Kitchen Must Have!!

Good morning bloggers!! Happy Monday!! I am still trying to catch up from my hectic past 2 weeks but thought I had to share this kitchen must have!! It is the Cuisinart Smart Stick Hand Held Blender. I LOVE it!!!! I got mine from Sur La Table and there were all sorts of cute and bright colors to choose from (I got yellow). I use it for soups and smoothies and this summer I have seriously been making a smoothie a day!!! I try to eat seasonal fruit and veggies as much as possible-so right now I'm on a major peach and nectarine kick. Kevin LOVES the nectarine smoothie recipe so I thought I'd share it!! Its very simple and very healthy :

Serves 2
2 ripe nectarines washed and sliced into pieces (throw out pit)
1 thingy of Yoplait Vanilla FF yogurt
About 5ish ice cubes
Enough skim milk to cover all the ingredients

I put all of these in a huge tumbler and blend it all up with my hand held blender and YUMMY!! Soooo good-tastes better than a milk shake and I feel like baby B is getting healthy calcium, vitamin A and C and potassium!! Give this smoothie a try and let me know if you love them as much as we do!!

Blogging Vacay

Im going to take a quick break from blogging but will be back on Monday the 26th! Ive been traveling all of last weekend and will leave again for my friend Leah's wedding on Thursday. I am having such a fun summer, but who knew that I would be 100times busier once I stopped working?! If you havent been to Nordies Aniversay Sale-I would hit it up-I got a HUMUNGOUS bottle of my fav face wash (Philosophy's Purity Made Simple) for a very good preice! Also they are selling Clarins Sunscreen 2 for the price of one!! Great time to stock up!! I also bought a ton of sweaters and a non-maternity dress that works with this preggo belly. Very cute stuff. Alright, lots to do, so I'll be back Monday!!

Hanky Panky undies on sale at Nordies!!!!!

Bloggers-I LOVE the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale!!! It started this morning and I'm heading over there in a bit!! Im not buying too many clothes for myself because, well, they wouldn't fit!! But I will do what I do every year and that is stock up on the only underwear I wear: Hanky Panky low rise thongs. Soooooooooooo comfy and perfect and I'm not exaggerating when I say I don't wear anything else! And since they are expensive (normally $18 a pair!) I load up like crazy during this sale bc they are only $12.80!! Sooooo happy weekend, happy shopping and if you haven't tried Hanky Pankys yet-go out and get yourself a pair (or 10!)!

O Gloss

I have gone through a million different lip color phases in my life. Everything from Wet N Wild (in Jr high) to all of MACs delightful colors to when I would only wear gloss to when I thought frosty pale pink was a winner. There have been lip color highs and lows. For the past 2 1/2 years Ive been on a major kick for Smashbox O Gloss. It supposedly is "intuitive" and changes color depending on who is wearing it. Im not sure how true that is since I'm the only person that I know that wears it. It a nice clear-ish gloss that has a pinky tint and if I reapply a few times it gets really pink...maybe too pink, so they key is to put it on then maybe reapply once or twice as needed-then put it away and just wear my Kiehl's because at that point I have a nice pinky stain on my lips. I was looking through old photos and I kept seeing this little cute pink tube in all of the shots. So its kind of turned into a "where's waldo" type game in my pics to see where my O Gloss is :) Can you find it??

Maternity Jeans and a Beautiful Friend!

Not to brag-but I think I may have some of the sweetest friends. Just love them!! One friend in particular surprised me with a very sweet and thoughtful gift...I came home and found a package from Saks on my doorstep. I opened it up and there were he CUTEST pair of maternity jeans I had ever seen! Who knew J Brand made a maternity line? Its call Mama J! Isn't that the cutest!?! Becky (Buck D), thank you for being so sweet and thoughtful!! It was the sweetest gift at the most perfect time-I was probably about 10 weeks preggo when she sent them, and I was feeling sad that I wouldn't be able to wear normal, cute clothes for the next 9 months. I had to exchange them for the correct size-but now I have them and I couldn't love them more!! It can be hard to feel fashionable and cute while your body is changing so drastically so quickly, but these jeans definetly make me feel cute and happy! So to my fellow preggos-I say splurge and get a pair (or two!) of good designer maternity jeans, they are worth it!!!

Fabulous Recommendations from a fellow Product Junkie!!

Hi Bloggers-Here are some products that a cute friend/Product Junkie has recommended. I haven't tried them all bc I'm trying to control my spending (whoa who knew baby crap was so expensive?!?)!

"hi! i saw you had a request for an under-eye cream...i have that and a couple others for ya...

