Are you a Fashion Diva or a Gym Slob?

So, I am curious about something.  I know some of my friends work everyday and therefore are dressed to the nines on a daily basis.  Then there are the moms who stay at home and yet still look fabulous running around with the kids.  You know the type - perfect outfit, beautiful hair, wonderfully accessorized, etc.

Katie Holmes and Suri Cruise

Since I still have a baby at home for another few months (cue the tears), I don't work much.  My daily life consits of these few places:  the gym, Wal-Mart, home, Target and the kids' school for pick up time.  That's about it.  Therefore, I don't spend a lot of time on myself.  I refuse to waste good makeup on the people at the gym just to go home, take a shower and wash it all off.  I am not that girl.  If I had tons of $$ to spend, I MIGHT be that girl, but I doubt it.  I am that girl at the gym in black semi-fitted yoga pants and a big ole t-shirt, no makeup and hair in a ponytail.  I do not go to the gym looking like it's Friday night and we're going clubbing after running on the treadmill. 

Nope, not me.  In fact, I'm usually the girl older mom picking up the kids from school, still in the nasty gym clothes because I never got the chance to take a shower.  EEEWWW!  It's so not pretty. 

Okay, so this is Kourtney Kardashian, but it could totally be me if she had a ponytail, no makeup and was say....12 sizes bigger! 

Now, I do loooove fashion, cute clothes and makeup.  If I was a size 6-8 and had lots of $$ to blow, I would look really good at least six three days a week.  It's hard to buy cute clothes when you are a Hoss (that would be a Bonanza reference for you young 'uns).  So, I get VERY excited when I get cute clothes and have somewhere to wear them.  Tonight, I have a date with Hubby.  I am so excited.  I get to be a girl tonight!  WOO HOO!  Wanna see what I'm most excited about wearing?

Aren't they cute?  I love me some Yellow Box!  Look at that cute wedge heel!  Know what that means?  For a klutzy gal like me, that means there probably won't be a trip to the ER tonight.  Gotta love that! 

So, I just wonder what type of woman you are?  Do you dress up on a daily basis no matter where you go?  Would you rather be out of toilet paper for 24 hours before you'd run to Wal-Mart without your makeup on?  Are you a gym slob like me?  Are you somewhere in the middle?  I'm just curious. 

Ruffles in the Kitchen

So, y'all know about my obsession with kitchen towels, right?  I loooove them.  My SIL got me these for Christmas.  They are so cute!  BUT, I only put them out when I have company because I want to keep them pretty.

 I've made a bunch of applique towels, mostly as gifts.  You see, my gluten-free/casein-free child drinks a lot of chocolate Silk.  He spills A LOT and Silk doesn't come out....EVAH!  Once it's on there, it's on there.   He's completely ruined my Williams Sonoma kitchen towels.  I'm glad he cleans up after himself, but gosh I'm tired of chocolate stained towels.  So, after I mentioned in a previous post that this is why I never keep and display my pretty towels, Richella and Suzanne mentioned I should make some for myself that could be bleached.  Well, duh!  Why didn't I think of that?  So, being the go-getter that I am, I got right on it put it off for a few months before finally getting to it last week. 

So, my original inspiration came from Sausha's shower curtain. 

Isn't it gorgeous and flowy and airy and pretty?  You can find Sausha's post here.  Anywy, I used ready made flour sack towels to make mine.  I cut one of them in strips to make the ruffles.  The ruffles are not hemmed so they will fray.  I love that! 

Look at those ruffles!

Rows and rows of ruffles.  Ahhhh!

Love!  But, I'm still not sure if I'm keeping it.  Hmmmm.  Can't decide. 

I'm linking to Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous, Feature Yourself Friday @ Fingerprints on the Fridge, Flaunt in Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest and I'm Flaunting my Feathers @ A Lovely Place to Land. 

*I apoligize for my lack of button display.  Blogger is acting up and giving me fits about buttons today!

Easter, Trying New Recipes and Randomness

So, did y'all have a good Easter?  I did!  We had a weekend full of family togetherness.  Mom, C and I had a wonderful afternoon of shopping Saturday, which is saying something when you're trying to dress a teenager.  The kids had a great time dyeing eggs.  Church was wonderful, as usual.  The only bad thing about the weekend was that my camera DIED on me.  I only managed to get a few pictures.  Here is one of the kids.

