Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

Now with this Halloween over we are down to one more Halloween to trick or treat. Next year will be the last one for our youngest. We believe that Trick or Treating is for kids and not teenagers, so after 13 there’s no more Trick or Treating. My oldest is 13 so this was his first Halloween not Trick or Treating, he just wore a mask and walked along with us to take my youngest. My youngest is 11, so one more now and he’s done.

My husband LOVES Halloween, for me I like taking the kids out, so next year will be sad for me being the last!

We were out for about an hour and a half tonight and my boy got 2 bags FULL of candy….which of course he will share with his big brother(and Mommy hehe). It was a little cold and windy, so we were more than ready to come home and warm up by the time his bags were full.

Here’s my Zombie(he had to play the part of pictures! LOL)….didn’t my husband do a great job of the make-up? Almost every house complimented him on his make-up!

Jolene

“Only Fat People”?, No! “Everybody is Beautiful”!

I’m bad with Twitter. I have 2 accounts and I’ve never been good with tweeting much on either, I like to read everyone else’s tweets but rarely send out my own. I think part of it is I have a really hard time saying things in so few words, if you haven’t noticed I tend to be a bit of a rambler. In person I’m shy and quiet usually until I get to know someone, even online in direct conversations I struggle to find words, but when it comes to typing out my thoughts I can go on and on. I type fast too(thank you to typing class in High School, I did retain something I learned in HS at least LOL), so often I feel my fingers fly across the keys faster than I even realize what or how much I’ve typed. So Twitter and Facebook restrictions on how many characters you can type are very hard for me.

I was on one of my Twitter accounts yesterday following the Nascar race because it wasn’t on a channel I get. I glanced over at the trending topics and felt sick and disturbed to see what one of them was. “Only Fat People” was one of the top trending topics on Twitter. I wanted to click and see what people were saying to make it trend, but I was scared to. I’ve been a little depressed and frustrated lately and I was scared that what I saw might not help my current emotional state.

After it staring me in the face for a while I decided to click on it and see. I am a very nervous person and I have to say I was incredibly nervous clicking on it, worrying I was about to make what was already not a great day worse.

As I scanned over the first 100 or so tweets I took a big sigh of relief and felt pride that while there are some absolutely disgusting people out there(likely the ones who started the trend), there are still people who refuse to accept that kind of behavior. Of the 100 or so tweets that I read(what was the most recent 100 at that time), only ONE was negative toward “fat” people! The rest were people absolutely disgusted that such a thing would be trending. There were people of every walk of life, every age, both sexes, every ethnicity, every SIZE….just everyone….tweeting how disgusting it was.

I felt so much relief to see that while this trend likely started because of some incredibly disturbed people, it became such a big trending topic because of those who were speaking up of how wrong it was. And before long a new topic was trending, it quickly became more of a trend than “Only Fat People”, before long “Only Fat People” was no longer even showing in the top trending. Instead “Everybody is Beautiful” had begun to shine and taken it’s place….and what a beautiful sight it was!

Everybody is beautiful! And if you don’t feel beautiful, then do something to make yourself feel it, everyone is beautiful and everyone can feel beautiful if you will just allow yourself to feel it, and everyone deserves to have that feeling. Once you’ve felt it and feel how wonderful it is to feel that way, you will strive to make yourself feel that way as much as you can. Beauty isn’t limited to those who are thin, those who are young, those who have money….beauty is in us all, if you haven’t found that feeling for yourself you owe it to yourself to do so. We all have our days where we feel blah and ugly, but once you let yourself feel beautiful those ugly days become few and far between and become so much easier to overcome because you know that’s not how you should be feeling and that’s not how you want to feel.

Have you let yourself feel beautiful today?

Jolene

French Loaf Pizza, Pizza Sauce and mmm, Bacon

I’m trying really hard to use up stuff I have in my freezer so have been using that to get back into menu planning. I’ve found sometimes in the past when I planned out my menu in advance I actually ended up spending more in groceries than when I didn’t, weird I know because it should be the other way around(and no, eating out wasn’t where it made the difference, we rarely eat out more than once a week unless I’m not feeling well and need hubby to pick stuff up…which is usually that crappy TOM LOL). My freezers have been so crammed full of stuff that I really need to empty them out a bit, I had one hell of a time trying to fit my turkey stock from my Thanksgiving turkey in there.

