Holiday VOX box

Do you like getting free stuff?  I sure as heck do!  I recently signed up to be an Influenster.com tester for their VOX boxes.  You sign up and based on your hobbies and interests, you qualify for various boxes that they send out for users to test and provide feedback!
I was lucky enough to receive the Holiday box this year.  It was packed with:

GOODY QUIKSTYLE:
The #Quikstyle brush cuts your beauty routine time down by 30%. I only brush my hair when its wet since my hair is so curly.  This brush definitely helps it dry faster and since I got a new blow dryer for Christmas I used it to straighten my hair and it worked great!

NYC NEW YORK COLOR:
~ #LiquidLipshine in Nude York City complements every look! Its a pretty neutral shade that isn't sticky and moisturizes lips!  Love it

KISS NAILS: Nail decals are the new hit.  I haven't had a chance to use mine yet but I love nail decals because they last a long time and i always get compliments.  I received a metallic pattern so I want to save them for an occasion where I'm dressed up! 

QUAKER REAL MEDLEYS:
~ Perfect for breakfast on-the-go #RealMedleys keeps you fueled all morning long!  These little on the go delights come in a little carton type bowl that you just add the water and go.  Perfect for mornings you are running late or need to throw in your gym bag!


EBOOST:
A water enhancement that provides energy and daily vitamins.  I got a pomegranate one which was delicious and made the prettiest pink color in my water!

MONTAGNE JEUNESSE:
~I got the deep cleansing Mud mask. I love these things and have used them for years.  They are great little treats for your skin and great for girls nights.  I always pack them in my suit case for myself and friends on trips!

I haven't used this yet but you can too! SOLE SOCIETY:
~ This $25 off coupon only lasts until the end of the month! Anyone can use the INFLUENSTER25 code. They have super cute and affordable shoes!

here is a photo of some of my goodies

Sign up today and you could be checking out the next group of products!

Birchbox

Do you love being a girl and all the fun beauty stuff we get to play with?

Do you love getting legit ,ail that isn't junk or a bill?

If you answered yes, then you need to sign up for birchbox!

Birchbox is a monthly beauty sample subscription. For 10 bucks a month you get awesome samples sent to your door, some of which are full size and well worth more than 10 bucks! Once a month you get a box with samples as well as a card with descriptions and information regarding the samples you received! Not everyone gets the same samples each month. Each person fills out a beauty profile so your samples are tailored to you!  Their website has all the products featured in different boxes for that month with tips and info! If you want to order any of those samples full size they ship for free! Oh! You also earn points for each month and for purchases towards money off purchases! Awesome!

So what did I get my first month?

Stila smokey eye

A card with these three colors and instructions on how to master the smokey eye! Haven't tried this yet, waiting for a special occasion!

Orofluido Elixir

Omf this is amazing! This was totally sent because I filled out that I have dry frizzy hair! It's a hair elixir that is meant to make your hair soft, silky and strong and easy to manage! It helps your hair dry faster when wet and helps make it more manageable when it is dry! What's great is it doesn't make your hair look oily!!! I can put it in my hair after I wash it at night and then again in the morning without it dulling your hair or making it a greaseball! It has a fabulous amber scent! I think I will order this it's that great on my hair!

Tea forte tea

I got three of these teas and each one is supposed to help beauty from within! All built with antioxidants to help your skin from the inside out! I had the cherry marzipan this week and loved it!  It's supposed to help reduce fine lines. I also got cucumber mint which Promotes collagen and I also got Honey yuzu helps your skin renew itself. The only one I didn't get was the coconut lychee for Protecting your skin from free radicals! I'd definitely drink these!

Harvey Prince Ageless perfume

I love this! Light fruity/flowery scent. The sample is small but it actually has a sprayer on it which usually lasts longer for me!

Haven't gotte to try these but pink nail polish and a tinted moisturizer... Can't wait to try 

Check out all the times samples this month.... 

http://www.birchbox.com/shop/march2012-box?limit=all

Sign up here http://www.birchbox.com?raf=3m1jv

its been awhile....

Lots to blog about....

If you know me most of this you already know...

If you don't know me then this is all new to you....

First off, biggest change is my precious puppy Skuttle passed away u expectantly when we took him on vacation with us last September. Turns out skuttle had an auto immune disorder that had gone undetected and killed him without warning out of nowhere! It's been devastating! I miss him every day 

So other things that are new....

- become obsessed with crochet and now have an etsy shop! Www.etsy.com/shop/ecarolsmith 

- in February we got an old English sheepdog puppy named Maggie! She is adorable! I wish skuttle was here to play with her!

There are some other new things but I just got a new app for my iPad that makes blogging easy because now I won't have to use my laptop! Hopefully now I can blog more often! I'd like to start blogging about my plethora of crafting and baking I have done recently and posts about Maggie!

Here's to hopefully keeping up with my blog!

New Blog app

obsession updates......

Well.... I am proud to announce that i already fulfilled 2 of my goals that i posted about last week ( well 3 if you say i have been under control on instagram :) )

Last week I came home from work and i had so many ideas for birthday parties (particularly a gift for my sister in law), christmas etc that i just couldnt sit still at home.  So after dinner i kissed my honey bye and went shopping!  After scoping out a few things for craft ideas i made my way to marhsalls homegoods and tried on 20 items and holy smokes batman i loved everything!  I was not expecting that to happen, so i had to narrow down what i was going to get!  i walked away with a cute pair of limited black capris, a bright blue limited tank, and 2 cute flowy purple tops.  All perfect for work or outside of work!  Mike insists i should have bought it all since i never find clothes but i figured that would be overload.  lol

Afterwards i went to the grocery store and got some goodies to make some sweets for friends and family this weekend.  I made these cute pink cupcakes.  I saw a similar black cupcake on pinterest and decided to make them girlie :)  then i also made oreo truffles that are seen on Bakerella's site

So yesterday i went on a cooking frenzie from my pinterest!  I made orange chicken , lasagna rolls, energy balls, and quiche cups .

