Year: 2011

  • Fashion Friday: Edition all you need is an Easter bonnet

    So Gulley and I were talking about a variety of topics yesterday, everything from our favorite contestant on American Idol to the American involvement in Libya. Because we pride ourselves on being well-rounded.

    (In case you’re wondering, Paul McDonald is my favorite on Idol right now. He just has that whole quirky, raspy-voiced thing going on that I adore. Also, Gulley and I got really tickled because one of the kids in her pre-school class told her he loved American Idol because that funny-looking grandma always says hilarious things. The funny-looking grandma would be Steven Tyler. I’m not sure that’s the look he’s going for.)

    Anyway, one of the things we discussed was how late Easter falls this year. It’s April 24th for those of you playing along at home and that is WAY LATE compared to all Easters in my recent memory. Our discussion led us to this question: if it’s already 90 degrees outside but Easter isn’t until April 24th, when is it okay to wear white pants?

    I’m not as concerned about white shoes because I fundamentally don’t believe in white shoes for females over the age of ten. Don’t hassle me about it. It’s just a personal opinion.

    And I realize that we are living in 2011 and people really have bigger concerns (like Libya) than when to wear white pants. I am aware we live in a world where people wear white pants all year round. I just need to know that my great-grandmother won’t be turning over in her grave if I decide to break out the white jeans sometime around mid-April instead of waiting until the day after Easter.

    Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

    Speaking of Easter, I thought it might be fun to look at some good options for Easter attire today. If you don’t agree with me, please don’t let me know. It took me a long time to find ten dresses I actually liked.

    They just don’t make them like Leslie Lucks used to with big sailor collars that require you to turn sideways when you walk through a doorway.

    1. sunny soiree dress

    As usual, Anthropologie has my heart. And, honestly, this dress is pretty reasonable for Anthropologie who generally likes to charge you $300 and the right to name your first born child.

    2. jaquard party dress

    I’m always looking for anything besides a floral print because I struggle with floral prints. I love that this is bright and feminine without flowers.

    3. square neck matte jersey dress

    Love the colors and I bet it’s so dang comfortable.

    4. bell sleeve paisley empire waist dress

    I really love the hot pink and black together and this style of dress is usually flattering on everyone.

    5. brilliant in bolds floral skirt

    What? A skirt? For Easter? MADNESS.

    But how cute would this be with a pretty shrunken yellow cardigan? Very Betty Draper.

    6. flounced mocha dress

    This is definitely non-traditional but I really like it.

    7. hot pink sleeveless with flared skirt

    Love the hot pink. I think it would be darling with some turquoise accents to spice it up.

    8. yellow sleeveless printed dress

    See? Another bright, pretty dress with no flowers.

    9. terazzo tunic

    I love this tunic and it would be great paired with some white skinny, cropped pants. Plus you could wear it all summer long.

    I’m also a big fan of this ibiza tunic. Might be cute worn over cropped leggings with some pretty bejeweled sandals.

    10. macaron making tunic

    You can’t go wrong with a pretty top. I really like this one. Or maybe something like this printed ruffle top which is about as close to a floral print as I’ll ever get.

    BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE.

    Here are a few cute dresses for little girls I’ve found in my search for Caroline’s Easter dress.

    1. vintage dress

    I love these vintage dresses from Boden. Caroline nixed this one though because she’s trying to kill me.

    2. kissing kumquats knot dress

    I adore this. ADORE. Just so cute and they come in some many fabric combinations.

    3. blue church flowers knot dress and peasant pants

    There again, I love this. But Caroline would rather kick the Easter bunny than put on anything this ruffly at this point in her life. However, if she were three years old, this would have been a contender.

    4. eyelet pillowcase dress with monogram

    I’ve always loved pillowcase dresses. Just so old-fashioned and pretty.

    5. pink striped with ruffle

    I love this. And I would love it more with a big monogrammed “C” on the front.

    That’s it for today.

    Y’all have a great Friday.

  • I’m hair to say thanks with a giveaway (aka cheesiest title ever)

    Listen.

    Not that I have ever, EVER, questioned how much I love y’all, but, if I ever had, the passionate and lengthy responses left in answer to yesterday’s post about hair care reaffirmed that I adore every single one of you.

    Now I just need to figure out how to try all the various suggestions without going bankrupt. And I’m definitely trying the baking soda thing tomorrow morning because I already have baking soda in my cabinet so total score on that. In addition, many of y’all helped me solidify some goals I had for myself in terms of securing some Moroccan Oil. I’d actually tried to buy some at Sephora several months ago but they had no idea what I was talking about and tried to sell me on what was certainly a lesser oil.

    Nice try, Sephora, but I’m nobody’s hair care patsy.

