Sprig Toys

At Pottery Barn Kids story time Christopher has recently been playing with the adorable Sprig Adventure Series toys. He loves pushing around the Discover Rig and he pretends that it's a lawnmower.

Each little guy, er Adventure Guide, comes already named with a little background story plus they feature battery-free (did you hear that battery-free!) lights that really work! And the best part is that they're made out of Sprigwood, a 100% recycled bio-composite material- don't you just love helping the environment? The Discover Rig tells a different story for each Adventure Guide and I think these will work equally well outside as well as in. I'm thinking Christopher's upcoming birthday is the perfect excuse to get these!

You can find these at Pottery Barn Kids as well as on Amazon.

Ask Design Mom Week

Head over to Design Mom for "Ask Design Mom Week!" Gabrielle Blair, aka Design Mom, will be answering reader questions all week long! You know her, she's the one that posts all about design and motherhood in such an oh-so-stylish way! Hmmmm... what question should I submit?

English Tea Scones

Sometimes when I buy scones they can be a little too dry for me. But, lucky for me, I found a recipe from The New Baking Book that comes out nice and moist every time! The first time I made these was with Christopher and we put currants in them and called them "Peter Rabbit Buns" because Peter Rabbit ate currant buns. He loved them! This last time that I made them was for a play date snack. I served them with lemon curd that I found through Stephmodo via Design Mom, and some fresh whipped cream. Yummy! I think maybe I'll make some scones with fresh Lemon Curd to give out as Easter presents!

2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter, cut into pieces
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup dried currants or raisins

1. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. In a medium mixing bowl combine eggs, whipping cream, and currants/raisins. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture and stir with a fork until moistened.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and quickly knead the dough by folding and fently pressing dough for 10-12 strockes or until the dough is nearly smooth. Pat or lightly roll the dough into and 8-inch square. Cut into 16 squares.

4. Place scones 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. You can brush the scones with some milk and sprinkle them with a little sugar. Bake in a 400º oven for 12-14 minutes (mine usually only take about 10-11) or until golden. Remove the scones from the baking sheet and serve warm.

Janie & Jack: Friends & Family

The Janie & Jack Friends and Family sale starts today- and the best thing is that the 25% off works for stuff that's already on sale! I'm so excited, but since I gave up shopping (partially, anyway) for Lent, my stuff is still on hold at our local store until tomorrow.

Here's some of the pieces Christopher's going to be adding to his wardrobe. And since he's mostly set for the summer, I've gotten the cute little scooter sweatshirt & rugby top in a larger size for next year. I love that the little beige hat is reversible and it's got the same pattern as the sorts on the inside. Can't you tell I'm just loving that Vintage Wheels line?


Have a great weekend and fun shopping!
-Jenelle

Blue Walk

Inspired by a post by Katie Schlutz and the cool little Idee color thingie, I decided to try our own little color scavenger hunt when Christopher, Gregory and I went for a walk to our local market the other day. Christopher picked the color blue, so I photographed all things blue along the way. Since Gregory was getting antsy with my frequent stopping every 5 feet, I didn't take as many pictures on the way back. But Christopher had a lot of fun pointing out blue things and I enjoyed taking the pictures. Maybe C and I will try a different color each week. This is a great fun little project to play with your kids, especially if they're just starting to learn their colors!

If you haven't checked out the Idee Multicolor Search Lab you're missing out- it's so awesome! This links to my favorite color search: pink & purple. But you can do whatever color combination you want, up to 10 colors!

Cavallini

I've given up on using a planner. I used to use them religiously when I was in school and I loved the layouts of those cheap ones I got from both my high school and college. I loved the monthly calendar that was followed by each week (as opposed to all the monthly calendars being grouped together at the beginning) and the fact that they were spiral-bound, so you could fold them all the way around. I used to go all out in decorating them and I know I can go back to my high school planners and browse through my old social life and pictures of all the bands and celebrities I admired back then, complete with magic marker and glitter.

But as I can't seem to find that perfect layout these days, I've redirected my search and I'm now on the lookout for the prefect sketch notebook or just something to jot down ideas, plans, and random such things. How gorgeous are these Cavallini & Co. notebooks though? They're the prefect size to stash in my purse (6x8) and the whimsical designs are just so inspiring! I'm especially loving the Pink Paris Collage Notebook- vintage stamps, Paris, and pink? Oui s'il vous plaît!