The orange chicken requires you to batter and brown the chicken first before putting in the crockpot.  i thought it tasted pretty good.  it was a bit sour and while i liked it, michael was not a fan :(  fortunately i also made wontons and eggrolls so he wasnt complete starved!

The lasagna rolls we are having tonight, but instead of chicken, i used ground beef in the lasagna.  Can't wait to try it!

The no bake energy balls are awesome!  I packed 2 as a little snack for work today.  I doubled the recipe to make a lot and i used almond butter instead of peanut butter and i used dark chocolate for the chips.  I left the vanilla out because i felt it was sweet enough with the honey, chocolate, almond butter and coconut.

the quiche cups came out great.  My only advice is either use foil liners or nothing. i made the mistake of paper liners and a lot of it sticks so you lose a lot in each cup!  i also added salt, pepper and cilantro to mine and didnt add onion.  I also used the whole egg and not just the whites.  This meal was perfect because it was all the stuff in my fridge i needed to hurry up and eat and now i have my breakfasts made for the whole week!

I'll be sure to add my next pinterest adventures!

Obsessions

Hello....
Its been quite awhile since I have blogged and mainly because usually when I blog its just me rambling on about something probably no one finds worth talking about except for me.  LOL which i am used to, but sometimes just dont feel like excerting the energy to blog.

Anyways, today i feel differently...

Lately i have come across a few things that I not only love but have become a teenie bit obsessive about....  i tend to go overboard on things I LOVE !  So I thought i'd share some of them and maybe they too can be your obsession/interest too!  I have decided to take those obsessions a step further and make a goal with them or in relation to using them... ( that way i dont feel as bad about them :) )

1) Instagram- its an app for iphone, ipads, or ipod touches.  it allows you to take a picture from your phone or device and put a filter on it and it makes it look like an old polaroid.  Now not everyone puts filters on there.  i have learned there are a lot of people who put their images taken from other cameras on there and use instagram as a way to share.  You can follow people, they can follow you.  its like facebook but with cool photos.  I am following a few people who have cute pets and poor Skuttle has had his little picture taken way to much (yes i am obsessed with skuttle too duh).  He is a good sport though.  ok my goal on here is to not go overboard cus i could post a picture of skuttle every hour and I'm sure that would annoy the heck out of people.... so my goal is to not be so obsessive lol.  Here is an example of one of my posts http://instagr.am/p/LWTo2/?ref=nf  me playing with my future nephew on the merry go round!

2) Pinterest.com- its like a giant peg board of ideas and where to find them,  from crafts, to recipes, to house stuff, design, travel, clothes, hair etc... without having an actual inspiration board taking up space.  You can also follow your friends and let me follow you and see what you have "pinned".  I even have an owl pinboard because well yes thats another obsession here lately.  My goal for this one is to try at least one new recipe a month.  Hopefully 2!  I would like to try one dessert and one dinner recipe a month.  I've also found other blogs from surfing on it for hair styles, party ideas, cooking etc that i have started following too.  Can you say snowball effect?

3) Diaper Cakes and baby stuff- No i am not preggers or planning on being anytime soon!!! and when i say anytime soon i mean years people...  BUT with a best friend having a baby (she's in labor right this second) and a future sister in law having a baby ( she delivered last friday), the idea of a new little boy and little girl in my life got my creative juices flowing!  My mom and I made a diaper cake for my friend and it spiraled into a whole lot more.  We started a little business called Emmy Sue Diaper Cakes and Gifts.  We make all kind of stuff and lately we have made some really cute stuff.  Whenever we have had a new project I become obsessed with finding the right decorations for the cake, the right colors, the theme, etc....  I am sure most of you know this already if you are my friend on facebook, but if not.... check us out on facebook or on our website.  http://emmysuediapercakes.weebly.com/  Hopefully as time continues we get more projects and we can make each one unique. My goal for this one is to just keep looking for new projects.  My mom and I have a lot of fun doing this together and it meets my desire to make really personal gifts!  I'd love to be a party planner so maybe this will open some doors to helping people plan small gatherings.

4) my wardrobe- ugh i'm obsessed with how bored i am with it!  i wear the same stuff all the time to work, when i go out.  Partly because only about half of my closet fits me right now, but with working out during lunch and getting back into my old ways that should change soon! I've decided if i meet my weekly goals to reward myself with something small ( frozen yogurt, that gossip magazine at the cash register-another obsession) etc.... In addition i decided to start small and i am going to add at least one new article of clothing to my wardrobe each month.  I should have been doing this all along, but i dont.  so starting September... at least one new item.

Anyways, so those are my latest obessions.  Hopefully these goals i have set will stick.  As i try new recipes ( crafts too hopefully) and wardrobe items... i'll try and blog about those too!!!

Enjoy your week!

Whats cookin good lookin?

I've been on a cooking spree here lately.... I don't get home from work until after 6:30 so typically Michael cooks, or we eat something one of us started preparing ahead of time.

So this past week i decided to try a few little things to mix things up, a lasagna, spanish chicken, a pretzel treat and stuffed french toast!

 

First, I made lasagna and I have only made one other lasagna in my life.  it came out delicious, however, we had this huge tray that we ate on all week since we put so much effort into it and by the end of the week neither one of us ever wanted to see or hear the word lasagna ever again.  Fortunately, the tiredness of lasagna went away and last week i decided to give it a try.  We've eaten the small stoufers lasagnas, but they take an hour and a half to bake!  who wants to wake on that on a week night?  NOT I!   So I set out to make a lasagna that wouldnt take too long and wouldnt kill my desire to want to eat it for 6 months. 

