April 19, 2009

Hi all!  We hope you’re having a most excellent weekend, as we are.  We spent the whole day at the boat yesterday, celebrating LilSis’ birthday.

We’re headed back out this morning, since we FINALLY have a beach day…the first day it’s been warm enough for the beach the whole week we’ve been here!  So guess what?  There’ll be no thoughtful blogging or product reviews or recipes made today!

We’re starting a week long series about eye products tomorrow though so stay tuned.  Have a great Sunday!

~BigSis

April 17, 2009

The weather has been cool, windy and cloudy here in southern California this week, so we’ve gotten a lot of our technical work done indoors.  We won’t bore you with the details, but we did make a lot of progress and we’re pretty ding dang proud of ourselves!

After all that mental exertion, we’re taking the weekend off for some R&R and sister time.  Our plan for the warmer sunnier weekend is beaching, boating and boozing book-reading!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

TGIF you all!  Saturday is LilSis’ birthday, so we’ll be celebrating it in some funtastic way with SirHoney, Big T, Hay Hay and SisMama.  We’ll see you back here on Sunday!  Have a great weekend!

~BigSis

April 16, 2009

We hope you’ve all had a chance to check out the Potato Ho Down by now!  If not, wander over to dlynz.com to see all of the great spud dishes.  We had a ton of fun putting together our Pink Potatotini!

While BigSis and LilSis have been in the same town and same house this week, we’ve had a chance to work on our blog a little bit, and are working on some enhancements.  Nothing too fancy, since neither of us are techies, just a little tweak here and there.

• You’ll notice that you can now subscribe to the comments on a particular post, which is something we really like being able to do.

• We’ve also changed how we show our book list.  Instead of a list of our favorites, we’ll be posting a link to the book we’re currently reading (or cooking or baking from) in our left sidebar.  That featured book will change from time to time.

• All of our recipes will soon be on a separate page that you can access from the top Navigation Bar.

We have some other things in the works, so keep your eyeballs peeled for those, and let us know if you like the changes (or not!).

~BigSis

April 13, 2009

Anyone who knows us knows how much we love pink, so does it come as a surprise that our Potato Ho Down entry this month is a Pink Potatotini?

Pink Potatotini

We served the Pink Potatotinis for Easter Sunday, and had tons of pink fun with them.  We started with our Make-Ahead Potato recipe, and just added a touch of red food coloring.  We then piped them into martini glasses, added a sprinkle of chives and a couple of olives. Viola!  Pink Potatotini!

Dlyn is the host for this month’s Ho Down, so be sure to visit her site on April 15th to see all of the Potato Hos and their recipes!  Thanks for hosting, Dlyn!

~BigSis

April 13, 2009

Good morning, everyone!  We hope you had a most egg-cellent Easter, as we did!  It seems like it is officially spring now, since Easter is behind us, and kids are on spring break or just finished their break.

There’s something about spring and vacation time that makes me want new makeup.  I don’t know why, it just does.  Maybe it’s that spring is like a fresh start or a new day.  At any rate, it can be really helpful for me to see a visual tutorial of new makeup, rather than just trying to wing it myself, which sometimes ends badly!

I found this cool video tutorial on MAC’s sculpted eye on their web site.  There are 4 other tutorial videos you can view, all from MAC Makeup Artists.  There’s one on a smoky eye, a perfect red lip, a sculpted lip, and classic eyeliner.  The tutorials are very easy to follow, and they provide a list of the products and tools that you need to recreate the look.

I also found a great tutorial on a spring eye from Miss Chevious. You might remember that we featured some of her videos on fun eye looks a while back.

Check out these videos and get some new spring ideas!

~BigSis

April 12, 2009

In observance of Easter, BigSis and LilSis are taking the day off to spend time with family.  We send our wishes out to you for a wonderful Easter, and will see you back here tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy your Easter dinner, egg hunts, and chocolate bunnies!

Hoppy Easter!

~BigSis

April 10, 2009

Why eat just yellow peeps when you have this selection?

Have you ever thought about how all those little Peeps come to be? Wonder no more. The Chicago Tribune has provided a Peeps slide show that reveals all of the secrets about the sugary little guys.

Freshly Hatched Peeps

The Washington Post got in the Peeps Game too.  They have an annual contest called the Peep Show, that features the creative work that folks do with Peeps.  You have to check this out.  I love the Peeps in bikinis, Project Peepway, Peeps Idol, and SpongeBob SquarePants Peeps!

Personally, I’m a chocolate bunny or Cadbury Egg kind of a girl, since only chocolate is worthy of the calories spent on candy in my opinion, but to each his own!  Enjoy the Peep Show!

~BigSis

April 8, 2009

So are you looking for a unique, meaningful Easter gift for your kiddos, or maybe another family member or a friend? Are they animal lovers?  I have the perfectest idea for you!  Sponsor a homeless bunny this Easter!

Eddie Rabbit 2

Best Friends is the most incredible animal sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, and they are one of my top 2 favorite charities (the SPCA is the other one).  If you don’t know about the wonderful work they do, please check out their web site.  This Easter, you can sponsor a bunny who is at Best Friends waiting for a furever home.  For $25, you can sponsor one of these little bunbuns.  Your gift will go toward updating and expanding their Bunny House at Best Friends.

Ellie

A $25 gift sponsorship comes with a personalized e-card from you on Easter (or any other day you like), along with a photo and story of the bunny you’ve sponsored. How about printing out your sponsored bunny’s photo, and placing it in your child’s Easter basket?  How fun would that be?

Dakota

Thank you for considering a bunny sponsorship with Best Friends!

~BigSis

April 7, 2009

Are you baking for Easter?  The essential Bunny Cake with coconut decoration automatically comes to mind, but how about something a little different?  Here are some ideas from the brilliant minds in Blogdom!

• Easter Egg Shortbread Cookies from Baking Bites
• Bee Hive Honey Cupcakes with Honey Buttercream Frosting topped with Peanut Butter Crunch from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody
• Strawberry Easter Desserts from Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases
• Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting from The Kitchen Sink Recipes
• Matzo Toffee from Noble Pig
• Spinach Brownies from My Baking Addiction
• German Chocolate Cake: Inside Out from Sass & Veracity
• Easter Cookies from Joy of Baking
• Strawberries and Cream Cake from CookieMadness
• Easter Pie from Cooks.com
• Blueberry Lime Angel Food Cake from Cast Sugar
• French Yogurt Cake from She’s Becoming Doughmesstic
• And last but not least, don’t miss the adorable sheep, chickies, bunnies and Easter eggs that Bakerella has created!

Happy Easter, and happy baking!

~BigSis

April 5, 2009

Last weekend I brought my camera on one of my long walks, and recorded some signs of spring that we’ve just now started to see.  Hallelujah!  We’ve had a wacky winter, even by Texas standards.  There have been a few nice surprising 80 degree days, but followed by literally 20 degree days overnight.  That’s happened several times over the winter, and it surely has to confuse our plant life.  Thankfully, winter is behind us now and we’re in the midst of early spring…

Spunky the Squirrel says "Welcome to Spring!"

First Azalea

First weed among new green grass, breaking through winter's dead grass

Beautiful white Indian Hawthorne blooms

Hydrangea, perhaps?

Red Tip Photinia preparing to bloom...so stinky! A-a-a-chooo!!

One little white bloom snuck under the wall to shine on his own

First green shoots that will soon enrobe this tree

Pink Cherry Blossom blooms against a blue sky

Pink against a backdrop of green

More pink...

...and more pink!

Wherever you are, I hope spring will be finding you soon!

~BigSis