rockin' mama

You know, the best thing about being pregnant these days, *wink, wink*, is that you don't have to check your style in at the door anymore once you start outgrowing your everyday clothes. Many designers are finally realizing that pregnant women want to feel and look good during those months when they have that blissful glow about them and have started designing hip clothes that don't take an expectant mother back 2 generations whenever she wears them. That's why I love the shirts by Rockstar Moms. A few of my favorite shirts from this site are the Sparrow shirt, the Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt that takes me back to my Free Bird high school days, and I had to laugh at the iBaby shirt. It makes showing off your growing assets a lot more fun than it used to! Not that I would know about being pregnant in the seventies and eighties, but I can just tell those big frumpy smocks would be painful to wear, lol.

picture at your wrist

I love photography and I'm constantly looking for unique ways to display portraits. I love these cuffs found at Smoy.net. They are fun and a great way to personalize your style. In this day and age, unique personalities and art has become the front runner in trends, which is why I believe so many people will love this product! You can customize each cuff, with one or more pictures depending on the design that you choose. Smoy also makes the Brooklyn Belt where you can showcase your pictures around your waist. The colors choices are great as well. Calm and neutral colors with the Soho4 PhotoCuffs or rockers can choose a glittery bold color with the Chelsea PhotoCuff. You can change your photos anytime, depending on the occasion; new boyfriend, new baby, or your best friend's birthday. Pictures are secured between the layers of the photocuffs with a clear plastic cover to protect them. Prices begin at $17 and go up to $35. Small price to pay to be unique.

a new book to read

I'm constantly reading. My life revolves around having something to read at all times or else I become very restless. I just finished up a series of books that I thoroughly enjoyed, called Fablehaven. and I was looking for another series to start that was comparable to the Fablehaven series and someone recommended that I read the Jimmy Fincher Saga series by James Dashner. I'm really excited to read this series! You can check out the books and the author's blog, at www.jamesdashner.blogspot.com.

how old are you really?

This website, Poodwaddle, determines your actual age in relationship to your daily lifestyle. My real age is 7.5 (Biological age, 25) and I have a life expectancy of 91.5, with 24,300 days left. Doesn't seem like a whole lot. Go see how old you really are!!

what we don't need, they do

Sarah McLachlan puts money in perspective with this touching music video. Instead of spending $150,000 to make the music video, she put only $15 dollars into it and donated the rest of the money that would have gone into making the video to other charitable causes. If only all celebrities were that giving. It's amazing how a little can do a lot for so many.

fairyland

I love it when I find something unique and fun for my son. My Boho Baby has created the cutest children's shirts and dresses out there! When I first saw these winged shirts I knew that I had to have one for my little guy. These shirts are mystical themed. You can choose from fairies, dragons, a phoenix, a pegasus or even a bat to get your little person ready for Halloween. Each shirt is hand-dyed when you place the order and you can customize several aspects of the shirt, such as the embroidery and wing color. You can find these shirts at Winged Kids, which is a part of My Boho Baby.

what's for dinner

All Recipes has helped me in many ways to become a better cook, a better mom, and a better wife. I refer to this recipe site all the time. I've never been great in the kitchen and in fact, many times before, I've been run out of kitchens for fear that my horrible luck with food would rub off on whoever was cooking at the moment and cause their dish to instantly dissolve into mush.

So for years, I just used the excuses, "I can't cook," or "I don't know how," or "Seriously, you don't want me near the kitchen." But then I became a mother and there was someone else whose nutritional needs depended on me entirely, and I knew that fast food or the microwave wasn't really how I wanted to sustain my son. So I started buying recipe books and searchingon the internet for recipes that I could make.

I had to start simple, I mastered spaghetti first with simple ingredients. I made it all the time. All the time. Until finally my husband begged me to try something else. So I went back to this site and started searching for things that I could make. It then became fun! One of my favorite features of the whole site is the ingredient search. You type what ingredients you want and what you don't want and they will suggest recipes that fit your criteria. Neat, huh?

You can generate shopping lists on the site and print them off so you can get all the specific ingredients needed for your recipes. I like making weekly meal plans, so this insures that I get everything I need for the meals I will be cooking in a particular week.

And if you are on a diet, they have a whole section for Weight Watchers that already has the points tallied for each serving. Definitely helps making being on a diet more manageable.

Go check out this site! Find out something to make for dinner tonight!! And for dessert, try this delicious Watergate Salad. YUM!

6 million dollar home

No, I don't really have a 6 million-dollar home with four walls, a roof and lots of other fabulous amenities that would come with having a house that freakin' expensive, but I do own one of the best camera bags out there that just happens to be called the 6 Million Dollar Home. I'm not making any sense, am I?? That's because it doesn't make any sense, and that's the genius of it.

The makers of Crumpler Bags give all of their products sarcastic and punny names, I believe in an attempt to get away from the traditional blah-ness of product descriptions. The descriptions for each type of product are hilarious!

