Wordless Wednesday: December Favorites

 

• My wedding band.
• Christmas Nails
• Glitzy Starbucks tumbler - DIY: Glitter Starbucks Tumbler
• Lemon Water  

 It's life's smallest details that can instantly brighten my day!  What are your December favorites?

Things to Do with Kids - Downtown Disney

I am always looking for things to do with my stepson that don't cost money.  One place that we love to go is Downtown Disney.  You get three hours of free parking (plus two additional free hours if you get your ticket validated.)  There is so much to see and do there!  Although it can be tempting to spend money, we usually do not spend much at all.  

Downtown Disney is packed with restaurants and shops.  They have a movie theater, ESPN Zone, Build-A-Bear, Ridemakerz, and a giant Disney store (among the many other stores and restaurants!)  They always have live entertainment going on as well.  Right in between the movie theater and Rainforest Cafe is a stage where they always have some form of fun and family-friendly entertainment going on.  We went in the summer, back in June where they had a DJ performing kid-friendly songs.  They had lights going any many of the kids were up dancing.  It was too fun!  

Christmastime at Downtown Disney is my absolute favorite.  The lights are beautiful!  They have so many decorations.  Disney really knows how to do Christmas.  This year, they have an ice skating rink as well.  Carolers also walk around, singing Christmas carols.  It is awesome!

With so much live entertainment, people watching, and window shopping to be done, you really can make this an inexpensive night out if you wanted to.  We usually eat before we go (since the restaurants there are seriously overpriced!)  We usually treat ourselves to an ice cream in the summer, or a coffee in the winter.  But other then that, it really is just a fun outing for us as a family.

DIY: Glitter Starbucks Tumbler

Pinterest inspires me to try so many new recipes, organize my closets, and... bling out my Starbucks tumbler!  I am so impressed with how it turned out... SO CUTE! I will be rocking this tumbler every day!  If you try my tutorial, let me know how it goes!!

Materials Needed:

-Starbucks Tumbler (make sure you get the one that can screw off.. it is the one that is meant for you to write your drink on the inside.)

-Spray Adhesive

-Glitter (any glitter/any color... I really like the Martha Stewart brand, so that is what I bought!)

-Piece of cardboard

Steps:

1. Unscrew the tumbler and take the inside part out.

2. Take the smaller part of the tumbler and spray the ENTIRE inside with spray adhesive.  Spray from about 6" away.  Spray enough...but not too much, or your tumbler will turn out looking cloudy.



3. Pour glitter into the tumbler, turning as you are pouring.  Make sure the ENTIRE inside of the tumbler is coated with glitter.  Any excess glitter that is not sticking, you may dump out.

4. Let it dry for about an hour.

5. Once dry, put the tumbler back together.  Voila!! You have yourself a blinged out Starbucks tumbler!

Thank you Pinterest, and your fabulous ideas! :-)

Restaurant Review - Stubriks

My husband and I LOVE dining out when we can.  So I thought I would add restaurant reviews to my blog.  The first one I decided I would review was Stubriks.  Stubriks is a steakhouse and bar in downtown Fullerton.  We had been there once before, but it was years ago.  We went last week for my birthday and we had a great time.  The food is delicious and it is a very fun atmosphere. 

Parking: Downtown Fullerton on a weekend night can be notoriously busy.  We went on a Thursday night around 8pm and didn't have trouble finding parking at all.  We parked in the lot on the backside of Stubriks, near the Spaghetti Factory.

Hostess: We called early on in the day to try and make a reservation.  They said they were not taking reservations but did not expect it to be crowded.  They were right.  When we arrived, we checked in with the hostess and got a table right away.

Drinks: Stubriks has a good selection of beers, wine, and liquors.  Although I would normally be a cocktail or wine girl, we both decided to have a beer because it sounded most fitting for our steaks we would be ordering!  My husband ordered a Sierra Nevada (they only had it bottled, but they did pour in a glass for him) and I ordered a Bass.  I LOVE when we go places that serve Bass Ale.  It is one of my favorite beers.

Appetizers: We decided to go with the garlic cheese bread as an appetizer, as we had been told by a friend that it was delicious.  It arrived and we were in cheesy bread heaven!  They do not disappoint on the cheese or the garlic on the bread.  It comes out warm, cheesy, and delicious!  It was hard not to fill up on the bread alone!  I would highly recommend this appetizer!

