Sunday link of support- our second etsy shop!

Whew! We've been busy!

 

We are proud to announce that we have opened a sister shop! It's still all the same great, handmade party items as our original shop, just some different themes!

 

Check us out and be sure to favorite us!!

 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/craftingwithkiddos

 

 

Thanks for the support!! :)

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sunday link of support- squooshi

I don't know about you, but when Natalie was a baby, I was determined to make her baby food from scratch. I love cooking and I loved the idea of creating new combinations and being in control of what was going into my baby's body.

I'm not saying this to make a statement or pat myself on the back.... I have had health issues come up and a lot of them have improved drastically once I changed my way of eating. So knowing that, I want to make sure I avoid certain foods for Natalie too.

ANYWAY, as she was getting older and no longer eating the pureed food, she wanted the pureed food in the pouches. I LOVED these! It was a great way for her to get her veggies in (and anyone with a toddler knows how hard THAT is) and it was so convenient to just throw in my bag and go!

Well, these get EXPENSIVE at $1.75-2 a piece! And with baby #2 on his/her way, I know I'll be having TWO wanting these pouches! (sometimes 4-5/day for Natalie alone!) So I needed to find something more economical and even better..... more nutritionally dense and made at home! The problem was, I searched high and low and COULD NOT find any kind of reusable pouch!

Now I found them!!!

http://squooshi.com/

LOVE THESE! They come in cute designs and are super easy to fill and clean!

Here is a freshly filled Panda pouch! :) SO CUTE!

And here are two of Natalie's current favorite food combinations!

High Fiber oatmeal:

2 cups water

1 cup oatmeal

1 apple shredded

1 tbsp ground golden flaxseed

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp maple syrup

1/2 cup to 1 cup apple sauce

cook all of the ingredients (except the apple sauce) together in a pot for five minutes, once the water has come to a boil.

Then you can take that and add applesauce in food processor until it gets to a consistency that is desired.

"Dino yogurt"

1 Apple (chopped and steamed)

1 Banana

1/2 cup greek yogurt (full fat)

hand full or two of spinach

add all together in a food processor or blender until desired consistency is reached. 

**NOTE: I made this one in the food processor first, but the consistency was still a little too grainy. I moved it to my vitamix and added a little more water and it came out perfect!

Enjoying her walrus pouch! :)

Thanks to Squooshi for making this possible again! :)

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Sunday Link of Support- Steve Blunt kids musician!

Attention to all of our New England readers!!! You have a great children's musician in your area!!

Steve Blunt, was my middle school english teacher and he was always incorporating music into our lessons. A girlfriend of mine was recently visiting and we were reminiscing about the good 'ol days including 7th grade and Mr. Blunt came up in conversation. He had always wanted to do more with his music (and he was really talented) so we were so thrilled to find out he DID follow his dream and he is making it happen! :)

Check out his site!! http://www.steveblunt.com/

Not in the New England area? No problem! He has lots of fun CD's too!! :)

I'm going to be ordering a few for my daughter for sure!!


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Sunday link of support- OUR PINTREST!

We are officially on Pintrest! (and not just personally!)

Here is a link to our pintrest where we have all of our themes broken out by board so it is very simple to see all of our items in a specific theme! :)

We are both personally a *little* obsessed with Pintrest! :) In fact, that's where we get a lot of our ideas for our weekly playgroup arts and crafts!

Be sure to follow us and see what's new!

http://pinterest.com/randrcreations

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Sunday Link of Support- Fred Lee Photography

My sister is OFFICIALLY married!! :)

The videographer she hired for her big day was AMAZING! Here is a link to her 4 minute wedding hightlights video!

http://vimeo.com/59550957

I've seriously watched it a million times and still cry! Fred did such an amazing job!! They look like movie stars! Really captured how PERFECT the wedding was down in Turks & Caicos! :) So hard to come back to cold Philadelphia!

Plus Natalie has quite a few cute little cameos :)

Enjoy!! Pin It Now!

Sunday link of support- a personalized gift by Millie!

As our readers know, my little sister is getting married this week!!! EEEE!!!! :)

 

So when it came time for me to come up with a personalized and FUN gift to give her for her shower, I thought a personalized apron with "Mrs. Birdi" would be perfect!

 

On top of that, my sister and her soon to be husband are getting really into Wine and cheese pairings. So, I found this super cute apron that had a glass of red wine on it and Millie personalized for me!

 

Millie was so great to work with! She was quick (as I was a little bit of a procrastinator.....oops....) and she got me a great product!!  Most importantly, the bride loved it!

