July 22, 2009

Colour Craft Collection Look

I really don’t know many people that could pull this ‘Look’ off without ending up looking like a clown, but when you go to the MAC website, you can see what it actually looks like on their model. It must have been a very creative makeup artist that came up with this idea.  The ‘Look’ is showcasing some of their summer Colour Craft Collection, which has some awesome new shadow and lip colors.  I’m sure there are more subtle ways that you can wear these same colors!

While I was on their site, I discovered their adorable new Summer Trend Bags! I love animal prints and I’ve never had an animal print make-up bag so I might have to buy myself a little treat.  And guess what? MAC happens to be offering free standard shipping right now! Score!

To make sure you don’t miss out on this offer, you have to make your purchases online by 11:59 p.m. EST on July 24th!  There is no minimum purchase and no offer code required.

And if you have a hard time waiting days to receive your order, like I do, you can upgrade to 2nd Day Shipping for $5.00 or Overnight Shipping for $10.00!

~LilSis

July 21, 2009

I don’t like to get off on a rant on our blog.  LilSis and I decided to be positive here, since there is so much negativity in the world, and we all need a little break from the stress of everyday life.  But I have to let it loose today!  The space program is my pet peeve, and if I see one more video of our moon landing 40 years ago I’m going to have a hissy fit.

Let me explain my unpopular opinion.  I think the space program is a gigantic race for bragging rights between countries.  It’s an international ego trip.  Who can get to the moon first?  Who can get to Mars first?  Who can have the biggest and best space station?

I say who gives a flying fig?  Do you know how much we spend on the space program?  In 1969, the Apollo project cost $25 billion.  That’s 40 years ago.  Now NASA wants to go back to the moon by 2020.  Any idea of how much that will cost?  President Obama has requested funds of $18.7 billion for NASA in 2010, $3.21 billion of which would go toward manned space exploration.   And did you know that the International Space Station is a $100 billion project?

My problem with all this ego spending is this.  I bet you a dollar that you know someone who has been impacted by childhood brain cancer, by breast cancer, by Alzheimer’s disease, or by Lou Gehrig’s disease.  What if we took the money we’re throwing up into the atmosphere, and throw it at one of these diseases?  Do you think we might get a better return on our money?  I think we might. I want us to try.

I get that the space program provides a lot of jobs.  I get that the space program is a source of national pride.  But I say there are better sources of national pride. I’m proud of what our military is doing throughout the world to bring peace, for one thing.  And could there be any greater pride than that which would come from our research brainiacs finding a cure for one of these devastating diseases, as opposed to flying all over the galaxies looking for little green men…throwing our valuable mis-spent dollars out the window the whole way?

Do we really think there will come a day when we will need to live on the moon or another planet?  Really?  What are the odds of that?  Contrast that with the odds of getting one of these horrendous diseases.  I rest my case.  Let’s kill the space program now.  Please.

~BigSis

July 20, 2009

I always dread Monday mornings! I’m usually overwhelmed with a long task list and playing “catch-up” with stuff that didn’t get done over the weekend. So, instead of being grouchy and grumble about all there is to do, I thought it would be fun to start off this week with something really funny. I may have a warped sense of humor, but I thought this was hilarious! I hope it makes you laugh out loud! I did! 🙂

Do you know anyone that spends hours on end playing World of Warcraft? I’ve heard stories about not only children being addicted to this game but adults as well. I even heard about a woman that used to play this game while at work! One of my colleagues likes playing this game too so he told me a lot about it. It seems like it’s a popular option for gaming lovers. How much is the world of warcraft player count you find yourself asking? It must be a large number. He told me about the different types of games that emerged from World of Warcraft and its parent game Warcraft. He even told me about gaming tournaments based on these games and how much Gamers are paid to compete. It was pretty interesting to learn about a whole other side of video games and how many games there were in these competitions, such as Smite, League of Legends, and Dota 2. I even discovered that you could use dota 2 boost guides in order to reach higher levels and improve your skills.