My personal favorite bag description on the site is the backpack called The Salary Sacrifice. Its description is a play on the words "salary" and "celery," which really does make you laugh at the price and think it's totally worth it:

"Okay, that’s it: we’re all gunna have to make some cut backs. No more celery for anyone. That’s right. You guys are gunna have to dig for big green sticks some place else. Hey, don’t stalk off when I’m talkin to you . . ."

They have a full line of products from computer bags, messenger bags, camera bags and accessory bags, which, all kidding aside, are amazing products. I covet my camera bag and absolutely love the quality of it ... and it is nice to be able to casually say to people at social events, "Why, YES, darling! I do in fact have a 6 million dollar home! Waiter!! Please get me another Dirty Martini!"

sleep now forever

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is an infant bereavement organization that allows photographers to volunteer their time to families who are going through unfortunate circumstances. It's a wonderful organization that I have been a part of for nine months and it's a very humbling in so many ways. It is a way to give back and allows the family who is experiencing such a great loss to have a cherished gift of something they will never be able to get back. This world-wide organization has volunteers in every state and in many countries. It's hard to imagine the loss that someone goes through when losing a child and no ever thinks that they will be affected, but when these unfortunate moments do happen in life, it's nice to be able to have a place that the parents can turn to in order to eternalize their little bundle and to one day find closure and comfort in the images a photographer has created for them.

mor chikin yo

Chick-fil-a is giving away a free sandwich and coke to anyone who goes to this website and fills out their information! They have the best ads for any food chain. The cows with protesting signs draped over them pleading people to, "Eat Mor Chikin" is great! Chick-fil-a is the bomb and I'm sincerely sorry to all those folks who don't have one in their state. My condolences are with you.

do tell your secret!

Post Secret is a place dedicated to people who have a secret to tell and need an anonymous place to let the secret go. Every Sunday the blog is updated with new secrets that people have written out and sent in on postcards. I think it is a neat concept and and for entertainment value, it is fun to browse through the secrets to see what everyone else is doing. I sometimes wonder if all the secrets are legit, but I'm sure that a lot of them are. It's hard not to get emotional over some of them, as there are a lot of sad and raw emotions in some people's secrets. It's amazing and scary what so many people have bottled up inside, afraid to let someone close to them know.

things that moo don't just make milk

Welcome to Moo. This cool printing site is great for gifts and stationery items. It's main forte is mini-cards, calling cards that are half the size of a standard business card. They come in sets of 100 and the coolest part is that each card can have a completely different design. You can have up to 100 different cards in one order! What better way to let people know about your website or business? Make each one a cool and funky design that fits your personality!

You can also order custom sticker-books, something I know my two-year-old son would absolutely love! I personally love the note cards and think they are a wonderful way to keep in touch with people the old-fashioned way. Instead of dropping a rushed email to your mom or brother, why not take the time to send them a personalized note card with a hand-written note on the back?

pandora's music box

Pandora is quite possibly the best music site ever. It creates music playlists for you to enjoy based on your particular interests. It doesn't just create any playlist for you, it sorts your particular favorite artist or song into a particular music gene pool and selects the perfect songs that you would love. It's AMAZING! It's a great way to listen to some of your favorite artists and to discover new similiar artists in the meantime. Pandora gives you the album and artists information about each song that they select and also gives the option of purchasing that particular selection from iTunes or Amazon. So convenient! If you haven't already discovered the genius of this site, don't wait any longer! You've got a personalized music station out there waiting for you!

find the artist in you

Deviant Art is one of my favorite websites for artistic resources. If you are in a creative slump and need some ideas or just a little inspiration, then this is a great site for that! I've downloaded tons of stuff for photoshop. They have brushes, textures, backgrounds, stock photos, almost anything. There is also a lot of art that you can purchase if you are looking for something in particular. I mainly just use it for the photoshop resources, but it has a variety of things to offer.

hometown ghosts

The Shadowlands website will give you goosebumps. If you've ever wondered what places were haunted in your area, just spend some time on this site. You can search your own particular state, and then it breaks it down into certain cities. In my particular city there are twenty-three ghostly tales to read about. One in particular is from a hotel that I worked in during my college years. I had heard about these hauntings while I was there, but it's neat to read about them here. Even if you don't believe in ghosts, everyone needs a little spookiness in their lives every now and then!

eavesdropping

Overheard in New York is a hilarious blog that is inspired by eavesdropping on the many people in New York City. It pokes fun at small portions of conversations that are overheard in random places in the city. The quotes are obviously taken out of context, but that's what's so brilliant about the site! Check it out and see what everyone else is saying!

deviant behavior

The Improv Everywhere site was passed along to me about two years ago. Their logo, "We cause scenes," is what the group's "missions" are about. They focus on deviant behavior in public places, mostly crowded areas in NYC. They recruit large groups of people, or agents, and have them cause a scene in a place where lots of people tend to gather. The picture above references a mission in which they had about three hundred people infiltrate the subway system without wearing pants. Very few sites have made me laugh as hard as this one has. My favorite mission was the Best Buy bit where they had about eighty agents dress in the traditional Best Buy employee uniforms and sent them into a large Best Buy store in NYC. With eighty fake employees in one store, the customers quickly became confused as to who were the real employees and who were the fakes. You'll have to check out the site to see how it all unfolded...

