What the “L” is BigSis up to?

• Lunching on the new Barilla Piccolini; cute little baby bow ties that are a tasty fun way to stay on this darn bland diet.
• Leafing through the new Allure October issue with their editors' Best of Beauty Products feature.
• Lecturing coworkers about the importance of passing Proposition 2 in California.
• Limiting my desire to hoard every last package of Mother's Coconut Cocadas cookies since the company folded after 92 years in business.  Sniff!  You may still be able to find some Cocadas and pink sprinkly Circus Animals cookies on store shelves, but don't dawdle!
• Lazing around watching my favorite Food Network show “Barefoot Contessa“.  This lady really cooks, and her cookbooks are fabulous!
• Loving the Green Chili and Garlic Goat cheese from La Cuesta Farm in Texas.  I bought it over the summer from the Farmer's Market, now I have to go to Central Market for it.

~BigSis

Posted under This & That

I've got a question for you. Do you think gift cards are thoughtful or lazy?

It seems like opinions are split on this one; but I think gift cards can be a thoughtful gift. Granted, I'm not talking about someone that spends ten minutes to run into the grocery store at the 11th hour and without any thought, just buys every person on their list a Visa gift card.

With the selection of gift cards available in the stores this year and with just a little consideration about who you're buying for, I think gift cards can be a great gift.

• For very young children, it's usually more fun for me to choose a gift for them versus give a gift card, but I recently discovered that you can buy Build a Bear gift cards! I LOVE that idea for younger kids.

• Once kids reach a certain age, I think a Toys R Us gift card is perfect. I know my kids always loved taking a trip to the toy store with a gift card in hand.

• For new parents, I know they love receiving Babies R Us gift cards. It allows them to get anything they need for the baby, from clothes, toys, to diapers or formula.

• For the techno teenager, I think Best Buy or Target gift cards are great choices, and of course, my teenager still loves receiving iTunes cards.

• For the “hard to buy for” guy who seems to have everything, how about a Dick's Sporting Goods, Golfsmith, or Bass Pro gift card?

• For someone who can't get out to shop or someone who lives too far from good retailers, you can always go with a QVC or HSN gift card.

• A Bed, Bath, & Beyond or Target gift card is perfect for someone who is about to move into a new home or it just redecorating a bedroom or dorm room?

• For women, like my sister and I, who love our lotions and potions, we adore L”Occitane, Origins, Bliss World, and Sephora. We're easy to please! 🙂

Most of these gift cards can even be purchased now as an e-gift card in case you're really running behind and need to print off the gift card right away.

To make it super simple, you can go straight to Amazon to purchase a variety of Gift Cards from a huge selection of different retailers. How easy is that?

I happen to love giving and receiving gift cards. I'd much rather give someone something that I know they will use versus possibly buying them something that ends up in the back of a closet.

I love finding an Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card under the Christmas tree! Then, I just go straight to my “wish list” and pick something out that I may not have otherwise bought for myself.

What about you? Do you like receiving gift cards? Do you like giving gift cards?

~LilSis

Posted under Holidays

Our MAC Eyeshadow Fetish. This is one of the fun things that Big Sis and I have in common. We are both obsessed with our MAC Eyeshadow! Who can blame us, though? We've both tried dozens of other brands and these shadows not only have fabulous colors, but they really do stay on until you take them off.  On the rare occasion that my head hits the pillow before removing my makeup; the next morning it actually looks like I just put it on.

Whenever I go to Dallas for a visit, usually our first evening out goes like this:  Big Sis picks me up from the airport and we head straight to  Mia's, our favorite Mexican restaurant. We have a great meal usually consisting of chips, salsa, guacamole, tostados, and tacos. Then we're off to our favorite department store to get our “fix” for more MAC shadows.

I'm going to try to list a few of my favorite shades, even though I love them all.  The ones I use every day are Cork for my brows and Vanilla for highlighter under my brows.  Some of my all time favorite daily shades are Gleam, Antiqued, Paradisco, Expensive Pink, Swish, and All That Glitters.  My latest purchases are Moons Reflection, a mid-tone blue with white/blue reflects, Pandamonium, a frosty gun metal with white pearl, and Grand Entrance, a frosty neutral peach beige.  The colors just almost make me salivate.

Here's a photo of my MAC shadow drawer.

Big Sis, let's see a photo of your MAC drawer. I'm positive it will be more perfectly organized than mine, but that's okay. Some of mine are sorted more by “used most often” versus by “shade”. I haven't seen your new bathroom since you moved into your new condo, so I hope your little MAC pots have a drawer of their very own.

~LilSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

Did you see the movie “Up”?

I took the little guys to see it when it came out a few years ago and we loved the movie! (Even though it was a bit of a tearjerker.)

When I saw the scene where the house floats up and away into the sky, I wondered to myself if that was really possible.

I guess the answer to that question is ‘yes'!

Last month, National Geographic Channel and a team of scientists, engineers, and balloon pilots successfully launched a 16′ X 16′ house 18′ tall with 300 8′ colored weather balloons to set a new world record.

The filming of this National Geographic experiment will be part of a new National Geographic series called How Hard Can It Be?, which will premiere this fall. (You can read more about this experiment on Modern Met, which is where I found out about it.)

How awesome would it have been to be inside that house when it floated into the sky?

~LilSis

Posted under This & That

Let's see. Where do I begin?

First of all, if you're new here on BigSisLilSis, I should probably start by saying that I'm not a baker; and for those of you that have been reading for a while, I know that you've heard me say it over, and over, and over again. (But, it's true.)

Secondly, I didn't purposely set out to make my own birthday cake, but it just worked out that way. Yep. Today is my birthday and it's kind of a scary number for me so I won't mention how many candles should be on my cake. My hubby is really good about buying me wonderful birthday cakes from a local French Bakery, but I told him not to buy me one this year since I was making my first Easter Bunny Cake and we could just consider it my birthday cake.

One more thing before we get to the cake. I've always loved Duff and his show, Ace of Cakes and I love watching the cake decorating contests on Food Network, but after attempting this Easter Bunny Cake, I have a new-found respect and admiration for all cake decorators.

Here's a little conversation that happened when HayHay, my 17 yr old son, walked in after school on Friday after I had just finished my cake.

Me: “HayHay, did you see my Easter Bunny Cake?”

Hay: “No.”

Me: “Will you please look at it and tell me what you think? I'm really disappointed because I made it just like the photo from the recipe and she's not very cute.”

(This is what Floppy looked like when he first saw her.)

Hay: “I think it looks pretty good considering you're not a baker.”

(I think he really did intend for that to be a compliment.)

So, let's back up and start with the construction of the cake. I used this Betty Crocker Easter Bunny Cake recipe and to begin, bake the cake according to directions for the 8″ or 9″ round pans and let the cake cool.

Cut one of the cake layers in half.

Put halves together with frosting to form body. Place cake upright on plate or tray. Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up on one end of body to form head.

Attach half of cutout piece to end of cake with a toothpick to form tail.

I didn't want the ears made of construction paper, so I decided to cut the edges off of the other cake layer to form the ears.

(The crack down the middle of the cake was an accident. It happened when I took the cake off the parchment paper. I didn't even consider that the warm cake would stick to the parchment paper. DUH! A real baker would know not to do that. A real baker would have a cooling rack.)

I forgot to take a photo, but for the ears, I just took the two edges that weren't broken and put them together and then cut that piece in half to form the two ears.

Now, time to frost the cake.

Betty Crocker recommends using the Carrot Cake for this Easter Bunny Cake, but even though carrot cake seems Easter-ish, I would not suggest it at all. IF, and that's a BIG IF, I ever made this cake again, I would use a white cake. Even though the recipe says that if you put the cut pieces of the cake in the freezer for an hour before frosting, you won't have a problem with crumbs, that wasn't the case for me. With the carrot cake and the white icing, any time crumbs got in the icing, it was extremely obvious, and a big mess to fix, so why not use a white cake so if crumbs did get in the icing, you couldn't see them?

Next, sprinkle with coconut.

Is it starting to look like a bunny yet?

Next, I attached the ears with toothpicks.

Then, just color some coconut green, sprinkle on the platter and scatter some jelly beans. I also colored some coconut pink for the inside of the ears. Just use jelly beans for the eyes and nose and your done.

Cute, huh? Not so much.

I'm sure this cake would be fine for a kid's birthday party or Easter gathering, but I was disappointed. I didn't think it was cute at all and much smaller than what I expected.

Since I wasn't happy with Floppy's face, I decided to sleep on it and play around with it a little bit more yesterday. I never have liked sticking to any original recipe, so I don't know why I thought I had to when it came to decorating Floppy's face.

First, I decided to try pink eyes instead of the black.

That's a little bit cuter, but how about some whiskers?

I don't know. How about adding a mouth?

Not. That looks even more goofy!

Why don't we just change the face completely?

I found this little marshmallow Easter Bunny while at the drug store the other day and decided to try using it's face on my Easter Bunny Cake.

Now the face is definitely too small or maybe the ears are just too big.

