my sister has started a blog!

Exciting news! My sister is the cutest thing ever and she has started a blog! Her name is Sarah and she is a health counselor at the Country Club of Virginia here in Richmond. She is so excited about her new position there so she has started a health and fitness blog called Two-Legged Plant Eater where she will be sharing advice on eating wholesome and nutritional foods, recipes, grocery shopping tips-you name it, she'll do it! She's also a fantastic writer (and really funny too) so go visit her blog today and start learning about real and whole foods!

featured on etsy stalker

Swanky Bakes is featured today on Etsy Stalker!
What a complete honor! Check it out!

my great eBay debacle

I'm not sure the reason, but it feels lately like everything I do turns into complete mush! Remember the American Heart Association cookie donation? Fail! Well this time, I decided to save a little moola by buying some Mary Kay Satin Hands lotion from eBay. I found a great (or so I thought) deal on two full-sized Satin Hands lotions for $7.50 + free shipping, so I went for it. The packaged arrived in the mail yesterday and I was elated to open it, only to find that once I took a whiffy-whiff of the lotion I wanted to gag. This stuff smelled like it was five years old.

So what did I do? I emailed the seller. I told him that the product was old/expired, smelled offensive and how awful it was that he sell a product (with no returns) in such a state. My email to him was not hateful, but stern with how I felt about him sending such a bad lotion. I waited for a response only to get a three page email with this guy attacking my character! He is a wacky man! This is part of his email...

"Now, given I described the product correctly and had pictures depicting what you received on the site, I am within ebay guidelines. In most cases when people contact me, I am more than willing to bend over backwards to make sure they have a great transaction. However, in your case with your attacking emails, I am pretty dissatisfied myself and need some time to decide how I want to handle this. I will email you within 24 hours, thats 24, not 12 with what I will do to resolve this matter. Your threat of feedback doesn't scare me, just an FYI so maybe showing respect and being kind will do better for you. And contacting ebay won't amount to much either as I am within their guidelines with my listing. So, you can stop with the nasty emails, especially if you want me to work with you, as that is more reason that not for me just to leave the issue be.
Anyway, I will get back to you after I think about this some. Until then, I would recommend patience and some self reflection."


Patience and self-reflection??? Are you kidding me? What ever happened to customer service? So, I guess that he thinks it's okay to send old/expired products! Beware and please NEVER do business with this sham! His shop is called "its_now_sold" and he says that he sells products from retired MK consultants, meaning he sells their OLD products! How awful! I should have checked his negative feedback before buying because all of the negative commenters said their products were old!

happy saturday to you!

It's Saturday! For the past week or so I have been really anticipating the Spring. I did my math and there are about 29 more days until we see the Spring season! I am just itching to wear sandals and pretty colored t-shirts and sun dresses, get pedicures, and just feel the warm sunshine again. Target has tons of Springtime and Easter things out and I am already buying yummy Easter treats for us (why not?). There are even daffodil shoots coming up around our mailbox! How fun!

Tonight Justin is taking me to see Valentine's Day and then we are going to the Cheesecake Factory! I am obsessed with their Thai lettuce wraps, they are oh-so, OH-SO good! And then I'm sure we'll get a big slice of this:

The best cheesecake I've ever had!!!

I hope that everyone has a simply wonderful Saturday!

celine: through the eyes of the world

If you love Celine Dion you MUST go see the show that has come out to movie theaters, Celine: Through the Eyes of the World! It is truly amazing! My mom took me, my sister and grandma tonight to see it! Celine has such a kind heart and is truly so gracious to her staff and to all of her fans. The movie gives an inside look at the year of her world tour to 93 cities, the concerts, the outfits, the rehearsals, the excursions she takes with her family, the ups and downs all documented. If you are or have ever been a Celine fan, this show is a must-see! Go here for the concert/show website and more information. It is so worth it!

swanky bakes 2nd feature

My cookies were featured again, this time on Hoity Toity Baby! Check it out here! I'm starting to feel a little bit special!

happy valentine's day!

I hope everyone has a simply wonderful Valentine's Day! I had to be at church at 9:15 for band practice and sound check before the service, but as I was walking out the door, I found roses, movie tickets and the sweetest card ever sitting on the kitchen counter. It was really thoughtful. Justin is working all day so my parents took me and my grandma to Olive Garden for lunch. It was so yummy and I did NOT hold back on those bread sticks! Later I'm going to my parents house to hang out and watch some of the Olympics. This sure beats last Valentine's Day! I was sick as a dog with the flu and we had to cancel our reservations at Ruth's Chris. We spent a romantic 3 hours at Patient First on a Saturday with everyone else in town with the flu.

(Disclaimer: Apolo is NOT my Valentine. Ha!)

Did you see Apollo Anton Ohno skate last night? It was one of those hold-your-breath moments as two Korean skaters crashed, making way for the USA to get silver and bronze! I feel so much pride when Americans win medals in the Olympics.

(Sara don't kill me for posting a picture without permission!)

