Christmas buzz IN a cup!

I have a secret and I need to tell you all. Maybe you know this little secret, but I hadn't a clue until recently. A month ago, I took my cousin on a suprise road trip for her 22nd birthday. Along the way we stopped at a little town called Solvang; a super CUTE little Danish Village in the heart of Santa Barbara's wine country and it is ADORABLE.

We stopped in at a wine tasting room called Sort This Out Cellar. We did the usual tasting, and when we were about to leave the bar tender said that she still had one tasting left for us. I sipped on the cup and IMMEDIATELY felt a Christmas rush through my body [[you know---all warm and fuzzy, and as if I threw on Coast 103.5 Xmas Station on]]. What the heck was this stuff? We'll, after I ramped and raved for my friends around me to try it- I finally ask the bartender what it was. It was Mulled Wine [Christmas freakin buzz in a cup as id like to call it].

Seeing as I needed to have this around the holidays, I went ahead and purchased the pre packaged spices that Sort This Out Sellars sold to their customers so that I could make my own Mulled Wine on my own.  Now--seeing that Solvang is a bit of a drive, I went ahead and found a alternative easy receipe that you would be able to use to make Mulled Wine.

TRY IT OUT!

1. 1 bottle of Red Wine
2. 1 cup of water
3. 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
4. 2 tsp lemon juice
5. 10 cloves
   6. (4) whole cinnamon sticks

Place all ingredients into a pan, and simmer in pan for 1 hour. After 1 hour serve.

Avoid Holiday Weight Gain

With the holidays fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to write a blog on how to eat healthy during the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love food, and stuffing my face-but I regret eating like im feeding three as soon as New Years rolls around.


This year, I have decided that I am going to approach the holidays a little different. I went ahead and collected some information from various websites on how to eat "healthy" during the holidays. Some of the tips are BRILLIANT and extremely simple.


1.) Don't Forget to Eat: It is extremely essential that you do not miss meals before the event you are attending--even if you KNOW there is going to be a ton of food. Commit to eating small portions throughout the day. This will help minimize overeating and making poor food choices.


2.) Take Only One Serving of Each Item: If your anything like me, I tend to load up my entire plate. I most certainly take more than one serving of each item. Then again-that's probably because I do not eat before the big event [hence why ill be paying more attention to tip number 1]. Take the one serving guys, and savor it!

3.) Use a Smaller Plate: The bigger the plate you use, the more you will want to eat. Try using a smaller plate. This will help you to minimize portion sizes. Who wants to be the one that gets up for plate #3? Talk about embarassing- Not ME! The smaller plate method will force you to limit your eating.


4.) Fill Up on Fiber: Fiber [veggies, bean dip, fruits, wheat crackers] SUPER healthy and keeps your tummy feeling full. I would recommend to add a ton of fiber on your plate so you do not find yourself getting multiple plates of food.

5.) Drink Water: You can slow down your eating by taking a sip of water avidly during your meal. Sometimes dehydration can feel like hunger so make sure that you are hydrating yourself during your event.


6.) Get Away From the Table: It is hard to control yourself if you are hanging all over the food table. Remove yourself from the food areas so that you are not constantly picking at the food [I have a BAD habit of doing this].


7.) Exercise: If most of these tips are hard for you to do. Get yourself to the GYM before the holiday party. Most gyms are open on holidays for limited hours. Check your local gym listing to see what their holiday hours are. Even if it is just for a 30 minute run, that is some extra calories lost that you don't have to feel guilty for.

Friendsgiving

Over this past weekend, my friends and I hosted an event called Friendsgiving. A few people have asked me what Friendsgiving is so I thought I would share this event in my blog today. Let me break it down to you:



-A Thanksgiving
-With your friends
-Where everyone contributes a side dish to the Thanksgiving Feast and their favorite alcohol to pair



If you want to host a Friendsgiving, here are the steps you need to take in doing so:



1.) Create a guestlist [duh]
2.) Have a sign in sheet where each person can state what they are going to bring to the event. This will help eliminate a million pies being at the event or only dinner rolls.



