A Colorful Summer Office Supplies From Staples ⋆ My Sparkling Life

It may be excellent on paper to make as many sushi rolls as possible – from scratch, natch – but it’s not always the best idea to go all out like that. You need to know your cooking limits, so you can still go with a theme when you make the best stuffed cabbage rolls recipe around, but you should always know when too hard is too hard. Choose the recipes and the structure of the night that you know how to run, and you won’t be too pressured.
Prepare Yourself
It’s not always easy to run a dinner party – especially as you are likely to be in the kitchen alone a lot. So, it would help if you prepared everything. In the hours leading up to the party, prepare the veggies, parboil the potatoes and roll the stuffed cabbage leaves ready to be cooked. The more prepared you are, the more time you spend with your guests and not slaving in the kitchen.
Don’t Imitate Tom Cruise
It’s nice to make cocktails, but this is your dinner party, not a scene from a Tom Cruise movie! You should keep your drinks menu simple and ensure that your guests are catered for without the theatrics. Your dinner party should be a sophisticated and down to earth affair, and if you ensure that you choose a range of simple drinks, you’re going to provide simplicity for the evening.
Know The Allergies
There is every chance that at least one guest will be allergic to something or have a dietary requirement that you need to know about. Always ask ahead; the last thing that you need is to prepare the perfect beef wellington only to have a vegetarian at the table who can’t eat it!
Get Your Tools Ready
It would be best if you had a bottle opener and oven gloves, warmed plates, and a kitchen ready to feed a crowd. For this to work, you need to prepare in advance so that you aren’t scrambling for bottle openers and screeching about lost oven gloves. You need to know where everything is for a smooth move around the kitchen.
A dinner party is supposed to be a successful and fun evening with friends. It would help if you worked seamlessly so that you can ensure that your party is one that people rave about for a long time. The right food, music, and drinks will really make the night pop!

Growing up, I was introduced and had plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors…Camping, Fishing, Hiking, Tubing, or just hanging out at the lake or beach. Needless to say, with 4 boys, it’s still a big part of my life. The outdoors is part of so many Mom’s lives, so this Mother’s Day, skip the flowers & chocolates and get mom some new outdoor fashion! I love getting new clothing, so I was excited to partner with Orvis this Mother’s Day to review their Tencel®/Linen Belted Field Jacket. Orvis has some great looking outdoor fashions that will keep Mom looking great while enjoying the outdoor sports she loves!
Soft and slouchy with a weathered appearance, this summer-weight field-inspired Tencel/linen jacket for women is just right for providing a dose of warmth and cover from the sun without stifling weight. It fit’s great and looks great with just about anything. It comes in two colors, indigo & sage.
There are so many more goodies for Mom…and maybe a little something for yourself, on the Orvis site! I already have my eye on a few things for this summer.
This Mother’s Day, Orvis is celebrating our first role model, teacher and love – Mom! As motherhood is a journey and an adventure that should be celebrated, the premier outfitter of the outdoor lifestyle put together a compelling video illustrating a mother’s bond with her child and their first of many shared outdoor adventures together.
Leading up to Mother’s Day, Orvis is urging fans to share the video with the hashtag #LongLiveMoms. Each share triggers a $1 donation to Casting for Recovery, a unique program that combines breast cancer education and support with the therapeutic sport of fly fishing. Casting for Recovery offers retreats for breast cancer patients and survivors to get outside and discover renewed energy for life, all free of cost.
Orvis is America’s oldest mail-order outfitter and longest continually-operating fly-fishing business. They have committed to donating up to $10,000 so let’s help them reach their goal and keep moms outdoors for years to come!
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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Didn’t have the chance to attend the World Premiere of MCFARLAND, USA at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood this past week? I have some fun pictures of the premiere to share with you!
As a surprise, the event featured a special performance by Latin rock superstar Juanes!
Based on the 1987 true story, “McFarland, USA” follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Kevin Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. Coach White and the McFarland students have a lot to learn about each other but when White starts to realize the boys’ exceptional running ability, things begin to change. Soon something beyond their physical gifts becomes apparent—the power of family relationships, their unwavering commitment to one another and their incredible work ethic. With grit and determination, the unlikely band of runners eventually overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well. Along the way, Coach White realizes that his family finally found a place to call home and both he and his team achieve their own kind of American dream
Meet the inspiration behind the movie (minus Jim White)!
Of course the dashing Kevin Costner
Also make sure you join the social relay race for a chance to win $2,500 and other prizes!
http://racetomcfarlandusa.com/
Follow McFARLAND, USA on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mcfarlandusa
Follow Disney Pictures on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/disneypictures
McFARLAND, USA is rated PG and opens in theaters everywhere on February 20th!