I bought a couple of French Loaves a few weeks ago because they were on sale for 89 cents, I figured we would easily use them because I make garlic bread a lot, but we just haven’t had a meal that goes with garlic bread since I bought them and 2 loaves take up quite a bit of space in the freezer. So, how can you make a French Loaf the main part of a meal instead of just the bread on the side? Use it as a pizza crust!

First start off with your Pizza Sauce, yes you can buy it and I sometimes do(if I buy it I buy a Garlic and Basil sauce, the plain ones are blah). But why buy it when you can make it even better and it takes very little time and tastes so much better! Even making a single recipe I didn’t even use half the sauce, so there’s plenty to refrigerate or freeze until next time.

Onions, Italian Season and Oregano…the smell of it cooking is amazing, my kids were asking me why I was trying to torture them.

Who needs store bought Pizza Sauce when in a short time you can have this!

Pizza Sauce

recipe adapted from Kittencal’s Pizza Sauce on Food.com

3 tbsp Oil*

1 Medium Onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp Minced Garlic (or 1tsp Garlic Powder)

4 tsp Italian Seasoning

4 tsp Oregano

1 6oz can Tomato Paste

1 28oz can Tomato Sauce

1tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

1-2 tsp Sugar**

Saute the onion, Italian Seasoning and Oregano in the oil until onion is translucent. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Mix in tomato paste, tomato sauce, salt, and pepper. Simmer on low for 45 minutes to an hour. Add sugar at the end if you would like.

*I just used some bacon fat because I had it and I’m running low on oil, but use Canola or Olive or whatever you have.

**I actually forgot to put any sugar in and didn’t notice.

I’m a horribly photographer, but doesn’t that look delish?

French Loaf Pizza

1 French Loaf

Pizza Sauce

Shredded Cheese*

Onion, sliced thin

Meat of your choice**

Preheat oven to 400 F. Cut French Loaf in half and then each half horizontally in half so you have 4 quadrants of loaf, place on baking sheets. Smooth pizza sauce on each piece, I put it on a little heavy because it is a thick loaf and will soak in a bit. Add a little bit of cheese, I find putting a bit of cheese on the bottom and then a bit more on the top helps to “sandwich” the toppings and help them stay put better. Add onion slices, and meats of your choice….load it up as much or as little as you want. Top with more cheese….a generous amount .  Once you have it loaded up as you like put in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until cheese is melted and bread has crisped up a bit. Let cool a few minutes then slice each quadrant into 3. Enjoy!

Ingredients are vague because like all pizza you can really just add whatever you want….this is how I made it this time, but how I make it in the future will depend on whatever I happen to have on hand.

*I use Marble Cheese for almost everything, it’s our favorite, but use whatever cheese you like.

**I used ground pork sausage and bacon, it’s what I had in the freezer.

mmmm, Bacon!

Hate cooking bacon? Hate that greasy splattered mess all over your kitchen and that nice top that is ruined from playing catch with grease splatters? Have no fear! There is a solution!

I’m not a big fan of regular bacon, I do enjoy it on stuff but if I’m having bacon and eggs or a BLT or something I prefer the taste of Turkey Bacon, regular is just too greasy tasting for me. I do like regular bacon on some things though, and my guys love it. I got away with not having to cook it for a very long time, but hubby is on a bacon kick lately, so I’ve been doing a lot of cooking bacon.

I cook turkey bacon in the microwave, it is quick and easy and always comes out the perfect crispiness without making any mess. I’ve tried the microwave for regular bacon, it sucks! A frying pan for regular bacon leaves the stove, the counters, the cupboards, the floor and me covered in grease. For a while I started using my big pot to cook bacon and it was MUCH better, because of the high sides it drastically reduced how much splattered out. Biggest problem was that I could only do 4 pieces of bacon at a time that way, and with 3 males in the house, 2 of them growing boys with huge appetites, I need to a cook the whole package of bacon and it just took too long.

