A Marvelous Mess and Features!!!!

Hi there!!

I hope you guys are having a lovely last couple of days of September!! I don't know about the rest of the country, but in the North East we've had a weekend of rain. I've got my fingers crossed that this won't effect our leaf colors too much.

Here are my fave's from last weeks party:

Fall Rake Leaf from Heatherly Loves.

And, the post I'm going to feature on my sidebar is....

How to Make Ruched Sleeves from The Petite Sewist. This is a really handy and thorough little tutorial that I *know* I will use.... I just recently bought a bunch of solid colored tunics to go with my leggings and boots (Hello, Fall clothing!!!) and this will jazz up the sleeves a bit.

Thanks to all of you for linking up!!

Now, on to the party!!!

Monk Fruit Nectresse Sweetener

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of NECTRESSE™Sweetener for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

 

The makers of Splenda have come out with a new "natural" sweetner made from Monk Fruit called Nectresse. Monk fruit is a type of chinese melon called Luo Han Guo, which has a super sweet taste that is also zero calories. Nectresse is the only 100% "natural" sweetener made from fruit.

I recently got a chance to review NECTRESSE™Sweetener. I have been trying to inspire myself to get back into dieting and exercise and I thought changing up the sugar in my diet would be a good step in the right direction. I tend to avoid the chemical sweeteners (like splenda and aspartame), and when I heard there was a "natural" sweetener out there, I wanted to give it a try. I used Nectresse in a Yogurt Fruit Parfait recipe that I found on their site: 

and here is the recipe from Nectresse:

 

All in all, I would have to say I was as satisfied as I usually am with any artificial sweetener. It will *never* taste exactly like sugar, but it comes close enough. I think when combined with dairy products in particular Nectresse tastes the best. I tried it in my coffee and was not as pleased....then again, this fruit is supposed to be 150 times more sweet than sugar, so my measurements might have been off!!

I like that there is a fruit sweetener on the market. I don't necessarily agree with giving it the title "natural" because the main ingredient in it is not monk fruit but erithrytol, a sugar alcohol that comes from corn in particular. The next ingredient  to make this sweetener is sugar and we're not talking raw sugar, so it has gone through a chemical refining process. Monk fruit is the third ingredient. So, you can see why calling it "natural" is just a tad questionable, right?? Still, I think it is better than using a chemical sweetener for sure.

Would you like to get a

FREE sample of NECTRESSE™Sweetener?? 

Here is a video from Nectresse Spokesperson and journalist Lisa Ling:

 

Golden Mirror Glam Redo

I found this great mirror at a yard sale at the end of the summer for a couple of bucks. I thought, "I can do something with that...." So, I bought it!!! With some lace (spray painted with metallic gold paint), some plain white lace, some plastic "pearl" strands, and some hot glue I added this:

to give the mirror some glitzy glam style. 

Here's my process:

*spray paint some lace ribbon with metallic gold spray paint

*Once dry, trim edges into petal shapes.

*Trim petals on the white lace as well, then form it into a flowery shape by overlapping each petal at the base with the petal next to it and glue it with hot glue.

*Glue the gold in the same way, just make it a tiny bit smaller than the white lace.

*Glue the pearl strand in the middle (I was a spiral on my biggest flower for fun). 

*Glue them onto the mirror. 

That's it!!!!!!!

I shared this post at some of these wonderful linky parties.