I’ve never played these games myself but I do know how popular they are now. Moreover, thanks to gaming forums like Warcraft Tavern for example, WoW players can communicate with other gamers about everything to do with the game. Anyway, all I know is that I’m so glad that my son is very sensible when it comes to playing video games. I’ve always had pretty strict rules about how long I allow HayHay to play any kind of video or computer games. I’m lucky that he’d rather be out surfing, golfing or skateboarding instead of sitting at a computer playing a game.

Watch how this 15 year old reacts when he discovers that his mom canceled his World of Warcraft account.

Wow! A little dramatic; wouldn’t you say?

~LilSis

July 19, 2009

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

July 18, 2009

BigSis first mentioned how much she liked the Relastin Eye Silk back in November of last year. Honestly, I hadn’t ever heard of it but I wasn’t totally satisfied with what I was using at the time so I started using the Relastin Eye Silk. I really loved it and decided to share my Eye Silk Results with everyone after I’d used it for about 45 days. I’m still sold on this product.

You can't beat this Relastin 2 for 1 offer!

Last time I bought my Eye Silk, I purposely bought two bottles so I would always have a backup and wouldn’t have to worry about ever running out. (I do the same with my Borba Firming Products.) Well, as luck would have it, I recently ran out and now can’t find the “backup bottle.”  I’ve been puzzled about what could have happened to it since I’m the only female in the house. 🙁

I’ve actually been putting off placing an order in hopes that I would find the missing bottle. I’d finally given up on finding it and was just about to go online to place my order when I received this email yesterday announcing the Relastin 2 for 1 Sale. It came at just the right time!! The Eye Silk normally sells for $69.00 so a BOGO free offer is a fantastic deal! The offer is good through July 31st.

If you haven’t tried this product before, it would be a great time to give it a try and possibly split the 2 for 1 with a friend! I’m going to order mine now!

~LilSis

July 17, 2009

flickr photo by paulotavio

Well, LilSis, the horse races sound like a lot of fun.  Unless of course, you’re here in Texas where it’s AFRICA HOT!  We have horse races here too, but there’s no ding dang way I’m going to the track when it’s 104 degrees like it has been this week.  Sure, you can watch the horses from the air-conditioned indoor area, but where’s the fun in that?  I like to be down on the rail where you can feel the dirt flying and hear the horses breathing.

Surely, surely, there is no-sweat summer fun to be had in Texas (and other sizzling places) that won’t involve a call to the paramedics and a trip to the hospital for heat stroke!  Surely!  You can only sit in the house playing Wii and watching the “Real Housewives of New Jersey” for so long.

Here’s what I came up with.  If you have other ideas, please share them!  We’re desperate out here, folks!

• Check out one of the blockbuster summer movies.

• Hang out at the pool IN the water, not just near it.

• Spend the day at a water park.  Don’t forget the sunscreen!

• Go to the mall and shop the summer sales.  Don’t go in any store that has winter clothes displayed already!

• Investigate your local museums – besides art, you may have a science and history museum or something else interesting that you never think of visiting.

• Whip out the Slip N Slide.

• Play in the sprinkler – do kids even do that any more?

• Make homemade ice cream.  We used to love homemade banana and homemade coke ice cream.  And vanilla, of course, with chocolate syrup.

• If your car has working a/c, drive to Starbuck’s and get a frappucino.

• Go to a restaurant where you aren’t sad to not be dining al fresco.  Have a cold beer or an iced tea with a cool salad, and some sherbet.

• Visit the library…you remember the library, right?  That’s what we had before Barnes & Noble and Amazon hit the scene.

• Shop at the farmer’s market for all of the season’s bounty…but go early, early, early before it gets hot, hot, hot!

• Make a big bowl of guacamole and eat it with the crispiest chips you can find and the iciest margarita you can blend up.

• Watch movies with lots of snow.  How about “Snow Dogs”?

• Get a frosty fruit smoothie for breakfast from your local smoothie shop.  What the heck; have one for lunch!

That’s it for me.  If you’ve got a cool idea, let me know.  We’re melting out here!

~BigSis

July 16, 2009

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club kicks off its 2009 horse racing season in high style next Wednesday, July 22nd in Del Mar, California! I LOVE Opening Day at Del Mar. It’s so exciting. I know some people go online to bet on the races themselves (as can be seen in this article where Love Belfast discuss the boom of Night Life in Japan, and how many are using the internet to place bets on many things), but I love being there on that first day truth be told.

