Wheel Diaper Cake

This past weekend I attended a very lovely baby shower where I had cute sandwiches and tea and good mommy conversation. When I had my baby shower a friend had made me a diaper cake and it was one of my favourite gifts. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the diapers were rolled up and I didn't like the way the diapers curled up when it was unrolled. So when I decided to make a diaper cake this time, I googled and came across this video that made diaper wheels instead. It was really easy and I had fun with my little helper. Read on for what we did!

Make the cake layers first. I am making a three layer diaper cake, so I have three different size pots. Watch the video to learn how to make these wheels. I won't go into details here.

I used paper towel tubes as centres. I had two on hand.

The paper towel tube should be long enough for it to go through and attach all three layers of your cake.

In the future, I will use more opaque ribbons. I had wrapped the pink ribbon around the cake two times already but you can still see the elastic band. In the video, you'll see that you have the option of removing it, but I decided to keep mine on since I didn't have a glue gun to glue the ribbons together. I used double sided tape instead.

I ended up decorating it with silk flowers. Here is the front of the diaper cake.

Side view of diaper cake.

Back view of diaper cake. The flowers were great at hiding the double sided tape.

 Here's the diaper cake wrapped and ready to go. Absolutely delicious!

Super Easy Chicken Recipe

Cooking is not my specialty, so I'm always happy whenever I come across an easy yummy recipe. I blame my mom for my cooking skills -- she's such a great cook that I saw no need to learn. If everything she makes is so delicious, why should I bother cooking myself if I can just eat her food? This Tomato Basil Chicken recipe was sent to me by my mom, who knows what her daughter can and cannot do. Thanks mommy!


Tomato Basil Chicken

Fresh basil
1-2 Tomatoes
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil
3 Bone-in chicken thighs/legs with skin

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
2. Cut up tomatoes into small wedges and spread around the bottom of oven-safe container (I use the 1.5 qt CorningWare Stoneware). Depending on how big your container is, you can put more or less tomatoes.
3. Toss in 4-6 cloves of garlic, skin on. As much or as little as you like.
4. Lay chicken on top of tomatoes and garlic. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and drizzle olive oil on chicken. Use the back of a spoon and smear olive oil evenly across chicken skin. 
5. Place a handful of fresh basil around chicken. 
6. Cook uncovered for 90 minutes. 

The fresh basil is from Elizabeth's garden. She was kind enough to give her mommy some of her precious basil. We can only have this dish every other week because we have to wait until her basil grows out.

This dish is so easy that you can literally just throw the ingredients in. You'll notice that I didn't really give any precise measurements for a lot of the ingredients.

Your chicken will come out delicious! The skin will be crispy and the meat juicy. The garlic will be creamy and the tomato flavourful. Your family will come immediately when you call out, "Dinner!" and your daughter will gobble up everything you put in front of her! Am I the only one with this fantasy? Grrr!

Clean Your Brushes!

Many of us are too busy (or too lazy) and neglect our makeup brushes. Bacteria will build up over time and clog your pores leading to all sorts of nasty things, so wash those brushes! I try to wash my foundation, concealer and blush brushes at least every other week. These are the brushes that touch my face so I'm extra careful. Admittedly, my eyeshadow brushes are ignored for longer periods of time.

Here's how I wash my brushes:

1. Squirt a small amount of baby shampoo/wash into the palm of your hand
2. Swoosh your brush around the shampoo/wash
3. Turn on warm water and swoosh brush against your palm until water runs clear
4. Squeeze out excess water from brush
5. Reshape your brush
6. Hang to dry

 

Be sure to hang your clean brushes upside down so water won't breakdown your brushes over time. For my larger handle brushes, I use a rubber band to hang. For smaller brushes I use a skirt hanger. Voila! Clean brushes for your pretty face.

Book Recommendation: The Kitchen House

If you like strong female protagonists and historical fictions you'll like The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. The writing is interesting and the story moves at a nice pace.

Here's the book description:

When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family.

Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.

Products I Wish I Never Bought

You would think by 6 months old certain little someone would at least be sleeping for longer stretches through the night if not for the full night ... but of course mine still wakes up frequently. There are bad nights (2-3 times a night) and there are worst nights (4-5 times a night). I've already told myself that I will tolerate this for a year, and after that -- RETURN TO SENDER! I'm requesting a full refund!

Sigh.

Speaking of things I can't return, here are some items that I wish I never wasted my money on:

1. L'Oreal Infallible Never Fail Eyeliner in Carbon Black
Fail! Totally fallible and smudges within the hour ... and this is with eye primer too. It does have a very creamy texture though and smokes out easily. If you usually don't have issues with eyeliners smudging on you, this may not be a fail.

2. NYX Slide on, Glide on, Stay on & Definitely a Turn on Waterproof Eyeliner in Brown Perfection
As if having a long title would guarantee its longevity. Also smudged, but took a little longer than the Infallible eyeliner.

3. Cover Girl Professional Super Thick Lash Mascara in Very Black
The one thing I look for in a mascara is to keep my lashes curled. All mascaras, no matter how crappy, will give some definition (and by definition I mean darkening your lashes to the extent where there's a difference between not wearing mascara and wearing it) but not all mascaras can keep your carefully curled lashes curled. Maybe it's because this one is not waterproof, but this did not hold my curls.

