Husband says pink walls have to go!

I had plain pink walls with a plain table before this photo was taken. After 7 years my husband said enough! He asked me to get rid of the pink paint. I happily agreed to paint the walls a bluegreen if I could accessorize in pink. So this was the compromise. I think I did good:) A girly girl has to have her pink!
I saw something in a magazine that looked similar to this and loved it.I had a handyman add the molding and shelf around my table and then strung pink gingham fabric through the shelf brackets. I already had the silhouettes of my family, (I got them at Disneyland) but hadn't quite figured out what to do with them. I think they look cute mixed in with the china. The antique doily and the lazy susan finish off the look. It makes me happy whenever I go in the kitchen:)

French Hot Chocolate

This is the most amazing hot chocolate recipe! You can store it in your refrigerator for up to a week. It's so fun scooping the mousse like fluff into hot milk. Yum!











3 (1-ounce) squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar

Cook chocolate and water over low heat until smooth and thick, stirring constantly. Add salt and sugar; cook for 5 more minutes. Cool completely.

1 cup heavy cream, whipped
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whip heavy cream and add vanilla. Fold in chocolate mixture. Store in refrigerator. To serve, add a heaping tablespoon (or two) to a cup of hot milk. Stir and enjoy!

SNOW ICE CREAM

I was staying in Park City with some friends. We made this hot chocolate, which was fun and yummy. We also made snow ice cream. The recipe for the ice cream is snow and eagle brand sweetened condensed milk. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!! We actually ended up topping our snow ice cream with the hot chocolate whipped cream. It was heaven!!! It was the night before I was going home or I would have made this everyday. It was THAT GOOD.

Thanksgiving

This is my daughter, and granddaughter. It's fun to be a grandmother!

Bob Proctor from "The Secret"

I went on a cruise with Bob Proctor to the Mexican Riviera. The entire ship was filled with speakers, coaches, authors etc. I went to classes most of the day for a week. I was in heaven!!! I met so many like minded people. The ship was full of positive energy.
I own nearly everything Bob has published. He has a great message and he makes a lot of sense.
Here is a youtube video of him teaching how to shift your paradigm.
http://youtu.be/Urun_rE79_Q

Mark Victor Hansen of Chicken Soup for the Soul

I heard Mark Victor Hansen speak several times and he was amazing. He really caused me to think much bigger. He has huge goals to help change the world.

His book, Dreams Don't have Deadlines helped me to realize it is never too late to follow your dreams.

Strawberries with Lemon Cream

You can see the strawberries in the far right corner.

8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
½ c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
1 ½ tsp fresh lemon juice
2 pt. large fresh strawberries

In processor, combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. Process until smooth; chill for at least 1 hour. Cut stems from strawberries, leaving a flat surface so they can be stood on stem end. Cut “V” shaped pocket in the pointed end of each berry, cutting about 2/3 of the way through the bottom. Remove the “V” shaped slice. Press sides apart slightly so you can fill with cream cheese mixture. Put cream cheese mixture in pastry bad and pipe filling into center of each berry. It should fill in pocket and come out on top. Chill for at least 3 hours. Garnish with mint leaves if desired.

Friends

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them."
W. Clement Stone

A Date with Destiny

To quote Coco Chanel a famous fashion designer and how she knew a first impression mattered, "I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

Have one perfect outfit for each season that you can put on in a hurry and know you look great. Create an outfit that fits great, in a color that compliments your skin and is accessorized with jewelry, shoes, and a purse.

The Best Cupcakes in the World!

My daughter was watching the Martha Stewart show and watched Billy, of Billy's Bakery in New York City make these cupcakes. This is his famous recipe. My daughter has made these as wedding favors, for showers, corporate parties, as well as birthdays. This picture is of the lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting.














BILLY’S VANILLA, VANILLA CUPCAKES

Makes about 30 cupcakes.

1 ¾ c. cake flour, not self-rising
1 ¼ c. unbleached, all purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 T. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 c. whole milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 2 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds fulls. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles if desired. Serve at room temperature.

I love cupcakes!

BILLY’S VANILLA BUTTERCREAM

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 to 8 c. confectioners’ sugar
½ c. milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 c. sugar to reach desired consistency.

We received these fancy cupcakes from our neighors for Christmas.  So pretty! 

Cute girl food

This was served to me in a really cute pink restaurant in Fort worth Texas. It was so cute I had to take a picture. It is fruit salad with a pink fruit dip, soup, muffin and 3 finger sandwiches, cucumber cream cheese, chicken salad and pimento cheese.

Vegetables are important to any diet. I
recommend carrot cake, zucchini bread, and
pumpkin pie. --Garfield

Scrapbooked Recipe Book

When I went to visit my friend Lisa I noticed (3) huge 3 ring binders full of recipes. Each page was a scrapbooked masterpiece. I knew her recipes were great so I ended up taking digital pictures of some of her recipes. This is just one example.

Self Management

Blessed be the person who has nothing to say who refrains from giving wordy evidence to that fact.
--George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans

"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
Wayne Dyer Psychotherapist, Author and Speaker

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him." Leo Aikman

Solomon in all his wisdom made this meaningful statement: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” (Prov. 16:32.)

How Do You Make Decisions?

