Good Housekeeping's 10 Pet Dangers You Didn't Know About

We love our pets they are just like another member of the family. I know my dogs feel like family, that's for sure. We know that there are hazards for caring for them. We know not to give dogs chocolate and anti-freeze but there are other dangers that could harm our little family members. Good Housekeeping magazine has a list of 10 Pet Dangers You Didn't Know About.1. Sugar SubstitutesIf your dog

Women's Health Presents Are You Game Outdoor Summer Festival in NYC on July 11th

-- Free Summer Festival to Feature Euro Bungee, Rock Climbing Wall, Virtual Surfing, Workout Classes, Beauty & Spa Treatments, Fashion Shows, Karaoke and More --WHAT:Women’s Health’s annual summer festival, Are You Game?, is returning to New York for the third year. Building on the success of last year’s events in New York and Chicago, which were attended by more than 4,000 people, Are You Game?

Baltimore Recognizes Its African American History This July 4th Holiday Weekend

City-wide African American Heritage Festival Includes Nationally Known Entertainers and Accommodations Packages to Celebrate Baltimore’s HistoryBALTIMORE, MD June 23 -- Looking for an Independence Day getaway? Come spend the July 4th weekend in Baltimore for the 8th Annual African American Heritage Festival. From July 3-5 at M&T Bank Stadium visitors can celebrate the history, culture, education,

Elle Decor Features Socialite Aerin Lauder's NY Homes

Elle Decor features the Manhattan apartment and Hampton home of Aerin Lauder in the July/August issue. Lauder (who is also featured on the cover) is the granddaughter of the legendary Estée Lauder and currently serves as the senior vice president and creative director of Estée Lauder.Quote from the article:Lauder honors Estée’s style, but that doesn’t mean everything has stayed the same. She and

Style and Focus News Bites 6/26

Style and Focus Lifestyle PR would like to send out condolences to the families of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon.** Sony Comments on the Passing of Michael Jackson. Commenting on his passing, Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President, Sony Corporation, said: "Michael Jackson was a brilliant troubadour for his generation, a genius whose music reflected the passion and

The Halo Headband -- A Must Have for Outdoor Enthusiast

If you exercise outdoors then this is the one product you will need - besides sunscreen. The Halo Headband (shown Halo I - tie version, $12.95) is designed to keep sweat from running down your face not matter how much you sweat. And who wants sweat getting into their eyes especially those ladies who wear eye liner and mascara while working out. The headbands are available in additional colors.

Style and Focus Weekend: Hiking/Trail walking

Hiking, is a great way to see what nature has to offer. It's also an excellent way to get in exercise while seeing the beautiful views of nature. Hiking is not a walk in the park and you must think of safety as well as having fun. A way to stay safe is to go with a group of friends and if you're not familiar with the area, I would suggest getting a guide to show you a safe way to travel. For Do's

Latest Obsession: Affordable Summer Dresses

I just absolutely love the summer with all the bright beautiful colors practically everywhere you look. I especially love colorful summer dresses, they are just the easiest thing to put on. With the summer zipping by so quickly, I try not to spend a huge amount of money on summer items unless it's something classic and I'll be wearing for more than one season.Below are eight beautiful summer

Kellogg Company and Katalyst Media Join Forces to Confront Hunger in the United States

Kellogg Company and Katalyst Media Join Forces to Confront Hunger in the United StatesKatalyst, in Partnership with Kellogg Company, Release a "People-Powered" Web Video to Raise Awareness About the Issue of HungerBATTLE CREEK, Mich., June 22 -- Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) today announced a transformational partnership with Katalyst, a studio for social media co-founded by Ashton Kutcher (

Box-O-Box's Post-College Masterminds Taking Campuses by Storm With 'Cool' Care Packages

Changing the World One Box at a TimeNEW YORK, June 22 -- When it comes to young business founders with great ideas, one thing is for sure: Justin Zucker and Michael Hauke's three-year-old company Box-O-Box, with its uber-cool college care packages, has hit it big. This year Box-O-Box plans to book an estimated $500,000.00 in revenue.28-year-old Hauke and Zucker have cornered the market on

Has Calvin Klein Gone too Far with Ad?

From my Marketing POV, Calvin Klein is a great brand with amazingly chic clothes and I feel like they don't have to go out of their way to create controversy to sell the brand. I'm all for creative expression but you don't always need to use sex to sell everything. It gets old rather quick and it kind of suggest that their marketing and advertising people couldn't think of anything else to

Survey Reveals How to Eat Your Way to a New Job

RIVERSIDE, Calif., June 16 -- Certified Nutritional Consultant and Nutrition Expert, Robin De-Ivy Allen conducted a survey of more than 1000 people to test her theory. Is it possible for a person to eat their way to a new job? Can the use of food and proper nutrition actually make a person more marketable as an employment candidate?68% of survey responders believe that a thinner, more fit person