I started out by buying the no boil noodles which i figured could eliminate anywhere from 10-20 minutes off my time.  After dinner one night, since the kitchen was already messy, i browned a package of ground turkey and drained it and mixed it with a can of marinara sauce.  I began to build my lasagna layers of meat, cheese and noodles BUT  i had a new method.  Instead of a big pan you typically put lasagna in, i used 2 loaf pans.  That way we would have one for that week and one for a later date.  After everything was assembled, i wrapped them both in seran wrap and foil, put one in the fridge and one in the freezer for a later date.  The next day i baked the lasagna for 30 minutes and it was DELICIOUS!  it made 4 nice servings, so we had a nice dinner and leftovers for lunches or another dinner later in the week!

Then on Friday i decided i would try a Rachel Ray 30 minute meal i saw her make on tv.   It was Chicken Romensco and spanish kale potatoes.  The recipe calls for chorizo as well but i opted to not make that part.  It took me awhile.  Partially because all the prep work of cutting everything (it says to cut the potatoes in half but i did chunks).  Needless to say it was delicious!  The kale mashed potatoes were awesome.  We had a ton left over for another meal later in the week!  This week i am going to make her Stuffed Sausage balls.  It calls for mashed potatoes too so i might either use the ones we have or i bought polenta to make with it as well. 

Lately Michael has craved something sweet at night and while we were in Chicago, Pretzel M&Ms were a regular thing for him.  For a nice little treat, i made him peanut butter and carmel filled chocolate covered pretzels.  I got an email for some candy recipes and as soon as i saw the name i knew i had to make them.  The recipe calls for 5 cups of pretzels (which is a ton!).  I opted to just fill one big cookie sheet of rows of pretzels (which is still a whole lot).  First you spread peanut butter on top of your pretzel.  I used twist pretzels cus they were the closest thing to a heart i could get (yes i am cheesey).  Using a little spoon i could get enough peanut butter on 3 pretzels at a time.  once i got a tray of pretzels covered with peanut butter i put caramel melts with some water and butter in the microwave and melted it down real well.  using a spoon i put a little dollop of caramel on top of the peanut butter.  Once they were all done i put them in the fridge for about10 minutes to set.

While they set, i melted chocolate chips in the microwave.  the recipe called for chocolate candy coating, but for some reason HEB was out of the milk chocolate candy coating, so i used chocolate chips and it worked just fine.  With a fork i took each pretzel and rolled it around in the chocolate to get it nice and covered and put them back on wax paper on a cookie sheet.  Once done i put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set.  I had a ton of pretzels, chocolate and carmel left over.  I always have peanut butter on hand so it didnt really do a dent in that, but i decided to take the big messy bowl of melted chocolate that i had, and pour it in a ziplock bag.  i covered another tray with wax paper and pretzels and then cut the corner off the back and drizzled the chocolate all over the pretzels.   I stuck them in the fridge to set too.  So we got 2 yummy treats.  The pretzels with the drizzled chocolates are so good, the others are amazing, but really rich so you can only eat one or two.

LASTLY... this weekend was a special weekend for me and my boyfriend took me to a nice french restaurant.  I decided to make us a french breakfast the next morning so we could pretend like we had gone to france for the night.  (haha no not really.  we went to eat french but i wasnt going for the "just woke up in
paris" idea). I wanted to make him something delicious and a coworker had told me she had eaten these french toast that were stuffed with ricotta cheese and strawberry jam and that she hated ricotta cheese but that this was by far the best breakfast ever.  I HAD  to try it.  I love french toast and i LOVE ricotta cheese.

I found a recipe on food and wine for it (amongst a million other ricotta and fruit stuffed french toasts) and the recipe seemed really easy.  i decided to practice Saturday morning since he had to work.  I had NO LUCK finding a good thick bread at the store, and in the bakery i could not find a good bread that was appropriate for french toast so i decided to stick with the sliced bread i had.  i spread one slice of bread with ricotta and one slice with jam and put them together like a sandwich.  Then in a pie plate i mixed some milk, an egg, vanilla and cinnamon together and dipped each side of the sandwich in it and then cooked the french toast on the skillet with a little butter.  When done i practiced sprinkling a little powdered sugar heart on the top and jumped right on in.  While it was good.  it wasnt the phenomenal thing i expected.  SOOO the next morning i woke up and went to whole foods hoping i could find a better bread selection.  I talked to the baker and he told me to use challah bread for is thick buttery consistency.  I had wanted that to begin with so YAY!   i came home and went through the same ritual as before but cut the bread into a one inch slice (except this time i also had bacon cooking :) ).  It came out PHENOMENAL.  it came out so well i got up early this morning before work to make it again cus i love it that much!  Except this morning i tried baking it instead so i could get ready instead of standing over the stove.  I used fat free ricotta cheese and it still tasted great.  Its sooo good you dont even need syrup!!! 

So last thing..... i found this awesome blog of this lady in New York who blogs about her daily cooking.  she cooks EVERYTHING  and then had a recipe section where every blog she has ever written is broken down in a category.  You need a recipe for something she probably has it.  Not to mention.... her blog has a cute name   Smitten Kitchen!

Happy Eating!

Saving Money and Still having fun!!!!

I've written many blogs on how I like the best deal possible and I hate paying full price.  A friend of mine was like " Em you should put all these little things you know about in one place so people can check them out."
I quickly made a list of some of the things I use or know about.  There are alot more than what  I am going to tell you about today, unfortunately, there just isnt time to go through all of them!

I've broken down my little bits into categories so you do not have to read the whole thing if something doesn't interest or apply to you.  There is the traveler, the shopper, the bride, the foodie, the person who tries everything, the money maker/coupon cutter sections....  Some of them cross over so i try to put them in both, but i might miss a few...

