Summer Giveaway!!!

Good morning, Kitschies!!  It's been quite a while since the last time I did something like this, so I've gathered some stuff together for not one, but two giveaways!  All pics are biggable so you can better check out the goods.

Let's see what's up for grabs, shall we...

This is for my lacquer heads

Top (left to right):

Naughty Nails: Secret Carpet Burn

Essence Coulour & Go: What Do U Think?

Revlon Top Speed: Electric

Sinful Colors: Show Me the Way

Sinful Colors: Ciao Bella!

ELF Nail Polish: Plum

Bottom (left to right):

Orly: Fifty-Four

Orly: Bon Bon

ELF: Punk Purple

ELF: White

Essie: Luscious Lips

Creative Nail Design: Rich in Sin

Right:

Cult Nails: Living Water

And the non-lacquerheads

Top:

2 sets of super cute, *kitschy* recipe cards

Bottom:

Pink dangle silver earrings

Right:

Magnetic shopping list/memo pad

I'm sure there will be more added to both of these before they are sent out, but this is what I have so far.  I just wanted to say thank you to everybody who takes the time to visit (and comment) at my blog.  I really, really appreciate you and without all your support, I wouldn't have made it this far!!

Now for the rules...

*Leave your name and email for contact purposes (1 entry).  I will contact the winner by email; they will have 24 hours to respond.  If they do not respond, a new winner will be chosen and contacted.

*Regulars to my blog will get an extra entry - I know who you are (1 entry)

*You do *not* have to be a follower to enter, nor do you have to have a blog

*This is open internationally, however, if an international person wins, be warned I will send the package the cheapest (read: slowest) way possible.

*You can add this giveaway to your blog in a post or in your sidebar or however you do those sorts of things (1 entry)

*Bonus entry: Tell me your favorite part of Summer (1 entry)

*Be sure to tell me which of the prizes you'd like: lacquerhead or non-lacquerhead

*Duplicate entries will not be allowed.  I will be verifying all entries.  There are a total of 4 possible entries per person.

*Entries will be accepted until 12 midnight (CMT) on Wednesday, July 20, 2011.  The winner will be chosen at random and will be announced shortly after the close of the giveaway.

Good luck!!

All items in these giveaways were either given to me or bought with my own money.

On Wednesday We Wear Pink: ChG Ahoy!

Happy Wednesday!  The good thing about 3-day weekends?  The week is short and Wednesday comes before you even realize it.  The bad?  It seems that 5 days of work are still squeezed in to those 4 days.  Tuesday wasn't a bad day back to work because the docs weren't in.  Wednesday is shaping up to be pretty busy.  I have a feeling the rest of the week will follow suit.  But there's light at the end of the tunnel because I only have to get through two more days and then it's the weekend again!!

I've haven't participated much in On Wednesdays We Wear Pink, but I decided to link up today and I have a really pretty pink to share with you.

This beauty is ChG Ahoy! from the Anchors Away collection released earlier this year.  This was one of two that I picked up from the collection (the other was White Cap).  Ahoy! is a gorgeous jelly-ish base of raspberry with lighter pink sparkle (that refused to be picked up with my camera).  Taken indoors with flash. 

If you click on the pic, you can see a bit of the sparkle on my ring finger.  Anyway...this is 3 coats with the picture taken in indirect sunlight.

The formula and wear on this was standard of ChG.  This color reminds me a lot of ChG Strawberry Fields, only with pink shimmer rather than gold.

After looking at my other OWWWP posts, I realize that I have a preference for this shade of pink.  I promise my next pink post will be a little bit different pink.  Promise!

Enjoy your Wednesday and be sure to check On Wednesdays We Wear Pink for other participating pink bloggers!

WWTKW: Link Up Time!

Happy Wednesday, again!  I'm here for my weekly link-up for We Want to Know Wednesday.  We've got another 5 questions from various bloggers.  Let's check 'em out!




1. Name 5 of your favorite new blogs you're reading.  From: Homesick Cajun.
OK...so I didn't use all new blogs (or even new blogs to me), so I'm changing this a bit to the 5 blogs I like following the most or that I think deserve more followers. 
Oops...I just ARTed!  Yep.  The name is questionable, but the art isn't.  This is my hubs' bestie's art blog and it's great.  This is the newest blog on my block.
Gotham Polish  She takes great pics from around NYC and puts her polish in as participants.  Fun nail blog!
Polish Obsessed  Great nails.  Cute manis.  Need I say more?
Wife, Check. Mom, Check. Now What?  Emily does some great photo edits and I enjoy comparing notes about our wonderful (but high maintenance) toddlers.
And this last one is a two-fer...
Geek Girl Diva (GGD)  and Has Boobs, Reads Comics  They both let their geek flags fly and I love it!  She helps show my hubs that, yes, I do pay attention to things that interest him, too.

