PMS Strikes Again!

You know what I'm talking about - that time of the month when ANYTHING and EVERYTHING around you just annoys the crap out of you. It can be anything from the sound of your kids screaming, your husband (just being your husband), it's too hot out, your house is messy, the list goes on and on. Then you go to the pantry to reach for a snack and there's nothing there! You want something salty and crunchy or something sweet and gooey, right? Well, today I feel like that so I thought I'd look online so next month at least I'll be prepared on the snack end of things. I'll still be an irritable monster but at least I'll find some comfort in my snacks.

Here's what I found:

For a sweet treat:

Pretty Mean Snacks is the place to satisfy your chocolate fix. The chocolates are available in 4 different tins - I love the names: Sweet Sassy Sister, Pure Passion Princess, Deep Decadent Diva and Hot Mama Madness. Try it and let me know which one you like best.

For the salt/crunch fix:

If you're a chip fanatic (like myself) you definitely need to try Anchor's Chip Of The Month Club. I did it for a month just to try it out and it was so much fun. You get a box in the mail with an assortment of different kinds of chips. The fun part was tasting them of course, but also discovering brands of chips I never even heard of. My favorite potato chip is the Lay's Dill Pickle Chip. I haven't seen them in years so I don't even know if they still make them. If anyone knows of their existence, please let me know! I've tried other brands of Dill Pickle but so far none compare to Lays

It's All About The Cake

A few years ago, I took some cake decorating classes at Michael's. I absolutely loved it!! Since then I have been obsessed! I love going to the bookstore and checking out the new cake decorating books. The cupcake and cookie decorating ones are great also. Of course I have a bunch in my collection!

The decorating classes are based on the Wilton decorating method. It was really fun and inexpensive. I highly recommend trying it out. You can also take these classes at Joann's Craft Store as well.

Here are a few favorite cakes that I have made:


1. 2.
3. 4.
5.

1. Sleeping Beauty cake I made for my daughter Olivia's 3rd birthday


2. Pink & Brown cake for my daughter Ruby's 1st birthday


3. Hydrangea cake I made based on a cake from the Confetti Cakes Cookbook


4. Baby carriage cake


5. Captain America's Shield for my husband Tony - he's a BIG Captain America fan!!
   

Some of my favorite sites for cake decorating are Cake Central (I have photos posted there), The Charm City Cakes Website (from the show Ace of Cakes on the Foodnetwork), Confetti Cakes -a bakery in NYC., Wilton - lots of things to buy and fun decorating ideas. I also had a subscription to American Cake Decorating Magazine.

I posted a bunch of cakes on Flickr - check ti out at www.flickr.com/photos/totalcitygirl/ or click on the FLickr badge on the right sidebar.

My latest challenge is Olivia's next birthday. She's going to be 5 in less than a month and she wants a bubble gum birthday cake. I have some ideas in mind so I'll post them as it gets closer.

Buy One, Get One at Design-her Gals

I wanted to let you know about a great deal going on now at Design-her Gals. They're a super fun place to go to get yourself some personalized stationery items. You design your own gal and then you can order business cards, note pads, and tons of other stuff.



Total City Girl is an affiliate - I did this because I love their products so much and really believe in them. 5% of all sales go to benefit patients with Stage IV Breast Cancer. So, you're doing a good thing and you get something in return as well. Hurry though - now through Monday August 11th they are having a Buy One, Get One Free Sale. Time to stock up!!

Northeast Georgia Kids' Directory

My ad for TotslCityGirl.com came out in the August issue of the Northeast Georgia Kids' Directory. It was very exciting! Here's what it looks like - it's on page 10.

The ad is going to run for August and September. Although I am not located in Georgia, it didn't really matter because they are doing a special section for "Save Gas - Shop Online". My friend Sarah is the publisher. If you have a business geared towards moms or kids, you should definitely check it out. Its a free directory that gets distributed to the Northeast Georgia region. It's a great resource for moms and kids. You can either send her an e-mail or check out her website.

National Hot Dog Day

Since today is National Hot Dog Day, i thought it would be fun to check on ETSY to see if there were any creative hot dog themed goodies. Sure enough, there was!

These grilled cuff links come complete with both hot dogs and hamburgers! They are made by Inedible Jewelry - hand sculpted treats for the food obsessed.

Get crafty by making your own felt hot dogs. The felt pattern and instruction set by Bugga Bugs will guide you through making not only hot dogs but s'mores and chips as well. This set will help you pack the essential food items everyone needs while enjoying the great outdoors. Look how cute these things are!

These retro hot dog hair bobby pins are right up my alley.

I'm always looking for some new cool hair accessories. These are made by Very Vintage - whimsical retro accessories.

So, go get yourself some dogs, get grilling and get crafty as well.

Happy Hot Dog Day!!

What a SCAM!!!

I am so annoyed!!! Internet scams really exist! and I fell for one!!

My brother-in-law and I discuss the Internet all the time. He's a really big eBay fan and is always researching various things online. He bought a few domain names recently in hopes of selling them and making a profit. So pretty soon after he registered one of his new domains, he was contacted by a potential buyer. Of course he was so excited since it happened so quickly. The buyer said he needed to see an appraisal for the domain before he can make an offer and suggested a place where he could have it appraised. The website was www.easynamesale.com. He even pointed him to a forum where people were discussing having used this service so of course my brother in-law thought he was doing all of the proper research. He ended up paying for an appraisal and it came back with a great amount. The buyer was now eager to not buy it but HELP my brother-in-law sell it and he said he would just take a commission for it. I in turn, decided to get one of my domains appraised at the same place. When I was doing it something just didn't seem right. I don't know if it was the look of the website - not very consistent and not as professional as it could have looked. The fact that it was overseas threw me a bit. The fact that when he go his appraisal sent to him from a hotmail account with a different url in the message. This time they were referencing www.domainsecondhand.com. I didn't listen to my gut and went ahead with it anyway.