In addition... if you have a smart phone, ipad etc... a lot of these sites have apps which make it even easier!!!!

For the Traveler:
There are tons of travel sites out there that will email you when prices go down on great deals.  You can sign up for continental's airline emails and each week they email you specials.  Sometimes they feature deals for quick trips that week out of the country.  It might not be the 2 week long vacation you dreamed of, but a $200 flight to Turks and Caicos for 3 days might be the way to get your island dream trip in for a price you can afford.

If you know what city you are going to already and not just looking for a good deal, check out Smart Destinations .  They have a list of cities where you can purchase a card at a particular price depending on how many days you are there that gets you in a long list of attractions for that city and saves you a ton of money on entrance fees!

For a great little getaway around the world, check out LivingSocial.  If you can get three friends to do it with you, you can get it for free!

If you like exoctic places and have a little bit of money to play with check out Voyage Prive.  Neat places all over the country and the planet to stay in at 30-80 percent off!  Other shopping sites  have travel deals as well but I'll cover those  in the Shopper Section later.....

In addition TravelZoo  and  Sherman's Travel have tons of travel deals and if you sign up they email you weekly on domestic as well as international deals. 

If you have a frequent flyer account, go on their website and you can see that if you shop online from their website, you earn miles.  Every year when i order my christmas gifts from snapfish or if i order flowers online i do this.  You can easily earn lots of miles this way.  Especially when they do deals like 20 miles per dollar.  Depending on how much online shopping you do, you can get away with a nice little sum of miles.

Companies like e-miles (notice how close it is to emily hehe) has you answer questions in exchange for miles,  Sometimes its about your travel preferences or they ask you to watch something on the St Judes and for clicking on it you earn 5 miles.  If you make a donation you earn more.  They have shopping ones like that too.  I never buy anything and over the course of last year earned over 1000 miles.

Another similar company is e-rewards.  You do short surveys in exchange for currency that is traded in for miles or merchandise.

For the Shopper
I think all women like to buy things and there are plenty of men out there who do to.  Unfortunately, we are not all Donald Trump and if you are like me and have no debt and would like to stay that way, finding things you want and can afford is always the best option.

If you like to shop and you like particular brands check out the sale sites Rue La La, Beyond the Rack, Ideeli and Shop it to me.  All but Shop it to me, have deals on housewares, kids stuff and travel.  I've bought something from each one of them and love it.  Most of my Christmas presents came from  Rue La La and Beyond the Rack.  Once you join, if you share it with someone else and they purchase something, you get a credit.  I've earned tons of credits which has actually been what purchased most of my items!


For the Bride
From all my experiences in weddings, I have found a few little things that do not involve buying a used dress or shopping on craigslist (which is a good idea too btw)

Again,  Rue La La, Beyond the Rack, Ideeli  have great deals and a lot of times, they have designer wedding dresses on sale.  Just last week Rue had a huge deal on weddingt stuff, from the dress, to accessories, to gifts for your attendants, to bridesmaids dresses, to your lingerie... all at great prices!!!  Their travel deals could even help on the honeymoon side too!!!

If you joined the Knot.com  GOOD JOB!  On there you should find a link to the Wedding Channel which also has a section for deals.  You put in your zipcode and everyday a new deal is emailed to you.  it could be something like a bride workout dvd set, to a photobook, or even something better like a deal on a venue in your area, your disc jockey, caterer, cake, photographer etc....  Definitely worth looking into!

For the Foodie
I love restaurants.  Lately i joined something called  IDine which rewards you for eating at restaurants.  I wrote a whole blog about it.  basically, you register your card and when you eat at any of their million restaurants, you fill out a survey online and they credit you up to 15% back on your total bill.  Its awesome!  They are part of something called Rewards Network.  you can only have your card registered on one program but they offer several.  Some reward you with miles, points all kinds of things.  I got my first $20 American Express reward card last week.  You can even register it and earn points for using it at a restaurant!

Restaurant.com is a great site.  You can buy giftcards from them to purchase giftcards for cheap.  I know that sounds weird, but for example.  For $2 i bought a $50 giftcard from them.  I take that giftcard and buy giftcards on their website.  So I used a portion of that $50 to get a giftcard to Shade in my neighborhood.  The card was $15 for $35 worth of food.  That $15 came out of the $50 that i bought for $2.  So basically i got the $30 worth of food for 50 cents!  Its great if you have a special occassion and you cannot spend tons of money.  it helps alot and it makes checking out new places great. 

For the Person who tries everything
Most people already know this one, but sometimes there are a few people who have not heard of these wonderful things.  Sites such as Groupon, Buywithme, LivingSocial, MyDailyDeals, and Bloomspot .  They all have deals based on cities.  These deals could be a house cleaning service to a get away.  Living social offers great deals on travel as I mentioned above.  They also have deals on restaurants, spa services, gym and fitness classes, skydiving.... anything.  I've bought many for places that have prepackaged fitness food, fitness classes and spa treatments and have loved every bit of it.  They are so great for a gift too, especially if the recepiant is in another city!

The Money Maker/Coupon Cutter
I try to earn money or save money in all ways that I can.  Several months ago i learned about a few sites that let you earn money for checking your email.  Everyday i get emails from http://www.sendearnings.com/ and http://www.inboxdollars.com/.  They send emails with deals that they want you to you buy and if you do they reward you with cashback.  I NEVER  do those deals.  i just click the emails and you make several cents per email.  Sometimes they send surveys where you earn more money along with other deals for extra cash.  They will also send you emails asking if you want to sign up for other survey companies and they wil give you a cash reward.  I've signed up for a few, but found I only have time to just click on the emails and then delete them, i dont have time to answer a bunch of questions.  Oh and if you like onine games you can earn cash for them too!  When you hit $30 they mail you a check.  I currently have one in the mail.  They also have coupons that if you print them out and redeem you earn 10 cents for each coupon!  You can refer friends and earn a percentage of their earnings too. 

http://www.mypoints.com/ is my favorite!  It works the same as the others, but you earn points that can be redeemed for merchandise or gift cards.  The points rack up so quick!  You get point for clicking emails, surveys, shopping through their site to your favorite stores, using coupons, playing games, and even more!  I've earned almost a $50 reward card.  I'm just letting it build up and up until I just feel like cashing it in.