-----The person that is throwing the Friendsgiving at their house will be providing the Turkey. All the other fixings will be provided by other guests----



On the day of Friendsgiving, as a host-here are some tips to get the day running smoothly before the guests arrive:



1.) Cook the Turkey- Our Turkey was purchased at Walmart; it came with the gravy for the Turkey and was SUPER cheap. $11.99 for a 15lb turkey--STEAL! The turkey was anticipated to feed the 25 guests that were in attendance, but we STILL had leftovers. Something to keep in mind-turkey goes a long way sometimes!



-TIP: Use a Oven Bag for the Turkey. This will help eliminate any mess, and also cut your cooking time down by a few hours. We used an oven bag for our turkey and it was DELISH! Probably one of the best Turkeys I have ever tasted.

2.) Decorate the house-  Before the event, I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up some last minute Thanksgiving decorations. It really gave the event the FALL/THANKSGIVING feel to it that we were looking for. We put down a table cloth on all the tables that would have drinks/food on it. This left us with a super easy clean up!

3.) Appetizer Set Up- Have appetizers/select drinks out for when your guests arrive. We went mainly with cheese/crackers dishes. This is something quick and easy that you can throw together. Who knows-you may even have these items laying around in your house. In addition, we hit up the local super maket and picked up some $2 wines. We were really classing it up on friendsgiving!

4.) Pop The Champagne!-You deserve a little celebration; not only are you hosting the event, but you made the turkey, and decorated the house. Give yourself a pat on the back. My favorite way to celebrate is a little Champagne.


-DISCOVERY: Bevmo has the largest bottle of Cooks Champagne for ONLY $8.99. Talk about a STEAL! I will only be purchasing my champagne at bevmo for NOW ON!

5.) Get the Fixin's Together- By this time, im sure most of your guests have arrived. Start placing the dishes on the table--cut the turkey--pour yourself some dranks--and GET TO EATIN!

This event was a HUGE success. This was the first Annual Friendsgiving; many other Friendsgiving's will follow here on out! Hope that you guys try it out for youself! xoxoxoxo

Eat, drink and be scary

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought it would be fun to make a Halloween Guide.


This guide will give you tips and tricks to make your Halloween as simple and as cost effective as you can!


***Carving a Pumpkin: 1.) Pick out a pumpkin;


Cost effective route: Purchase your pumpkin from a grocery store
Not on a budget: Go to your local pumpkin patch. 
2.) Pick a design- The biggest problem I come across every year trying to track down the PERFECT pumpkin carving stencil that I want to use.
I have gone from taking photobucket images and enlarging them on the copy machine, to searching every website until I can finally find what I am looking for--FOR FREE. Lets get real, who wants to pay to subscribe to pumpkin carving stencils???-not me!

Today, I finally found what I needed!  This is a free service, all you have to do is create a FREE account with them. If you are interested in printing out free carving stencils, please sign up on the following site:


http://www.bhg.com/halloween/pumpkin-carving/free-face-stencils-for-pumpkin-carving/?fb_ref=s%3DshowShareBarUI%3Ap%3Dfacebook-like&fb_source=profile_oneline
They have a ton of different stencils from cats to dogs - to ghosts and vampires. For a free service, they had a pretty wide range.

Here is an example of one of there products:
OF COURSE I had to use a pug. I think I am going to be creating my own pug pumpkin this year.
3.) Start Carving- You can use a knife from home, or purchase a carving kit. You can usually purchase a carving kit from the pumpkin patch or your local Cvs Store. The carving kit is typically under $5.00, and is extremely useful when carving your pumpkin. Trust me, you do want to purchase this!
***Costumes: When I hear the word costume, the first thing that pops into my mind is money. Unfortunately, we may not all have the luxury of spending a ton of money on our halloween costume this year. If you are on a tight budget, here are some suggestions for you:
1.) Burrow a costume from a friend- lets get real, YOU never wore it, so its not like your wearing the same costume twice
2.) Make your own costume out the items in your closet. Pull out a black tube top dress, some fish net stockings, and purchase a pair of cat ears--with the right make up--you are a CAT! Or a "Cat Bandet" as per below-I pulled all of those items out of my closet last year. That costume did not cost me a penny!




