Things I'm Loving Right Now

Right now I have two sick boys in the house, the little guy and the hubs. They are both passed out on the couches in the living room, and while there's a whole ton of things I could be doing around the house, I'm hiding out in my room so I don't wake them. So I figured I'd let you know about some things I'm absolutely LOVING at the moment.  None of these are really new products so you may already use them, but if not, you may just want to try them out.

Oxo Good Grips POP Storage Container

I received one of these bad boys for Christmas. It's a little on the pricey side for a storage container, but I feel it's worth it. If you ever were to get pathetically excited about a plastic storage container this would be the one. The POP button creates an airtight seal and it just fits better in my cabinet.  I have the 4qt one and use it for my sugar and would like to get more of them for my flour, powdered sugar, etc, etc.

 

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circles

This product is A-MAZING! The fact that it's a drugstore item makes it even better. I was using Benefit's BOI-ING and while I liked that I like this better and it's half the cost! I have it in shade Fair.  They also have a pink shade (I believe it's called brightener) and want to try that out as well. With this product you just dab a little under each eye and then LIGHTLY blend out with your ring finger. Don't use the sponge applicator to blend.  It blends really nice and does a good job hiding under eye circles and just brightens up the whole under eye area.

Yoplait Greek Yogurt in Honey Vanilla

Never thought Greek Yogurt would be something I would love.  Greek yogurt is good for you people. Much better than regular yogurt. It has about double the protein and half the sugar. When I hear something is good for me I figure I should be eating it. So I tried Greek yogurt after Greek yogurt and I hated it. I couldn't even trick myself into eating it. I thought all these people on the Greek yogurt band wagon are out of their minds.  Then I stumbled upon this gem and guess what?! It's deeeeeelicious! I actually prefer this over regular yogurt now.  I've tried a few of their other flavors and they were good too, but this one is my favorite.

Well that's all for now. Let me know if you use these products or if you try them what you think of them. 

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise by OXO, Maybelline, or Yoplait 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.

Happy Fat Tuesday!

Happy Fat Tuesday!  Because I am waaaay to impatient to wait until Halloween to make this fabulous Halloween cake  I came across, I made it Mardi Gras style instead! Enjoy...

Cake
What you will need for the cake:
1 box of White Cake Mix plus ingredients called for on box (eggs, oil, water)
1 box of Yellow Cake Mix plus ingredients called for on box (eggs, oil, water)
Yellow Food Coloring
Purple Food Coloring
Green Food Coloring
*I used food coloring you find at the grocery store, but if you use food coloring in paste form (usually found at craft stores) the colors will look better and you won't need to use as much.

What you will do:
Heat oven to 325°F. Generously grease a 12 cup bundt /tube cake pan.  Make batters as directed on box.  Divide the white batter into two separate bowls.

Add green food coloring to one of the bowls of white cake mix.  I used the regular green food coloring for this.  Add purple food coloring to the other bowl of white cake mix. For the purple I used the pink and blue to make a darker purple from the neon food coloring.

Pour 3/4 of the yellow batter into a bowl and mix in yellow food coloring.  You may be able to omit the yellow food coloring, but I wanted to make sure I got a bright yellow color.  I used the regular yellow for mine.  Discard the remaining yellow cake batter or make a few cupcakes-you won't use it for the cake.

Pour 1/2 of the yellow cake batter into the bottom of the greased pan.  Carefully pour the purple batter over the top, being careful not to mix it together.  Then carefully pour the green on top of the purple. Pour the remaining yellow cake batter over the green. It should look something like this.

Bake as directed on box or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes. Turn pan upside down onto cooling rack that is placed over a cookie sheet.  Cool cake completely.

Frosting
What you will need:
1 (12oz) can White Frosting
Yellow Food Coloring
Purple Food Coloring
Green Food Coloring

What you will do:
Divide the frosting evenly between 3 microwavable bowls. Tint each bowl the same as you did for the cake, one yellow, one green, one purple.  Microwave each bowl of frosting about 10 seconds so it is smooth enough to be drizzled over the cake. Stir the frosting after microwaving and using your spoon drizzle each color back and forth over the cake to get the desired look. If I had enough purple, green, and yellow sugar sprinkles I would have sprinkled those on top...

 Pretty cool hey? I wonder how many other occasions/holidays I could make this cake for....