If you are a coupon clipper ( i am!!!) I search out for coupons all the time.  Unfortunately, most of the food i eat isnt in the paper with a coupon so the sites above sometimes have some but i've found if there is a speciality product you like, go to their website!  A lot of times they have coupons on their site, or if you sign up with them they will send you promotions and coupons (chick fila does... and if that doesnt excite you then well you need help).  I love these ThinkThin protein bars and you cannot find a coupon on a coupon site, in the paper or anywhere.... but i went to their site and they have 50 cent off to dollar off coupons for their products.  i wait til they go on sale and use my coupon and then i do not feel so bad about how much they cost!  Since you cannot find coupons for fresh produce and meat ( usually) I find the best use of coupons is for household items, cleaning stuff, and makeup.  Those are usually the high tickets items that make my grocery bill jump from dang to DAMN!   

Also, if you shop at a particular store, you can look up their coupons online.  Target has a lot of great coupons for more than just food!  HEB has additional coupons than what they have in the store, and if you go to http://www.pgsaver.com/ it will load coupons directly onto your shoppers card at various stores!

There are various coupon sites online but I have found most of them link to the smartsource website.  If you are a diehard couponer.... couponmom.com can email you a list of all the products you want and what paper to find it in and what page.  Thats a little too involved for me... lol but it may be right up your alley.  I'll admit, if i had the time, and if Houston double and tripled coupons, I'd be like those people on the extreme couponing show.  Well i wouldnt buy 100 tooth brushes, but i'd try for a zero balance!


Happy Money saving! 

Why I am glad the Osama incident happened right after the Royal Wedding...

Its been a crazy weekend!  For many Friday and Saturday was a long day of getting up early and watching the Royal Wedding and all the coverage just to find out Sunday night the great news that Osama Bin Laden is dead!  Lots of rejoicing for many. 

I'm really happy of the timing because I feel the issues of the war and terrorism etc greatly outweigh what dress Kate, I'm sorry Katherine, wore on her wedding day....

While I'm very aware of the significance of the Royal Wedding and that it is part of our history.  It was blown out of proportion and thats why i get annoyed with it.  I think its great that 2 people fell in love and can have a real life Cinderella fairy tale.  I think for many women they live vicariously through Kate (sorry not gonna type out katherine every time), but as with a million other celebrity issues, our nation gets so wrapped up in the superficial.  I do not think I heard one person comment on their vows or how in love the look, it was all about her dress, how he isnt cute anymore cus he is bald, what other people were wearing, her ring, etc....  We do this at a lot of weddings.  Isnt the point that two people are commiting their life to each other?  Isnt that why we cry at weddings because we are so happy to be in the presence of eternal love?  Maybe I am a hopeless romantic, but isnt that the real reason to wake up at 2 am to watch the wedding?

Not just the US but the world economy is not doing well.  Our own nation is struggling to pay for the education system, meanwhile our nation's broadcasting spends millions to cover days worth of replays of the wedding and chitchat on opinions on her dress and flowers and all that.  Why the overload?  Is one channel not enough?  Do we really need days worth of covering in times of DVR and OnDemand?  Can't that money be invested in our own children's education system for goodness sakes amongst a million other things that we need to fix over here.  Its like when Michael Jackson died and the nation had nothing else to report on for a month!  Ya he influenced our lives, our music and our culture, but there was a lot more going on in this world than MJ!

While getting my coffee last week the news was on and they were mentioning the wide spread of products that were on sale because of the wedding.  Someone had produced " the royal condoms" and " kiss me kate beer" amongst a million other things.  Props to them for capitalizing on it, but shame on us for having our priorties all mixed up.  While the purchase of these things does boost the economy, cant we spend our money on other things to help our economy.  here is an article just on how much money was made from all these things.

Now what about that actual wedding.... see this article on the breakdown of a few things and how the
taxpayers had to pay for security which so happened to be the most expensive thing on the ticket.

The wedding was speculated to boost the economy, the extra day off cost lots of productivity in England which hurt the economy.

So while the wedding was a happy break from the recent disasters in Japan and constant economy talks, and war.... an even  happier and more important issue happened right after.  Osama Bin Laden was found and killed.  While the planning has been under wraps for awhile, I'm sure we will hear more details of what happened as time continues.  We can  his death at the almost 10 year mark of 9/11.  A real significant moment in our history!  I'm sure all of us remember that day and where we were and how it impacted our lives.  I'm sure we all know at least one person who has served over seas as a result of that day.  I am so grateful to all of them for sacraficing their lives, their time, their happiness even to be in the conditions they were in to keep us safe and free.

So anyways, I hope people understand the importance and significance of this is and that while the Royal Wedding is a good and happy thing, like anything else, it should remain in context and in control.

Have a good day.  GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Sorry if this offends you...

I apologize if you fall into any of these ahead of time.  I am sure there are plenty of things i say, do, wear or like that drive plenty of other people bonkers but a guy wearing white glasses today made me think of several trends i wish would just go away...

1) white or clear framed glasses.....  they just look silly and its always bald metro guys who wear them.  i do not understand...

