Eye Candy Friday: Hello Yellow!

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I was Skiing.

It doesn’t have the same nostalgic appeal as “My dog ate my homework” but I haven’t been a five-post-a-week blogger lately.  Mr. FSL and I have been off skiing last week and the week before that.  FSL’s post count has been suffering.

My mother actually looked at me last night with this sad look on her face and said quietly, “You haven’t been blogging lately…” Her voice sounded soft with a hint of disappointment.

“But I was skiing!”

She looked at me as if this was no kind of excuse and changed the subject.

Just for her, this week I’ll try to make it a five post week… unless it snows.  I said I’ll try.

We went skiing in Killington, VT this past weekend.  We always go to the same place because all of our ski buddies have houses up in the area.  It’s really nice when you can go with a group of familiar faces.    Mr. FSL has been skiing since he was younger.  He’s an unbelievably talented athlete.  In every sport he tries, he’s good.  He’s easily one of the best skiers on the mountain at Killington.  He’s definitely the best skier I’ve ever seen in person.  Technically sound, style for miles, the boy is good.

Some mountain resorts have “sharpshooter” photographers stationed in certain areas.  It’s nice because you can go online and see what you actually look like when you’re skiing or snowboarding.

Here’s Mr. FSL flexing his ski muscle.

See, I told you he has skills.

The problem with the sharpshooter photographs is you can actually see what you look like when you’re skiing!  LOL!   I’m not going to lie, I FEEL very cool when I ski.  Not cool as in temperature.  I mean, like SWAG-TASTIC x-games wannabe.  Naturally I was so excited when my husband told me there were some sweet pics of us on the website! Until…

**scratches head**

A) Something suddenly went wrong with their camera lens

B) There’s some amateur wearing the same EXACT outfit as me

C) I don’t look as cool as I feel.

See…they need to check their equipment 😉

I’ve got to look on the bright side.  I’ve gone from tumbling down the bunny slopes to skiing black diamonds without batting an eyelash.  I learned from & married a really cute ski instructor 😉

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What do you do that makes you feel really cool?  Did you ever get surprised by how cool or un-cool you actually look doing that?  I want some funny stories!  Lurkers, DE-LURK!  Life and blogs are much more fun when it’s a conversation 🙂

Lots of  Hugs & (Eskimo)Kisses!

xo

Mindy

Mint Chocolate Dipped Oreos: A Photo Recipe :)

Place oreos on waxed paper. Have this ready…

Let them harden. Pop in the freezer to make this happen faster!

 

Meet Travis!

There was a very special delivery this holiday in our family! A 6 pound package was delivered to Florida.  My cousin and his wife welcomed baby Travis into the world.

Ain’t he cute?

Congratulations Matthew & Katie on the birth of your beautiful son.  I can’t wait to meet him!!

2011 Holiday House Tour Continued

I figured I’d show you all around our house in all it’s tacky shimmering glory lol!  Here’s what the rest of Casa FSL is looking like these days…

Super Christmas-fied!

I added just a few touches to the kitchen…

The kids got at it before I snapped the picture, but you guys get the point right?  It was a snow globe attempt gone awry!  It looks more like a snow egg… whatev.

Silver reindeer and a rhinestone tree (what else did you expect?!) sittin on top of Simon.

Some snowmen soaps and a couple of silver and glitter votives sit by my sink to keep me happy while I wash the dishes.

Here’s our entryway area looking festive and a bit rustic. Please excuse the weird lighting.  I don’t know what’s up with it.

And a close up on a few little moments…

The gold glitter doesn’t stop there.  It’s in our bathroom also 🙂

And what bathroom is complete without feathers?!

Somebody stop me.  Really.

Our mancave downstairs already had the turquoise thing goin on, so I added some peacock feathers and disco balls to add some holiday jazzy-ness.

Merry Christmas to all of the Finding Silver Linings readers out there!  I hope you are all on the “Nice List” this year!!

xo

Mindy & Mr. FSL

Gingerbread House Making With The Kiddos

Continuing on with yesterday’s gingerbread theme…

It’s becoming a little bit of a tradition around here.  For the past couple of years, we rally up the kids and decorate gingerbread houses.

 

Last year I learned that you need to assemble them about an hour or so before you plan on decorating them because the frosting holding it together needs to harden.  This year I remembered *insert smug grin here* .  It’s a rare thing that I remember something like that people.

Here are a few shots of the night.  Bitten, headless gingerbread men and all.

Um, I put the houses together.  Yeah.  Good thing I didn’t build our house that we live in, that’s all I’m sayin  😉

Here’s my 15 year old cousin’s iPhone, my best girl and my God daughter getting into some frosting action!

Mr. FSL looking exhausted ecstatic about all of this and our niece who actually was! LOL!

My cousin and her sugar induced smile.

Do you have any Christmastime traditions with the kids in your family?  Do you bite the heads off of your gingerbread men first? I wanna know.

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I’m going to be honest. I should have posted this on like Thanksgiving. It has looked like Christmas here at Casa FSL for about a month! I couldn’t wait for it this year. Last year we were only living in our home for 2 months and didn’t have tons of decorations. This year, it looks like my house threw up Christmas. Glittery, flashy, silver, white, gold, even disco balls and peacock feathers! Since the halls are decked (and the bathroom, and the kitchen, and the yard…) I figured I’d do a little house tour to let you guys house crash at our place.

