Kid's Clothes

It has been a long time since I have posted anything! It has been crazy busy with Family Day planning at work.

Many new promotional codes for you to get great discounts.

Children's Place (www.childrensplace.com) has so many of their kids' clothes on sale. Use promo code C4A4A for 15% off. They have $5.00 on anything shipping. They have the greatest stuff for a great price.

JC Penney has 15% off on their site as well. Use code APR10SUR.

Dillards has a great Estee Lauder makeup kit for only $29.50 with any purchase of Estee Lauder perfume.

Bryan and I have been loving how we feel when we eat meals without processed food. We have made the most incredible meals. Tonight I am grilling stuffed portobello mushrooms. Clean Eating Magazine has really helped educate us on what to eat and not eat. Susie Q, Jenny and I went to the Keller Farmer's Market. They have one at the City Hall from 8am - 1pm. The vendors let us sample their wonderful products from organic honey to homemade pasta. I got some sun dried tomato pasta that was so flavorful. Even Ty, my picky eater, loved it with fresh pesto. We found a booth that was selling their dressings without any preservatives. The chipolte ranch dressing only has 71 calories and 1 gram of fat and surprisingly it doesn't taste light at all. It had great flavor. Stop by and check them out. They have clowns and other things for the kids.

Bad economy over?

I ran home today after a long day and was excited to see my Marie Claire magazine in the mail. I grabbed it and jumped in the bathtub. I wasn't a quarter way through when I noticed that the very expensive clothing, shoes and accessories are starting to sneak their way back into magazines. Within a few pages, I saw $800 shoes, $300 sunglasses and a $1200 bag. This is great if you are a Real Housewife of New York! What about the real people?

Last year Marie Claire had an issue that focused on completely affordable fashion in the tough economy. I thoroughly enjoyed that issue. I read it cover to cover and dog eared almost every page. Now they still have a Splurge vs. Steal page but even some of the steals are over $200 items. They also have a Look Great for Under $100 page. This page is great. I wish there were 20 more pages like them. Does advertising extremely expensive fashion contribute to our country's debt? Do women read these magazines and think to themselves that they must be the only ones not dropping this kind of cash on a pair of shoes? Don't get caught in that trap.

Some of my new favorite, totally affordable fashion lines are She Said, I "heart" Ronson and Bisou Bisou at JCPenney. Norma Kamali has great stuff on the walmart.com site. Target gets a new high fashion guest designer almost weekly and Kohls has Vera Wang. There is cute stuff everywhere. Look at this adorable top from She Said at Penneys. Wear it with a cute black pencil skirt and ankle booties, with leggings or jeans. It is on the site for $29.99. Use code APR10SUR for 15% off.

So to all of you women, the rest of us aren't out here spending that kind of money. You can look just as cute on a budget!

Living a BIG life

I tivo-ed Kirstie Alley's "Big Life" and sat down to watch all 4 episodes today. I was surprised at how funny and humble she is. She talked about how much she is beating herself up about gaining all the weight back that she lost just a few years ago. I can totally related to the self esteem blow that weight gain causes especially when you are successful at getting it off only to gain it back. The one thing that I noticed about her is that she wears huge, billowy clothing at all times. They look like moo-moos at times. She might feel better if she wore some stylish clothing more often. Just because we might be a little plus size, doesn't mean we can't dress well for our body. So to all of you "fluffy" ladies, get out there and try some of these new styles and let your inner self shine!

Some of the fun things I want this spring are:

• Even more strapy platform sandals! My philosophy is that shoes ALWAYS fit! I have about 4 new pairs of these this spring season and I keep finding more. I found these (Pictured) at DSW shoes for $39.95. I got them in gray and black. I also had a promotional code so I got both of them for just a little over $50. I love them! They are so comfortable and make legs look long and lean. Wear them with skinny jeans, walking shorts and dresses!
  
• Cat's eye sunglasses are making a comeback. Nothing says glamour like these do! Some of the most wonderful women wear them - Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O and Scarlett Johansson wore them with such style.
• A crisp, white blazer. I have always stayed away from white but I am really drawn to this look this spring. They look adorable with shorts, jeans and over a sundress. Look for great ones at www.newport-news.com. They have great promotional codes as well.
  
• A great, big, patent leather bag in a bold, bright color. I love the ones from Gianni Bini and they are a great price. I keep checking Ebay to see if they are cheaper. I want to get a color that I would never get like lime green or royal blue. The bight yellow is awesome too!
• Everyone is wearing tops and dresses with one bare shoulder showing. I need to go try on this style. I think the right style might work.
  
• A big, chunky colorful watch. The clear ones from DKNY are adorable! They are $85 each which isn't bad at all for these. They come in such fun colors - even purple!
  

