My First Cara Box

Back in December I signed up to participate in the Cara Box Exchange, a monthly box swap hosted by Kaitlyn at Wifessionals.  The three month exchange offers women the chance to be matched with others who may have similar interests, locations, or stages of life.  Previously, the Cara Box Exchange centered around blogging, with the format designed around a "link-up." This round, the exchange was changed to align with Instagram, instead.

I will say, I a little leery of signing up for a Cara Box with the new Instagram format.  By and large, I am not (or wasn't then, anyway) a regular Instagram user, and I wondered how it would be possible to really get to know someone by looking at pictures of their pet or what they had for dinner.  As it turned out, I was mostly right.  It was difficult to learn about what someone would enjoy receiving in a box of encouragement, simply by seeing pictures of their day-to-day routine.

However, both of my matches (sender and receiver) were willing to correspond via e-mail and that helped a lot.  I ended up being the one who failed to correspond in a timely manner (yeah, yeah...refer to Goal #7). It was also fun to become a regular follower of my sender's blog.

But the most exciting part of all was receiving my Cara Box...duh!!  What did I receive, you ask?  Let me show you!

She's so silly!

Isn't this the most adorable shoe box you've ever seen??
It actually has a pull tab to open!

Contents:  a notebook (for keeping track of all my blog ideas!), colored pencils (in case I'm thinking in color, haha), note cards (so I can thank all my lovelies, of course), a huge bag of Orbit (because it's awesome), lifesavers mints (can never have enough of these), an assorted pack of strawberry LipSmackers (it is blustery cold, after all), Grandma Nancy's rosary (how special!), and a sweet note of encouragement.

The "for kids" part made me laugh!

Grandma Nancy's rosary is by far my favorite item from the entire box...and the note, of course!  Such a sweet, sweet note.  

I guess I should have shared a little more about my matches.  This round, all matches were made by state of residence.  This is why I wanted to sign up in the first place - my goal was to meet new people in the area (remember how I feel like I have no friends nearby?), and meeting new bloggers would be a great two-for-one deal!

Jessica, a 29 year old from Walker, LA was the recipient of my box.  She enjoys reading, hockey and football, and runs a tanning salon.  In her box, she received nail polish, cookie butter, chapstick, hand sanitizer, hot chocolate, and tea.  (Hope you liked it, JBFox!)

Aislinn ("Ace"), a 26 year old grad student at LSU was the sender of my box.  She's a fitness machine who happens to have an up-and-coming blog and has been a great mentor to me with my own blog.  I'm SO grateful for all she has taught me over the last few months, and I look forward to learning more as time goes on.  THANKS a BUNCH for all the goodies you sent, and I can't wait to collaborate again on future blog efforts!

That's all for now.
-Lauren

For more information about the Cara Box and how to participate, click here.  Sign-ups for the spring exchange will be March 3-5.