Happy Birthday Victoria!!!

My princess is 8 years old now!!!  I can't believe it's been 8 wonderful years since the midnight birth of my baby....where did the time go?

As you can tell by the background...there's only one place we spend birthdays at......Disneyland!  I'm all about the Anaheim Rat (Mickey), so we went to the happiest place on earth.  Although this particular day was overly crowded, we still managed to have a great time.  We got on some rides, had dinner, and went shopping.  Since we have the annual pass, it doesn't bother the girls much how crowded it is or how many rides we get on because we can always go another day.  We were all just happy being together and enjoying what turned out to be a gorgeous day!

I did however have an epiphany!  I figured out why Disneyland is the Happiest Place on Earth.....it's not because you have such a great time, or the great rides, or even the food....it's because they make so much damn money!!!  It's the Happiest Place on Earth for them, not for us!  It's like Las Vegas...yeah, you have a great time while you're there, but once you leave (with empty pockets) you find it really wasn't that great now that you're broke.  Either way, the novelty of it is wearing off of the girls; they could care less how many times we hit Peter Pan or swirl around on Dumbo.  They still love it, but it's not as exciting for them anymore.  I'm sure once a new ride is put in; they'll be excited all over again....

Anyhoo, all that just to say...Happy birthday Toria!

Looooooong Day!

You know it's been a long day when you scream at your kids to "put on your seatbelts" when I really meant p.j.'s!!!!

My Irish Pug

St. Paddy's Day Cupcakes

In the spirit of the Irish, I thought we'd get punch drunk... on sugar!  Check out my cupcakes...

No, they're not from scratch, but they are made with love.  I ran out of time (and got lazy), so these are courtesy of the cheater's route (a.k.a Betty Crocker).

The Pink Parlour Festival

We had the best time at The Pink Parlour Festival!  I love all things that are handmade and I have to say, the caliber of artists that held booths at the festival was amazing!

First off, if you've never been to the Santa Anita Race Track, go. 

My kids loved the experience, being able to see race horses in action is really exciting (no we didn't gamble).  It was gorgeous!  Very green, old style Copa Cabanish and a gorgeous day over all!

The event was in doors (away from the horse smell) and very pink.  There wasn't a corner of the festival that wasn't draped in pink...I loved it!  It very much had the air of entering a dressing room or someone's boudoir.  They had everything from tutus for the girls, organic soaps and lotions, vintage style purses and hats and pin-up posters, drawings, and photos for the hubby.  I don't know if the theme is intentionally Pin-up-ish (very Dita Von Teese-esque) or what, but for the most part, most of the vendors were.

My girls spent most of the time going from vendor to vendor getting free candy, my niece looking for all things Elvis and my hubby making himself scarce (it was a girly event).  Although it was small, we spent most of our time stopping and talking to the vendors about their products, how they were made and the sort.

The event was a first for us and we enjoyed the new experience.  It will definitely be something to look forward to next year!

Below are the links to a few of the vendors I just absolutely adored!

-Chula Inc

-Curioddities

-Lil' Darlin' Accessories

-Mango Pop

-Miss Alphabet

-My Mayan colors

-Tattooed Beauty

A face only a mother could love….

Roscoe Jenkins! My little man is the cutest ugly dog I’ve ever seen! I never knew dogs could have such personalities!

This week in the adventures of Roscoe, I was given the silent treatment!

Here’s the low down….I made Roscoe a new bed and finally got rid of his thin generic doggie bed (he basically slept on the floor, his bed was so thin). Anyhoo, on one of my IKEA runs, I hit up the AS-IS section and got a display foam mattress for .25 cents and a broken door (about the same size) for about $1.00, then headed over to JoAnn’s and got a doggie print piece of fabric for about $3.00, and furniture legs at Michael’s for $8.00. After I put it all together (and tons of eye rolling from my hubby), I presented it to Roscoe and he LOVED it!!!

That’s not when he gave me the doggie silent treatment…. That came a few days later when I kept him from peeing on my kitchen floor. He was so mad, he went on strike!!! He tugged and pulled his doggie blanket off his new bed, curled up on it on the floor and this is the look he gave me…

…he spent the whole night on the floor on this blanket! I could not believe he was so mad at me that he rejected his nice new bed! Could you believe me that only cuddling and playing with him all day calmed him down!?! I never knew dogs could go on strike or harbor feelings of resentment! It was so cute; it was hard to keep from laughing! My hubby of course says that it’s only a product of a spoiled dog, I agree, but it was just so funny that this little man has such character!

Just one more day in the life of my Madness!

Season's Best Recipe Collection Giveaway!