And, as always, on Opening Day, you don’t want to miss the “One and Only Truly Fabulous Hats Contest”. It’s as much fun to watch as it is to enter. But if you REALLY want this, you can enter your hat in one of these four categories:

• Best Racing Theme
• Funniest/Most Outrageous
• Most Glamorous
• Best Fresh Flowers/Others

All entrants will receive two free passes to the races and the top three contestants in each category win cash prizes! You can sign up between 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the Plaza de Mexico, located just inside the Stretch Run admission gates.

We’ve made it a tradition to attend on Opening Day and I do wear a hat but have never had one quite fabulous enough to enter into the contest. Believe me when I say they go all out!

I love this pink one from last year’s contest.

Flickr Photo by kjdrill

And, this one with the horse on top had to be heavy.

(Flickr photo by kjdrill)

Opening Day at Del Mar always proves to be a great day full of fun, food, glitz, and glamour. If you happen to live within driving distance and plan on making a day of it, make sure you get an early start on the I-5 to beat traffic!

I hope to see you there!!

~LilSis

July 15, 2009

Thanks for all the great healthy snack ideas yesterday, LilSis.  You know I love snacks as much as you do…salty and savory ones rather than sweet ones usually.  I also agree with eating small meals during the day.  For my second breakfast or my after-workout snack, I sometimes have a granola or protein bar.  Not a big meal replacement bar, but a nice tasty snack-size one that doesn’t have too many calories, fat grams or sugar grams.  I was excited to try these new Granola Nut Clusters from Nature Valley that MyBlogSpark sent us to investigate.

We got four flavors: Nut Lovers, Honey Roasted Peanut, Roasted Cashew and Roasted Almond.  I tried some on my own and took some to work for an informal taste test. LilSis tried them, and also got the expert opinion from my favorite surfer dude and her 15-year-old eating machine, HayHay.

Nut Lovers

(7 clusters: 160 cal, 10 g fat, 14g carbs, 7 g sugar, 4 g protein)

Please note there has been a limited recall of this variety.  Check the Nature Valley web site for the impacted “use by dates”.

• BigSis: Tastes stale! I expected this to be delicious with all the nuts, but you didn’t get much granola, and the nuts were just blah and soggy-ish.  Not worth the calories and fat for sure!

• BigSis’ Co-workers: Texture is a little soft, tastes of honey, needs more almonds, nothing stood out, no one liked it.

• LilSis: I thought these would be my favorite of the bunch but they were a strange texture. They seemed almost stale. Too soft. I didn’t like the cashews in the combo.

• HayHay: They’re alright. They almost all taste the same to me.

Honey Roasted Peanut

(7 clusters: 140 cal, 7 g fat, 15 g carbs, 8 g sugar, 5 g protein)

• BigSis: You can see lots of peanuts and there’s a big peanut flavor, but I’m not a real fan of peanuts. So.

• BigSis’ Co-workers: Very peanutty, flavor better and not as sticky as the Nut Lovers, favorite of two people.

• LilSis: These were good and more crunchy than the Nut Lovers. I could definitely eat a big bag of honey roasted peanuts back in the day, but I don’t care that much for peanuts these days.

• HayHay: They’re alright. They almost all taste the same to me.

• SirHoney: These are my favorite!! (You knew he’d have to get in on this taste test!)

Roasted Cashew

(7 clusters: 150 cal, 7 g fat, 18g carbs, 8 g sugar, 4 g protein)

• BigSis: These seem a bit more salty than other flavors with big pieces of cashew, flavor is fine but not great.

• BigSis’ Co-workers: Extremely crispy, big bite of crunch for the size, not as much nut flavor as peanut, eeewww don’t like it.

• LilSis: I don’t care for the texture of the cashew combined with the granola.

• HayHay: Don’t like them at all.

Roasted Almond

(7 clusters: 140 cal. 7 g fat, 15 g carbs, 7 g sugar, 4 g protein)

• BigSis: My favorite of all 4 varieties, big pieces of almond and great almond flavor mixing well with granola.

