Here’s what the teens are making these days:
How to Make a Duct Tape Hair Bow
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Category Archives: Clothing
Meal Plan Monday
Saturday we had friends in from out of town and I spent a little extra on groceries to cook with Cindy, who went to high school with me. We made jambalaya pasta and crustless derby pie. (It was derby day so they cheated on their South Beach diet with our dessert.)
While Wendy and I were visiting with Cindy and Grayson, Brian took Alice to the Middle Division State meet for track and field in Melbourne, FL. 3 kids from her team went – 2 8th graders and a 6th grader. Alice ran a 5:35 in the 1500 (26th place) and 11:58 in the 3000 (16th place). Don’t ask me why they weren’t a 1600 and 3200. ??????
Sunday we did our shopping for the week, partially planned around the fact that Wendy would be at SeaCamp Wed-Fri, and partially based on the seafood in our freezer.
Sunday - Tex/Mex. Crunchy beef tacos with colby-jack for Brian and the kids, leftover enchiladas (homemade on Cinco de Mayo) for me. Black beans for all.
Monday - Kung Pao Chicken made Brian-style with sugar snap peas over rice.
Tues - Shrimp scampi over whole wheat fettucine noodles. Peas or spinach salad.
Wed - Pizza night because we’ll be off in different directions. One meat lovers for Brian and Alice, a flatbread margheritta for me and Alice – I’ll add spinach to it.
Thurs - Tilapia with quinoa. Not sure how Brian will prepare the tilapia. Broccoli.
Fri - salmon and jasmine rice, peas.
Mother’s Day was fun. Wendy was going to sew me a pillow last year, and never did. I guess she remembered at 7am this year and managed to sew it by hand before 9:20am when she brought it to me in bed. Brian made banana-stuffed french toast for breakfast. His trick to awesome french toast is to start with cinnamon-brown sugar bread. No, this is not a healthy meal. Yes, it was delicious with the blend of banana, cream cheese and brown sugar wrapped inside each slice.
Brian and I sent this digital card to our moms.
Wendy and I shopped for a few hours. She wanted a rash guard for snorkeling at Seacamp, her 7th grade class trip. At Forever 21 she found a cute black dress that is the same as the blue one I bought last month, but in black and a size smaller. I told her it would be a perfect basic dress, and its tank style allows you to layer over or under it. She is going to France this summer, and it will pack well, and can be dressed up or down. I promised not to wear my blue one on purpose when she was wearing her black one. It was also $13.80 and she bought it for herself. I had a $10 JCPenney coupon so we found a cute Snoopy tshirt for her that was $12 and got it for $2.
Today I started the work-week with Core Yoga, and my friend Ellen not only came along and loved it, but bought a 20 class pass so she can keep coming with me on Monday mornings. The coolest thing the teacher did – jumping from plank into crow pose.
Wed. night I have rehearsal for the script reading I’m performing in next week. The play is “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” by Alan Ball. You might not know the name, but you know his work – American Beauty, Six Feet Under, True Blood. When I first was invited to audition by the Director, she suggested I read for Georgeanne. After skimming character sketches on Wikipedia, I read that she was cheating on her husband and drunk. I thought it would be the one character I would NOT want to read for – bad karma and all. But the more I read through the script, the more I grew to like the drama she brought to the play. She has depth and dark humor, and I’ll enjoy being a bad girl for a minute or two. (And I just may have put together that artwork on the left…)
If you are in Tampa Bay, the reading is Mon May 16 at Studio 620 in downtown St Pete.
I am off to finish the laundry I didn’t do on Mother’s Day! Enjoy your evening!
What are you reading this month?
Le Mystere 320 Energie Sports Bra review
Product Review!
The Le Mystere 320 Energie Sport Bra is on sale for $49.60 (at the time of this writing).
This cotton sports bra looks a lot like the Oprah recommended, top-selling Le Mystere Tisha t-shirt bra – which I have and like a lot. It gives full coverage while hiding well under tight tops. (If you are plus-sized, you want the Le Mystere Dream Tisha bra.) It also lasted a long time even though I machine washed it. (But did not machine dry it.)
Provides support through the use of: contour cups, cushioned underwire, light foam padding, shape-retaining spandex. Cushioned, convertible straps which may be worn classic or criss-cross style. When I criss crossed the straps, I had to put the bra on over my head.
