Catching Up

The past few weeks have been crazy busy.  We flew to Oklahoma for a family wedding, we've had various projects going on around the house, A played his first season of tackle football (we are so proud of him!), we are in the middle of college football season and work has been busy as well.

The wedding was beautiful and we always enjoy the opportunity to go to Oklahoma to visit with family.  This trip was especially wonderful because we not only were able to see family we've not seen in years, but we were able to meet our new niece for the first time.  She is absolutely adorable and had us wrapped around her finger in seconds.  We could just eat her up.  We definitely did not get enough time with sweet baby P!

My mother-in-law and father-in-law hosted the Rehearsal Dinner at their farm.  I helped my mother-in-law with some of the planning and setup.  It turned out fantastic.  The farm was beautiful and we ended the evening with a gorgeous Oklahoma sunset.

The wedding was at a historic bed and breakfast the next day.  The bride was beautiful and the guests had such a great time.  It was such a beautiful event.

Here are a few highlights from our trip.

On the way. The clouds were beautiful!

putting together the flowers the night before

the rehearsal dinner setup

Monster Breakfast Casserole

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last blog post.  Life has been crazy lately and I haven't had much chance to blog about all stuff we've been doing lately.  Will have more posts soon about everything that's been going on around here!  To get back into the swing of things, I have a recipe I made recently for friends of ours who just welcomed a new baby boy.  My family loves this casserole and it's great to make when feeding large crowds.  I like putting it together the night before and popping it in the oven that morning for breakfast.  It's a hearty casserole and goes great with fruit.

Crochet Baby Blanket

As Fall approaches (it's hard to say it's here when it's still 85 degrees outside) I look forward to pumpkin flavored goodies, football games, and crocheting.  I don't tend to crochet during most of the year, but as the weather starts to cool I get the itch to start working on new projects.




I've been fascinated with crochet for awhile now and have gradually been teaching myself through online tutorials and YouTube videos.   It's been a slow process learning on my own, but always enjoy working on new stitches and projects.

This year I started a little earlier than normal.  Two of our closest friends are expecting and I wanted to make a special blanket for their shower.  They are two of the most amazing people I know and I jumped for joy when I received the sonogram picture and message I was to be an Aunt.  Literally. In my office. At work.  I might have squealed.  I also might have received a few strange looks when I started to dance around my office. Maybe.






I worked on the blanket for a couple of weeks straight and was kind of freaking out at the end, because I wasn't sure it would be done in time.  I only had one fight during that time with the yarn, and the yarn almost won.  Thanks to my husband for saving the day and unknotting it for me when I was ready to throw it out the window.  He dutifully monitored the yarn after the snafu to make sure it didn't tangle again.  He was scary good at it.  Kidding. But he was a huge help.




I used the blanket stitch and baby yarn.  The yarn was multi-colored, made up of blues, greens and white.  I don't remember the exact brand, but it was a worsted weight and I used a size J hook.  I really like colors of the yarn and this blanket was so soft.

Overall, this was a very easy stitch but looks so fantastic as a blanket.  I was really happy with how it turned out and hope the new little one enjoys the blanket!  Congratulations again to my friends!  They are going to be amazing parents and I can't wait to meet the new little one!

xoxo
Jennifer

Peter Thomas Roth Firmx Exfoliant Gel

I first saw this product on QVC.  QVC is a great place to see product reviews and to get more information about a particular product.  I do research products online, but sometimes have a hard time trying to figure out which product is best for me or what it actually does.  Sometimes descriptions are very general and don't really give you an idea if a product is right for you.  QVC helps break it down and give more detail than the package does.  I use a Peter Thomas Roth sunscreen and was really interested in learning more about the other products for this range and watched a showing on QVC.  I had never heard of this product before watching the program, but after watching a couple of minutes about this product, I really wanted to try it. 

  And honestly the reviews were right, this product is awesome.  It's a peeling gel exfoliant and after using it, my skin feels smooth and soft.  It's amazing what a difference it makes.  The first time I used it, I thought this is just the product rolling up and it can't be taking off that much dead skin.  But after I washed it off, I could tell a huge difference in my skin.  After using it two to three times a week, I can really tell a dramatic difference.  