The kids had a great time hunting eggs and then playing in the sprinkler.  Durn camera! 

In other FFB news, I am still roughly the size of the side of a barn.  In other words, I'm HUGE!  I've been soooo busy the last few weeks that my workouts have been minimal and I've been eating whatever I want, which is sooooo not good for my backside.  So, I've been on the outlook for some recipes that are low in fat, but don't taste like cardboard (not an easy task).  The first place I looked was Gina's Skinny Taste.  I love Gina's blog!  My sister brought a couple of Gina's recipes to lunch on Easter and they were excellent.  Last night I made Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken.  It was wonderful!  It was kind of a mexican chicken stew, served over rice.  Even Hubby liked it.  I would definitely recommend it.  Wanna see a picture?

Now doesn't that look good?  Of course, this is NOT my picture.  I had to steal borrow it from Gina's blog.  While my camera did finally start working again (for now), I spent the evening last night in the bathroom with the kids (more tornados) so I didn't have time to snap a picture of my bowl.  I feel sure that the picture I would've taken of my dinner in my orange plastic bowl wouldn't have been quite as pretty anyway.  We totally used plastic last night because I didn't want to hand wash my nice bowls during the tornado warning.  I'm lazy like that. 

I've been doing quite a bit of sewing the past few weeks.  I've had lots of bib and burpie orders.  There must be something in the water around here.  I better stick to bottled water. 

Isn't this fabric cute? 

I've been doing some other sewing too.  I'll share that project with y'all later this week.  Y'all have a great Tuesday!

Getting Ready for Easter!

As I said yesterday, it's been crazy busy here in the FFB household.  Yesterday was L's Easter egg hunt at school.  They were so busy running around grabbing eggs, that I only snapped a couple of semi-decent pictures.

Yep, that's it.  All the others were blurry.  I need a new camera.

I also finished E's Easter outfit yesterday.  Phew!  I cut it way too close this year.

I love these fabrics!  Check out the back of her top.

I just love the criss-cross straps and the bow. 

So, what about you?  Did you get a new outfit for Easter?  I got a new top, which I bought with a gift card.  Woo Hoo!  Nothing like free.  Thanks Mom!  My oldest daughter has NOTHING to wear.  We have to go shopping AGAIN tomorrow.  We've already been twice and she can't find anything she likes.  She's sooooooo picky!  Teenagers!  UGH!  Anyway, wish us luck and maybe say a little prayer that I don't completely lose my mind shopping with her tomorrow. 

Hope y'all have a wonderful Easter weekend! 

When It Rains, It Pours

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours.  Yep.  It's been CRAZY here for the last ten days.  So, I've spent the last few days catching up on orders (almost done),

taking kids to dentist appointments, going on field trips with my son's class

visiting with my BIL, SIL and niece who were in town visiting this week.  We've had several bad weather systems come through so we've had a few eventful nights that look like this

That would be five little ones in the bathtub (my three little ones and my niece and nephew) and my oldest daughter and my oldest niece all taking cover in my little bathroom.  Fun times!  Talk about family togetherness!  Luckily, the storm went a little north of us and only caused minor damage. 

Easter is just around the corner and only the boys have clothes ready to go, thanks to my mom.  This means that I am in full-blown panic mode about Easter clothes for the girls and me.  Wanna see E's Easter outfit?

Yeah, me too.  Right now it's cut out and pinned and that's about it.  I only have a few hours today to get it done.  I've gotta be at L's Easter egg hunt by 1:30.  Better get started! 

Hopefully I will be back next week in a more normal capacity.  Happy Thursday friends!

The BEST Cinammon Rolls EVER!

So, yesterday I promised to share my new absolute favorite awesome, wonderful, recipe.  BEFORE I share with you, I just want to give you a little warning.  You see, I have never taken drugs in my life.  I was not the experimenting type.  HOWEVER, apparently when you put these ingredients together, they form some kind of addictive substance because I could NOT quit eating them.  COULD.  NOT.  **I gained two pounds eating these, but they were totally worth it!  I apologize ahead of time if you make these and go from looking like this...

to looking like....well, me, at this moment.  Anyway, let's move on to the recipe, shall we? 

