Manic Monday > Makes Me Want to Shop and Dance!

Welcome to another Monday at Chaos and Gloss. Hope you all had a great Saint Patrick's Day!

Things I'm loving this week:

Commericals that make me want to dance AND shop. Best of both worlds, right?  I am in love with this one from Target, and not just because my Grandma used to always sing "Allouette" to me as a little girl. Don't you just love Target's bright new home decor line?

Here is some of my favorite picks from this line:

Then there's this fun commerical from one of my favorite stores: White House /  Black Market:

She makes tap dancing look so cool! Here are some fabulous pieces from their new line to put some "Spring" into your step:

I'm also loving Potholes & Pantyhose's tutorial on making your own eye makeup remover! Fun and witty blogger Rebekah, says that it's just as effective as the pricier versions she's tried. She also has a recipe for gentle face wash. Check them out here:



I've also been pinning like crazy, DIY projects that involve wood pallets; which my friend and I are eyeballing to incorporate into her living room redo. Check out these fabulous pins:

Source: dishfunctionaldesigns.blogspot.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest

Here's to an inspired Monday!

~Angela

Frock Me Friday > I Need Some Green

Yep, it's true I need some green and I don't mean the kind you spend. Well...I need some of that too, but right now I'm speaking of the kind of green that's for the "Wear'n of the GREEN!"  (Saint Patrick's Day is tomorrow, if you've forgotten...)  

I've picked out a St. Paddy's day outfit that will make it impossible for Mr. Glossy Flossy to take me anywhere but the finest of restaurants.  That's right, no brew pub for me in this outfit!  

Sometimes a girl has to splurge, and not only have I splurged, but (I know this goes against my "add to my existing wardrobe" philosophy) everything here is new to my "Wardrobe":       
  

Dressy Green Outfit by laurieglossyflossy featuring Diane von Furstenberg shoes

I do love those green shoes.

Okay, now back to my "build on my wardrobe" philosophy.  I have one green sweater in my "Chaos and Gloss Wardrobe" so I am going to build a fabulous green outfit using that.  Oh, and I guess I could go to a pub in this outfit:
I added this cute, striped, strapless dress, to my "Wardrobe"; and the sweater, flats and earrings, are from my "Chaos and Gloss Wardrobe."  The handbag is also new to the wardrobe - because you can never have too many handbags.  I'm also going to use this handbag when I go to the beach, pool, park, etc.  You see, I really need this bag -- it would just be wrong to pass up such a multi-purpose handbag!


Okay, I'm over the green now but I am into everything spring, like flowers, bunnies, puppies, warm weather, and sunshine.  This is the outfit I need to make me feel springlike but still be warm, because it was only 37 degrees when I got up this morning.

Spring Dress with Red Leather Jacket by laurieglossyflossy featuring a RED Valentino multi colored dress

How cute is that dress!  Shoes, purse, and red leather jacket all from my fall/winter wardrobe!

Start shopping or planning what you're wearing for Saint Patrick's Day tomorrow- so you don't get pinched, orrrrr just forget about the green and go "Spring."

~Laurie

Feast Your Eyes > Sweet Treats From Salty Snacks

I admit it - I love chips, crackers, etc. To tell the truth I love sweets too, and mashed potatoes annnnd fried chicken, annnd cheesy bread. . .  Okay, back to my post.  


Do you love chips and crackers like I do?  Did you know that you can make some fantastic sweet treats from Saltines, pretzels, and potato chips?  What could be better than a salty sweet treat that is easy to make and delicious.  Believe me they are all delicious and the bonus is that they freeze or refrigerate well; so you can make a bunch of each and serve them later.  I'm making and freezing these for Easter, which isn't all that far away...

First up - Saltines.  Great for settling tummies but even better for making the best, melt-in-your-mouth toffee!  Tastes wonderful but is very budget friendly.

