AND! MY FRIEND EVONNE HAVING HER BABY!!!

These crowns were just a half day project that I worked on a bit in the morning and mainly during naptime. I actually do not sew (ask my mother), but these were easy enough for me.

The template and directions are found in one of my favorite books, which I have mentioned quite a few times on my site…

Next on the list is to find some birthday plates and cups that we can use just for special birthday celebrations, cutting down on the cost of fun paper plates and cups. Let me know if you see any out there that I might enjoy!

Have you seen this Etsy shop around in the blog world?

WOW. It’s beautiful and it oozes (what? you can ooze something nice) love; love for their message, love for their products, love for their customers and love for each other.

the r house couture is a group of three dear friends who were brought together because of their passion for adoption. Lindsey Redfern (therhouse.blogspot.com) dreamed of creating a shop especially for those touched by adoption. She brought the dream to her two friends during a late craft night and that is how it all began! If you know Lindsey or read her blog, you know she is warm, beautiful and feisty (in a good way of course, Mrs. R.), and is the mama of two little boys through adoption.

Kim Orlandini (kimsueellen.blogspot.com), a mother of three, is one of the other masterminds behind the r house couture. She is an amazing photographer (I love browsing her photography shoots online). She is also adorable and unbelievably sweet. Leisha Kelsy (leishakelseydesign.blogspot.com) is also a mother of two children through adoption and is such fun! She is creative, hilarious, great at getting things done, and is crazy cute to boot!

Now, more about their Etsy Shop, the r house couture…

Their products speak to those touched by adoption, but many others as well. Custom orders are their top-selling product and I have ordered a few. My mother lost her parents and her little brother so they helped me put together a necklace to wear in remembrance of them. For my mother-in-law’s birthday they put together a necklace with her favorite saying on it: “FTF,” which stands for “Families Together Forever.”

They make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, glass pendants, charms and chains in their jewelry line. And, once again, custom orders are their best selling items so be sure to keep them in mind when choosing special, unique gifts for friends and family. A necklace or bracelet with a “tag” on it is made from thick sterling silver with HAND-stamped words. It is also adorned with some wonderfully beautiful beads, many of which have a special meaning behind them. Some of the beads’ materials/colors/origins can represent anything from a strong woman to fertility. A lot of them are vintage, produced before World War II. Really fantastic materials go into their creations; materials that are the highest quality they can find. And how fun is it to think your necklaces are made by hand; hand-cut, hand-filed, hand-stamped and created by these three amazing ladies on their weekly get together night?

Today the r house couture just released their brand new line for “Mothers Day!” Yep, Mother’s Day is coming up. Luckily, these three ladies are on top of things and have your presents all ready to go to help you celebrate Mother’s Day with the sisters, grandmothers, friends, mothers and daughters in your life. Also, if you have a special relationship with a birth mother, did you know Birth Mother Day is the day before Mother’s Day? Perfect timing. They have added four new necklace designs to the shop.

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They are offering FREE SHIPPING from March 15, 2010 to April 3, 2010 on all four of these new designs.

And guess what? They are doing a giveaway over at our site SassyScoops…

Head on over there to enter yourself for the chance to win one of the beautiful necklaces above! Just click on the button below and enter your name on the giveaway post!

This is a great way to dye your Easter eggs this year (by the way, Easter is in 18 days!) for whatever reason matters the most to you: it’s a fun science experiment, you stay away from commercial dyes, it is cheap AND its just something new and different!

All Natural Easter Egg Dyeing

Colors

1. To make a beautiful light blue dyed Easter egg, simply take 3/4 of a head of red cabbage, chop it and put it in a large pot. Add 2 T. of white vinegar, add the eggs and fill pot with water.

2. To make a green, add 2 cups of spinach (or a box of frozen spinach) to a pot. Add 2 T. of white vinegar, add the eggs and fill pot with water.

3. To make a red (and a hot pink for some of the eggs!), add 3 cups of cranberry juice and 3 chopped beets in a pot. Add 2 T. of white vinegar, add the eggs and fill pot with water.

4. To make a yellow, add 2 teaspoons of turmeric to your pot. Add 2 T. of white vinegar, add the eggs and fill pot with water.

5. I forgot to do this one BUT you can use chili powder (just like I used the turmeric above) to make a fun red/orange color.

Dyeing

1. Bring your mixture to a boil then reduce heat so it is simmering for 30 minutes. Don’t let it boil too long or the eggs will crack!

2. Let the eggs sit in the mixture for a couple of hours.  Be sure to stir them around a few times so the color soaks in on all sides of the egg.

Note: In this pictures it looks like I combined mixtures. I did not. I was just trying out a weird color. So please boil and simmer all of your mixtures SEPERATE.

Check out our beautiful eggs! Don’t they look so rustic and natural? This was a lot of fun to do. The girls loved guessing what colors the vegetables or spices would turn the eggs and then waiting to see if they were right!

Another fun part of this “experiment” was that every single egg turned out a different shade (we did use brown and white eggs) and I just think they are beautiful.

But what to do with the veggies? Throw them in the compost pile! Your garden will be extra happy this year.

SassyScoops.com is partnering with the Casual Blogger Conference to bring you a must-attend girls’ night out and we want YOU to come. Feel free to bring your girlfriend, mom, sister, niece, neighbor, stylist…anyone you know who’s ready for a night on the town (or at least a night at a yummy cafe in the heart of Daybreak). The evening will be full of food, fun, giveaways and of course gelato—quite possibly the best gelato in all of Utah. Here are the details:

Saturday, April 17th

7:00 p.m. ~ 10:00 p.m.

