Mama's Hangry...

Around this time every year in January I'm usually at a point in my annual "Massive Weight Loss 2012" program, that I'm ready to tear off the limb of the person next to me, splash a little Tabasco sauce on it, chew on it and call it a day.

I am hangrrryyy, which by definition, is one step up from starving. I have a pounding headache from eating barely any carbs and I've taken snarkiness to a whole new level in this house.

But it's all in the name of thinness.

Behold my current thinspiration... I've taken the liberty of pointing out some of JHud's best attributes.

Lord knows her face is everywhere right now and every third ad on TV is one of her Weight Watcher commercials.

Nothing wrong with that...it keeps my eye on the prize!

Since half of my friends are on some sort of diet right now, I think we can all relate to wanting to look a whole lot more like Jennifer.

But in the words of my friend Jaimie in a recent text convo, Jennifer best be on the up and up and not be hiding any "procedures" or super secret Hollywood diet voodoo...

{Come on, you gotta admit that something else is going on with her cheeks, maybe a little lift here and there?}

So I don't have the luxury of doing anything other than busting my (ample) butt in the gym and counting Weight Watcher points like all the other ordinary shmoes. 

But who else is with me?

If you're hungry and you know it start to cry clap yo' hands!

Mama's baking!....what what?!

So tonight around 10:00 pm I decided that I was feeling DTB...."down to bake."  And that's exactly what I did, if you call throwing a few super simple ingredients together to create pure awesomeness! I won't pretend that I even like to bake, it's way too precise and I don't even have a sweet tooth. But, I am a huge fan for anything with cinnamon, spice, cloves, nutmeg, etc, and this recipe has a big bunch of pumpkin puree in it. No, believe me, it's pure awesome.  Allow me to share this little bit of yumminess with y'all...

"Easy Pumpkin Spice Muffins"

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves until smooth. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean.

And that's all she wrote! Yup, it couldn't be easier. Try these, they don't disappoint!

you can find this recipe here...

Go Glam or go Home!

So tonight as I sat sipping a nice big glass of red wine* and tuned into the Golden Globes, I couldn't help but think that this years dresses were really beautiful.  Nothing was totally hideous (Tilda Swinton is always excused because her acting makes up for it...) and most of the ladies put in a solid effort.
*(note, award shows offer a diet exemption to drink wine)

 I won't go into a full-on snarky yet overly detailed analysis of my top fashion winners and losers (I'll leave that for the serious fashion bloggers), and instead I'll share my fave few. Simple enough!

{Ok, so before you go all whoa; why the brainy teen from Modern Family?? It's because Ariel Winter looked absolutely adorable and yet totally age appropriate. Love the shoes, the rich shade of purple and the demure yet glam hair.}
If the skirt could be modified towards less ruffle and more of a fitted style I'd wear it in a heartbeat! 

{Elle Macpherson looks like a bit of a frilly confection here but she pulls it off like almost no one else can. Her hair and the flare on her dress are the size of Texas. Big and bold...super glam, no!?}

{Jessica Alba was perfection in Gucci, the powdery purple of dress doesn't really come through in this pic but it looked amazing on TV, most definitely my favorite gown of the night.}

{My honorable mention goes to the always amazing Sofia Vergara, her sapphire blue Vera Wang was a super bold mermaid silhouette but as always she worked it and then some. Gorgeous without too much cleavage.}

There you have it, short but sweet. A simple round-up of what caught my eye at the Golden Globes.
Who were your favorite stars of the night?

back in action!

Hello lovelies! It's been a while but I decided to plant my rear in front of this computer and get back to blogging regularly. We had a fantastic Christmas and New Year minus a few run-ins with the evil Norovirus (aka near-death stomach flu.) 

 We're all feeling better now and I'm looking forward to an amazing 2012. I won't lie, 2011 wasn't my favorite year (fairly poopy overall) and I wasn't sad to see it go so here's hoping that 2012 brings on many bigger and better things...

However we did attend a super fun New Year's Eve party at our friends Angela and Peters house...things got kinda crazy (in a good way) and I finally decided to pull the kids away at 3:00 am (yup, our crew parties with their kids included) and my 2 little guys would have gone all night long.

{We were ready for the big countdown}

{kid #2 might just have a minor video game addiction}

{Kid #1 got his party-on!}

{drunk Greeks are the most fun Greeks!}

Hope you all had a great New Years shared with the ones you love! 

