Bon-tasties

This weekend I decided to have a bonfire. Bonfire season is almost closed and I realized that I have only held a handful of them so far this year. Tragic. I was not impressed with myself at all.

So, naturally I looked to Pinterest to give me healthy, fun ideas on how to make my bonfire the best one yet.

As you might have expected, I was bombarded with all the brilliant bonfire ideas. Lucky for me I was entertaining a youngin' that night and was specifically looking for kid-friendly ideas. What did I find? Behold...

Photo cred: Ieva Gruzina's Pinterest

Banana S'mores!! Yes, s'mores made with bananas. Is this not pure brilliance?! I was blown away. 

So, I grabbed my friend Dee and told her the plan. She was almost as excited as I was. We chatted about how it's not cheating our diets because we're substituting out something "bad" for something good, and must be cutting at least 50 calories by swapping out the delicious graham crackers for some fruit. Now, of course this would have been the case had we not made up our own concoctions and added our personal favourite, crispy crunch sprinkles, to each banana s'more. Not to mention we swapped out the chocolate chips on one s'more for peanut butter chocolate chips -- OK, I'll admit we got a little carried away.

Anyway, they turned out amazing. Take a look for yourself...

YUMMY

The outer ones have chocolate chips and crispy crunch sprinkles, the middle one is the peanut butter. 

They were a hit! The little one loved them -- go figure -- and us older folk liked the change. Once again Pinterest came to the rescue offering up another delectable and fun dish.

Just in case you're wondering how to make them...

You will need:

- Banana(s)

- Mini-marshmellows

- Chocolate chips (or another sort of chip... peanut butter, white chocolate...)

- Aluminum foil

- Some sort of heater -- we used the BBQ because we don't have a grill rack over the fire pit

Start with a banana, slice length-wise down the middle, but not all the way through (keep attached). Stick in mini-marshmellows and chocolate chips. Try not to rip the banana apart... it just gets so messy! Wrap the banana s'more in the aluminum foil and put over the heat (BBQ, fire grill, etc.). Leave it on the heat for about 10 minutes or so, but keep an eye on it just in case. Enjoy! Nice and easy.

Happy pinning,

 M

PS The leg warmers and mittens are still to come... I underestimated the skill it takes to work a needle and thread. Stay tuned...

Winter, Spring, Summer, Pumpkin Spice Latte

Well, Pumpkin Spice Latte season, formerly known as Fall, is among us.

I look forward to this time of year from January to September, and when school starts up my internal pumpkin spice count down turns on.

I went to Starbucks late last week and ordered my first delectable drink of the season. The order simply rolled off my tongue: "One Grande Pumpkin Spice with soy, please." Ahhh... it felt so good saying it.  It tasted amazing, even better than I remembered. I savoured each sip until it was cold and even then it was delicious.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes are so good, they've been popping up all over my social media sites - not literally, of course. Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest alike have all been bombarded with posts, pictures, and updates on every Pumpkin Spice lover kicking off Fall by purchasing the drink-treat.

I found this picture on Pinterest last week and literally laughed out loud...

Photo cred Erin Thorne's Pinterest

I instantly repined this it to my 'word' board and uploaded it to Facebook because this is my exact mentality. I know my favourite season has started when I get my first PSL. 

Pinterest also showed me an instructional site (Sand and Sisal, if you're interested in making it as well) to make my own PSL... dangerous! I'm not so sure how this will go, but I plan to attempt it this weekend. Stay tuned for what I'm sure will be an interesting story. 

I'm hoping it will taste as good as their picture looks...

Delicious Photo Cred Sand and Sisal

PS - If you haven't gone to Starbucks for your first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season, GO! Run there right now! If you haven't ever had a PSL.... don't ever tell me. I will cry for you. 

M

Hubba hubba

Impromptu blogging today!

Photo Jill Reese's Pinterest

I'm currently getting my next Pinterest inspired craft together -- leg warmers and mittens, made out of an old ugly-but-not-so-ugly" Christmas sweater -- but for today, I'll have to write about something a little less crafty and a little more... umm... boy crazy?

I'll take this opportunity to talk about the celebrity man of my dreams, Gerard Butler. I don't know what it is about him, but every time I see his beautiful face I can't help but smile (and occasionally giggle like a school girl). It must be his grey-green eyes, boyish face, and sexy smile... or maybe it's his Scottish accents, I'm a sucker for a hot accent. Either the way, the man can do no wrong by me. Heck, even the sight of him in a skirt (I know, it's a kilt) doesn't make me doubt his manly, brutish, yummy-ness.







