sigh...

Don't you just love these Key necklaces from Tiffany's? This one is my fave.

Book club

Our 1st official book club meets June 11th. For our 1st meeting I chose:

Diane Chamberlain's "Before the Storm". I love that it comes with discussion questions in the back of the book!

You're welcome <3

From Just Jared

Popsugar has a bunch more HOT scenes from the filming of New Moon (in Italy).

next crafty project on my "to do" list

I have always loved the look of an upholstered nailhead headboard. I have this look dog-earred in catalogs, pages torn out of magazines and blogs added to favorites, all with suggestions to get this look. Blogs are just so wonderful for ideas. There is no shortage of inspiration out there in blogland. Don't you just love this look? It's the perfect combination of a feminine fabric and the masculine effect of nail head trim. I really have no excuse not to have this project completed by now. I have the wood, a hubby willing to help me (he is the best) and the know how to complete this project. I have re-upholstered my dining room chairs so many times, the hubby doesn't even complain when I come looking for his staple gun. Come to think of it, that needs to be done too! Now to just get to the fabric store (I'm thinking linen or burlap) and pick out the material and batting. What else do I need??? I feel like I am forgetting something... oh right - TIME!!!! I need to find the time..

a review

With summer coming I decided I needed to shed the nasty (ashy) dead skin off my body. So I went out, picked up a new loofah and started the search for a new body wash. There is a such a big choice of washes and shower gels out there. I have my favorites (Dove) but I wanted to try something new, something that would get the dead skin off, something with a little "grit" in it - Caress Evenly Gorgeous. It's not the usual body wash, it's an exfoliating body wash! Exactly what I wanted since we all know how important exfoliation is for smooth even toned skin, especially in the summer. It’s also perfect if you want to prepare your skin for tanning lotion application (like I did). Evenly Gorgeous contains burnt brown sugar and karitte butter, looks just like caramel and smells just as delicious. It exfoliates your dead skin perfectly, leaving skin soft with a light sweet scent all over you. I promise you will love it as much as I do.

Have any plans for this long weekend? I sure do! Lots of fun things planned with old and NEW friends! If you get a chance, try to show a little appreciation to all the men and women who have and who are now serving our Wonderful Country. They deserve our respect and our thanks!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. I'm outta here!

Blog <3

Check out this newly launched entertaining site - Purcell Sisters. I've been on it for over an hour and just love all the great ideas and recipes they have on their site. They even have a book published. This site is definitely "add to favorites" worthy! Signed up for their newsletter while you are on there!

Bodybugg

Did you watch the Biggest Loser and wondered what the heck was strapped to all the contestants arms? Well I did. So I googled it and found out about this bad boy - Bodybugg. This nifty (yes I said nifty) little gadget calculates how many calories you are burning by recording your activity level, including just walking to and from your car. It does this by measuring specific information such as your body temperature and your pre-recorded information such as your weight, height, age and so much more. There are two parts: an armband that you wear during all waking hours (except when you’re wet), and a website that tracks the data. The big benefit is that it’s possible, with consistent food logging, to know exactly what your calorie deficit (and expected weight loss) is. So instead of writing my food in the WW log, I would write it all on the website (for an extra monthly fee of course). Something I know that I NEED to keep up with is tracking my points. Accountability is key. See .. I do pay attentions during the meetings!

For Bobbi

This blog is for you.. I know you need a good laugh today! Cake wrecks. Make sure none of your cakes end up on here! :-)

I got my eye on:

I think these pieces would look absolutely FABulous in my "entertaining" room (what I dubbed that incomplete room) Aren't they great? So fresh and earthy.
All are from PB.

Last summer I went to DSW and picked up the cutest pair of flip flops by Yellow Box. When I tell you that I wore these shoes almost everyday, I'm kinda not kidding. Everyday. They are the most comfortable flip flops I have ever worn. So trust me when I sy I know flip flops and these are the BEST! I can't wait to pick out my new pair!