This week was back to school and back to reality including the kick-off of 

Massive Weight Loss 2012 (an annual tradition, obviously some years are more successful than others...pfftttt.)

 I've kissed carbs, alcohol and pretty much anything that's tasty goodbye and I'm begrudgingly saying hello to the elliptical trainer. Most of my girlfriends are back on the wagon too, so I'm fairly sure Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are laughing all the way to the bank this month. 

~Here's to a healthy, happy and skinny 2012!~

elf shenanigans and more...

Hello lovelies! Let's get down to brass tacks here shall we. This month has been super busy (isn't everyones December? Rhetorical question...) 

I've been mailing out Christmas cards, attending concerts, baking (yes me actually baking!) shopping, decorating, getting together with girlfriends...all the usual poosual stuff.  But it's that busyness in combo with my addiction love of my new iPhone that's made me dump my home computer completely- the computer I blog from. 

I guess thats my excuse for spotty blogging but allow me to share what we at Casa Del "D" have been up to...

Note, all pics in this post have been taken by my beloved iPhone. I always wondered why people would post janky phone pics to their blogs. Now I understand, it's so fast, easy and yes lazy. I'll go back to my Nikon DSLR, someday...

{Last weekend I drove Kid #1 to Medicine Hat to visit my bestie Dana from high school and her 2 adorable kidlets}

{Kid #1 and his brother from another mother, Carter- building the best gingerbread house around, so they say}

{Dana and Carly doing what we girls do best (after the kids are in bed), drinking plenty of vino}

{Behold! 2011s "real" Christmas tree. Yes its real, as in it once lived in the ground}

Unless you've been living under a rock, any parent around could tell you that this years hottest toy, 'The Elf on the Shelf' is an absolute God-send and Mama finally got her hands on one. As explained in the children's book its sold with, the elf has magical powers and is a representative of Santa. Each night he flies back to the North Pole to report back to Santa all he's observed while spending the day in your home. Were the kids naughty or nice, either way he'll let the big guy in red know...

{ok, so that's not his tag-line but it is according to me!}

He's a mischievous little elf and the kids wake up every morning to find him in a new spot in the house getting up to all sorts of shenanigans. His magic seems to be working, I love this elf!

Check out what he's been up to...

{Just hangin' in the plant...}

{Relaxing with a beverage...flying to the North Pole can make an elf thirsty}

My kids are in Christmas countdown mode to the baby Jesus' arrival and I'll admit I'm really looking forward to spending some downtime with family.

My shopping is finito and I'm feeling pretty good, not fried yet anyway...hope you're all feeling the same!

Mashed potatoes and iPhones....

Happy December dolls! Can you believe Christmas is only 24 days away? 

 Since I decided to be "on the ball" this year and start my Christmas shopping early (as in September) I really don't have many more things to buy. This has left me with time to enjoy all the stuff I'm diggin' right now...the little things that make my day a bit better. 

This time of year I am obsessed with Glade's scented candles. The apple cinnamon scent is heaven on earth. What could smell better than baked apple pie? -sweet, spicy, delicious. Hea-ven.

Well hallelujah, Mama has finally entered the modern age and got herself an iPhone 4S. Needless to say I'm completely addicted. I did love my good ol' Crackberry but it was time to upgrade...and Siri is just plain awesomeness.

3 words. Lobster Mashed Potatoes. Yeah they're that good. I thought nothing could top lobster mac n' cheese but this could be a contender. 

Butter? check.

Garlic? check.

Boursin cheese? check.

Lobster? check check check.

Roaaaar. I am completely in love with infinite leopard print scarves. A great scarf can elevate any outfit, even jeans and a t-shirt. Not a day goes by where I don't throw on a cozy scarf and head out the door. 

Dark(er) lips. Ok, so it's taken me forever to come around to this but I'm finally feeling comfortable moving away from nude lips.  A bolder red or mauve lip is perfect for this time of year and I'm not sure why I shied away from this so much in the past. I suppose I was afraid of an overdone look since I like a bolder (smokey) eye. Well not anymore, bring on the colour!

This list of faves could have gone on for days but I had to narrow it down...there are only so many hours in a day to read blogs, am I right?
What are your December loves? Share the good stuff with us! 

Learn to love liquid liner....

Two years ago I stumbled upon a fabulous pen-style liquid eyeliner and it was love at first use.  After years of using traditional pencil liners as well as the click-up "automatic" liner, I dumped them both for my new bestie, 'felt' pen-style liquid liner. 