There has got to be a better way of cooking lots of bacon at once with little mess I thought, surely it can be baked? Bakin’ bacon…yep, you betcha! You can do the whole package at one time, clean up is easy, and it really doesn’t take that long. Here is how to do an entire package of bacon at one time:

First cover 2 baking sheets with foil(make sure you use baking sheets that fit side by side in your oven). Lay bacon out on the foil in a single layer. It’s better if it’s a little more spaced out than I have it here, but this package had more slices than they usually do so really filled up the trays even more than usual.

Place sheets of bacon in a 400 F oven for about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how crispy you like it. And then you will have this:

mmm, yummy crispy bacon! We like it super crispy, can you tell? I take the bacon off the trays and put it on some paper towel to help soak up the extra grease. I pour the bacon grease from the trays into a bowl to use in other cooking…..I don’t normally use anything that fatty as an oil in my cooking(I’m a Canola Oil or Olive Oil girl!), but some things taste great with the extra flavor the bacon fat adds. Certainly not something I would use for cooking on a regular basis though.

Let me know if you use any of the recipes or tips that I post! I would love to hear opinions and comments on them!

Jolene

What I’m Wearing

I’ve been so horrible with OOTD posts. As a stay at home, homeschooling Mom that doesn’t drive you can imagine I don’t get out much. My husband works 10 hour nights so gets 3 days a week off, those are my chances to leave the house. Once Winter weather hits we may not leave the house all 3 of those days, it depends on the weather. But the rest of the year, you know the 5 or 6 months of the year it doesn’t snow, we try to go out at least for a bit each of his days off.

Another wrench in my OOTD posts is actually remembering to get hubby to take pictures! We usually run out the door as soon as we’re all ready and by the time we get home I’m exhausted and so not feeling working it for the camera LOL. I have to do a better job of getting him to snap some quick pictures before we head out because I’ve worn some outfits lately that I absolutely love! I’m still really picky about what I wear, I’m not too daring, but from reading so many great blogs with great OOTD’s I’m getting better at taking what I see that I like and applying it to my outfits in my own way. To some my outfits may be simple and boring, but for me it’s what I feel comfortable and sexy in.

I really don’t like the way any of the 3 pictures hubby took of this outfit turned out, I felt that this looked so much better that how I see it looking in the pictures and I felt great in it. I picked the best of the 3 pictures, hopefully it doesn’t look as bad to other eyes as it does to mine LOL. I’ve only worn this top with skinny jeans before but decided to give it a try with a skirt and I liked it, but think I do like it better with my skinny jeans.

Please excuse the mess in the picture! My oldest child husband has been decorating for his favorite holiday, and he’s a very messy decorator LOL.

Top: 121Avenue(eBay store), $12(2011)

Skirt: Addition-Elle, $15ish?(2010)

Belt: Penningtons (reversible, leopard on other side), $20(2011)

Boots: Sears,  $40(2011)

I went simple with accessories, I wasn’t really feeling like the weight of jewelry(doesn’t anyone else find that some days? You just don’t feel like wearing the jewelry?). I’m wearing a silver heart locket with my boys pictures(Christmas gift) and some leopard teardrop earrings from F21.

Here’s a close up of the boots, I ordered them and was going to return them because I thought I hated them, tried them on again a few hours later and started feeling them and now I love them! I so badly needed flat boots(as I said before, heels and me don’t do well). I can’t wear them over skinny jeans though because they’re just a regular width calf and unless they stretch some(not leather, so not likely to stretch much) I just don’t think it’s going to happen. But for $40 I’m not complaining! They are very comfortable and I have another pair on backorder that are more of a pant style boot that I’m hoping will be wide enough in the calf to work with my skinny jeans!

