Jewelry cleaner is magic

Before:

After:

A little bling-bling

My friend Stacey has recently become an independent stylist for Stella & Dot.  She hosted a trunk show earlier this week and I am in love.  The pieces are versatile and well-made and I am obsessed.  If you'd like to host a trunk show, her contact info can be found here.

I am challenged when it comes to wearing jewelry.  If anything, I'll put on a bracelet.  I am terrified to wear dangly earrings because the kids might pull on them.  Ouch!  The kids pull on necklaces too, so it's not often that I'll wear one.  But whatever I wear, I like it to make a statement.  And jewelry makes me feel a little more polished, regardless of the outfit.

Here are some of my favorites (click on any image to go to the item page):

La Coco Curb Chain Necklace

This piece can be worn as a long necklace, or you can remove a section to make it shorter.  That removable section becomes a bracelet.  Also, you can attach a brooch.

Carrie Bangles
I am loving the turquoise and coral combo.

Petra Braided Bracelet
This bracelet is pure bling. 

Pyramid Double Wrap Bracelet in Cognac
This would be cute all by itself or layered with other bracelets.

Cameron Pendant

La Coco Rope Necklace

This necklace can be worn in a single strand, or doubled or tripled.  And you can attach a brooch.

Bee Brooch
I purchased this item at Stacey's trunk show.  I love this piece paired with the La Coco Rope Necklace and I also think it would look awesome with the La Coco Curb Chain Necklace.

Essential Ball Studs

And finally, for the girl who is afraid of earrings.

FYI for anyone (Paul) who might be buying me a gift for my upcoming birthday (Paul), my wishlist is here (Paul.  And Mom too).  xoxo

'Naner Pudding

I have officially won an unofficial banana pudding cook-off.  I came in as the underdog against the fan favorite.  Sort of like Rocky.  Maybe.  I've never seen Rocky.

The beauty of this recipe is that it is so simple, but tastes like banana pudding that you might order at a restaurant. 

Banana Pudding

Ingredients

1 - 8 ounce package cream cheese
1 - 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 - 5 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 - 8 ounce container frozen whipped topping, thawed (you can definitely use more)
4 bananas, sliced
1/2 box vanilla wafers

Directions

1.  In a large bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Beat in condensed milk, pudding mix, cold milk, and vanilla until smooth.  Fold in 1/2 of the whipped topping.

2.  Line the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish with vanilla wafers.  Arrange sliced bananas evenly over the wafers.  Spread with pudding mixture.  Top with remaining whipped topping.  Chill (overnight if possible, otherwise at least several hours).

I would have liked to include a beautiful picture of my impressive banana pudding, but this is all I have:

The recipe can be found here.

First World Problem

You own the perfect pair of sunglasses.  Then they break. 

#firstworldproblems

It's a little depressing when...

you find a great pair of pants that are comfortable, fit well, and look good. Only the size is larger than you'd like it to be. Of course you could squeeze into a pair two sizes smaller, but dammit, the pants would be uncomfortable, ill-fitting, and look awful. Just suck it up and buy the ones that look good. You'll be the only one who knows.

You know you eat at Chick-fil-A too often when...

the employees greet your 4-year-old by name.

Paul's 15 Minutes

Note:  Paul was being facetious.  His daily commute is 8+ miles each way.

Good Advice

Drinking wine that costs $12.99 for 1.5L is never a good idea.

People are gross

As a blog owner, I can see what searches lead a person here.  All I can say is, "Seriously?"  Actually, I can think of more to say, but those words wouldn't be very nice.  Maybe I should see the humor in that a sicko searching for nude images will instead find that my blog includes a post detailing the contents of my purse or has a tag for poop. 

Without further ado, these are some searches that have led people to this blog:

nudist family
family nudist
nudist family images
nudist colony
picture of someone who ate too much
diy burp cloths
nudist mom
child nudist
family nudist pics
cutie kitten

If you are here looking for child porn, you won't find it here.  Go away.  Dammit.  Now someone will find this blog by searching for "child porn."

Booger and Piggies

When Joey was a toddler, she named her feet.  Yes, she named her feet.  They were affectionately called "Booger" and "Piggies."

She no longer refers to her feet by name, but it cracks me up to think about it.

Nandina...

...is the herpes of the plant world.

Pictures of cute kids and some words

I used to be so anti-dressing-your-kids-exactly-the-same-for-pictures-or-whatever.  It's so much cuter to dress them in outfits that go together, but don't necessarily match.

But this is what I learned:  it's hard to coordinate complementary outfits for two (or more) children.  And I'm lucky if we can get out the door to get their photographs taken.  Fortunately our children they are the same gender, so Paul doesn't need to worry about me putting a boy in a dress.  After a true attempt to dress my girls not-matchy-matchy, I fell off the wagon. 

See Exhibit A:

And then I discovered that when both of the girls need clothes, it's a little easier to buy them each the same outfit.  If I like an outfit, why not like it twice? 

See Exhibit B:

Oops, I did this a while ago too.  See Exhibit C:

Poor Charlotte will be wearing the same outfit for years.

I had to pay for coffee

In response to the post earlier today, I'd like to say that once upon a time I had to pay for coffee.  At work. It was 50 cents a cup and terrible.*  Since this was break-room coffee, we had to pay cash and I never could come up with that stupid 50 cents.  The coffee was so terrible that it wasn't even worth the 50 cents.  