• BigSis’ Co-workers: Very crispy and crunchy, lots of granola and nuts, so crunchy I almost want to make it into cereal and put milk on it, favorite of one person.

• LilSis: These are my favorite. They have a very similar texture as the honey roasted peanut, but I just like almonds more than peanuts. (As the taste testing progressed, these did prove to be quite addicting!)

• HayHay: Not a fan of almonds.

Overall, I think the clusters have way too many calories, fat and sugar for me to snack on them.  I do think the Roasted Almond flavor is delicious, and I wouldn’t mind keeping a bag of it around to ease a sweet tooth urge at night.  One or two of these is a nice little sweet bite without any caffeine, so they would be perfect as an occasional evening treat…not as a daily snack for a forty-something woman!  None of my co-workers would buy them, as they are all chewy granola fans rather than crunchy fans, and these are uber-crunchy!

~BigSis

July 14, 2009

If you were reading a couple of days ago, I mentioned that I would share with you my some of my favorite healthy snacks. I’ve recently cut out a few that were too high in calories and/or fat and have narrowed down my favorites to these snacks that are all between 100 – 200 calories. Here’s my Top Ten:

• Mott’s Healthy Harvest Granny Smith Applesauce (mid-morning snack) (1 cup; 50 calories, 0 fat)

• Boiled or scrambled egg with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce  (mid-morning snack) (1 large egg, 70 calories, 4.5 g. fat)

• Trader Joe’s Multi-Grain Pretzel Nuggets with Sesame Seeds  (22 pretzel nuggets; 110 calories, 1 gram fat)

• The Laughing Cow Light Creamy Swiss Wedges or Cheese Bites  (1 wedge or 5 cheese bites; 35 calories, 2 grams fat)

• Weight Watchers Natural Light String Cheese (1 stick; 50 calories, 2.5 g. fat)

• Shelled Edamame (1/2 c. serving; 110 calories, 3.5 g. fat)

• Trader Joe’s Everything Pretzel Slims (23 slims; 110 calories, 1/2 g. fat)

• The Laughing Cow Mini Babybel Light (1 piece; 50 calories, 3 g. fat)

• Trader Joe’s Parmesan Garlic Pita Chips (1 oz.; 130 calories, 4 g. fat)

• Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Hummus (2 T.; 50 calories, 3.5 g. fat)

I love to combine the pretzel nuggets with the cheese bites and the pita chips with the hummus, so I reduce the quantity of the pretzels and the pita chips in an effort to keep each snack around 150 calories.

You’ll notice that several of my favorites are from Trader Joe’s and I do know that not everyone has a Trader Joe’s nearby, but you can definitely find similar products made by different companies. Rold Gold has some Harvest Wheat Pretzel Twists that are low in calories and fat and there are plenty of brands of pita chips and hummus. Or, when you have time, why not make your own pita chips and hummus?

And, you can also tell by my list that I don’t crave sweets at all. But if I did, I’d be snacking on sugar free Jello snack packs, which only have 10 calories and zero fat per serving. You can’t go wrong with that!

I would love to hear from you if you have a favorite low calorie, low fat snack! Come on…it’s nice to share.

~LilSis

July 13, 2009

Tomatoes in Mid-Air by aaroncorey on Flickr

When tomatoes go bad, there’s only one thing they’re good for, but that makes for a very long laundry day!

So how do we keep our tomatoes from going so bad that they can only be used as a damaging projectile?  We’re in the middle of excellent tomato season now, and I usually buy a ton of them at the farmer’s market on the weekend. I know that storing them in the fridge is a huge no-no…it changes the texture and ruins the flavor.  But is there anything else I can do to make my maters last until I can eat my entire haul?

Here’s a tip I read on Cook’s Illustrated.  Store your tomatoes (at room temp) stem side down.  Why, you ask?  Two reasons:

• A tiny amount of air can exit through the cut stem end, allowing for dehydration and quicker spoilage

• That cut stem end can also be an entrance for bacteria and mold which will also lead to spoilage

Who knew?  Now we do, and we can keep our tomatoes fresh for all those awesome summer dishes.  LilSis’ Heirloom Tomato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette comes to mind!

~BigSis