Entrees: All steak entrees at Stubriks come with either a soup or salad.  We both decided to choose the soup which is a potato broccoli soup.  The soup was also good, especially dipping the garlic cheese bread in it. YUM!  For dinner, my husband chose the Black & Blue Top Sirloin.  He ordered his medium rare.  It came out cooked perfectly.  He said it was the perfect amount of richness from the blue cheese.  It was served with mashed potatoes and gravy and steamed veggies.  As for myself, I chose the ribeye steak coked medium.  I also asked to add grilled onions to mine (BEST CHOICE I COULD OF MADE!)  The steak, again, was cooked to perfection.  And the grilled onions were to DIE for!  At first, when I saw the onions, I was a bit bummed because that is not usually how I like my grilled onions.  But to taste the onions with the juicy and tender steak... It was the best flavor combination I had in a long time!  Mine also was served with mashed potatoes (I asked for no gravy) and steamed veggies.  Both of us took about half (if not more) of our food home with us.  The portions are HUGE and the prices are a great deal.

Dessert: Usually we are not very big dessert people.  But since it was my birthday, they brought me a birthday dessert with a candle in it on the house.  It was the bananas foster dessert served with vanilla ice cream.  It was so good.  As stuffed as we already were, we could not help ourselves.  Whether it is a birthday or not, I would highly recommend this dessert as well!

Service: Our server was great.  I forgot her name, but I can say we had no complaints about the service.  She was friendly and on top of it throughout the entire meal.

Prices:
Sierra Nevada (bottled) - $5.50
Bass Ale - $5.50
Garlic Cheese Bread - $6
12 oz Black & Blue Top Sirloin - $23
16oz Ribeye - $25
Grilled Onions - I don't remember
Dessert - Was on the house because it was my birthday! (Usually $9)

Overall, I would recommend this place for a fun date night or night out with friends.  I wouldn't say this would be a place that we would bring my stepson to.  It has a very present nightlife atmosphere.  But for an adult night out, this is an awesome spot!

Stubriks Steakhouse and Bar

118 E. Commonwealth Ave.
Fullerton, CA 92832

Blackberry V&T Recipe

If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that I LOVE Pinterest!  On Monday, I found a recipe for a cocktail that sounded delicious and I wanted to try it for my husband that night!  We both LOVED it!  It was the perfect "Monday night cocktail."  The original recipe called for lemonade, but I substituted tonic water instead, because I thought the lemonade might make it a bit too sweet for my liking.  If you try this recipe out on your own, let me know your thoughts!

INGREDIENTS:

blackberries

ice

vodka (we used Sky)

tonic water (we used diet to save on calories)

STEPS:

1. Using 4 blackberries, muddle them in a glass.

2. Put ice cubes in the glass.

3. Pour vodka into glass. I put about 1.5 shots in each drink. You can tailor yours however you like! 

4. Pour tonic water into glass until full.

5. To add "decoration" to your glass, slice a blackberry almost all the way through, and place on the side of your glass.

6. Cheers!

Beauty Product of the Week - Clinique Dramatically Different

CLINIQUE

DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT 

MOISTURIZING LOTION 

I cannot even begin to express how much I LOVE this moisturizer!  My skin drives me crazy.  In the summer it gets very oily, and in the winter it gets so dry.  This lotion saves my skin no matter what season we are in.  I am not the type of girl who forks out big bucks on beauty products or makeup.  I usually try to find a drugstore product I like so that I am not always spending a tun of money on products.  I tried so many drugstore brands of moisturizer, and nothing helped my skin in the winter time like this lotion does! 

This lotion is for people with dry to combo skin types. It is unscented and doesn't clog or block my pores.  It feels very light and soft on my face, unlike most of the drugstore products I tried which felt very heavy and thick on my face... ewww!  The only thing that I wish this moisturizer had in it would be an SPF. 

This lotion runs for around $25.  You can buy it at any store that has a Clinique counter.  This bottle usually lasts me almost a year.  I could not live without this lotion!  Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Starbucks Deal

Living Social has a Starbucks deal going on right now... LOVE IT!

$5 for $10 at Starbucks

They will send it to you in an "E-Gift Card" which you can print and redeem at any Starbucks.

Pumpkin Spice Lattes just came out this week... Perfect timing for a deal like this!

http://www.livingsocial.com/cities/38-long-beach/deals/448600-10-starbucks-card-egift