I believe this can totally change our lives and our outlook. How awesome, I’m inspired and I want you to be too! Thanks Megan and Chalyce XOXO

I jumped at the chance to put together these darling mini photo books. They hold 50 photos in each tiny book and you can order TWO for $12!! Jackpot!

I am by no means being compensated for sharing their products, I honestly just tried the service, LOVED IT and wanted to pass it on. You can not only print these tiny books, but they offer options like sticker/posters/prints and more!

You won’t believe the cuteness and the quality. Prinstagram makes it super easy to upload your photos. Shipping was quick and my books are now being enjoyed by my children (and me). So get printing those memories, it feels so wonderful to hold your memories in your hands and share them with those you love.

My Brassy and fashionable friend Megan is showing us all how it’s done! That’s right DIYers, scoot on over to Brassy Apple for a tutorial on how to make your own Necklace board! Brassy Apple DIY Necklace Board Tutorial

And other ways to store & organize your jewelry in her video here >>

Yes, it’s true that celebrity moms are snapping them up like hotcakes (cool mamas like Tori Spelling, Ali Landry, Jennifer Garner and Vanessa Lachey to name a few). So why are these bags so desired? Well, I was sent a gorgeous “metallic mama” bag to take for a test drive and what I discovered was the ideal blend of style, quality and function.

First of all, I’ll be honest – this is a big bag. It’s meant to have room for mom’s on the go to be able to tote along all they need for baby. I personally LOVED the size and amount of baby stuff, personal items and even electronics I could fit in to take with me. The next thing I was giddy over were the labelled pockets (yes that right, labelled). It takes what could be a mess of a bag, and turns it into a functional and organized tote, picture asking someone to hand you the baby wipes…now they can find it in a blink! Bingo, it’s genius.

Due Date Diaper Bags feature 3 “drop in” bags for cosmetics, snacks and a large one for extra clothing. The bottom of the bag is your own little changing station, featuring a changing pad and spots to hold diaper cream, toys, wipes and diapers.

The bags come in three styles: Metallic Mama, Midnight Mama and Red Hot Mama. For the ultimate little luxury you have have your Due Date bag monogrammed. What a treat for the expectant mom in your life! xoxo – Daria

To purchase your own Due Date bag visit DueDateBags.com
Join the Due Date Bags Facebook group>>
Follow Due Date Bags on Twitter here>>

Boutique Cafe {Daily Dish} Sample Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are honest, accurate, and not encouraged anyway by monetary donations. A sample free of charge was received from Celebrity Baby Trend Expert, Rachel Florio-Urso.

Ooohh! A trip to Michaels today had me giddy as I dropped by to see if they had brought in the NEW Heidi Swapp scrapbooking goodies…and they did! You must understand how thrilling it is for us Canadian gals to have the opportunity to buy the coolest products here in our home and native land, instead of having to truck on down to the USA (though that’s fun too). I was giddy like a schoolgirl checking out the minifiles, the albums, the stickers and pendant flags, the Color Magic. Sensory Overload at it’s finest! Thanks Heidi xoxo Daria

Visit Heidi Swapp’s Blog here >>
Join her Facebook Group here>>
Kick back and enjoy Heidi’s YouTube Videos here>>

The props were so much fun to make. I used some good quality cardstock and cut out the shapes I wanted on my silhouette cameo. I ended up cutting out moustaches, big kissy lips, glasses, etc. and I also found some cute little fuzzy hearts on sticks at the dollar store and used them too. In my craft storage I had a package of adorable pink paper straws with polkadots, I used hot glue to add the shapes so they could hold the props and strike a pose!

The real magic was in using my Instax Mini camera so the kids instantly had their pictures. We put them up on the wall for all to see and giggle at, and at the end of the dance they each took their picture home. With teenagers sometimes they feel self conscious when asked to pose for a picture, but as soon as they saw the props they were all in and it gave them a way to play dress up.