 

I'll defintely keep her shop in mind for future personalized gifts! :)

 

Check her out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MilliesGifts

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Sunday link of support- Mimis Dollhouse

We recently worked with another vendor on etsy to bring a customer's invitation vision to come to life!!

 

Here is our tri-fold bubble invitation!

 

It's full of 3D fun!

 

Here is the insert that Mimi's Dollhouse did for us!

 

Our options just opened up even more!! :)

 

Looking forward to working with Mimi in the future!

 

check her out!! http://www.etsy.com/people/MimisDollhouse Pin It Now!

Sunday link of support- Cris and Lou music!

As I was planning my daughter's 2nd birthday party, I found that our guest list kept growing and growing!! Guess this is what happens when all of your friends simaltaneously start having babies!! :)

So with us expecting over 30 babies/toddlers and 50+ adults..... we would have LOVED to have had the party outside in a park or somewhere else open and spacious...... but my daughter's birthday is in December, and we live in the north east...... so we decided to host the big party in our humble home. :)

I wanted to do SOMETHING to bring a little something extra to her party instead of the usual hang out, eat, open presents type thing. Additionally, I wanted to provide a break for the mamas and papas and entertain the kids FOR them.

So I decided on musical entertainment, since Natalie loves to dance and now "sing" along with me!

The little treehouse (a fun place for toddlers and kids to play indoors while providing a great cafe and relaxing space for parents to relax while kids play) has a list on their website that has a few suggested entertainers for parties and I found these two..... Chris and Lou and they were great!! Very easy to work with, reasonably priced (I called around to quite a few places) and the kids had a great time with them! :)

They focus on original songs as well as the beloved favorites. They have lots of songs about sharing, and cleaning up and even potty training! Very relevant stuff for these little toddlers! :) They sang for about 30 min. and brought home made instruments as well! (which gave some of us some ideas on how to make them ourselves to play with at home too!) The kids were entertained the whole time and the parents had fun too! Natalie was GLUED to Cris and Lou the WHOLE time. That means they MUST be good! Not even Elmo or Hello Kitty can do that! *wink*

http://www.crisandlou.com

Natalie having an awesome time singing, dancing and clapping along! :) And you can see her little boyfriend, Wes right behind her in the argyle (LOVE!) sweater having a ball too! :)

Cris showing Natalie the "Itsy bits Spider"

Lou rocking out and Natalie's friend Liam LOVED it!! :)

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Sunday link of support! Happy Anniversary!

Oh my goodness!!! We have been so busy lately between our orders and FOUR parties of our own that we COMPLETELY missed our 1 year anniversary!!!!

Happy 1 year Anniversary to US! 

So our sunday link of support will be for our shop and FB pages! :) (shameful plug!)

Our ETSY shop:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/RandRcreation  check us out and see all of the fun and new themes we have available! Or if you don't see a theme you were wanting, chances are.... we can do it! Let us know! :)

our FACEBOOK page:  https://www.facebook.com/etsyrandrcreations stay up to date on special sales and discounts! 

Thanks for supporting us through year 1 and we look forward to many more years of doing what we love! :) 

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Sunday Link of Support- Cute as a button bowties!

This lady makes SUCH cute bows! I had her make Natalie's bow for her Pebbles Halloween costume!! :)

Be sure to check out her etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/people/JoHiracheta
and her FB page! http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Cute-As-A-Button-Bow-tique/178151018093


She has great prices, fast turn around it's bound to be JUST what you wanted! :) Pin It Now!

Notes By Nine

"Delightfully simple cards for every occasion"

I would like to introduce a new etsy shop owner! Her name is Janine and she loves crafting! She is an art teacher and has many great ideas. She decided to open a shop selling notecards for holidays and every day in between! They are all handmade and excellent quality! (I just got a holiday card from her in the mail and was very impressed!)

She is just starting out but go check out her shop and see what she's got! She also does custom orders, so if you have the vision, she can create it, just ask her!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/NotesByNine?ref=pr_shop_more

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a sale to die for!- Lilly Pulitzer!

Anyone who knows me personally knows that last summer I found my true love......... Lilly Pulitzer!

Omg, I'm obsessed! The cut, the fabric and the bold colors, I couldn't love it more!! I'm sure it helps that it was also the first time I had REALLY gone shopping since having my daughter and then losing another 25 lbs so suddenly things looked good!! :)

So I present to you, our readers, for anyone who loves Lilly..... You must check out this sale!

http://www.lillypulitzer.com/content.jsp?pageName=whsale

Here we are last year at the sale where we celebrated my daughter's 18 month birthday! :)

 

And one of our "Mommy & Me" purchases. Hey, if I can't have fun while she still doesn't say "no", why not, right?? :)

 



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Sunday link of support- beautiful homes!