Jolene

Showing Some Love

I have a couple of bloggers that I need to throw out a huge thank you to!
The wonderful and beautiful Yolanda, Queen Diva herself featured me on her blog today! I was her Diva Spotlight for this week and I couldn’t be more honored! Hers was one of the first Plus Sized Fashion blogs I came across when I realized there was such a thing, and it was the beginning of my learning to accept my body as it is. Thank you Yolanda for allowing me to be a Diva on your blog, and thank you for your wonderful blog that helps women who aren’t at a point of acceptance begin the journey and see that it is possible, and for those who already have there could never be enough support out there and you are part of that. I considered giving up on my blog because I’ve struggled to get readers, a shout out from Yolanda asking where I had gone made me feel all warm inside that while I thought nobody was noticing my blog or even that I was reading and commenting on theirs, someone was! Thank you Yolanda!
Another fabulous blogger I want to thank is gorgeous Gabriella from Principessa Gabriella. I won a giveaway on her blog for some scrapbooking software. I’m not really into scrapbooking anymore, but wanted to support Gabriella and figured if I won it would be a great tool to make calendars, and I’m really into making homemade gifts and things right now and I think I could make great use of it for many other things than specifically making a scrapbook. While I’m thrilled with my win, even more than that what I want to thank Gabriella for is for her support on my blog! Not only is she only one of a couple of people that have made any comments on any of my posts, she has done so many times in my blogs short life! Thank you so much Gabriella, you have no idea how happy it makes me when someone comments! She comments, she follows me on Twitter, she follows me on Facebook and she Follows me with Google…..how can anyone ask for more?!? I hope that one day I will have many who will enjoy what I have to say enough to follow me and comment like Gabriella does, but she will always be my first . Thank you so much for your support Gabriella! And if you don’t already read her blog you must go check out her outfit posts, I absolutely love her style and her hair, oh my, the hair! As someone who has jet straight insanely fine hair, I am soooo jealous of her hair! It is absolutely gorgeous! Go see!
Thank you ladies for being so fabulous, for being so supportive of my little blog, and for just being you!
Jolene

RIP Dan Wheldon and Hold Close Those You Love

I have yet to talk about my love for racing on here. To some it may seem odd this obsession I have with watching things go fast because I don’t drive myself, I’ve never driven a vehicle farther than from one end of a street to another when I was 16 and while nothing bad happened I just felt that driving wasn’t for me…20 years later I still feel that way and have no desire to drive, in fact as I got older it turned more and more into a fear I guess, one that I’m ok with not overcoming. I also have an extreme hatred for people who drive poorly and don’t obey the speed limit. But I love, love, love watching the sport of racing. My favorite is Nascar, though I could(and do) watch anything race and love it.

I don’t catch very many Indy car races(I don’t follow it as closely as I do Nascar) but I knew there should be one on today and I was pretty sure it was the last race of the season. Just as I was going to turn the TV on to see if it was on a channel I get I looked at my Twitter to see a tweet from Samantha Busch(Nascar driver Kyle Busch’s wife) that there had been a big wreck at the Indy race. I found the channel the race was on and learned that there had indeed been a very big wreck, 15 cars involved on only the 12th lap of the race. One of the drivers involved was Dan Wheldon, a very popular driver, 2 time winner of the Indy 500…including this years win, and winner of the Indy Championship in 2005.

Wheldon was immediately airlifted to hospital. For the next 2 hours there were lots of interviews with other drivers as the race was red flagged, there was word on everyone involved in the wreck….except Wheldon. After some time the drivers were all summoned to a meeting….I’m sure I was only one of many who felt sick waiting, knowing that no word and a meeting being called likely meant bad news and they wanted to break the news to the drivers before announcing it to the public. After the meeting finally let out it was hard to read the faces on most of the drivers, except Tony Kanaan who was apparently one of the drivers closest to Wheldon. He understandably was having difficulty holding back his emotions and watching him made us pretty sure the news was bad, very bad.

Sadly, the announcement everyone had been hoping and praying wouldn’t come did. The Indy racing family, and more importantly the Wheldon family had lost one of their own. At 33 years old Dan Wheldon race car driver and more importantly husband and father of 2 little boys was gone. The drivers and Indy officials decided that they would not finish the race and would instead do 5 laps in honor of Dan Wheldon. With Wheldon’s crew lined up alongside the track, Wheldon’s car number 77 the only number lit up atop the scoring board, and the rest of the Indy racing family and extended family lined up on pit road, the cars that were still remaining took 5 incredibly emotional laps around the track.

I think I find myself so incredibly emotional over the death of Dan Wheldon not only because of my love and respect for the sport and those involved in it, but because he was so young and left behind a young family. He was only a few years younger than I am and he had a wife and two very young sons. My heart aches and is absolutely breaking for his wife and boys, the youngest being only a matter of months old.

