Reno's Keeping America Beautiful!

Happy Fourth of July Week!! WTHeck happened to April, May and June? I'm i the only one in a time warp here?! So this is not only the most blistering, hot week of the year so far, but it is a happenin' week here in the Biggest Little City! So many beautiful things to do this week! Here is a list of my favorites.

1. I LOVE this first one... Scheels is offering a flag exchange from now till the 3th of July! Just to make sure that we are all flying beautiful new flags for the 4th the American Legion will be collecting tattered and torn flags (to be disposed of properly) and giving you a new one for only $10! Available to the first 100 customers! Check it out!
2. Artown is in full swing as of today! This is one of my favorite events of the year! We get to enjoy every venue imaginable almost every day of the month for this awesome event. As with most hairdressers, I would be little more than a starving artist if it wasn't for my current occupation. Here is a link on how to get the app! You will have every event at your fingertips on your phone everyday! Happy Artown hunting! haha
3. Hump day is about to become a little less lame. Reno's newest food truck event is sure to help your mid week blues be a little easier to bear. The event takes place at the McKinley Arts and Cultural Center, next to the beautiful Truckee River. Every Wed from 5-8. 
4. I am super excited about Genoa's Americana Celebration. This small town girl loves the nostalgic feel of that quaint small town and all the old fashion, family celebration that goes along with it. The event is sure to be a huge hit. Get there early for best parking.
5. And if you are having a stay close to home celebration here is a great place to start looking for some ideas that are fun and creative to get your celebration off on the right foot! You have plenty of time to get the supplies needed for the celebration of the year right here! 

Those are my top picks for how to keep it beautiful this week and weekend here in the Biggest Little City. There are so many others that I didn't mention you should drop by Visit Reno Tahoe dot com to see a complete list of all the fun things going on this week.  Please stay safe and make sure you have some representation of red white and blue on your nails, in your hair or on your eyelids! 

Happy American celebrations!

See you next week! 

Michon :)

Mothers are Special

Moms everywhere deserve to have a beautiful day this Sunday! I made a long list of things I wish I could give to my mother, whom I love and adore. I want her feel extra special on this day. The list was long and some of the things were pretty expensive so I paired it down a bit.  The cruise to Alaska and the trip to Ireland are just not in the cards this year. I thought I would share the short list of some less expensive and very much last minute ideas you could do for your mother. Things that will let her know your heart is really in it even if your wallet is not.

• Flowers are predictable, but defiantly easy. You could step it up just a notch by buying a rose bush or a beautiful hydrangea this year and actually showing up to plant it for her! Then she would be thinking of you all year round when she looks at it! 
• Breakfast in bed. This is my favorite treat! My girls are awesome for this most years. This is a great way to make the woman that usually tends to every meal in the house feel appreciated and loved, like she deserves to be! Follow up by making sure that all the dishes get done and taken care of. It will mean more than you think. 
• Gift certificates. My mother loves to eat out! If you can’t take her out to dinner or lunch consider sending or giving her a card to a place that she loves to eat at. Don’t underestimate the beauty of this gift. The reason women love to eat out is because we are always the ones cooking, setting the table and cleaning up when it is all over. It is so nice when that part of the equation is taken out for us and we can just sit back and enjoy. 
• A picnic. This is right up there with the no dishes, no planning part, for us moms. Think about where you could take her. Plan the menu, pack the meal and haul her out the house to a surprise picnic. What a lovely way to spend mother’s day! Creating memories for a lifetime with a woman that is all about creating memories for you. 
• Salon services. Nothing says pamper and taking care of you like a salon service. Whether it is a body massage, manicure, pedicure or facial these are typically things some women hesitate to spend the extra money for themselves. Us girls all love being pampered in this way but it is hard for us to justify spending the extra money on ourselves when we could be buying shoes for our children or purchasing some other, always pressing household necessity. 
• Acknowledgement. Especially if you don’t have much money, I would put this as number one. It is just nice when my family takes the time and goes through the steps to show me that they truly appreciate how hard I try to make the rest of the family feel special on their day. So honestly any effort that looks and feels like they spent a day or two thinking about it and planning it is the best gift ever! 

So there are my suggestions for a flawless mother’s day. Incorporate any one of these suggestions and I give you my guarantee that you will be making some mother a very happy girl this Sunday! 

Thank you for stopping by my blog! 

Hope you have a fabulous week and mother’s day weekend. 

Michon :)

Be Beautiful Valentine!

As we approach this Hallmark card occasion,  I thought I would share a couple of fun things to do, whether you are single or in a relationship, that are beautiful and easy to do! Pick and choose as many as you like from the list below to create a week long celebration without breaking the bank!

