Beauty Tips and Girl Time...

I'm probably not the only woman in the world where pregnancy makes me want to hang out with my friends more (Sorry hubby... it's an estrogen thing.)  Seeing as I am heading into 3rd trimester, I wanted some time with some of my girls.  My step-dad has a place near the beach and I thought it would be great to have a ladies overnight.  So what does a pregnant woman plan for an overnight??

Ok... so it may look crazy... but I thought we'd try out all the "at home" beauty pins I had been pinning on Pinterest.  My friends seemed like they were game and fortunately all of our luggage still fit in the car with my 'box o' beauty'.  Well... barely...

First we started with the apple cider vinegar and Epsom salt soak.  I know there were suppose to be some kind of measurements, but I really just poured a bunch of both in.  I have to agree... it was very refreshing....

And my lovely friends...

Then we did the shaving cream on the feet.  And although messy.... it did soften our feet.  Definitely an outside project.

Then we did  the equal parts of warm water and Listerine.... I poured it in the bathtub.  I tried to get the water really hot by pouring water from the kettle in it.  I have to say... that seemed didn't do much for me.  Out of everything I tried, this was probably my least favorite.  Maybe I needed more Listerine?

Then Amy mentioned that rings can be cleaned in vodka.  I'd never heard of that, but why not??

The collection of the rings...

Gotta smile fore the camera....

I forgot to take a picture of the rings once they were clean.  But I took one at dinner and the rings did sparkle in the dark...

Then we did the olive oil with sugar scrub for the hands.  About a tablespoon of sugar and a tablespoon of olive oil.  Once done, rinse the hands to get the sugar off and then towel dry the olive oil off.  I get dry hands a lot.  I love this tip.  I've used it many times since.  It's better than lotion.

Then we did the baking soda on the lemon to clean the finger nails.  I sprinkled it on each lemon, don't be shy with the baking soda.  It worked best if the lemons were cut in wedges.  Sure enough... clean nail beds.

Then we did the 1tsp of baking soda, 1tsp of hydrogen peroxide, and 1/2 tsp of water, and brush for 2 minutes to get white teeth.

This one tasted gross, but felt like we just got back from the dentist, so it was affective.  I would need to play with it, but my guess would be less baking soda.  Of course would need to be done more often to whiten.

Then we did the 3tbsp of baking soda and 1 tbsp of water to exfoliate our face.  I actually liked the exfoliation so much I used it to wash my face day and night because I forgot my facewash.

Then we did the honey mask.  Just spread honey on your face for the antioxidants and that it's great for your skin.  Yep.. no shame in our game..

Then we took a break for a little massage train...

I bought the avocado because I wanted to try the - 1/2 avocado, 1 egg, 2tsbp olive oil to hair.  Apply to damp clean hair.  Wrap in saran wrap for 10-15 min and then rinse.

I would probably need to double or triple the recipe to do it for my hair, but I love that Amy was game to try it.  It's to moisturize your hair.  She liked it.

We finished by taking green tea bags I had soaked in hot water and put in the fridge (hint... this was the first thing I did before we got started) to put on our eyes for puffiness.

We had a great time trying these beauty tips out, no matter how weird they seemed.  It made me feel like I was doing those tips we would see in teen magazines when we were 15.  It gave us something fun to do... cause what is better than great times with great friends?

I was definitely feeling the love...

I Thomas...

Alex: "What's that?"

Me: "Rhinoceros."

Alex: "Rhino-Thomas."

Me: "Did you poop?"

Alex: "Nope!"

Me: "You promise?"

Alex: "I Thomas."

It cracks me up how often Alex incorporates Thomas's name in conversation. 😄

Why sons are awesome..

I'm just sitting here eating a blueberry muffin, with my sword beside me, waiting for my son to run around the corner and initiate a sword fight. #sonsareawesome #joysofparenthood

My helpful 2 year old...

Echoes...

Oh good!  My son has realized that if you scream in Target... it echoes.  What a fun game!  #yesiamthatmomwiththatkid

Stop It...

"Alex, did you poop?"

"Oh Mommy... Stop it."

I'm already embarrassing my two year old.

Baking in no time...

Maybe it's the pregnancy that makes me want to bake more.
Maybe it's something about motherhood that makes me want to bake more.
But I get these moments where I want to make Chocolate Chip cookies or banana nut bread.

What has stopped me before?
Baking takes a lot of time.
Baking makes a huge mess.
So quite often I don't bake even when I have the hankering to.

I was in the baking section of the grocery store, looking at the cake boxes, and I thought... why can't I mix dry ingredients before hand while baking?  If I plan on making a mess of the kitchen while baking... I might as well prep a lot of recipes to save sometime in the future.  Let's go full throttle!!

So if I get the craving to bake... I think of at least 3 recipes I will want to bake relatively soon and I make 3 prepared baking bags for them.

Here's how I do it:

I make a list with the names of the recipes on the top and I list the ingredients to the left column.  Then I enter in how many cups/tablespoons/teaspoons it calls for, so all the ingredients are organized.

Not the most beautiful picture... but you get it. ;)

Then I read through the recipe and see which ingredients should be bunched together.  ie. if I recipe calls for creaming butter with sugar first before adding other ingredients... sugar will be in a different bag than the other ingredients.  

The other tip... I always put brown sugar in it's own bag.  It's a moist sugar, so I want to keep it moist and not have it affect the other ingredients.

So then I get my gallon, quart, and sandwich bags (From Costco) and I divide the ingredients into the size bag I think it needs.  If it's less than 3 cups of ingredients, I'll probably put it in a quart bag.  If it has more, I'll probably put it in a gallon bag.  I use the sandwich bags for small amounts of ingredients which will be placed in bigger bags.

Label the bags you are using and line them up.  Then work down the ingredients and divide them up.

Putting the bags in a large cup will help when scooping ingredients.

Measuring over a bowl will also help make sure additional ingredients don't end up where they shouldn't.

And voila... you'll be the next Betty Crocker in no time!

Reasons why I like having these bags on hand.

• Have you ever run out of ingredients when trying to bake??  That's the worse!  Especially when you've planned on baking for an event and you are out of flour....

The last time I made these bags I ran out of brown sugar and chocolate chips for chocolate chip cookies.  I wrote on the bag which ingredients were missing and put them on the shopping list.  The next time I decided to bake.... I went through my bags and added the missing ingredients.  Super easy.

• I made a mistake and I can't fix it.  My husband teases me because I tend to run through recipes too fast. I miss the sugar in muffins.  Then I'm mad at myself when it doesn't taste right and I apologize to anyone and everyone who eats them.

The last time I made these bags, I realized I put 1 tablespoon of salt instead of 1 teaspoon in my toddler muffins.  I made a note of it on the bag.  Those aren't bags I'll use when I go to a potluck.  I will try them out, and then throw them out if they taste weird.

• These bags are great for cooking with toddlers.  I love cooking with my son and these bags make it a little less stressful.

 

 And for the big grand-daddy reason why I love making these bags....

• MAKING A BAG TAKES 1/2 THE TIME TO PREPARE AND IS 1/3 THE MESS IN THE KITCHEN.

 I can enjoy my joy of baking more often without blowing up my kitchen.

This is my kitchen after making homemade blueberry muffins this morning....

I have one bowl, my mixer, a couple spoons, 

and the muffin tin.  Not too shabby...

These are my secrets to baking more often.  They help with timing and cleaning, but maybe not your waistline.  

Bake away my friends... bake away...