2.  When you were a young child or teenager, did you have an idea of how many children you wanted and what their names would be?  Did you follow through on your ideas?  From: Living the Lindicous Life
I didn't really have a number of kids, but I always knew that I'd have them.  I think I probably subconsciously thought I would have two since there were two (my younger sister and me) in my family.  As for names...I didn't have any picked out.  I didn't think about that until the time came to pick for my two pregnancies.

3.  What is the silliest thing you fight with someone about?  Could be your spouse, sibling, parents, co-workers, etc.  From: A Bunch of My Nonsense
I fight with my sons.  With Nate about not listening to "my most favorite song in the whole world" over and over and over again.  What's the song?  I Gotta Feeling by Black Eyed Peas.  Gah!  And with Mason?  Not watching the same video/DVD over and over again.  That would be Thomas the Tank Engine.  Seriously watched every video at least 10 times each.  Seriously. 

4.  What is your favorite scent that others may not find very nice?  ie: gasoline, sweat from  your sweetie, etc.  From: Nine-Ninety-One
Oooh!  That's a hard one.  I actually had to go back and think about this one for a bit.  I'm gonna have to go with Desitin.  I love that smell.  I smells of babies.  But in a good way. 

5.  Thoughts on plastic surgery?  (Had it?  Want it?  Regrets?)  From: Nobody listed
Unless something catastrophic happens to me, I don't think plastic surgery is really for me.  I'm not one to rush out and get Botox because you can see a frown line on my forehead or crow's feet around my eyes.  I think women are too harsh on themselves and should just accept the way they are.  Now, I'm not saying that if you decide to get plastic surgery that you're some sort of anti-Christ.  That's your thing.  Not mine.  No judgements here. 

There ya go!  Put down the laundry and answer these questions yourself.  You know that pile of laundry can wait.

Happy Wednesday!

Friends Are Like Recipes

Good morning, Kitschies!!  I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend.  We didn't do fireworks last night and I'm a little disappointed about that.  I don't ever remember not seeing fireworks for the 4th.  Ever.  There's always next year, right?  Hopefully we'll get more rain by this point next year and we'll be able to have more access to the sparklies in the sky.  We did, however, give the boys some of those little poppers you throw on the ground.  They had so much fun with those!

I've given y'all 3 manis over the holiday weekend (in case you missed them, here are the links for those: #1, #2, #3), so it's time for some food! 

Back in May (?) I needed a recipe for a main dish to bring to the office for a potluck.  I couldn't think of anything so I put the question out to my peeps in Facebook land.  I got lots of great suggestions and this one topped the list, even though it wasn't the recipe I used for the potluck.  I did, however, make this for the family a few weeks ago.  This great recipe came from my old high school friend, Charles.  If he cooks like this all the time for his new wife, she's a lucky lady!

Friends are like recipes; they're great to have around and it's always fun to find new ones.

Almond Chicken
6 skinned and boned chicken breast halves
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 Tbsp orange marmalade
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 cup package of sliced almonds, toasted

Flatten out the chicken halves to about a 1/4 inch thickness.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add half the chicken and cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown. I find you may need to use a lot more butter for this. Remove the chicken from skillet.  Repeat procedure with the remaining butter and chicken. When finished, remove the chicken, reduce heat to medium, add whipping cream, orange marmalade, Dijon mustard and ground red pepper, stirring well. Add chicken, sprinkle with almonds, and cook 8 minutes or until sauce thickens. Should yield 6 servings.

NOTES:  I flatted chicken by covering in plastic wrap first.  I tried using parchment paper but that did not work by any stretch of the imagination.  LOL  I used non-stick cooking spray rather than butter but I did add a little butter in with the whipping cream.  I couldn't find toasted almonds so I toasted them myself (oooh...amazing, I know).

This isn't a very good picture, but trust me, this is some good stuff!!  Nate pitched a little fit because "I don't like nuts" but after he got over it, he ate it all...and so did Mason.  Good stuff!

A *big* thank you to my friend, Charles, for this great recipe!  Definitely a make-it-again recipe for my family.

Happy 4th of July - Version 3.0

Happy Independence Day!!  I hope you are enjoying a day with family and friends today.  We spent a good evening with friends last night and me and the boys (hubs included) are hanging out together today.  It's pretty dang hot here and the boys spent some time in our little wading pool and now I'm cooling off and putting together this quick post to show off my 3rd of 3 patriotic manis (#1 HERE, #2 HERE)...and I think I save the best for last!

A couple weeks ago I saw a splatter mani on The PolishAholic.  I did my first splatter mani (which I'll post soon-ish) with a black base and blue and purple splatters.  And I couldn't pass up doing it for the 4th!