    As for the rest, I think I’ll go to Ulta tomorrow and perform a sight, see, and smell of all your recommendations. I’m sure it will take at least thirty minutes before they contemplate calling security to escort me from the premises.

    Anyway, I want to say thank you. And what better way to say thank you than a little giveaway? Especially when there happens to be something I love SO MUCH right now that I would love to share it with the world and teach the world to sing in perfect harmony and buy the world a coke and keep it company.

    That’s why I’ve decided to give away FIVE FREE DOWNLOADS of the new Passion – Here For You CD from the Passion 2011 conference.

    I downloaded it last week and have listened to it nonstop ever since. It has become one of my top three CD’s of all time. Seriously.

    I felt so passionate about it (Get it? Passionate? I’m so lame.) that I posted about it on Facebook and the Twitter. Which inspired Sophie to download it yesterday and she emailed me and said, “This is SO GOOD. It’s the kind of CD everyone ought to listen to because it’s just that good. Do you think we ought to give away some downloads of it?”

    (Disclaimer: I’m not sure that is a verbatim quote. But it’s the gist.)

    And I responded and said, “YES. THAT IS BRILLIANT. I WANT TO JUMP ON THAT BANDWAGON.”

    (There again, the gist.)

    And that is how the whole thing came into being. I am not being paid or compensated or given free CDs or a pet monkey in return for this. This is just from my heart because I love y’all.

    (I just wanted to clarify for any FCC or FBI or CIA types that might be reading.)

    So, here’s what you need to do for a chance to win:

    1. Leave a comment on this post.

    2. One comment per person please. Duplicate comments will be deleted.

    3. This is for the download only. Not the actual physical CD because that gets into shipping and what not.

    4. I will close comments Sunday evening and use Random.org to draw five winners.

    5. Winners will be notified by email and I’ll send you what you need.

    Have a lovely day.

    Edited to add: Here are the random numbers.

    Here are your random numbers:

    15 167 54 152 206
    Timestamp: 2011-03-31 13:46:45 UTC

  • Yes, this is about my hair

    I didn’t even discuss my sadness over this season of The Bachelor coming to an end. I guess it’s because the reality of it didn’t hit me until Monday night when I didn’t have the joy of listening to Brad Womack use his super robot voice to terribly abuse adverbs. Badly.

    My loss was amplified by the fact that Gulley and I watched most of last week’s finale with Nena, who had never experienced anything like The Bachelor in her entire life. HONEY, ARE YOU TELLING ME BOTH OF THOSE GIRLS THINK HE’S ABOUT TO PROPOSE? I’VE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH. I CAN’T STAND TO WATCH ANYMORE! WAIT, TELL ME ABOUT THIS CUTE BLONDE. WHAT DOES HER MOTHER THINK OF HER BEING ON THIS SHOW?

    The inquiry about the mother is a signature Nena question. No matter the situation she always wants to know what someone’s mother thinks.

    So my Tuesday morning wasn’t as bright without all the Bachelor recaps and whatnot waiting for me on the internet. But I have found solace in Bethenny Ever After because it really personifies all that is good and right about reality television.

    On an entirely different note, I’m struggling with my hair. I realize this will come as no shock to anyone who’s been reading here for longer than five minutes. I did a whole wash, blow-dry, hot-roll thing yesterday and, thanks to the wind and the humidity, it lasted all of thirty-two seconds once I stepped outside. I also experimented with blow-drying my bangs to the opposite side and then sweeping them over to their normal side because I’d heard that this creates the perfect side-swept bang. Maybe on some people. On me it created some bangs that just wanted to stick up like a gang of unruly children all day long.

    As if all this wasn’t enough, I have reason to believe my current shampoo is no longer working for me. I’d had my suspicions, but then I lamented to Gulley last week about how my hair seems to be getting dirtier much faster than usual. I can usually go three days without washing my hair. Sometimes even four if I sport some sort of messy ponytail or bun on the fourth day. Please hold your judgement about my hair-washing frequency. It works for me.

    But lately it seems that my hair feels a little dirty and lifeless by day two, which has historically been known as my best hair day. Gulley has been using the same shampoo and conditioner I have and she said she’s noticed the same thing. Then while I was in Bryan I used whatever shampoo happened to be in the shower and it seemed like old times between my hair and me.

    Yesterday afternoon I perused the hair care aisle at HEB and tried desperately to make an educated shampoo/conditioner/product decision. But I couldn’t commit. I realize I asked about hair products several years ago, but the times they are a changin’ and time makes you bolder, children get older and I’m getting older, too.

    (Did I just veer off for a minute?)

    So help me, o wise internet friends. What shampoo/conditioner/hair care products do you recommend? Keep in mind that while I am willing to spend upwards of tens of dollars, I can’t wash my hair in any sort of liquid gold.