Chocolate Toffee

40 Saltine crackers, approximately
1 c. butter
1 c. light brown sugar
1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips or milk chocolate (I sometimes mix some of each)


Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a large jellyroll pan (cookie sheet with sides) with aluminum foil.


Arrange saltines side by side in jellyroll pan, salted side up.


In a saucepan, melt butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and pour over the crackers evenly.  Put the jellyroll pan into the oven and bake for about 5 minutes until bubbly.  Remove from oven.


Sprinkle chips over crackers.  When the chips have melted, spread them over crackers.  If you want Almond Toffee, sprinkle chopped almonds (or any nut) over chocolate before it cools. 


Let pan cool a bit and then put pan in freezer for 15 or 20 minutes. When cool, break into pieces and store in airtight container. 

Next up is potato chips.  What's better than a Peanut Cluster?  Making Peanut Clusters does not get any easier than this.  Make the whole thing in the microwave annnnd your done!  This recipe is from Taste of Home.

Peanut Clusters

2 c. peanut butter chips
1 c. milk chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. dry roasted peanuts
1 c. crushed ridged potato chips


Mix peanut butter chips and milk chocolate chips together.  Melt in microwave.  Follow the directions on the chip package for melting in microwave  - chips are incredibly easy to burn in the microwave. That's the voice of "I can burn anything" speaking.  


Stir chips until smooth.  Stir in peanuts and potato chips.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed paper.  Refrigerate until firm.  


Tips:  I sometimes use semi-sweet chips or a mix of both semi-sweet and milk chocolate.  I always double this recipe because one batch is never enough!

Last but not least - Pretzels.  This took a little more time because I have short, stubby fingers and am a little uncoordinated.  This isn't difficult, it just has a few more steps to make because you have to unwrap all those caramels and snack size chocolate and try not to eat them before you use them in the recipe!  Anything that you make with caramels and Hershey's bars is truly delicious!  This recipe is all over the internet using Rolos, which sounds delicious, but I didn't have Rolos - I had caramels and Hershey's snack bars.  (I might not need my elliptical if I didn't have caramels and candy bars in my house.)

Pretzel Snap Turtles

Caramels 
Hershey's snack size chocolate bars
Pretzel Butter Snaps


Preheat oven to 200 degrees.  Unwrap caramels and cut in half.  Unwrap Hershey's snack size chocolate bars and break apart the four sections.


Place pretzel snaps on cookie sheet.  Place 1/2 caramel on top of each pretzel snap.  Bake for 10 minutes.


Remove from oven and place one square of Hershey's on top of caramel and squish down a little.  Place back in oven for 2 minutes.


Remove from oven and place pecan on top.  I didn't use a whole pecan, just a half or so.


Let pan cool a bit and then put pan in freezer for 15 or 20 minutes.


There you have it - salty snacks and sweet treats in one nice easy to make package!


~Laurie

Dear Me > Sweepstakes!

There is nothing I like better than free money and I'd like to share the wealth with you!  

Lately my email inbox has been flooded with sweepstakes offers from magazines and companies like Better Homes and Gardens, House Beautiful, and Hormel. I love getting inspired (i.e.-stealing their ideas) by these magazines, but I would love to win their prizes even more! This year they are throwing around some serious, feather-your-whole-nest, cash prizes and someone like you (our fabulous readers and moi), needs to win these!


Check out these sweepstakes that are currently running now (click on the picture to be taken to the linked page):


Do you need a new Garden Room or Summer Shack, as I like to call it - $4000 in plants and furniture.

Need $25,000 to pay off your bills - Parents magazine wants to help you out.

How about $5000 from Better Homes and Gardens to refresh a room.  I don't know about you but unless I'm redoing my Kitchen I could refresh more than one room with $5000.

How about $5000 to makeover your kitchen from Myrecipes.com.  I don't think you can makeover your kitchen for $5000 but you could certainly do a little facelift.

