Taylor Made designs

Buy a Goodbyn Lunchbox and Save the World!

 

Ok, maybe not the world...but you'll save @ $190 in a year by not buying plastic baggies + juice boxes.  How's that?

Myself, I hate the concept of plastic baggies and packaging in general. Just today I was in Trader Joe's and they had these delicious peaches and I wanted to buy them, but the packaging was unbelievable. There was a wooden box, a plastic lid, a plastic shelve to hold the peaches and then tissue. I just couldn't bring myself to purchase them. If I wasn't in a hurry, I would have asked if I could buy the peaches but leave the packaging behind. Anyway, this summer  I was determined to figure out what I could do to eliminate waste. Cause you know, all these little gestures do add up!

So, I hit the internet in search of an alternative lunchbox for the kids. I am not sure how I found them, but I stumbled across Goodbyn. I loved the clean design of the site, and fell in love, {as much as one can} with the lunchbox and their overall philosophy. You can read about it here... it will warm your heart to know they are made right here in the good old USA by good + caring people :)

The lunchboxes come in a variety of fantastic colours, with and without ears {to aid in opening and closing} and most importantly, they come with a bunch of dishwasher safe stickers for the kids to decorate their boxes with. They had so much fun adding the stickers to their boxes. Just a creative exercise in general for them. Davis placed stickers on every surface, while William, my minimalist, applied them only to the cover and his drink bottle.

We've been using the Goodbyn for almost three weeks now + we have had no problems. No complaints. The kids love them. I feel great about not using plastic baggies. The kids have truly embraced the concept of being "green" :)

The customer service at Goodbyn is awesome. Overall, it's a company I would totally encourage others to support. Seriously, it will make you feel good to buy from these folks. Those of you local, The Toy Box in Hanover carries them. Goodbyn has a Facebook page and of course, there is their wonderful website.

Oh, no one asked me to write about this product... it's just when I come across a product as good as this, I believe in sharing :)

Valentine Treats

Not that I  need a "holiday" to treat myself or others... but here are some of my recent finds on the web.

Those cupcakes? Adorable, huh? Especially love the doggie illustration. You can order some of those illustrations here at Ticings. Of course, you can find a bunch of great handmade gifts on Etsy, like those bambo rings, that stone heart. or for those love notes... why not some xox pencils?

Happy Birthday to Me

Tonight, because it was:

1. hot

2. summer

3. yummy

4. my birthday on Thursday

we went to Far Far's for ice cream. I had chocolate chip. Heaven. So creamy. So good. For those of you who are familiar with weight watchers... it's a good 14 points! Seriously. But worth it. I hate the fact that I am getting old. But as they say, "it sure beats the alternative, dying young." So happy birthday to me. I hope it's a good year :) 

Homemade Ice Cream

Ah summertime :) Nothing is better than homemade ice cream. J'adore plain, yummy vanilla. It's still my all time favorite. Add some strawberries from the farmer's market + some homemade chocolate sauce and I am one happy camper!

Valentine's Day Party

What's not to love about Valentine's Day? Candy, cake, parties + love :) This weekend we went to a Valentine's Day party. {I posted the invited I designed about a week or so ago} The kids had a good time trying to hit the heart decorations we had hanging from the ceiling. I made some cuppie cakes for the event. Naturally they had to be pink :) They tasted quite yummy. This week I need to put together some valentines for the kids. What do you get for your kids or loved ones? Candy? Toys? I'd love to hear.

Holiday Gifts for Teachers

So what do we think of 2009 so far? Too early to tell? :)

Thought I'd show you what I put together for the kid's teachers. I always give money towards the class gift, but enjoy putting together packages that are just from Will + Davis too.

For Davis, there are so many people to put packages together for: her main teacher and her assistant, the Spanish teacher that Davis just adores, the woman who changes her clothes when she gets wet or dirty (which is at least once a week} the librarian who helps Davis pick out great books, the two women who take care of Davis during lunch bunch, the head of school and her assistant. That's a total of nine. phew.  For William, I only had to make four packages up. One for his Kindergarten teacher and her assistant, but also for the first grade teacher + her assistant. {William spends the morning in the 1st + 2nd grade class for math + reading}