3.) Go shopping right after halloween for next years costume. There are SO many good deals and sales right after halloween. Pick up a few pieces for your outfit for the following year. Even if you don't wear the outfit for halloween, there may even be a themed or dress up party that you could wear the outfit to.
***Crafts:What fun is Halloween with out any crafts? I know one of my favorite things to do for Halloween is decorate! All the pumpkins, spiders, and witches are SO FUN!
Here are some fun ideas that I came across that can be used with household items:

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.
- - - Shakespeare "Macbeth"

Baller on a BUDGET!

You will come to find out, that I am barley ever in town. I am usually on some type of adventure that will steer me away from my local city; Corona. But then again-who really wants to hang out there anyways?

I am not totally knockin' on Corona [or am I], but the local dive bar and karokee gets old from time to time. So then you ask, what can I do and for a REASONABLE price.

Lets recap the places I have been in 2011
Las Vegas [x5]
Laughlin
Flordia
Lake Havasu [x4]
New York
Santa Barbra
San Simeon County
Catalina
San Diego [x3]

and numerous amounts of Newport, Huntington Beach, and Apple Valley trips [yes, I said apple valley-don't hate unless you have been to The Cadillac Ranch]

---thats almost a sold 4 months of STRAIGHT weekend vacationing. You then ask yourself, how the HELL can anyone afford to be on vacation so often; you have to purchase hotels, flights, food, drinks, etc, etc etc!

Here are some TIPS if you are wanting to go on a vacation:

1.) Do you have a friend in the area that you can stay with?

This is a pretty simple money saving strategy. If you have a friend in the area-ask them if you can crash. If you are staying somewhere for a few days, that could help you save over $300 on hotel bills! Just make sure that you take care of your fellow friend with a fun gift or a thank you card--let them know that you appreciate their hospitality!

2.) Consider a lower star option!

How often are you REALLY going to be in the hotel anyways? I am not recommending you to stay at the Motel 6 [done that one before-and do not recommend it!], but something that may be a 3 star instead of a 5 star.

If you are REALLY concerned if the hotel is going to be a dump, feel free to use reviews from multiple websites [ex/expedia, travelocity]. Then you can see what the consumer really thinks about the hotel-do keep in mind that some people just really like to complain; don't take the comments too literal!

3.) COUPONS!

This is my favorite option to use. I don't decide on exactly where I am going to be staying or going, I let the coupon decide for me! Some of my most trusted sites that I use for great deals are: Travelzoo [my all time favorite], Bloomspot [more upscale places for a reasonable pirce], Groupon [the daily deal; however, groupon has been disappointing me lately], and Hotel.com [they usually have decent deals on hotels for that particular week].

Here is an example of a Travelzoo deal that we did:

(2) Night stay at Keating Hotel

(1) Bottle of wine on arrival

(1) 3 course dinner meal for 2 at on site restaurant

(2) Daily breakfasts hand delivered to your meal every morning

(2) Turn down services

$350.00 for ALL of this. Now lets get real-the hotel is $300 a night--and we got the ENTIRE package for $350--now THATS a steal.

4.) CRAM A TON OF FRIENDS INTO ONE PLACE

Say you really want to go out of town, and none of these other brilliant recommendations work at the time of your vacation--INVITE MORE PEOPLE! Like I said earlier, its JUST a hotel room, you are only going to be sleeping there. Bring a few extra blankets and pillows and split the cost of the room. You'll be happy that you did--your wallet will thank you, and then you get to know your friends on a more personal level then EVER before!

5.) REDUCE the amount that you need to spend:

Bring your own snacks, drinks, and food to keep you a happy camper for the entire weekend. You are already having to spend enough money on your vacation, why not save some dough and bring the necessities!

Peace, love and start VACATIONING!

Hello Kitty: Behind the Scenes

Did you ever go into Sanrio when you were a kid? I know I was a fan of Spotty Dotty & Keroppi, but I was never a fan of Hello Kitty. She was always pink and girly-and as a child that was that complete opposite of me. I was into sports, dirt, and playing hockey outside with the neighbor kids down the street.

Now I find myself, a 26 year old women OBSESSED with Hello Kitty, it is almost unnatural---I have been asked to get help; however, I do not think they make medication with Hello Kitty emblems on them yet-- so I went ahead and passed.