Admittedly I was intimidated by classic liquid liner because you need such a steady hand to apply it properly and unfortunately my hands are really shaky.

 I mean I'm super shaky...as bad a Lindsay Lohan on day 2 of 30 day rehab stint.  

And since liquid liner sets so quickly and the color is so dark, any mistakes you make (janky zig-zag lines) can quickly ruin your whole eye look and you have to start over...

{just say no to this mess in a bottle} 

This is where a pen-liner comes to the rescue. It offers the smooth, controlled application of a pencil liner without the goopy, unforgiving nature of the dip-in-liquid/cream with a tiny brush type of liner.

{some of my fave liners: Wet n' Wild Mega eyes, Smashbox Limitless Liquid Liner, NYX Liquid Liner in Dark Brown}

The line is clean, bold, and you can easily control the thickness of it from inner eye to outer eye. 

Want cat eyes or maybe a more subtle slightly winged look? A pen-liner makes it easy peasy and anyone can create a gorgeous look, it just takes a little practice.

Of course for the lower lash line I still rely on my traditional kohl pencil liners, but for the upper lash line you can't beat the finished look you achieve with a pen-liner. Perfection!

Check out mama-to-be Beyonce's look, her makeup is totally simple and clean- just a nude lip and some bold liner on the top. How easy is that? Very.

Just about every major drug-store brand of makeup has a pen-style liner so it's definitely worth a try. 

You'll never bother with messy liquid liner again...you can thank me later.   :)

images via google

End of an era...goodbye gel nails?

So after 12 long years Mama has decided to give up on gel nails. 

In 1999 at my first big-girl job straight out of university, all the women in the office had gel nails...they caught my eye instantly. They looked clean, professional and dare I say a bit glamorous?  I was hooked and have had a love-affair with nails for years now.  

I've always kept them short, square-oval shaped and simple (no Lady Gaga dagger shaped nails here).

However after 12 years of consecutive wear - as in I've never had them off, I've finally decided to take a break.

via

Will I go back to them? I'm not sure, they're hard to let go of. My own nails have always been pitiful. They're ridiculously soft and paper thin. As in the kind of nail that you can bend back and forth, peels and never really grows worth a darn. And no amount of strengthening top-coat would ever help, thanks for NOTHING Sally Hansen...

So last Saturday when I took them off (I was in desperate need of a fill anyway) I decided to let my own nails "breath."  It's a myth that gel or acrylic nails will wreck your own nails, if they're properly applied the nail underneath may grow a bit thinner but they won't be damaged. So now my natural naked little nails look fine. But it's not fine.

{Srsly Gaga, how do u get through the day with those...}

The problem is that I cannot function. I feel like I'm all thumbs! I miss the strength my gel nails had. They were like little tools to help open containers, scrape food residue off dishes that didn't come clean from the dishwasher (gross, I know) and I always felt my hands were strong and capable.

Not anymore.

Now my fingertips hurt, I can't open my eyeshadow palettes, can't get the lid off the coffee tin without it hurting. I could go on and on.  I suppose I'll adjust and my hands will "toughen up" with time but for now I'm dying! (First World Problem, I know...)

So what to do? Should I go back to dropping $35.00 for a fill every 4 weeks or should I put my gel nails behind me?  When you paint gel nails the color lasts forever, they always look polished and they make my fingers look longer and even thinner.

(maybe I'm delusional here?)

Gel nails, yay or nay? Speak!

Halloween hangover...

Halloween was fun fun fun this year! I swear I'll never outgrow it. Never. Here's some pics from last weekend. We went out Saturday nite for a drink or 6 and then on Monday night I took my little monsters out trick or treating. My sugar binge is finally over. I think my skinny jeans are crying right now.

{Avast ye matey! This pirate likes a party...argggg.}

{my God-daughter is the cutest cupcake, AND bunny around}

{super fun Halloween party at "Craft", love the John Cusack's character from Say Anything holding up the stereo over his head-with fake arms of course.  The Madhatter made her own costume including the hat, she won best costume of the night!}

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Onto the kiddos, I took them trick or treating in my parents neighborhood first...let's just say they made off with toys, full-size candy bars and left feeling like Halloween kings! (There's almost no kids in my parents neighborhood so our kids were treated extra special!)

Then of course we headed back home to raid our own neighborhood and then dove into the sugar stash they collected...

{Halloween extravaganza in my parents neighborhood...}

Hope you all had a fabulous Halloween, I'm looking forward to next year already!