There are still 2 other drivers in hospital because of the wreck, both are awake and alert and are being kept overnight, but it sounds like they will both be ok. My thoughts are with them for a quick recovery, and with the entire racing world for the strength to get through this tragedy.

Dario Franchitti would have been crowned the Championship winner today, and while he is still the winner there was no celebration. It should be a great celebration for Franchitti, but how do you celebrate when something so horrible happened? Franchitti’s win was confirmed because of the accident, his only competition for the win, Will Power, was involved in the accident.

Treasure each and every day with those you love because as much as we don’t like to think about it, you never know when tragedy can strike. I know I gave my husband an extra tight hug before he left for work tonight and I’ll be giving my kids and extra tight hug when I send them off to bed for the night….and be grateful for my life and hope I’m lucky enough to never have to go through losing a loved one at a young age.

RIP DanWheldon, you will be missed.

Jolene

I’m Doing It, and My Giants!

I was up sewing until 5am! It’s not unusual for me to be up until that late, hubby usually gets off work around that time, but usually I’m just sitting on the couch with my laptop and watching TV when I wait for him. This time the night just flew by because I was sewing the whole time!
First I just did a bunch of practice stuff, then after the kids went to bed I started making the dress for  my niece. I got all of it done except I want to do a couple more rows of shirring but ran out of elastic thread, and I need to do the straps still. I’m so proud of myself because I look at what I’ve made and I can’t believe I made it!! I mean I seriously look at it and think “Wow, I did that???”. It is soooooo cute! It’s going to be hard waiting until Christmas. I hope it fits her, she’s such a tiny thing and I can’t go by normal size for her age.
Ok, so if I really get into this sewing thing I need to learn to make pants….really long pants! I decided out of curiosity to weigh and measure my boys this weekend. It has been a long time since we’ve done that. They’ve always been big for their ages, they were born above average and both were always above 90th percentile for both weight and height for their age….often over the 100th. My youngest at least does the usual slow growth then having big growth spurts…my oldest not so much. That boy has never had a slow growth period since he was born, it has always been just constant, but not a slow consistent.
At 11 years old my youngest is 5’2” and this boy who actually stalled out at 80ish pounds for the longest time is now weighing in at 103 lbs! He weighs almost what I weighed even in High School LOL! Now, my oldest, this one is the one who is really a giant! He is 13, will be 14 in January and is 5’10” and weighs 145lbs!! I tell you, it is the weirdest feeling when your child starts towering over you(and I’m not even short)….and now he is only a couple of inches away from being as tall as hubby….but he still has LOTS of years left to grow!
Do you have any idea how hard it is to find pants for a teenage boy who has a 32 inch waist but doesn’t quite have the umm, “junk” to fill in certain parts of men's pants. And then the longest length any regular store carries is 34”….of which I bought him several pairs of when Walmart had jeans on for $8 and now those 34” length jeans are too short! So, if 34” is too short at 5’10” what the heck am I supposed to do when he reaches 6’3”, which he likely will easily before he’s done growing?  Oh, and on top of that, he’s already wearing a size 13 men's shoe! Hubby wears a size 13 and often it can be hard to actually get something because most stores if they order a 13 at all only order one in each style of shoe…..but at least hubby is done growing and won’t get any bigger. What are the chances that at 13 my sons feet will actually stop growing at a size 13? I’ve never seen a men's shoe larger than that. How do I get him any bigger?
We make financial sacrifices so I can stay at home with the boys and raise them, I shop clearance racks for clothes because we can’t afford even Walmart’s regular price LOL, I’m going to have to get a full time job just to pay for this child's clothing because I’m going to have to buy from expensive specialty shops! I laugh over their size because I just can’t believe how big they are, but omg, it’s actually so scary at the same time! We told him he better learn to tolerate the cold better because he’s going to have to wear shorts all winter LOL! Let’s just hope since he has had such consistent growth his whole life that he slows down now at the age when other boys are having some of their biggest growth(hey, nothing wrong with being a little backwards LOL)…..is that too much to hope for?
Jolene

Wish Me Luck!