4. L'Oreal True Match Super-Blendable Crayon Concealer in W1-W2
The only areas I use this for are around my nose and on my chin. It left patchy dry spots. Not impressed.

5. Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Highlighting Concealer in Ivory
Again, I found this too drying. If you have oily skin, maybe it will work for you. It gives a great sheen for a healthy glowy skin look. 

6. Schwarzkopf Osis+ Body Me Volume Bodifying Volume Serum
In my quest to achieving big, voluminous hair, I've tried many products and this is one of them. It did not give me the much wanted big hair (hello, Carrie Underwood!), but instead left it feeling weighed down and flat.

7. Schwarzkopf got2b Fat-tastic Instant Collagen Infusion Thickening Plumping Mousse
Just realized this is the same brand as #6! DOH! No wonder it did no plumping.

8. Maybelline Color Tattoo in Tough as Taupe and Too Cool
Despite the rave reviews on YouTube, these products did not impress me. I found them too dry to work with. I always have to rub my lids really hard to blend them in.

9. Revlon Colorstay Eyeshadow in Siren
I love the colours but find the shadow too crumbly.

10. Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown
I initially loved using this because it was so easy to swipe on, but found later on that it just didn't look as "natural" as I would like. Of course, how natural can drawn on eyebrows really get? Just trust me when I say it was more "unnatural" than the other pencils I've tried. It was just too filled in. With pencil you can feather the strokes and make it look more hair like.

11. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Ammo Shadow Box
I don't know what I was thinking when I purchased this palette years ago. To this day it remains mostly untouched. I find that I prefer jumbo eyeshadow pencils because they're much easier to put on and I can blend with my fingers.

12. Maybelline Lipstick in Born With It
I wanted a pretty pink lipstick but this one looked purple on me. Yuck.

By the way, I would never give up any of my babies so don't even think about it! I worked hard getting them out and I'm bloody well going to keep them. The little one is teething right now which may be one of the reasons why she's not sleeping well at night. Being sleep deprived and dealing with fussy children during the day is taking a toll on my tender sensibilities. When my husband came home asking me why I'm in such a bad mood, I almost snapped his head off. Ugh! Grrr!

Book Recommendation: The Glass Castle

Written in first person narrative, The Glass Castle is a memoir by Jeannette Walls recommended to me by a friend. In short, it's about the author growing up in a unconventional, dysfunctional family and how she pulls through her difficult childhood. By no means am I qualified to offer any sort of critique or review, so I'll just tell you what I liked about the book.

• Any book in first person narrative is a major plus. I love that mode of narration.
• Walls' descriptions of her struggles and hardship wasn't written in self-pity or anger.
• She depicts her irresponsible parents in a way where I don't feel like I have to hate them, and she makes them forgivable.
• She didn't grow up bitter and hopeless (obviously).

All in all, Walls' writing is riveting and engrossing. I was sneaking in the reading as often as I could, between naps and moments where both girls were distracted with their own toys. I'm looking forward to the day when they are both in school and I get to read as much as I want ... uninterrupted! Grrr!

Mommy Knows Best

The whole family went to the mall this past weekend and Elizabeth's favourite thing there is riding the carousel. She was very excited and of course, as a mother, I was delighted at seeing her excitement. It brings me much joy when she's happy. I think that must be one of the reasons why people have kids -- we live through them all over again and remember the innocence of childhood pleasure and untainted elation before we were contaminated by the evils of society and become bitter, disillusioned adults.

I watched with Catherine outside the gated area of the carousel as Elizabeth and her father lined up for the ride. Soon enough, it was their turn and as I circled around to see which horse she chose, I heard a dramatic wail and saw a little girl tugging on her father's arm. My little girl.

"What is going on?" I demanded, annoyed that amongst all the smiling, angelic children, the crying one was mine. "What happened?" Her father explained that she wanted to ride in the wagon instead of on a horse. What?! Why would anyone in their right mind want to sit in the immobile wagon, when a horse actually moves up and down? Both her father and I persuaded (her father, gently; and I, harshly) her to sit on a horse. She was not happy. Throughout the ride, my little drama queen sat with wilful determination not to enjoy herself. Every time the carousel circled around, I waved and smiled like a loving mother that I am, and she stared stonily ahead, resolving not to acknowledge my love. No one had a good time.

Sometimes, as parents, we get caught up with what we deem as the "right thing" and forget what's really important. The purpose of the carousel ride was to make Elizabeth happy; instead, her father and I forced what we thought was best on her. Would riding the wagon really have made her happier than riding the horse? Perhaps she would have realized how boring and mundane the wagon was and in the future, only ride the horse. The important thing is we forgot that the whole point was to make her happy -- not to make us happy.

This is something I struggle with everyday. It's easy to impose my views on my children and forget that they too have a mind of their own. I teach them skills to be independent and yet, when it comes to making decisions big or small, I require them to yield to my choices. Of course, it's really not that simple. Nothing is. I want to direct them down the right path without being oppressive. I want them to learn from my mistakes without having to make it themselves. Why does this sound familiar? Is this a perpetual cycle that all parents and kids go through? I vaguely recall my mom ending a fight with an angry: "When you have your own children, you'll know what I mean!" Now I know. "I told you so." Grrr!