Birthday Banner

We recently celebrated my daughter's first birthday! In order to make her day even more special I made a banner with pictures I had taken over her first year. The banner had 13 photos all together; one from ages newborn through 12 months. I used scrapbooking paper behind each photo and used satin ribbon to tie each photo together. It was amazing to see how much she changed each month. I was so happy with the result.

(Click photo to see a larger picture)

Baby Shower #1 - Diaper Cakes

Baby shower’s are so much fun!

I’ve seen a lot of diaper cakes, yet I still get excited to see and hear new ideas for them. For the "cake" layers you can use diapers, blankets, clothes or towels. To decorate the layers I've seen toys, baby products, ribbon, headbands, hair clips and candy. Some good cake toppers are stuffed animals, rubber ducks, bottles and cute baby products. Another fun idea is to put surprises inside the cake. You could use something like baby powder or a big bottle of bubbles to hold the layers together. Since the diapers will ultimately be used, writing inspirational notes to put inside the diapers would be a great surprise for Mom or Dad (great idea Lindsey!).

Here is one I recently made, I can’t wait to make another!

Kitchen "Must Haves"

Ok. So for Christmas I would like to get brand new baking supplies, and since I know you are the Queen at baking I would like your advice on what are your kitchen "must haves" for cooking/baking and decorating (and brand names please)!

Thank you!

brandonsmommy07

Dear brandonsmommy07,

Getting new kitchenware is so exciting, especially when you love to cook or bake! My husband and I take turns in the kitchen because we both love to cook. I am going to provide a few lists for you to look over. I have provided brand names for the products that stand above their competitors. For the other basic kitchen tools most brands will suffice.

If anyone else would like to share some kitchen favorites please do!

Things I have and love:

KitchenAid^® mixer

Cuisinart^™ food processor

Cuisinart^™ rice cooker and steamer (I use this a few times a week, it makes perfect rice and steams our vegetables at the same time, love it!)

Soho Magnetic spice rack

Magnetic Knife Holder

Wusthof^® knives (I use the Santoku knives the most)

Bamboo cutting board

Meat tenderizer

Space Saver^® food storage containers with the same size lids (I hate having a bunch of plastic containers that I can’t seem to find the correct lid for)

Betty Crocker Bake’n Fill Pans

Silpat^® baking mat

Offset icing spatula

Other essentials:

Muffin tins

Square pans

Circle pans

Rectangle pans

Cookie sheets

Loaf pans

Pie dishes

Oxo^® angled measuring cups

Measuring spoons

Silicone Spatulas

Sifter

Rolling pin

Cooling rack

Pastry bags (disposable ones are easiest) and icing tips

Microplane zester/grater

Long serrated knife for leveling and shaping cakes

Tongs

Kitchen shears

Things I don’t have but think I would love:

Muffin pan with lid

Le Creuset^® Dutch Oven

Bundt Pan

Pineapple Easy Slicer

I hope these lists help!

-dcm

Home-School Workbox Solutions

Dear Creative Mama,

I'm interested in putting together a workbox system for my children's homeschool lessons.  See here: http://heatherpreckel.blogspot.com/search/label/Workboxes  That is a cute set-up, but I can't figure out where to get a nice looking rack and boxes or how to make cute labels.  There are many unnattractive set-ups (I won't link any specific photos, I'd hate to offend).  Do you have any ideas?  Ordering over the internet would be easiest for me, but I maybe able to get to a store, too.

Thanks,

Lien

Dear Lien,

I was at my local Target when I came across the itso™ storage system. I thought it would be a perfect solution for your workbox system. You can customize the system to make it work for your classroom/home. They come in plastic or laminate wood for the cubes; you can then choose from a variety of bins, shelves, drawers or cabinets to use for the inside. Each child could have his/her bins in a specific color in order to distinguish which activities were theirs. The Target website has a great itso™ builder tool to customize your own system (http://www.target.com/b/ref=sc_iw_r_1_0/?node=676256011).

I have a few ideas for the labels on the bins; your solution depends on how you want to organize your workbox;

1.  If you are going to use a number system you could take pictures with the children holding numbers and adhere them to the bin.

2.  You could spell out numbers in English, or in another language.

3.  You could paint a rectangle on each bin with chalkboard paint, or paint small frames with chalkboard paint to put on each bin (like in the picture below, the chalkboard labels were from Pottery Barn Kids).

4.  You can use chipboard covered with nice scrap booking paper to make labels, and then put Velcro on the back so you can switch the labels easily.

Good luck with your workbox, I would love to see a picture of your finished product!

Happy Home-schooling,

dcm

Fun Summer Cake

I saw a really cool idea for a sunflower cake and made two for my niece's birthday party. It was a sunflower cake using twinkies for the petals. The kids loved eating the twinkies and it was so nice to already have servings cut. The middle part of the cake had mini hershey kisses all over it and everything was covered with the yellow icing. It was a hit!

Storing Children's Artwork

Dear Creative Mama,

Can you think of a creatively clever way of storing children's artwork? We have 3 long strings and clothes pins on their wall, but my daughter is prolific in her artwork, and really doesn't want to part with anything. It's a volume problem.
No room on the wall,
LHO

Dear LHO,

Even though my little girl cannot create wonderful pieces of artwork yet (I'm sure she will soon!), I've thought about what to do when she does! I don't get any kickbacks for suggesting these products, but these frames from dynamic FRAMES that open to show the latest masterpieces and keep older works right behind it look like a wonderful solution. They come in a few sizes and they store and display the art! If you don't want to spend quite as much money I'm sure a shadowbox would work wonderfully as well (and you can get 40% off at Michaels).

dcm

Dear Creative Mama

Welcome to my brain child, Dear Creative Mama! As I am currently a stay at home mom, aspiring to stay home with my precious little girl, Ellie. I am starting this blog as means to help me discover what I can do from home and to help my creative juices escape.
I have been home with Ellie since the day she was born and I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity. Even though many things have not gone my way since her birth, I believe everything happens for a reason. Ellie was born March 3, 2009. She has been an absolute joy, my life has changed so much. My husband and I couldn't be happier.
A little about my background, before Ellie, I was a design director for a company that distributes veterinary products. I always felt held back in the corporate world, and I've always wanted to do something that would help other people and let me express my creativity. I have a passion for being creative and I hope this site can help me free some of that creativity! I am an aspiring photographer, (I have thousands of photos of Ellie from her first 5 months of life) a graphic designer, a runner, a triathlete, I love the outdoors, I love planning parties and events, I love cooking and appreciate good food from all cultures. I could go on and on about myself, but I'll have to leave some of the suspense for future posts.
Ideally, I would like this site to be used as a means of helping other Mommies (or Dads, future Mommies, babysitters, Aunts, Grandmothers, or anyone really) be creative, and to answer any questions that I can! I am by no means a professional, and can only give you my opinion or ideas about things, but to have another opinion can only help right? You can take it or leave it. So anyone have any topic suggestions or questions?
So thank you in advance to anyone who can help me on this journey to creativity! The sky is the limit. I can't wait to get started.