French Braid Fun.

Happy Friday the 13th everyone. So I found this cute updo on pinterest that looked fun. I washed my hair and without drying, partially french braided and then pulled up into a bun.  I am all about low maintenance and this was both as easy and pretty as it looked. 

The complete process took me about 2 minutes. It held really well & I received a number of compliments both from my FB friends and people around town. While, not exactly like the one on myshineproject.com, this is a summer keeper for sure.

Pintested, mother approved.

XoXo,

Mel

http://www.myshineproject.com/2012/06/hair-tutorial-french-braid-bun.html

Green Tea Mister.

It's been hot, really hot the past few weeks. I am not one to worship the sun because the thought of having leather skin or worse, cancer really freaks me out. However, my kids love the pool & I don't mind lounging poolside (with a big bottle of 50+SPF) from time to time.

I found this great little pin from Petitelefant for an antioxidant mister. How simple and clever is this?

DIY mist for beach + pool

• 1-2 green tea bags
• 1-2 cups cold, cold water
• steep green tea in cold water for 2 hours
• add ice
• put in spray bottle
• keep cool

Every morning I drink hot green tea with ginger because of the powerful antioxidants. From anti-aging, weight loss, cancer, heart disease & acne the benefits of green tea are amazing.

I am not 100% sure the diluted tea did anything spritzed directly onto my skin, but I certainly felt refreshed. Besides, every little antioxidant counts, right? I keep my spray bottle in our fridge so that it is cold when I head to the pool. The thought has crossed my mind to stick it in the freezer, maybe next time?

NOTE:  I do not recommend spraying on yourself if you are wearing whites because even though the mist is diluted, tea still stains - just a word to the wise.

   http://petitelefant.com/diy-mist-for-beach-pool/

xOxO,

Mel

Heaven in a cupcake.

Thank you tideandthyme.com for this amazing peanut butter cookie cupcake. Rich chocolate and peanut butter goodness --- what's not to love? 

Anytime I am in the kitchen, I try and include at least one of my kids in the process so that they grow to be just as passionate about cooking as I am. This time around, I had my 9 year old help by compiling all of the ingredients and reading off the instructions. I explained to him how his job is the most important because one error could make or break the recipe. After I concluded my lecture on carefully following instructions, wouldn't you know we forgot to add in the brown sugar? Oops! Since the cupcakes were already baking, we knew that the actual cake itself would not be as sweet. So we decided to try and salvage our cupcakes by filling the centers with the chocolate ganache.  OH MY WORD, THESE WERE SINFULLY FANTASTIC! We both agreed these babies should be called "Heaven in a Cupcake".

Here is my end result, not as pretty as the ones on tide&time, but just as delicious.

Pinterest tested, mother of four approved.

xOxO,

Mel