Cinnamon Beer Toast

My brother has this Spanish cookbook he got on sale when Borders Bookstore was still an existing business. He has made wonderful dishes from this book, and one is the Cinnamon Beer Toast above. The recipe is supposed to be called, Torrijas, but we modified it: omitted the eggs, used beer instead of white wine, used real sugar instead of dusting caster sugar, used olive oil instead of sunflower oil, and cooked it with minimum oil. It was wonderful! It went so fast. I had to stop myself from eating these. Oh so good!

Goal: Send My Parents On A Weekend Getaway

Goal: Send my parents on a weekend getaway
Goal Achieved: April 05, 2013
Location: The Richards House : Dubuque, IA
Photo provided by website

My parents have been such a blessing to Andrey and me. As entrepreneurs, Dre and I spend a lot of time working. It truly gives us peace of mind that Maksim is with family instead of a daycare. With everything that has happened, my family is always there for each other - and we're so lucky to have close bonds.

For my parents' 35th wedding anniversary, we decided to send them on a weekend getaway - somewhere different, somewhere unique, something far from the norm. When we mentioned an all-expense-paid  escape to a Victorian B&B, they were excited. (CLICK HERE - Read and see more pictures after the JUMP...)

Product Review: Two Faced Shadow Insurance

PROS The excitement of trying a new eye shadow base It got good reviews

CONS Extremely greasy. After several uses, grease still oozed out The primer and the grease separate inside the tubes Shadow cakes in the creases of the eyes after four hours It's $20 and it doesn't get the job done

This was the most disappointing beauty purchase in my history of make-up buying. Sephora had stellar reviews on this product: better than UD's Primer Potion, doesn't cake, a little goes a long way, long lasting, enhances eye shadow color, and etc. I couldn't wait to try it. When I opened it, oil came out, not primer, OIL! GROSS! I gave it a few more tries but it always came out greasy, even when mixed. I also noticed that after 4 hours, my eye make up started to cake up in the creases. I don't even want to get into what it looks like after 8 hours.

I'm positively going back to UD's Primer Potion. At least with that one my eye makeup stays decent for up to 12 hours.

Don't bother with this deceiving primer with rave reviews. What a waste of $20.

ReTweeted

Goal: 

Get a retweet from one of the accounts I follow on twitter.

Goal Achieved: 

March 25, 2013

I used to dislike twitter with a passion until my facebook newsfeed started to look like endless memes that simply annoyed me. The audience in twitter is smaller and less judgmental so it became my voice. I still use facebook to comment on what others say, but most of my updating is through my twitter.

One of my favourite things about this social media site is following accounts I adore, one of them being Pride & Prejudice - the 2005 movie adaptation of the classic literature. Granted, the movie has similarities and differences from the book, but I simply appreciate everything about the film: interpretation, cast, filmography, and music. 

I admit, Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy totally won me over. He put a spell on me throughout the movie and I became mesmerized by the intensity of his stare. Behind his eyes revealed the complexity of the human nature to understand, to love, hate, trust, accept, and forgive. I swooned and melted, my heart did a loop-de-loop. The feeling felt like being in love all over again. My husband is a good sport about my being in love with Mr. Darcy, ha ha, and he seems to view my little crush as some form of entertainment. Every time I go on and on about Mr. Darcy, he just rolls his eyes. 

Anyway, so the retweet - I was excited. It's very hard to get a retweet from a celebrity or a popular account. It's a small goal, but I'll take it! 

Life Goals

I finally got my new LIFE GOALS list up.

The difference with this new list from the previous one is that I didn't set a deadline and the goals are easier to achieve. Then again, small or big goals - they're all the same since it's the learning that counts. But eventually, I'll integrate the old goals into this new one.

I will be adding to these goals as time goes by. This world is so vast and infinite that one lifetime is not enough to explore its greatness. But understanding through experience and perseverance makes a whole world of difference. It is the force that can change a person to become wiser.

You are never too old to set another goal

or to dream a new dream.

- C.S. Lewis -

Back To Blogging

I've been a total slacker with blogging.  The whole, "I'm busy with life" New York/New England self-importance mentality nonsense got in the way of what I really love to do - which is blogging.

Currently I'm working on my new 101 Things to Do.  This time around, the goals are more realistic to the schedule of a full time working mommy - and absolutely doable.

There's approximately 75 things on my previous list that I didn't do - worth $75.  I haven't decided where to donate the money yet, but when I do, I'll blog about that too.

Stay tuned for more good things to come.

Wine & Cheese Photography Video Montage

I made a video montage of some of my photographs using FlixPress Pro.  It was fun to make, easy.  It came with a ton of media in its library for me to use.

Anyway, it's just something fun to do to showcase my photos more professionally.