And the Winner Is...

Thanks to Random.org, Fan #35 is the winner of the giveaway!
Congratulations, Krystal H.!  Thanks for fanning Liberty's Belle on Facebook! 

Wander on over to the shop, pick out an item you'd like, and then send me a convo on etsy.  I'll ship it out as soon as you've decided what you'd like as your prize :)

Thanks again to everyone who is a fan on facebook!

Favorite Toddler and Preschooler Books

We've been doing a lot of reading and snuggling this week, and I started to think about what our all time favorite books are.  Ben, almost three, has a deep love affair with all things pirate, baseball, and animal.  Josie, almost one, loves anything she can touch or that has a nice cadence when read aloud.  Also, I would be remiss if I didn't say that four of the books that landed in the favorite collection were all chosen and gifted to us by a very dear former teaching colleague of mine.  Much love to the awesome book taste of Ms. T :-)

So what are the most beloved books in your house?

Snowed In - All Edges Brownie Pan Rave :)

 

I don't know how your family works, but every time we make brownies, we fight to see who gets to eat the corners.  Now I understand from my sister that some people actually prefer the gooey center, but I'm not sure I believe it.  

So to eliminate some of that discord in the Heath household, I gave Mark the All Edges Brownie Pan for Christmas.  I thought it was kind of a goofy gift, but I knew he would appreciate it.  And it has been appreciated many times over during this past week as we have experienced two massive blizzards in less than five days.  All snowed in and eating lots of chocolate.  Yummmm.

Snowed In Oatmeal Breakfast

Mark needed something warm and filling to give him the energy to get out there and shovel 30 inches of snow. (thanks baby!)  I love oatmeal, but we hardly ever have a chance to eat it.  So, today we made a "decorate your own" oatmeal buffet for breakfast.  Ben ate seconds (!) so it must have been good.

Snowed In Chocolate Snowballs

 

Maybe it's because I'm still at teacher at heart, but I adore snow.  It means my husband, also a teacher, is home.  It means we are all forced to snuggle in tight and hang out at the house and eat lots of comfort food without feeling guilty.  And the way things are looking in the mid-atlantic region right now, we'll be snuggling for quite a while.  We have about 30" of snow outside, so I thought I'd post some things to do with all of that lovely, cold, whiteness.

One of my all time favorite treats is a chocolate snowball.  We have them here in the summer time; they're like icees, only far superior ;-)  They're made with shaved (as opposed to crushed) ice.  And real snow does make the best snowball.  Get the how to by clicking "read more."

Update on the Homemade All Purpose Cleaner

I posted about making homemade lavender scented all purpose cleaner here.  Well, I just want to say that... I LOVE it!  It works really well in the kitchen for all of the weird sticky food messes that seem to follow the kids wherever they go.  Then, Ben and I cleaned the bathroom with this and some baking soda, and it looked great!  I loved that my little helper could actually HELP when I had cleaning products around. 

Yay!

Kid Art Note Cards

 

This post from Prudent Baby on kid art trivets reminded me of a similar project we did last Christmas.  Ben made art note cards for his greatest fans - his grandmoms.  With Valentine's Day approaching, this might be a nice gift if you need something for the loving grandparent in your kiddo's life :)  It's also a good way to use some of the thousands of finger paintings that are decorating your fridge.

They turned out better than I had imagined.  I was picturing something cutesy for the grandmothers to use as notecards, but thought it might end up looking uber "kid" like.  Which is fine, because these ladies pretty much love whatever their grandkids do :)  But I was pleasantly surprised that not only were they a great kid project for the grandmoms, the cards ended up looking pretty cool in their own right, too.

Kid's Indoor Play Tent

This is what I spent most of last night doing.  I thought up the idea around midnight, and spent the next three hours with Pythagoras, a calculator, and my evolving plans.  I think I've got the pattern done, so now I'm going to try and sew my first one.  It will be Josie's First Birthday present.  And then I'll make one for Ben, too.  I am so so sooo excited, and I really hope the numbers work!

Homemade Lavender Lemon All Purpose Cleaner

 

With a two year old and a 10 month old, we are always pulling out the windex and cleaning up some spill or another.  Besides the fact that we were spending lots of money on cleaner, I really wanted a more environmentally and kid friendly cleaner around.  So I did some research (read "google") and decided that a vinegar solution was what we needed.  But I didn't want to smell vinegar all of the time, so I decided to use up some of that lavender and scent our cleaner.

Click on "read more" to get the how to.