San Gelato Cafe on Soda Row

11259 Kestrel Rise Rd., South Jordan

San Gelato Cafe is doing a fun special that night for those who come to party with us: one free scoop of gelato with any purchase. Buy a scoop, get one free; buy a delicious panini, get a scoop free.

We will also have some fabulous giveaways that night from some of our fave local business including San Gelato Cafe, Blend Fashions, My Dough Girl, and our ever favorite Girl Scouts. We’ll also be giving away one ticket to the upcoming Casual Blogger Conference, but you’ll have to attend to get a chance of winning it!

We hope you can join the Sassies for our first of hopefully many girls’ nights out!

We’d love for you to spread the word about the event. Feel free to grab any of the buttons below and place them on your site linking to this page. To make it super easy we’ve included the HTML; simply copy and paste into your blog or website! SEE YOU THERE!

Grab a button below:

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If you really want to spread the love, include our sassiest button (below) in a blog post about the event:

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We took 6 of her little friends, along with their moms, to go see the play If You Give a Mouse of Cookiein Orem at the Scera. I highly recommend you go to this.  It was the perfect length, perfect set, perfect story line and cheaper than movie tickets!

Abby told the sweet ladies at Dippidee in American Fork exactly what she wanted (pink, purple, dark haired barbie with a ribbon) on her cake and boy did they deliver. I showed this cake off to everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Just amazing.

We gave her presents based on our “present rule:” Something to Wear, Something Pretty, Something to Read and Something to Play With. Can I say I REALLY was not into giving her what she was DYING for in the Something to Play with category, but man, the girl was flippin’ out when she opened it!

Lunch with Daddy just topped everything off!

We did it.  She is four!

I DO like making something that smells WONDERFUL to eat for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and this smoothie is it!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups of spinach

1 bunch of kale

1 lime

(If, at this point, you are saying to yourself, “Heck no, Vanessa,” then don’t do it!  Or maybe you don’t have a juicer or just don’t believe me.  Then, will you put at least ONE cup of spinach and 1 1/2 cups of frozen green grapes? )

2 bananas

3 kiwis

2 Yoplait Key Lime Pie Yogurts

2 cups of Pineapple Juice

2 trays of ice

Directions:

In a juicer juice the lime, spinach and kale, set aside. (If you were one of the ones that said “heck no,” then skip this step and you will just blend the spinach and grapes in with the next step.)

Blend together the pineapple juice, banana and kiwi. Then add in the juiced kale/spinach/lime and yogurt.

Divide this mixture in half. Add a tray of ice to each half and blend.

Adorn with a four leafed clover from a Kiwi Slice.

This makes 4 very large smoothies.

Today is the BIRTHDAY of this Monday’s Maven, her FOURTH birthday to be exact.

I am absolutely in love with today’s Monday’s Maven.

Today’s Monday’s Maven is growing up too fast.

Full Name:

Abby Rae Brown

blog:

Location:

Usually curled up in someone’s arm or busy busy busy having a blast.

One Word that Describes her:

You can’t use one word to describe her.  Here are just a few…

Beautiful

Stunning

Sensitive

Smart

Loving

Forgiving

An Artist

A Writer

Imaginative

A Dreamer

Daddy’s Girl

Brave

Friendly

A Peformer

A Daughter of God

What makes her smile?

Getting to stay up late, Daddy coming home, jumping into Mommy’s arms when she wakes up and when people come to visit her.

Dreams:

When I look in her eyes I can see glimpses of the woman she will be.

She will decide what she grows to become, but one thing I do know when I look into those eyes is that…

It will be amazing.

She is my daughter.

What is Her guilty pleasure?

Cupcake Shoppes, Charlie & Lola, Ramona, Ivy & Bean Books, Polly Pockets, Being an “Artist” and destroying her room on a daily basis.

What does she love most about herself?

She IS proud of herself, but in a very RIGHT way. She knows she is smart, beautiful, friendly and that we all love her to pieces.

Favorite food, holiday, place?

Her favorite food is “CousCous,” her favorite holiday is her birthday and her favorite place is the beach…or being with her Dad. Oh, now she would just flip if it was the beach AND her Dad.

Who is her hero?

The three missionaries we have in the family right now, Laura, Bryan and Darren. She is very proud of them, understands why they are gone and has to tell her mother not to cry because they are busy “teaching people about Jesus.”

Words From Her Mother:

She makes me want to live.  She makes me want to live brighter and fuller to keep up with her.

And to be able to say those words…that this little lady is MY daughter makes me quite proud.

Boy do I love her.

I love her, I love her, I do.

Happy Birthday, Baby.

Homemade (sort of) Chocolate Biscotti

A while ago Courtney (p.s. Happy Birthday!) asked for cake mix recipes. I don’t know what it is about cake mix recipes that excite us…but they do. I then remembered this recipe for chocolate biscotti from a cake mix that I used to make once in a while.  My girls had a ball making this with me.  It is an easy recipe BUT since it requires a lot of baking, it is good to do on a day when you will be home a bit.

Ingredients:

1 box of dark chocolate fudge or devil’s food cake mix

3/4 cup flour

1 stick butter, melted

2 eggs

Melting chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Combine the cake mix, flour, melted butter and eggs in bowl.

2. Form dough into a 12 inch long log that is about 4 inches wide. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

3. Let it cool a bit and then cut log into 1 inch thick slices. Carefully transfer biscotti to baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes on 350. Then reduce heat to 200 degrees and bake for 40 minutes or until biscotti are dry.

4. Cool completely and dip one side into melting chocolate.  Lay flat on parchment paper until chocolate sets.

Let’s just look at that again….for the fun of it….

5. Dip into your hot cocoa and enjoy the excuse to eat chocolate cake for breakfast!