Oui, Sugar! Decorating Squeeze Bottles get a New Look!

I cannot say enough of the wonderful supplier of the decorating squeeze

bottles I use to decorate my cookies and, offer for sale through my store!

Because when I mentioned that I wanted to somehow brand the

bottles, one sweet gentleman in particular took it upon himself to

work with their label vendor to come up with one... Just for me!

I cannot be without perfect royal icing or these squeeze bottles!

And, if you love to decorate cookies too, neither should you!

I think seeing the logo I designed for Oui, Sugar! on a fantastic-looking,

professionally produced label calls for a give-away... What do you think?

I think I'd like to spoil one of you, my dear readers and friends with

one of my Oui, Sugar! 24-piece decorating kits. How about that?!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment telling me

how you'd put this kit to good use in your cookie making!

Give-away ends on Monday March 3rd - Please be sure to provide

an e-mail address (won't be published) so that I may contact you

Good Luck and Thank You for your continued support!

***************************

Contest Ended. Congratulations #27,

Beverly - Please reply to my e-mail with your

mailing address and I will ship your kit right away!

To thank everyone for your comments, I am happy to

extend the following special offer: Purchase a decorating kit

through my store and receive one additional Squeeze Bottle and

the e-version of my Recipe and Decorating Tips Guide FREE

Simply send me an e-mail requesting this offer with your order!

Valentine's Day Cookies... Decorated!

While old-man winter was busy having a second go at us this week...

I was warm and cozy inside, keeping busy with my Valentine's Day cookies!

As I decorated, I couldn't help but think how I must be the only person, in

the history of the Master Cleanse to spend day eight covered in royal icing!

However, that's exactly what I did! I broke out

my trusty cookie decorating squeeze bottles...

From my Oui, Sugar! 24-piece Cookie Decorating Kit...

And, got to work!

Speaking of work...

For me, the best part of creating cookies is packing

them up to give away to my friends at the Dream Job!

Which is exactly what I did on Valentine's Day!

Of course, I couldn't forget my wonderful mail lady and

our UPS man who were finally able to get out to deliver today!

So tell me...

Happy Valentine's Day!

xo

Snow Day 2014

I couldn't wait to jump out of bed this morning to see what the snow storm

yesterday left behind... And, as you have already seen, I was not disappointed!

After a full afternoon of light fluffy snow, it quickly turned to ice after sunset!

Therefore, everything is covered in a thick crust of ice this morning!

Not that I am complaining because I've been waiting for this since November!

My ruler indicates we received five inches; however, I know the ice packed down

the snowfall by at least half an inch. And, guess what? It just started to snow again!

All that Begging for one decent Snow paid off!

Finally! All that begging for one decent snow this winter paid

off, because it's snowing! Would have been nice around New Year's

while I was on vacation from work. But that's okay... I'll take it now!

By the way... This is why girls never get rid of shoes! Because we never know

when that great pair of Dexter's our dad bought us at the Ft. Riley PX on the

way out of town to go skiing in Colorado back in 1983 might come in handy!

They are most definitely coming in handy this afternoon!

The roads coming home were parking lots! Fortunately we made it

because guess who is on day seven of the Master Cleanse and had two

cups of smooth-move tea just before she left the office? Yes, really! But it

all worked out and now I'm looking forward to an evening in this baby!

Speaking of babies... The birds are all over the feeders right now!

I love birds. Especially in the snow!

This one seems to be saying Thanks for filling the feeders this morning!

You are so welcome my feathered sweets!

It's been snowing for a less than two hours now...

And, it looks like we have almost...

Three inches and, it's still coming down - Yea!

Hey! There's snow in my eyes, can you help me out here?

Last night I came home to tulips because my love said he's afraid there

might not be any flower shop deliveries possibly on my Valentine's Day

due to the snow! Here they are in the living room with the fireplace on...

And, here they are this evening without the fireplace on!

It's cold. It's snowing. And, I love it!

40-day Master Cleanse

I finished 2013 feeling emotionally better than I have in nearly five years. After welcoming our Ranger back from his fifth and last deployment and spending nearly two weeks at home with my parents at Christmas... Life was great! 

However, physically, I finished 2013 feeling worse than I can ever remember feeling in my life. Now, you won't catch me making any excuses; after all, no one forced me to eat all the crap I ate. But there was a reason I switched from over-exercising two years ago to over-eating and, the reason is that stupid Achilles injury I suffered a year ago. It side-lined me not only physically, it side-lined me mentally too. 

After working up to three hours of spin classes a day, in addition to an hour each of yoga and water aerobics, suddenly I was down for the count. I was moving less than my 72-year old mother and feeling every bit my age and hers combined! 

Although my Achilles is still not quite 100%, I am back to remembering what it feels like not to live every day of my life in agonizing pain. So... Short story long, I got my life back with a big helping of horrible eating habits and an addiction to Taco Bell to go with it!

While I've made a few attempts at getting things back under control through strict calorie control, I realized that what I really need to break this cycle of binge eating I developed is to break up with food completely!

But how? I already know from Catholic school that prayerful fasting during Lent only works for a couple of days before you fall over in gym class... And, I've done the CLEAN detox cleanse but found keeping up with all the supplements exhausting. So I turned to the Master Cleanse. 

I've been wanting to do the Master Cleanse since before Beyoncé and Yolanda Foster brought it back into vogue but it wasn't until I watched this video by Abigail that I became sufficiently inspired to take the plunge!

Two weeks ago, I began slowing down my digestion to avoid failure due to the cold-turkey-crash most people fall victim to by cutting back on the Taco Hell and caffeine. 

Then, feeling totally ready, I skipped over to my local Whole Foods last Thursday for everything needed to embark on the Master Cleanse!

Of course, Whole Foods didn't make it easy on me! On top of the fact

that their organic lemons looked a week past due for composting,

their desserts near the registers kept making eye contact with me!

Nevertheless, I persevered and after a quick stop at The Fresh Market

for organic lemons that actually resemble lemons, I was all set to begin!

Not going to lie... I'm a little freaked out by what

it takes to make our non-organic food bionic!

So here we are!

It's day three of 40 and all is well. Except for a nasty dream about food last

night, I'm feeling pretty good. Empty in a good way and clear-headed! The

lemonade tastes really good, although I've had to back off on the cayenne a

little because I'm a weenie when it comes to spicy things. I've yet to do the

salt-water flush, but it's on my list for tomorrow morning... Wish me luck!