1. Say Something Sweet: Lotion your hands lightly and then write on the mirror of your bathroom. When your sweetie gets out of the shower and the room is all steamy, your declaration of love will be visible! Send a series of texts throughout the day with all of the things you love about them. Put post-it notes on the car steering wheel, in their lunchbox, in his gym bag, in her purse. At the end of the day they will come home to greet you knowing they are loved and appreciated.
2. Feed Them Something Delicious: There are a lot of ways to let your food do the talking. Here is a short list of ideas I like to do on my Pinterest Valentine Board. Don’t have time to cook? Nothing says I love you like having someone treat you to dinner and giving you the night off from cooking and cleaning. If you decide not to stay in and cook up something special, I found this list of all of the local specials including pricing. I would imagine you should call for reservations today if you haven’t gotten to that yet this week! ;)
3. Do Something Sexy: For the ladies, check out this blog post for the best possible lipstick you can wear on Valentine's Day. Don’t leave that lipstick all over his face and shirt! He will thank you for this one, I promise! For the gentlemen, spray a little cologne on when you get home and freshen up a bit after work, then go put your hand to her face and tell her she is beautiful. 
4. Touch them: Whether you are planning your Valentine's surprise for a significant other, children, or grandchildren, we all respond to touch. An impromptu scalp and shoulder massage from behind while he is at the computer. A foot rub for your little kids as they are reading before bed. Everyone appreciates a good old fashion back rub. Not into touching anyone right now? A gift certificate for a massage is a fabulous gift for anyone! 
5. Be Beautiful: Take a care package down to Tent City for a homeless person. Brand new warm socks or gloves filled with Valentine treats and maybe a little cash. Pay for the person behind you in the Starbucks drive-through. Write a letter or a thank you note to someone that has made a difference in your life. Donate to one of your favorite local charities this week. Local charities typically have much lower overhead administrative costs so more of your money goes directly to the recipients. Charitable donations drop off severely after the holidays. You all know my favorite local charity Northern Nevada Children’s Cancer Foundation. (just one suggestion). 

We pretty much covered the five senses here plus the heart with that last one. I hope you all have a fabulous Valentine’s Day! Please share this post with all of your friends that are looking for last minute Valentine's ideas and leave me a comment with your favorite ideas for making life sweeter this time of year. I would love to see what you like to do.  

Thank you for stopping by.

Michon :)

To A Beautiful New Year!!

I really do believe that what you are on the inside is what reflects to the outside.

As we come into 2013 I hope you are all feeling as optimistic about the future as I am!

Here’s to change and positive movement forward as we start our New Year’s Resolutions with some things that will benefit us all. 

Tips for feeling beautiful from the inside out:

1. Keep a Gratitude Journal. Jot down a couple of things you are grateful for. No matter how mundane. Write something different everyday. Think simple things... flowers, snow, ice, dogs, children’s laughter, snow tires... 
2. Imagine the possibilities. Anthony Robbins says, “If you can’t imagine or “see" yourself doing something, you will never be able to achieve it”. So whether your goal is to be a size 9 or your goal is to run a marathon, you need to visualize yourself everyday doing this thing you hope to achieve. 
3. Uplift others through your words. Say a positive word. Every day, in your contact with others try to find something to compliment them on. "Awesome scarf." "Nice jeans.” "Love your smile!" No matter how small the gesture seems, this is something that makes everyone feel beautiful about themselves and what better gift can you give? 
4. Create a sanctuary.  We are "the Refuge" from the outside world for our families. Whether you are someone’s big sister, a little brother, a husband, wife or mother, it is easy to do some little random act of kindness. Try something as simple as a post-it note with a sweet message. It is our privilege to protect, nurture, care for and compliment our loved ones. It will make you beautiful in their eyes.
5. Take time for yourself. When you fill your cup, you are much more able to to be there to “fill others”. Take a long bath, a hot cup of tea with a book, a facial and a pedicure. Whatever “your” indulgence is... It is important that you refuel. They are going to need you when they get home! And you are going to be much more patient with everyone when you are taking care of yourself. 

I would love to hear about things you do to make yourself feel beautiful, physical or metaphysical. 

Please feel free to share in the comments below any ideas or tips that help you. 

Good luck to you on whatever lofty New Year’s resolutions you may have. 

To a fresh new beginning and a beautiful new year inside and out! 