2) the obsession with the royal wedding... ENOUGH  already!!! do you know how much of their tax payers money they are spending to pay for all that and how their economy is suffering ( like ours...) its just stupid!  It has taken over pressing news here recently.

3) Guys in girl jeans.... GROSS

4) hello kitty obsession.... i think hello kitty is cute and i do not think there is anything wrong with a grown woman having something hello kitty.  I do however think its retarded to cover your finger nails, wear all pink makeup and hello kitty jewelry all the time when you are over the age of 16.  If you have ever seen the show Married to Rock, one of the rock star's wives, was obsessed.  She wore hello kitty everything, her nails had hello kitty on it and she even decked out the bands bus in hello kitty everything.  I believe she dropped several thousand dollars on hello kitty crap... retarded...and obnoxious

5) grown women in daisy dukes.... i think no matter how nice your legs are, there comes a time when you just dont wear bootie shorts anymore.  You look like an 18 year old girl.  Plus lets face it, 9 times out of 10 the person wearing the short shorts, shouldnt be wearing shorts at all.  A 30 year old woman should not have her stuff hanging out while grocery shopping with her kids.... just sayin....

6) Ed Hardy and Affliction... when i was dating I had a requirement that any guy who wanted to go out with me could not wear any of this.  People of my generation probably understand.  There is a certain stereotype of men who wears these things and I did not want anything to do with that.  Now i joke that these are indicators of who the tool bags are.  So in away, its done us a favor, but its still tacky and just gross....

7) Reality TV stars being STARS.... i am guilty of helping this phenomena.... I hate shows like Jersey Shore and Teen Mom, but i watch them and anytime i see Teen Mom on a gossip magazine i read it right there or buy it.  Its pathetic i hate it, but why should a fat girl who teases her hair, speaks inproperly, wears revealing clothing, and drinks all night and just wants to hook up with guys make over 6 figures when i work my butt off everyday for the actual good of other people.  Its frustrating or maybe i am jealous that i cant get rich doing jack crap.

8) American Idol--- ENOUGH IS ENOUGH>>>>


Ok so since i just complained about a whole lot of things i wish would go away... some things I love and dont think i could ever get tired of.....


1) Vintage looking clothes and jewelry... lately i have really been into owl inspired things :

2) feathered headbands- i wear these ALL THE TIME.  SO PRETTY

3) ipads and apple products- cant wait to get my ipad in a few weeks



4) artist with talent and emotion behind their music... lately my favorite has been adele.  Arcade Fire is another band I have been enjoying lately.  If only all musicians wrote their own music that had some reason and emotion behind it...

5) Flats that dont hurt my feet- i love a good pair of heels, but by the time i get to my office my feet are covered in blisters and hurt so bad i want to cry.  those blisters take forever to heal and sometimes even scar my feet.  A cute pair of flats that can go dressy or casual is my favorite lifesaver.  Makes going on trips easy cus you can pack less shoes!!!!

Ok enough of my Rambles:  Have a good weekend!

Easter Cake balls headache

At Christmas a friend brought cake balls into my office....

I thought they were delicious....

During holidays I get a hankering to be Betty Crocker and I always get in over my head.  I decided to make cake balls.  Little did I know how time consuming and difficult they were to make!!!!
Wednesday night I made 2 cakes.  One was white with funfetti and the other was just a white cake.  If you have never had a cake ball or made them, once the cake is done, you have to break it into tiny crumbs and mix it with icing until its like playdough.  I used butter cream icing and pink vanilla icing.  I split my cakes in 2 so basically each cake had a batch with the two icings.  I let them sit over night in the fridge....
Thursday, I removed the playdough from the fridge and rolled them out and set them in the fridge.  I had gone to the store that day and bought all kinds of stuff to decorate and put them in.....
After an hour or so, I took a few out and put them into the first batch of vanilla coating.  The first 3 came out perfect!  i was so happy.  An online blog suggested keeping the coating in a bowl over a bowl of warm water on the stove so that the coating constantly stayed hot..... well after 3, my coating was scoreched and was basically like sand!

Fortunately, I had decided to buy a bag of pink coating at Michael's earlier that day.  it worked great, however, my cakeballs were not coming out pretty and smooth like the ones you buy.  Mine looked like little roses, they had texture and werent smooth whatso ever!

several hours later of dipping and freezing and being frustrated, i was out of coating and still had probably 100 cake balls that needed to be dipped!  *SIGH*

I spent an hour cleaning my kitchen and then passed out.

The next day i had to go back to the store and get more coating.  I opted for one chocolate and 2 vanilla in case it scorched again.

The chocolate was definitely smoother and my cake balls came out so much better, but after about half way, the chocolate got real hard.  i had it on low heat on the stove so it wouldnt over heat but too late.  it said not to thin it with anything but vegetable shortening.  well all i had was oil so i decided to try and it worked!  As long as my dipping stuff was warm it was thin and smooth.

When those were done i moved on to the vanilla and things were finally moving faster.  I saved a few extra cake balls for the end and threw in some yellow gel coloring and made a few yellow cake balls.

So i bought 6 small boxes to package them in and decided to make them all have the same components.  I decided to make white bunnies first.  This was the first bunny i made.  I had lots of sprinkles from a cookie kit i did as well, and was able to use them for the eyes and noses.  i used fondent to make bunny tails and ears...

  This little guy was too tall to fit in the box so i just made the balls a bunny.  I went and made white bunnies, brown and white bunnies, chicks, white flowers, yellow flowers and little pink and yellow easter baskets.  Then there were random additional cake balls. 

