Vogue Magazine

I just wanted to throw this out there. I am not a huge magazine reader and especially not a fashion magazine reader. If I have any magazines come to my home they are magazines like Sunset or Country Living. So I was shocked when I picked up a copy of Vogue at the airport.

I was excited about it because it was in German and I thought that my son would be excited to see it. However, as I was showing my husband the pages and how it was printed in German, being the wonderful Man that he is, he noticed not the words or the language at all. No, his attention was drawn immediately to the pictures of naked women that I had neglected to notice at all! Which just goes to show you the difference in a Man and a Woman!

However, upon noticing that, I started flipping through the rest of the magazine and it resembles a playboy magazine more closely than it does a fashion magazine. I was shocked and very disappointed! Not only can I not give this little treasure to my son to take to his German class, but it is also something that I will never, ever purchase. What a disappointment!

Home Spa Time

There is nothing like having a relaxing day/night in the comfort of your own home. It's even better if it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg! So I thought I would give you some great recipes and ideas to make your At Home Spa Night fantastic and inexpensive and make yourself feel Beautifeel!

Bath Salts:
Making your own bath salts is a quick, easy and inexpensive way to add an extra ounce of relaxation to your Spa Bath.

You will need: Epsom Salt, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Food Coloring and Essential Oil in your favorite fragrance. Start by mixing 3 cups of Epsom Salt, 1 cup of Sea Salt and 2 cups of Baking Soda. Mix well and slowly add your choice of food coloring. (Hint: to mix colors, mix in a separate container prior to mixing with the salts.) Add the food coloring a drop at a time until your desired color is reached. Then add the essential oil, remembering that the stronger the salts, the less you have to use but too strong will make it unpleasant. Once mixed, the salts can be kept in a Ziploc baggie or a Tupperware container until used up.

Quick and Easy Facial
The perfect way to Relax and Rejuvenate after a long day is a soothing, moisturizing mask and eye compress to moisturize and relax away the stress of the day, leaving your skin healthier and more toned than ever.
Ingredients
2 slices of cucumber
2 tablespoons of honey
2 teaspoons of milk
Method
Combine honey and milk, stirring until completely combined.
Apply to face and throat.
Take the cucumber and place one on each eye.
Lie down for 10 minutes.
Remove cucumber and rinse off mask with warm water.

Foot Spa
Treat your feet to a soak in this milk and water mixture and follow it with the sugar scrub for incredibly soft feet.

Ingredients
7 cups of water
2 cups of milk

1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of lotion

Directions
Heat the water and milk and in a pot on the stove or microwave in a microwave safe bowl. Heat it as hot as your feet can handle. In a separate bowl mix the sugar and lotion.
Pour milk mixture into large bowl and soak your feet for at least 10 minutes. Then use the sugar and lotion mixture to massage your feet to exfoliate and moisturize. Rinse with clean water and pat dry. Massage additional lotion to soften your feet.

Oatmeal Hand Spa and Care Treatment
This is a wonderfully gentle hand scrub made from oatmeal, lemon juice and olive oil that leaves your hands nourished and soft.
1 cup + 2 tbsp oatmeal
1 ½ tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp olive oil
¼ cup Water
Directions
Add Water to 1 cup of oatmeal and let stand until oatmeal is softened, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add Lemon juice and Olive Oil to 2 tbsp Oatmeal and mix well.
Massage mixture into your hands and allow to stand 1 or 2 minutes. Rinse with cool, clean water and pat dry. Liberally apply moisturizer to your hands and let it soak in 10-15 minutes. Then dry with a clean cloth.

School Pictures?

Are school pictures really the way to go or are there less expensive alternatives out there? The answer is a resounding YES! There are many ways to get your children's yearly pictures much less expensively than school pictures and here's why.... School pictures usually start out with packages around $20 and go up from there. Now, with 5 children, as in my case, that's $100 minimum! Then if I want anything more than that, the price just keeps going up. You can end up at $200 before you know it! Not to mention, the pictures turn out looking a bit like mug shots.

Now here are some great alternatives; all of which I have used many times.

Take your own pictures.
As simple as that sounds, it has been the best option for me, over and over again. I started out with a 35mm camera and two rolls of film. I have since moved into using a digital camera. Both options have returned beautiful pictures. I will take my kids up into the mountains in the fall and take their pictures in the beautiful fall leaves. We will take a couple different shirts and a couple props from what ever was their activity of choice that year i.e. footballs, dance clothes and shoes, ice skates or cowboy hats and boots. It made the pictures very personal to each child. We pack a picnic lunch and make a fun day of it. By the time I am through, I have spent less than $50 for film, processing, enlargements, gas and lunch.

The other option that I use often, especially for Football or Dance pictures are the discount retail stores like Wal-Mart and Target. I tend to prefer Target over Wal-Mart because I get to chose a package from a variety of poses. Wal-Mart makes you take the package from the first pose only and then the rest are very expensive. The other great thing about Target that I have not seen Wal-Mart offer is you can choose either the very inexpensive package, or you can choose to purchase by the sheet at a very low initial price. However, if you end up without enough pictures then any reprints are very expensive. On the other hand, Target has just the basic backgrounds... White, Black and Brown where as Wal-Mart's backgrounds are constantly changing and are usually very fun and bright. Either option is great for someone that is nervous about taking pictures themselves. You can usually get packages for around $7 per child.

