Review: Krusteaz Cinnamon Swirl Crumb Cake Mix

I don't make a lot of cakes from scratch, not when I can buy a cake mix for $1 and only have to add egg, water or oil to it. Unless I already have all the ingredients at home, I usually use a cake mix. This mix was really easy to make. 

It came with the cake mix and the cinnamon mixture. You mix together the cake mix with an egg and water and drop half into your cake pan. The add a little of the cinnamon mixture and top with the rest of the cake batter, then swirl it together and lastly the rest of the cinnamon mixture on top.

Bake for 45 minutes and out comes a cinnamon swirl cake. It was quite good too. When a box of cake mix only costs around a dollar, it's more economical for me to use that than to buy all the ingredients to make it from scratch. Especially when they taste just as good as the from scratch cake. It's damn near impossible to get it to look like the picture on the box but it was good.

Do you make cakes from scratch or use a boxed mix?

Favorite Video of the Week

So the reason I found this one funny is because my mom loved pickled pigs feet and she could get a jar of them at least once a month when we were kids. My brother and I still eat them but I'm not allowed to open the jar in the apartment because the smell makes Ken want to gag. he said it smells like a morgue and someone dumped a jar of embalming fluid on the floor. To me, all I smell is vinegar. As kids we used to eat pickled eggs, which I really didn't care for as well as the spicy pickled vegetables and those are the bomb! I don't eat as much pickled pigs feet anymore but I still love the spicy pickled vegetables. So I can really understand the reaction of these kids since they've never had it before. It is a very strange flavor and it's served cold.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

A coupon for a free 8lb bag of dog food from Smiley360.

A free full size bottle of Dove Deodorant.

A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.

Did you get any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

I spent part of the day with my grandson a couple of weeks ago. Falcor loves playing with Logan when he comes over. 

Happy Raturday!

"Does this hat make my butt look big?"

"If you expect more pictures, I expect more yogies." 

"I don't think this hat fits." 

" A present? For me?" 

"Ho ho ho, I'm Santa Rat. I bring yogies for all the kids to give to me." 

All pictures this week were of my rats. Lucky, Bandit and Flower. 

Review: Degustabox

 This is the Degustabox for January. 

Each box is $19.99 and comes with several products. Most of the products are things I've never seen on the grocery store shelves so I'm assuming that they are either new or about to be on store shelves. Each box comes with a card describing the products in the box and how much the products would cost in the store. This month everything in the box was new to me, meaning while I've tried other products from some of the brands, I've never tried any of the actual products that were in the box. 

In this months box was: 

Welch's Fruit and Yogurt snacks

Jolly Time Popcorn

ALO Aloe, cucumber and cantaloupe drink

Cello Parmesan Whisps

McDonnells Curry Sauce

Prince of Peace Ginger Honey Crystals

Go Organically Fruit Snacks

Entenmann's Little Bites Party Cakes

Hungry Jack Pumpkin Spice Pancake Mix

Live Smart Berry Bar

Orchard Valley Cashew Halves

Orchard Valley Cranberry Almond Cashew Trail Mix

Ken and I ate the Entenmann's Little bites cakes right away. We both like anything Entenmann's and these were really good. Next we tried the Parmesan Whisps and both of us spit it out as soon as we started chewing. It was so disgusting! It was like eating crunchy vomit. Omg the taste was not something I ever want to experience again. He likes parmesan cheese and even he didn't like these things. We saved the bag and got several others to try them just to see the look on their faces. LOL No one liked them. 

So far the only thing I haven't tried is the Curry Sauce and the Pumpkin Spice pancake batter. Everything else we tried was good though, even that aloe, cucumber, cantaloupe drink which surprised me. 

Does this look like a monthly box that you would subscribe to?

Favorite Video of the Week

I'm sure some of you have seen Sylvester the talking cat, but if you haven't here's one of the videos. There are dozens of videos.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

Orajel Cold Sore Relief from Smiley360

Sample of Shea Moisture kids 2 in 1 shampoo

And I received a box of freebies from SampleSource: in the box was...

2 samples of cereal

Replens

Truly Radiant Toothpaste

Breathe Right Strips

Truvia Nectar and Truvia powdered sugar substitute


Did you get anything free this week?

A few Christmas pictures

My dad and step mother came over as well as my daughter and grandson. Everyone looks so happy. LOL 

I made homemade tacos for dinner. Everyone seemed to like them. 