A friend I met in college.... The University of Dayton.... Go FLYERS! Has opened up her own interier design studio!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/LIVVInteriorDesignsAbbyDahlinghaus

or you can look at the official company site here: http://www.livvinteriordesigns.com/abby.html (where Abby was featured!!)

I know I am super creative when it comes to paper, but my house.......... another story. When clients come to me and say "I have zero creativity so I'm relying on you here" that's exactly how I feel when it comes to home decore! I am in need of some serious help there! My "temporary home" has now become a 7+ year stay and I'm HOPING that we move sometime soon!

When we do, I will be needing a LOT of help setting up my new, more "permanent" place. :) I'll definitely look Abby up! :)

To beautiful homes that house our beautiful family! <3 Pin It Now!

Juicing with your family!

So I've been really into juicing and green smoothies for about three years now. I have the breville juicer which as treated me well over the years, but it wouldn't allow me to extract juice from my FAVORITE ingredient...... kale. (I know, it's sounds terrible, but it's actually quite mild and has SO much to offer!)

 

Well, this past week I turned the big 3-0 and as part of my birthday gift, my wonderful hubby got me this:

 

The Omega 8006 and all its glory! *cue the angels singing!

 

 

Also as part of my gift, he got me the book The Healthy Green Drink Diet  (Check out the website: www.healthygreendrink.com) to help me get some inspiration with including the lovely greens into my juices along with my usual regiment of carrots, apples, ginger, celery, beets, etc.

 

I've been sharing these vitamin rich drinks with my soon to be two year old daughter because, well, let's face it...... she's a toddler and she would eat only Mac and cheese every day all day if she had the choice. She has been SO fussy with foods that when I make juice with her, at least I can relax a little knowing that she's getting essential vitamins and minerals.

 

We have turned it into a game! She helps me wash the veggies and fruits, then watches me cut them and I hand them to her to put into a bowl for easy transport over to the juicer. Then she pulls up a chair and stands on it and she puts the fruits and veggies in the juicer! (with my supervision of course!) and as we are putting things through, we practice naming the the fruit or veggie being used and I tell her what vitamins and minerals are in there and what that does for her body. :) These juices can be high in sugar (natural sugar, but still, it's sugar!) depending on what we put in it, so I usually sneak in half water into her cup so she gets a full sippy cup of her beloved juice, but with less sugar.

 

I took my Omega for her maiden voyage today and I was NOT disappointed! Today I wanted to ease Natalie into the green juice which I assumed would be more potent than her usual green smoothie. So we did apple, carrot (fresh from the farmers market! yum!!), ginger, and spinach. Delicious!

 

What is your favorite juice combo or trick to get your little one to eat right?

 

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Sunday Link of Support!

Here is a great blog about Food! Yum!

 More specifically about a mother feeding her daughter in a healthly, smart way!

 

She adds recipes and things she is doing day by day with her little girl!

 

She says, "Welcome to teeny tiny foodie. I'm a food-focused mom trying to raise my baby girl to eat healthy and tasty foods right from the beginning."

	The garden the grew together to have fresh food right at home! What a great lesson to teach your child! Good job momma!

http://teenytinyfoodie.blogspot.com/2012/10/how-did-our-garden-grow.html

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Sunday link of Support- The Little Gym!

We have recently enrolled the kiddos into gymnastics class!! They have SUCH a great time! :)

Here is a video from the last class they took together! :)

We have tried a few similar gyms, but this one was our FAVORITE! In fact, two other little girls from our play groups are in the class too! :) They sure love learning and exploring together!

I wanted to also start Natalie in something where she knew she wasn't the center of the universe (all of the time.... ) hahaha! She needed to learn that sometimes it is someone else's turn and to learn the the overall structure of a class since I am home with her all day and she hasn't been exposed to that yet. I'm happy to say she is adjusting quite well! :)


We have been so impressed with the the little gym and wanted to share!!  Here is their website: http://www.thelittlegym.com/Pages/default.aspx  They have them all over the country!


We are so excited to be able the enroll the kids!! Thanks to our Etsy shop, we were able to give these classes as a gift to our babies!! :) <3

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Sunday Link of Support!-smart shopping mama!

Who doesn't love a great deal??? Especially on children's/babies items!! These kiddos grow out of clothes and toys so fast that a lot of times they are outgrown before they are even used.

So here is an opportunity for you to get great deals on gently used or in a lot of cases, BRAND NEW items for literally a FRACTION of the price.

http://www.jbfsale.com/default.cfm

This is the motherload of all consignment sales!