Let's try the ears from the marshmallow bunny.

That's a little better, don't ya think?

Meet Floppy, the flop.

Not exactly what I had planned on, but I guess it'll have to do. I think Floppy was my first and last Easter Bunny Cake.

I'm glad my hubby had a Plan B for my birthday cake.

He surprised me with this gorgeous cake!

~LilSis

Posted under Food

We've had some big events going on these past couple of weeks in our world, which definitely took some of our time away from BigSisLilSis.

Here are just a few things that have been happening:

• Two weeks ago, BigSis and I met in Chicago for a long weekend to meet Bry's fiance.

• Last week, I had a training class in Dallas and BigSis was nice enough, after working a full day, to pick me up every night so we could go to dinner.

• HayHay started his Junior year in high school last Thursday.

• Bry got married in Illinois on Saturday. (Yes, without family present; sniffle, sniffle…)

• Bry also learned that he will be stationed here in San Diego and may be relocating as soon as next month! (Hip, hip, hurray!)

• BigSis spent the whole weekend at WordCamp Dallas; 25 different sessions to be exact!  Ask her about it if you're interested in the scoop!

• My little guy, HayHay's 17th birthday was yesterday.

• My 19th wedding anniversary is today.

• And, I'm anxiously awaiting to hear about my first assignment for my new job.

I'm ready for things to settle down and get back to normal, but I don't even know what normal is any more. I think I'm going to have to redefine “my normal”.  Thankfully, we have a long holiday weekend coming up!

BigSis and I will be getting back on track soon and are also working on some new ideas for our site. Hopefully, we'll be ready to announce a few changes in September!

We hope everyone had a great summer!  🙂  Now, what's going on in your world!  Tell us; it'll make us feel better about our craziness!

~LilSis

Posted under Family

Hello Kitty! Hello MAC Hello Kitty, that is! I had to go say hello to this new Hello Kitty MAC Collection in person. I just couldn't buy any of this new collection online without seeing the colors in person! If you're a MAC fan, you've gotta check these out; and soon!

I thought the eyeshadow compacts were adorable and I probably would have used three out of the four colors, but I really like my shadows in their individual compacts; makes it easier for recycling.

Both tinted lip conditioners were really nice colors, Popster and Pink Fish, but I know those won't stay on long, so I resisted even though they were in precious compacts!

I really wanted the compact purse mirror, but they were sold out. The mirrors are already being sold on Ebay for over $40.00!! I came home with the petite cosmetic bag and two adorable lipsticks!

MAC Hello Kitty petite cosmetic bag and lipsticks

Here is a close up of the two lipsticks. Unfortunately, my photos don't do the colors justice. I love both of these! The lipstick on the left is ‘Strayin' Frost lipstick from Hello Kitty Wild and on the right is ‘Cute-Ster' from Hello Kitty Mild.

MAC Hello Kitty Lipsticks

Now, look close! See the cute little Hello Kitty imprint that they put in the lipstick?

Look Close!!

Oh, I'm so happy with my MAC purchase…But HayHay definitely tried to burst my little ‘happy with my MAC purchase'  bubble. I ran over to the MAC counter right before I had to pick him and his buddies up from the mall. (I actually volunteered to pick them up so I could run into Macy's).

When we get in the car, he nonchalantly glances into my MAC bag and since it's clear, he noticed the Hello Kitty cosmetic bag. So, HayHay says “You didn't just buy something Hello Kitty, did you?” And, I say “Yes, I did, isn't it cute?”  He responds “What are you, eight?”  (He was just kidding when he said it, obviously trying to get a response from me.) But, I just replied, “Hey, Hello Kitty is cool and you're just not cool enough to know it's cool!” (That's a real grown up thing to say to your child, right?)

~LilSis

Posted under Beauty and Skin Care

I mentioned this family favorite recipe for Stuffed Mushrooms Italian a couple of years ago around Christmas time and BigSis shared her veganized version with us last New Year's Eve.

It's always been a tradition of ours to make these yummy mushrooms for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years Eve, but these are also perfect for a summer cookout or barbeque. When I made these for our Father's Day cookout, I decided to try to get a couple of photos before they were all gobbled up since I wasn't able to get photos the first time around.

Try these the next time you need to take an appetizer to a ‘get-together' with friends or family and I promise you won't be disappointed. They're easy enough to make ahead and then just put on the grill on some foil to stay warm until ready to serve.