Last year's pick:

I want

A panini grill!

I have all kinds of panini and quesadilla recipes swirling in my head. Especially recipes using my beloved Arnold thins! Yum!

YES!!

FINALLY the motherchucker said those 3 words. He LOVES Her!

I seriously would have stopped watching if he didn't say it! ok maybe ..

Anyone else LOVE the dress Blair's wore to Nate's Graduation party? I "worship"it :-)

Product <3

Once you start to approach a certain age, you need to change your makeup products (as well as your look). What you wore when you were in your 20's, doesn't necessarily work when you start to slide into your 40's. Your skin changes. A little tip - never use an under-eye concealer to hide a pimple—it slides right off. Instead use an oil-free concealing pencil. Try Shiseido's The Makeup Corrector Pencil. I love this product. Bonus use: I like to highlight the inside corner of my eyes with this product. It makes them POP and look well rested!

I made a great recipe ......

So I am sharing! Last night I made Tilapia with Pineapple Salsa (Fitness mag) for dinner last night and it was delish! The hubby and daughter #2 just loved it. Daughter #1 is anti anything to do with fish but loved the salsa (go figure). I also made roasted white and sweet potatoes along with steamed string beans.

I wish I took a picture because this dish plated so pretty! I had it for lunch today stuffed inside a WW 1 point pita.. even better the next day!

pictured here with snow peas

Hola chicas (and chicos). Have a nice weekend? I know I did. I started off the weekend with a Girl's Night In at my girlfriend Ang's house. It was such a nice night. Can I just say again how happy that we do this once a month? It's a much needed break and chance to just relax andhang with my girls. Ang went all out with the food - Chicken kabobs, shrimp and crabmeat on the grill, along with Bobbi's yummy artichoke and spinach dip, angel food cake with fresh berries and my portuguese rolls (YUM), strawberry salad and sangria. I knew it was gonna be a tough weigh in, and it was - 0.3 loss. A loss, yes, but I would have liked to see more. I felt "skinny" all week, and I wanted to see it on the scale. I know I should not let the scale rule my emotions, but still I was a little bummed. Lesson learned. No drinking and excessive nibbling the night before a weigh in.

As promised, I am posting pics of my Clairol Connection House Party hair "makeover". I decided to stick with Perfect 10, but decided to go a little lighter. 7.5 Medium Ash Blonde. Man did I pick right! I love this color. Plus gorgeous glossy color is 10 minutes, what's not to love? If you are going to dye your hair at home, I highly recommend this product.

The rest of my weekend was spent cleaning the yard, grocery shopping, spray painting all kinds of stuff in my yard. Also a graduation party on Saturday night, and then taking the 16 year old daughter to a college Open House on Sunday. Oh and can I please give a shout out to my new neighbors Sarah and Jim who are by far the BEST neighbors EVER! Our dryer died Saturday and not only did Jim come over and try and fix the dryer, but when they knew it was beyond repair, he GAVE us a dryer!!!!! How wonderful is that? I am so thankful that my neighborhood is becoming filled with wonderful people that I can call a friend!

before

after

Friday already? This week just flew by and thank god for that! Happy Friday!!

Tonight I am going to my girlfriend Ang's for GIRLS NIGHT IN (Clariol Connection House party)! We are all bringing a few dishes to eat, and also breaking in her brand new deck. PARTY! I am contributing sangria, strawberry and blue cheese salad and also some crusty bread. yum! Tomorrow morning I have weigh in. I hope tonight does not ruin it for me tomorrow. I still plan to eat my controlled healthy portions, I'm just adding a few glasses of sangria into the mix. Here's to hoping! Tomorrow night is my little cousin Leelee's high school graduation party in the city. It should be a good time. Hanging with my family, free dinner and drinks! Bonus! Tomorrow afternoon I plan on starting "Project Sunroom" Basically it's cleanup. Ugh. It's such a mess out there! Sunday is another "take the oldest to visit a college" day. This time we are off to Drexel University. Hopefully we get home early enough so that I still have some of the day left to sit, relax and enjoy my garden. A glass of wine will be in that scenario also. ;-)