Okay.  I LOVE cinammon rolls.  They are just about my favorite thing to eat.  I love them even more than chocolate.  Wow, that's a lot of love!  Anyway, I've been searching for the perfect cinammon roll recipe FOREVER.  Friends, I think I have found it!!!  Have you been to Cinnabon?  I've only been one time, but I swear this recipe comes really close.  You ready??? Here we go.  I found this recipe at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, but I did change the original recipe up just a teeny tiny bit to fit my taste and I am soooo happy with how it turned out.

BEST CINAMMON ROLLS EVER!!!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

3 Tbls. ground cinnamon

(2) .25 oz. pks. active dry yeast (I use 2 TB instant yeast)

1 tsp. granulated sugar

1 cup 110 degree water (approximately)

1 cup warm milk

2/3 cups granulated sugar

2/3 cup melted butter

2 tsp. salt

2 eggs – slightly beaten

Up to 8 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup melted butter OR margarine

1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans – optional

3/4 cup raisins - optional

1/2 cup melted butter OR margarine

1/3 cup granulated sugar

Mix together 1 1/2 cups sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Set aside for later.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 tsp. sugar in warm water; set aside (if using instant yeast, you can skip this step)

In a large bowl, mix together milk, 2/3 cup sugar, 2/3 cup melted butter, salt, and eggs; add yeast mixture and 4 cups of flour to mixture; beat until smooth; stir in enough flour to form a slightly stiff dough.

Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead for 8 minutes.

When your dough is ready, it will be very elastic.

Place dough into a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

Before rising (I didn't have any plastic wrap so I used a ziploc storage bag).

After rising.

Punch down dough and let rest for 5 minutes.

Roll dough out onto a floured surface into a 15″ X 20″ rectangle.

Brush 1/2 cup melted butter over dough.

Sprinkle cinnamon, sugar, brown sugar mixture evenly over dough; sprinkle nuts and/or raisins evenly over dough, if desired (I did not use nuts or raisins).

Tightly roll up the long side of dough and pinch edges together to seal; cut the roll into 12 – 15 slices using dental floss or thread (I used a knife and got 19 cinammon rolls in a 13 x 9 and an 8 x 8).

Coat the bottom of a 13″ X 9″ X 2″ baking pan with 1/2 cup melted butter; sprinkle 1/3 cup sugar evenly in the bottom of the pan ( I only brushed the bottom of the pan with a little melted butter to keep them from sticking.  If you choose to do the butter and sugar on the bottom, invert the rolls onto another surface so all the buttery sugary goodness will drip onto the rolls).

Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the prepared pan.

 Cover pan and allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes or just eye ball them (I forgot to cover them, but they turned out fine).

Looking good, baby!

Bake rolls in a 350 degree oven for 25 – 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Oh my gracious!!!  Don't they look amazing?  BUT, we're not done yet.  Now for the icing.  Now, you can use whatever icing you prefer, but I love a good cream cheese icing. 

3 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese, softened, room temperature
16 oz. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla 

I just whisked together my butter and cream cheese until smooth, added the powdered sugar and whisked together until all the lumps are out.  Stir in vanilla.  Now, taste the icing and see if it's as good as it looks.  It's good, right?  MMMM!  Okay, take your finger out of the icing and spread it on the rolls while they're still slightly warm.  So, I usually reserve about 1/2 cup of icing in case you want to warm the rolls up a little and some of the icing melts off a little and you need some reserve.  I'm weird like that.  It also comes in handy when your kids are fighting because "he or she got more icing on his/hers than I did".  UGH!

Here's the small 8 x 8 pan.  Okay, so it's the small  8 x 8 pan minus two cinammon rolls. 

I couldn't help myself.

Seriously, it doesn't get any better than that.  I would like to close this post with a prayer. 

Dear Lord, thank you for cinnamon rolls.  They rock!  Amen. 

 **  I did finally lose that two pounds, but my Hubby made me promise not to make these again until Teacher Appreciation Day next month.  He couldn't stop eating them either. 

Happy Wednesday!