Stuffed Mushrooms Italian

24 large mushrooms
1 pound hot Italian sausage
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 shallots, minced
1/4 c. Progresso Italian Breadcrumbs
1/2 stick plus 1 T. butter
1 c. or so seasoned dry stuffing mix (any flavor)

Wipe mushrooms clean, and remove stems. Saute very lightly (only about 30 seconds on each side) in 1/2 stick butter.

Remove sausage from casings and cook in skillet until brown. Drain. Saute shallot in 1 T. of butter until translucent. (I cheat sometimes and just saute the shallot with the sausage.)  In mixing bowl, combine cooked sausage, shallot, cream cheese, and breadcrumbs. Stuff generously into mushroom caps.

At some point after making these for years, we added this one ‘secret ingredient’ that wasn’t in the original recipe. After stuffed, turn the mushrooms upside down and gently press into the dry stuffing mix, just until the top is covered with a layer of stuffing mix. (The dry stuffing mix on top adds a nice crunch and wonderful texture to these mushrooms.) Put in a 13 x 9 casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees until hot. I like to keep them in a few extra minutes until the tops are browned a little.

~LilSis

Posted under Food

Hey BigSis, there has never been a case of “noassatall” in our family, so we definitely have more of a challenge when buying jeans (plus, as you so nicely reminded me, we're not 20-something any more).

Before I start rambling, one really good thing to keep in mind, unless you have a teeny tiny hiney, don't buy a pair with pockets and all the crazy stitching and bling, bling on the back.  I don't even know what brand most of them are, but they are all the rage out here these days. I see some of the cutest, young girls at my hair salon wearing jeans with cute pockets and stitching and buttons, but, seriously, don't do it unless you're trying to make your rear end look twice it's actual size.

Okay, now that I got that off my chest, my absolute favorites are still the Citizens of Humanity Ingrid #2 Low Rise Flare Style. I discovered them about seven years ago when we first moved to CA. I have three pairs of the exact same size and style, yet in different washes.

I had no idea that they sold Citizens of Humanity jeans on Amazon! Here's another view of the Ingrid #2 Low Rise Flares.

Citizens of Humanity Ingrid #2 Low Rise Flare

My first pair was a really light blue, and overly stone washed pair. I loved those jeans! But, I discovered that it's not the best idea to get the stone washed ones because they do wear out quicker. The fabric is definitely thinner and mine got some natural holes, (not the kind people actually pay extra for) in the back under the bum. They were since ruined at the cleaners when I asked them to repair the holes, (long story and I'm still pissed about it so no sense rehashing it now).

So, technically I only have two pair that I can wear, but I still can't throw away the ruined pair. I keep dreaming that one day I'll wake up and my butt will have reverted back to what it looked like in my twenties and I'll cut the jeans off into a cute, little pair of Daisy Dukes! (I should pull my head out of my arse out of the clouds).

The other two are darker blues; one more casual and a little faded and the other has a much wider flare and longer length to wear with heels.

BigSis, when we met in Vegas for your birthday, I was so glad to see that you had finally bitten the bullet and bought yourself a couple of pair of awesome jeans!  It's funny that our body shapes are so different, yet you ended up buying the exact same style and same size as my Citizens.

What's not so funny is that us ‘forty-somethings' can work out for months or even years to finally to get to where we feel okay about our bodies. But, heaven forbid, if for some reason, we have to stop our normal routine for a few weeks, it doesn't take long for the buttocks to head south and the thighs to head east and west!  I bet if I put on my jeans today, I'd have a nice little muffin top! 🙁

I have one pair of 7 for all mankind that I also love. They fit great and are really comfortable. Again, I keep the stitching on the back simple. The style I have is this Bootcut in New York Dark.

7 for all mankind Boot Cut in New York Dark

I haven't ever tried on a pair of Joe's Jeans but I've heard that they are also fabulous jeans. I love that Rocker style. I just might have to try on a pair of these next time I'm at Macy's or Nordstrom's.

Anybody got a favorite brand of jean that you'd care to share with us? How about any great tips on making our forty-something butts look like they're in their twenty-somethings? Okay, I'd be happy with a thirty-something looking fanny! 🙂

~LilSis

Posted under Shopping

When I take the time to watch TV, I do love me a reality show.  So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol and Top Chef are my favorites.  Top Chef is a Bravo show, but the other two are Fox productions.  I'm really curious about how the public is going to react to Fox's newest show, which premiers Tuesday, July 28.  It's called “More to Love”, and I'm just wondering if this show already rubs anyone else the wrong way, as it does me.  I've only seen the promos, but it screams exploitation to me.

Here's what Fox's web site has to say about “More to Love”:

~BigSis

Posted under This & That