I'm also loving this Ephemera Labels tin available at Kate's Paperie (the above notebooks are also available there).

Heather Bailey Fabric

image credit to Heather Bailey

I have no idea how to sew but the bright flowery fabrics designed by Heather Bailey make me want to learn! I'm thinking of ordering some or finding out where they sell her fabric locally to cover some storage boxes or line a couple shelves in my son's room. I especially love the Wallpaper Roses and the different colors of the Swirlybuds fabric from her newest Pop Garden & Bijoux lines.

Fonts for Peas

I love having different fonts to choose from, so when I came across this website I knew I had to keep it bookmarked. The website is Fonts for Peas and it's got tons, and I mean TONS of handwriting fonts to download. And the best part? They're totally free! Amanda over there at Kevin & Amanda takes peoples handwriting and turns it into fonts. You can even submit your handwriting for her to turn into a font. Since I don't always like my handwriting, I check out her site when I want handwritten journaling for a scrapbook or something. and she's even got a section of doodle fonts to choose from.

Vintage Apothecary Bottles

If you love vintage things like I do you'll love these Vintage Apothecary Bottles from Cathe Holden. She's got a few different listings in her store including some with tiny birds nests tucked away inside them. I especially love the ones with the antique rhinestones on them. How lovely would these look all lined up in a kitchen window? Also check out her amazingly detailed blog.

In My Monday.

I'm starting a new feature called "In My Monday." Each Monday I'll post something of mine and what's in or on it. If you'd like to play along e-mail me or leave a comment and I'll post your link here!

First week: In My Jewelery Box. In my jewelry box here you can see some of my most recent jewelry. I've got a green bracelet in the back that my Mom got me in Italy, a silver bracelet under that from my Dad, the pearls are from my Grandmother on my Dad's side, there's a "C" necklace that stands for my son Christopher, I made the blue beaded ankle bracelet, the gold cross on the left was another gift from my Mom from Italy, the pink beaded necklace is just something to go with a lot of what I wear, the swirly silver earrings on the left were a gift from my fiancee's sister for Christmas two years ago, the bright red, green, and gold beaded necklace was a gift from my Dad from Italy two years ago, my Holy Mother necklace that I got from my fiancee's parents a few years ago, and my favorite is the tiny Mickey Mouse pendant with my birthstone that Gregory picked out for me when we went to Disneyland on Valentine's Day last year. There you go, that's what's in my Jewelry box, at least one drawer!

Friday Night Dinner

Because Friday's mean no meat for us, we sometimes have to be a little creative with dinner. But no meat doesn't mean no taste! This week we made a simple but very delicious dinner of gnocchi with a pesto cream sauce, some of my dad's garlic bread, and a little white wine. We made it as easy as possible and used store bought gnocchi (an Italian potato like dumpling) which we tossed with a sauce that was a mixture of pesto and heavy cream. For the garlic bread we spread with a little homemade butter & garlic mixture and broiled for a few minutes. Pour some wine and we were ready. Very yummy and we didn't even miss the meat (much)!

New Hairbow!

I have this habit of buying cute baby clothes and accessories for my future daughter. I've got a son now but I just know some day I'm going to have a daughter, so whenever I find baby girl clothes that I love I just have to get them! My collection isn't super big or anything, just a few choice pieces, mostly from Janie and Jack. My most recent purchase was from Laura over at Blue Monster Bows. I saw her baby headbands and just had to order one. They were the best priced ones I found and the shipping was free! This was my first etsy purchase and I was impressed! The pink and white headband is even cuter in person than in the pictures and looks so well made. Laura is so nice and she'll even make custom bows if you don't see the color you want on her site. Luckily I've got a friend with a little girl who was willing to model the headband for me because it was just too cute to not wear.

And little Katie loved wearing it, which was surprising because she usually doesn't like things in her hair!

Have a great weekend!
-Jenelle

baby fun.

Need inspiration for a child's room? I turn to ohdeedoh. This website inspired me to spruce up the bedroom I share with my son. I love all the colors in this bright pink room found here and the flag banner inspired me to make a star garland for my son's room.

