try this?

Product Review: Daily Goodie Box- November

 

The Daily Goodie Box has been around since about July of 2016. I signed up for an account right after I heard about them. They are 100% free, you don't even have to pay for shipping. And for a free box it's a nice sampler box of products.

What was in the box?

Mastiqe - Mastiqe Peppermint Gum- I liked this sugar free gum. I've been buying sugar free gum to chew on my walks with Falcor since diabetes gives me dry mouth all the time. I liked this gun, it has a good flavor but the flavor isn't too strong. I liked this gum and would buy it again. 

Lil Bucks - Clusterbucks Superfood Snacks- I really liked these a lot. They were snickerdoodle flavored and they tasted great. They were crunchy and had a great taste to them. They reminded me of granola. 

Heat Holders - Thermal Hats- If you like beanies for the Winter this one is so nice and warm. It has a fur-like material on the inside that is so soft and will really keep your head warm. 

Zolli Candy - Zollipops Halloween Bags- These Zollipops are Keto friendly and sugar free which is good for me since I'm diabetic. I love getting these Zollipop candies since I can eat them. They taste great and have great flavors. 

Ellas Flats - All Seed Savory Crisps- I was not a fan of these seed crisps but my daughter liked them and she ate them. She really liked them and said she would buy these if she saw them in the store. 

I.E Green Tea - Organic Liquid Tea Packets- These have some great flavors but I like my tea to have some caffeine in it. These are not bad if you liked green tea but it's not really my cup of tea. You see what I did there?

Owl in a Towel - Balsam Fir Hand Cream- I was seriously on the fence about this hand cream when I first tried it because of the scent. It's an Evergreen/Balsam Fir scented hand cream. I thought the scent was a bit strange at first but the scent diffuses out after rubbing it into you hands and after a while I didn't smell it as strongly. But the best part is the hand cream is really good and helped soothe my dry skin. So even though I don't necessarily like the scent as much as I would like, the hand cream itself is really good. 

All they ask you to do is try the products and leave reviews for the products you got in order to be eligible for more Free Goodie Boxes. As you guys already know, I'm a fan of all these types of boxes. I love all the different subscription boxes and it's really nice to be able to try new to me products for free. This is a great box to try for.

Oh and one more thing, if you visit their FB Page, they give away Goodie Boxes to people who interact with their posts. So if you've tried before and weren't able to get a Goodie Box, there's even more ways to get one now.

Daily Goodie Box. It's more than just Free Samples!

Have you signed up? Have you received one of these boxes?

I'm a fan of subscription boxes and love trying new products for free so this was a huge hit with me. New products+free box = Fabulous!

Disclosure: I was given and free box in exchange for a review but all opinions are my own.

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures this week courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #340

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post.

The guy right across from me has had hella traffic at his door lately. He doesn't usually let the people into his apartment like drug dealer does so I've been seeing the drug deals going down right out in the open in front of his door.

They stay for a few seconds or a minute and then they leave after getting something from him.

And then drug dealer was at his door for a few minutes too. 

Unbelievably, it's been mostly quiet around here this week. 

The high this week was 59F/15C

The low this week was 38F/3C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Favorite Song of the Week

 

This is a new band for me but Hammer King has a great sound, the lead singer voice is something else. This video is all kinds of creepy goodness too. I hope you enjoy.

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

6 perfume samples. 

A sample of Lancôme Genefique Youth Acetifying Serum.

I like everything I received this week. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: Alien Commander's Mate by Ava Ross

Book Description

An alien warrior has made me an offer I can’t refuse. In exchange, he can do what wants with me for one week.

I want a child, but that’s impossible now that Earth men are sterile. Then a ping from a distant planet reaches us. Aliens are real, and they’re interested in getting to know Earth women better. The Xilans fall into an insatiable urge once every three years, called the Slaking, and there aren’t enough females to give them what they need.

Like many Earth women, I sign up. For one week, I’ll make an alien happy and in exchange, I get a child. As long as I keep my heart of out of the equation, things should go fine, right? But when an intergalactic war erupts, we must fight for our very survival.

Alien Commander’s Mate is Book 1 in the Fated Mates of the Xilan Warrior Series. This book offers aliens who look and act alien, heat, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

My Review

Lydia signs up to be with an alien for a week so she can get pregnant and have the baby she's always wanted but can't with a human male because they are all sterile now. She is tested to make sure she is healthy enough to have a child and be with one of the aliens. She is reassured that all the aliens have been vetted and will treat her well and not hurt her which eases her mind a bit. While it was a bit weird to have to stand in a room with a bunch of alien males and wait for one to pick a female, it was also kinda hot. Especially since the alien who picked her is big, blue with a tail and horns. I only wish we had a whole face on the cover because I wanted to see those horns. I really dislike these decapitated torso pictures. I want to see the face. 

Gorok is the commander of a ship and after having a bit of a battle with other aliens, he and his crew go to a space station where they will pick a human female to be with for a week. A lot of females on their planet were killed in a war and there aren't enough of them now. But right as Gorok and Lydia are getting to know each other, the space station they are on is attacked by other aliens and if they capture Lydia, it won't be a good time for her. The aliens attacking the station are giant spider-like aliens that wanted to implant their egg sacks in her. Sounds like a nightmare to me. 