Have a great weekend! I'm outta here!

picture from marthastewart.com

Have you tried the new Quattro for women TrimStyle? Now I ask, why couldn't someone come up with this razor/trimmer combo sooner? The weather is warming up, so now is the time to take care of yourself "down there". Things probably need - er, tidying up? Just sayin.
The Schick Quattro for Women TrimStyle is an upgrade on the original model (which I use religiously). Fabulous close-shaving disposable razor on one side and a – wait for it, wait for it – AAA battery-operated bikini trimmer on the other (they give you a battery too). Yes, it's waterproof, which makes sense, since you groom in the shower (again, why wasn't this thought of sooner?). I picked mine up at Target, but I have seen them in Walmart, CVS and Rite Aid. oh and just a little warning, I am not sure you want to take this with you to a public area, say a gym. There is a buzzing noise that goes along with it. Just trying to save you from the looks.
This product does not disappoint!

I want more peonies - please!

One of my favorite flowers are peonies. I just love this flower. I have 3 peony bushes in my garden that are now starting to show a ton of buds. So imagine how surprised I was to find that they have a tree peony! So this post is for the hubby, who I know reads this blog and who I know loves to make his wife happy! :-) Oh and any color other than hot pink will do! Thank you!

You can find nurseries here, here and here!

Someone has pretty big birthday coming up, yes that someone is me. Honestly I am not stressing over this number (4 OH). I am finally on track with this "getting healthy" thing and that makes me feel good about myself. It also helps that hubby is noticing all my efforts and is VERY appreciative of the changes my body is going through. I get a ton of attention for him (even more so than usually), but I also get a ton of jokes. It's all good. It's waht we do and it works. We joke about everything. So this number is doing nothing for me. I'm over it. The hubby is planning a very very nice night for my birthday. I won't go into many details -yet - because I don't want to jinx it. Lets just say it is EXACTLY what I want for my birthday. One detail I can share is PLACECARDS! Pretty exciting huh? Who would of thought there were so many unique ways to do place cards. I just love the unexpected, a little off the beat and path.

Yet another reason why I LOVE this man!!

Just thought I would share a few of my fave pics from this weekend.

Here is my best friend Dawn and me -nope I'm not the blonde.

















The Rainbow Room, where we thought it would be fun to wait for Justin Timberlake (who was on SNL). Then a huge rat came out from under the building - 5 ft from us!

Rockefeller Center

Our Carriage ride through Central Park














Magnolia Bakery

Review time!

While in NYC this weekend, I made sure that I packed healthy WW friendly snacks. I recently read (on a blog) about Chex Mix Turtle bars - Oh FABULOUS and only 2 points! Not only that, but they are one of the most delicious bars I have ever had. Seriously. What's not to love? They are chewy, sweet and just a tad sticky. I recommend them completely! Try them and let me know what you think.

Weekend wrap up

Did everyone have a wonderful Mother's Day? I hope so cause I sure did! It started with my weigh in on Saturday morning and the 1.2 lb loss. I thought I would not lose at all since I did not exercise at all last week. It was a nice surprise. I am now down 12.5 pounds (in 10 weeks), and let me tell you I feel great! After the weigh in, it was off to NYC I went. I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had this weekend with my girlfriends. I was a smart girl and packed healthy low point snacks for the weekend (fuji apples, chex mix bars and my favorite smart food popcorn). Combine that with the amount of walking I did, and I am hoping for another loss this week. I will post later about the trip, I was too exhausted to load the pics last night. When I finally did get home last night, I opened the door to see this: Hubby and the girls decorated the room when 1s walk in my house. Not pictured were roses on the floor and cards around them. It was a perfect ending to a truly perfect weekend. It just affirms what I already know, I am blessed with the most wonderful, thoughtful husband and 2 pretty amazing daughters!!

