I decided to get my teeth whitened. I have been thinking about it for about a year, and then my dentist brought it up, so that seemed like a GO. My teeth aren’t TERRIBLE, but if I try to wear a lipstick instead of a lipgloss, I can super tell my teeth are not the right color… Also since I end up taking a lot of photos for work, I don’t want to offend the innocent public with my weirdnesses.

I asked my dental hygienist, whom I LOVE AND ADORE (her sister also cleans my teeth and they are so nice and funny), to run down some options with me, with as much honesty as possible (as I know they would probably want to push the dentist’s offering which was bleach trays).

Surprisingly, she told me that the home whitening strips’ “chemistry” was getting better and actually not a terrible option. However, they are probably only best for touch ups, and not for an initial whitening, as it’s difficult to obtain good coverage and you might get zebra stripes!

She said the un-fitted trays you buy over the counter are fine, but you’ll get the goo all over your gums, and that’s not really where it’s supposed to go. My gums are already sensitive and testy, so that didn’t sound like an option for me.

My bestie got the laser whitening a few years back, which sounds cool cuz it’s a one-time thing, but my hygienist said she’d seen a case where the lady got laser whitening and some of her tooth sheared off and she also needed like a kabillion root canals. Granted, that was probably a one in a million case, and maybe affected by other things, but…. I don’t need to go there.

So bleach trays it is! Today I got my impressions done. WHICH SUCKS. I have a really sensitive gag reflex. I gag when I brush my teeth or try to pick popcorn out of my molars. If you have to get your impressions done for trays or a mouth guard or braces, here are a few tips I’ve been given.

– Ask if they can mix the goo with warm or hot water. This apparently makes the goo set more quickly so it spends less time up in your mouth parts.

– When they do the upper impression, which is the suckiest one, ask if you can lean forward instead of leaning back. This is so you don’t feel like all this crap is going to creep down your throat, plus any errant saliva can run forward and not back. I always feel like if I swallow, my gag reflex will go cray cray, so I’d rather drool all over myself onto some paper towels than wretch up some bile on the nice technician.

– They always tell you to breathe through your nose. I also like to go into a meditative stare to try to go to my Happy Place.

I have sensitive teeth, so apparently, after I do a sesh of bleachie goo, I will follow up with a short sesh of de-sensitizing goo. We’ll see how it all goes. I go back in next week to get all my shizz.

My mama is Type 2 Diabetic and has to really watch her sugar/carb intake. So for presents, I often try to bake her low carb/sugar-free goodies.

Recently, Hairy and I went to a farmer’s market and bought some cookies that were gluten/flour-free with no butter and made with almond flour. I LOVED THEM. THEY WERE SO GOOD. I decided I wanted to try to make a sugar-free version of this using a sugar substitute for my mom. Becky once blogged about using Xylitol as a sugar substitute, so I decided to try to bake with that for the first time.

The cookies turned out a bit wetter than I thought, which is good because they are moist, but I was hoping for a crispy outside and chewy inside. I’ve never made the recipe with regular sugar, so I’m sure the consistency would be different with that, too. Xylitol is supposedly a 1:1 ratio with regular sugar in recipes, but I felt that my cookies turned out too sweet for my taste, so I would probably cut back on the sugar. I’ve baked with Splenda in the past and there was a yucky aftertaste, but Xylitol has no yucky aftertaste at all!

I got the recipe from this site, but if you are too lazy to click, here it is:

Ingredients:

* ½ C + 2T blanched* almond flour (meal)
* ¼ C +2t granulated sugar* 1 large egg white
* ¼ t vanilla extract
* tiny pinch of salt

I also got a small handful of pistachios to crush and sprinkle on the tops of the cookies after baking.

Preheat the oven to 300º, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Or grease the baking sheet well. Since these don’t have any added fat, they tend to stick. I love using the parchment paper: they come off easily and cleanup is really easy.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white, vanilla, and salt with an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks. This is pretty quick.

Fold the egg white mixture into the almond/sugar mixture.

Drop by spoonfuls onto the lined or greased baking sheet. They will spread some so be sure to leave about 2 inches between them. (Mine actually didn’t spread very much.)

Bake for 30 minutes. If you don’t have an oven thermometer, and aren’t sure if the oven temperature is accurate, set your timer for 20 minutes. If they are getting brown the oven is too hot, and they’ll need less time. (Mine needed a little more than 30 minutes.)

Remove the Italian almond cookies from baking sheets to a wire rack to cool.

**

This recipe is super easy, super fast, and super yummy if you are an almond freak like me!

You may know today as Cinco de Mayo, but today is also a very special lady’s birthday.

I tried to call her at work, but nobody picked up!

Sooooo, amongst a bunch of crazy biz-related Yummy You schtuff, I’m prepping, planning, and crafting for Renegade Austin (May 21-22). I’m really spazzed out cuz I’ve never traveled for a craft show before. Am I gonna ship boxes of stuff somewhere? Am I gonna fit it all in a few suitcases? Will my display be super ugly because I had to fit in in aforementioned two suitcases? I just don’t know!

I figure a good strategy for planning is….. AVOIDING by crafting.

I have been thinking of summer bbq’s and grilled meats. Texas likes its meat? Right? RIGHT!!!

Hence, I resurrected the T-Bone Steak Scarf project.

Back in 2009, I threw an eBay auction (I like to think of throwing auctions, like throwing parties!) for t-bone-steak themed stuff like a scarf, mittens, and cute-tility pack.

I wanted to take the “gross” factor out of raw meat and tried to make the steaks look cute and cartoony, not necessarily realistic.

For my newer version, I really wanted diagonal grill marks!! And I wanted to put more detail in the shape of the actual t-bone, notably at the top. I really like how it turned out!

I’m not sure yet which style I prefer…raw or grilled!

Also I kinda miss my short crazy hair!

Click to find out more info at the ModCloth Facebook page!

ModCloth and BadgeBomb have teamed up to host a button design contest! You can all enter to win a $200 gift cert from ModCloth and 500 of your winning button design!! Click on the pic to find out all the deets! Contest ends May 10. The sooner you enter the better, cuz after you post your design, you have all your friends vote on it! Then me and Susie Ghahremani of boygirlparty and BadgeBomb will vote on the winner.

Start doodling NOW!!!! There’s no theme, but the winning design should reflect the spirit of ModCloth. You have until May 10!