    My hair and I thank you in advance.

  • When June freezes over

    It was back to the real world for us yesterday. Alarm clocks and picking out school clothes and OH THE HUMANITY WHY IS IT STILL DARK OUTSIDE? It hit me like a kick in the pants. Fortunately Caroline was ready to go and energized by the prospect that there are only fifty more school days until summer.

    After I dropped her off at school, I came home and played mental gymnastics with myself to find some sort of motivation to resume my Couch to 5K program. Yes, I realize this has been the longest journey ever from the couch to a 5k, but I keep getting sidetracked by things like illnesses, school vacations and remembering that I really don’t enjoy running. However, the warm weather and the spring flowers are taunting me with the reality that it’s only a matter of about one month before I’ll be in a swimsuit.

    Which is also why I ate a healthy lunch of couscous and veggies while thinking about cheeseburgers and crispy taco plates and all the foods that taste better than vegetables.

    On a side note, one of my friends has been seeing a doctor about some thyroid issues and the doctor has been on her about her diet. She asked if she ate any vegetables and my friend responded that she eats carrots. The doctor informed her that carrots should be considered a RECREATIONAL vegetable only. Why would anyone want to eat a carrot for recreational purposes? Isn’t that what Hostess Cupcakes are for?

    I spent most of day catching up on all the things I neglected over Spring Break so I’ll spare you most of the details because do you really want to know the intricacies of me paying our cell phone bill? But I did finally get Caroline signed up for a week of day camp this summer which I’d been meaning to do before all the sessions filled up. P came home to work on some landscape bids and I told him I signed her up. He asked what the total cost was and I told him the price included the shuttle service to and from camp every day. (Sadly, it’s more than $15.00)

    He agreed it was a good price and totally worth it since she loved it so much last year. Then he laughingly suggested that one of our friends who works out that way could just drive her back and forth every day. I said that would make the whole thing about 1,000 times more enjoyable because it would eliminate the whole bus ride with no air-conditioning unless you count the breeze from the rolled down windows. Which I don’t. And he looked at me incredulously and said, “That’s one of the best parts of the camp experience. The fact that you don’t like it speaks volumes about your personality.”

    Umm…sorry. Clearly I am a freak of nature. Who doesn’t enjoy riding on a bus with no air-conditioning in June? Yes. I’m the weird one.

    Anyway, while P and I were debating the joys to be found in riding on a hot bus and how it relates to a complete camp experience, he happened to glance at our front door and notice the piece of plywood that still resides where we are supposed to have a piece of beveled glass. A piece of beveled glass that was broken by our door guy during installation and promised to be replaced, oh, about six weeks ago. And then six weeks before that. And then maybe six weeks before that.

    We’ve gotten so used to the piece of plywood and the extra-classy touch it adds to the living room that we occasionally forget that we are still in need of a piece of glass. Not to mention the fact that I’ve called Door Guy enough times on my cell phone that I’m about 97% sure it’s on a list of numbers he no longer answers. The same can be said of our home phone.

    However, we haven’t really called him using P’s cell phone, otherwise known as our ace in the hole, so there was decent chance he might answer P’s call. Sure enough, Door Guy answered.

    P reminded him who we were and that we’d been waiting on a piece of glass for our front door since sometime in early November. We also needed some weather-stripping he’d said he would install when he came back with the glass. P was very polite and inquired if maybe there had been some problem with the glass and could we please get on his schedule to get the weather-stripping done since the weather is really starting to heat up and we’d hate to duck tape the whole thing to keep in the bought air like we did this winter. (P didn’t actually say the part of the duck tape and the bought air. I added that.)

    The truth is P tends to be much nicer than me when dealing with these types of issues. People who know us in real life probably find that hard to believe because I appear to be nicer when the truth is that I’m biting the inside of my lip until my eyes start to bleed and a sarcastic comment comes shooting out of my mouth. P is usually more patient when dealing with service problems and saves most of his anger and frustration for inanimate objects that don’t work they way he thinks they should.

    P hung up the phone and told me Door Guy apologized for the delay but explained there had been some problems finding the glass. Well, sure. Because we live in a major metropolitan area and I’m sure no one in town knows how to make a piece of beveled glass. (See? Sarcastic comment. Shooting out.)

    He said he’d get us on his schedule and come by in the next few days to install the weather-stripping. And then I believe he promptly hung up and added P’s cell number to his list of DO NOT ANSWER numbers.

    I hope I’m wrong. But if I were a betting kind of girl, I’d say the chances of us ever seeing Door Guy again rank up there with the odds of me riding a school bus in June for the fun of it.

    ***Edited to add that OKAY, I GET IT. IT’S DUCT TAPE. I was tired, it was late and I lost the entire post the first time I tried to save it. But I’m leaving it as “duck” because it makes me happy.