This was the final product

 All packaged up:

They were a big hit.  even though they werent perfectly round and smooth, everyone loved the decorations.  As frustrating as they were, decorating them was a ton of fun and everyone's reactions was well worth it.  I already started planning making more for next week for mother's day.  i'm thinking flowers out of a watering can....

oh and my easter baskets..... they loved them

Spring Time shenanigans

Well its almost Easter... my favorite holiday and i am super pumped!  In addition to it being Easter this weekend its also one of my best friend's weddings and I am maid of honor.  :) 
We've had a lot of fun with all the parties and planning since last year.  I meant to post pictures of all the party stuff we've done because i secertly wish i could be a party planner.  I love all the little details! Unfortunately i do not have very good photos of them.   For her shower we had a cute little candy bar with diamond rings on the tags (tiffany's rings of course). Her lingerie shower we had a cute clothes line with some paper bras and panties and some cute favors with tags that have lingerie on it.  Thanks to Ana (another bridesmaid) we had the cutest most delicious cupcakes at both parties....

With Easter coming up I cant help but want to cook and make cutsie little things.  I made huge easter baskets for my boyfriends niece and nephew last night.  I only put a few eggs with candy but they got a ton of toys.  For his nephew the basket is green with his name in green and cute little image.  Inside the basket he has a cute brown stuffed lamb, easter coloring book, water guns, a cool bouncy light up caterpillar in yellow, a lego set, dinosaur stickers , a cute brown journal with a giraffe on it.  For his niece its a big purple and pink basket with a white lamb, coloring book, a little girl barbie (barbie's baby sister) with bunny ears on ( it looks like his niece), nail polish and pedicure set, a pink journal with a monkey on it, dora the explorer stickers, and a pink version of the caterpillar in the other one.  I'll have to post pictures later.....

So the rest of the week i am planning on cooking some goodies for our families.  If you havent had a cake ball.  GO GET ONE NOW!  i am making different kind of cake balls.  I am a little nervous because I have never made them before so hopefully they come out well.  In addition I am decorating some easter cookies for everyone.  I'm gonna be busy but its going to be worth it.

I'll post about my cake ball experience later. 

For now.  Happy Easter

Make money while you stuff your face!

Well I havent blogged in awhile.  1) I do not really have the time to 2) when I have the time I dont want to or cannot think of anything I care to share.

HOWEVER, I have recently discovered something so exciting I could wet my pants I'm so excited!  Ok maybe that is an exaggeration but I'm super pumped.  Those close to me know i sign up for all kinds of stuff for free stuff.  I get points for miles, points and money for clicking paid emails, money for using certain website coupons... While its not much money, it slowly adds up and is some nice fun money to go shopping or store away some day.

I was in the elevator of my office and there was an ad for a daily resturant deal.  So I went back to my desk and looked it up to see at the bottom a link for a rewards program.  I clicked on it and immediately got excited.  I found a website called IDine.  They are part of a reward network.  How it works, is there is a long list of restaurants ( you search by city or zipcode or name) and find tons of restaurants that participate.  You register up to 5 debit or credit cards and anytime you eat at one of those restaurants it sends you a 20 second survey, you fill it out and you get 5% back from your TOTAL  bill.  I was excited because several places I dine at were on there.  Well then i got even MORE EXCITED!   i noticed that the 3 healthy premade food places we buy all of our groceries was on there!!!  Real Meals 365, Myfitfoods, and Trumeals in addition to all the other places i sometimes go to.  Since we no longer frequent the grocery store, these places get a nice little bit from me every month so why not get 5% back!  IT GETS BETTER!  Once you've spent $250 total on the program they bump you up to 10% back and $750 you get 15% back.  They keep your earnings until it reaches $20 bucks and at the end of the month send you American Express Cards in the increments of $20. 

So basically replacing my groceries at Realmeals 365 in 2 weeks has put me in the 10% category.  Real meals offers an option where if you spend $500 prepaid they give you 10% off everything.  So if i went in to real meals (lets assume at this point i am a 15% receiver) and i decide to buy the $500 prepaid.  That month i would get $75 back from IDine and then everytime i went in i would get 10% off or basically $50 worth of food.  So thats $125!!!!

Anyways, I suggest checking it out, even if you only earn a few bucks on a month doing it it cant hurt.  or if you like to travel, you can do the other dining reward program which gives you miles for dollars.  i tried registering for both but it caught me and you cant have the same card in 2 programs.  DARN!

Anyways, check it out. http://www.idine.com/

A day of Love

Once a year we celebrate Love.  Typically its between couples, but to me Valentine's Day is so much more than that.  While I am very excited that my boyfriend and I are celebrating a special Valentine's this year, I'm actually going to blog about something other than mushy ooyy gooey romantic love.  While i could blog about my honey bunny all day i'll spare you my cheesiness.  Love you michael!

Instead, i wanted to blog today about other love in our lives and how it impacts us.    With my grandmother's birthday being a few days after Valentine's Day i wanted to  dedicate this to her!

My grandparents on their wedding day

I was super bless to come from a family that had a lot of love in it.  When i say a lot i mean  ALOT!  My parents and grandparents were very loving, nurturing and affectionate people.  Every year on Valentine's Day both my parents would get me a little gift and a card and my grandmother (whom we called Meemom) would always send me a little goodie from her and my Pop. 

My Meemom and Pop were really the only grandparents I had, and let me tell you, they loved my brother and I more than 2 sets of grandparents could have loved us and for that we were truly blessed.  When my family moved from Alabama to Houston when I was in kindergarden, we soon found ourselves over 12 hours from my grandparents, which was very hard.  To make up for the lost time, my brother and I would go to Mississippi every summer for 2 weeks and stay with them.  Oh how i wish i could still do that.  Every night Meemom would take out all her bubble baths and let me pick the one i wanted to use that night.  She's tuck me in and lay in bed with me talking until i would fall asleep,  every night she'd say, " whats on menu for breakfast?"  Whatever I'd say she would have it ready for me when i'd wake up the next morning.  We'd spend the days in the sun room of her house sewing or watching soap operas.  We'd bake and she would teach me how to cook.  She'd arrange for my brother and I to swim at her neighbor's pool or to play with kids from her church.  She'd take me to the mall and we'd ride the merry go round over and over and she'd just smile and laugh!!  She'd play with my hair and dress me up to go visit her family members and friends.  She'd introduce my brother and I to the mayor of her town where he made us "honorary citizens".  She always made us feel so special and showered us with love and affection. 