The ingredients include pineapple and pomegranate enzymes.  These enzymes help exfoliate without drying out your skin and stripping it of it's natural oils.  I have sensitive skin and my skin has never feel irritated after this.

Overall, I would highly recommend this product, and it will continue to be part of my skin care routine because I'm loving the results!

xoxo
Jennifer

Quench the Thirst

I've been sick for about a week now with allergy/sinus issues and after taking antihistamines for a few days, both my skin and my hair are really dehydrated.  My skin looks dull and lifeless and desperately needs some extra moisture. One of my favorite products to use when my skin is this dehydrated is Kate Somerville's Quench mask.   This product has Hyaluronic acid, Vitamins E and B, and cucumber as some of it's ingredients.  These ingredients make this mask very moisturizing and soothing.  

When I use this, I wash my face as I normally would, but make sure my face is completely before using.  I then apply a thin layer and let it set a minute.  After it's set a minute or two, I apply second thin layer.  After both layers are applied, I wear the mask for at least 15 minutes, sometimes if I really need the extra moisture.  This is a clear mask and you can hardly tell you have it on.  It's a little shiny but it won't scare your neighbors or your children if they see you with it on your face.  

I don't use this as regularly as I use my exfoliating masks, but when I fly or when I'm taking allergy medicine, it's one of the best products I've found to put moisture back into my skin without making it greasy.  This is also does not clog my pores like heavier moisturizers tend to. 

Kate Somerville has some amazing products and this is one of my favorites.  They are more expensive, but they tend to last awhile and are some of the best skin care products I've used.  What other masks do you use to help moisturize?  I'd love to hear your favorites!

Spanish Rice

This is a quick and easy side dish I make during the week.  I usually put it with quesadillas and black beans.  One of my roommates shared this recipe with me and it's delicious.  I love rice and I could absolutely eat this straight out of the pan.

I start by coating the bottom of a pan with olive oil on medium high heat.  Add chopped onion, then cook onions until translucent.

Add one cup long grain white rice and stir until coated with olive oil.

Cook rice until it starts to get some brown bits on it.

Add one can of chopped tomatoes with green chilis.  

Add 1 teaspoon cumin and sometimes I add 1 teaspoon of oregano.  

Add two cups of chicken broth or in a pinch I use two cups of water and two chicken bouillon cubes.

Cover and cook for approximately 20 minutes or until rice is tender.  I sometimes have to add a little bit of water at the end if the rice is still a little bit starchy or dry.

Spanish Rice
1/2 chopped onion
olive oil- a couple of turns of the pan
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano

1. Add olive oil to bottom of stock pot or deep skillet.
2. Turn burner on medium-high heat
3. After pan heats up add chopped onion, cook until translucent
4. Add rice to pan, cook until rice browns, stirring frequently
5. After rice browns, add can of diced tomatoes, spices and water
6. Cover and cook approximately 20 minutes or until rice is tender (adding additional water if necessary)

Hope you enjoy!

High Five for Friday

It's been another busy week but I'm excited to link with Lauren Elizabeth on her High Five for Friday for the first time!  Here are five highlights from my week...

1. He still thinks he's itty bitty even though he can't fit in my lap any more

2. My husband came home with pizza Thursday night for dinner as a surprise.  He knew how exhausted I was after a long week and took care of dinner for me.  He's such a sweetie!

3. Apparently my youngest thinks this is a perfectly acceptable place to leave his toothpaste... *ahem

4. I love Yogi Teas.  My favorites are Skin Detox and Berry Detox.  I love the quotes that come on the tags and this was my favorite quote this week

5. Last weekend at the beach was so relaxing and the weather was amazing.  I can't wait until we go again!

Why I Stopped Dieting and Started Living "Naturally Thin"

I hate dieting.  It's awful.  I've tried what feels like every diet out there- South Beach, Atkins, Cabbage Soup Diet, the Military Diet, Weight Watchers and the list just keeps going.  They were all short term solutions and didn't work for me.  I know they work for some people but with my work functions and my family it was nearly impossible to maintain any of them long term.