They have them twice a year, in the spring and fall, and well worth the wait! The are held all over the country! All you have to do is look for your state to find an event: http://jbfsale.com/findevent/

Well, we are ADDICTED to them! Seriously, the week of the sale CONSUMES our lives. haha!

Mama Reina consigns AND volunteers at the event so that she and mama Rachel can get in and get the good deals early! This year, we even took it up a notch so that we could both shop and not have to mess up the baby nap schedules too much! Here is how we did it without hubbies having to get involved or hiring babysitters!

Reina volunteered for two three hour shifts running the registers, which also counted as doubles. So she got to go into the sale at the first possible pre-sale time at noon. Natalie, who usually doesn't nap until 2:00 was dropped off at Mama Rachel's house at 11:15 so that Reina could get to the sale on time. Then Natalie and wes played together (and did some crafts of course!) until it was time for Wes' nap. Rachel distracted Natalie so that she wouldn't be TOO sad when her boyfriend went to bed and so he wouldn't be too upset to miss the fun!

Here they are playing together during the many different days of hanging out! <3

Reina shopped until she literally dropped and then unloaded everything at home and picked up Natalie at 2:30 and by then Wes had woken up from his nap. Then Reina took both kids in the car back to her home so that mama Rachel could shop at the early friend of a consigner/volunteer slot!

Here is a shot of the kiddos in their matching car seats! :) A preview of things to come for Rachel when she little baby #2 arrives! :) Poor Natalie was a bit tired by this point.....

The key was to make sure we each had the car seats taken out of the car for MAXIMUM space to shop! :)

It took so serious juggling and long baby sitting between the two of us, but we did it without a babysitter or hubbies having to take off work! yay!

Here are some of the great finds/deals! Including a pottery barn kids chair that Natalie has been begging Reina for since Wes got one!

Next one in Philadelphia is coming up in March! This time, we may both volunteer so we both get in the first session. Keep you posted!!

Happy shopping and happy saving!! :) Pin It Now!

Sunday Link of Support

Looking for a creative greeting card like NO OTHER?!? Then you definetly need to check out this website!

http://www.bluehollyarts.com/cards.html

Carol hand makes "pull-up" cards that become a keepsake all their own! The detail and craftmanship is stunning! Check out her website! You can completely customize your card to anything you want! I recieved one for my son's baby shower and was completely blown away!

This one I recieved when my son was born. Instead of peoples faces it had all different animals linked together! On the outside it included all your baby's information: it had his pounds on the scale, the time he was born on the clock, how long he was on the tape measure and his full name in the notebook! Amazing!

She also does beautful artwork!

Martha's Vineyard

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toddler outing- The little Treehouse

We recently took the kiddos out to the Little Treehouse in Chestnut Hill, PA for a little morning fun! We are going to be doing our very first vendor show in November so we had lots of planning to do and and we wanted the kids to be able to run around have fun together too. This was the perfect setup for us!

There are big tables for spreading out and then lots of play room for the kids with lots of toys, Melissa and Doug imaginary toys, dress up clothes, a fun slide AND a small cafe with lots of HEALTHY, ORGANIC and LOCAL ingredient foods!! LOVE!!

These two are such buddies, it's too stinkin' cute!! They have the whole place to run around and LOTS of other little kids to hang out with and they just want to stick right by each other! <3



"Where is Natalie's foot, Wes?"



And of course I saved the BEST for last........

We would highly recommend the Little Tree house to all you local mamas (and papas!) They also have dinner hours on the weekend and it is a BYOB. My hubby and I already took advantage of it one Saturday night with another couple so that we could go on a 'date night' without having to hire a babysitter.  Best of all, admission is free after 5pm with a $10 food purchase! It was the perfect setup! :)

More information on the little tree house here: http://www.treehouseplaycafe.com/

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Sunday link of support!--- a little Bohemian Glam

A girl I went to High School with also is a fellow Etsy shop owner and we LOVE to show our support and love for fellow entrepreneurs, especially Etsy ones! :)

Laura's stuff is FANTASTIC, BEAUTIFUL and ORIGINAL! Be sure to check her out!

About

A touch of rustic paired with a touch of chic - Bohemian Glam. Available at www.etsy.com/shop/laleluxe or like her on FB http://www.facebook.com/LaLeLuxe

Company Overview

After many years of "pondering" and a ton of encouragement (and scolding) from friends and family, I have finally "officially" launched LaLe Luxe.

I started my journey out of my obsession with jewelry and the need to be creative and simply create. My inspiration comes from the people, places and world around me.

My second love is cooking. I am a self proclaimed foodie and consider myself something of a chef. I am always cooking something up in the kitchen.

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