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Archive for November, 2011

via Clover Lane

Is there a cook in your life with a jumble of recipes stuffed in boxes and books? Do you have a lot of favorite family recipes that you’d like to preserve? Are you looking for a gift for newlyweds or a recent college graduate? You can create a professional-looking hardcover custom cookbook using a service like Blurb, Lulu or myPublisher.

Read about Sarah’s experience creating one over at Clover Lane. I am absolutely crazy about this idea! I would love to put together a family recipe book that I can pass on to the kids someday.

Wouldn’t this make a wonderful holiday gift? (Probably for 2012 at the rate it would take me to compile this!) Have any of you put together a book like this? I’d love to hear about it!

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via Sarah + Abraham

Are you an early holiday shopper? I do my very best to be done by Thanksgiving so I can just relax and enjoy the season. That definitely isn’t happening this year, but I’m making progress on my list.

One of the gifts with which I always struggle is what to get for the kids’ teachers. This year, we have both kindergarten and preschool teachers. Gift cards are always a safe bet. In the past, our teachers have always seemed to appreciate book store gift cards; however, they never feel like a very personal gift. At the same time, I know there aren’t too many teachers out there who could use another mug or tin of baked goods! I’ve seen some cute, crafty DIY ideas on Pinterest lately, but a lot of them honestly seem like more fun for the gift giver than the recipient.  

This year, we’ll be giving Lucy’s kindergarten teacher this set of personalized notepads from Sarah + Abraham. They’re cute, simple and practical, and I hope they’ll be useful to her.

The jury’s still out on the others. What ideas do you have for the teachers in your life?

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Miscellaneous and Movies

via Kelly Applegate Photography

Hello…

I know I haven’t been keeping up with this blog as much as I was initially, but it’s been such a busy time. Last weekend, we went to Indianapolis for a cousin’s wedding and had such a great trip. Some of our best friends live in Indy and we stayed with them Friday night. It takes our kids no time at all to reconnect and become besties again. They were running around the house, delighted to be reunited, within less than a minute of our arrival.

Our friend, Kelly, is an amazing photographer, and we were so grateful that he was willing to take some photos for us while we were there. And we had a beautiful day to boot! If you are in or near Indianapolis, I highly recommend you check out Kelly Applegate Photography.

The wedding was such fun! The kids were invited and they loved every minute. They danced and danced! What a gift to get to have that experience with them. And the bride and groom were so thoughtful to invite them and then spoil them while we were there—activity packs at our table, a special kids’ meal, a candy table, and a sundae bar! Oh to see it all through their eyes.

And Ruby made the trip with us! She’s been Lucy’s constant companion since just after I posted about her two months ago (through absolutely no prodding from me). Funny how things happen…

This past week was full of rainy, gray, cold days. We even had snow. Yikes! I am not ready for the long Winter. The early darkness certainly doesn’t help matters. There were a few dreary days this week where all I would have loved to do is curl up on the couch with a bunch of movies. These days, a movie marathon would be likely to consist of, oh, say, Toy Story, Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. But if I had one day to just watch my favorite movies, they would be these five:

Almost Famous

Lost in Translation

The Royal Tenenbaums

50 First Dates

Say Anything

What movies would you pick for a movie marathon?

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My friend, Megan, is a talented graphic designer (she’s responsible for Lucy’s kindergarten picture) and a fantastic mom. You know how there are certain people with whom you feel you can be totally and utterly yourself? Megan is one of those people for me and has been from the moment I met her. I am thrilled that she agreed to be interviewed about the adorable homemade cupcake costume I mentioned in yesterday’s post. Welcome Megan…

Sweet Pea and the Monkey: What made you decide to make this costume?

Megan: After watching Cupcake Wars with my five-year-old daughter this summer, I thought a cupcake would be the perfect Halloween costume. Since cupcakes are trendy lately, there were a bunch of cute ones that I could have easily bought, but I decided to tackle this one myself. I’m currently an unemployed graphic designer and I needed to do something creative. I made the commitment and then spent three weeks stressing over how I was going to pull this off.

Sweet Pea and the Monkey: Where did you find the pattern?

Megan: I googled “homemade cupcake costumes,” and to my surprise quite a few came up. One in particular (found here) was a woman who couldn’t afford to buy the Pottery Barn costume and found a way to recreate it. It was adorable and seemed simple enough.

Sweet Pea and the Monkey: Did you change anything?

Megan: I bought enough material for two layers of the cape but it seemed so bulky so I ended up cutting a round edge and gluing it to the bottom of the main cape. She didn’t do any sewing. I mostly used fabric glue but did sew the skirt together in the back and the “jumper” straps. I felt those were the two most fragile parts and wanted to make sure this was not coming apart! I wasn’t crazy about her cherry on top and it seemed like a lot of work, so I sprayed a Styrofoam ball red and poked a green pipe cleaner through it. One end wrapped around the headband to secure it and the other end acted as the stem.

Sweet Pea and the Monkey: Was all of the effort worth it in the end?

Megan: I was really happy with how it turned out, but it was stressful! I did the skirt first thinking that was the hardest part. Once that was completed, my mood went from stressed to excited! In the end, the costume probably cost me double the amount of the Pottery Barn costume and I became a regular at Hobby Lobby, but it was worth it. It is tucked away now for my one-year-old, who will hopefully wear it for Halloween 2015!

Adorable, right? Thanks, Megan!

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How was your Halloween? Ours was a whirlwind of school parades, trick or treating and pure sugar. As you can see from Monday’s post, the kids ended up in Old Navy costumes. Although not the ones I was originally eyeing, I ended up loving the chicken and cupcake even more! They were soft, warm and did I mention only $18 each?

As much as I loved the Old Navy cupcake, my friend Megan made her daughter an amazing cupcake costume! I’m hoping she’ll guest blog and share her tips and tricks.

Here are a few more things I’ve been wanting to share…

via Country Living

Happy Wednesday!

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