Healthy Wheat Pizza

I just made healthy wheat pizza dough. We are making our own pizzas tonight. The recipe is:

Whisk 3 3/4 wheat or spelt flour (I added in a tiny bit of flaxseed meal) and 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt in a bowl. Make a large well with your fingers. Add 1 1/3 cups of warm water, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 packet of yeast. When the liquid gets foamy (about 5 minutes) add 3 tablespoons of olive oil; knead until smooth (about 5 minutes). Brush with olive oil, cover and sit for 1 1/2 hours. The dough will rise and double. Divide into two 1 pound balls, roll out and top as desired. Bake in a 500 degree oven for about 15 minutes.

Some of my favorite toppings are below but you can do ANYTHING with this crust. Be creative!

• Olive oil, marinara, fresh basil, tomatoes and fresh good mozzarella
• Olive oil, pears, gorgonzola. After it comes out of the oven add arugula and walnuts tossed with olive oil.
• Olive oil, thin shaved ham, and brie
• Brush with light butter (melted) and bake until golden. Saute 3 sliced bananas with butter, 1 tablespoon sugar and splash of rum. Then spoon over pizza. Drizzle with chocolate/hazlenut spread - Nutella.

We spent a few days in Dallas for spring break. We took the kids to Medieval Times and the aquarium. It was fun but I could sure tell after eating Mexican food that I felt gross. There is something to this clean eating thing. I am going to try and combine some of their recipes with some of my favorite Weight Watchers recipes. The challenge will be that so many of the low calorie foods recommended in the Weight Watchers recipes are foods with not so natural ingredients. Example; Cool Whip, fat free pudding mix, etc. I will see what I can figure out and will post my findings.

Another note - my skin is clearing up with organic milk for sure. Weird.

It's Spring - time to shop for Christmas!

I got some really great bargains in the mail today. The New York and Company website has so much on clearance. If you enter 1176 as a promotional code, you can get 30% off. I got some great Christmas gifts for next year. Promotional code 4140 will get you free shipping on any order more than $75. I got 4 shirts, a big purse, small purse, flip flops and two dresses for $80 including shipping. Now I will just put it in the closet and save it for Christmas. Best way to stay on budget during the holidays.

Yesterday I popped into New York and Company in Southlake while waiting on a table for dinner. They have totally different things than their website. They had racks and racks of $7.99 and $9.99 bargains. I got several pairs of their great skinny jeans for $9.99!

A great bargain!

I never shop at Pottery Barn. I just don't find much great for the price. I find things just as cute at Kirkland's. However, one of my magazines had showed a set of mock Pottery Barn antique keys to hang on the wall. The set had 6 keys for $19.00 plus free shipping (which was good because they are heavy)! I thought I would try them to see what they look like. I got one for me and then went ahead and got 3 more to save as Christmas gifts.

I got them in the mail today and they are awesome! I am so glad I got extras. They will make a wonderful gift for someone with a rustic style. Shoot, you would spend more than that at McDonalds for a family of four. So if you get one of these cute sets for Christmas, forget you saw this! :-)

So much energy!

I have so much energy today after a week of clean eating. My skin is clearing up too. I was up last night until 1am (Bryan was working in the garage late so I stayed up watching Tivoed Housewives) and I still am bouncing all over.

Today for lunch I had a peanut butter and organic honey sandwich on wheat quinoa bread. The book says to get totally natural, unsalted PB so I did. It is funny because it is totally like smushed peanuts. It barely spreads. You can tell the difference. The natural seems...well...natural! Go figure. It was really good. I brought left over chicken and veggies but I wasn't very hungry so I have just been nibbling on my snacks all day. Just like most other healthy eating plans, it tells you to eat every 3 hours for your metabolism.

The book really emphasizes breakfast. This morning I made oatmeal with dried cranberries, sliced almonds and organic 1% milk. The milk promotes the fact that they don't inject their cows with growth hormones. Bryan thinks that is why milk always made him break out.

I ordered a bunch of new shoes from DSW shoes. I am really loving the new gladiator high heels for spring and summer. I also branched out and got some ankel booties in a totally nude color. They are patent leather. The will be cute with little dresses or trouser pants. I used the promotional code "march10" and got 10$ off. I think it lasts all through March.

I heard about a great new mascara today. It is supposed to be the latest thing with the makeup artists. It is Maybelline New York Stilleto. I hear it creates the thickest, fullest eyelashes. Since it is Maybelline I didn't check the Ebay price. I do have a fabulous Ebay seller who always has Smashbox makeup for dirt cheap. Ashton and I get all our stuff from him. If you are interested, his seller name is Dextertradingllc.