I also want to share that one of my best friends in the whole world has announced that she is expecting baby #2! I am beyond excited for Sara and John. I meet Sara freshman year college, when she lived across the hall from my then boyfriend. I used to go to her room and steal Capri Sun's out of her mini-fridge! Too funny! I can't believe we've been friends for 10 years now. Where has the time gone?

Why don't you stop by her blog (The Payne Family) and leave her a little love?

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day!

my hot deal of the week

So I've been looking at Jack Rogers sandals lately thinking, I'd really like to have a pair for the spring. That is until I realized they were $95. Ha, now that is not going to happen! Well it just happens that Target has done a knock-off and they look even better in person than they do in this picture. These are called the Enid in white-gold and are $19.99 (a price I can live with). I believe they have three other colors to choose from, but I thought these were cute. Find them here.

featured cookies

The girls at Cute Cupcakes. All The Time. have featured my cupcake cookies on their blog today! I've never been featured before and I am so excited to get the word out about Swanky Bakes! Stop by their blog today, it's really cute and of course, all about cupcakes!

valentine's cupcake cookies

A Valentine's order for my sweet mother-in-law who wanted some cookies for her office. These were so much fun to make. I especially like little pink sugared heart on the cupcakes. So sweet!

thursday thumbs up. thumbs down.

Thumbs Up

(via J.Crew)

Thumbs up to spring clothes that are finally arriving in stores. It is a breath of fresh air to see pretty pastels and ruffly tanks while I look out of my window and still see snow. Spring is coming! And by the way, I found out this week that J.Crew, Banana Republic and New York and Company are offering a 15% off discount to college students and teachers with an ID card. Even more of a thumbs up to these companies!

(via People)

Thumbs up to Jennifer Aniston as she celebrates her 41st birthday. She probably looks the best now that she's ever looked. Happy Birthday Jen!

(via Woolgirl)

Thumbs up to Valentine's Day! Whether you love it or hate it, it's still fun to see pink and red together, especially on a frosted cupcake. Will you be going to see the movie Valentine's Day?

Thumbs up to the Winter Olympics starting up this weekend. I am a bigger fan of the Summer Olympics, however I do love the ice skating and speed skating of the Winter Olympics. Apollo Anton Ohno is my speed skating hero! When they are skating and on the last lap, I think I hold my breath. It's so exciting. Opening ceremonies come on Friday night at 7:30.

Thumbs Down

(via People)

Thumbs down to Kate Gosselin for partying it up in NYC. People.com has reported that "The reality star stopped into Butter in New York City with her hairstylist Ted Gibson and two security guards for dinner and some drinks. Gosselin ordered shrimp, a romaine salad and the fish of the day, which she washed down with two glasses of Pinot Noir. When it was time to go, the mom of eight grabbed her coat, then jumped into a waiting cab. Her next stop? The nightclub Spin."

After reading Kate's book Multiple Blessings, she seems now that her behavior is so much different and that is disappointing. I personally do not think she should be out partying when there are 8 beautiful children at home. Yes, they may have been with their dad (ahem) but I don't think she should take her free time to go partying in NYC. Just my thoughts.

UPDATE - A few of you have left me some comments about Kate. My point is that I don't think a mother that regarded her Christianity so highly in her book should go "clubbing." She can go out and have a good time, but I just don't believe that it is appropriate to go out to venues like this when you have children!

(via Fox News)

Thumbs down to the massive amounts of snow that have hit the east coast. Richmond didn't get nearly the snow that D.C and Baltimore got, but the teachers have been out of school for what seems like forever! I think there were some 30 inches during the first go round and an estimated 20 inches during the second. I do not envy these snow amounts! I am so ready for the springtime, aren't you?

(via Radar Online)

Thumbs down to Lindsay Lohan posing as Jesus on the cover of Purple Fashion Magazine (French). This is really offensive because this girl has done nothing to show Christ-like behavior. Blasphemy!

(via People)

(Five hundred) Thumbs down to John Edwards. There really aren't many words, but scumbag does comes to mind. I can't believe the vicious lies and amount of hurt that this man has caused to his family. May his children forgive him.

donation. fail.

Seriously, some of you gals are hysterical! I love your reactions!

Have you ever done something nice for a cause and it ends by getting all messed up? May I vent for a second? I made a cookie donation to our local chapter of the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women luncheon. They were made to be part of the silent auction. I placed them in my contact's hands and thought they would be good to go.

Not.

The next day I get a random message from a lady saying that she won a gift certificate for the cookies. Come again? I never donated a gift certificate. I call my contact, we shall call her Betty, at the AHA and she says they're closing the office early and she'll get back to me on Monday. Fine.

I get an email from Betty Monday morning asking me to make a dozen more cookies for the winner. What!?! I'm expected to make you more cookies and you can't give me an explanation? I wrote her back demanding to know what happened to my cookie donation.

So it happens that my cookies were miraculously found after my email. They were put in a bag to go to another winner. Great! So, you lost my cookies and they were going to go to another winner. Perfect, I am so happy to make even more cookies for you (sense the sarcasm?)! I even tell her, since you found the cookies, just go ahead and send them to the winner. She won't let up and still wants me to make new ones.