Okay here I go everyone…my first giveaway! This one is on me everyone, I wasn’t contacted by The Pampered Chef to do this giveaway, it’s all my doing (in other words...I purchased these and I'm giving them away to my dedicated readers). I decided to promote The Pampered Chef primarily because I love it (it’s an awesome product) and secondly to promote my sister Fabiola Maidlow, a Pamper Chef consultant.

I don’t know anyone that’s not currently trying to cut back on expenses and is looking for ways to save time. I know at least for my family, eating out has been one of the first things we put a limit on, so cooking at home has become a daily routine (I know, I know, it should already be a daily routine). But one of the things that got me excited about cooking at home daily was all my cool tools and gadgets from The Pampered Chef. Hands down, I have to say the Food Chopper is my FAVORITE! My hubby even joins in on the action!

Here are the Top 5 reasons I love The Pampered Chef products:

1. Easy to use
2. Great and inventive tools
3. You get free recipes with every product
4. They carry warranties on all their products
5. Easy access (my sister’s a consultant)

What am I giving away?

The Pampered Chef’s new Season’s Best Spring/Summer recipe collection! Not one, but 5 recipe books! A few of the recipes are Fresh Mango Margaritas, Warm Lemon Pepper Chicken Salad, and Chipotle Chili Cornbread Bake….YUM! What I love most about The Pampered Chef recipes is that they’re original and all tasted and tested in test kitchens by The Pampered Chef!

Here’s how to enter:

Required entry:

Go to the website here, then come back to leave a comment and let me know what your favorite The Pampered Chef product is (if you own any The Pampered Chef products) or which one you liked best from the site.

For Additional entries:

-Subscribe to my blog (notify me in the comments section)
-Add my blog to your blog roll and leave me a link to your blog
-Blog about this giveaway and leave me a direct link to the post

Good luck everyone!
Last day to enter is Thursday March 25th, 2010 by 12 (noon) PST.
The winners will be picked through Random.org.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Watching you!

I'm SO over CHAOS!

Flylady defines C.H.A.O.S. as Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome and I’m determined to beat it. My house is not extraordinarily messy; actually, I don’t believe it to be messy at all. However, it’s a constant issue in my home because my dear hubby grew up in an immaculate house, the kind you could literally eat off the floor because it was so clean. I didn’t. So we’re constantly arguing over it and in the grand scheme of things, it’s a ridiculous thing to put so much energy into fighting about. In my defense, I have come a long way and have made great strides, so much so, that I’m happy to say that most of the time we don’t live in CHAOS. Of course, it never fails that those are the times when no one happens to pop in. And in the few (and rare) instances that CHAOS has taken over my house, it never fails that we have unexpected guests left and right.

My friend sent me this quote and said that it describes me to a ‘T’.  We adore chaos because we love to produce order. --M. C. Escher  She said that I subconsciously let chaos build up around me so that I can break out my organizational skills and organize, organize, organize. Of course, at first I denied it, there’s no way that I intentionally let it build and instigate arguments with my hubby over it…..but, the more I thought about it, the more I think she’s right. If I had nothing to organize (or obsess over), I’d probably have nothing to do.

With that said, I’m determined to keep CHAOS from running my life. And in the event that an uninvited guest drops in on the day that it does, then oh well! I’m not perfect (gasp!) and I don’t live in a museum. If my house looks lived in, it’s ok, because at least it’s a happy healthy home, with or without CHAOS. Now to get my hubby to see it that way is another story…

Free Your Mind and the Rest Will Follow...

As En Vogue so eloquently put it in the 90’s, freeing your mind is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I just can’t seem to catch up on any sleep. I’m constantly reminded of what my mother said to me just right before the birth of my first daughter, “sleep now because once you’re a mom, you’ll never get another good night’s sleep”. Of course at the time, I just thought she was being facetious, but as the ol’ saying goes….Mom really does know best!

Don’t get me wrong, my girls were great as babies and are great sleeping through the night now. But it’s my mind that never sleeps. I’m constantly replaying the day in my mind as I try to fall asleep, or making mental lists of what needs to get done tomorrow and such. I'm running a million miles in my head daily, no wonder I’m so exhausted!

I’m determined that this needs to stop! So one of the ways I’m reorganizing my mind is to work on my habits.

-More exercise! Not because I need to do it (lord knows I do), but maybe if I exhaust my body enough throughout the day, it’ll beat out my mind and I’ll get the rest I need.

-Keep a notepad with me at all times. I figure, I have somewhere to put all my mental lists, then my mind can rest at ease knowing it’s going to be addressed eventually.

-Stop thinking!!! If I keep my brain from thinking about anything right before bed, then hopefully I’ll have nothing bouncing around in there when I lay down for bed.

