Weekend Tip: Throw a last minute Oscar bash

This Sunday, March 7 is Oscar night. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are hosting, and I'm a fan of several of the movies that are nominated (like Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and the Hurt Locker to name a few) so it's going to be lots of fun to watch and a great excuse to invite some girlfriends and a few kids over for an Oscar bash. No husbands allowed.

Here's what I've done to plan the last minute event:

1. Used Evite's pre-created Oscar awards invitations.  (It only took a few minutes to send these to my friends.)

2. I'm printing out ballots listing all the nominees so my guests can vote on who they think is going to win. You can find the list here: http://oscar.go.com/nominations/.

3. Great munchies make the Oscar party. Check out the movie-inspired menus at Epicurious.com. I'm a huge Avatar fan, so I'm going to make all the blue foods (the kids will be particularly gaga for these delicious bites). I'll also get lots of finger foods and drinks and have the groceries delivered by Vons or Safeway to make this easier. (If you're new to Safeway deliveries they offer $15 in free groceries PLUS free delivery.)

4. Taymark Giant Party Store (4%) has some terrific decorations to make your home red-carpet ready. I'm ordering a red carpet to place right inside my door (to make my guests feel like movie stars), and plastic gold trophies. I'm giving them out as prizes after my friends choose the winning nominees.

5. For favors, I've ordered some popcorn bags from Cost Plus (2%) (Very inexpensive and worth running over there if you have a store nearby. They have everything you'll need in a pinch.) and I'll fill them with bags of unpopped popcorn and some movie candy (Red vines and milk duds are my favorites) so my guests can enjoy a theater-like experience at home.

Have fun at the Oscars and I hope your favorite films win.

Stress free luxury with a splash

My husband once treated us to a luxury hotel in London. After spending the days sightseeing, I couldn't wait to get back to the bathtub! It was more luxury that I could imagine. Each day I would soak in a bath made with these incredible Dead Sea bath salts that came with our room. My skin felt great, my mind was at peace (even after a day of running around London) and my whole body just felt relaxed.

I just found these same bath salts online! They're available at the Best Bath Store (10% additional savings at LiliDeals).
 
Now when I want to feel pampered at home, I add these bath salts to some warm running water and soak my way to relaxation and no longer feel left out when my friends go the fancy spas.  I feel good about supporting this company too- they are very environmentally conscious.  Plus they give away lots of free samples of all their luxurious bath products.

Gotta run...before someone else jumps into the tub. 
 

Save your lips in style (and on the cheap)

I’m obsessed with keeping my lips from drying out and doing it with a little color. After hunting for years I finally found the perfect lip gloss which is also the cheapest one I've ever bought. (That doesn't happen too often.) Revlon Super Lustrous lipgloss makes my lips look shiny and luscious, comes in 12 terrific colors, and stays on a long time. I wear it alone during the day, or over a lipstick at night for a more dressy look. So far my favorite colors are Nude Lustre and Cherries in the Snow, but the gloss is so inexpensive that I'm going to try a few other colors. Plus Revlon recently improved this lip gloss by adding SPF15 to it. You can't get better than that...

50% off the 2nd item when you buy 2 Revlon products at Beauty.com (5%)

Where in the world is Celina?

Yesterday I bought my son a GEO Puzzle of Europe from Barnes & Noble.com (2%), and he was crazy about it. Geo Puzzles are large, bright puzzles that are available for all 5 continents. Each piece is shaped like a different country, so you learn geography as you put it together. The first puzzle he received over the holidays was such a hit that we decided to buy all the other Geo Puzzles in existence. Now my son's geography skills are better than mine (he knows where Uzbekistan is located. Do you!?). While mastering the puzzles he asked me lots of questions about the people who live in the different countries. (What do they look like, what do they eat, what do they do?)

My search for answers led me to the book "Children Just Like Me" by Anabel Kindersley and Barnabas Kindersley. It's a huge book with gorgeous photographs and interviews of children from all over the world. You learn about each child's school, favorite foods, home, religion, and interests. I was so intrigued, that I read the whole book myself before my son could get to it. Of course my son also loved it. Reading it with him led to many interesting discussions about other cultures. His favorite child in the book is Celina, a little girl who swims and plays in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, and never has to wear shoes. He also enjoys looking at the
National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers, 3rd Edition. For his birthday this year I plan to get him a subscription to the National Geographic Children's magazine. Both are available from the National Geographic Store (4%).

Barnes & Noble.com (2%) 
National Geographic Store (4%) 

Easy Tomato Sauce

My husband bought delicious chop meat from Prather Ranch so we decided to do something fun with it right smack in the middle of the week. The trick was to have an easy and fast meal that doesn't require lighting up the bar-b-cue (we're still charcoal diehards). I did some digging and discovered with had all the makings for pasta bolognese or better known as spaghetti with homemade meat sauce. It took a half hour to prepare and if we had sauce in the house it would have taken 15 minutes. Though pre-made sauce would not do justice to this great meat.

Wednesday's Tomato Sauce
This sauce is great with chop meat, sausage (add a chopped anion), shrimp or chicken if you leave out the tomato paste (too rich) and if you add a little red wine -- it's a perfect base for beef stew (add enough red wine to cover meat).

The Recipe
If you want to (fresh herbs are better for this sauce, but dry is delicious too. we have a pile of fresh herbs on the window sill. always comes in handy (and cheap)
2 large cans Muir Glen organic fire roasted diced or whole tomotoes
3 T Organic tomato paste
1 C sliced shallots
6 cloves garlic
6 leaves of fresh basil
2 T Italian parsley
1/2 t fresh rosemary
1 t oregano
1 t marjoram
1/2 t fennel
1.5 lbs organic or all natural grass fed chop meat (tastes better and healthier)

1 box of spaghetti
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Boil water for the pasta. Get a skillet and a large sauce pan on the stove. Mix the tomatoes and tomato paste together in the sauce pan over medium heat. Get them lightly bubbling. Chop the garlic and the shallots and saute them with a touch of olive oil in the skillet, then add 2/3rds of the mixture to the sauce and add the chop meat to the remaining 1/3 garlic/shallot mix. Cook the meat, garlic and shallots together stir frequently. Add pepper and salt to the meat to taste. While the meat is cooking on a low heat, rip the basil and parsley (do not chop basil, metal reacts funny with basil and parsley) and add them along with the other herbs to the sauce. Let it bubble lightly for as long as you like, but it's ready to eat after 20 minutes. Cook the pasta. Serve each person with a big scoop of pasta, then a spoonful of meat topped by sauce. Sprinkle large grain salt on top and serve with olive bread and a salad (we had lettuce, scallions with squeezed lemon and a splash of olive oil...great balance with the sauce)
You can buy everything but the meat at Wal-Mart. Yes -- that includes the organic sauces and veggies (though the veggies are not organic when ordered online). You can buy the meat at  La Cense Beef (12%), Greensbury Market 3%  or Prather Ranch(which is great but not presently affiliated with LiliDeals  so there aren't any rewards to earn -- yet). Hope you enjoy it. Move fast to stay in the 1/2 hour slot!

Olympics when it's light out

We can only watch TV at night because it's impossible to see anything during the day. All we have is a projector. The new plan is to get a TV for the guest room. Though we missed the Superbowl sales, there are loads of sales happening for President's day. Here are the important links you need to keep track of the Olympics and some of the hot President's Day Sales. You can check them out when you take a break from watching the sports.

Olympic Quick Links
-  Official Olympic Website
-  Results & Which days the events occur 
-  TV Schedules
-  NBC Universal Store - Official Olympic Products (3%) 

President's Day Sales & last minute Valentine's Day Specials

Target.com (2%)

President's Day Sale. Offers end 2/20.

Macy's (2%)

President's Day Sale, 2 day specials and Sitewide Free Shipping with $99 purchase. Offer ends 2/15.

The Knot Wedding Shop (6%)

Take 15% off all orders of $100 or more. Use coupon code: HEARTKS15. Offer ends 2/16.    

The Body Shop (4%)

Valentines Day Special - Enjoy 25% off select products. Offer ends 2/14.

Apps for your printer

I was rummaging around Best Buy searching for a birthday gift for my brother when an ad for a new HP printer caught my eye. This new printer is an all-in-one, like the one I recently bought (sigh), but it's different in one very big way: It doesn't require a computer to print things like Fandango movie tickets, Google directions and USA Today. It's a printer with apps! Yes, it's similar to your iPhone except there is no 3G network monthly payment, or any other monthly payment for that matter. Instead, the printer just connects directly to your wireless network (which the iPhone can also do). There are only a handful of apps available right now, but I think its an interesting idea and look forward to seeing how they do? We would use it, particularly when/if a travel company like Expedia offers an app for the printer. I can imagine this printer showing up in kiosks at airports, hotels and maybe even train and bus stations.

 

HP - Photosmart Premium Touchsmart Web Multifunction Printer/ Copier/ Scanner/ Fax
Model: CD734A#ABA | SKU: 9459212
$329.99 at HP Home & Office
Includes instant $70 manufacturers rebate. Plus you can trade-in your old printer and get another $50 bucks off the price. Best price I could find and of course you get cash back into your LiliDeals account. We'll automatically give you 1% cash back when you shop at HP. (The % is different for each store. Visit our stores page to see all the %.)