Just a quick hey there! Thanksgiving was great! Even with a crappy cold and little sleep because of said cold, I cooked everything I planned on for Thanksgiving and had it all ready on time! I have to admit I always make a good turkey, but I think this one was my best yet! It was absolutely amazing! Everyone enjoyed the whole dinner, at least they said it was great, hope they weren’t lying! hehe!

So now that I have the kids school sorted out and Thanksgiving is over I have moved on to a new wave of projects! I have decided to make most of my Christmas gifts this year! Not all of them, but I plan to give each person one homemade item and one bought item. I have already bought about half of the bought items and planned out most of the homemade items. Tonight I started actually making the first one!  I’m making my niece a sundress!

I’ve had a sewing machine for quite a few years, but mostly have just used it for mending stuff(done a lot of turning pants to shorts because of blown out knees…no surprise with boys!). I’ve only ever actually made one thing with it, I made an apron for my youngest about 7 years ago. It turned out really well but for some reason I’ve always been scared to attempt anything more. Well, I’ve decided to be fearless of it no more! If all goes well with the Christmas stuff(not all will be sewn, but probably half the stuff) then I think I will tackle making something for myself, maybe a skirt or a dress as I’ve seen some pretty simple looking tutorials for both!Could be my way around the halt I’ve had to put on buying new clothes until we can pay down the old CC a bit.

So wish me luck with the sewing! I hope it works out because I get all depressed when I try something and it doesn’t! The cold yucky weather is already giving us a sneak peak off and on, that alone is enough to start depression, I don’t need any extra help LOL!

Jolene

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I know most of you are thinking huh? It’s not Thanksgiving yet. Well, it is in Canada! Actually it’s technically on Monday, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada. I am doing Thanksgiving Dinner on Saturday night though. We have my brother in law over every Saturday for dinner and Saturday also happens to be my father in laws birthday, so I thought Saturday would be the perfect time for our Thanksgiving Dinner!

Working on my shopping list tonight so tomorrow hubby can take me out to get everything and I can come home and start prepping and cooking for Saturday! All I need is to wake up feeling great, hubby managed to catch a bit of a cold from work and kindly passed it on to the boys and I. We rarely get sick, each of us has now had 2 colds in the past 2 years including this one. It was my mistake, we don’t get sick much because we take Vitamin C and D(trust me, it works, used to get colds a lot before we started taking them regularly), and if we feel something coming on we double up on it and nothing comes of it. We got a little lazy though and didn’t take our vitamins all summer and instead of starting them up again before cold weather hit we started as the cold weather hit and the bugs started going around. Fortunately we got on them right away and these colds aren’t too bad, this is only my second day feeling blah and I’m already starting to feel better.

Anyway, back to Thanksgiving! Other than the date Thanksgiving is pretty much the same up here as it is in the US. Of course there’s little differences even in different parts of the US where certain dishes are traditional but aren’t in others. My Thanksgiving menu is pretty much the same as my Christmas menu, I change up the side dishes sometimes though.

My menu for this weekend is(everything is homemade…no boxes or packaged anything….homemade is so much better and I like knowing what we’re putting into our bodies for the most part):

Turkey

Gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Stuffing

Broccoli Casserole

Watergate Salad(my youngest HAS to have this every year, and shhh, I quite like it myself!)

Corn Fritters(possibly, only if I have time)

Corn

Dinner Rolls

and for dessert my husband has requested Chocolate Éclair Dessert, I’ll probably make some sort of little cake or something too for my Father in Law if I have time.  I’m using a different recipe this time for the stuffing and rolls, and I’ve never made the broccoli casserole or corn fritters recipe before….usually I like to make things at least once for just us before I make it when others are over, so I hope they turn out good since I’m not doing that this time! I just felt like changing things up a bit and trying different recipes than my usual….hope it doesn’t backfire on me! LOL

Do you celebrate Thanksgiving? I know some people don’t bother with it. My side of the family doesn’t do it every year(and since I haven’t heard from anyone I’m guessing not this year), my family is fairly big though so it can be hard to find days when nobody works and can get together. But I do Thanksgiving with my own family every year, I love cooking for everyone and sitting around the table enjoying good food with the ones I love!

