Sunday Link Love

Sunday’s are a nice, lazy day here at the Mirabella Mansion. After church the boys watch football and I catch-up on my Google Reader. Some people read the Sunday Paper, I read the blogs!

Here are some highlights from this past week:

• You might want to print out this Thanksgiving Cooking Schedule to follow.
• I’m totally going to make Spiced Pumpkin Pie Rice Pudding for Thanksgiving this year.
• Little Dude and I will have lots of fun making these Cereal Box Turkeys (I’m also thinking these will make super cute Snowmen or Santas too!)
• How about some Chocolate Cake in A Cup for a quick and easy dessert?
• Here are some tips on Preparing Your Family’s Winter Wardrobe.
• You know I love tips! Here are tips on Taking Better Pictures of Your Toddler.

Oh, I don’t want to forget my own site!! How about some Frugal Ideas for Cooking Black Beans?

Have a great week!

Freebie Seeker Tips!

Are you a freebie and coupon hunter? Do you constantly enter giveaways and sweepstakes? Then you must be filling out tons of forms! Reduce your time spent by automating your information and passwords. Download RoboForm today!The free version works for most people!

Freebie programs make their money from sponsors. Frequently once you join a program, such as Quality Health or FreeFlys, you’ll receive emails with offers. When you open the link provided, there are several offers available that require you to enter your information. You don’t always have to complete these offers. Scroll down the page to to SKIP the offers. Do this a few times, and you’ll get to the program’s home page.

Remember, YOU WILL BE INUNDATED WITH EMAILS. I highly recommend you open a separate email account to use for your freebie seeking. Gmail (Google) works well and has great filtering features.

The Agony of De-FEET: Fight The Frump

A blog that has made the Cara Honor Roll (aka my Google Reader) recently posted a fab “Opened Toed Shoe Pledge“. Go check it out! It’s a very cute pledge that all women should take if they want to wear sandals.

So let’s take a minute to talk a minute about pedicures. If you haven’t had one – GO GET ONE! It is totally worth the 25-30 bucks and half-hour to get your tootsies soaked, scrubbed, pumiced, moisturized, filed and polished. Plus, a massage is sometimes included all the way up the calves! It’s wonderful. Seriously, do it!

Now, once you have a professional pedicure, the do-it-yourself type sucks a little bit. But it is important to maintain a nice foot. Especially during the season of super cute shoes! So my advise to maintain the sandal-ready foot, is these simple steps:

• Keep a pumice stone in your bath/shower. You can take an extra minute every so often to scrub those feet to a smooth finish.
• Also keep a nail brush in your bath/shower. Nothing ruins a pedi more than dirty toes!
• When applying lotion, don’t skip the tootsies! Keep them moisturized with the rest of your body.
• At the very least, keep your nails trimmed by either using clippers or a file.
• When polishing, always apply a base coat to protect your natural nails. And always apply a top coat to protect the polish.
• If you are afraid of chips in your polish, stick with a pale neutral color so it’s not as obvious.
• If you’re in a bummy-mood, paint your toes red. It’s an instant pick-me-up! (a glass of wine helps too!)

For more beauty tips (as if you need them) visit my pal Mrs. Fussypants.

Ha – I’m Right And Have Proof!

I’m finally getting through my Google Reader. I’ve become days behind and really needed to get through the posts. I subscribe to 56 feeds on blogs about cooking, frugal living, organizing, home making and business. And there are a few friend’s blogs thrown in there. Well tonight, while catching up with the goings-on in the Blog-o-sphere, I came across a post that has thrilled me!

You see, ever since I started dating my husband, I’ve argued with my dear sweet mother-in-law about refrigerating hot foods. Ok, not really an argument – more like a light hearted bicker that deep down makes me steam with anger because I know I’m right but I laugh it off since she is my mother-in-law.

{Long Exhale}

Anyway, it drives me nuts that after dinner, she’ll leave food out to ‘cool down’ before putting them in the fridge. Remember, I’m not talking about food straight from the oven, but food from the dinner table. She insists that it’s not good for the refrigerator or the surrounding foods to put hot items in the fridge. I however remember my basic home-economics class in middle-school and know that this is a big ‘no-no’ because you run the risk of bacteria growing on your food.

Well, Heather at HomeEc101 has a fantastic post proving me correct, with proof from the USDA and FDA.

Foods that cool too slowly will spend a long time in the
“danger zone” for bacterial growth.

So everyone take note:
1 – Refrigerate your foods as soon as possible to prevent bacterial growth
2 – Cara is right

Thank you Heather!