Photo credit Lori Matters' Pinterest

Only a real man could pull off this look, I mean, really!











Now, what does this have to do with Pinterest? Well, on my account (meggiebd -- I'm surprised I haven't mentioned it before) I have a 'board' titled "I love your face." Lots of people on Pinterest have some sort of celebrity page where they repin pictures of their favourite singers, actors, and so on. In my "I love your face" board you'll find pictures of Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Adele -- all my celebrity favourites -- and, of course, Gerard Butler. He takes up most of the space in that board and I'm always adding new pictures or him.

Honestly, Pinterest is the best and worst thing that has ever cyber-happened to me. It really brings out the celebrity-enthusiast-craft-loving-pin-pin-pin side of me.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some GB facts and pictures.

Photo cred Allyson Whitmire's Pinterest

Gerard was born in Paisley, Scotland, UK

Goes by Gerry -- just like his character in P.S. I Love You -- because he feels non-UK people have a hard time pronouncing his name

He graduate from Glasgow University with a... wait for it... law degree -- smart and sexy!

Photo credit Max M's Pinterest

He was in a Scottish rock band called Speed before becoming an actor.

He was the Phantom in the movie version of Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical The Phantom of the Opera -- and was amazing in it!

Gerard has a reputation of being one of the nicest actors in the Hollywood scene.

(facts credit IMDb)




All in all, I love him. That's really all there is to say about that, and with a face like his, how could you not?

M

Not for the Impatient...

I'm fighting off a cold and sinus infection this weekend, so I'm a little lazy and very sleepy. Being sick is never fun, but it does give you a lot of time to sit around and do nothing... and that's just what I did. I put on a movie, started going through Pinterest, and found an excellent idea for nail art.

Now I'm not much for painting my nails -- nudes, pinks and clears are my normal choices -- but at the urging of my nail fanatic sister I decided to take a risk and try this new fad called the "Scotch Tape" nail. They look like this...

http://pinterest.com/

Neat, right? So I picked my own colours and went to town getting everything ready and painted columns on my nails. Then, I go and get the tape and, go figure, we have none. So I had to do some tweaking and decided to use decorative duct tape instead (I don't recommend that switch). Anyway, here's the process...

Obviously, start with picking your colours (I chose purple, pink and orange - my favs!). Then paint columns -- you could paint rows if you'd rather as well. Try to keep them even in both width and thickness -- something I did not get the hang of unfortunately.

When you're done painting wait for your nails to dry. They must be completely dry or you'll pull up the paint with the tape. When everything's dry, put the tape -- cut in skinny lines or use thin roll scotch -- across the nail.

Paint over the nail and tape. Do as many layers as you need until the first layer of paint is completely covered. Let it dry completely. 

Voilà!

They didn't turn out quite as nicely as I hoped, but I'll take it. 

I would suggest making sure that your nails are completely dry before taping because it makes a huge difference in the end. I'd also suggest not being sick and getting the proper tape. You would definitely be able to do more things -- designs and such -- if you had the proper tape. And finally, I think this sort of nail art requires a very patient artiste (LOL). It took about an hour and a half to paint, dry, paint, and dry again, so having a lot of time and patience is a must!

All in all, it was fun though not a complete success. Good luck if you're replicating!

 M

Blogging...

I have to be honest, when I first heard about blogging my initial thoughts weren't "yay!" thoughts. Between Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, etc., I really didn't understand why anyone needed another place to talk about themselves (in full sentences and with proper grammar to boot). But after reading through a few well written blogs I realized that they're more than just a place to write about yourself. The range of topics you can base one on is astounding. It really is a whole new world!

Then, as only Social Media can, blogging expanded; the world was introduced to Pinterest - a picture blog. Everything from baking to the newest styles to the best vacation spots were all in one place, with directions and websites to guide the way. Wow! Suddenly I found myself searching for all sorts of things I didn't know I wanted to learn about in the first place. I found recipes, new styles, DIY ideas, everything! Then slowly, but surely my bedroom got a makeover, my living room too, I styled my hair in a bunch of different ways and I was making scarves out of old t-shirts. Pinterest really opened my eyes to just how many wonderful creative outlets there are, and I vowed to make and create as many of them as humanly possible - adding my own personal touch, of course.

So, that's where this blog comes in - it's like a creation tracker. Pinterest inspired me to make as many things "my own" as I can, and that's what I'm going to do!

Stay tuned...
 M