If I remember I might take some pictures of everything, but knowing me I’ll forget! Once I start cooking I get into my own little zone I guess you could say and I’m off in my own little world. It is very relaxing for me….that is until my feet, legs and back start hurting from standing on the hard tiled floor for hours!

 

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canucks!

 

Jolene

Penningtons Review

I recently got the chance to take a visit to Penningtons and do a review of their store. I believe some people were chosen to do these reviews because they are bloggers, I assume that because when I went in and told them why I was there they wanted to know all about my blogging LOL. Obviously since my blog is still at a trying to get readers point that’s now how I was chosen. I actually was chosen through Divine.ca where I have been entering contests for a few years(no wins yet from them though LOL) and a little while back I got an invite to join their “Review Squad”. Up until now the only invitations I got for reviews was for diapers and well, we’re sort of long past that stage LOL, so I didn’t bother applying for those reviews. I was so excited when I got an invite to apply to do a review for Penningtons as it is a store I shop at already. I was even more excited when I got an email that I was one of the ones chosen to do the review! So even though I am doing the review separate from my blog where I just send it into them I thought I would put my review up on here as well.

I think I have already mentioned Penningtons once or twice on here, and most probably know who and what they are. But for those who don’t, they are a Canadian Plus Sized clothing store(who DO ship to the US!). My Mom has been shopping at Pennington’s for years so I was familiar with the store even before I became a curvy woman to shop there myself. The selection of the store has changed a lot in those years, they did have more of an “older woman” feel to it back then, it now has a great variety for women of all ages.

I've now been a shopper myself at Penningtons for several years but have never visited this particular location I was asked to review since it's farther from where I live than others. I learned that this one is the largest in the province and was very impressed with the size. As is usual for Penningtons I was greeted with a friendly "hello" and informed of the current promotion as soon as I walked in. The ladies took care of me to get me my gift card once I showed them my email as part of the review program and then left me to browse. Once they saw me with a few items in my arms they offered to start a change room for me. Once in the room I was given the help I needed for additional sizes and styles to try. As I find is usually the case at Penningtons the ladies were very chatty and friendly when I paid for my items....this is something I have always loved about this store and I'm glad to see it's the same even at different locations.

I have been thrilled with the fit of Penningtons clothing. I have always had problems with finding pants that don't gape at the back and problems finding pants long enough for my long legs(I’m not super tall, just have long legs). I had no problems with either! I found a great pair of jeans that don't gape at all at the back, it seems the designers for Penningtons have fixed what is a common issue for curvy women. These jeans don’t gape AT ALL, I’ve never found a pair of pants like these and I LOVE them! I also didn't have to worry about a regular length pant being too short, I don’t believe they carry a “tall” length but the regular length was just long enough!

My one problem with them is that I do find Penningtons quite expensive and normally I only shop the clearance racks for that reason. I did treat myself this time to buying new in season styles which I honestly have never done before, but thanks the graciousness of Penningtons to offer me a $50 gift card for my review and the fact they had a "buy 2 get one free" sale on I chose to spend a little extra above the card and get some non-clearance items this time. I love each item I got but as a single income family to allow me to be home to homeschool my kids our budget just doesn't have room for Penningtons regular prices. I would love if they could offer a bit more of a selection that would include different price points since I know a lot of other women who are in the same boat as I am and are looking for great but affordable clothes.

These are the 3 items I got:

3/4 Sleeve Pointed Long Cardigan with Ruching

 

Reversible Animal Print to Black Belt

 

Regular Slightly Curvy Bootcut 5 Pocket "No Gap" Jeans

 

I love all 3 items, the only complaint I have of any of them is that if I wear the belt with anything but pants with belt loops there’s nothing to hold the “flappy” end of the belt. I wore it today over the cardigan and the end of the belt flapping about was a bit annoying. An extra moveable loop like you have on a watch band would be nice…..guess I’ll have to figure out my own solution to that because I LOVE the belt, I’m having a bit of a leopard obsession lately!

Jolene

Full Body Project

There is something that everyone must do, and now! Go to Life & Style of Jessica Kane's Facebook Page right now and be part of the Full Body Project. I mean it….go NOW!