It was fun to watch Gorok and Lydia get to know one another better and fall for each other as they fight for their lives.

I had so much fun with this story. There's a droid and a cat like animal called a catrush both make this story so much fun. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

Amazon

Low Carb Recipe: Banana Pancakes

 

You will need: 

1 large ripe banana

2 eggs

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

butter or oil or fry the pancakes in

Mix together all ingredients until smooth. Heat a little bit of oil or butter in a nonstick pan. Pour about half a cup of mixture into a hot pan and let cook on first side before turning to cook on other side. I ate them with a little butter but you can add whatever you want to them. They were good.

Have you tried this?

Book Review: Unwanted Mate by Jade Marshall

 

Book Description

Sapphire

Every shifter longs to find their fated mate. It's one of the greatest blessings the Goddess can ever give to a shifter. But sometimes even the Goddess can get it wrong. When your mate is your childhood bully, there must be a mistake.

Marc

I started to believe I would never find my fated mate and had already accepted it as fact. Then I found her. But the woman I want to claim is a grown-up version of a girl I tortured when we were children. I wish I could go back and change things but the past is set in stone. Is there any way for me to make this right?

My Review

When Sapphire goes back to her pack, she is hoping to have some quiet time and just get a long nicely with everyone. She, like other wolves hope to find their fated mate but when she runs into her old bully, Marc and realizes that he is her mate...she has a choice to make. She can either forgive him for how he treated her when they were kids or she can refuse him as a mate. If she refuses him as a mate, there's no telling whether or not she will find another fated mate. It's happened before but the odds aren't good. 

At first she is just mad and is still hurt because of the way he treated her when they were kids. But after giving him a chance to explain himself and realizing that they both felt something for each other even as kids, she agrees to get to know him better before giving him her choice. 

I can understand not being able to believe that the bully who was so terrible to you years before is now your fated mate and having to come to terms with that. I think I might have said no right away in that predicament. But fated mates are a blessing from the Goddess so she has to consider that as well. I liked watching these two try to get to know each other better and explain away how they treated each other as kids and why. I'm glad she at least gave him a chance to explain things. This was a fun, quick read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures today are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Apartment Life #339

 

This is a weekly blog post that I'm calling Apartment Hell  Life. I've mentioned a few times some of the crazy things that go on in and around my apartment complex in the past 25 years that we've lived here and people keep telling me I should write a book. But instead of a book, I've decided to share the crazy things that have happened in and around my apartment complex in the last 25 years here in a weekly blog post.

This week the police were at the end of the street for some reason. I see them going to the apartment complex next to us all the time. 

So this is the overflow drain for my building. When the main line for my building backs up, the top on this will pop off and the excess sewer water will drain right out of this on to the sidewalk and surrounding grounds. 

The picture didn't really come out great so here's a video to better show you what was happening. Yes, that's toilet paper on the ground by the pipe. This is raw sewage and if you've been a reader for a while, you know this isn't the first time this has happened. 

Thankfully, maintenance did come out the next day and clear the drain so it stopped leaking. But they didn't clean up any of what came out of the drain but they almost never do. They let it dry up and blow away in the wind or wash away the next time it rains. 

---

Out by where the homeless people congregate and sleep, they had pulled two couches from the trash cans and had been sleeping and sitting on them for a few days. On Monday I noticed that someone had set fire to them. 

I didn't see the fire dept out here and there was no signs of water so I think it just burned until it went out. 

Even the wall behind it is singed. There was nothing left of the couches but the frames. I wonder if it was intentionally set or if one of the homeless people were sitting here hitting the crack pipe and accidentally set the couches on fire. I had seen a couple of different people passed out on the couches after doing drugs so it's possible it was an accident.

---

I'm sorry I didn't get around to anyone's blog for a few days. My internet and phone went out and it took a few days and several phone calls before someone finally came out and fixed it. They were supposed to be here the first day I called but never showed up. 

The high this week was 79F/26C

The low this week was 41F/5C

So that's it for this week's Apartment Hell  Life! Be sure to come back next week for more.

Favorite Song of the Week!

 

I am loving this song by Nevertel this week. I hope you enjoy it too. 

Freebie Friday!

 

Welcome to another weekly Freebie Friday post, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a "Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to great samples at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

Two samples of TruSkin vitamin C serum. 

Samples of a foundation. 

Sample of Estee lauder night repair cream. 

I liked all the samples I received. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Book Review: A Bear's Protection by Dakota West

 

Book Description

Cora Leighton is a woman on the run.

Fleeing a bad relationship and an ex who’s blatantly stalking her, Cora enters the shifter state of Cascadia with one thing on her mind: freedom. Love is the last thing she’s looking for, no matter how sexy the men of Cascadia turn out to be.

Rugged, sexy bear shifters Ash and Hunter are mates. Their peaceful lives in Granite Valley are perfect, except for one thing: they need a woman to complete their triad.