Either of the above options are more time consuming than just doing your daughter's hair a little nicer and sending her off to school in the morning, but I can almost guarantee that you will get much better pictures and you will save LOTS of money!

Coconut Oil for Weight Loss?

This is something that I am just now hearing about. I love using pure, cold pressed, unprocessed Coconut oil as a lotion. It makes my skin so soft and moist while making it smell just scrumptious! I have always known that it is intended to be used in cooking and has an amazing array of health benefits, but it was just recently that I heard that Coconut Oil is actually a great way to kick start your metabolism and help you lose weight naturally! I had no idea! The biggest draw back is of course, the price. But they say that you only need 3 tablespoons a day to get all the wonderful health benefits and to kick start that lagging metabolism and start losing that weight!

Quick and Easy Holiday Appetizers

I love the holidays. The chill in the air, the sparkle of the snow covering the trees, the Christmas lights and the warm feeling all around. It's the one time of the year when we focus, not on ourselves, but on Christ and his love and sacrifice. We find ourselves drawn to helping others, thinking of our fellow man and spending more time with our families. My favorite part of the Holidays is the time I spend with my family. The dinners we share, the fun we have in the kitchen cooking up great meals and the "down time" spent playing cards or watching "A Christmas Carol". I am one however that loves the down time. I love snuggling up on the couch with my husband and all of our children, cups of hot cocoa and a big bowl of popcorn, watching the fire dance and reading one of our families favorite books.

That being said, I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. A few pies, stuff the turkey and I am just about done. I want to get to that snuggling, or snuzzling as Baby calls it. So anything beyond that needs to be quick and simple. Things that I can outsource to the littlest of children. So over the years I have found great appetizers recipes that are both quick and easy as well as scrumptious! Here are some of my favorites:

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

1 Pkg. Bacon cut in to thirds
1 Can. Sliced Water Chestnuts

BBQ Sauce:
3/4 c. ketchup
1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. brown sugar

Toothpicks

Wrap each water chestnut slice with 1/3 slice of bacon. Push a toothpick all the way through to secure the bacon to the chestnut. Lay on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Mix BBQ sauce ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until sugars are dissolved. Remove bacon wrapped water chestnuts from oven the and drain off the grease. Dip each in the BBQ sauce and lay them back on the cookie sheet. Return them to the oven for 20 minutes. Serve Warm.

Another favorite is Mexican Seven Layer Bean Dip:
1 can refried beans
1 can Fritos Bean Dip
1 container Guacamole dip
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 pkg taco seasoning
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese
1 can sliced black olives
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green onion

Mix beans and spread in the bottom of a 13x9" baking dish. Cover with a layer of guacamole dip. Mix the Mayonnaise, sour cream and taco seasoning and cover the guacamole layer. Mix cheeses and sprinkle to completely cover the sour cream. Top with olives, tomatoes and onions.

For more great appetizer recipes and all your holiday cooking needs, take a minute and visit My Recipes.com. They have a huge database of holiday recipes to make any party absolutely fabulous!

Darling Fall Decorations

You will need:

1 Roll of Toilet Paper
1 Fall Patterned Fat Quarter
1 7" Strip of Green Patterned Fabric
1 4" x 4" Piece of Brown Paper Bag
1 Piece of brown string

Set the roll of Toilet paper in the center of the fat quarter, with the fabric print side down. Pull the fabric up around the toilet paper roll and tuck it into the center of the toilet paper roll, wrapping it completely. Roll the paper bag piece and tie a string around it. Lay the piece of green fabric across the hole in the toilet paper and stuff it down in the toilet paper hole with the rolled up paper bag piece to make it look like the leaves and stem.

Hannah Montana Books

For my Daughter's 9th birthday, she got almost 90% Hannah Montana stuff. She just love's Hannah Montana and I find her to be a better role model than most I have seen. So I have allowed her to indulge. But I have to say, I was just a little disappointed with the Hannah Montana book she got. She was just thrilled! It was on her reading level, just a little under even so as to make it fun easy reading and she loved the story. I, on the other hand, was disappointed that it was nothing more than the scripting from the first couple of episodes. I guess I was hoping for a new story, new story line, something different. But, the good thing is, the book was not written for me, and my little girl just loved every minute of it. I guess I can not complain too much.

Chiropractic sound good?

I have been desperately wanting to see a chiropractor and a masseuse in the same office. Finally I found one. Then I found out that my insurance covers up to $1500 per year for chiropractic and massage. I am in heaven! But then after my first visit, I left feeling very overwhelmed. I was told that I had scoliosis and he gave me a whole list of supplements to take. Everything from Omega-3 to anti weight loss pills, something called Juice +, which actually sounds pretty good. It's a supplement from fresh fruits and veggies, pressed into a powder form and the sugar has been eliminated. But now, here I sit, looking at a wellness plan consisting of well over $1400 per year and wondering, was this really the best idea?

A Fantastic Halloween Costume

I was surfing the web the other day, looking for something that had nothing to do with Halloween costumes of course, when I stumbled upon the cutest Halloween costume I have seen in a very, very long time. I decided that I would make one up for Baby. It was a little baker girl and so easy! A little white dress with a red and white checkered apron and child size oven mit. Add a bakers hat and a rolling pin, a little fluff of flour and you have the cutest little baker you have ever seen!