My kind of Mother's Day

I am off to New York City tomorrow and I am beyond excited! I've been looking foward to this weekend for months! The hubby is actually giving me this weekend as my Mother's Day gift. Originally it was my gift to myself, but he stepped up and said it was on "him". Nice. I was also excited to hear that my girlfirend booked our room at the Marriott Marquis, right in the heart of Times Square! We are also going to see a show, Mary Poppins on Broadway, and of course - SHOPPING!

Have a wonderful Mother's Day to all you moms out there. Relax and enjoy it!

pic from marthastewart

Clairol Connection House party!

A few months ago, I got an email asking if I wanted to host a Clairol Connection House Party. House Party.com was completely new to me, so I had no idea what this site was about. I applied anyway and guess what? I got picked! I received a box filled with goodies. In the box I received 7 vouchers for free Clairol Hair Color, 7 Aussie Hairspray, 7 Crest Mouthwash, 7 Crest Toothpaste, 7 samples of Panteen Shampoo & Conditioners, Clairol's 2009 Pocket Guide, 7 Clairol Color Source pamphlet, dental floss...oh, and 7 bags to put it all in. hmmm .. I think that's everything. I am having my "party" at my girlfriends house on Friday, May 15th. It also seems my girlfriend also has a newly built deck she would like to christen for our monthly Girl's Night.
I have already dyed my hair, but I am hoping to dye at least one head while we are there! I took before and after pics of my hair, using Perfect 10 (love it). I also encouraged my girlfriends to do the same. I will post pics after the event. It should be a great time!

Starting a book club

This summer I am starting my very own BOOK CLUB!! Yeah! I got a few girlfriends together and we are going to meet once a month and discuss a book. How do one go about starting a book club? Good question, cause I have no frickin clue. So I turned to who else, but Oprah to help me with this. She gave (and I am sure it was her) me a few helpful hints to get this project started.

1. Why are you starting a book club? What do you hope to get out of it? A fun filled night talking about one of the things I love best - BOOKS!
2. What type of people will make up the club? Are you hoping that all of you will have something in common (beside your love of books), or are you looking to form a diverse group? hmm, type of people? Well they are diversified in the fact that we are all moms who need to get out of the house?? Does that count?
3. What types of books will your club primarily read? Fiction? Non-fiction? One particular genre, such as romance, bestsellers or biographies? Will you rotate through themes each month, like Asian literature, travel books or classics? My thoughts are whomever is hosting gets to pick the book. All genres are welcome .. oh except Harlequin Romance, those are NOT allowed! Sorry, nothing against that smut, just none of us are into them.
4. Do you want to lead the club? If so, for how long, and how much time can you devote to organizing meetings, refreshments and discussions? If not, will other members be willing to take on these responsibilities? Again, each lady takes turns hosting and of course we will all bring a nibble or 2 (and drinks).
5. What are the minimum and maximum number of members your club can accommodate? The more the merrier!
6. When will your first meeting take place? How often will your club meet afterward? What about the summer months, and during the winter holidays? I still have to have a chat with the ladies and see when we shall start this "club". Since I head to the shore most weekends, Thursday's would probably be ideal for me.

I will definitely be posting the books that were picked, and give all of our reviews.
Check out the rest of Oprah's tips and start your own book club.

Kitchen Idea - Open Shelving

I have a habit of getting a design idea in my head and poor hubby can't get out of it. I really really love the look of open shelving in the kitchen. I have been asking (ok nagging) him if we could do this to our kitchen over the summer. Yeah, he is not thrilled with the thought of adding another project to his "to do" list. Since that has never stopped me before, I am on the hunt for a design idea that goes with my style kitchen. I just love this look and think that it would just open up my kitchen. I have dishes that I just love and since they are all white (and my kitchen is mostly antique white), I think show casing them would look fabulous! Sortof like the 1st 2 pics below. Don't you just love this look??

more ideas

KFC Grilled Chicken - Free!

