EGGcellent Easter!

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE! 

Hope you all had a great day at church, hunting eggs, eating some ham, or just enjoying the ones around you! Since today is synonymous with eggs, I thought I would bring you two awesome recipes that have them. Just a note: I found these recipes online and tweaked them a bit!  ENJOY!

Sheepherder's Breakfast

What you'll need:

A bag of shredded hash browns (can be frozen)

half an onion

 Half a lb. of Bacon, Ham, or Both

About 1-2 eggs/person

Salt & Pepper

Parsley (optional for color/taste)

Tabasco (optional for spice)

Start off by dicing the bacon/ham & half an onion up

Put in a deep skillet and cook on medium heat until crispy

After those have cooked, drain off the juices, but keep about 1/2 cup

Now add the hash browns and start mixing it all together while still over medium heat

Let cook and get crispy for a bit

Now this is where I got creative. I noticed that my hash browns were getting kinda mushy and not crispy so I broke out the waffle iron. I spatula'd some of the mixture into the hot waffle iron and closed it. It got to the right crisp that I was looking for.

While all of this was cooking or you can do it after and just cover it too keep it warm, cook your eggs. I did mine like the recipe and did sunny side up and just slid them off the pan and on top of the hash brown mix. 

I'm from the South so of course I love some spice so I added some Tabasco sauce and a little sprinkle of cheese. 

This recipe came out so much better than I expected and I will be making this again. It's also filling enough to be another meal. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner, YUMMY! Here's what mine looked like when I was done. (NOTE: I can't cook so if I can do it, so can you!)

 Pastel Deviled Eggs

Colored Deviled Eggs

First off I wanted to experiment with something that I saw on Pinterest earlier in the week. That was instead of boiling my eggs, I put them in a cupcake pan and cooked them in the over at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. This actually worked great and made every egg look the same as far as where the yoke settled. DRAWBACK: When I peeled the shells off the cooked eggs, I noticed some little brown burn spots on the egg. I was going to color them anyway so it wasn't that crucial.

After I had my eggs peeled and halved (hot dog style) then I put all of the yokes into a bowl for later use. I got out 4 glasses and added ice cold water and 2 tsp. of vinegar to the glass.

I then proceeded to add my drops of food coloring. I tried to play mixologist and got colors that I was intending. I honestly couldn't tell you how many drops of each color I used. I just dropped until I got a cool looking shade.  I was going for pastel colors like on the website, but got a mixture of weird and neon, but hey whatever! I took the cooked egg halves and dropped them in each color, let them sit until I reached a cool color and then pulled them out onto a paper towel. WARNING: Don't get food coloring on your counter because it can be a pain to get off! Learned the hard way. Oops!

With the yokes in a bowl, I added about 1 tbsp. of white vinegar and I eyeballed the addition of Mayo. Mixed it all up with a spoon, put the mixture into a small zip lock baggie, and cut off the corner tip of the baggie. (This is my cheating way of not using piping bags.) Squirt the mixture into the center of the cooked eggs and there ya have it! Easy Peezy! Here's what mine turned out to look like and don't make fun of the purple blue ones...lol!

In my husband's family they have always added a little bit of caviar to the top for garnish. I inherited this taste and it gives it a little kick of salt. (In this case, I accidentally put more on than originally anticipated...again...chef of the year. LOL) No laughing!

And I couldn't do a blog without putting pics up of my adorable son's first Easter!! LOVE HIM!

HAPPY EASTER 2013 EVERYONE! Matthew 28:5-6

OH BABY!!

So I've only been a mom for 2 months now, but I've already come across some products that have really been lifesavers for both me and my son. As he grows I'm sure we will come to love (and hate) all sorts of products, but these are the ones that we've been able to put to the test in the last 8 weeks.

The best infant pacifier in my opinion, the Wubbanub. The name is silly, but the product is Awesome!

We started with one and have grown our Wubbanub family to the Longhorn (duh), a blue bear, a monkey, and a green frog! As you can see in the picture, my son's first day of life and he LOVED IT!

It's a Soothie pacifier, which is a great brand by itself, but with the pint sized stuffed animal attached it's calming and just the right size for a newborn to grasp on to. Two Mom Thumbs Up! I think that Diapers.com has a great selection and you can usually get it within two-three days.

Get Your Wubbanub Here

 So unfortunately, my little one got a cold about two weeks ago. We tried saline nose drops, spray, and that aspirator ball thingy that they send you home with from the hospital. After tons of attempts, I had not much success and a ton more tears. I went online in search of a solution. I found tons of amazing reviews for a product called NoseFrida. It's a little medieval in my opinion, but IT WORKS! It doesn't hurt the little one and it gets a ton of that gunk that's causing them to be so stuffed up. 

It comes with three extra filters (so I would recommend buying the 20pk of replacements) and is perfectly safe for you and baby. You pretty much suck out the gunk...that's right...YOU suck out the gunk. No worries, you never come in contact with it, it stays in the tube. It's very reasonable at around $15 and well it's worth your worry.

NoseFrida

My next favorite is the Baby Einstein Sea Dream Soother for the crib. It can be used outside of the crib, but we haven't used it that way. We are starting the transition from the bassinet to the crib and dear son was not having it. Thankfully his grandma loves him bunches and for Valentine's Day got him the Soother. He loves the glow, the fish, and the music! The first time we put him in the crib after we installed this he slept for almost 3 hours!!! When before I was lucky to get 15 minutes to do something for myself. The best part, it has a remote that you can use when it shuts off without waking up baby!! Love . Kinda pricey so use a coupon code and shop online. Amazon usually carries it and you could always price match at Babies "R Us and use your reward dollars and coupons!