Adapted From:Cooking With Sugar

Fun with Shatter

First before I get to what I did to my nails, let me tell you about my morning. It all started out fine, and then, a short while before I had to leave to bring the kids to school is when they showed up... The tree trimming trucks and the orange construction cones. If you read my post about parallel parking or know me, you know backing up is not something I do well.  So, when I seen that there were thousands of orange cones in front of my driveway (probably more like 10) and hundreds of huge trucks (there were 3) I panicked. How was I going to back out? I texted my neighbor knowing he had to leave shortly as well "Are we going to be able to get out of our driveways" to which he replied "Ya". Oh no. Now I will have to back out into this obstacle course.  If other people can do it, there's no reason I can't. All I could think of is the part in The Wedding Singer where the guy is trying out to be the limo driver and he took out all those cones. But with the help of my neighbor making sure I wasn't hitting any of them I did it. Piece.Of.Cake. Yay me :) OK now on to the nails. Hope you like them!

I love the shatter/crackle nail polishes and found a way to create a new look with them.  I did my daughter's nails this way too so we are matchers.  This is what I did, but you could add your own twist by adding even more colors.

First I applied a base coat and then painted a stripe of 3 different colors down each nail. Don't worry if they aren't perfect stripes. The shatter will disguise any imperfections.  I did all my nails the same. On my daughter's I alternated in which order I put the stripes and I think I liked how hers turned out better.

Then I applied a coat of black shatter.  The trick to applying the shatter nail polish is to apply a heavy coat slowly. Then I finished with a top coat.

For reference the products I used are:
Orly Bonder (LOVE THIS STUFF)
Magenta Bliss by Mary Kay (not sure if this is still available it's probably 8 years old! Amazing it's lasted this long!)
Super Star by Pure Ice (this is the best white nail polish I've found. Only needed 1 coat)
Purple with a Purpose by OPI
Black Shatter by OPI
Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Hope everyone's having a good Monday!

Happy Birthday BFF!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful friend Jenny! I hope you have a great day!  Love Ya!!

Red Velvet Trifle

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of my favorite kind of cake is a red velvet and one of my favorite kind of dessert is a trifle. So, when I came across the red velvet trifle I thought JACKPOT! Trifles are great because they are so incredibly simple to make, and they look nice.  I made this red velvet trifle for Valentine's Day and it was really yummy! 

I used the Paula Deen red velvet cake recipe but you could use any red velvet cake recipe (or there's even a red velvet box mix now!)

Red Velvet Trifle
For the cake:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter
1 ounce red food coloring (original recipe calls for 2oz. I used 1 and it worked out fine)
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar

For the filling:
1 (3 oz.) envelope cheesecake flavored instant pudding
2 cups milk (I used skim milk)
2 cups whipped topping (I used lite cool whip)

Garnish:
Shaved Chocolate (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Prepare three 8” round cake pans with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl using a hand mixer, beat eggs, butter and sugar until creamy. Add cocoa and food coloring. Mix until well combined.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla.

In a small bowl, combine soda and vinegar and add to batter. Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tests done. Allow cakes to cool completely.

Meanwhile, prepare instant pudding according to the package directions using 2 cups milk. Allow pudding to set up in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, gently fold in whipped topping.

To assemble the trifle, cut the red velvet cake into 1 inch cubes. Place an even layer of cubed cake in the bottom of a trifle bowl. Top with 1/3 of the pudding mixture. Repeat the layer process so that the final layer is pudding. Top with shaved chocolate. Chill until ready to serve.

Adapted From:Paula Deen

RIP Whitney Houston

I am saddened by the death of Whitney Houston.  She was a such a beautiful woman and an incredibly talented performer.  Her voice was truly amazing.  I grew up listening to her and love her music.  My heart goes out to her family especially her daughter Bobbi Kristina. RIP Whitney.

Pink and White Zebra Stripes

In honor of Valentine's Day I made a pink and white zebra striped cake.  You don't have to make it pink and white you could make it any color (or flavor) combination you want.  It's really simple, it just takes a little bit more time to do.  I cheated and used a box mix but you could certainly use your favorite from scratch cake recipe.

Here's what you do:

Prepare cake mix.

Add desired food coloring to half of the batter.
I used neon pink.

