I just got back from a rather long vacation to Orlando and Boston for my cousin's wedding and some end-of-summer fun! It was so fun! I stayed in three hotels and was gone for about two weeks, so in that time I managed to collect quite a lot of things for OCC. Here is what I got. I got 5 packs of crayons from various restaurants that my family and I visited. I am very excited to have Crayolas! I got a lot of bars of soap because my family and I always use the liquid soap. These 8 are just the ones from one hotel. These 5 are from the other hotels. They are kind of small, so if I have enough, I might double them up. We went to a street fair in Boston and won this cute little elephant. He might just be the start of a safari themed box! I have been wanting blankets for my boxes for a while and I was very happy to get this one. I have heard that many families can only afford one blanket so the whole family sleeps together to stay warm. This might be the opportunity for a child to sleep on their own! I picked up the pens in our rooms and got nine. The other three are somewhere in my stockpile. Lastly, I got 6 notepads. The small one have a lot of pages but the larger one only has a few. They will likely both be used as extra paper. That is all that I collected on this trip. Do you save anything for OCC while on vacation?
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Another Wednesday, another YouTube video! Today is another on of the free boxes. Only one more to complete that part of my 2017 packing goals! This one is for a 2-4 year old boy. You can watch it down below or here. I am so grateful for the response that the first video got! It may not seem like a lot to some, but 16 subscribers is a lot to me! Please help the channel to grow by commenting, liking, and subscribing! I love to hear from you guys!
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! OCCEVERYDAY is now on YouTube! I figured that it would be much easier to show you guys complete boxes in video form. The first video is part of my goals for 2017- a completely free box! I will not be actually sending this box as is, but rather adding the items to other boxes to make themes. I just wanted to prove to myself and others that an OCC box can be done for very little cost. Please check out the video attached below and the channel linked here! I am constantly adding to my OCC stockpile. Between deals, freebies, and finding new yet unwanted things in my home, I can accumulate quite a collection in a month. Here are the items that I have collected in the moth of July. During a quick Dollar Tree run this month, I grabbed this cute color-your-own dino bag. The bag's quality isn't the greatest, but I do think that it will hold up for a while. During that same trip to the Dollar Tree, I found this cute dino. He will go in my second dino box. Target had these cute lego sets for only $1 in the dollar section. Each has 72 bricks and they are actually great quality! I moved them from their original packaging into these bags so that the kids have somewhere to store them. I got these pencils and pens from clearing out my office. Brand new! This little paddle ball was an arcade prize. I double knotted the string in the back to make sure it stays on. I found these three Chick-fil-a toys in the car and they are too old to trade for ice cream. I know that the book is going to OCC because it has lots of pictures. However, the table topics are all in English so I think that they will only go if I need to fill a crack in a box. I collected some crayons from restaurants. I have a few more sets not pictured. All of these sets are melt proof as well. They were left in the car for a few days. I got some stickers. The dog is from the doctor that my brother got as a reward for not crying during shots. The roll is from Trader Joe's. My brother and I always ask for stickers and we save the few that they give us for OCC. This time, my mom told the man that we do save them for OCC and the man offered us the whole roll. Now all of the girl's boxes can get a set of flower stickers. I stayed at a hotel for a volleyball camp and I picked up these two bars of soap. I got two (one pictured) of these Christmas shirts from Marshalls. Each was only 50 cents and they are size 4 toddler. They are perfect for 2-4 boxes! This price shows just how much you can save if you check for deals everywhere. I never would have expected to find 50 cent shirts from Christmas time in July, but I did and I couldn't be happier! I got two shirts for the price of one Dollar Tree shirt, so two kids can now have something nice to wear. That is what I have for July. Other things were posted in other hauls this month, and I will have a vacation haul coming soon!
Every time I go on vacation, I make it a point to collect as much stuff for Operation Christmas Child as possible. This past week, I visited Disney World in Orlando, Florida and this is a haul of what I collected. Between the parks, downtown Disney, and the hotel, I collected quite a few stickers. I got some crayons and coloring packs at restaurants while eating out. These are great for boxes for older kids that might not have room for a big pack of crayons. I kept the pens and notepads from the hotels. These notepads will most likely be given with another notebook or paper item as they are rather small. I saved the extra bars of soap from the hotel. I like that four of them are packaged in airtight bags. It really helps to keep the smell from going everywhere. I still will put all of the bars in a ziplock bag before sending, though. I asked for a birthday pin for my brother in the parks but instead they accidentally gave me this. I decided it might be a cute addition to a box, so I saved it. That is all that I collected on this trip. I am going to a wedding in a few weeks and hopefully that will be better for shoeboxes. Comment down below if you collect for shoeboxes while on vacation!
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