Preferably sooner rather than later, your child will need to regularly visit a dentist. This is so said experts can ensure that your child isn’t suffering from dental hygiene or growth problems, which can often cause pain, infections, and sometimes serious health concerns. However, it is a very common issue for a child to be afraid of this visit to the dentist.
Even if you opt for the top dentist in your area, one with an absolutely fantastic demeanor around children, it can be hard for children to separate the worries of their imagination from the reality in front of them. This means that as a loving parent, giving them a comfortable push in the right direction can be an astonishing and confident means of getting them the help they deserve.
Allowing your child to remain brave at the dentist will not only allow them to get the treatment they need, but it will help them learn to deal with fears that might be irrational, generally improving their bravery over time. After all, a child is never helped by being overly sheltered, but can truly grow by being exposed to things that they might have otherwise feared (at least in a healthy, constructive manner).
Let us see where you, as a doting parent, should begin:
Make The Dentist Human
Do not refer to the dentist as ‘the dentist’. This can make them seem like a cold professional, almost non-human. Of course they are not, but in the mind of a child, it’s that difference that can, ironically, make all the difference. It’s important to be realistic regarding how children think. If they remain ‘the dentist’ then they could be anything, as cold and as worrying as the scariest tools in their disposal. A child might imagine a blank room where you will not be around to protect them.
Instead, you may choose to say ‘today we’re going to pay Mr. Johnson a visit!’ Of course, they might have a doctorate, in which case it’s important to get the name correct. However, as soon as you put a name to a person, it seems as though they’re going to be cared for. ‘To see the dentist’ is often a worrying phrase also, suggesting that perhaps there is a problem that has caused this impromptu trip to come up that day. Instead, saying ‘Mr. Johnson is going to make sure your teeth are healthy and grow nice and strong!’ will designate said medical professional as an ally, as someone who only cares for the health and wellbeing of your child. You may not think a young mind able to make a massive distinction out of these things, but you’ll be surprised.
Your tone will communicate plenty of information, too. A happy, buoyant tone, almost as if this is a celebration, will show them that there’s nothing to fear because this is a positive experience. You might even talk about how nice the Dentist is, and how you trust them. If you used to attend the same practice as a child yourself, mention that fact. It will show them that there’s truly nothing to worry about.

My boys are obsessed with Baymax from Big Hero 6. My youngest gets so excited anytime he sees him and even sleeps with the stuffed Baymax I got while on my trip to LA. But what kids don’t really realize is there is a real person behind that lovable character…Scott Adsit is that voice.
We were able to sit down with Scott on our trip and learn all about what it takes to bring such a character to life.
It was a little bit of a challenge to bring Baymax to life, they decided pretty early on that he would not have emotion..it’s all programming, but yet it still had to let the emotions creep in, in the appropriate places.
I get to lean on either side of him just a little bit, to invite the emotions to flood in from the audience.
During the audition was the first sign that Baymax wouldn’t have that traditional “robot” voice…then he saw the soft, huggable character design and knew that he needed a “benign bedside manner voice”. So he mixed that with pretty much a state of the art of robotic interaction voice, kind of like an automated phone system.
You might be surprised to know that he didn’t look at past robot characters for what to do/not do, he looked more to the soft, huggable, benign people in his family.
The biggest challenge came in the middle where they wanted to add another facet to Baymax, which is where he looses power and becomes more like a drunk, or a child that has gone past their bedtime.
And, ah, I said so do you want it to sound like, like a robot who’s drunk? And they said no, just be drunk. So, I just played over the top drunk…then they put a process, a little filter on that.
An interesting thing about the, the processing filter on Baymax…John Lassiter, who is the man in charge of the studio, wanted there to be a processing on Scott’s voice, but he also wanted Scott’s voice to come through. They would bring him examples of a filter that they wanted to use in the sound department, and he would say no, dial it back a bit, dial it back a little bit.They kept dialing it back, dialing it back, until eventually, it was just Scott’s voice, no filter. But John liked what Scott was doing naturally. So, what they ended up doing was a combination. They have all that filter on at the beginning when you meet Baymax, and then during the course of the film, they dial it back, dial it back, dial it back, so that by the end, in the last scene in, in the void, there is no filter at all. So he finds his humanity with, a subtle kind of subtextual, subliminal, thing that you may not notice.
Scott would go home from voicing and find himself still talking in the voice, he had to keep reminding himself to not start talking like that all the time because it would “annoy people”.
We even asked him for a little bit of the voice…
http://www.momof-3boys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Big-Hero-6-Scott-Adsit_BayMax.wav
He even leaves messages for his kids friends…
http://www.momof-3boys.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Big-Hero-6-Scott-Adsit_Messages.wav
Hes such a fun guy, I can see why he was cast for the voice of Baymax. We were even lucky enough to get to ask Baymax a few questions…
His background in improv gave him the creative he needed to make Baymax who he is, like the fist bump, which has now replaced the exploding fist bump in my house.
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Pick up Baymax in Big Hero 6 On Blu-ray and Disney HD TODAY!
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”