Aunt Denny’s Peanut Brittle

This is a little more involved than the last two Christmas Recipes but if you like peanut brittle you should give this recipe a try. I have been told by Peanut Brittle connoisseurs (aka my stepfather) that it is their favorite.

Aunt Denny says it is all about the cast iron pan. Honestly it is the only time I break that darn heavy thing out of the cupboard. So the ingredients are pretty simple.

• 2 cups of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of corn syrup
• 2 cups of raw spanish peanuts
• 3 TBSP of butter
• 1 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of vanilla 

Bring those ingredients to a boil and bring up to a hard ball stage. Denny says it has to spin a super fine hair. I tried to capture a picture of what that looks like for you here. When the mixture looks like baby fine hair and just kind of floats away you know you are there. 

Add 2 cups of raw peanuts to the mixture at this point. Stir frequently and continue to cook until it reaches a nice amber color. This is kind of guess work. Each batch that I do is varying degrees of this color.

Once the amber color is reached, remove from heat and add 3TBSP of butter, 1 tsp of vanilla and 11/2 tsp of baking soda. Stir all that in until it is well mixed. It will foam up. Turn this all out onto a VERY WELL BUTTERED cookie sheet. The cookie sheet I use is 12 x 15. Much bigger than your average cookie sheet. I suppose it would work with a smaller one you would just have thicker peanut brittle. 

And finally allow to cool for at least an hour and half. 

Happy Baking Season!

Thanks for stopping by the blog! 

See you next year! 

Christmas Mice

A dear client of mine gave me one of these cute little guys several years ago, BP (before Pinterest).
They were so cute! I had to recreate them.
And I have every year since.
They are time consuming but they are relatively easy.
Here are some pictures and some directions that should get you on your way relatively quickly.
Here are the main ingredients.

• 30 - Hershey’s Kisses
• 30 - Maraschino Cherries with the stem on
• 60 - sliced almonds
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 30 - Oreo cookies split
• Frosting (red & green)

Drain and dry the cherries on a paper towel for 30 minutes. Separate all cookies so you have only the white stuff on  top to decorate. While the cherries are drying, melt the chocolate chips in a container in a microwave for 1 minute. Stir the chocolate chips and continue to cook in microwave for one minute at at time until melted completely. Dip the dry cherries into the melted semisweet chocolate, adhere the candy kiss as shown and adhere the almond slices to simulate ears as shown. We made regular frosting for the whites of the eyes of the mice and then re-melted the chocolate for the pupils and used toothpicks to apply the eyes (whites and the pupils), Then we added a ribbon of green and red at his feet to make it all look cute!  This year we used the red and green gel frosting. I am not a fan of how the gel turned. I will be using decorators icing again next year.
They add such a cute little presence to our holiday trays!
Thanks for stopping by today!
Have a great weekend.
Michon :)

Christmas Cheeseball

This post is arriving a couple of days early as I wanted a chance to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! Over the next couple of days I will be posting my three favorite Christmas recipes that I include on all my holiday trays. The other two will not come to your inbox. But if you check here at the  blog over the weekend I will have all the pictures and instructions up by the Sunday night. Plenty of time for you to whip up something special for your gift giving.
Cheeseball and a Beauty Blog you may ask...

Well I think sharing is beautiful. Every year when I do my customer appreciation day, I get requests for this recipe. Just a couple of recommendations here... 

It was my mother-in-law’s cheeseball recipe that she gave to me 20 years ago. 

Seriously it is so simple that it is almost shameful!

Grandma Kessler’s Cheeseball
1 brick of Philly Cream Cheese
1 tsp of McCormick Bon Appetit Seasoning
1 heaping Tbsp on fresh chopped green onion
1 cup of crushed nuts (walnuts or pecans)
Bring cream cheese to room temperature. Add Bon Appetit Seasoning and green onions to brick and cream together well. From mixture into a ball and roll ball into the crushed nuts until completely covered.

Wrap in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight.
Voila!
Easy as!
Except, the darn seasoning is getting harder and harder to find. My friends in Utah should have no problem finding it. But from what I understand the only two stores in Reno that have it are not actually in Reno. The Savemart in Carson and the Savemart in Sparks carry it. You can also find it here Amazon. If you can’t find Bon Appetit, this is the best substitute I have found.

The cost is minimal, yet it feels so special and homemade with a touch "of class" when coupled with wine, crackers and a card.

Hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright. And your Hanukkah is Happy and Holy? Or whatever holiday you are celebrating right now is truly blessed and wonderful.
Remember to check the blog tomorrow for the other two recipes.
It’s a surprise!! ;)
Michon :)

P.S. ~ Share the love and forward this to a friend!