I mean--my 25th birthday was completely Hello Kitty Themed. I don't know what it is-but she is the most adorable thing that I have ever seen. Everytime I see anything that has Hello Kitty on it, I can't help but get a smile to my face.<------Cutest birthday I have ever had! (Myself and Diane, Feb 2010)

Who the HECK is Hello Kitty?

•  Full name Kitty White [yes, you learn something new everyday]
• Fictional character created by Sanrio
• She LIVES in England--even though she was created in Japan
• The character's first apperance was on a vinyl coin purse: introduced to Japan 1974 and USA 1976
• Her trademark earned over $3billion dollars annually in sales outside Japan in 2003
• Bright eyed and kind hearted girl
• Has a twin sister named Mimmy [Mimmy wears her bow to the right and Hello Kitty wears hers to the left] ---maybe you have been getting Mimmy products all along?

Tarintino Tarintino Collection added Hello Kitty onto her line. [One of my favorite Hk Lines]This was a BOMB.COM day for me when I found out- I have a few Tarintino pieces myself and let me tell you that the quality is great! Her products really hold up to par! She takes fun child hood characters and twists them into a funky, bedazzled, fresh piece! It's brilliant!


Please see the following link if you are interested in purchasing one of her items from her collection: http://www.tarinatarantino.com/shop.

*I mean HELLO --how could you not want this georgous piece to add to your collection?

Loungefly: This is another designer that carries Hello Kitty products as well. You can directly order from Loungefly online-or you can go into your local Hot Topic/Sanrio store to see the latest collection [helps save you a few $$ on shipping costs].

<----------Let me tell you about a little drunk purchase the b/f made for me@ 2am this past January--in the PALMS Las Vegas, NV after Club Rain--this little baby was purchased. Thanks b/f! I LOVE this tote. It is adorable and I can use it for the overnight essentials!

Lets get real serious--if your are still in college; can we say trendy book bag? I highly recommend this product. To view this product along with others; please click on the following link: http://shop.sanrio.com/designer-collections-loungefly/Designer-Collections-Loungefly,default,sc.html.

Tokidoki: No words can express the amount of L-O-V-E that I have for the Tokidoki Collection that Sanrio has added. Unicorns, Rainbows, diamonds, skulls, and HELLO Kitty all in one place! I am IN LOVE! Even though the Tokidoki it a bit pricey; I would have to say that the designs and quality are WELL worth it.

Peace-Love-and HELLO KITTY

It's a PUG LIFE for me!

Many of you may wonder to yourself--what the heck is her obsession with pugs? You may even think they are the strangest looking dogs--these were all thoughts that I had UNTIL I owned a pug. I got Henry James [Prince Henry James I] 5 years ago. My ex boyfriend and I decided that we wanted a dog--and our compramise was a pug. I had NO IDEA this this animal would change my life or that I could love anything as much as I do. Needless to say-we are no longer together and after sharing Henry for over a year-I won the custody battle on this one!

Through the years, Henry James has been there for me through the tears, the laughs, river trips, and the ragin' good times! Some might refer to Pugs as “needy”, but a better description would probably be “childlike”. They want what they want when they want it!--and Henry is absolutely NO exception <3

It's no lie when it says that a dog is a man woman's best friend! 

PUG FUN FACTS:

<3 Pugs are an ancient Asian breed that once lived as pets in Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and were considered royalty themselves; they are, in fact, one of the oldest breeds dating back to 400 B.C.

In the 16th century, Pugs were the traditional pet of European royalty and can be seen in many old world paintings.


In the 1500’s, a Pug saved the life of William, Prince of Orange by giving the alarm that the Spanish were approaching.


In the 1700’s, Napoleons wife Josephine had her little Pug, Fortune, smuggle notes under his collar to Napoleon while she was imprisoned in Les Carmes.


In 1860, British soldiers brought Pugs as well as Pekingese dogs from the Imperial palace in China.


In 1886, the black Pug was first seen in England after being imported from China.


The American Kennel Club recognized the Pug in 1885

• Here are pictures with MY absolute baby angel: Henry James!