Kids Designers You've Never Heard About

I love me an outfit from Baby Gap.  In fact on any given day, Laura or Caroline can be seen in skinny denim or wide leg yoga pants, however I am growing tired of what they've had to offer lately.  My next go-to spot for cute kids' clothes is Boden.  Their designs are super cute but also super expensive, so I figured if I am only going to lust over the clothes I want to really lust.  I want some original designs that I haven't seen before.  Alas, my list of children's designers that you've never heard of before-mainly because they are foreign and not accessible to us yanks, but ADORABLE none the less.

Noa Noa- a Danish designer that also does some very cute women's ready to wear

Anne Wille- French Designer with a flair for vintage meets contemporary

And The Little Dog Laughed- Australian designer with the cutest bloomers and knitted gifts.  From the knitted toys to blankets and tees, I wish this one was available to us!

Some looks can definitely be recreated by selecting pieces from various American vendors, but I also just liked the way kids were "styled" in the catalogs.  Gives you good ideas!  

Super Saturday!

Little Felt Animal Puppets

I had left over felt and she had leftover energy.  The little gal decided not to nap today so we crafted instead.

 Gluing was most definitely her favorite part!

When it was all said and done, we had a half bear, half cat felt puppet.  :)  She was excited to surprise daddy with the "poppot" when he got home.  :)

Happy Friday!!!

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Felt Flowers!

Today we made felt flower hair clips for the littlest lady in the house.  This took me about half of a Days of Our Lives while the girls napped.  Mindless tv and mindless crafting-a good combo for the quick crafter like me.  I took two rectangles of the green and sewed them together and then I cut 5 owl shapes out of the blue and sewed the the "ears" of the owl to create the puckering effect of the petals.  Finally I attached a pink circle with fabric glue for the center and hot glued the whole thing to a hair clip.

As you can see, the felt flower hair clip can be worn while relaxing with your juice or while on the go!  It is the perfect accessory for all occasions!  :)

Gumbo Schumbo!

The above are the before and after photos of the sad little pepper. I was chopping veggies for the gumbo recipe that I will get to later and Laura of course wanted to help. I handed her a cheese spreader which I THOUGHT could do no harm, but just look at that little pepper. Oh well go thing it was still edible. After that she was demoted to.....

dishwasher!

She loves to play in the sink so it was a win-win situation for her (not for the pepper though). Anyways, onto the recipe! I call this "Gumbo Schumbo" because it isn't really gumbo but it somewhat resembles it. I took out all the yummy spice that adults love but kids sometime won't touch and added other goodies.

Gumbo Schumbo

2 chicken breasts cubed

2 links of apple and onion sausage or sweet sausage diced

1 small onion chopped

1 red pepper chopped

2 celery stalks chopped

1 tsp of thyme

1 tsp of oregano

1 tsp of garlic powder

1 tsp of onion powder

1 tsp of salt

1 8oz can of tomato paste

3 roma tomatoes diced

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

2 bay leaves

Any amount of cooked rice to go with the gumbo once finished

1. Add meats to the slow cooker and set to low for 6 hours.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients excluding the rice.

3. About 30 minutes before the slow cooker's timer goes off, start cooking the rice. Brown rice takes between 30-40 minutes, but basmati only take 15-20 so it just depends on what kind of rice you choose.

4. Serve over the rice!

Chocolate Chip Almond Yummies!

No she isn't sneezing or about to dive face first into the batter. I said give me the most surprised face you have, and this is what I got. :) Cute little thing....hehe She is wearing the jersey to hopefully bring some luck to her daddy's team! Anyways, on to the post---

If there are three things I love it is butter, brown sugar, and babies (there was another one, but she was attached to my leg therefore not show on camera). We made these cookies from a variation of my grandmother's chocolate cookie recipe. These key is to take them out a little early so that they are nice and mushy and gooey in the middle. Pete prefers them crispy so we mix it up every now and then, but if you ask me, gooey is the way to go! Laura agrees!

Gram's Chocolate Cookie Recipe (with added Mommy and Laura pizazz)

1 bag of semi-sweets

1 1/2 sticks of sweet cream butter

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup plain sugar

1 cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350, then cream the butter and both sugars together until completely combined (this is the part that Laura and I can't stand because it is too tempting to not taste).

2. Add eggs and vanilla and almond extracts and continue to beat on medium until completely combined.

3. In a separate bowl add your dry ingredients EXCLUDING the chips and almonds-they go in last.

4. Slowly add the wet ingredients into the dry, blending with a beater on low (so it doesn't make a mess, but if you have a fancy kitchenaid then blend away! :))

5. Lastly, add your chips and almonds and stir by hand until fully mixed. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake for about 8-10 minutes (11 minutes make them crispy).

ENJOY!!

Cute in Corduroy!

Ok I know that the top picture has nothing to do with the rest of my posting, but come on, her funny face is pretty funny. :) Today I whipped up a market skirt in navy corduroy. Laura has dinner plans with her pals Mav and Jackson, and of course "sister baby" as she calls her. My mom got her these adorable striped tights with a teddy bear on the tushi! We needed a cute skirt to go with them.

I got the idea from Dana over at Made. I had made Laura one last spring in purple seersucker with a white ruffle, and although that one was much for fun and flouncy, this one will be great with leggings and tights. To top it off it is super warm! The fabric is from fabric.com and only costs $4.17 a yard, which is nice because this skirt definitely didn't even take 1/2 a yard so it was super cheap to make. Happy Skirt Sewing!