1 - hope in a tube/by philisophy/high density eye and lip firming cream

2 - c-esta face serum/by jan marini (have you tried her stuff???)

3 - AND MY NEW FAV!!! i.d. bareVitamins/by bare escentuals/it's an eye "rev-er upper" with caffeine and light-refelcting minerals you put under your eyes before your makeup...LOVE IT!!!

i never realized what a product junkie i was too until i started reading your blog!!! let me know if you ever need more ideas!"

Thanks Yami for the suggestions!! XOXOXO

Guess who is trying to get organized??

That's right. I figured it was time I get my life organized. I didnt have the excuse of being too busy with work or with the move (we moved a month ago-so that excuse doesn't work anymore!!). Sooooo first things first-I want to start planning out our dinners for the week. I'm doing this because I do love to cook-but I swear that eating in is sometimes as expensive as eating out! That's not cool-we are supposed to save $$ by eating in, so in order to accomplish that-I need to do some strategic planning.
Target has a new line of organizational stuff that really got me excited!! This meal planning list is so cute and very helpful! I sat down yesterday with my favorite cookbooks and while Kevin was watching the world cup-I planned out our meals and made a coordinating shopping list :) Easy breezy right? Well sort of-when we went for a walk last night, we were discussing our plans for the upcoming week and I realized I need to know those plans before I make my list...We have dinners plans with friends that I forgot about and Kevin will be out if town for work on Thursday and we will both be gone this whole weekend. So I love the idea of planning out our meals and for the 3 nights we will both be here this week-I'm sticking to my meal plan!!

OMG Yummiest Smell Alert!

Bloggers-I was putzing (putzing?) around in my bathroom yesterday and saw I that I had a sample of Bliss Lemon & Sage body scrub. I decided to give it a whirl and holy crap-this stuff smells AMAZING!!!! Delish! Magical!! I can't wait to buy more stuff in that scent! They have the whole line in Lemon & Sage, everything from soap to body butter to body spritz! I love it because its clean and fresh and not too girly. Those of you who stay at W Hotels have probably tried this before bc that's what they use for the in room products. I kind of want to book a weekend at the W just so I can hoard these little goodies...but a more practical approach would be just to order the products myself :) So that's what I'm doing!

On a side note, my handsome hubby and I went out for a little "date night" to dinner and a movie last night. "Grown Ups" could possibly be the WORST movie of all time (well its between Grown ups and Confession of a Shopaholic!). It was just so NOT funny :( With all those funny guys in it-it is a shame it was so lame-o. Oh well-we should have seen Eclipse (whoop whoop Team Edward!). Have a great weekend everyone!!!

A Must Read for Summer!!

You may have already read this awesome book, but I just finished last night. Sooooooooooooo good! "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett is my new favorite book. I'm not going to try to summarise it, for that you can go to Amazon. It is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. I cried at some parts-but it wasn't one of those books that's too hard to get through because its so sad-in fact its a major page turner. It made me have a lot of questions about life back in the 60s (Ive put in a call to my mom-but she hasn't called me back). I'm actually sad now that I finished it, do any of you feel that way after you are done with a really great book? I'm not sure what to read next-but I'm headed to Barnes & Noble this afternoon to pick my next book. Happy reading!!

Skinny Secret: Fiber!!

Alright Bloggers, most of you who know me know that I am a dieter. Always have been, always will be (not while I'm preggo-but I'm still eating healthy and making sure I get my 30+ grams of fiber daily). I like being thin, love having clothes fit me and unfortunately when I eat what ever I want, I get big. So I have a few rules that's I follow-mainly things that I must include (not exclude) in my daily diet. My #1 secret to skinniness is fiber. Love it! Seriously-it is the key to maintaining my weight. It keeps me regular (sorry for tmi!) and keeps me feeling full. There are so many ways to get your 25-35 grams a day. If you aren't a fiber eater now-I suggest easing your way into it-don't shock your system and go for the gusto at once or you may have some GI issues. I'll share some yummy food products that are high in fiber in future posts. A great way to get fiber in your diet is through fruits and veggies-but I also get mine through bread, cereal, soups, crackers, etc.
Some high fiber cereals get hard to eat after a while(All Bran Buds for instance), but this yummy cereal is so delicious that I get excited for breakfast everyday :) It is Fiber One Raisin Bran Clusters and it is sooooooo yummy! I make it with a 1/2 cup of non fat milk. The nutrition looks like this (for 1cup of cereal with 1/2 cup of nf milk):
Calories 210
Fat 1g
Fiber 11g

Love it!! And by the time I finish eating it-I'm 1/3 of my way to my 30gram a day goal!!