Here's why I love Costco

This is pretty much all we're buying from Costco (wholesale store) right now. We originally got the membership for the Hubster's new glasses and now we're just going in WITHOUT A CART (that's the trick - otherwise I tend to pick up too much junk food here and there - OOH peanut butter filled pretzel bits!) and buying these few things - a huge tub of organic spring lettuce, a vat of feta cheese, a boatload of mushrooms, a gallon of Sabra pine nut hummus, and shmaybe some bread (if they ever get the blue cheese & pepper ciabatta back in, I'm going on a carb binge, though!)

Fry up sliced mushrooms with garlic, add some balsamic vinegar & let reduce, pour - still warm - over dressed salad, add feta crumbles - dinner!

Sephora by Opi

Ooh pretty! Sephora by Opi nail polish in a delightful shade of blue called "Slushied" from their Glee collection. Got one for free from the Vogue Influencer Network and love it! It's part of the "Sephora Hot Now" assortment for March.

I can't stand nail polish on my fingers, but "Slushied" definitely looks awesome on my toes (the cat thinks so too), and it stays on forever!

More from the Sephora Hot Now collection...

Here are some more awesome beauty products I received for free to review from the Vogue Influencer Network:

Couture Color Pequi Oil Treatment - moisturizing hair oil that softens, smoothes and adds shine to all hair types. I used this both on wet and dry hair and it tamed my frizzy hair and made it nice and shiny! I love that you only need a few drops so it lasts forever.

My second favorite: The "Buxom Waterproof Smoky Eye Stick" eyeliner - lasts forever without giving me raccoon eyes! I'm still experimenting with the look since I usually use lighter colors, but this eyeliner definitely makes for a great, dramatic look.

This one wins the award for weirdest ingredient: the "Peter Thomas Roth Laser-Free Resurfacer With Dragon's Blood". (Yep. Go make up your own Charlie Sheen joke there). This skin serum "contains the cutting-edge Dragon’s Blood complex - an Amazonian ingredient that reduces inflammation and accelerates skin repair". I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds (and looks) fierce.

Here's the cutest one of all - the "tokidoki Sodashop Tin" containing 12 high-pigment eye shadows, a Perfetto eyeliner in Carina, a SANDy nail file and tokidoki magnets. I'm a huge fan of Tokidoki designs and this one made me go "awwww". The colors are great and the whole tin is just freakin' adorable.

Last but not least, I received the "Hourglass Aura Sheer Cheek Stain" in a shade called "Flush". It has a great sponge tip that makes application so easy, and I love the color!

All of these are part of the "Sephora Hot Now" collection of the latest & greatest beauty products.

Nutella cupcake party!

I got a great package from Nutella - a big, BIG jar of Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread, and enough mini Nutella packs, coupons, recipe cards, Nutella spreaders, and coffee tumblers to share!

So, what to do with so much Nutella bounty - apart from eating it on toast, waffles, toasted and buttered french bread slices... *drool* - CUPCAKES! Yay!


And coincidentally I found a great recipe for Nutella cupcakes with 3-tone frosting. Even before baking, the cupcake dough is insanely yummy, almost like a Nutella flavored chocolate mousse. One mistake I made was to not use paper liners - they ended up a bit crumbly, but oh so tasty!


The best thing, though, were all the different frostings! The almond butter cream cheese frosting is so good, they should bottle it & sell it. The Nutella frosting is nicely chocolate-y, and the vanilla frosting is... probably pretty good as well, but I ran out of sugar so I only made the two kinds.


Piping frosting is CLEARLY not my strength, but they were a huge success!

Birthday cupcakes

A slightly changed version of German black forest cherry cupcakes... (who would have thought that canned cherries actually have an expiration date, and taste kinda metallic after a year... so I had to use strawberries instead.)

Banana Daiquiris

We have a new blender. Nope, not for making healthy smoothies and whatnot - we've been making Banana Daiquiris! How come nobody ever told me about Banana Daiquiris? They're practically healthfood, what with the banana, and contain just the right kinds of alcohol - rum, triple sec - and flavoring - sugar, lime juice - so we can make them all the time. Oooh, I guess THAT's why nobody ever told me *hic*

Birthday preparations...

Aaah! It's a brain slug!

A crocheted Futurama brain slug! RUN!!! (pattern from hookandneedles.com)

Who came first - bunny or egg?

OMG these are sofaking cute!!! Modern pet houses from peipod.com! I want one for the kitty...

My thoughts exactly...

Birdies!

Walking at Indian Creek trail park, we saw a few cardinals and a bluebird! I love bluebirds!