Meemom with me and my brother the day I was born

I think as kids we love that and we appreciate it, but not til we're older that we understand that love and really appreciate or crave it even.

Meemom and I 2004

My grandfather passed away exactly a week after my high school graduation and exactly one month after my 18th birthday.  That was really tough on the whole family and even my grandparents circle of friends.  Pop was such a caring and generous man and anyone who ever met him knew that right away.  My grandfather's funeral was on my grandparents 54th wedding anniversary which to me was in a way super sweet.  My grandparents were so in love up until the day he died and even up until the day my grandmother died 6 years and one month later.  Little old men at her nursing home would hit on her and she's always come back with, " you could never come close to the man i was married too"

Meemom and my mom on her wedding day to my dad

I think we all wish and pray to fall in love to someone that lasts until we die and whats sad is that happens few and far between now.  When I think of love, happiness, and til death to us part, they are who come to mind to me.  i read an article from the Washington post today about a couple who are celebrating their 80th Valentine's Day together.  I just find that remarkable and beautiful. 

My grandmother won a trip once to the Bahamas through her job and unfortunately my grandfather was not able to go.  When she returned he said he missed her so much she better never go on a trip away without him again.  That was the first time in 30 something years of marriage they had been apart. 

I wish and pray everyone could have a love in their life like that.  A timeless everlasting love that  is all those things that we have been taught love is from 1 Corinthians.  I carry my grandparents love with me everyday.  I have a picture of their 50th wedding anniversary on my desk at work, a picture of them on their honeymoon on my desk at my apartment, and everyday i wear a gorgeous ring that my grandfather had designed for my grandmother.  every time i look at it i think of her.    Her wedding dress and shoes are in my closet, and i often find myself pinning one of her pins on my sweater before work.  it never fails that i can find something in all that i do that reminds me of her.  I started recording the old TV show "Amen" on my DVR and watch it almost every night and i still remember watching that with her when i was 5 and 6 years old and i can still remember all the parts that made her crack up.  Every time i go to a mall i think of her, especially if there is a merry go round. I could on all day about what makes me think of her and my grandfather, but my real point is in how we love each other. 

My grandparents at their 50th anniversary party

We have but one life, so we should love much and love deeply whether its our spouse, children, grandparents, best friends, aunts and uncles, cousins.... etc...  While being kind  to others is great, loving someone truly, deeply and unconditionally is the greatest gift.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day!  Tell someone you love them.

My brother and my grandparents.... our family full of love

my mom and my grandmother

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays everyone!
Its hard to believe 2010 is coming to an end already!  I feel like it was just Christmas not that long ago.  Its funny how Christmas still gets me all excited as if i was 5 again.  Something about Christmas, the meaning, the family time and all the food makes me really happy, giddy and anxious!

I'm extremely excited about this Christmas.  Its going to be a hectic one but I'm ready.  Its my first Christmas with my boyfriend in our new place.  We got all new decorations and our place just makes me smile whenever i see the tree all lit up!  I've come home a few times to see my boyfriend has been sneaky and gone out and bought and wrapped a ton of presents before i have gotten home which is always a nice surprise!  

our tree looks better when its lit up!  There are even more presents that need to be added under there thanks to a recent amazon order lol

Aside from this being our new place and giving each other gifts..... I'm excited cus this is my mom's first Christmas living back in Texas!!!  My uncle is coming to visit as well which is always nice.  Growing up we always made the long drive to mississippi and I always had fun cus my Grandparents were awesome, but being in a car that long and then having to drive around the state to see other relatives, visit and get back in the car was just a pain.  I'm excited to have BOTH my parents back in Houston!  In college i would spend Christmas eve with my dad and hop on a plane at the crack of dawn on Christmas.   It will be nice to wake up on Christmas in my own bed!  I'm also excited to spend the holidays with my boyfriends family!  I am really lucky to have a new extension of my family that is so sweet and loving and welcoming to me.  It will be fun to see the little kids get excited about their toys.  We dont have any little ones within my immediate family so I look forward to the nerf gun war and barbie time i will have with my boyfriends neice and nephew!

Its still weird to me not having my grandparents to celebrate Christmas with.  My Grandma's house was always decorated with her little villages and the stockings she made for my brother and i when we were babies, lots of food and 2 trees.  We'd go to the candlelight service every christmas eve and when we got home it was presents time!  My grandmother and i were both eager and ready to open presents when we got home.  we didnt waste any time.

I'm glad i have those memories and i take them with me every holiday and i look forward to all the new memories and traditions to come.

Anyways.... hope everyone has a great holiday with lots of love, joy, happiness and reflection on why we celebrate Christmas!

in the meantime i am going to enjoy all my favorite Christmas things like:

1) christmas cookies (particularly sugar with icing )

2) lots of other christmas snacks

3) christmas lights

4) ice skating ( we did the outdoor at discover green last week :))

5) christmas trees

6) Christmas themes like reindeer, snowmen, polar bears, penguins, etc

7) nativity scenes- i have the same one from an avon catalog my mom bought me when i was 8

8) Christmas cards!

9) wrapping presents

10) holiday movies

11) time with my family

12) hoiday parties

13) ginger bread houses

14) wishing it would snow on christmas

15) presents

16) oh and celebrating my doggies bday on the 21st.  happy bday skuttle!