Values and Purpose
Intuition
Logic and information
Expert Advice
Feelings and Emotion
Fate and Chance
Divine Guidance
Past Experiences

Evaluate how you normally make decisions. Now ask yourself which one you never use to make a choice. What if you had a decision to make and you stepped into each one of these and tried it on for size. There might be some benefits.
When I did this exercise in coaching school, I generally made decisions out of Divine Guidance and Logic and Information. After exploring myself more and learning and growing as a person, I went back a year later and did the exercise again and was surprised that my decision making process expanded into more areas, I hadn't been using.
The exercise was this. They made a big wheel on the floor out of tape. The wheel was divided into categories. Each piece of the pie was labeled one of these. We were to walk around the wheel and stand in each section and see what it felt like to make a decision each way. After we had gone around the circle, each person had to pick the one they used the most and tell why. Then we had to go stand in the piece of pie that we used the least and tell why. What was interesting about this was that you heard each person's perspective. They each made a lot of sense. I could see the benefits of using different methods. Sometimes we get into our box and don't want to do things a different way. I realized that the other perspectives were valid and useful. Now when making a decision, I have so many more ways of looking at things and deciding.

Wheat Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

Butter Milk Syrup
1 cup white sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup butter
2T. corn syrup
1tsp. Baking soda
2 tsp. vanilla

Boil for 7 min.
Remove from stove
Stir in vanilla

Whole Wheat Pancakes
Blend in blender for 4 min.
2 eggs
1c milk
1c. Wheat
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3T. Oil
Also good as waffles

Pig Candy

Arrange bacon on a broiler pan. (My daughter made these on cooling racks on a cookie sheet)
Sprinkle bacon with brown sugar liberally. (Cinnamon or nutmeg can be added)
Cook for 20 min. at 350
Turn bacon, apply more brown sugar, and cook for another 20 min.

If you have never tried this, you have really been missing out. It is sooo good!!!!!!! It is a sweet, fattening, smoke flavored delight. If you don't have lots of people around to help you eat these, DO NOT try this recipe. You might end up eating way too many.

Cook until they are flat and look crispy, not floppy.
IF you have any leftovers the bacon would taste great cut up in a salad although I have never had that opportunity.

This has saved me 100's of hours

For years I was the only one in my household that could iron. Yes, I tried to teach my husband but he didn't give it much effort. Why should he when I was so good at it?:)
About 10 years ago I saw this professional steamer at Costco. It was expensive but I thought it was worth a try. It turned out to be one of the best investments in myself and my time that I have ever made!
Why is it that when men have a job to do they go out and buy the best tools for the job and women seem to scrape buy with cheap irons and vacumes and use them many times a week for decades?
My children, starting at 5, could steam their own clothes. My husband has no trouble either. Our family uses it about 98 percent of the time. I rarely ever get out the ironing board. Clothing stores use these because what would normally take 10 minutes to iron, takes 1 or 2 min. to steam.

Today is a gift

Time flies whether you're having fun or not.

Yesterday's the past. Tomorrow's the future. But today is a gift. Thats why it's called the present.--Family Circus,Bill Keane

If I worry a lot about tomorrows today it won’t help with tomorrow’s challenges, but it sure might mess up today’s joy.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon

My Sweet Kids

Can you see the lace?

My Daughter's Wedding Cake

It was a gorgeous fondant covered cake. She saw a cake like this in a bakery window in London.

My daughter knows me well

Mindy gave me this dish towel for my birthday. It was the perfect gift. LOVE IT! Thanks Mindy!

Remembering Successes

They say that when you ask someone what they are good at you get blank stares, but when you ask people to list their faults they start listing them page after page.
How sad is that! We should be able to share our victories as well as share our tragedy’s.
How about writing some of the good stuff in your journal. Here are some ideas.

A time in your life when you were at your best.
When you landed a job or got a promotion.
When you succeeded at a hobby, sport or event.
When you had one of your dreams come true.
Something you worked hard for.
Something you overcame.
Something you are proud of.
Something you accomplished.

Dancing Lessons

I have been talking about taking dancing lessons for years. I kept thinking my husband and I could do them together. Well, it was never one of his goals. He doesn't like to dance. I thought I can either mope around because no one will take lessons with me or I can do it by myself. So last week I took action. I was frankly sick of talking and thinking about it. I drove myself down to Fred Astaire dance Studio and signed up for 5 classes. I went 2 times last week and it was really fun. I danced about 40 min. each time. It was physically and mentally stimulating. I came home and danced with my 11 and 12 year old girls. We had a ball. I am going to keep taking lessons. When I get better I hope I can teach my husband and girls.
This wasn’t a huge goal. It was just one of those things I thought would be fun to try. Is there anything you have been talking about doing? Are you waiting on others to do it? Do it on your own. Your enthusiasm might be contagious.

Here is my uncle and I dancing at my aunt's 50th wedding anniversary. See the lessons have already paid off!

My Mission Statement

Mission Statements evolve over time. What is nice about writing one is putting it up on your bathroom mirror and reading it each day. When you say these positive things and know where you are going, your day starts out better with clearer direction.

My Mission Statement
I savor each moment of my life as a positive, grateful, happy, wife, mother, homemaker and successful business woman and coach who delegates, serves and helps others rise to greatness.
I am a strong, spiritual, healthy, organized and an energetic whole person who is self disciplined, a goal getter, who has deep, meaningful and fun relationships with family, friends and colleagues.