Friday Favorites Lipstick

February 1, 2013 By

Friday Favorites Lipstick

Today’s Friday Favorites (#FridayFavorites) is all about Lipstick. I wanted to tell you about my two favorite lipsticks which come from Urban Decay and Bobbi Brown. I love to use them daily and for special occasions. I even have a funny story about when I met Jenny McCarthy and what she had to say to me. Please leave me a comment below telling me what are  your favorite lipsticks!

Friday Favorites Lipstick

Post to Twitter

Valentines Day Gelee Recipe

January 31, 2013 By

Valentines Day Peach Gelees

Since we are gluten free and casein free it can be hard to come up with great holiday treats. But I found out that making a Valentines Day Gelee Recipe is easy and delicious, and really very special. These little jeweled colored candies came to me from the Culinatry Institute of America and I turned them into Valentines Day Gelees. I adore these little gems and hope you decide to make them for your little Valentines too.

Print
Valentines Day Gelee Recipe
Author: 
Recipe type: Candy
 
Ingredients
  • ¾ cup frozen juice concentrate, thawed (sweetened or unsweetened)
  • 1¼cups water
  • Two 1.75 ounce packets (8 teaspoons) powdered fruit pectin
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 cups sugar, plus extra for coating
  • 1⅓ cups light corn syrup (organic)
  • ¼ to ¾ teaspoon citric acid, or as needed
Instructions
  1. Lightly coat a rectangular pan with coconut oil, then line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and lightly oil that too.
  2. In a large sauce pan put the fruit juice, water, pectin and baking soda.
  3. The baking soda will make it foam, a lot.
  4. In a second sauce pan put the sugar and corn syrup.
  5. Heat both pans over medium high heat to boiling point, then lower the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes.
  6. Gradually add the sugar mixture to the fruit juice mixture, stirring constantly.
  7. Continue to boil for one more minute.
  8. Remove from heat and add the citric acid.
  9. Taste a bit of the mixture that has cooled on a plate and adjust the citric acid until you find a flavor you like.
  10. Pour into prepared, parchment lined pan.
  11. Let cool at room temperature for about 2 hours.
  12. Scatter sugar onto a jelly roll pan and invert the cooled gelee mixture onto the sugar.
  13. Using small cookie cutters, cut out hearts or other shapes.
  14. Place the gelees into a bowl with sugar and coat all sides so they do not stick.
  15. Place sugar coated gelees onto a parchment lined drying rack and allow to cure for 8 hours.
  16. Enjoy!
Wordpress Recipe Plugin by EasyRecipe

 

Post to Twitter

Children’s Book Review

January 29, 2013 By

Every night I read to my boys. They love to have me read a short story book first and then we read a chapter or two from one of our chapter book series. So when I was given a chance to review four new books available in March and April I jumped at the chance. Who doesn’t want to do a Children’s Book Review?

Moustachapillar

The first book is The Moustachapillar by Jonty Lees and is just an adorable, sweet book about a young boy who wants to grow a mustache. When he sees that he can’t grow one he tries all sorts of fake mustaches until one day he meets a caterpillar and they become friends. And the caterpillar pretends to be his mustache. I don’t want to give away the ending but I will say that it is a touching book about friendship, and a book that my boys ask me to read to them over again.

Hedgehog in the Fog

The second book, Hedgehog in the Fog, is based on sketches by Francesca Yarbusova to the award-winning animated film directed by Yuri Norstein. The book is truly lovely. It is heavy and well made, and beautifully illustrated. The story centers around Hedgehog and his nighttime trip to see his friend bear, but during that trip he encounters fog and many ethereal creatures in that fog. This is a dream-like book that allow your children to imagine.

Mishmash

This book, too, is illustrated by Francesca Yarbusova and I feel really shows her Russian background. The artwork evokes traditional Russian drawings while the story, by Korney Chukovsky, reminds me of Russian stories. The book starts off very playfully with animals that don’t want to make the noises they are supposed to make, but it takes a turn that I don’t think would typically appear in an American story. I think that is what I find so endearing with the story. It reminds me of the “old country” and it is an aspect of life that I think many Americans are yearning for.

The Fox and the Hare

The last book, The Fox and the Hare, is a Russian folk story told my Vladimir Dal. Again, it contains sketches by Francesca Yarbusova to the award-winning animated film directed by Yuri Norstein. This is a beautifully crafted book, but as the mother of 3 young boys I didn’t love some of the aggressiveness of this particular book. I think because it is based on a folktale, it uses some harsher words and concepts; harsher than maybe we are used to today. I do think it would be a great piece for someone that loves to collect folk stories and it is the kind of story to help open up discussions. The story follows a hare who has lost her home to a fox. Several animals try to get the fox to leave the hare’s home, but no one is successful until the Rooster comes to help.

These four books would make lovely additions to your library and may spur you to look for the Yuri Norstein films some of them are based on.

I was provided with free copies of the book to facilitate this review.

Post to Twitter

Hair Chalking

January 29, 2013 By

Hair Chalking

I wanted to have some fun with my grey hair, and I have been seeing all my friends sporting these awesome colors. So I decided since I won’t color my hair, how about doing some hair chalking. It is super simple and I really like the look.

UPDATE – you can chalk dark hair if you wet both your hair and the chalk! 

Hair Chalking Video Tutorial

Hair Chalking Supplies

  1. spray water bottle
  2. chalk pastel in color of your choice
  3. protective gloves

Hair Chalking Method

  1. Section off hair and spray with water bottle to dampen.
  2. With protective gloves on, use the chalk pastel to color the hair in a motion from root to tip.
  3. Once desired color is achieved allow hair to dry.
  4. Set color with heat from curling iron or flat iron.
  5. Wash to remove color.

Have you ever chalked your hair? Would you? Do you color your hair? Have you ever colored it a non-conventional color like pink or blue?

I think this is a great alternative to the chemicals in hair color and can really add a lot of fun, especially if you are like me and trying to grow your color out. I will be keeping Hair Chalking as an option whenever I want to do something a little fun. What do you all think?

Post to Twitter