The next day I got the appraisal back and it was for an exorbitant amount. On one hand I was so excited but on the other, it just didn't sit right with me. I decided to do some research. UH!!! There were tons of references as to how this was a total scam!!

Here are a bunch that I found:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/311/ripoff0311140.htm
• http://www.dnforum.com/f209/striking-down-easynamesale-com-thread-291335.html
• http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet-domain-name-appraisal-scam/
• http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/401699-domainsecondhand-com-is-a-scam.html

I just couldn't believe it!! I immediately called the credit card company to dispute the charge AND to have my card locked and to get a new card sent to me. I can't believe that people have nothing better to do with their time than to scam others.

My lesson learned here was to always go with my gut instinct. If something doesn't seem right, it probably isn't. I hope by writing this I will at least have saved one other person from making this same mistake. Please pass this post on to anyone who may be considering a domain appraisal or sale of their domain. Would love to hear from anyone that had a similar experience.

From Poland With Love

For years now, every time I go to the Barnes & Noble on 66th & Broadway in Manhattan, I've always admired a print hanging on the wall. As you take the escalator up to the second floor, there is a print of a woman wearing a large hat made up of couples dancing together. I don't know why I am drawn to it so much, but I just love it.

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Pam and I met there before we went to dinner and of course I was so excited to see that it was still there. Then at that moment I told Pam, I HAVE TO buy that print!! So we both scrambled through our bags looking for a pen and paper to write down all the info we saw written on the print: "La Rondine", "NYC Opera", "Giacomo Puccini", "Rafal Oblinski", and then when I got back home that night, I started my search.

I first started looking at the big poster websites like posters.com, art.com and allposters.com. No luck. Then I searched on NYC Opera. No luck. I tried Rafal Oblinski and finally came up with a site that had exactly what I wanted. But it was in Poland at a website called Polish Poster Gallery. I was hesitant for a moment. Is this for real? Can I trust this website? How will I track it all the way from Poland? Well, I bit the bullet and took my chances. I entered my credit card info, hit Submit and hoped for the best.

Well, it took about 2 weeks, but the other day, to my surprise, it arrived! All safe and sound!

Two things I learned from this experience.

1. I always loved the Internet but now I do even more. It's so amazing how everything is more accessible than you think and truly at your fingertips.
2. Once you actually DECIDE to do something, that's when it happens. For so long I had been kooking at this print, WANTING to get it. It wasn't until I actually DECIDED to get it, that I took the steps to actually make it happen.

My next project...getting it framed.

Wanna play dress-up?

My girls (4 1/2 and 2 years old) love to play dress-up. They have all of the princess dresses with tons of accessories to match. They both especially love the shoes and the bags. It's so much fun to watch them prance around in heels and their "party dresses". Well girls, now there's a way us grown-ups can join in the fun and play dress up too - without ever changing our clothes!!

My friend turned me on to this site called Design-her Gals. I loved it so much I decided to become an affiliate! You basically get to design your own girl and dress her up! When you register (it's free) you can create up to 9 girls. You start out in the dressing room and then choose body type, hair style and color, skin color, and eye color. Then the real fun begins. You can try on all types of clothes - shirts, skirts, dresses, pants, etc. Then accessorize to your heart's content with jewelry, bags, shoes and more. When I first did it, I made many versions of myself and then started creating everyone I knew - my mom, sis, friends and even my girls. I'm telling you, it can be so addicting!! The fun doesn't stop there. You can send unlimited e-cards with your gals. If you need a really creative gift...for yourself or one of your best gal pals, there are lots of printed options as well including stationery, business cards, note cards and even invitations. Here are some items I treated myself to:

Here I am again in a banner ad that I use on my website:

Check out my site at TotalCityGirl.com to see lots of creative ways to use your gal. I almost forgot to mention that you can also create an e-mail avatar to use in your signature when sending e-mails.

Besides being a fun product, it's for a great cause. 5% of every Design-her Gals sale goes to the Gal To Gal Foundation benefiting stage IV breast cancer patients. How great is that?!?

Hurry...they're having a great sale now...buy one printed item and get the second free!! One for you, one for your best bud.

First Time For Everything

And this is my First Time blogging...woo hoo!!

I have 2 websites - TotalCityGirl.com and basket.com. I started Total City Girl (TCG) to showcase my latest crafty obsessions - hair accessories and accordion photo books. What do these 2 things have in common you ask? My 2 little girlie girls.

They both have crazy curly hair (just like me) and I started making their hair clips when I just couldn't find any cute ones to stay in their hair. A lot of the clips I found were made for thin straight hair. There's none of that in our house! I also found a lot of bows - mostly LARGE. Don't get me wrong, I love bows...on gifts...just not on my girls' heads!

The photo books came about when I needed a gift for my husband for his birthday. I always had an interest in photography but when I had my girls, I just went crazy with the picture taking. I wanted to do a scrapbook but felt overwhelmed by the big 12 X 12 layout. So I decided to make a book myself, make it smaller and also make it accordion style to be more creative. It was a hit!! This is a picture of the cover of that first book. I love the paper!!

Well I hope you stick around for more on Total City Girl.

Whew! I made it through my first post...and survived.