Talking Points

I have a thing for toothbrushes. I'm fascinated by what I refer to as toothbrush technology. And I'm not talking about electric toothbrushes that feature sonic or infrared abilities or have built in timers. I'm talking about plastic sticks with bristles. Everytime I see a new toothbrush hit the market I think to myself, "That's it - there's nothing else they could think to add to a toothbrush," I am proven wrong. I recently picked myself up a new toothbrush and was amazed by my options. This is something I feel should be standardized. Why do we need so many different varities? I went ahead and bought this one. I beg you to click on the link. The Colgate website has a whole video about this toothbrush's features. It has this scrubby pad on the back of it that I thought was intended to clean your tongue, a nice feature. It's also designed that way to help (for lack of a better word right here) exfoliate the inside of your cheeks! Genius! Why haven't we had a toothbrush that's thought of this before? And what will they come up with next. You know I'll be watching.






I did a little blog hopping this morning. My friend Cyndi has found some of the most stylish and most interesting blog friends and I enjoy link hopping among them to see what they are loving at the moment. I ran across this picture this morning on Coveiter. It's a random package of numbers, letters, labels and more and can be found to purchase at the Uppercase Gallery. I think these are so fun and I can see eclectic little displays of these mismatched items all over my house. I love to decorate with words and letters and I'm so happy I stumbled across this on my blog hop. For those of you struggling with the perfect holiday gift for me for under $15 - let me help you out...I want this!




Lastly for today, tonight is one of my most favorite holiday traditions and that is baking Christmas cookies with my best friend Laura. We've been doing this since high school and the last couple years we've had to take a hiatus since I lived in Louisiana and she was in Chicago and we were only in St. Louis together for about 3 days and they were jam packed with family festivities. For many years throughout college this event took place in my mom's kitchen. My mom had a large tupperware bowl she kept in the pantry full of sprinkles and Laura started to comment after a couple years that she wasn't exactly sure what the shelf life of sprinkles were, but she was pretty sure some of ours had reached that point. We used these same holly berry sprinkles far past their prime. Those nights are full of good memories and old jokes that have managed to live on. We once tried to make chocolate covered pretzels that were sprinkled with peppermint. They did not come out quite like the picture and we have given them the affectionate nickname of "nappy-kins". (Laura explains it as "nappy" - because they were kind of gross looking, and "kins" because that made them cuter. It oddly works.) We have made them again, our skill level increased, and I made a version of the nappy-kins for her bachelorette party (imagine a pretzel rod dipped halfway in white chocolate and covered in a clear sugar sprinkle. Trust me, they were pretty, and delicious after a night of drinking.) The first time I ever tried to make fondue was one of our cookie nights and I went a little heavy on the white wine. I look forward to our adventures tonight, that will include homemade marshmallows (a first!), some chocolate peanut butter surprise cookies, our standard sugar cookie and a chocolate dipped chocolate cookie. Wish us luck!