It Just Does Not Get Any More Precious Than This

Kira wanted to dress up in her ballerina outfit and dance.
The music is from Shoreline Calvary Chapel "Word Unspoken"
She is so stinkin' sweet.

youtube link

For some reason it would not let me download it to blogger.

I Give and I Give

Simple mom is giving away a plethora of goodies for the little ones in your life!
A basket full of these great products:

Oliver Handmade onesies
Swingset Mama DVD
Shape-its for cooking
Little Aloutte hand made wooden toys
Ambajam baby gear
Swaddlebees diapers
MetroTots stroller

Check out her site for complete details of the products.

To enter leave a comment on SIMPLE MOM'S site on this particular post and/or post about it and let her know!!

December 3 is Giveaway Day!!

Okay one of my new favorite blogs Sew Mama Sew is having a giveaway day! On December 3rd whoever wants to participate can by following their rules:

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• Your give-away item must be either handmade (for example, soap, jewelry, bags, mmmmmmarshmallows), or can be used for making handmade gifts (for example, buttons, ribbons, candle wax.)
• Email beth@sewmamasew.com to let her know you’ll be participating. On Give-Away Day we’ll post a master list of participants.
• You need to write a post about the item on December 3, 2008 and ask visitors to comment that day.
• You decide how you want to choose the winner (random, best answer to a question, etc.)
• You should be clear about whether or not you’re willing to ship the item internationally.
• You ship the item in a timely manner–hopefully the same week.
• Spread the word! Make December 3 a give-away day all over blogland! If you’d like, grab our button and link back to this post to let your readers know you’ll be participating. The code gets wonky when we post it here, so here is the image url: http://www.sewmamasew.com/media/blog/giveaway.jpg and here is the link url: http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=647

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I am very excited about this and think it is a great way to promote your blog and craft. I am not quite sure what I am giving away but it will definitely be something I have sewn,
you will have to stay tuned.

This will be great since I am planning on starting a store on Etsy and selling things to raise money to help pay off debt, so we can move! :)

Ornaments are done!

Okay here they are the ornaments I made,
remember this is the first time I have ever done any
embroidery work.

The first one I did was on the top left and I progressed
to the more elaborate ones on the bottom right

This is my favorite one


I plan on making more for our gift exchange probably five or so.
They were pretty easy once I got a fabric pen and used a stencil
to make points where to sew and make the flowers.
I really like embroidery and I think I will do some on
maybe a cardigan or a simple t shirt for Kira.



(Sorry if my pictures are blurry my camera is acting up)

Six Weeks Until Christmas!!

photo by: Alyssa Snyder

I think I am more excited for this Christmas than any other in the past. For one the kids are understanding the season, well at least Kira is. I love the music I get to play. I am so excited about my gifts this year. I am making our Christmas cards and all of our gifts this year. We really do not have a huge gift list like some people, so I I do not think it is too much. I am making dish towels for immediate family and friends. For all of the teachers and therapists which is an extensive list, I am making ornaments. I am making place mats and napkins for one of our gift exchange gifts and a set of ornaments for the other. I am making cozy pj's for Eric and the rugrats. I would also like to make a doll or something for them as well, so they have two or three gifts max from us.

I am so happy because all of my towels are pinned and ready to sew the last seam.
I wrote our Christmas card letter and have all of my addresses in my computer, ready to print.
I have finished five of the ten ornaments.



Next on my list

1. Finish seams on towels
2. Print Christmas cards and labels
   
3. Decorate our Christmas Cards
4. Finish all the ornaments for teachers
   
5. Take our family picture this Saturday
   
6. Sew pajamas for the kids and Eric' s gift
7. Sew Place mats and napkins for the Gift Exchange
   
8. Sew more ornaments for the other Gift Exchange gift

I feel better having made a list because all of these projects were running around in my head. I think I am being very adventurous but realistic too. I will document each gift and blog about it. I may even tutorial it....hmm
Now I am not so good at the wordiness of the tutorials I have seen, so I will take tons of pictures to pick up the slack where I fail.


I did not mean to but my list looks like a tree, hehe!

Simple Mom Giveaway!!

I am waiting to win one of these giveaways, so here is all the info on the giveaway.

As described below there are three ways to enter to win, leave a comment, email the secret code and/or write about it in your blog and let her know about it.

Here are her instructions:

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Epson and One2One Network is graciously giving one Simple Mom reader the new Artisan 800 printer.

Here’s how to win:

1. Leave a comment on this post, answering this question: What gadget can’t you live without?

2. For a second entry, email me at simplemomblog (at) gmail (dot) com with the secret code in the email’s subject line (no need to write anything in the email’s body, as it won’t be read). To find the secret code, make sure you’ve subscribed to Simple Mom’s feed either via RSS or via email, and look in the footer of any post. I promise you - the code is there.

3. For a third entry, mention this giveaway on your blog, and make sure simplemom somehow finds out about it.

Welcome to the World, Cadence Antoinette

Cadence Antoinette was born Monday at 2:30 p.m.
7 pounds 11 ounces
18 inches long

My brother Shane, their first Shayli and his wife Kelli
with Cadence

Kelli went into labor around eight in the morning. We came over and had the kids play together and walked around the neighborhood. Kelli and Shane went to the hospital at noon. Kelli pushed two times and she was out at 2:30. She was able to do it all natural! She is pretty amazing!

Congratulations!

You Know it is the Beginning of the Holiday Season

I have boycotted Starbucks for quite some time, probably about four or five months at least. I got tired of seeing the mom and pop coffee shops in the area get taken over by Starbucks. So I decided to stop going there and to start supporting the little guys. I love J.C. Beans in Dana Point because it is a drive thru and good coffee. I also love Kaylani's coffee in San Clemente. I think they have the best soy latte in town. With all of that said....

Starbucks Holiday coffees are here!

My personal favorite is the gingerbread latte, however they changed it to gingersnap latte. The difference being the gingerbread latte had nutmeg on top of the whipped cream and the new gingersnap latte has crystallized ginger on top of the whipped cream. I do not care for either, so I opt for no sprinkles of any kind.

I broke down and purchased a tall decaf soy with whip gingersnap latte. Say that ten times fast. $3.80 later I was enjoying my first few sips of holiday in a cup. I must say though that I could not finish the tasty beverage because it was so sweet. If I do get this again I would have to ask for two pumps of syrup rather than three. So my order will be

Tall, decaf, soy, two pump, no ginger, with whip, gingersnap latte.

On second thought I think I will just pass on buying another one because that is a mouthful!!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes

These are the best pumpkin pancakes I have ever had.
I can not believe they are gluten free, they taste that good!

I made them in Mickey Mouse shapes for the kids.
I also made a cream cheese icing/syrup to dip them in.
Yum yum.


Here is the recipe

1 cup Rice Flour
1/4 cup Tapioca flour
2 tsp Gluten free baking powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar -(I used Brown Molasses Sugar instead)
6 Tbsp Pumpkin Puree
2 Tbsp Butter (soft or melted)
1 cup Soy or Rice milk
1 Egg

Mix all dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl mix pumpkin, butter, milk and egg together. Add pumpkin mixture to dry and mix well.
Cook on a hot griddle just like any other pancake batter.


I found these pancakes to be a fluffy and so tasty, I hope you enjoy them as much as we did

For the cream cheese icing I just threw together about
4 Tbsp of cream cheese
1 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup Rice milk
1/8-1/4 cup powder sugar

Mix with a hand mixer or Kitchen aid until creamy