Mommin' It Up!

April 2, 2014April 18, 2014

Marc Allison Jeans Review + Giveaway!

Marc Allison Jeans provided me with the review item and will provide the winner’s prize. All opinions are my own.

Way back in 2010, I reviewed a pair of Marc Allison Jeans – skinny jeans no less – and I absolutely loved them. Four years later – 4 years, people!! – I am still loving that very same pair. They look and feel just as awesome as they did back then. So NATURALLY, when I got the chance to review a new jean from Marc Allison Jeans, and give a pair away to a reader, I jumped at the chance! So friends, meet Gina.

The Gina is a slim boot cut, so they’re very different from the skinny jeans I reviewed before. However, I can tell they are from the same maker because they feel just as amazing on. These jeans are special – and you can tell it from the minute you put them on. You can tell they’re “premium” quality – the fabric hugs your body without being tight, and not to be too cliche, but they really do feel like a second skin. The Gina does hug your upper leg like a skinny jean, but then flares out at the knee to become a boot cut – but not a wide flare, a really nice, slim, flattering boot cut. They are the perfect every day jean! I chose the charcoal wash for mine because I felt like I needed something different in my wardrobe, and I love it! The Gina is available in 8 different washes so there’s something for everyone. Here’s some more pics of how she fits, and since NO ONE wants to see me from this angle, I’ll just go with the official photos!

So here’s the secret behind the reason WHY these jeans fit and feel so great: Marc Allison Jeans have a 4-way stretch, which they call the “X-Fit”. It allows the denim to move with you in all directions, and to recover perfectly – so they’ll keep their perfect shape for several wears between laundering. And – the super-softness of the denim is due to luxurious Pima cotton – trust me when I tell you you can feel the difference!

So, who wants to win a pair of these lovely jeans? YOU ALL DO, believe me! Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me WHY you want to win a pair of Marc Allison “Gina” jeans.

Optional for another entry:

2) Fans of Marc Allison Jeans on Facebook will earn another entry. Just leave a separate comment letting me know that you are a fan.

3) Tweet about the giveaway “I want to win a pair of @marcallisonjean jeans from @jennyitup @momminitup http://bit.ly/1hh62RN #giveaway ” and then leave a second comment on this post with your tweet URL. (You can copy and paste this tweet.)

4) Re-pin this pin of this giveaway and come back here and leave me a comment with the pin URL.

One winner will be chosen Wednesday April 9 at 6 pm. Good luck everyone!

April 1, 2014

More from Foodie.com – Sunday Dinners

This post is sponsored by Foodie.com
*********

Jenny and I have written before that much of the time she, my sister, and I spent together as kids was at our grandma’s house – specifically while we were there for Sunday dinners. Jenny’s family and mine gathered every Sunday after church as far back as I can remember, and those afternoons were spent playing rummy, going to the park, and lip synching to the Beach Boys (thank you little baby Jesus there was no YouTube then).

Of course, there was food.

Our grandma was an amazing cook. I remember her rolling out the biscuit dough and cutting it with an empty can of coconut. Her meatloaf was a favorite, as were her baked beans, and her specialty – Hershey Pie.

She’d always send us home with plenty of leftovers in Cool Whip containers.

I wish I had some of her meatloaf right now.

Grandma no longer cooks big dinners each week – and I know I speak for our whole family when I say we miss it.

But we all still gather at her house as often as we can on Sunday afternoons, taking turns bringing food. It’s important to all of us to spend that time together with her and with each other, and much to my surprise (and probably Grandma’s, too) I really love to cook, and I love finding new recipes. Foodie.com is a great place to house the recipes I’ve tried and those I want to try – like the ones in my collection above. While I’ll never be able to recreate Grandma’s biscuits, I will attempt to make a close approximation, and I hope that my family will feel the love behind them the same way we did.

April 1, 2014

Zombies

Tell me that you don’t think of the song by The Cranberries when you hear that word. I’m totally showing my age with that one – and it’s about to get worse, because get this –

I do not understand Minecraft.

Here’s what I know about Minecraft.

A) It can be played on an iPhone/iPad.

B) The people have square heads.

C) My son is obsessed with it.

And evidently he’s not alone. Pinterest is filled to the brim with ideas for Minecraft Halloween costumes and birthday parties and wedding receptions (okay I don’t know that for sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me.)

Ho-lee crap. I was just kidding!

The only other thing I know about Minecraft is this – it makes Sam say some weird shark.

Take, for example, a few of the comments that came out of my sweet boy’s mouth in the car yesterday.

“If you kill zombies, you will get potatoes.”

“If you kill skeletons, there’s a good chance you’ll get a bone.”

“You can get meat from blow up creepers and cows.”

“In nighttime you can find steers and kill them with your fists if you don’t have weapons.”

“In Minecraft there’s no circle heads. There’s only square heads. Even for animals and monsters. And rectangle bodies.”

“Come here little chickie!”

“From chickens you can get eggs, chicken bodies you can eat, and also you can get feathers to use as weapons.”

“You might want to kill pets. They can turn evil.”

NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE. And all that killing stuff? I should probably look into age-appropriateness and whether or not it’s going to turn him into a serial killer. But… everybody’s doing it, right?