I’m not going to do the usual things that all the experts say to do, like drinking warm milk (I’m lactose intolerant), taking a warm bath (that only wakes me up), etc, those just don't work for me unfortunately

So the mission this week…if you chose to accept it…lol! Finding ways of freeing your mind from clutter; write down mental lists, shrug off any dramas that surround you, limit what you have to remember by keeping it written down in a safe place, and/or keep a daily calendar. By keeping our minds free from clutter we can focus on things that need and deserve our full attention, like our precious kids!

Purse-a-phobia

Purse-a-phobia [purs-A-foh-bee-uh]
-noun
A persistent, irrational fear of women’s purses that leads to a compelling desire to avoid them.

Is it just me or do all men have an irrational fear of purses? For the life of me I can’t get my hubby to go anywhere near my purse.

Take yesterday for example, I’m trying to unwind in a nice hot bath and he comes barging in asking for my car keys. To which I reply, that they’re in my purse (where they always are). Can you believe me that not 5 minutes later he comes back with my purse in tow so I can get them out for him? Seriously!?! Will it swallow your hand if you stick it in there? Or are you afraid some girly product is going to rub against your skin, marring you forever? I don’t get it! I certainly don’t have an issue diving into his wallet if I need something.

His excuse? He doesn’t want to invade my privacy…

Umm…doesn’t he consider interrupting my nice relaxing bath an invasion of privacy?

And what’s so private about my purse? The anti-bacterial foam I carry around for the kids or the boogey wipes? In fact, the only thing I really have in my purse for me is my license, cell phone, and ATM. Other than that, what does he think I have in there, the pool boy?

And he says I have irrational fears….

The next time he makes fun of me for freaking out about a lizard coming in the house, I’m throwing my purse at him!

New Beginnings!

What do you think everyone!?!  Since I'm all about making changes, I decided upping my blog design. I love it! It shows the darker side of me, but still girly! Did I design it myself? Nope! I wish I had the time to do so, I started to, but then got so busy...

Anyhoo, Ragan from Blogger Boutique did it with some input from me. I picked the designer, she laid it out. I think I drove her crazy asking her to change this and that, but she was great about it.

As you can see I've also added by Esty store Emma Bleu Designs to my blog. Of course, I only have a couple of things posted (I need more time in my day!), but keep checking back, I'll be upgrading it daily.

I've also added some buttons to some mom blogs lists I subscribe to.  And because I don't have every minute of my day filled (totally kidding!), I've also subscribed to a mom product review site.  So hopefully, you'll be reading some of my product reviews in the near future.

I'd love to hear from you all, so drop me a line and let me know what you think!!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

As you've probably already guessed, it's Dr. Seuss' birthday today and schools across America are celebrating it in their own special way.  My daughter attends one of the Edison Charter schools here in Southern California and I absolutely love the curriculum, school events and activities that her school hosts!  This week (the whole week), they are celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday. 

Yesterday the school had guest readers throughout the school, throughout the day. 

Today they will be serving green eggs and ham for breakfast and birthday cupcakes for dessert after lunch.  It's also crazy Dr. Seuss hair day.  Toria asked for a Cindy Lou Who inspired hairstyle, and although her hair isn't too long, I was able to put it up in a few braids.  She absolutely loved it!

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss movie night.  It's sort of like a drive-in, but you bring your own camping chairs and camp out with all the other parents while the kids play...they never sit and watch the movie.  It's tons of fun!

Thursday they have a decorative (a la Dr. Seuss) door contest.  The winners (3 classrooms) get a pizza party.

And Friday, they get to dress up as their favorite Dr. Seuss characters.  I expect to see lots of little Grinches around.

I think that little things like this that don't take away from their education, but enhance it by making it fun is a brilliant idea to get kids motivated about learning.  I know that my daughter has loved going to this school.  Although the curriculum moves really quickly, it's been able to keep her attention by not only making learning fun, but exciting and interesting.

My New Chalkboard Wall Calendar

Because for the life of me I can't keep from doing a million projects at the same time, I added painting a chalkboard wall calendar onto my list.  If you click on if you can see my scribbles along with Toria's scribbles as well.  We were using this tiny little white board and we kept on missing appointments and special dates because it was just too small to write everything on.  There is no way that's going to happen with this one!  When I say wall calendar, I mean WALL calendar.  It's about 3' by 4', it's huge!  I totally thought my hubby was going to veto this project, especially since it's in the dining room, but nope!  I got my way and guess what!?!  He actually likes it!  Not like the time I painted a fireplace in the living room just to have somewhere to hang our stockings (long story)...lol!!!

Now on to my other million and a half unfinished projects like the 28 day organizing challenge, sewing 2 dozen mini first aid kits, listing for my etsy store...etc!