Made of: 84% soft, breathable and moisture-managing cotton and 16% spandex fabric. Wicking finish on internal fabrics for moisture management. Mesh at the center gore, band and wings.
FYI: Alice PR’ed in her first mile of track season, shaving 13 seconds off for 9th place.
New Idea in Skincare
You couldn’t miss me out running today. I had an the brightest yellow shirt you’ve ever seen. I usually wear pink. I like to feel like a girl while sweating like a pig. So why the fluorescent yellow?
I tried a shirt from SunSoul. They use technology to bend the sun rays that hit the fabric to turn it from harmful to your skin to helpful to your skin. “An effective, natural solution to refine skin tone and prevent sun-damage.”
SunSoul’s activewear and hats not only provide UPF 50+ sun protection, but also harness the power of light to offer skin benefits. The unique fabric acts as a selective filter when it is exposed to sunlight. Fluorescent yellow or blue pigments in the material convert the UV and sunlight into healthy colored light and transmit it through to the skin.
But since you may believe a doctor more than me, here’s a medical opinion: “SunSoul offers great protection from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun,” explains Dr. Lori Brightman of the Laser & Skin Surgery Center of New York. “I have seen the initial results and before and after usage in clinical tests, and the results on skin texture … are impressive. I would recommend SunSoul to my patients.”
SunSoul has 2 lines: blumöd and yelomöd. Yellow light can be absorbed by collagen and stimulate remodeling of the skin. Blue light is popularly used to deal with blemishes of the skin. The combined design features of the fabric with the fluorescent pigment result in only the visible, healthy blue or yellow light reaching the skin at about 70% of the sun’s intensity, while 98% of UV light is either blocked, absorbed by the material or converted to safe, colored light.
Clinical trials of SunSoul products showed skin tone and texture improvement during 6-8 weeks of consistent use at sun exposure levels of at least 2 hours per week.
I tried the short sleeve mock neck tee. It was 55 degrees and slightly breezy, so the mock neck didn’t bother me. I thought I’d be embarassed by the bright color but a cyclist passed me wearing a MUCH brighter yellow and then I decided no one cared what I looked like running around the park anyway, and if this would keep my chest and back healthier than why not.
The added benefit was the wicking/sweat of the fabric. This shirt did better to remove sweat from me while running than I have ever experienced. And at the same time the look of the wetness was more camouflaged. To learn more, visit www.sunsoul.com. Or click on the chart below to become scientifical.
I also tried a Spibelt. This is an adjustable belt with an expandable pocket so you can run with one small thing, like a key or I.D. – or you can run with something larger, like an iPhone - and it shouldn’t bounce around on your tummy.
It held my MP3, phone and house key with no problem at all. I put it on and adjusted both sliders – one on each side. I did my 5 minute walking warm up. Then I started running.
I swear I had a problem with the firstfootfall. The spibelt went from my hips up to my waist and started bobbing up and down, slapping against me because of the few inches of gap left from when it was hip-size. So I adjusted it to my waist while in motion, making it tight around my midsection. But it bounced and flapped. So I yanked it back to my hips, now quite snug because it was waist size. But that worked. That kept it in place. And everything inside stopped bouncing for the whole 3 miles. I thought that was quite cool.
Then I stretched, did abs and got in the shower. I noticed in the shower I had a red dot on my hip. Upon closer inspection, it was a blood blister. Now, one could say this was coincidental and had nothing to do with the Spibelt. (One could also say I wouldn’t want to eat my weight in chocolate.) But my shorts were almost a year old, and the Spibelt was brand new, and nothing else was on that area of my body. And the red mark was not there yesterday at 2pm when I showered last. So I’m thinking I O.D.’ed the snugness of the belt. But without that snugness everything bounced.
I’ll stick with wearing a Spibelt for non-running ventures, like hitting a theme park for the day. It is essentially a tiny fanny pack after all.
There was a Spibelt competitor at the Disney Marathon expo. Their belt had only one adjuster, and included 2 clips for your race number (Spibelt sells theirs separately) and also had 2 spots in the elastic to slide in goos. I wonder if their’s leave behind yuckiness.
(I received both of these items free, but I was not paid for this post.)
(And I don’t think I could eat my weight in chocolate in one sitting.)