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The little black boxes

Some days I feel like a commercial, but I have to tell you about thelittleblackboxes.com.  No this has nothing to do with airlines or crashes.  This is a site that mails out boxes of samples each month.  The samples are from crafters and artisans that sell on the internet, mostly from Etsy.com but there were one or two from outside the Etsy arena.  For those of you that don’t know Etsy, it’s a site for people to buy and sell crafts (okay, don’t tell people I put it that way as they would want me to say something like “highly skilled artisans” or something silly like that). 

Thelittleblackboxes.com has “highly skilled artisans” send them samples of their work which is put in….get this….a little black box…okay it’s a bag, but it is black and mailed in a box.  It is sent out to anyone who orders it.  The box cost $23 which includes the shipping but at the end of each month if there are boxes left, they lower the price.  Right now the December box is $20. 

I heard about them several months back and kept wondering what it was all about.  Each month they have different participants who send in different things, so I wondered if I’d get my money’s worth.  I ordered the December box and then sort of forgot about it.  When it arrived, I was excited and pleasantly surprised.  They had 17 different pieces in the box/bag.  Some were cheesy….a silk bag with a pen (that they bought and had their name on it) but some were FABULOUS.  I got 4 pair of earrings. Two were terrific and I’ll wear and two are not my style and will go in my “I forgot your birthday/anniversary/Happy Thursday” box to give out to friends and strangers.  There was also a full bar of soap (peppermint and poppy seed and smells great), 2 bags of tea (won’t use it because you need a strainer which kind of freaks me out), a small calendar, a magnet (I actually liked this quite a bit), cell phone accessory (some days my cell phone looks better than I do) and several note pads.  I’m forgetting some, but it was so much fun opening each item that I think that might have been worth the $23 all by itself.  All came with an advertising offer (20% off your purchase at my store type stuff).   Honestly, it didn’t make me want to buy anything, but I rarely WANT to buy anything (unless it’s Tink clothing of course). 

Now for the bad news. The January box is a Vegan box.  I have NO IDEA what that means, but honestly it doesn’t sound good.  I will wait to see who participates in the box before I decide if I’m going to buy it, but I’m definitely in for trying the February box.  It’s amazing how the smallest little thing makes me so happy….