Ken was helping our grandson, Logan put his new backpack on while Falcor sniffed the table to see what he could get into. 

Falcor kept wanting to help Logan tear the wrapping paper off. 

Falcor likes opening presents as much as Logan did. lol 

My step mom looks like she's dancing next to my dad but she wasn't. My daughter looks quite amused though. 

Falcor and Logan were both playing with Logan's stuffed dinosaurs. 

My daughter brought me flowers. Pretty!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. 

Favorite Picture of the Week

My dad and step mom on Thanksgiving. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Photo courtesy of Rat Logic*

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Photo courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Photo courtesy of Rat Logic. She made a meme using a picture of my Lucky*

*Picture courtesy of Rat Logic*

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this holiday!

Favorite Video of the Week!

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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 at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received:

A $5 Amazon gift card from Crowdtap.

It was a bit of a slow free sample week so I thought I would share with you something new I tried.

Ken saw these at CVS for just $1 and picked up a couple of different flavors. He got this one and the original flavor which is just salt like a potato chip. I thought this flavor was a bit much for me because I don't care for garlic but he liked it. I like the original flavor and they are really crispy like a potato chip but supposedly better for you because the are baked instead of fried and have no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, no high fructose corn syrup, no partially hydrogenated oils and no cholesterol. I though they were pretty good and for $1, you really can't beat the price. So even though it wasn't free, it was a nice find. 

Did you get any free samples this week? Try any new foods?

Review: Walmart Beauty Box- December 2016

Walmart has a Beauty Box that you can sign up for and you get a Beauty Box 4 times a year. Best part is they are free and only $5 for shipping. This is one of my favorite boxes to get because not only is it a really good deal but they usually have products that I end up really liking. 

So what was in this months box?

Dove Shampoo, conditioner and mask samples. 

Curel hand lotion. 

Dover Body wash. 

Pond's wrinkle cream. 

Covergirl Mascara. 

Aveeno face cream. 

For me this is a great deal and I love all the products that came in this box. I actually have another jar of the Pond's wrinkle cream and it's almost empty so it came at a great time for me. And frankly, a girl can never have too many mascara's. 

Have you signed up for this box? You only have to sign up once on their site and then it comes automatically every 3 months. Are you thinking of signing up for this one? 

Favorite Picture of the Week

Las Vegas sunset. I saw this sunset when I was taking Falcor for a walk, so I rushed in to get my camera before the sun could set and snapped this picture. 

Review- Target Beauty Box

I ordered another Target Beauty Box this month. They had 2 boxes available. One for women and one for men. Ken doesn't wear men's cologne or use shave gel (electric shaver) so he didn't want the guys box. But I was able to get the women's box and this is what was in it...

Nivea Soft Creme
Derma e Firming DMAE Moisturizer
Almary Non-oily Makeup Remover pads
Covergirl Outlast Lipstick in Ever Red-dy
TRESemme Pre-Wash Conditioner and Shampoo
Modella Black & White Purse Kit
Goody Ouchless Headwrap
Vichy Purete Thermale One Step Cleanser

I have to say that I liked it better when they were only charging $7 for their boxes but for $10 this box was pretty good and I like that I get to try a few things that I never would have tried otherwise. Plus my daughter usually gets whatever I won't use so it's a win win. 

Have you tried the Target Beauty Boxes yet? They come out each month but they only have so many boxes and when they're gone they're gone. They usually go pretty fast to so I try to post a link to them on my fb wall. 

Happy Raturday!

*Photo Courtesy of MrRat395*

"I has a noodle."

*Photo courtesy of me (Mary Kirkland).*

"I'm just hanging out." 

*Photo courtesy of me (Mary Kirkland).*

Review: December Degustabox

Each Degustabox is $19.99 and comes with several products. Most of the products are things I've never seen on the grocery store shelves so I'm assuming that they are either new or about to be on store shelves. Each box comes with a card describing the products in the box and how much the products would cost in the store. This month everything in the box was new to me, meaning while I've tried other products from some of the brands, I've never tried any of the actual products that were in the box. 