I feel like coffee should be provided to employees like air or bathroom facilities.  A business should not expect for their employees to thrive without free coffee.  I feel fortunate to now work for a company that feels the same way.

*The terrible-ness of the coffee probably had more to do with the rusty old pipes in the building than the quality of the coffee.

Daily Gratitude

Today I am thankful for coffee at work.  And I am also thankful that I usually don't have to make it in the mornings.  That would be terrible.

Deductive Reasoning

Charlotte has a snotty nose.  Also, she is a "leg hugger."  Ergo, I have toddler snot on my pants.

Inside My Purse

2 wallets
Trash (nothing gross, just wrappers and bits of paper.  I may be messy but I'm not a litter-bug)
A cowbell
2 diapers
Envelope of photos from Walgreens
Redbox coupons
Belk sale flier + coupons
Old Navy sale booklet + coupons
Ulta sale flier + coupons
Gap sale booklet + coupon
Junk mail
Cell phone
Appointment reminder card
Keys
Work ID badge
Hand lotion
Chick-fil-A kids meal prize
Lip gloss
Perfume
Deodorant
The hubby's debit card

What kind of junk do you tote around?

Lauren's Guide to Rich and Skinny

Buy some Lean Cuisines.  Eat those instead of buying lunch from a restaurant everyday.  Just don't eat four in one sitting.

I have, indeed, fallen off the face of the earth

Sort of.  It's been months since I've blogged regularly, and I've hardly even been on Facebook.  What can I say?  Between working, chasing the kids around, and Fresh Beat reruns, it's hard to keep up with other stuff.  I'm going to make an effort to do a little better at keeping in touch.  I know you miss me.

Here's the obligatory cute kid photo:

And another:

And one more:

*All photos were stolen from Paul's facebook page.

Charlotte's Birth Story

My sweet pea celebrates her first birthday tomorrow!  I can hardly believe it.  She has been such a joy to us from the minute she was born.

A year ago today, we were preparing to go to the hospital for her birth.  Paul's mom came up to help with Joey and we enjoyed dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant (it's a Losavio family tradition).  Early the next morning, Paul and I arrived at the hospital at 5 a.m. for induction.  It was so bitterly cold - the parking garage was iced over and Paul nearly fell on his arse as we were walking in.  Better him than the pregnant one, I'm sure he'll admit.

It was a busy day in Labor & Delivery and we were very lucky to get the last available room.  I would have been devastated if they had sent us away, but fortunately that didn't happen.  Believe me, I changed into that hospital gown and jumped into the bed as quickly as I could; I did not want to give up our room!  Our nurse started Pitocin around 7 a.m., but my labor officially started at 8:45 when my doctor broke my water.  My pain was tolerable, but the nurse anesthetist was extremely busy so I got on the waiting list for an Epidural.  By the time she got to me, the pain was still fine, but I was going to get my drugs while I could!  Once the Epidural kicked in, and the Pitocin was increased, my contractions were coming 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes apart and were pretty intense.  Fortunately I couldn't feel a thing.

Around 3:15 p.m., after 6 1/2 hours of lazing watching TV resting labor, my doctor came in to check my progress.  And to her surprise, there was a head (I had a really good Epidural).  My doctor scrubbed up and the prepared the room for the delivery superfast.  After two rounds of pushing, not even 5 minutes, Charlotte was born at 3:29 p.m.  She initially scored a nine on her Apgar for her color, but when she was reassessed she scored a ten.  She weighed 7 lbs, 1 oz, and was 19 1/4 inches long.

Joey adored her baby sister from the moment they met.  She would hardly let anyone else hold her and became very concerned whenever Charlotte cried.

Here is the video from when Joey and Charlotte first met:

When Joey met Charley from Paul Losavio on Vimeo.

And some more pictures from Charlotte's first year:

birth

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

Party Planning Committee: Fabrics

For Charlotte's birthday party, I decided to create a banner and coordinating table runner out of fabric.  I could have used scrapbook paper for the banner, which would have been just as cute, but I wanted it to match the table runner.  Plus, I think that the banner will look precious hanging in Charlotte's room when the party is over.  Soooo, I assessed what I already had and then when to Fabric.com to choose some additional fabric.  I plan to do basically the same thing for Joey's birthday in February, so I ordered plenty for a second project.

These are the fabrics that I'll use for Charlotte's party decor:

And this is her party invitation, for reference:

The fabric and invitation are not matchy-matchy, but each fabric includes at least one color from her invitation.

Last night I started working on the table runner.  I did not take pictures to document the process, but the project is very straightforward.  I used my rotary cutter and self-healing cutting mat (thanks, Paul!) to cut strips of varying lengths but (fairly) uniform width.  And then I stitched them together to form a long strip.  Sorry, no pictures, but imagine something like this:

That's not an accurate representation by any means, but get the picture?  Okay, good.

Now I just need to trim up the edges and stitch the runner and the liner together.  For the liner I'm using a couple of yards of cheap off-white broadcloth, cut to the size of the runner.  I'll stitch "right sides" together on three sides (like a pillow case) and then turn inside-out and stitch the fourth side closed.

Next on the agenda will be making her banner(s) from the above fabrics.  I will cut the fabric into triangles and attach a fabric backing.  Right now I'm thinking of using a no-sew method - Heat n Bond - so that the little flags will be stiffer.  Imagine that it will look something like this,  but hopefully with nice straight lines:

I'll share pictures of the actual table runner and banner soon, if only to prove that I can cut a straight line.