My hypothesis??? I say the volunteers ate them! Yep, I said it! They said, oh we'll have Miss Swanky Bakes make more cookies for the winner and we'll just go ahead and eat these beauties that were "accidentally" placed in the wrong bag.

So basically, all of my hard work on the cookies I donated for the cause were irresponsibly not given to the winner. If you were the winner, wouldn't you want to know where the cookies were that you won?

Solution? I am going to make the winner new cookies, but for a rather large fee.

The end. Thanks for hearing me out ladies.

weekend recap and ramblings

I interviewed for a job last Thursday for an odd little educational center that is opening in our area. They called me that afternoon and offered the job to me and asked if I could come to orientation/training the next morning at 8 am. Being that I have not much else to do, I decided to go and see what it was all about. Well, it was odd. They told us that training was unpaid (first red flag). Then they said only five children were enrolled in the school (second red flag, they hired four teachers). They also do not celebrate holidays so neither will any of the students (another red flag because if they do not celebrate holidays, the center should be for people like that too, I don't think you deprive 4 year olds of celebrating holidays). There were some other odd things that I just did not agree with so I turned the position down. You know when you have a funny instinct about something deep inside? Well, I just had a sense about this place from the get go, so I am really happy about this decision. It's almost a relief!

We hung out with our friends Grace and Jason @ Watch Me Grow on Friday night and went to a new restaurant that just opened in town. Afterwards we went back to their house and we played Super Mario Brothers Wii for four hours. We are nuts. We seriously have too much fun playing this game. I don't know what we'll even do when we beat the whole thing. Sad. They burned me the Zac Brown Band cd and I L.O.V.E. it. I have not heard such a great cd in a long time!


The blizzard of 2010 hit us and we got a lot of accumulation on Saturday. Of course as luck would have it, my husband had to work, just like all of the other storms that have come. It seems every time it snows it falls on his work schedule. He's a police officer and he works very long shifts so I was snowed in all by myself. As a crazy person, I decided to clear off my car at 6:30 pm and trek out to the main strip of restraunts to get some food. Every single place was closed. Even McDonalds. I was devastated so I went home and ate a whole box of that Kraft ranch and bacon pasta salad. Not good for the thighs. I thought for a minute I was going to be sick after all that + the whole bag of Sweetarts I ate.

I went shopping with my sister and bought a cardi from Nordstrom for .23 cents! They have these great 3/4 length cardi's in bright springy colors and they were on sale for $39.99. I had a gift card with $40 and some change, so my grand total was .23 cents. Oh the thrill of the hunt!

J.Crew has these Essie nail polishes now and I fell in love with this color. It's called California Coral and looks like such a flattering shade. I'm waiting for my dumpy thumb nail to grow a bit from the last time it broke off, so hopefully next week my nails will be gorgeous. Isn't it funny how buying something as a simple nail polish can really lift your spirits?

Hope everyone had a great weekend. People in D.C. take it easy and be safe in all that snow!

show us your life: beauty tips and products

Today is Show Us Your Life: Beauty Tips and Products! I don't have a lot of beauty tips because I'm not feeling too glamorous these days however, I have a lot of products that I would recommend! I was so happy to see that Kelly also wears Bare Minerals. I'm sure their sales will go up just because of her blog post!


I love Bare Minerals and I don't know what I would do without it! I don't have great skin, so in 2005 during a horrible breakout my sister introduced me to this wonder powder. She worked at Sephora and begged me to let her use Bare Minerals foundation on my face. I told her it would never work. But, I looked in the mirror and low and behold - it looks amazing! I have not since worked liquid foundation and hope that I never have to again! My favorite products are the foundation (fairly light), well-rested concealer for eyes (bye-bye red and puffy skin), warmth powder and mineral veil. I would highly recommend it!


Again, my product-junkie sister turned me on to another great skin care line. For Christmas she gave me a sample set of MyChelle Dermaceuticals that included over 20 small samples of product. At first I didn't even pick it up because I was happy with my Clinique regimin. Well one night a few weeks afer Christmas I picked up the kit and started thumbing through the samples thinking, where do I begin? Well ladies, I have never had my skin feel so moisturized and fresh in my whole life. There were about 8 cleansers and 8 lotions with other serums and potions, so I just started used them all. The Rejuvinating Night Cream and Fabulous Eye Cream are by far some of the best products I've used in a long time. I am hooked! Sold at Whole Foods and online. Aveda paddle brush. My favorite brush in the whole world. You must get one! This then leads me to Aveda products. If I could afford to constantly buy this stuff I would, but you know it gets expensive! My favorites are the Shampure shampoo and conditioner, phomollient and volumizing tonic. I also love the natural smell of these products and whenever I use them I feel so fresh!

I also really like Bumble and Bumble shampoo/conditioner on a rare occasion since it costs twice what Aveda does, Bobbi Brown eyeshadows (great pigments), Neutrogena body oil, Jergens Original Almond and Cherry lotion, OPI quick-dry for nails (dries your polish instantly), Clinique brow pencils, lip stick and eyeliner, and anything by Arbonne with the Rejuvinating scent (assorted bath products).

So there you have it! What are you must-have beauty products?