I had one of two issues, either I felt deprived and after feeling deprived I would bing.  After binging I would feel guilty and bing again.  I would also put off eating healthy and would tell myself I'd start next Monday and continue to overindulge.  It was a vicious cycle that I couldn't seem to break.

If I wasn't feeling deprived while on one of the diets, I was obsessing about food.  The more I thought about it the more I obsessed and the hungrier I became.  Having to measure out my food or figure out how many points was too difficult on the go and I was never able to make a diet functional for my daily life.

I continued to cycle between deprivation and overindulgence.  I couldn't seem to get it under control.  If I wasn't binging, I was eating junk.  When I was able to put down an entire large pizza by myself and was still hungry, I decided it was time for a change.

Then I read this book.

Paperback  Kindle

This book completely changed my outlook on food.  Reading through it, I honestly couldn't put it down.  It was an epiphany.  Bethenny Frankel really put a common sense spin on how to live "Naturally Thin" without depriving yourself and without obsessing about food.

There are ten rules that really help change how you look at food and feel about food.  They have all helped me change my attitude about food but a few have made the most impact.

1. Your Diet is Your Bank Account.  It's important to have a balanced diet.  I tend to eat a lot of carbs and this rule helps me remember that I should balance those carbs out with lean proteins and vegetables.   If I do have to many sweets or too many carbs, I balance that out by having meals with more protein and less carbs to maintain the balance.
3. Taste Everything, Eat Nothing- I think this is my favorite rule.  I love food.  I love just about every kind of food.  I love to eat lots of different things and I love to taste.  This rule helps you understand that you can taste everything.  If you have a lot of different options and can't decide on just one, instead of feeling deprived, just taste your way through the options and by the time you finish, you will have had an entire meal.

This picture is a great example of this rule.  I couldn't make up my mind on which cookie I wanted the last time I was at Whole Foods.  I had a bite of each one instead of eating all of them.  I was able to taste a variety and was satisfied after just a taste of each.   They were all delicious btw but the lemon glazed was my favorite. I also have a husband who is not put off by sharing and will happily taste the other half.

This isn't a rule, but one of the other things I really enjoyed about the book is sharing food.  I love sharing meals, this is not only a great way to avoid over eating, especially when you eat out, but everyone gets to taste different things.  I especially love doing this with my children.  I want them to taste new things and learn to enjoy a variety of foods as well.  I don't beg for other people's food off their plates, but offer mine to others.  Sometimes people don't want to share and I have no problem with that, but most of the time the people I'm dining with want to taste and try too.

After adopting the rules I finally lost the extra 5 pounds I seemed to always carry around and have been maintaining a healthy weight for over 2 years.   I eat what I want while following these general guidelines and never feel deprived.  I don't stay exactly the same weight every day, but stay within a 5 pound range. I may not be a size 0, but that isn't my natural size.  I'm a healthy and comfortable size for me.

This book is filled with lots of good ideas and helpful suggestions to starting a healthy lifestyle and finding your healthy weight.  I think the whole point of the book and guidelines is to really take it and make them your own.  I think one of the hardest things to do is be flexible with a diet and fitting it in your lifestyle.  When I was on South Beach, it seemed like there was always a pot luck or birthday at work and I felt like I was constantly cheating or not participating.  These rules have allowed me to never miss out on anything and continue to enjoy the foods I love.

Cleansers

As I get older my skin continues to change.  It needs more attention and it needs active ingredients that focus on anti-aging.  When I was younger, I was notorious for going to bed without cleansing my skin.   I didn't use eye cream and very rarely used sunscreen.  I looked in the mirror one day and I realized my skin was dismal.  It was dull, splotchy and oily.  It was completely out of control.  I realized my face looked awful because I was doing an awful job taking care of it. (Duh!)  I needed to take better care of my skin.

When I started researching, I was amazed how much information is available for how to care for your skin, specifically your face.  I was so overwhelmed, wasn't sure where to start.  I quickly realized what worked for someone else wouldn't necessarily work for me.  I tried product after product of "recommended" products that were not a good fit for me.  I became frustrated because I felt like every time I went to a department store counter they were more concerned with selling me their line of products than really finding the product that I needed.  I even tried skin consultations with aestheticians but again felt like they just wanted me to buy their products, and weren't necessarily trying to find what worked best for me.

