Mommin' It Up!

March 27, 2012

Beauty Review: Limited Edition Art of Nature Collection by Mary Kay

I L-O-V-E Mary Kay cosmetics and that’s ALL I wear, so I love it when they ask me to review new products! Recently I got to review the limited edition The Art of Nature Collection. This makeup is lightweight and high-gloss, inspired by all of nature’s gorgeous colors! My favorite product from the collection is the Fluid Eye Color. It glides on so smoothly and it shimmers and shines and really STAYS on. I love, love, love it. I tried it in the Pearl color. It’s a fabulous highlighter color for your browbone & eyelid.

Here’s how it looked on my eyes:

I had a tough time getting a good picture of myself, you know with my eyes closed and all! But I think you can see in this photo how the shadow shimmers.

I also loved the Dual Lip Glaze from this collection. It’s super-shiny gloss on the outside, and pretty color on the inside. It looks great over liner or on it’s own. It’s a winner!

Speaking of gloss, Mary Kay has also re-vamped it’s NouriShine lip gloss into the all-new NouriShine Plus. I couldn’t imagine that it could get any better but it DID! I love it even more! It’s super-moisturizing and high-shine and uses Vitamin E and a Vitamin C derivative to keep lips healthy. And I loooooooove all the colors! There are some new ones that are awesome, I especially love Cafe au Lait, it is the PERFECT neutral gloss. Give it a try if that’s what you’re looking for.

Thanks Mary Kay for letting me review these products. You can get them from your Mary Kay lady, and if you don’t have one, you can order from mine, she’s the best!

March 27, 2012

Cupcake Wars

Kate and I have a new obsession… Cupcake Wars on the Food Network.

Have you seen it? It’s basically American Idol meets Survivor meets, um, cupcakes. They start out with four contestants and a theme (some of my favorite episode themes include Girl Scout Cookies, I Love Lucy, and Monster Truck Jam). The first round is all about taste, and it’s when the bakers whip up something like this:

Red Hot Velvet Cupcakes With Fiery Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Luscious red velvet meets hot cayenne pepper in a combination of sweet and spicy that is just right. Topped with a cinnamon schnapps-infused frosting, these cupcakes are sinfully decadent.

They put the most random things in cupcakes – jalapenos, pesto, goat cheese. And booze, lots of booze. (See why I like this show? Alcohol-infused sugar. Sign me up.)

Then, the panel of judges gets to shatter the hopes and dreams of one contestant and vote them off the island.

In the second round they make three different cupcakes, judged on both taste and presentation. Then judges give a rose to the final two contestants, who have to make a display of 1,000 cupcakes.

They pick a winner, and everyone lives happily ever after.

It is awesome.

Over the weekend, Kate and Sam were inspired by what they’d seen on TV, so they got out our Williams-Sonoma kids’ cookbooks and picked a couple recipes to try. We whipped up a chocolate chip cookie cake and some chocolate mousse, all the while running around the kitchen like chicken with our heads cut off, yelling things like “Oh my gosh, we only have five minutes and I haven’t even started the fondant motorcycle helmets” and “This ganache isn’t right, I’m going to have to start over” and “I dropped the strawberry compote!!!”

It was fabulous.

And much less traumatizing than when Jenny and Sophie play Toddlers and Tiaras.

What shows do you like to watch with your kids?

March 26, 2012March 25, 2012

Bobby and Jenny things

Yesterday was my twelfth wedding anniversary. And rather than regale you with a heartfelt tale about what I felt like on my wedding day, or about the ups and downs of marriage, I thought I would share with you some things that are “Bobby and Jenny things”. Things we crack each other up about, sometimes without even a word. Things that make us laugh over and over and over again. Things that smile. Things that couldn’t have happened without us. Things like: