Monday, February 11, 2013

Poly-voracious

Have you heard of Polyvore? No? Me either, until a few days ago.

I was innocently browsing through Pinterest the other day and saw someone had posted a series of outfits. They were pretty cute, like something that a fashionably thin and trendy twentysomething year old would wear. And everybody was pinning it.

Turns out, Polyvore appears to be a fashion collage tool. And it had an app. I was immediately hooked.

It may not come as much of a surprise to those of you who know me, but I am not a fashionista. I can safely say that I do not own a pair of sweatpants, and I'm not frumpy, but I really only wear dresses for Easter, and my "fashion" style could best be described as "monochrome tops with jeans". Most of my wardrobe consists of solid colors, and an occasional striped sweater.

But suddenly, with Polyvore, I could dress an imaginary version of myself as though I was actually trendy and cool. I could assemble an all-pastel wardrobe, pick out a new pair of Christian Louboutin pumps, and coordinate them with a purse from the 2013 spring collection. And to top it all off, I could arrange these items that I liked into a visually appealing collage. It was like I was 8 years old again, bringing out my Barbie dolls, and dressing them with scraps from the sewing box for hours on end.

As if this was not enough, people could "follow" my sets and like my arrangements. I can be socially validated for attempting to be stylish!



See that? I made that. I would wear all of those clothes, if my bank account were an infinity symbol.

In summary, if you want to spend any amount of time creating fashionable layouts and pretty outfits, I highly recommend Polyvore. If you're interested, you can check my Polyvore profile out here.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Football Helmet Cracker Snacks

In preparation for Sunday's big series of commericals football game, I thought I'd share a snack idea I came up for my office's Super Bowl potluck today. I actually went looking for a snack idea like this on Pinterest and Google first, when it dawned on me - I may actually have an idea no one has thought of yet!

Football Helmet Cracker Snacks

Ingredients:
  • Bag of snack pretzels
  • Ritz crackers (or other round crackers of your choosing)
  • Dip mix - I used a Tastefully Simple dip mix I had around the house, but any mix will do.
Follow instructions for making the dip mix. Spoon mix into a plastic baggie and refrigerate. In the meantime, break the pretzels up so that only two loops are intact on each pretzel.  Take some of the crackers, and break them approximately in half. For a bit of a curve, you can use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to break the cracker in half.
Take the bag o' dip out of the fridge and cut a hole in one of the corners of the baggie. Lay out some of the whole crackers and pipe dip onto the open face of the cracker. Push the pretzel "face masks" and the half-crackers onto the top of the open-faced cracker. Serve and eat.

These football helmet crackers would go great with some football bites, too! Those cheesy footballs were a great inspiration for me when making cracker helmets today, so check 'em out! Happy snacking!