What is the Full Body Project? It’s all about loving yourself for who you are and just being positive in general. All you have to do is go to Life & Style of Jessica Kane's Facebook Page, when you get there upload a FULL BODY  picture to her wall….yes, it MUST be full body! Show all your beautiful curves! After you do that click on the "Join and Win” tab and enter your information….and that’s it! You are a part of the Fully Body Project!

Why do I think you should enter?  First and foremost to show the world that you are beautiful and proud of it! There’s also a few other perks in some prizes, some great gift cards are up for grabs for those who enter.

While I enter a lot of contests and love to win(and have been on a dry spell lately), my reason for entering the Full Body Project was not the prizes. I entered because I wanted to be a part of the Project itself, I wanted to be up there with all those other gorgeous women who have said to hell with what society says we *should* look like, we are beautiful just as we are and it’s time the world sees our beauty and self confidence!

So I’m not even going to ask who is going to join me, because I expect each and every person who reads this to get on over there and be a part of it too! Now go show off those beautiful curves of yours!

Jolene

Bourbon Chicken

I should be heading off to bed! I’ve been moving in so many directions lately and not sleeping much and I think it’s catching up with me. But I was tending to my Facebook Page(pleaaaaaaase like me on there! I need likes! ) and I started to feel guilty for not posting again. I decided I needed to come do that before I go to bed! So here is just a quick post with a recipe, I really do enjoy feeding people so want to include some of that on this blog(too bad I couldn’t actually feed you through my blog!). I’ve spent the past couple of weeks doing some canning as I said before….in the past 2 weeks or so I have made and canned Plum Jam, Orange Jam, Apple Butter, Apple Jam, Apple Jelly and Apple Pie Filling(can you guess I got a good deal on Apples? LOL). There is more I want to make and can too, I’m really enjoying doing it, but had to give myself a bit of a break because my feet are still swollen and back is hurting like hell still from so much standing in the kitchen.

This is sort of a cheat post because I’m just going to copy and paste from a recipe blog I started and sort of abandoned…..but it doesn’t change how yummy the recipe is! LOL! Please let me know if you try any recipes I post and what you think of them! They are not all my recipes, some are from other sources, most are recipes I have changed to make my own…..I rarely follow someone else’s recipe exactly, I love recipes but usually use them as a starting point or inspiration and then change it to make it my own. Hope you enjoy!

Ok, so this doesn't have any Bourbon in it, but it has sort of a Bourbon or Asian type chicken flavor. I found this recipe on www.recipezaar.com then made my own changes, although I don't think I changed much on this one from the original posted one as it was excellent to begin with.

This is probably my husbands favorite meal that I make.

4 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

2 Clove Garlic

1/2 tsp Ginger

1 1/4 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 cup Juice*

2/3 cup Brown Sugar

4 tbsp Ketchup

1 tbsp Cider Vinegar**

1 cup Water

2/3 cup Soy Sauce***

corn starch

1. Heat about 2 tbsp of Olive Oil in a large pot. Cut chicken breast into bite sized pieces and cook in pot until nicely browned and cooked through. Remove chicken from the pot and set aside.

2. Mix all remaining ingredients together and heat over medium heat until well mixed, add about a tbsp of cornstarch to help the sauce to start thickening a bit..

3. Add chicken back in and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add more corn starch if needed for a nice sauce.

4. Serve over rice or pasta. I usually serve it over Linguine then top with Sesame Seeds and Green Onion if I have it. And while very time consuming, I have made homemade pasta to serve it over before and it’s amazing!! If you have the time and the equipment to do so give it a try!

*(I have tried this with Apple Juice, Orange Juice, Lemonade and even Apple Sauce...so use what you have, all tasted great, I think the Lemonade tasted best but there was a very subtle difference between all of them)

**(the recipe called for Cider Vinegar which I used to use, but when I ran out I couldn't find it anywhere so have been using Apple Cider Vinegar since and it works fine, I'll be honest I don't know the difference between these vinegars LOL)

***(I've made it both with regular Soy Sauce and with Low Sodium Soy Sauce, it actually tastes different both ways, better with Low Sodium)

Jolene