When Ash looks up from his seat in his police cruiser to see Cora speeding by, he has no idea that he’s about to find just the right woman. A speeding ticket turns into a hell of a lot more, and fast. Ash can’t explain the pull he feels toward the feisty, curvy reporter, but Hunter feels it too.

When Cora’s deranged stalker shows up and sets out to kill their only chance at true happiness, Ash and Hunter will do whatever it takes to protect her.

But can their brute bear strength take on the cunning of a deranged man who’s lost his grip on reality?

A Bear's Protection is a steamy romance, complete with two sexy men in love, a threesome, and more heat than a bonfire in August.

My Review

Ash and Hunter are bear shifters and they are also mates. They have been looking for the female who will become their third and will complete their triad. Having three mates is not strange for bear shifters even if the humans who now know about them think it's strange. So a lot of shifters live in the town of Cascadia and other cities that humans know are shifter cities and they leave them alone for the most part. 

Cora doesn't want to move away from her sister, her life and her job. But the guy stalking her won't leave her alone and the police will do nothing to help her. So she pulls up stakes, and hightails it out of town, moving far away, thinking that her stalker won't find her in this new town or at least won't follow her here. 

But she's wrong. 

Cora feels safe for the first time in months and after meeting Ash and Hunter and they make it pretty obvious they are interested in her, she falls for them really fast. But she fails to let them know that a stalker is after her, even after a window in her car is broken. She's hoping it's just a coincidence, it's not. Ash is a police officer so he investigates the crime but she still doesn't tell him it might be her stalker. It's not until the stalker makes himself known that she finally comes clean which I thought was kinda dumb of her. She should have told them or at least Ash since he's a cop so he would know it might be him. 

When She finds herself in danger, both Ash and Hunter stop at nothing to make sure she's safe. I don't know if the stalker thought he could get away with doing what he did in a town with a bunch of shifters but he wasn't thinking clearly so maybe he just wasn't thinking at all. But it ended well and I really liked this book. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Book Review: Sinister Desires by Faedra Rose

 

Book Description

It’s All Hallows’ Eve and Charleigh Llewellyn has just been dumped like a piece of trash after giving her ex-boyfriend a second chance over the holidays. Forced to walk home to her parents—through the woods—she is accosted by a pack of ravenous wolves.

But there are worse things than wolves lurking in the woods, and soon Charleigh finds herself indebted to a living, breathing monster. Following her most sinister desires, Charleigh feels compelled to repay the creature—soon learning the truth about his curse and much, much more…

My Review

After getting dumped on the side of the road by her ex boyfriend, Charleigh starts walking home. She doesn't want to call her family for a ride for whatever reason and would rather make the long trek home on foot. But then she thinks her time is up when she's surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves until a monster right out of a nightmare comes to her rescue. 

The headless Horseman right out of the creepy Halloween story appears in front of her, having just saved her from the wolves. But he wants something in return for saving her and Charleigh is ready to give it to him. But he doesn't just want her body, he wants her to help him have offspring as well. At first I wasn't sure where this story was going or how Charleigh would fare after this monster was done with her but it turns out that they were meant for each other. After some very graphic and imaginative love scenes, we find out what the future holds for both of them. 

If you like a monster romance with a little Halloween creepiness thrown in for good measure, then this will be right up you alley. It was a fun, quick read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars. 

Disclosure: I was given an e-ARC of this book via NetGalley but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Amazon

Book Review: Darkest Desires by Raven Hush

 

Book Description

Enota, a fruit bat shifter, mans the front desk at Fray for the club’s Halloween Trick-or-Freak party. By the time midnight rocks around, Enota is bored out of her mind rating costumes and drunks when the bouncers push a non-shifter in with a wink. Freaking out that they will undo all the work Rafe has done to protect the shifter community, Enota whisks the strange man away to the only remaining dungeon until she can work out how not to expose the community and get back to her job.

Mace recognizes Enota’s fear at the whipping post and proposes a game of trust and dare to pass their hours. A spanking bench demo turns hot and steamy, but Mace has more than one secret up his costumed sleeve ... a secret Enota will have to ask for before her time is up.

My Review

Enota is a fruit bat shifter and works at a bdsm club at the front desk. This night there's a big Halloween party going on in the club for the shifters so when a human man walks into the club, she freaks out for a second and wants to keep him safe until she can get him out unnoticed so she takes him into one of the rooms. But it's not just any room, it has all kinds of equipment that you would expect to find in a bdsm club and it's her least favorite room. In fact she tries to stay as far from this room as she can because of what happened to her in there in the past. 

Enota has been searching for the right Dom for her and one of the Dom's at the club has offered to help her find someone for her but she doesn't think she's going to be able to find someone she can trust because of what happened to her in the past with a Dom that took things too far. 

When Enota realizes that she just accidentally locked herself in the room with the human, Mace she's not sure what to think about her situation until he proposes a game to pass the time. Turns out that Mace makes her feel safe even though he's human. 

Although this was a quick read, it was so much fun. it had just enough back story and just enough of a small scene between these two to make for a fun read. 

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Amazon

Happy Raturday!

 

*All pictures this week are courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

Happy Halloween!