How about $5000 in free groceries.  With the price of groceries that ought to be about enough to cover the Glossy Flossy's bridal shower for the future bride, and a Easter & Memorial Day Barbecue.  I'm really doing you a favor here because I really want to win this one! I just noticed it's for a year of groceries - that's also okay.

More money to help with your groceries from Parents and Hormel.

How about $15,000 from Velveeta and Rotel?

House Beautiful has a $50,000 Kitchen Remodel - now that's what I call a remodel!

Do you need to get away for a little mini vacation?  Better Homes and Gardens is giving away a 4 day trip to Banf Springs!

Do you scrapbook?  Check out this sweepstakes from Scrapbooks, Etc.

And let's not forget these wonderful sweepstakes from Good Housekeeping:

$25,000 for Home Decor

$50,000 for a custom Kitchen

And last but not least - Enter to win $100,000 Goodbye Debt Sweepstakes from Good Housekeeping.

Get busy and good luck!  If I don't win these sweepstakes I want one of our faithful readers to win!

~Laurie

Manic Monday > Sick Day

It's a rainy Monday here at Chaos and Gloss, and I'm hanging on the couch with a sick kiddo. My youngest is home today since the sound of hacking up a lung might be a little distracting to his other classmates.

I always tell my kids ominous tales of what happens if you have to stay home sick, which usually involves lots of naps, yucky tasting medicine, and Pedialite smoothies. I stress to them that staying home with mom is; B-O-R-I-N-G. This usually works, and my children  have miraculously recovered from many mystery illnesses before heading off to school.

But here is a secret truth that I would never admit to my kids: that there is times that I secretly love having a sick kid stay home from school. No, I have not caught my son's fever and I'm not talking about the kind of sick kid days when I'm having to clean up things with a bucket of Lysol. But there is something about cuddling a warm kiddo on a couch while watching a Wizards of Waverly Place marathon and sipping throat soothing, hot cocoa. I think it must have something to do with that it's a little taste of those days of the first baby; where you had all day to snuggle that sweet little bundle and nap - and surf the Internet.

Just kidding on that last one (sorta), but today it's just me, a kid, and a laptop (and some sleeping dogs); so I'm sharing some things to bookmark for your next sick kid day!

I want need to drink this:

Check out this recipe at Going Home to Roost.

My fridge desperately needs these (I have something unidentifiable in the back of my fridge right this minute...):



They are absorbent and stylish refrigerator liners. Gotta love anything that can brings the words functional and pretty together, right? A cute husband and wife team make these and you can find them here.

I'm checking out this page right now:

Great sick day activities from the cute blog Come Together Kids via my lovely friend Brooke's Pinterest board.

I am also using this great arrange - a - room tool from the Better Homes and Gardens web site.

This has been so handy for the  Barn chic living room redo that I talked about here.

Well I'm off to watch the new Puss n' Boots DVD - in bed. Having a sick kid at home is ruff stuff I tell ya...

~Angela

Frock Me Friday > Update!

Lovely Chaos and Gloss readers: So sorry about the missing Frock Me Friday post!

Laurie and I were frantically working on a fabulous project that we will be sharing with all of you soon. Lots of great stuff coming up!

In the mean time here is an update to our last Frock Me Friday - Walk Like an Egyptian:

Here are those bangle cuffs from Target that I talked about. Aren't they gorgeous - and cheap!

See ya next Friday!

~Angela

Dress This Mess > Barn Chic

The other day, one of my favorite gal pals happened to mention that she had been wanting to redecorate her living room. *Ping* My interior decorator spidey sense started to tingle!

I then began slyly (Not really. It was more like, "TELL ME MORE!") asking her what she was thinking about doing - all the while taking furious mental notes. She showed me this pin from everyone's favorite obsession; Pinterest:

http://ahappyhabitat.blogspot.com/2011/09/were-you-born-in-barn.html

She also showed me this lampshade from my favorite obsession; Target:

Flocked Lamp Shade Yellow (Large)

And that was it, I was inspired and her redecorating fever had spread. (Which is waaaaay better than catching all the other stuff that's been floating around lately...)