Vintage Recipe Thursday -- Lucky 13th Edition Peach Cobler Recipe

Vintage Recipe Thursday is meant to preserve out-of-print, copyright-free recipes from old cookbooks, magazines, newspapers or your own original vintage family recipes. You're invited! Get the details by clicking to the Vintage Recipe Thursday Homepage. I post recipes from the Searchlight Recipe Book, first published in 1931. My 16th printing is from 1943. What will you post?****************

My Life: Friends' Job Lost

I have a couple of friends who have recently lost their jobs in the PR industry and one was in Fashion PR. She was let go because the company wasn't doing that well. It's hard to promote luxury products in a shaky economy. Consumers are not buying and they have to let employees go.Unfortunately, Marketing and PR are some of the first to go when money starts to get a little tight. I feel really

Vintage Recipe Thursday -- 12th Weekly Edition Cream Pie, Macaroon Cream Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Pineapple Cream Pie Recipes

Vintage Recipe Thursday is meant to preserve out-of-print, copyright-free recipes from old cookbooks, magazines, newspapers or your own original vintage family recipes. You're invited! Get the details by clicking to the Vintage Recipe Thursday Homepage. I post recipes from the Searchlight Recipe Book, first published in 1931. My 16th printing is from 1943. What will you post?*****************

Older Than Dirt!!

My friend Angie (Love The Prim Look) sent this to me. I cant believe how many I remember LOL I hope you all enjoy it too!!

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'
'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'
'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. ! 'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :

Some parents NEVER! owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 5. It was, of course, black and white,

I was 13 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We didn't have a car until I was 4. It was an old black Dodge.

I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home. But milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6AM
every morning. On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. Touching someone else's tongue with yours was called French kissing and they didn't do that in movies. I don't know what they did in French movies. French movies were dirty and we weren't allowed to see them

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend :

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.
How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.
Ignition switches on the dashboard.
Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.
Real ice boxes.
Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.
Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.
Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about
Ratings at the bottom.
1 Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes
6 . Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines
8. Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels)
12. Peashooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S& H greenstamps
16 Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19 Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22. Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

I scored 25 on this quiz!

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends...

Mocha Cake Recipe With Coffee Butter Icing Recipe

I love a good mocha cake and this recipe looks very manly to me with the coffee and all the spices, currants, raisins, and citron, so I thought you might want to consider it for Fathers' Day in a couple of weeks. I have not tried it and usually prefer to use butter rather than shortening, but it looks like it would be quite good. It's up to you if you want to substitute with butter or not. I

Latest Obsession: Goddess Inspired Jewelry Pt. 2

Brushed Metal Ring $18.00 Arden B.Gold-link Bracelet $60.00 J.CrewLauren by Ralph Lauren 'Gypsy' Turquoise Hoop Earrings $38.00 NordstromKnotted Ring $24.00 Banana RepublicHammered Crescent Earrings $5.00 Wet SealHammered Dewdrop Necklace $49.00 Banana RepublicLois Hill Lace Bulb Drop Earrings $198.00 NordstromVintage Link Earrings $49.00 Tina TangInterlocking Organics Bracelet $38.00

Vintage Recipe Thursday -- 11th Weekly Edition Fresh And Canned Cherry Pie Recipes

Vintage Recipe Thursday is meant to preserve out-of-print, copyright-free recipes from old cookbooks, magazines, newspapers or your own original vintage family recipes. You're invited! Get the details by clicking to the Vintage Recipe Thursday Homepage. I post recipes from the Searchlight Recipe Book, first published in 1931. My 16th printing is from 1943. What will you post?*****************

This & That Junk Drawer Wednesday!! Decorative Antique Blocks From Milk Cartons & Southern Fried Chicken Supper!!!

Create these decorative antique blocks from recycled milk cartons!

I love recycled crafts, and this is one of the best. These vintage-look antique blocks are gilded with aged, cracked varnish (craquelure) and glazed to highlight the cracks. This traditional technique has several variations. You can buy the craquelure finish in a kit, or make it yourself..

The folks at VintageImageCraft.com generously share images, tips and tutorials for creating vintage illustration crafts, such as these cool crackled blocks made from used milk cartons. These blocks would look great on the mantel year-round — just change them out according to the season

To receive detailed instructions with pictures for making these blocks than click on Vintage Crackled Blocks

Southern Fried Chicken:

Thanks Paula Deen for the best fried chicken I have ever made! It has a nice, savory flavor and a coating that has just the right amount of crispiness. Although it calls for what seems like a lot of hot pepper sauce, it isn't any spicier than Jack-In-the Box's Spicy Crispy Chicken--you can take it!! I'm not saying it tastes like KFC--only that you won't be doing business with them anymore.
Ingredients
2 lbs cut-up chicken
Sauce mixture
4 eggs
1/3 cup water
1 cup hot sauce (I use Louisiana Hot Sauce)
Seasoning blend
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
Dredging mixture
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
Heat peanut oil in a large deep pot to 350°F (do not fill more than half full--you don't want a hot-oil spill-over accident!).
For sauce mixture: in a medium-sized bowl, beat the eggs with the water.
Add hot sauce and whisk together well.
Pour this mixture into a large plastic zip-top bag.
For seasoning mixture: In a small bowl, combine 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.
For dredging mixture: In a another bowl, mix flour, baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Rinse and pat dry chicken pieces with a paper towel.
Cut breast pieces in half across ribs.
Sprinkle chicken generously on both sides with seasoning blend.
Drop a few chicken pieces of chicken into bag of sauce mixture and squish around to coat thoroughly.
One piece at a time, roll chicken in flour mixture and drop into hot oil.
Don't crowd chicken pieces--I cook about half the chicken at a time.
Fry chicken until brown and crisp.
Drain on paper toweling.
Dark meat will take about 14 minutes, white meat about 10 minutes.
Remember smaller pieces cook faster than the larger ones.
You can check for doneness by piercing to the bone in the thickest part with a fork.
If the juices run clear, it is done

