Gettin' Skinny with It!

Seriously, if you haven't heard of skinnytaste.com you really need to head over there (after browsing here, of course!)  Gina, at skinnytaste.com, makes tons of amazingly delicious AND healthy recipes!  Her meals make portion control a breeze and she even calculates the Weight Watchers points, old and new, for everything she posts.  Lately, all of my meals have been coming from skinnytaste.com, and I have loved them all (Greg too)!  Even if I am not making an exact recipe, I am using skills and techniques that I have learned from the site.    Here are just a few of the things that I have made either from Gina's recipes, or that have been inspired by her cooking  (yup, I am one of those people who takes pics of their food).

... I can't wait for the day Greg and I have our own place so I can cook in our very own kitchen! Anyone want to trade a house for a delicious bowl of mac & cheese?

Haha, do you have any favorite cooking blogs?

Manicure Monday: Black, White, & BETSEY!

Every once in a while I visit the TJ Maxx that neighbors where I work.  Recently, I found a new laptop case with handles, but it wasn't the handles that persuaded me... oh, no... it was the print! I knew that, whatever it was, I had to have it!! 

When I laid my eyes on this beaut hiding behind purses upon purses I thought, what a great manicure idea!

Here is my Betsey Johnson inspired manicure.  I used a dotting tool and acrylic paint for the white dots and you can check out my tutorial on how to do the little roses here! Betsey has great patterns that double as manicure inspiration, including lots of leopard!

What inspires your manicures?

Teacher Tuesday: Playing Card Addition & Subtraction Worksheets

Here's an easy worksheet I used with my class today.  Students chose playing cards to make addition or subtraction sentences.  The kids are doing well with both... I think they are starting to understand the difference between plus and minus without being reminded!

You can grab the addition and subtraction worksheets in my TpT store!

Manicure Monday: Vintage Antique Roses

This is one of my favorite nail designs! I was worried about doing the vintage roses, but they were easy... and being messy is okay... I rely on the fact that people won't be looking at it super close up, haha!

Colors used:

• Blue: China Glaze "For Audrey" (if you don't own it, go buy it! the picture doesn't do it justice!)
• Pink: China Glaze "IV"
• Gold glitter: Sephora by OPI "Only Gold for Me"
• Green: China Glaze "Four Leaf Clover" (another AMAZING China Glaze color... wait til you see my peacock feather nails!)
• Light pink: Color Club "Vintage Couture"

1. Make random dots around the nail with the nail polish brush in the main rose color.
2. Make some "c's" on the sides of the dots and one coming out from the middle of the dot.  This color can be lighter or darker than the main rose color.   You can make a small dot in the middle of the rose to define the middle.  In other rose designs, I have swirled in other color pinks to give the rose more dimension.  
3. Make small leaves.  I used a small dotting tool for this.

P.S. always top with a clear top coat... I use Seche Vite... the top coat always makes everything look better!

I really want to do this design again!