One day, I found Lisa Eldridge of lisaeldridge.com.  It was a revelation.  She has amazing videos and recommends some amazing products.  She has loads of videos about makeup which are amazing, but her skincare videos were such a huge help.

One of the really important things I learned was that I was using too harsh a cleanser.   I had always thought I had really oily skin, so I used stronger cleaners to reduce oil.  I was actually stripping my skin of essential oils and my skin was producing more oil to compensate.  After I switched to a gentle cleanser my skin has produced significantly less oil.  Before I was blotting my skin two or three times a day, now I might blot once.  It's amazing the difference.  My makeup doesn't melt off my skin like it did before.

The Best is Yet to Come

My husband and I wanted to do something really special for our fifth anniversary.  After months of discussion and tossing around several ideas, we decided to go to Las Vegas and renew our vows.  In true Vegas style, we decided to go big.

Evoking You Portraits

Hellooooo Lover

I'm a shoe lover much to my husband's chagrin.  The old adage "you can never have too many shoes"  is absolutely true and used to watch SATC as much for the shoes as the show.  Shoes are so versatile and can dress up or down an outfit or completely change a look.  I jumped for joy when I found this new website www.milkandhoneyshoes.com where you can design your own shoes.  This has to be the coolest thing ever.

Sometimes I have a really specific style I want and I can't quite find what I'm looking for or have a special event and need a specific look.  My husband and I are so close in height, that trying to find that specific look at the right heel height can be frustrating.  I can't wear really high heels without towering over him.  I tried that once and everyone who looks at the pictures for that event all say "Oh wow I didn't realize you were taller than B".  Yeah.... I just stick with a shorter heel now...

This website will let you customize what style you want and when I found out you could choose the heel height I knew this was the ticket!  I could get those amazing styles I find but get them at a height I needed.  How amazing is that!

I think this would also be amazing for a bride.  Specialty shoes are such a hot trend right now and how awesome would it be to not only have a colored shoe or sparkly shoe but one you customized yourself for your special day.

They are definitely a splurge but for those of us who want or need something custom this site is amazing.  Here are a few styles I fell in love with while browsing.

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I would love to hear if anyone has ordered any and what they thought!

The Beginning

I think I caught the party planning bug when I started planning our wedding 5 years ago.  I started with absolutely no clue what I was doing.  I learned very quickly there is an unbelievable amount of detail and preparation that goes into planning a wedding or any sort of event.  Sometimes the process was tedious and painstaking but I fell in love with it.  I spent countless hours finding ideas and putting the event together.  I just couldn't get enough.  I have thrown several showers and birthday parties since then and continue to enjoy spending my time finding and exploring new ideas for parties.

I was kind of late to the blog phenomenon.  I didn't really start to explore and follow blogs until a couple of years ago when I was looking for ideas for a birthday party for my son.  Between researching for parties and Pinterest, I was overwhelmed with how many creative people and how many fantastic ideas are out on the web.  I was absolutely fascinated and was completely absorbed into the blogosphere after realizing what a wealth of knowledge is out there.  One of the wonderful things about blogs are that after awhile you really feel like you get to know the person writing the blog.  You get to see their personality through their writing and hear their opinion through their posts.  I was amazed and started to want to share my parties and ideas and began to think of ideas on how to start my own blog.  I hesitated, though, and really wasn't sure I would be able to write anything that would interest others.  I hemmed and hawed and really went back and forth and finally after having family and friends ask for me to share my ideas, I decided to start Polka Dots n Peridots.

After a lot of contemplation, I decided I wanted the blog to really go beyond just party ideas.  I wanted to share parties and crafts that I work on, but I also wanted to share recipes and other aspects of daily life as well.  I really wanted to create more of a lifestyle blog.  I hope you enjoy my journey and enjoy my posts.  I hope that I can be half as inspiring as all the other wonderful people in the blogosphere.

Thanks and welcome to Polka Dots n Peridots!

Jennifer