Taylor Made designs

A Day at the Museum of Fine Arts

 
What kind of parent would I be if I didn't expose my kids to a little "cultcha" :) So, during vacation last week I took the kids to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. We had such a good time.

As an artist myself, it pleased me to no end that both my kids loved the museum. We spent over three hours visiting all the different exhibitions. Naturally, William loved the Egyptian and Greek art. All reminisant of what Indian Jones might have found during one of his digs. Poor Davis was freaked out by all the talk of mummies. She asked if she could call me "kristen" instead of mummy... that's how freaked out she was! We could not get out of there fast enough for her. Poor thing.

Since we are reading all about the presidents, they were overjoyed at identifying Washington and John Quincy Adams in the Art of the Americas. They can name almost all the presidents. I'm lucky I know who the last five were! (and some of them I want to forget! ha!) We also managed to visit my favorite wing, the contemporary/modern art section. 

Now, I'm not a fan of self-serve, fast-food, so we ended our visit at one of their new bistros. I thought I could order the kids a nice plate of cheese + fruit like the good old days. But boy has it changed. Now it's fancy and expensive. Most entrees were @ $16 which for kids is a bit pricey, no? Davis will try and eat anything so I never worry about her. But William is a nightmare to feed. And, seeing that I was much like him growing up, I have a bit of soft spot for him and try not to give him a hard time about it. Anyway, our waiter could barely speak english - and I can barely speak spanish... so there was a lot of miscommunication. And not in a funny "sitcom" way :) The kids were hungry, but would not eat the food because, "it's not what we asked for mum! Tell him to do it right." It was so frustrating trying to explain to the waiter that there was suppose to be no red sauce on my son's pizza etc.  We ended leaving, hungry, tired, and well a bit pissy.

Not wanting this to dampen the kids experience, I found a Dunkin Donuts and bought them a donut + me a large coffee. Yup, a bit of Boston cultcha :)

Go Pats!

We had to celebrate Neal's birthday early today... since the only thing he wanted was to be able to watch the Pat's game on TV :) We take our sports seriously here in New England...when we left Burton's @ 5:00 there was hardly anyone left in the restaurant.

We headed to The Derby Shoppes to buy The Penguin Home Soda Maker at Williams Sonoma for his birthday and then to have dinner at Burton's. Have you heard of "The Penguin"?  It's a godsend for our family since we drink Poland Springs Sparkling Water by the case. You basically eliminate the lugging, storage and disposal associated with store-bought soda and sparkling water. Terrific for the environment. Anyway, after they {the good folks at Williams Sonoma} did a demonstration, and got my kids all hyped up for it, they realized they did not have any left in the store :( Total buzzkill. They have one down in Mashpee, but I'm not too keen on having to drive 45 minutes there and 45 minutes back just to get this thing. Kinda goes against the whole "reducing your carbon footprint" concept of the product, huh?

So, I'm trying to see if anyone else carries this product locally. Companies can't ship it because of the bottled CO2. Once I get my hands on it, I'll give it a review :) Happy Sunday. Happy Birthday to my husband, and Go Pats!

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 :)

Have a Heart!

How fun are these?

I saw this idea in a magazine a few years ago and I've been itching to make them ever since. I get such a kick out of making stuff like this :)

It's not too late to make these... it is easy + does not take long to do.

1. Have your kids pose for you. Keep in mind the shape of their arms/hands.
2. Next, download the photos to your computer. If you have Photoshop or an image editor, clean, sharpen and brighten the photos.
3. I prefer to work in a vector-based program when I'm dealing with type. {photoshop is pixel-based... so type is never crisp} So I opened up InDesign + created a 4 x 6 document. I decided to make life easy for myself and bought glossy 4 x 6 photo paper to print on. You could always create 2 up on an 8.5 x 11 sheet. Place the photos into your document. Crop and adjust the photo.
4. Next, I added the text, keeping in mind where the lollipop sticks would be.
5. I then printed out over 50 photos.
6. You can buy any kind of pop to use, but earlier in the week the kids and I made homemade dark chocolate lollipops. {when I say the kids helped, I mean, they taste-tested)
7. Using my exacto knife, I placed 2 cuts above + below the kids hands.
8. I then pushed the lollipop stick into the slits - no need for glue or tape if you are using heavy stock.
You might need tape if you are using thin paper.
9. Double check your list of names... you are done :)

I'm heading into School to set up the Valentine's celebration for Davis's class. I made heart shaped sugar cookies for a class treat. I dipped one side into dark chocolate and then sprinkled some coloured jimmies on top. For William's class treat, I went a little healthier... I bought a box of crackers + a huge block of cheddar cheese. I then used a little heart shaped cutter to form heart shaped cheese pieces. Davis is wearing her red tutu. Looking tres chic. I wish I could pull this look off :)

Have a Heart

We've been on vacation this week. yipeee! The kids had their very first sleep over. They stayed at my sister Renée's place. Well, I should really say that Willilam had his first sleep over, as Davis chickened out and insisted on coming home with me. On the way home in the car she told me, "mummy, I would sleep over if you did too." awww, break my heart. She's only four and still my baby girl. 

Remember how I didn't know what to send in for William's Valentine's party at school? Jen over at Our Daily Big Top had a great idea. Send in cheese and crackers, but cut the cheese with a heart shaped cookie cutter. So that is what I did. They came out adorable and William said the kids loved it. I used the cutter on some brownies too. Those did not go to school, much to the happiness of my family!

Despite coughs + runny noses {yes, we've all been battling a cold} tomorrow we are off to the Museum of Science. Happy day!

Valentine's Gift Tags

Today Davis is celebrating Valentine's Day at school – so out came the red tutu :) She wore this for Christmas and looked so cute. Since the school frowns upon non-healthy treats, I decided not to make or send in homemade valentines. We went to Target and l let the kids buy valentine's for their friends. I picked up daffodils for the teachers and made sweet little tags for them. I did make homemade lollipops and candies for the kids... but they will get them on Saturday. William celebrates tomorrow. His teacher said if we want to send in a special and healthy snack I can... but I'm stuck as to what I should send in. Any ideas?