I used brown paper bags and made up custom tags for each package. In November, when I had a lot of silkscreen ribbon orders, I decided to make up some holiday ribbon for myself. You'll see that I silkscreened red twill ribbon with the words, "happy holidays from the yarrantons" I think it made the packages feel more personal. I created the tags in Adobe Illustrator, and printed them out on one of my printers. I made homemade truffles, sweet + spicy pecans + chocolate covered preztels. I bought a little can of hot coco mix from Crate + Barrel as well as some ornaments. I included some of my holiday tags + notebooks. Nothing too much, but hopefuly enough to make the teachers smile and let them know how much we appreciate all they do for our kids. :)

Teacher Treats

Today is grandparent's day at William's school. Fun huh? My parents are spending the morning with him, learning about his school, what he's been working on etc. It's only a half day, so when they are done they will then go and pick up Davis from her school and then take them all out for lunch. woo hoo!

As much as I love those kids, I am overjoyed with having some time alone! Even Neal is at a client's office for the day... so it's just me and the dogs :) And I already took them for a three mile walk so they are sleeping away. It's so quiet and I am getting so much done. I forgot what it's like to be alone and able to do whatever I want.

Last night, with the help of the kids I made a bunch of treats for the teacher's at William's school. Today there is a teacher appreciation luncheon. Some parent's were asked to bring something for the luncheon. I was thinking of making a soup, but then thought, how much fun is that? So I offered to make some desserts. And being the germ-a-phobe that I've become, I figured instead of a having a big plate of cookies and pretzels, I'd bag them up. This way, all the coughing, sneezing and hands wouldn't get on them. Plus, I think having them bagged and with a little note at the top saying, "big thanks!" felt more festive.

I made double dark chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is from Todd English's cookbook. The pretzels were dipped in a really nice dark chocolate and then the kids sprinkled, well, sprinkles on top. Both are really, really good. Of course I saved some for us. Yum. Don't you just love this time of year?

note: my goodness, I just reread what I wrote and there were TONS of typos + misspellings. sorry about that! I'm not really that dumb :)

Homemade Oreo Truffles

Last year I made homemade orange liquor truffles for the holidays. They were really good... but they took SO much time and effort. So when I stumbled upon this recipe for oreo truffles I just had to try them. Of course, they are only as good as the ingredients you use. So don't skimp on the chocolate. I found a really yummy dark chocolate and used Mint Oreo Cookies to give them a more holiday taste. No low fat cream cheese either! Use the real stuff.

If I do say so myself, these truffles are really yummy and they took no time to make. {which makes them even more yummy} Let me know if you try them and how they came out. Happy December everyone!{double click the image above to see/print the directions out... if that doesn't work I can email you them}

Preppy Holiday Swap

I stumbled upon Clemsongirl and the Coach blog a few weeks back and she happened to have a post up that day about a "Preppy Christmas Decorations Swap". How could I refuse, being a preppy at heart? Well I did not refuse, and signed my preppy ass up. Of course I had to make everything pink and green, but with a holiday twist. The pattern I created reminded me of a candy cane and I think the entire package had a nice holiday feel to it.

Since Davis and I spend the afternoons together, she helped me put together my package. We settled on a few things for Rachel Ann, my swap partner, who happens to live right here in MA. Naturally, we made a little package for Davis too :) {she is four, and everything that is yours, is also hers}
 – Crochet snowflake + angel ornaments. Davis just LOVED these. Perfect decorations for Rachel Ann's tree or a packages. We "prepped" them up by adding pink + green ribbons to them. {We also bought a set for us}
– Two rolls of Custom Silkscreened Ribbon. "Happy Holidays from Rachel Ann" ribbon can decorate her packages this year. Davis picked out the ribbon at the craft store. She wanted pink ribbon, but I convinced her that green might be more festive for the holiday.
– Wine + Gift Tags: A few sets of both in pink and green should come in handy for her holiday packages.
– Mini Taylor Book: I made her a preppy green + pink book to keep track of her holiday list this year... but hopefully she'll be able to use it all year round.
– Homemade truffles + holiday MMs. You can guess who thought we should send these :) Good thing I was able to package some up before she got her hands on them. The homemade truffles came out so yummy. I'll post the recipe later this week. So easy. So good.

Overall, a really fun swap to do and a great way to get into the holiday spirit~ Thank you Clemsongirl!

Growing from Seeds!