In this box was:

Pillsbury Purely Simple Cake and frosting mix

Kala Beans roasted fava beans

Honey Acres flavored honey straws

Chips Ahoy Thins Cinnamon Sugar

Smuckers Fruit & Honey concord grape fruit spread

Urbane Grain Minute Meal

Ricola Honey Herb lozenges

Good Thins Sweet Oat and Flax chips

2 boxes Loacker Gran Patisserie chocolate wafer cookies

Wise Popcorn white cheddar

Once and Done salt and pepper spice blend

I wasn't sure if I would like some of these things but so far we've liked it all. I don't eat honey on a regular basis because ewww, bee spit. In fact it's been years since I bought a jar of honey but those honey straws were interesting in my tea. I'm not a fan of the roasted fava beans because they just don't have a flavor I like but they do have a good crunch. My favorite by far were the chocolate wafer cookies. It's chocolate, of course it's good. 

Favorite Video of the week

I recently watched the newest Star Wars movie and liked it. I've only ever seen the original movie and not any of the prequels or whatever they decided to call them, but the newest movie totally made sense only having has watched the one that I did watch. So when I saw this "Bad lip reading" spoof I found it funny.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, 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:

A sample of Shea Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner.
Comfort Cream for menstrual cramps. *You rub it on your abdomen lol*
A coupon for a free candy bar or pack of M & M's.

Did you get any freebies this week?

Favorite Picture of the Week

My daughter and grandson were playing with Falcor on Thanksgiving. 

I'm back and what I did while I was away

For those who celebrated Thanksgiving on the 24th of last month, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We did and and my family came in from California to be here and other family that lives here all came over for a turkey dinner. Even though I love seeing all my family, this time of year is a bit stressful for me because my mom passed away 5 years ago and even though it's just family that comes over I have high anxiety being around a lot of people because I have Schizoaffective Disorder. Meaning while I don't have Schizophrenia, I do experience some of the symptoms like hearing voices and having hallucinations, not all the time but stress makes the symptoms worst.

So that's why I took some time away from social media because while I've been handling this disorder without anti-psychotic drugs for the past 10 years, it's not an easy thing to do. I have tried the drugs but the side effects from them are actually worst than seeing things that aren't really there. I'd rather deal with the whispering and hallucinations than deal with those side effects again. I do take 2 different antidepressants and that does help a bit. I also have something called Schizotypal Personality Disorder and having both at the same time makes things a little harder for me but I've been dealing with it for a long time. And because mental health disorders have such a stigma attached to them, I think it's good to bring things like this out in the open whenever possible because there are a lot of people out there suffering from mental health problems that could really be helped if only they would open up and seek out the help. So now you know.

Thanksgiving...

My brother and sister in law came in from California and stayed for 4 days and my dad and step mother as well as my daughter and grandson came over for Thanksgiving. I had a full house in my small 1 bdrm apartment. lol

Everyone seemed to like the dinner I made so that was good and everyone got to visit for a while since we hadn't all been together since last year. So it was nice to get together.

But now that it's over and everyone has gone home, it's nice to be able to settle back down and get back to normal...whatever that is. I have a couple more pictures and I'll be sharing them in the next couple of weeks on Wednesdays, when I share my favorite picture of the week.

I also took this time to put the Christmas tree up and wrap some presents.

And then we had to contend with Falcor urinating on our bed, my shredded memory foam pillow that would cost $50 to replace and even though I washed it, it wouldn't dry and took on a terrible smell so I had to toss it and get a cheap uncomfortable pillow. *Still pissed off*

Then he decided to pee on the couch, the box I had on my side of the bed, the chair and the couch pillow. So we are in the middle of trying to re-train him not to pee on our things. I don't know why he started doing it all of the sudden. He's my first dog so I really am stumped at this. So we don't leave him alone. If I'm outside, in the bathroom or cooking, Ken keeps an eye on him and vice versa. He's not allowed in the bedroom except at night to sleep and when that didn't stop him...I got these....

Yep, doggie diapers. So far there have been no accidents in the apartment for 2 weeks and he only wore the diaper for a few days. I'm thinking that maybe he felt left alone when Ken went away to dog sit for 2 weeks and then we had a lot of people over for Thanksgiving so maybe he just got all messed up emotionally. I dunno. But so far so good and I think he's glad not to have to wear the doggie diapers anymore. lol 

It was nice to have a break from social media but it's also nice to be back.

30 day blog hiatus

Hi all,

I've decided to unplug from social media for the next 30 days. I won't be on FB, Twitter or my blog for the next 30 days. My depression always gets really bad this time of year and that compounded with my anxiety has gotten the better of me right now. I'm fine but I just need time away right now. I'll be back next month. Take care and I'll catch up with you when I return.

Happy Raturday!

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*

*Picture courtesy of martymousehouse.com*