I started off with two coats of ChG White on White then I splattered ChG Frostbite (blue) and Zoya Alix.  I had some issues with my first splatter mani, but I got it down this time!  This pic was taken outdoors in filtered sunlight (there was a lot of smoke in the air - that's why my skin looks more orange than usual).

Ah...the standard sub-par pic of my right hand.  LOL  Of all my patriotic manis, I think I liked this one the best!  I know I said it before, but I really don't care for ChG White on White.  It seems to chip pretty easily, at least easier than my go-to SH White On.

How are you celebrating your 4th of July?  We'll be BBQing some tri-tip tonight but we won't be doing fireworks.  It's waaaay too dry here and the fireworks are hard to find at the moment.  Have a safe 4th!

Happy 4th of July - Version 2.0

Happy Saturday!!  And for a lot of you, happy 3-day-weekend!!  You get a bonus Saturday post from me today.  It's getting pretty warm outside and it's stinkin' smokey, so I'm hiding out indoors today. 

I did this mani earlier this week in preparation for Independence Day.  This is my second of 3 patriotic manis for the holiday.  The first can be found HERE.  This isn't my best water marble, but I liked the distribution of colors, so it's not a total loss.

I started with a base coat of ChG White On White then marbled using ChG White On White, ChG Frostbite and Zoya Alix.  This is my left hand.  It took me a while to realize that I was using too much white, so it's more like white, red and blue on this hand.

Here's my left thumb.  This is where I started using one ring of white to two each of red and blue.  I like the balance better here.

This is my right hand.  I hate taking pics of my right hand!  Anyway, if you compare the right to the left, you can see how much white there really was on my right hand.

Here's a little better view of my right thumb.  All in all, I was happy with this marble, though I don't know if it's the white (it may be a little old) or what, but this marble didn't last very long.  I'm wearing this same white today - only 1 day in to a new mani - and it's already chipped.  I think I'm going to go back to my good 'ol standby white (SH White On).

This is my favorite finger of the set - pinkie on my right hand.  I like the balance of the colors and the symmetry of the pattern.  And I can't tell if that's a small bubble in the middle or just an artifact created by the flash, but it wasn't as obvious IRL.

Thanks for hanging out with me for a bit today!  I'll be back on Monday with my 3rd patriotic mani and some time early this coming week, I'll be announcing a giveaway.  Happy 4th of July!

Friday Confessional: Bowling, Boys & Baskin Robins Edition

TGIF!!  And super TGIF at that since it's a 3-day weekend!!  WOOT!!  This week has flown by and dragged all at the same time.  My docs have been out since Wednesday and it's giving me lots of time to get caught up on this (other than just blog-hopping and FBing).  But, it wouldn't be the end of the week if I didn't participate in the weekly Friday Confessional session.  Join me, won't ya?

I confess...

I had a lot of fun with Nate's class on Wednesday.  They went bowling and they had a blast!!  Nate was all proud of his score of 55.  And he admitted that it was a lot harder than he expected (he's used to cleaning up playing Wii bowling).

I confess...

I love that our summer visitor (a barn owl Nate named Sugar) came back to visit.  But...I *don't* love the mess Sugar leaves us on the driveway and the rocks under the tree.

I confess...

I'm frustrated with how easily Mr Mason picks up sicknesses.  Last week it was a 24-hour stomach bug thing.  This week it's hand, foot and mouth disease.  His pediatrician called it a "summer illness".  Keeping him out of daycare for a year didn't do him any favors.

I confess...

After Mason's appointment this afternoon, we went to Baskin Robins for some yummy ice cream.  It *may* have been more for me than him, but he was happy, so Mommy was happy.

I confess...

I'm looking forward to 4th of July but I'm going to be on pins and needles because it's SUPER dry here.  The last measurable moisture we got was February 2nd.  FEBRUARY 2ND!  And people here in New Mexico are stupid and don't care if they set the mesa on fire.  We have two big wildfires going in the state right now and I have a feeling that number will have grown by next week.

I confess...

I'm super stoked to wear a polish that an ex-fellow blogger sent me to try.  It's sparkly and such a pretty color.  But I have to wait til after the 4th cuz I have at least another RW&B mani I want to do first.

...and I saved the best for last...

I confess...

On Wednesday evening when I was driving home from work, this lady driving a fancy BMW drove by me.  You could tell she was mad about something.  We met up at the light and she rolled down her window and she SCREAMED at me for...get this...driving the speed limit (from what I could tell by reading her lips).  I just looked at her with a huge smile on my face and waved at her all crazy.  And it felt good.  I told Nate too keep looking at her and if she looked over at us again to be sure to wave to her, too.

I feel lots better! Wanna feel better, too? Check out Mamarazzi's blog for more great Friday Confessional stories.