  • If you give a cat a camera

    You have no idea how much I am struggling with what to write about since there is no way I can make a weekend spent cleaning my house, sorting my laundry and reading a book sound interesting. I’m not a word Jedi.

    I don’t even know what I mean by word Jedi. I just know we’ve watched A LOT of Star Wars here over the last four days. In fact, you could say we’re in full-blown obsession mode.

    On Friday morning, we watched Star Wars. Again. Actually Caroline watched it while I laid in bed next to her and slept a little bit longer. Which is why the end of Spring Break is going to kill us all. Eventually we got up and tried to figure out what to do with our day. Sadly, all of her friends ended up leaving town at the end of Spring Break instead of while we were gone. This caused much sorrowing and pain and complete amnesia about all the fun we’d had at the beginning of the week.

    Ultimately we ended up going to see Mars Needs Moms. The popcorn was delicious and the movie was okay. I thought it had potential to be better and I was a little creeped out by the thought of Martians abducting mothers in their sleep, especially since I am a mother. However, I don’t believe in Martians so I guess it’ll be okay. It was also one of those movies where the animation is so realistic that you forget you’re watching fake people and then you occasionally remember and it freaks you out that you totally forgot they were computerized and you wonder if it’s all part of some vast government conspiracy to replace humans.

    Or maybe that’s just me.

    Saturday morning Caroline hopped out of bed and announced she wanted to go fishing at the ranch. So I did the only thing to be done in that situation and said, “Go tell your Daddy”. About thirty minutes later the truck was loaded with fishing poles, assorted snack foods, the dogs and my peeps as they headed south with hopes of catching some big catfish.

    I also threw the camera in the backpack so they could take a few pictures. When I went to upload the pics last night, here is a sampling of what I found.

    I immediately suspected that Toonces had gotten ahold of the camera. And my suspicions were confirmed when I saw that she’d taken the liberty of recording some video of herself. When I asked her about it, she said, “I thought it would be nice for the people on the blog”.

    The Ranch Trip Project from Big Mama on Vimeo.

    Well sure.

    (I’d like to add that it makes me so happy that she pronounces “shrimp” like “strimpt” just like my great-aunt Fina)

    Thankfully, P was able to get the camera while Toonces was catching fish and was able to document the catch of the day.

    I feel that those pictures illustrate why I prefer to believe that catfish magically appear on a plate with a side of hushpuppies.

    Because, yuck.

    But that smile on her face? That’s a keeper.

  • Fashion Friday: edition it’s spring break

    We stayed in our pajamas until sometime after the crack of noon here yesterday and I didn’t even feel bad about it. Especially because Caroline was totally content to lie in bed and watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, which could be one of the worst movies ever. And I say that as someone who has sat through multiple viewings of assorted Care Bears movies.

    Eventually we made it to the library to return some books and to HEB to buy some food. And then we came home, put our pajamas back on, ate dinner and watched the original Star Wars. Caroline had never seen it and I wasn’t really thrilled, but as it turns out I understood the plot line much better than I did the last time I saw it back in 1978.

    I also found that I still wished for Princess Leia’s hair. And maybe even her white dress.

    1. to have and to hold jersey dress

    A reader named AngAK (I’m guessing that stands for Angie from Alaska, but I could be wrong.) left a comment on yesterday’s post that Tracy Porter is offering 50% off all clothing (even sale items) and free shipping. The bad news is the sale ends this morning at 8:00 a.m. central time. SO HURRY.

    I am totally in love with the dress up above, but I also adore this modern english country skirt or the belle de jour dress or this apostle island dress.

    Basically I adore it all.

    2. traces of love tiered maxi

    The maxi dress is big again this year. I love this one and it also comes in a lovely pale pink.

    3. cole street flat top

    I realize I feature some sort of white blouse every week but that’s because I see a new one that I like every week.

    4. michael antonio gaelle

    I’m on the search for the right pair of nude wedge heels for summer. These could be like Marlon Brando. That is to say, they could be a contender.

    5. flutter sleeve crewneck tee

    I haven’t seen this in person so I have a few questions about the volume of those sleeves and the actual fit of the shirt. However, it appears to have promise.

    6. wash board trousers

    I’m always looking for an alternative to a pair of shorts.

    7. gathered posies sandals

    Love these.

    8. magic carpet stride sandals

    And these come in an array of colors.

    9. tropical tribe earrings

    These are so bright and fun. Would add a good pop to any outfit.

    10. striped drop-waist dress

    Haven’t seen this in person because I’ve been busy traversing the state of Texas or at least the roads between San Antonio, College Station and Houston, but it appears to be cute.

    That’s it for today.

    Y’all have a good Friday.