Give paddle attachment to husband to eat leftover batter.
(yes we know it's not good to consume raw eggs)

Alternate dropping batter in center of greased cake pan (My pans are 8").
I used 1/4 cupfuls.  The batter will spread as more batter is dropped on top.
You won't use all of the cake batter. You'll have maybe 1/2 cup left.
Throw away, make a cupcake or two, or give remaining batter to husband.

This is what it should look like when you're done.

Both pans filled.

Bake as directed.

Frost as desired.



 How cute is that?!

Parallel Parking

I am simply amazed by those who can do this. As much as I've tried I can't do it.  Luckily for me I live in a city where I don't really need to do this all that much. And if I do, well I will just drive around until I can find a spot where I can drive right in (drives the fam nuts).

For those of you who can parallel park I know you are thinking what's so hard about it? Well for those of us who can't. THE WHOLE DANG THING IS HARD! Not to mention when you have an audience (people behind you) it makes it 10x harder.

I was picking up the girl from school yesterday and someone not only parallel parked their car with busy after school traffic and pedestrians all around (audience). They also pulled into a space that looked about half the size of their car (well it did to me) and they did it without even blinking. I'm thinking this is some kinda super hero power.

Don't even get me started on semi drivers and their mad back up skills... I can barely make it outta my own driveway somedays...

Learning to Crochet

A week ago my friend Alexis showed me this awesome scarf she was crocheting and I thought I NEED to learn how to do that!  So I asked her to teach me and Friday we sat down and she started my lesson.  Well, the yarn we had on hand was very soft and fuzzy and very hard for a beginner to work with so ya it was a big fat FAIL! I did manage to learn how to 'chain' (ya I felt pretty awesome walking around saying ya I know how to chain), even though I just couldn't get my hands to cooperate and it just felt awkward. I thought how do people do this?! Why do people do this? She told me it would get easier once I found a way to comfortably hold the yarn and hook. She told me to go and get some different yarn and we'd resume my lesson this week. 

So that afternoon after the hubs and I picked the little lady up from school I told him we had to go to Hobby Lobby. I needed yarn and my own hook. I was overwhelmed by all the different yarn colors and the hubs was annoyed it took me so long to pick out a color.  I mean after all this was just for learning purposes.

We got home and I got impatient. I couldn't wait until next week to learn. I had to learn NOW! But what was I gonna do call the emergency how to crochet help line? Ya cuz that exists...And I'm sure no one is going to wanna rush to my house on a Friday night to give me a crochet lesson. So I did the next best thing I watched tutorials on youtube.

I would watch and then try and I just couldn't figure out what they were doing. Yarn over, yarn through? Yarn what? What are these people doing? I was getting frustrated. I decided I would just have to wait for Alexis to teach me.

Saturday morning I got up and decided I should try the crochet thing again. So I did. And guess what??

Not too shabby hey? I still haven't managed to really figure out how to go to the next row hence it not being completely even, but I think I've got the double crochet stitch down.  I'll have Alexis teach me more this week. Then I think I may just have to try and make an infinity scarf... I'll let you know how that goes.

I Did It!

To save a little money, I decided at the start of the month I would put myself on a little shopping ban.  I couldn't buy anything that wasn't an absolute necessity. And, as hard as it was, no, I didn't try to convince myself that really I couldn't get on without another pair of jeans, or the new Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

In the beginning, it was a piece of cake. I thought, no biggie, it's just a month.  We even made a special Target shopping trip at the start of the month and made sure to buy enough "Target stuff" we usually buy to last us the month so I wouldn't have to go back and be tempted. And let me tell you that really ended up being a good idea because I don't know about you but when I make my weekly trip to Target lots of stuff not on the list always ends up in my cart, because well I need it, duh! So the less trips the less impulse buys!! Smart hey?? And if you're lucky enough not to give into impulse buys good for you, I am not always that fortunate.

So, back to the shopping ban, it all started out great, but, by mid month things were starting to get a little bit nuts in my head. It wasn't so much of me not buying anything but just for the simple fact that me and the little guy like to walk the stores and we haven't done that lately since I didn't want to tempt myself.

By the end of the month I had simply gone downright MAD I tell you MAD! For anyone who knows me I like need to shop. Plain and simple. I felt as I was going through what I would imagine a smoker would go through after quitting cold turkey.  Well maybe not that bad, but it was bad.

However, now that it's done and over with, I'm pretty proud of myself and I may just do it again this month.  And then again maybe not. I may do it and give myself a couple of free passes.