Lisa Cavallari

Author Archives: Lisa Cavallari
- Organize Your Makeup Brushes
  
  Posted at 10:11 am by Lisa Cavallari
  
  Jan 26th
  Oops! This post was published before I had a chance to write a word or add any pictures. Now that you got a sneak peek at the title earlier, are you ready to see what it’s all about? 🙂
  
  I was inspired to get my makeup tools organized when I watched an episode of Mirror, Mirror on LWN (Live Well Network) so I had to share these two easy and super inexpensive ways to get them in order.
  
  The first idea is to take a glass vase you already have at home or buy one from Hobby Lobby. I found the one above for 50% off so it was a steal at $2.50! Then fill the vase with river rock or dried beans. The bag of beans was a little over a $1. Pop your makeup brushes in and viola! It’s a chic way to keep your brushes handy on your counter.
  
  The other idea can be used when you travel or if you prefer to keep your brushes stored away instead of on display. Take a bamboo sushi making mat and weave some black elastic in between the slats. Hints: I found my mat at Cost Plus World Market for $1.99. The elastic was 50% off at Hobby Lobby so I only spent $1. Also, make sure you lay out your makeup brushes before you begin so you can determine placement and prevent the brushes from slipping out if the elastic isn’t tight enough.
  
  Once you have all of the brushes lined up where you want them and the elastic is woven through, you can hot glue the elastic to the back of the mat on the left and right sides. If you want, you can also hot glue a ribbon to both sides so that you can roll up the mat and tie it with the ribbon. There! Who knew organizing could be so cheap and easy. If you have another way to get organized with your makeup tools, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section.
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  Posted in diy
- Remembering A Great Woman
  
  Posted at 8:24 am by Lisa Cavallari
  
  Jan 23rd
  A week ago today, our family laid to rest an awesome and influencial lady- my husband’s grandma, Elvira Cavallari. For fifty two years, her and her husband owned a family-run restaurant in Northfield called The Willow Inn Club. My husband’s family lived above the restaurant and he started setting tables when he was six. His family knows a thing or two about hard work. When I met Elvira thirteen years ago, she told me to call her Grandma so I did. She told my dad, who lost his mom to cancer a while back that he could call her Mom. So he did. That’s just who she was; she accepted everyone and always made us feel comfortable and welcome when we visited her home.
  
  Elvira taught me to make homemade spaghetti, gnocchi, pumpkin bread, sugar coated pecans, Italian chicken with peppers and so many other delicious recipes. Her spirit lives on whenever we make one of them now.
  
  In a way, she inspired me to start this blog. Her recipes were always unique and practically fail proof so I referred to them often when I started writing here just over three years ago.
  
  We miss you Elvira, but we know you are with many of your loved ones and looking out for us down here. Cheers Grandma!
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  Posted in Baking, Cooking, Uncategorized | Tagged Elvira Cavallari, Willow Inn Club
- Beat The Post-Holiday Slump
  
  Posted at 7:55 am by Lisa Cavallari
  
  Jan 9th
  We all know the feeling when the Christmas decorations come down and you look around the house to see a lot of empty space and imperfections. Here’s some ways to battle the winter blahs and improve your indoor dwelling.
  - Give a room or two a refreshing coat of paint. I like our paint color in our downstairs bathroom, but after 10 years it could use some touchups. Don’t make the same mistake I made and think you can just use a paintbrush to correct the problem spots though. You’ll get an effect called ‘flashing.’ (see above and just ignore the person in the mirror; nothing to see here) Flashing can occur even when you use the same paint color and finish such as eggshell. The only time this won’t occur is if you paint with a flat paint color on existing flat paint. To save on cost, you could just paint one or two walls if they need it using the miniature cans of of sample paint that can be mixed at your hardware store. Flashing will not occur when there is a break in the wall such a corner, so I was able to paint one wall and avoid redoing the entire bathroom. The room looks so much better!!
  - Turn up the wattage on your lights. One of our kitchen bulbs burned out a month ago and when I tried to replace it, the lights they make are much brighter than years back so I ended up replacing all the canned lights and it looks so much less depressing now in the winter when I’m cooking or we are eating dinner.
  - Get that stainless steel sparkling clean. My sister-in-law let me in on a great cleaning product to get your fridge and other stainless appliances completely streak-free. It’s called Bar Keeper’s Friend. You can find it at Walmart, many hardware and grocery stores and, as she showed me, it really does work!
  There, those ideas and clearing out drawers and closets should keep us busy to get through the next few weeks. Hang in there! The days are gradually getting longer and Daylight Savings is in nine weeks, not that I’m counting or anything. 😉
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  Posted in diy
- Wine On Wednesday: Vintage Port
  
  Posted at 8:30 am by Lisa Cavallari
  
  Oct 26th
  This post dates me because we opened a bottle recently that goes all the way back to 1977, my birth year. Yep. The jig is up. The big 4-0 is around the corner and you know what? I really don’t care. That’s probably the greatest thing about getting older. You just stop caring about the stupid stuff like worrying so much about what others think.
  
  This bottle is pretty special. My mom bought it for me in Portugal when she was on an insurance trip with my dad back in 1985. She also bought one for my brother, but the shopkeeper informed her that my vintage had been a slightly better year. This bottle had been stored in their basement until my husband and I bought our house 10 years ago so it’s been aging in our basement ever since.
  
  I left the job of opening the bottle up to my husband. He has a knack for such things, but even so this bottle proved difficult to open. The seal was intact which was a very positive sign. The cork began to crumble from the corkscrew so he had to remove it in bits and pieces. Then he strained the wine through a sieve into a decanter. There was quite a lot of sediment and pieces of cork that the sieve caught. It reminded me of coffee grounds. Next, the wine needed time to open up. Think about being a liquid trapped in a bottle for almost 40 years. You’d need to stretch your legs and take in some air too! We gave it almost 2 hours to breathe.
  
  When the time was up, I was relieved to smell that the wine had no trace of a vinegar scent which is a sure sign that the cork and seal did their job all of these years. Our two friends, who actually enjoy drinking port noted the scent of plums which was right on target. Those two loved the port, but the rest of us were not digging it. It was syrupy in texture and left you breathing fire like a dragon on the finish. If port is supposed to do that, then great for those of you who love it. I’ll stick to my dry reds and whites.
  
  Overall, I wasn’t expecting to love or even like the wine. It was the story behind it and the fact that I was sharing the experience with the only two people I know that can appreciate a good port. The back of the bottle is also pretty cool and kind of spooky so it’s been added to my collection of Halloween decorations.
  
  Cheers my dears!!
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  Posted in Wine | Tagged Port Wine, Vintage Port
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