We moved all of the furniture out of the front room (formerly the dining room) and our tree lives in there, along with gifts, Rocco’s food & water dish, and two gold reindeer that Rocco goes nose to nose with and growls at is learning to live with.

Put on your shades people, brace yourself for the glitter 😀 .

Here’s our “mantle”. Also known as the weird ledge over our front doorway.

Here’s our other “mantle” also known as the giant Ikea buffet table that weighs a zillion pounds and is not moving until Mindy gets the fireplace that she really wants pigs fly.

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Do you pick a “theme” color for your Christmas decorations? Do you pile it on? Do you keep it minimal?

Stay tuned for more Christmastime at FSL tomorrow!!

Rocco’s Ugly Sweater Party Dilemma

So, this weekend is our annual ugly sweater party.  See last year’s highlight reel by clicking  here.  If you’re feeling lazy, here is a mini sampler of the fun.

We usually have Rocco sleep at his grandparent’s house.  This year we figured we’d let him in on the action.

Mr. FSL & I went Christmas shopping this past Saturday.  We stopped at good ole Tar-Jay for some wrapping paper , tape, boxes, etc… He grabbed a coffee at the in-house Starbucks.  I stalked the dollar section and found ugly dog sweaters.  If Rock is going to be at the party, he might as well represent.

Sunday morning I wanted to try it on my little pork chop of a Maltese.  He was clearly ecstatic about the sweater selection.

I remembered having a few Christmas things for him stashed away in a closet.

Here are his Christmas Eve PJs. Okay, maybe he need to switch to lo-cal puppy chow these days, but who doesn’t add a little fluff around the holidays?!

Santa Paws hat.

And my personal favorite, the naughty elf.

Big mistake giving him a rawhide toy before our little photo shoot.  He gnaws until it’s gooey.  His mustache is a disaster.  Our apologies for Rock not being photo ready.

I’m having a tough decision.  What should he wear to the 2011 FSL Ugly Sweater Party?

On A Magazine Rack Near You

The December 2011 issue of Oxygen Women’s Fitness Magazine.  Grab a copy, crack it open to page 57 to see …(wait for it)…my mug and an FSL dinner recipe!  WOOT WOOT! Yes, that’s the same shot from my bathroom photo shoot that you saw here.

Clearly you can see how thrilled and excited Rocco is about all of this!

A huge thanks to Oxygen Magazine for helping me cross #90 off of my bucket list!

*** If you want to pick up the December
issue and live in the southern Connecticut area, my apologies. My mom bought every single copy within driving distance.***

The Night I Met Anthony Bourdain

*sigh*

It’s no secret that Anthony Bourdain is my personal hero.  The guy has the best gig going.  He’s paid to travel all over the world, eat and sight see like the locals do, bypassing the tourist traps and cutting straight to the good stuff.  He’s the host of No Reservations.

Oh yeah, he’s a pretty cool guy too.  He’s not just a man who gets paid to have this amazing job.  He’s paid his dues.  He was a chef in NYC for years, he’s written books that made the Best Seller lists, he hangs with celebrities like Christpher Walken and Bill Murray, he’s not afraid to speak his mind, drop the occasional F*bomb, and unapologetically drinks on camera. He’s hit rock bottom and came back with a vengeance (who doesn’t love an underdog?!).  So yeah, like I said, he’s pretty darn cool.

I have seen him on his tour last year.  Click here to hear all about how rocking that was.   The link will send you to my review of his show and how Bourdain is breaking boundaries between the elitist foodie crowd and local street vendors as to what constitutes great food.  More specifically, how food brings people together, surpassing the language barrier and social status.

IMG via Tastydays.com

A month ago, my mom surprised me with tickets to his latest tour.  The day of the show, she called me with news that she bought the wrong tickets.  My heart sank!  I’ve been looking forward to the show.  She told me she accidentally bought VIP tickets and we would be sitting in the 5th row & get to attend the “Meet & Greet” book signing after party.    I immediately freak out when I hear the news!

The next day came, and I scooped my mom up from work early so we can make our 5:30 reservations at a local restaurant.

That’s my mom digging into her apple crisp dessert.  I had the chocolate pate.

It tasted better than it looked!

We went to the pre-show wine tasting.  Man!  This guy knows how to throw a party!  We tried a fresh prosecco and a dry merlot.  Really nice.

We made our way all the way down to our seats.  I am clearly very excited about our up close and personal seats!

The theater was beautiful.  Here’s a shot of the elaborate ceiling.

The show was great. Bourdain had some really crazy video clips he shared with the audience about the not-so-glamorous side of his job.  Food poisoning, a certain bone-crushing Turkish massage, and atomic wedgies!  The Zero Point Zero video and cinematography crew (super talented people)  get basically the same experience as he does.  Lucky dogs!

He keeps the discussion down to earth.  He develops a relationship with the audience, as a good speaker naturally does.

When the show was over, I hopped in line with my hardcover copy of Medium Raw in hand.

I snapped a photo of my mom with him.  She looks buff!

As she posed for the photo, my heart was pounding out of my chest!  He looked so cool sipping his beer.

He signed my book 😉

I had made a mental list of things I wanted to ask and say to him if I ever got the chance to meet him.

Phew!

Okay, here I go!

*cricket sounds*

Nothing.

I walk up to his table and go completely blank.  Doh! Worst case scenario 😦  I told him about my list and how I forgot it all.  He laughed and we smiled for this picture that will be framed in my kitchen (for good luck!).

At least I didn’t blink 🙂