Tis the season to be jolly...especially since we have 2 festive {giveaways} for you to enter!

Win this decadently divine Ironwork bib and burp set from {Adam's Blankie}. The fabric is a designer print from Joel Dewberry and is backed with plush, absorbant cream chenille.

Win a cute, creative tea bag set (2 flavors) for your little one's play kitchen from
{Gourmet Play}.

{To enter}:
Become a follower of this blog, and then submit a comment on this post/thread for your entry.
The drawings will close December 16th, and the winners will be chosen and posted December 17th.

Good luck and Happy Holidays!

Anthropologie Love.

So am I the only one who didn't realize Anthropologie has a kids section? Granted most of their kids' items are online only (and, believe it or not, I usually don't go online to stores I could visit in person instead), so that must explain my neglect.

Anyway. Here are some fabulous {crafty} finds from their lovely collection of kids' items...enjoy the eye candy. P.S. They would all pair nicely with our Doodle Diddie Crayon Rolls to make a fabulous Christmas gift, if I do say so myself!

Miss Doodle Coloring Doll, made from paper and polyfill, $50.00


Deciduous Puzzle, made from cardstock and recycled paper, $38.00

Doodle Giant Coloring Book, 368 pages to color/doodle, $18.95


Apron, cotton, machine-wash, $24.00

As I eagerly anticipate the arrival of our baby girl in March, I have been busily making things for her...and the list of things I'd like to make just grows longer instead of shorter. (Sigh). Such is the life of a seamstress/craftster, I guess. Most of the items I've been making (or that are on my "to do" list) are quite girly ~ pink, purple, ruffles, flowers, etcetera. But these sensory bags I made are actually great for any gender and will stimulate the newborn to the toddler!


I crafted them in red, white and black, as these are the first colors a baby sees. I sewed in some ribbon tabs for her to maneuver and suck while teething. When she moves them, they'll have a light rustley noise to please, and they also have french lavender inside. This will help keep her soothed if fussy, and help to reduce my headache (because I know inevitably there will be one). :)

Once older (actually, I'm sure our son will take these from her to use himself...better plan on set #2 for him!), she can use them to learn matching (the set has a pair of 3 different coordinating fabrics) and distinguishing and even later as a traditional bean bag set! She can play "basketball" {or beanbagball, rather} by herself or catch with her big brother, which I'm sure he'll be trying to get her to do!

They are currently available for purchase at Adam's Blankie.

Christmas Traditions.

What are your family's Christmas or Holiday traditions? One of my favorites has always been setting up our Christmas village. And it is definitely one I want to "pass down" to my son, but for now, he's definitely too young to be handling such delicate, breakable pieces!

So this year, besides doing our own Advent Calendar chain (a couple posts ago, if you missed it...), I decided we're going to start doing a gingerbread house. And believe it or not, I'd never done one before myself. So what a great tradition to start for all of us. I must say, it took much longer than I thought it would, and didn't turn out nearly as well as I would have liked, but our little guy absolutely loved it, and we had a blast! Below are some pics of our process....

pdf Pattern Winners!

Thank you! to all who participated in our survey to help give us feedback in the hopes of providing more of what YOU, our clients, want to see in our store in the future!

The following people are the lucky winners of a free pattern from our shops! Hope you enjoy! And for those of you who missed the chance at this one, we will be hosting a monthly drawing for a gift certificate to one of our stores (Adam's Blankie, Gourmet Play or Haute Tot Couture) each month! Just click here for your chance to win December's drawing ~ good luck!

Allie Schell
Ashley Owens
Elisha Horning

(If you are one of the winners, an email with your free pattern is on its way to your inbox now!)

Salted Chocolate Caramel Apples.

Are you ready for some sweetness? If so, you should really gather these few simple ingredients to make some for you and your little ones...a great Winter treat...and a way to sneak in some fruit, in case your little tyke doesn't normally do so.

What you'll need:
apples
caramel pieces
chopped chocolate chips
sprinkles candies (optional)
chopped nuts (optional)
coarse sea salt
candy sticks
wax paper
apple corer (optional)

Put the sticks into your apples. Melt your caramels (we used 20, and had more than plenty for our 4 apples) over low/medium heat, and then begin dipping your apples. We used Honeycrisp apples, but I bet the tartness of Granny Smith would pair nicely with the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel. Immediately place your carameled apples onto the wax paper and begin sprinkling with the chocolate chips, sprinkles, nuts and sea salt (just a tiny pinch of the salt will do!). Enjoy!

For the little guy, we sliced his apple with the corer and let him dip into the caramel.
(He actually didn't even want to touch the caramel, can you believe it?
He doesn't know what he's missing!)

mmm...goodness.

Christmas Link Countdown

So today my little guy & I constructed a countdown-to-Christmas link. I figure it to be our little variation of an advent calendar, only I'll give him his "treat" each day, instead of him opening a door to find it. The theory is the same, isn't it?


Here's a picture of it. We just used some holiday paper, cut them into strips and stapled them together. We decided to hang it with some ribbon from a doorknob...only 23 days to go!