This year I decided I would try to grow some veggies, herbs + flowers from seeds. So far I have: carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, lavender, pink + green zinnias, morning glorys, and a bunch of other flowers. I started in May. I saved empty toilet rolls so I could use them to start my little seedlings. (They worked out perfectly.) I cut the rolls in half and then filled them with soil for seedlings, watered them and put them in my basement under a grow light. And then prayed :)

I am happy to report that I have had great success with the seeds. For awhile, it was touch and go... when 10 days had past and nothing had started to grow, I got a little worried. But then... around days 14-15 little plants started to emerge :) Patience. Not my strongest trait :)

Originally I was going to create a new veggie patch in my backyard but my schedule just hasn't allowed it. So I am going to plant everything in my existing garden. I have plenty of places I can put the flowers and the herbs. It's the veggies that I might have to figure something out for. I think the carrots are a bit overcrowed... so who knows if they will actually grow but hey, I'm learning :)  I'll take some photos to show you how they look in a few weeks once they are in their beds.

Shona over at LaLa dex press has started her first garden in her new beautiful home.
Are you growing anything fun?

flower lollipop cuppie cakes. yum.

Today we're celebrating Davis's birthday at school even though her real birthday isn't till the end of July. I really wanted her to feel special, as every little + big birthday girl should :) I can't recall where I first saw these cuppie cakes...but I loved the idea - (maybe martha stewart?) and decided, despite the heat (it's 90 degrees here) and Davis's teacher requesting popsicles, that I would make these. I know the kids will love them.

Do you know how hard it is to find coloured jimmies + basic lollipops? Seriously, I went on a manhunt. I checked out CVS (the Consumer Value Store), Walmart, our supermarket, the local cake supply shop, and no one had coloured jimmies or basic flat lollipops. I even went to the post office to ask them where they buy their lollipops. (they keep a basket of pops out for the kids) but, just my luck, they had closed for lunch. Thank goodness for Trader Joes – they carry these organic pops that worked out just perfectly. I settled for coloured sprinkles instead of jimmies.

I also made a poster with all sorts of photos of Davis and a little spiral book. I'll post those tomorrow. Today after school Davis and I are off to the city for a girl's day of beauty. Stay cool everyone. It's really a hot one.

:: Hanging with Davis ::

Now that William goes to school full day, Davis and I spend a lot of one on one time together :) She totally cracks me up – she has such a great sense of humor. We both miss hanging with William though :(

We were shopping in the grocery store the other day when a woman approached me and said, "do you have a digital camera on you?" and of course I said, "yes, why?" "Well, your daughter is totally adorable hanging out under the carriage. What a great photo it would make." So out came my camera, and I snapped the above photo of her. Cute huh?

Davis is also a little fashionista. Start'em young I say :) She loves, loves, loves to wear my sunglasses. She has about three pairs of her own, but she somehow manages to get mine and put them on. I think those sunglasses look very good on her, n'est pas?

Yesterday we made another batch of chocolate chip cookies. I much prefer to have the kids eat homemade cookies than store bought ones. Plus, they love to help make them...and who knows, I might be grooming the next Todd English or Julia Child :)

:: Italian Egg Drop Soup with Meatballs ::

In an attempt to add some new soups to my repetoire, last night I made Italian Egg Drop Soup, and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed with my bad ass cooking self :)

I found the recipe on Rachel Ray's "everyday" website. Say what you will about her, {I'll say I enjoy her and I usually watch her @ 6:00pm while I am cooking. She's not pretentious, and she's comfortable.} {oh, and have you ever read her magazine? It's terrific!} ok, before I digress any further, her recipes are so easy to follow and make. {unlike Martha's... which tend to be full of ingredients and steps – ever see her chicken pot pie recipe??}

Well, the soup came out awesome AND it was quick to make. I pretty much followed her recipe  – I did substitute the escarole with spinach. And I didn't use all six eggs. I used 2 in the meatballs and only 2 in the soup. {I just thought that was a lot of egg, just a judgement call on my end}

Neal declared the soup delicous and Davis loved it too. William only wanted the meatballs. It was light and not heavy at all. But, surprisingly filling. Very nice for a cold fall evening. Oh I served it with lemon slices, which was a great touch. So all in all, I think I have a winner :) If anyone has any other soup recipes and are willing to share, let me know! I am always on the look out for great tasting, healthy soups.

Happy Weekend everyone! Thanks for visiting this week.