I can’t help but sing the “Veggie Tales” theme song in my head when I use this on my  produce.

This stuff is amazing ~ all natural, gluten free, vegetarian, non-toxic, etc, etc, etc…simply called, Veggie Wash.  Duh!

It takes the grime off of grapes, it shines up berries, removes wax from cucumbers and bell peppers and makes sure your citrus zests are all zest and not extra, well, extra anything else that could muck up the flavor of your zest!

Spray it on, rub to remove wax or soil and rinse.  It’s that easy.

Check out these rasperries ~ see the film on them from the grocery store?

I sprayed them with some Veggie Wash and let it do its thing.

And then rinsed.

Ta-da!  Nice and clean and ready to devour!

So easy and non-toxic I let my 4 year old, who insists he can and knows how to do everything himself now, do it.

Which also ensures he’ll eat it up because he’s more likely to want to eat what he helped prepare.

So two birds with one stone and we’re all happy about it!

LOVE this stuff.

Run out to the produce section of your grocery store and grab a spray bottle starter, or pick some up here.  Then, buy the refill solution in bulk and you’re set for a summer of fruits & veggies you can genuinely taste and feel good about feeding to your kids.

Smells great too!

Now EAT YOUR VEGGIES (that have been thouroughly washed and cleaned in Veggie Wash)!

Love,

Mom (uh, I mean ~pw)

At first I was skeptical because I didn’t fully understand its privacy settings.  Once I figured out how to lock it down, I gained a little courage.

And snapped a picture:

…applied the Lux feature, and a filter,

and I am now in love with Instagram-ing.

So is my sweet Aiden 🙂

Found this one in the archives:

And Instagram’d it:

L-O-V-E-ing it!

It’s like photo editing on the fly.

It makes fun photos funner and makes this rookie photographer feel like a pro.

Gosh my husband is handsome…

Oh, back to Instagram-ing info…oh yeah!  It shares your photos with only the people you allow to follow you, kind of like twitter-ing.  You can be as private as you like ~ total lock-down, open it up to friends and family, or go public.

Try it!  Leave me a comment if it converts you, or if it still scares the heck out of you.

Come on ~ be brave ~ the force is with you.

~pw

We grew up eating rice (bai) with every meal.  Mom’s fried rice was a treat, and her noodle soup weekends were feasts!  Rice & steak, rice & pork chops, rice & fish (with mangoes and fish sauce), fried rice & pork chops (Dad’s breakfast specialty!), rice soup & Chinese sausages, etc…this list goes on and on.

No wonder the food in Cambodia was so amazingly, deliciously comforting to me.

I couldn’t get enough of the Phnom Penh style noodles at Seng Lipp restaurant (Granny’s favorite noodle shop in the city)!

I am so in love with green noodle soup that I devoured my bowl of it at this roadside stand in 1 minute flat (50 cents a bowl ~ I should have had seconds…or thirds!)

Check this out:

It’s a mobile rice warmer.  Actually, just a giant thermos shaped cooler that Khmer use to tote rice around while keeping it warm (instead of throwing beer or ice in like we would here in the states).  Smart, huh?

Mom’s sister, my Aunt Mala, makes these amazing beef sticks (saich-koh ah’ng) flavored with garlic, lemongrass, salt, black pepper, sugar and some other awesomeness skewered and cooked over a charcoal fire pit.

Mmmmmm.  Thank goodness you can’t see me, I’m practically salivating over the memory.

Fresh fruit is a big part of every meal.

Mangoes (svai), ripe & barely ripe dipped in chili salt (picked from the family trees) ~ I’ve turned Joel onto the barely ripe apple mangoes.

The cutest little pineapples (m’noa-ah), so sweet they taste like their trees were watered with honey, peeled and cut while you wait.  Bagged, skewered and served with a side of chili salt.

Kulen, or lychee fruit, sold by the kilo at Phnom Kulen (Lychee Mountain).  Just peel the red skin back to reveal a pearly white cotton ball sized fruit.

