Answering my own questions; Hairpins

I asked some questions on Saturday. Thanks for playing along! Here are my answers to the same questions.

1. Do you ever let your kids sit in the front seat of the car? What is an appropriate age to sit up front? Would you judge a parent with, say, a 5 year old in the front seat? Hub and I are having something of a debate on this one. He thinks it is no big deal to let Bud ride up front. Bud will be 8 in a few weeks (Ok, like 6 weeks but OMG—8), and is of normal 8-year-old size. He no longer requires a booster seat by weight, but we make him sit in it anyway. Hub always puts the booster in the front, and the airbags auto-shutoff on the passenger side when you weigh less than 100lbs. So, he says it is safe. I disagree, and also, having a flailing almost-8-year-old touching things and talking at me is definitely distracting when he is not in the front seat. Him in my face? Way distracting. Plus there is the Lucy factor. Lu insists that she should be able to do anything that Bud does, and therefore if he rides up front, she expects a turn. (This is what happens when you have children close in age, my friends.) Over my dead body is my 6-year-old sitting up front. I will allow them to sit in front if I happen to pick them up from school. The ride home is 4 blocks.
2. What is your opinion of "best by" or expiration dates? Do you follow them to the letter? Are you a bit lax? I almost never look at an expiration date. And if I do, it is because something seems off. I think most stuff keeps forever. Especially yogurt. I have very low standards when it comes to such things. I don’t budge much on meat though, but that is more of a smell thing than a date.
3. How do you drink your coffee? 99% of the time, I drink it black. I have since I was probably 17? I am one of those strange people who actually likes the taste of coffee, I guess. I do enjoy fancy coffee beverages quite a bit though. Mochas and lattes and frappes and all that jazz. You wouldn’t believe it, but I think McDonalds has one of the best frappes around—better than Starbucks even, and lord knows I love me some Starbucks. If I am getting an iced coffee, it is always with cream and sugar. And on occasion, I will get a hot coffee with cream and sugar but only if the establishment has real cream. No milk (hork), no half and half.
4. What is your favorite kind of cake? Do you like cakes with filling, such as jam? I am a white/yellow cake with buttercream frosting kind of a girl. I love frosting SO MUCH. In fact, my filling of choice in a cake is MORE FROSTING!! Never anything like jam or pudding that will make the cake soggy. Bring on the buttercream. We do have a local bakery here that makes a delicious chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting. This is what I always get for my birthday because the kids like chocolate, and really, they are a big part of the reason my birthdays are happy.

I also mentioned yesterday my new love affair with decorated hairpins, and I got a few questions about them, so I thought I would show you how cute they are. I have the most ridiculous fine will not do anything hair you can imagine. So fine that clips do not stay in, or if I can get them to stay, they somehow look wrong. I’ve used plain bobby pins to get my hair out of my face in the past, but really…so boring. So when I came upon the flowered ones a few weeks ago, I went a bit crazy. Then I shopped on etsy last week, and went a bit more crazy. It’s safe to say now that I have a hair pin for every occasion.

Here are the hairpins in all their glory (the elephants are my favorite):




And this is how I use them. Today I have just one black one in, but I also like to criss-cross 2 in the same spot. Sometimes I twist my hair a little bit too. The possibilities are endless.





Saly + hairpins= WIN!