 My last favorite thing for today would hands down have to be theFirst Years Sterilizer. This sterilizer is great because you can use any brand of baby bottle, pacifier, nipple, or lids and it will fit inside. Ours sits conveniently in the "baby zone" (haha, parents can relate that this is the area of the counter that contains bottles, formula, and a drying rack). My dad actually picked this out for us after he remembered the annoying amount of time it took to boil water on the stove and sterilize bottles. It plugs in and I feel that it does a better job then most microwave sterilizers that are brand specific. All you have to do is load your bottles, etc. and fill the little cup that comes with it twice with cold water and pour it in the basin of the steamer, put the lid on, push the little button down until it turns green and in 13 minutes, VOILA! You have sterilized bottles. I pull mine out and put them on the drying grass and you're good to go. LOVE LOVE LOVE! If you're pregnant...register for it. If you already have babies....buy it. For around $40 it's by far worth every penny. We got ours at Babies "R Us but you can find this particular one online.

And these are a few of  my newborn favorite things!!!

If you can't tone it, TAN IT!

So it's beginning to look a lot like...SPRING! That is if it ever decides to stop snowing. I think that ground hog was mistaken this time. If you know me personally you will know that I'm the person to go to when it comes to tanning! In college I worked at a tanning salon and well I just love having a fabulous tan. It makes wearing white and neon look amazing and it holds magical powers of making just about anyone look a few pounds slimmer!! Jackpot! Unfortunately, I hated paying a small fortune for it and especially since my love for sunless spray tans was leaving my bank account depleted. So I started trying sunless tanners that can be purchased just about anywhere. Don't get me wrong I also like to bed tan and frankly, in moderation, I see nothing wrong with it. All you have to do is wear the appropriate lotion and don't go every single day for a year. Everyone needs some Vitamin D in their life! Ok,so I've come across some pretty awesome sunless tanners and when used correctly, you will have that awesome looking Summer glow just in time to watch your favorite team throw out the first pitch. GO RANGERS! (Did I mention my love for Texas?!) Ok, so below I've given my suggestions for at-home tanning and a few tricks to make it look fabulous! Let's get our tan on shall we...

1) JERGENS NATURAL GLOW: Supposedly they have re-formulated it and the tanning smell is gone! This has been my go to tanner forever. If you still like to get your salon spray tan fix every so often (like I still do...guilty) then this product will help "fix" any blotches or smears that didn't come out just right when you got sprayed. If you're using this by itself then it may take about a week to get your desired results and that's applying it morning and night. Be advised that you MUST wash your hands after you're done applying or you just might look like you're hanging out with Charlie in the Chocolate Factory. Just sayin'...

2) JERGENS NATURAL GLOW FACE: Again, re-formulated so you don't smell like you just rolled around in tanning oil at the beach. I don't usually like to put self tanners on my face because it clogs the pores and creates acne, but sometimes it's nice to not have to wear makeup in order for your face to match your newly bronzed body. If I do want to apply a tanner to my face then I would much rather use one that's specifically formulated for...you guessed it...the FACE!

3) Loreal Sublime Bronze Tinted Self-Tanning Lotion: Ok, so I recently saw this on Pinterest and well I love me some Pinterest so I ran out and bought it. If you're looking for an immediate tan, and I'm talking immediate bronze, then this is the thing for you. That is the great thing about this lotion. The drawback is that if you get the Medium to Natural shade then you better make absolutely certain that you have covered the area that you want tan evenly and streak free because you will see your mistakes the next morning. Chocolate Factory warning on this one big time! Wash your hands immediately following application. I would not apply to the face!! I use this in conjunction with Jergens Natural Glow to even out any mistakes! I'm impatient and like immediate gratification, therefore great product!

These are just a few of my favorite sunless products to get the tanning season off to a bang before it's warm enough to sip a margarita poolside. My personal favorite is to prep the season with these products and then hit the salon for a VersaSpa Sunless Spray Tan when it's time to bust out the shorts for the year. If you spray tan...please make sure that's it's all natural and works off the pigment that you already have, apply barrier cream (it's there for a reason), buy the accelerator cream (it does work), don't wear those stupid booties, and smooth out the flaws with some Jergens! Now, that's the perfect tanning cocktail!

Now remember...If you can't TONE IT...TAN IT! :)

Because I was bored...

Hey there I'm Holly! Yes, I am from the South and the great state of Texas...

 Now that's out of the way let me tell you a little about myself and why I decided to do this blog. I am an avid party planner (by self proclamation), a new mom to a GORGEOUS little boy, and completely clueless about cooking, beauty, and crafting!! So that brought me to the most addicting website called Pinterest. I found it absolutely mystifying that I could "pin" things for hours on end and hope that one day I would remember to attempt it. After I stopped working to have my son, I was...well...BORED. I know what you're thinking, "you have a newborn so how could you possibly be bored." My answer....NAPS! He sleeps, I pin. Soooo.... that brings me to the idea of the century. I've pinned hundreds of things from recipes to my dream closet of outfits to what I think could potentially be do-able crafts and the newest addition of baby stuff. One day I sat down and said to myself, "I could totally make that!" So I started crafting, cooking, and beautifying and I thought I would put those "easy" pins to the test and try them out for myself. I have so many favorite pins and products that I just have to share! My attempts at cooking, crafting, and all of my favorite products will be documented along the way! If I love it and it works for me, why not share the wealth with my friends?!

In addition to my many Pinterest thoughts, I'm a recent first time mom and have come across some real winners and losers of products when it comes to making mine and dear son's life easier! I will give my helpful new mom tips (as I learn along the way) because it seems that my facebook news feed is now covered with baby fever!! Yay for babies!!

Let the fun begin and I'm always ready to hear what you guys think about anything that I...well...attempt! Hope this is helpful and ENJOY!