Tis the season

Hello friends! As I spend the day on the couch sick I thought I would take the time to share with you all something I came across in the  Taste of Home's Best Holiday Recipes 2012 magazine.  I picked it up this past week at the grocery store and on one of the first few pages I found this and thought it was too good not to share. Very appropriate for the coming holiday season, although any of these things could and SHOULD be done all year long! I will be cutting it out of the magazine and hanging it to my fridge.

The ABCs of Giving

A Ask someone to lunch at your house.
B Bake a special treat for an elderly acquaintance.
C Call and old friend who's been out of touch.
D Deliver groceries or medicine to a shut-in.
E Encourage someone who's having a bad day.
F Fix your family's favorite meal.
G Give outgrown toys and clothing to charity.
H Hug a friend; tell her why she's special to you.
I Invite a friend over for coffee and conversation.
J Just do it- when you see a need, try and fill it.
K Kneel down and pray for your family, friends, and government leaders.
L Lend a favorite book or movie to someone who'd enjoy it.
M Make a collage of photos in someones honor.
N Nominate a deserving student, teacher, waitress, or other worker for an award.
O Offer to organize someones recipes, junk drawer, or closet.
P Pick up flowers for someone in the hospital.
Q Quench a co workers thirst- treat them to a big thermos of hot cocoa.
R Read nostalgic poems and stories at a retirement center or nursing home.
S Send greeting cards to friends and family making birthdays, anniversaries, and more.
T Take a walk with a friend.
U Use every opportunity to find and deliver sincere compliments.
V Volunteer at a soup kitchen or food pantry.
W Write that long overdue letter or chatty email.
X Exemplify extra effort in caring and sharing.
Y Yield the choice of movie, restaurant or book club selection to someone else.
Z Zip through your day with a mile for all you meet.

Things I've been loving

I realize I haven't done a "Things I've been loving" post lately... or really any post at all! So I thought I would share a couple of things that well...I have been loving. Both are things I would  not have expected to show up in a post entitled things I've been loving, but they have so here they are!

Vitabath Body wash in Grapefruit Vanilla

Whenever I see Vitabath I think of my Grandma...  I always remember seeing a big bottle of Vitabath (think the original spring green) on her bathtub. I never thought of using it myself and then one day I was perusing Ulta and noticed they make more than just that particular scent....hmmmm....still I didn't think of buying it.  However as I walked past I noticed a few important words SULFATE & PARABEN FREE... OK Now it had my attention.  We are hearing sulfates are not good for our hair and parabens are not good for us in general so I've been trying to stay away from both as much as I can. In all honesty body wash is body wash in my book, but the smell of this is so head over heels yummy and the fact that it's sulfate and paraben free makes it a winner.  They have other scents I love too, but this is my fave.

Wen Cleansing Conditioner in Sweet Almond Mint

I've watched infomercial after infomercial on this stuff and I can't tell you how many times I've almost ordered it off of QVC.  But, I don't because why would you wash your hair with conditioner???  To me that just doesn't make sense. I didn't think it could 'clean' the hair. Well, my mom bought into the hype (she always does with anything beauty related and lucky for me she always shares)  She told me to take some home and try and I thought ok, I have been curious and figured I would just use it on a day that I didn't really mind if it didn't work as it claimed. Was I pleasantly surprised with the results! My hair really did feel clean after I used it and it looked really nice and shiny. I haven't been using it long enough to see if it will be a must have product but I am loving it right now!

That's all for now. What products are you loving?

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise to write this. These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the products and wanted to share them with you because I enjoy them and think you would too.

FLIPPITY FLOPS

My daughter and I have been making these flip flops this summer. They are super cute and something different to accessorize her outfits.  The only down side is they don't hold up well when she's running wild playing outside. But that's ok because they are so simple and cheap to make! And with all the different ribbons out there the designs are endless! 

You will need:

A pair of flip flops, 2 different ribbons (the 15' rolls work great)

scissors, ruler, lighter (optional)

 

Cut the ribbon in 6" lengths.

You can then heat treat the ends with the lighter if you'd like.

 

Tie and double knot the ribbon on the straps

of the flip flops, alternating ribbons.

 

How cute are these?!

 

Happy crafting!

BUSY BUSY BUSY

Hello friends! I apologize for being MIA.It's been a busy summer. I'm hoping to get back to blogging soon.  Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I'm looking forward to Fall!! Are you?

Red Velvet Shake

As I've mentioned before I love me some red velvet so when I came across this recipe I couldn't wait to try it.  The original recipe comes from Hungry Girl (love her) so it's very figure friendly.  I did modify it a little so it's probably not as low fat/cal as Hungry Girl's, but it's still a healthier option than a regular red velvet milkshake would be. It turned out to be super yummy and surprisingly filling. Even the hubs said so!

Red Velvet Milkshake

What you need:
1 packet diet hot cocoa mix  (20 - 25 calories)
1 tbsp. French vanilla powdered creamer
1 tsp. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips plus additional for garnish if desired.
4 drops red food coloring (optional)
1/2 cup vanilla almond milk or skim milk
1/4 cup chocolate frozen yogurt
8 ice cubes
Reddi-Wip topping

What you do:
In a tall glass, combine cocoa mix, powdered creamer, and chocolate chips. Add 2 tbsp. very hot water and stir until mostly dissolved. Thoroughly stir in food coloring if desired.

Pour mixture to a blender. Add milk, frozen yogurt, and ice. Blend at high speed until smooth.

Pour into the tall glass, top with Reddi-wip and additional mini chocolate chips.

  Recipe adapted from:Hungry Girl

4th of July Nails

I've been extremely busy between work, kids, summer, etc so I haven't had much time to post lately but thought I'd share our 4th of July nails.  We love going all out for the holidays in my family right down to our nails. 

 What I did was paint a red stripe, white stripe and blue stripe and while the polish was still wet I took a toothpick to create a zig zag through my nail. Now you could leave that as is but I decided to put a coat of silver and blue glitter polish over it. I actually preferred it without the glitter but didn't feel like redoing the nail. 

I did my daughters nails using this technique with red and blue polish and used the white shatter.

I didn't feel the white shatter turned out quite as nice as the black but she was happy and that's all the matters right?

If we have the time my daughter wants me to do a post about her 4th of July hairdo we did.  So maybe look for that in the next few days!  Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July!

I Drank the Kool-Aid

Well I succumbed to the peer pressure and read the 50 shades trilogy.  While it did take awhile for me to get "hooked" once I was there was no turning back. I did feel that it was the adult version of Twilight and was constantly waiting for Mr. Grey to out himself as being part of the Cullen family, but it was a great read nonetheless, and I'm am looking forward to the movie. I'd like to see how they're going to pull it off and be able to show it in the theaters versus having to buy it in a brick building along the interstate with the lit up XXX lights. I'm also curious to see who they're going to cast to play Christian and Ana (please movie gods not Robert Pattinson and/or Kristen Stewart)  If you haven't read it, I suggest you do.  It's a fun summer read.  Just remember it takes awhile to get hooked I was told about 100 pages into the first book and I think I'd have to agree.