in the genes

Have you ever wondered what color eyes your future children would have? This site is one that I visited frequently while I was pregnant with my son. Based on your own genotype and that of your mate's, it will calculate the percentages of certain eye colors that your child could possibly have. I had always dreamed of having a little green eyed child with blond curls. I have green eyes myself and they are my favorite feature. The longing to have a child with green eyes as well brought me to this site many times. Based on the our family history, it calculated that there was 36.5% chance that I would have a little greenie. When my son was born, I remember waiting for his eyes to change from the common newborn blue to brown like my husband's. However, they soon changed from that dark blue shade to a wonderful shade of green. I had gotten my wish. A little green eyed boy who also happens to have blond curls.

bare skin

I just recently switched all my make-up to the Bare Escentuals brand. I have to say I LOVE it! I've heard that a lot of women really love it, so I've been wanting to try it for a while. I was using Merle Norman, but I really didn't like the feel of it at all and found myself wanting to wash it all off by afternoon. It was just too much make-up for me. The Bare Minerals is perfect because it is so lightweight and very natural looking. I have sensitive skin, so this works perfect! It comes in a powder form, which makes it easier to put on and create a more even look, and you will never have that awful make-up line under your chin like you would with liquid foundation. Plus it's fast and easy to use, so this week alone I've gotten to wear make-up three days! That's a rarity these days with an active toddler. I usually don't have time for anything! Another reason I love it, it comes with a DVD that tells you exactly how to put it on to get the best look from it. The eyeshadow kit has a card too that gives you step-by-step instructions to create different looks. The make-up challenged person in me really appreciates this!!

I bought the starter kit and then went back after I decided I liked it and got some eyeshadow and some brushes. I bought an eyeshadow kit, iQuad Eyeshadow Compact Quad. This one comes with four colors (one is also an eyeliner powder). I like it because I can create several different looks with it, and the colors are natural tones, which is what I tend to wear a lot. I really like the looks I've been able to get with this kit.

Also, raise your hand if you are like me and you don't get enough sleep. Ah, yes, that's what I thought--all of you are sitting at your computers with your hands up, lol! Well, you can also purchase this powder separately called Well-Rested, to help lighten your eyes underneath. It makes you appear to have a wide-awake, very alert look when you really just want to crawl back into your bed. Your boss will appreciate your alertness.

---Brandi

Brandi's Top 5

Hello there friends!! It's me, Brandi, and don't let the other two gals here fool ya, I'm seriously the coolest of them all!! I spend way too much time on the ever providing internet, so I'm here to weed out the stuff you don't need to waste your time looking at, because fortunately for you I've already trudged through the uselessness of it all. So without further adieu...My Favs...

1) I Love Photography - I'm also a photographer, so this website has helped me tremendously! It's has every resource for a photographer that you could possibly need. There's even a sunlight/sunrise calculator that you can use for your area to get the best possible lighting for your portrait! I'm mean, come on, that's genius! Or if you just want to go look at some fabulous pictures taken by some very talented people, then take some time to look at this website.

2) Pioneer Woman - I love reading other blogs. I have a series of blogs that read every morning with my breakfast and it's become my morning luxury. I start with this one every morning. The Pioneer Woman, Ree, is a witty mother of four who used to lived the luxurious lifestyle of L.A. and then somehow found herself married to a rancher in Oklahoma. She also happens to be a decent photographer, which peaks my interest as well.

3) Unique Wooden Toys - In light of recent toy recalls, I think this toy company deserves a little recognition. I also have a two year old who still enjoys putting his toys in his mouth (he's so weird, lol) so we really can't have any of those lead contaminated toys around our house. Which has led us to try and purchase more natural fiber toys for him. I love that these toys have a timelessness to them as well. Go check out the treehouses! They are seriously cool!

4) B&H - If I weren't already married to the most wonderful man, I would marry this site. Yes I would. There is anything that a techie could ever dream of wanting right there on that fabulous site. Plus, their prices are very comparable! Just try and find them cheaper! As a photographer I've spent many hours creating lists of things I will eventually purchase from there. I've almost got the entire store in my wish list now. Which reminds me, I better get back to work if I'm ever going to get around to purchasing any of it, lol.

5) Esty - This site is a great showcase of very talented people and their crafts. Anyone can sell on etsy. You can find some of the neatest products, like handmade jewelry, clothes, toys, underwear, you name it. I haven't bought earrings from any other place in over a year. I love the fact that I can purchase something unique. A lot of the sellers will even work with you to help create a more personalized product by giving you choices in fabrics, colors and whatnot. Go browse for a while...and we'll see you again in a month, lol.

---Brandi