One of my fave blogs, the Weight Watchers blog, has a coupon to try a free KFC 2 piece grilled chicken meal. Can only be printed today only, but used until 5/19. Check out her site for the WW points break down of each meal!

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I will be celebrating tonight with this new find. It's possibly the easiest and most delicious Margarita mix that I have ever enjoyed. Cuervo boosts that its "The first super-premium, ready-to-serve margarita that combines the rich, orange taste of Grand Marnier and the premium quality of Cuervo Gold". I love to make my own, but honestly, this is almost as good! Seriously delicious! All you need is the ice, limes and salt. yum!

X-Men Origins - Wolverine

Even if you're not an X-men (or Superhero) fan, go see this movie! I LOVE X-Men and all things Superhero. So for me, this was a movie I had to see on opening night! I just loved it! Action packed, Hugh's naked bum (shown a few times) his gorgeous face, those bulging muscles and oh yeah how could I forget - Ryan Reynold's was in it too!! Oh wait, I'm missing something........ oh duh - the STORYLINE was pretty good too!

WW weigh-in

I'm a loser, yes I am! Not ashamed to admit it either!!! A weight loss loser!
I was excited on Saturday morning to see that I passed the 10 lb mark (got my ribbon too), but I was also excited to see that I had lost almost 2 pounds in one week! I am officially down 11.5 pounds (in 9 weeks)! While driving my oldest daughter to her SATs testing, I mentioned that today was going to be a GREAT day (I was trying to motivate her) I said that I was going to lose 2 pounds at my meeting, she was going to do great on her test and the sun was going to come out for my girlfriend Bobbi's son's 1st birthday party. I hope I was right on ALL 3, because I almost lost 2 pounds, and the sun DID come out for the party. We shall soon see about the SAT's scores. For some reason this past week had it been a little draining for me. I don't want to blame it all on my period, but I do know that it had something to do with it. I was just tired all week. Maybe it was that combined with the suck ass weather we have been having lately (RAIN)!
At my WW meeting there is a receptionist that is just, well she is not nice. She is a much OLDER woman and honestly just does not give you the motivation that you should be getting while you are doing a weigh in. I don't even know what my losses are when she is handling it. She hands you back your booklet without a wrod. You have to look yourself to see what the weeks results were. Seriously, that's just not right! Tell me "good job" or how about a "way to go"? Nothing! ugh. I don't like when I see that she is going to handle my weigh in, so much so that this week I was prepared to let someone else go ahead of me so I could weigh in with the "happy" lady instead. But I sucked it up and let her weigh me in, and surprise she was actually a little nicer (just a bit). She held on to my record booklet, so that Judy (the leader) would know to hand out my 10lb loss ribbon. I loved that Judy called out a congrats to JAMIE!! lol That's not my name, not even close.. ahh the funny things in life. The meeting this week was all about the importance of tracking. It is so true. I think the reason that I see a loss every week is the fact that I track what I am eating. Now don't get me wrong, I might forget a thing here or there, but I know this is what really helps me. I need to be accountable for what I eat (I know I say this all the time), and tracking does exactly that.
So yeah me for my weight loss this week! I hope this week goes just as well. Although the amount of liquor that was consumed all weekend might not help with this a loss of any kind. That's a whole other story for a whole other posting.
Happy Monday People!

Happy Weekend!

Wow May 1st already? This year is just flying by, isn't it? Another crazy busy weekend for me. I hope the rain holds off. Plans include; a birthday party (Saturday), the movies to see Wolverine (YUM), a 1st Holy Communion Mass (Sunday), then followed by a block party (Sunday). I also have my weigh in bright and early tomorrow morning. I am anxious to see if I am a loser this week. . I "feel" like I am, but we shall see. Alrighty then ....Have a great weekend! I'm outta here!