I've done a lot of hats and probably some no sew fleece hats as well, but this might take the cake for easy and cute at the same time.

Lands' End has these cool kid boots but I'm thinking you could just take this idea and paint the faces on some regular boots. Mind you, they're on sale now for $15 and up so that's really not bad.

My son's b-day is coming up, so I have been on the lookout for some unique gifts and thought I'd share my finds:



Polliwalks- I love these!!! It's getting a little late in the year for them now; but next year, I'm getting some for sure.


Funky Moose (UK) sells these adorable " daysacks". They have a cow one and turtle one too, all so cute. They actually have a lot of cute things, but I'm not big on ordering toys on-line just because you can find cool toys everywhere. These bags are a different story. Thanks to Giver's log for the find. She has a whole article on neat backpacks.


Apparently, I like the bee theme because I am also drawn to Kidorable's bee umbrella. You've probably seen Kidorable rainwear and things around, but thought I should mention it for those who hadn't.

I recently read Complete Party Planner by Annabel Karmel and was happy to see she also has a web site with fun and nutritious recipes for kids.

I thought I'd include a couple of my favorites with Halloween in mind:

Eyeball Cupcakes- Of course there are so many things you can do with cupcakes but I found these to be great inspiration.

Brain Cakes -How fun are these? I love, love, love them!

I realize it's a little past the time but I thought I'd share my opinion of some of my 15 month old's X-mas toys. My sister got him the Playhut Carnival Ball Zone that I wanted for him, thinking that if I was a kid, I would have loved it and he does.

The problem is keeping the balls in the "zone". I thought that the netting would help but the pit actually has a blow up cushion underneath that tilts when he gets out and there go the balls with him. So, it's turned into Living room Ball Zone. It's okay though, as long as he loves it, that's all that matters.

One of the things we got for him was the V-Tech SmartVille Alphabet Train Station. Now, he already has something similar that you can walk with, but this has a lot of added activities and that's what I was looking for because I am a stay at home mom and some of these things get boring fast.

So, I wanted something that could be used for many things, play time, education, etc. That, and I had a hard time finding great things for his age group. It's like he's too old for baby stuff, but too young for the really cool toys. This is really cool though because there's lots to do.
Now, his B-day was a couple months before Christmas and I got him Parents Busy Zoo. It's just like the ones in the doctor's offices that every kid flocks to, but we never think to get one. Well, I did and we all love it! Everyone who comes over plays with it.

I'm not sure when, but my niece got him the Fisher-Price Laugh and Learn Learning Table and I also recommend this toy. He gets very serious "stirring the soup", but he's probably going to be retiring this toy soon to make room for all the other stuff that seems to be taking over my whole house.

Now, before you jump to the conclusion that my son is spoiled, you should know, he's worth it :)

I also wanted to mention that I got this baby catalog from One Step Ahead baby products and I have to say I'm impressed. I don't typically buy from catalogs so I looked up the website and I do believe I'm going to buy some baby proofing items.

They really have a good selection of things I haven't seen in the stores. They have all kinds of stuff though, clothes, toys, etc. You should check it out here. Just thought I'd mention it in case there are some other overly cautious parents out there, like me.

Every year, countless occasions go by where I have great ideas at the last minute, too late to actually do any of them. With my son, Jaxon, I am determined not to let this happen. Jax turns 1 in October and though I have a lot of time, I am eager to get started planning.

While I do consider myself pretty creative and pretty crafty as well, I don't want to over-look anything that I may not think of because this is my first time around. So, I'm scouring the internet looking for ideas and hoping that you all might share your tips as well.

I make and sell invitations so I'm not worried about those. I just need to pin down my theme first. I'm thinking story time. This was going to be Jax's room theme, but we went with jungle instead; but I still love the idea of story time.

I could probably make invitations by altering old Golden Books. Just gut the insides and line with some scrapbook paper and we may have the beginning of something.

I've also thought about narrowing the theme to specific stories or even authors, like Dr. Seuss. We could have a lot of fun with the cake for that theme. My husband suggested Willy Wonka with Golden ticket invites. I might hold off on that until he gets a little older and can enjoy all the sweets that would accompany that idea.

We can think of lots of ideas for older kids because frankly, my husband's not too far off from a big kid himself. I'm just at a loss when it comes to baby themes though.

So far, I haven't had any luck I don't want to just buy a birthday in a box, though the packages I've seen available do make it tempting. What I want is to do something crafty and heartfelt, for this birthday especially. Does anyone have any ideas or know of any good resources out there?

Yesterday was my first Mother's Day. Yea Me! I know that it's not like New Year's where you make a resolution, but that's exactly what I'm doing. It's time to bring sexy back, or as close as I can get to it and lose the pregnancy weight! Okay, it's not even the pregnancy weight. Truth is, I did really well during my pregnancy. I only gained 35 lbs. I ate right, drank tons of water, and all that jazz.

I then lost the weight I'd gained pretty immediately after having my 10 pound baby. The problem is that I wasn't expecting to lose it that fast and it tricked my mind into thinking I had super metabolism. So I ate all the things I denied myself when I was pregnant and ended up gaining 10 lbs. That on top of the weight I've gained since I was in high school, leaves me wanting to lose 40 lbs.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, here is a picture of my husband and I back in the day:



I was feeling pretty good about myself back then. And here is what we look like now:

Notice, that I didn't put a full body shot, nor will I at this point. It's not that I expect to look like I did when I was young. I just want to be healthy and more energetic for my baby's sake. I especially don't want him to have the same eating habits I have now. So, that's it. I have to make a change for both my baby and myself.

I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to go about this just yet, but I'm hoping that posting about it will make me feel accountable. So, when I post next week, hopefully, it will be good news.

So far today, I had a healthy Special K breakfast bar and I did some Wii DDR. If you don't know what that is, click here. It is a real work-out that is truly fun.

On a different note, but very much going along with Mother's Day, I will be joining the MommyFest Blog Party May 12th thru the 16th. I invite any other mother's to join along. I'm hoping to make some new friends and have some fun in the process.

Before I had my baby someone recommended Pampers over the other diapers and I so I bought some. I also bought the Luvs and Huggies, just to see; and man, were they right. I much prefer Pampers over Luvs or Huggies. You can tell by the feel of them that they're better. They fit much better.

Another good thing about Pampers is that they have points on their products that they call "grow points". These can be collected and exchanged for different toys and things. So that's an extra bonus.

If you go to their web site, you can read more about the points, including where to find the points within the packaging.

One tip for moms to be is to start stocking up on diapers before you have the baby. Luckily, someone told us this and it turned out to be great advise. I just wouldn't get too many newborn diapers because they go through them so quick. My baby was 10 lbs. so he didn't use them much at all. I'd get 1's or 2's. They'll eventually need them so you can't go wrong. Most stores will let you exchange them if you do happen to outgrow something you've stocked up on. Hope that helps.