I'm linking this post to: 

Guest Post at Southern Fried Dreams

Hello friends!  I hope everyone is having a good Tuesday.  My sweet friend Carmella, and one of my favorite Willow House consultants (Director, actually), over at Southern Fried Dreams is allowing me to guest post on her blog today.  I'd love for y'all to pop over and say hi. 

Also, tomorrow I will be sharing my new absolute favorite awesome, wonderful, recipe.  Seriously, you don't want to miss it.  Okay, maybe you should skip it if you're on a diet or if you don't eat sweets or if you don't want to have to go to a 12 step program for addiction to cinammon rolls.  Surely Dr. Drew from Celebrity Rehab has a program like that, right?  If not, I might need to email him about that, or send him a cinammon roll and let him see for himself.  Anyway, stop back by tomorrow if you get a chance. 

Wanna sneak peek?

You might wanna get a new jug of milk to go along with these.  MMMM! 

See y'all tomorrow.  I'm on my way to Zumba off the two pounds I gained when I made these!

Autism in Entertainment

So, not much craftiness going on this weekend.  I got some fabric cut out and ready to sew and did about 17 loads of laundry.  That's about it. 

Since it's Autism Awareness month, I thought I would share a few of my favorite shows/movies about autism or autistic characters.  This is the trailer for my absolute favorite movie about autism.  It's called Miracle Run: The Unexpected Journey.  Zac Efron does an amazing job playing an autistic teen.  It's based on the true story of Phillip and Steven, twin brothers who have autism.  It does a great job showcasing their gifts as well as their struggles.



The next clip is for the movie Temple Grandin.  It's based on the true life struggles of Temple Grandin, a world renowned animal activist and inventor.  It does a very good job of showing how some autistic people think in pictures as well as talking about her sensory issues.  It's VERY good.




Moving on to television shows, my favorite would be Parenthood.  The Braverman's young son (age 9 or 10) has just found out that he has Asperger's Syndrome.  Max Burkholder does a great job of portraying a child with Asperger's (high functioning autism). 



It's funny how the more you learn about autism/Asperger's, the more you can spot the behavior in complete strangers and/or fictional characters.  If you've ever seen The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper, is one such character.  Although they never mention Asperger's, Sheldon's lacking social interaction skills along with his extreme OCD and genius mind suggest that he does, in fact, have Asperger's.  I wanted to share a clip, but couldn't get it to embed. 

I'm not sure if you are an American Idol fan, but I am.  This season, one of my favorite contestants is James Durbin.  He has Asperger's and Tourette's Syndrome.  Here is a clip.



I love him.  He is so talented.  Even if you don't enjoy hard rock, he voice is amazing.  There is something about hearing stories of people with autism and seeing their success, that gives this mama hope. 

Happy Monday!

Zumba and Spring Brights

So, I went to my first Zumba class last night.  It was actually fun.  We had one girl that just gave up and walked out.  I did good though.  It took me awhile to get the moves down, but I sucked it up, embraced my inner dork and Zumbad with the skinny girls.  I shook my groove thang, literally.  Luckily, I was in the back of the class so nobody had to see my groove thang shake.  AND, the good news is that I'm not that sore, so I can still hit the gym this morning.  Wanna know what inspires me most about working out?  New spring fashions.  Shallow?  Well, maybe, but ya gotta go with what works for ya, right?  Right.  So, brights are really hot this spring.  These are a few of my favorites:

Michael Kors

Express

The orange dress above is by Lipsy.  It's my favorite!  I have a thing for off the shoulder dresses.  Which means, I desperately need to get my arms and shoulders in shape.  I wonder if this dress comes in Extra Beefy Jumbo?  Hmmmm.  Oh well, it's not like I had an extra $160 to spend on a dress anyway.  Not to mention that it's awfully short and I'm not the most ladylike.  I'd hate for people to see too much of my groove thang if I dropped something.  Yikes!  Moving on...

Gorgeous Ralph Lauren dress.  Isn't it pretty?  I am sure I need something like this for all the fancy parties I go to......in my imagination. 

Speaking of brights, I thought I'd share the outfit I made E to go with her flip flops with interchangeable bows. 

Don't ya just love Heather Bailey fabric?  Such pretty bright colors!  She's ready for spring.  Okay, I'm headed to the gym now that I've had a dose of inspiration.  Happy Friday!