I started laying awake at night, thinking about her great, light filled living room. During the day I would daydream decorate her room with fabulous accessories and furniture. Words like barn chic, and contemporary rustic, ran around in my head. I dug around her Pinterest boards like a stalker and spied on all her favorite pins and decor ideas, where I discovered her love of yellow and gray, horses, and country with a splash of contemporary living.

And then I took my intel and made a design board. It's an illness, I tell ya!

barn chic2 by glossyflossy on polyvore.com

And then I made another one:

barn chic3 by glossyflossy on polyvore.com

And another one:

barn chic by glossyflossy on polyvore.com

And then I took a nap and made an appointment with my therapist.

Thanks to my insanity, my friend asked me to help her out, which is way better than asking me to stay a stalker's minimum of 50 ft away. Yay! I'll keep you posted!

~Angela

Manic Monday > I Need Some Pinterest Endorphins

Have your Pinterest endorphins kicked in for today?  Some people need coffee on Monday, I need Pinterest.  I like to get a big dose of Pinterest to make me feel good.  It's shopping on steroids without the credit card statement on steroids - guilt free shopping.

I can have a Pinterest house, wardrobe, dream vacation, vacation home, and eat Pinterest meals all without leaving my home (or my bed, if I choose) and without the gigantic debt that I would incur if I bought all this stuff or the divorce I would be getting if I bought it all.  


Did you know that we have two Boards.  We have the Glossy Flossy Board and I have a Laurie Glossy Board because sometimes I like to pin something that might not be rated PG on my Makes Me Laugh Board, or something pink, blue, or purple.  Those aren't my favorite colors but I do think they're feel good colors.  


Check out some recent pins to our boards:


Wall art that anyone can do - even me!

Simple DIY Home Decor:

Source: youngwifey.wordpress.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest

Simple project ~ print out image, tape to inside of shade, turn on light, and trace with a Sharpie (regular and fine-point used)

Recycle wood pallets into theater type lounging:

Source: treehugger.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest

Beautiful Home Ideas:

Source: kikis-list.blogspot.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Source: home-styling.blogspot.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Source: zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Spring Ideas:

Source: zsazsabellagio.blogspot.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Need a good laugh check out my Makes Me Laugh Board:

Source: i.imgur.com via Laurie on Pinterest

Source: 26.media.tumblr.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest



Last but not least some fashion therapy:

Source: polyvore.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest

Source: polyvore.com via GlossyFlossy on Pinterest

Need a mega dose of Pinterest? Check out our Pinterest Boards for more - and I do mean more. We have almost 2000 pins!

• Glossy Flossy Studios Pinterest Board 
• Laurie Glossy Pinterest Board

~Laurie

Frock Me Friday > Walk Like An Egyptian

Okay not really. But sing "Walk like an Egyptian" like a member of the 90's super group the Bangles, because it's a bangled filled Frock Me Friday!!

I know that Winter is still hanging around like a bad used car salesman, (Seriously, Winter it's time to go!) but I am counting the seconds until Spring hits and I can wear these babies:

They are from Asos and are only $17.01, and you know how I love me some chevron!

Bright and bold bangles and cuffs are everywhere this season; and I don't know much about enamel except that it protects your pearly whites (thank you Crest commercials) and it makes jewelery look fabulous! Check out some more great and affordable finds:

These are from ShopSuey and are all under $25:

Target - all under $17:

Target has some more gorgeous enameled cuffs that I saw in the store the other day (which was the initial inspiration for this post), but when I went online to grab the pics, they were not on their site yet (grrr...). Next time I make my daily trek to my local Target I'll post you guys a little update pic.

Nordstom:

Happy Friday!

~Angela