Loaded Mashed Potatoes:

6 lbs idaho potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 cup butter
1 head garlic, roasted
1 (12 ounce) carton sour cream
milk
1 (8 ounce) package sharp white cheddar cheese, grated
1 1/2 lbs bacon, julienned and browned
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
Directions
In large stockpot, cook potatoes in enough salted water to cover until tender.
Drain and return to stockpot.
Add butter, garlic, and sourcream; beat with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add a little milk, if needed.
Stir in cheese, bacon, salt, and pepper. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!

Milk Gravy:

1/4 cup bacon grease
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk warm
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons melted butter
Heat bacon grease in a cast iron skillet. Add the flour and whisk until smooth and bubbly about 1 minute. Add the warm milk slowly and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and stir, until thickened, about 5 minutes, adding milk as necessary to control the thickness. Add butter until mixed in. Season the gravy with salt and pepper. Serve hot over biscuits.
This will have more flavor if you use 1-2 tablespoons of oil from the oil you fried the chicken in. If you don't have that, no need to worry, you can use vegetable oil or vegetable shortening.

Buttermilk Biscuits:

Ingredients:
3 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in the shortening with a fork until it looks like cornmeal. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly until well mixed.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly two or three times. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch cutter.
Place the biscuits in a greased iron skillet. Gently press down top of biscuits. Brush the biscuits with half the melted butter. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the hot biscuits with the remaining butter.

Sample Sale: Rebecca Minkoff -- Saturday, June 6th

What: Rebecca Minkoff Sample SaleWhen: Saturday, June 6, 2009Where:Hotel Helix1430 Rhode Island NWWashington, DC 20005(Click image for a better view)

2 Upcoming American Fertility Association 'Manicures & Martinis' Series Events

The American Fertility Association's Infertility Prevention Program7.3 million!That's how many American women have difficulty conceiving, but many of those cases could have been prevented with some simple lifestyle choices and changes. Education is the key and what better way to learn than over complimentary manicures and martinis?"Dealing with infertility robs women of control over their own

Latest Obsession: Goddess Inspired Jewelry Pt. 1

My latest obsession is finding jewelry that has that goddess influence. When you think of goddesses you conjure up the image of beauty, strength and intelligence. From Artemis to Venus, goddesses have been inspiring women all over the world to be beautiful, strong and wise. The pieces shown are delicate and feminine as well as strong and bold in beautiful textures in gold, silver, bronze or

"Twenty One Weeks Down That Road Again" Creating Vintage Crackled Look!!!

Happy! Happy! Happy! to report that I lost 5 pounds last week...I am so very please with that, especially sine I have been losing such a small amount each week...

Creating vintage crackled look with white glue or Fragile Crackle:

How to crackle the old fashioned crackle way (shabby looking crackle) using WHITE LIQUID GLUE:

First paint on your "base" color (the color you want the cracks to be) and let dry
Then apply a layer of glue (I use Elmers). Layer thickness will determine size of cracks (thick coat for large deep cracks - thin for thinner cracks)
Don't let glue dry completely, just let it tack up a bit (5 min or to touch)
Then apply final contrasting paint color "top coat". Be sure to load your applicator with paint to cover in 1 stroke because overlapping paint strokes will result in no cracks.
Once dry, apply sealant to your art project for protection. Use matte spray finish purchased at Walmart

Buy Anita's Fragile Crackle which you can purchase at Michaels Craft Store when you want a smaller more detailed crackle (reminds me of cracked egg shells)...It creates a smaller, completely different looking crackle to that of the white glue crackle finish which has more the shabby older version of crackle that we're all used to seeing.

Anita's is a 2 bottle/ 2 step process with really easy instructions:

paint with base color
brush on step 1 & let dry
brush on step 2 & let dry
age with stain or inks.
coat with matte spray sealant

Easy peasy...I just wanted to explain different crackles, as well as provide info on how to get that different look...

MIX SHAKE STIR Giveaway Winners!

The three winners of MIX SHAKE STIR are:Kimi at My Plate, My WorldAmanda at Mrs. W's KitchenBen at What's CookingCongratulations!! Category: COOKING Format: HARDCOVER BOOK Publish Date: 5/11/2009Price: $29.99/$32.99ISBN: 9780316045124Pages: 224Size: 9" x 9"