Coconut juice (dteuk doang) for 25 cents, or fresh from my Auntie’s backyard (which is on the land that Dad grew up on).

Machete your way to the refreshing juice, then scrape out the young coconut meat for a little snack.

Beef cubes (bo luc lac, which is actually Vietnamese pronunciation, but that’s what we called it growing up), cooked with whole Kampot green peppercorns, served with a side of rice.

Mom makes the best, but Paper Tiger on Pub Street came a close 2nd.

Prawns and rock lobsters cooked up on the beach, dipped in lime juice and (you guessed it!) eaten with rice.

I need to stop!  I’m making myself hungry.  Not for anything I can cook well here in Khmer (pronounced: Kh-mai) tradition, but for the mouthwatering meals mom and dad make, the local Khmer favorites the Aunties spoiled us with, the delicious foods that remind me where I come from.

chum reap leah (good bye) for now ~ I have to go to bed before I raid the fridge and make myself a midnight snack!

Love,

~pw

So beyond the embarrassment of having pink eye as an adult (not even contracted from my own kids), I had to face the public without eye makeup for a few days.  Embarrassing for me since I’ve been wearing some sort of eye makeup since I was 15, and horrific for the general public brave enough to look me in the eye.

For fear of contamination, I had to throw out, yes, THROW AWAY, all make-up that touched or came near my eye.  This included eye liners, mascara, shadows that brushes were dipped into, powder tubs that brushes grazed, brushes that touched those brushes, etc…yikes!

Like any girlie girl, I love getting new makeup and I love getting lost in an Ulta or Sephora.  It’s like Christmas for me when I get to open a new tub of bareMinerals foundation or mineral veil.  The fresh click of a new tube of mascara opening for the first time is like opening a refreshing cold bottle of water on a hot summer day.  New brushes are like the first butterfly kisses of spring on my eyelids!  Until I realize this is going to cost me almost $200 to replace everything! …Eeeek!

First things first; if I have to wait for my eye to clear up, I can’t put new brushes or new product on, or near, stink eye.  My brows, though, can’t go untouched up.  I have this condition where random eye brow hairs decide to jump ship and leave gaping holes in the center of the arch.  Those that are left behind decide to rebel and point in opposite directions rather than go with the flow.

I’ve been through eye brow pencils and powders aplenty and have finally found the ultimate, the best, brow product on the market.

Hello Smashbox Brow Tech!  An amazing discovery that has now made my list of favorites!  Two colors ~ TWO ~ and wax ~ yes, WAX ~ to make imperfect brows look perfect.  I bet those sad, missing little brow hairs wish they hadn’t vacated their seats now!

At first I didn’t think the dark brown shade would be dark enough since my black hair is, well, black.  But it’s just right!

I followed the directions exactly and got fantastic results: start by applying the lighter shade of powder to fill the sparse areas, then use the darker shade to define. Finally, apply the wax to groom brows and keep them in place all day.  It doesn’t look look drawn on, doesn’t look clown-ish and doesn’t melt or smudge!

I did not, however, use the recommended Smashbox angle brow brush #12 for two reasons:

1. it was almost as expensive as the tech trio itself
2. the handle was longer than I like for an eye brow powder brush

I opted instead for a Japonesque Travel Angled Brow Definer brush for portability, cost efficiency and precision control.

It also scores very highly for overall cuteness and therefore can piggyback Smashbox on this favorites post.

Now run out and get yourself some using any of these excuses below:

1. Free Shipping at Ulta.com on all orders of $25 or more ~ code 22519
2. $3.50 off orders of $10 or more ~ code 77739 (some restrictions apply)
3. Penny got pink eye, so you must treat yourself to new cosmetics
4. $10 off orders of $60 or more ~ code 80531 (some restrictions apply)

Not missing those M.I.A brow hairs one bit (thank you, Smashbox!) and enjoying my Ulta shopping spree courtesy of stink eye,

~pw

**photos courtesy of smashbox.com and japonesque.com**