Easter Dress.

I can always count on Janie and Jack to have little girl's dresses that I immeditely fall in love with. If I had a little girl in need of an Easter dress, this Hand-Smocked Pintuck Dress from their Dozen Roses line would be it. It's my new favorite dress of theirs, right up there with the Little Paris dress from the '07 collection. This dress just looks so sweet! I love the smocking across the front with the little flowers and the color combination is right up my alley. This one is definitely going into the future baby file.

Bonjour Bonpoint!

I recently discovered the French children's clothing line Bonpoint. As well as having simply adorable girl's clothes they've got a really great line for boys, which is not always the easiest thing to find. I love how crisp and clean all the outfits look. If I could afford to dress my son in boutique clothes all the time, he'd have the whole spring line! Also check out the fun world and graphics on the shops section of their website under The World of Bonpoint. Unfortunately I've only been able to check out their clothes online, but they are definitely going to be on my list of places to visit the next time I make it down to LA!

Giraffe in a Bottle

This morning as I was getting ready for the day when my son walked into the bathroom and said something about putting his giraffe in a water bottle. He has a stuffed animal giraffe and I prayed that he wasn't talking about that one. Luckily, he'd found a little plastic giraffe and stuck it in a jar that had been in our room. The jar only had 1 flower in it and apparently he thought it was missing something... his giraffe.

Stephanie Rausser's gorgeous pictures

A couple months ago I was enamored with some pictures in Parenting magazine that were paired with an article called Objects of affection. The story was cute (especially the wild and crazy things the author's young daughter made up about her green pillow, like surviving on spoiled bananas for 20 days) but what really caught my attention were the pictures. At first glance they seemed a little posed and set up, but by reading the little blurbs that went with the pictures I discovered that they were pictures of the daughter of this woman, Stephanie Rausser, and her doll Coco. The pictures are so bright and fun but have a twist of elegance to them. I remember thinking that I wanted to tear the pictures out of the magazine to stick up on my board of mishmashed articles, pictures, and inspiration.

Fast forward to this past week when I was cruising through the Design Mom blog and came across some pictures of dolls by Jess Brown Design. The dolls looked not only interesting, but somehow familiar to me. I love that their clothing and accessories are all vintage finds! It wasn't until I happened to be going through magazines in our bathroom that I came across the affection article. After looking through the photographs again I thought about looking up the photographer online but decided to first go back and check out the blog with the doll pictures. Upon searching around the Jess Brown Design site I found a link to a slide show of pictures by Stephanie Rausser titled Kiki & Coco in Paris which documents her pictures of her daughter and her beautiful doll all around the city, including all the pictures from the Parenting article. The picture from the Eiffel Tower is the one I loved most from the magazine, but I think the one of her daughter with the Eiffel Tower in the background at dusk is by far my favorite. Check out the slide show and Stephanie Rausser's website to see her beautiful pictures.


I also love this picture from Stephanie Rausser's Website. Just look at the adorable print on the little girl's shirt!

Belle of the Ball

When I find something that I love but am not going to buy right away I usually take a picture of it with my phone. Check out this adorable Belle costume. I sometimes find the Disney princess a little cheesy and cheesy looking, especially with the little picture of that particular princess on the front. If you want to look like the princess by wearing her dress wouldn't you want the same one that she had? She didn't have her picture on her dress. But when I saw this little ballet tutu type Bell dress in the Disney store I had to take a picture. Couldn't you just imagine a little girl dancing around in it? I love all the glitter and tulle and I'm a sucker for those corset-style ribbons! And check out the matching flower headband! And I don't even mind the Belle picture thing on the front. I'm trying to think of a way to justify this gorgeous outfit when I don't even have a girl!

Waiting for spring.

Despite loving winter, I'm so excited that spring is on the way with summer not far behind! I love that it's still light outside right now at 7:30 in the evening. Last week we had a few great days that were really sunny but then this weekend it got a little cloudy and even a little rainy. But we managed to get a few hours of weather that was nice enough to play outside and I couldn't but help admiring all the beautiful flowers that are blooming in our backyard. There's a little peach tree that just started blossoming the most beautiful pink flowers. I snapped a couple pictures while my son was playing outside.