Breaking The Dress Code

Best Photoshop Action Ever!!

Are you one of those people that is always hiding behind the camera so you don’t have to be in front of it? ME TOO!!!!

All that might be about to change though! I recently found THE BEST PHOTOSHOP ACTION EVER!! I had the these picture from Halloween and they looked yuck. I had on a ton of makeup because well it was Halloween and it was dark and well how the heck cares..as you can see after a few cocktails flash pictures of me just came out a weird combination of splotchy and shiny. Note to self, there is such a thing as too much glitter makeup on Halloween. See. That’s me on the left. Yuck. 

Normally a shot like this would just go in the delete pile but I really liked this picture and wanted it to look as cute as we really did. So I started Googling how to try and airbrush the picture myself. What I stumbled across was this: Mama’s Powder. (Please note I am not being paid one red cent to say this, in fact I paid her.) It looked pretty cool so I forked out $25 to save myself the headache of trying to learn how to do it myself. And viola!!

 

Granted that was my first try at it but it’s pretty awesome. Easy to use. Simple to learn. Way Cool. And and easy to undo if you overdo it. Which trust me you will because it’s so much fun!

So yeah! Now I’m more likely to keep pictures of myself and just fix them. Now if only Mama had a butt reducer then I’d be set!!!

Taking Back The Childs Birthday Party (or Kids Just Want To Have Fun)

Puddin’s has a poorly timed birthday. It’s in mid October right when we start getting down to serious holiday planning  and I get all kinds of aggrevated forking out hundreds of $$ for birthday when I know Christmas is right around the corner. It’s not her fault of course so I try to never skimp on the presents but this year I did take matters into my own hands a bit with the party… I’m done paying big $$ for kid birthday experience extravaganza party– DONE I tell you.

So you know what we did – we had a Pancake & Pajama Party.

We put together a simple invitation using Word, printed out copies at home inviting her friends to come over on Saturday morning at 8:45 in the pajamas to decorate pancakes and play Wii.

We had 16 kids over from 3 to 10 and they had a freaking blast.

They played Wii and not even the newest game we had but they chose to play good old standard baseball so the most number of people could play even the little ones – our kids are awesome!!

And I corralled a couple of laptops and put together a WebKinz station. The idea of logging into Webkinz right next to your friend. Freakin’ mindblowing…

Then we decorated pancakes with all kinds of fun stuff like fruit and M&Ms

Then headed outside for presents

  

And then they played on the yard… you know like we used to do… for an hour!

It didn’t take $100s of dollars or a donated organ or heck even a decorated cake to create a party that the kids enjoyed. We got them together and let them play with games/activities that we already had – and they had fun just being together in a big group.

And they all thought it was extra fun because they were in their pajamas. Because they are kids!!! They make their own fun. We parents need to try and remember that sometimes I think.

Trans Siberian Orchestra

They’ll be every where all over the US in the next two months!! Go see them, it was awesome! A must see for the Christmas season – yeah I know it’s early but they only come to town here once a year and it’s always before Thanksgiving. If you’re not sure who they are, you’ve heard the music, trust me, it’s everywhere at the holidays but you might not know their name. I’ll put some links to videos at the bottom.

These pictures were taken last night with the Dr.’s iPhone.

 

Watch a Video of their Music Here

I’ve become a PTA Mom

I know, sounds like a confession doesn’t it. As a working mom who’s spent years being intimidated by the SAH Alpha Moms I took what was, for me, a big leap of courage and threw hat into the PTA ring today. And you know what? It didn’t hurt at all. In fact it was kind of fun!

We have one of those schools who is for the most part upper middle class two income families who are, for the most part, happy to write a check when there need but who just don’t have the time to do a whole lot else. As a result we have a very high membership rate but a very low participation and volunteer rate. I am as guilty as the next parent. Don’t ask me to sell magazines, just tell me what my fair share of the fundraiser would be – what is the target goal profit per child – and I will just give you a check for that amount. Seriously  - I do not want the overpriced ugly wrapping paper, nor do I have room in my freezer for 5 tubs of cookie dough – but I am willing to let my checkbook do it’s fair share of shouldering the burden of supporting our kids.

So I feel guilty about not giving from my time as much as I will from my wallet. So I took a deep breath and approached the president and asked what I could do. Turns out they need me. Me! How sweet is that. They need someone to help them raise parent engagement through enhanced communication! Hello! That would be me. Internet geek extraordinaire.  So I stood there gushing about blogs and email and twitter and you know what they listened. They were even excited. They did not make me feel like the 7th grade reject. They liked me, they really liked me.

So I am officially a PTA committee member. Me. If you only knew me in person you’d know how funny that is. But I’m stupid excited about it.

Is your PTA doing something great to engage the parents? Psst… tell me about it.  Help me get off to a great start!

Wendy, darling…. put some clothes on!

Exactly when did Wendi Darling ever look like Amy Winehouse this?

How to Save A Life

Please feel free to hum The Fray song to yourself as you read this post because it’s been stuck in my head since I started thinking typing …

Last week I saved a life. Or at least kept some poor little kid out of the hospital with heat stroke on Halloween night.

You see last week we had a freak day of coolish weather. And by coolish I mean 72 and breezy. But given that the weekend before it was 94 well 72 felt like “Hello Fall!! We’ve been waiting for you Baby!” – and thus the entire population of north Florida went shopping for Fall.

In my case it was costume shopping.. we take Halloween seriously in the Formerly Pink Palace so I found myself wandering through one of the many fly-by-night costume stores that crop us this time of year.

I was happily browsing along when I heard these two ladies about 3 or 4 feet from me selecting some little darling’s first real honest to goodness trick-or-treat costume. They were so excited that they had moved from the big presumably bad city to little junior was finally going to get to go door to door and demand treats. Can’t say as I blame them I thought to myself, I’ve been there done that myself.

I steal a glance over and see something that sets my heart pounding, they are looking at things like this (cue psycho music)

Don’t get me wrong I’ve got nothing against Scooby or Elmo. It’s just oh my god lady your in Florida now and your kid is going to die if you put him in that!!!

So then I was faced with what to do… do I walk over and admit I’ve been listening to them talk. Do I violate that unspoken rule that says that even when you can’t help overhearing complete strangers in public you still act like you can’t hear them. Do I break the bubble?

Maybe… maybe it will help if I wander closer first. So I went a little closer and then picked up the most light-weight costume on the rack and pretended to seriously consider it (even through both my kids costumes have already been purchased)  .. and then it worked… one of them seeing me look at Fairy that was little more than a bathing suit with tull remarked out loud, “I wonder what the weather is like her by Halloween?”

Ahh the break I had been looking for. I looked over smiled .. and asked if they had just moved here. The Mom had, the Aunt was visiting. I then explained that most likely it would be “hot” on Halloween by their standards and their little sweetheart would suffocate if they weren’t in something very breathable. “Oh” they said, “We never would have considered that. We always needed extra warmth.”

They ended up leaving with a breezy pirate costume and I left with the feeling that I had just saved some kid from a Halloween disaster of being so hot after three houses that they wanted to go home.

So how about you guys? What are you going to be for Halloween? Did you pick yet?

Second Chances

Back during the back-to-school shopping I wrote a post about Old Navy and their advertising which I thought was well sort of off in it’s messaging. It had a sort of “Wear what the cool kids are wearing” theme and then proceeded to label the school uniforms as the “smart kid” section.  I didn’t like what they implied – that smart and fashionable where mutual exclusive. It just wreaked junior high stereotypes. From a marketing perspective, I thought it was lazy. As a result, we spent $0.00 dollars of our back to school budget at Old Navy.

 

Today I saw one in my inbox that prompted me to consider giving them a second chance. The email was strictly centered around the idea of friendship. Come in with your friend get a discount. Old Navy gets two people in the store instead of one.. they both giggle, they both buy. Much better Old Navy. Much Better. Promoting community and friendship… not clichés might get you back in my wallet.

 

 

So I rewarded them with a click through – and I LOVED what I saw! Look at these two girls!

 

 

They are not dressed as little hoochie mamas

 

They don’t have sarcastic remarks on their shirts that aren’t appropriate for their age

 

They are not glamorous

 

They ARE totally and completely normal

 

They look like two kids who would hop off the bus and come home with my daughter.

 

They are awesome!

 

And bam – just like that I dropped over $100 on shirts and hoodies and jeans!

 

I’m not silly enough to think that my blog post made a hill of beans to a company that size but I’m guessing that the earlier ad wasn’t terribly successful either. Someone has put on the thinking cap over there at least and I applaud their efforts.

 

Well done Old Navy, well done. Now don’t screw up again.

Witnessing History In the Making

Saturday I will get the opportunity to take my daughter to see something that has never been done before. A first. A moment in time when history is being re-written. I hope she will remember it for the rest of her life.

One of The Many Ways in Which I Am A Total Dork

Did I tell you how I sort of embarrassed myself in front of the babysitter on Saturday night? No? Oh well let me tell you…

So we had a babysitter Saturday night because we had a little wine tasting thing to go to. I had gotten ready a little early so I was back in the bedroom reading when she knocked on the door and Puddin let her in. I stood up and walked out into the living room carrying my book …

Yes that’s right people after months and months of listening to all of you rave and rave  and rave  and rave about these books I finally broke down and started reading them. And you were right they are totally addictive. Although don’t hate me if half way through New Moon I’m finding myself sort of pulling for Jacob. (I think it’s the whole warm vs. cold thing – the cold thing sort of creeps me out)

So I walk in book in hand and there stands the babysitter holding this  ….

At which point I totally had to confess to the babysitter that I am hopelessly addicted  and oh-my-god what’s been your faborite par and how far into it are you? And  then she concludes that I’m a complete 40 year old dork.

Nearly Perfect

This is why my friends ask me to pick the paint colors for their house.  I spend a lot of time looking at color and hue dealing with 7 brands with 7 different logos..today I ran across this fun little game that let's you test your ability to correctly read hue. Blue/Green has always been my weakness. I knew when I was taking the test something was wrong but I couldn't fix it. I thought I had the pink/purples right though, damn. 0 is a perfect score - the worst on record was 1049 for my age and gender.