It was so much fun, I would do this again in a heartbeat and plan on doing this for my little kids closer to Valentine’s Day with their friends. If you create your own photo booth for Valentine’s Day I’d love to see it, be sure to leave a link in the comments. – XOXO Daria

Take me to the Valentine’s Day Listings ->>

With a much anticipated resurgence in the custom boutique and handmade community, design groups and designers are finally coming back to the community we all loved so much. You know, the one that brought us together as we not only shared our designs but our lives, the growth of our children, and the friendship and community that has been unmatched since.

The NEW Designing Minds is back and ready to share features on the hottest designers, tips and techniques for those just starting out, custom boutique sets, accessories, and items up for sale on various venues (Ebay, Etsy, Websites, Artfire, Facebook etc)!

Congratulations Goosie – we are thrilled for you and excited for the community! XO Daria

If you are going out tonight, please be safe. A dear friend of mine got the call every parent dreads this week, that her son had been in a car accident and hit by a drunk driver. Thankfully this story has a happy ending, that everyone was alright. Please don’t drink and drive, not at all. And if you aren’t drinking tonight but your are out on the roads please be aware and cautious. Let’s start off the New Year safely.

Happy New Year my friends!

Then to add even more merriment and excitement to our family video nights, we also had a chance to watch and enjoy the VeggieTales Ultimate Christmas Collection! My children love VeggieTales (including my 18 year old son who laughed his head off watching with us). Now your own family can enjoy classic holiday shows The Toy That Saved Christmas—a lesson in giving; The Star of Christmas—a lesson in how to love; Saint Nicholas—a story in joyful giving; It’s a Meaningful Life—a lesson in being content; and The Little Drummer Boy—a story about hope, love and forgiveness. Also included in the collection is the VeggieTales: Christmas Sing-along Songs DVD and 25 Favorite Christmas Songs! CD. We really enjoyed the chance to watch some new VeggieTales Christmas shows together, I recommend a family pj party and lots of caramel popcorn!! You can snag your own copy of VeggieTales: The Ultimate Christmas Collection DVD’s for approx. $19.99 and they are available wherever DVD’s are sold.

*******GIVEAWAY! The Morris + King Company for Classic Media and Big Idea are giving away a copy of each set collection to 1 lucky Boutique Cafe reader!!

To enter, leave a comment telling us you’re favorite Christmas movie or TV episode.
Additional entries: You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:
• “Like” Boutique Cafe on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
• Mention this giveaway on Twitter (with @BoutiqueCafe in the tweet) and leave a comment with the URL.
• Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway and leave a comment telling us you did so.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: December 23rd (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

Winner Update! Congratulations to Ronald Oliver who has won the drawing!! I will be contacting you via email to arrange shipment of your new video collections.

Dear Friends, I’m joining with many other bloggers today who are taking a “day of silence” in honor of the Families affected by the Connecticut Shooting. I am stepping away from Social Media today to spend time with my dear family. With love and prayers – Daria

I recently made a ton of these Mason Jar Snow Globes with my children and the young women in our church. Everyone LOVED them so much. They are beautiful, fun and easy to do! It’s a great project and when you’re done you feel like you really have accomplished something wonderful because they are mesmerizing. Here’s how I made ours >>

You’ll Need:
-Clean Mason Jar and Lid with a good seal
-Glitter OR Snow Flakes (I purchased Buffalo SnowFlakes at Michaels – see image)
-Something to put inside your globe. I found these cute trees at our Shoppers Drug Mart – a box of 3 for $5 but you can use bottle brushes or other trees from hobby and craft stores.
-Water
-ribbon if you wish
-A Glue Gun

How To:
-Use your glue gun to glue the base of your tree to the inside middle of your lid. Ensure it’s directly in the middle and test it out ahead of time to make your your tree will fit through the opening. Let it dry.
-Add your snowflakes or glitter to your jar, a little goes a long way. I used few generous pinches with these flakes but you can do whatever you’d like.
-Now add your water. You want to fill your jar quite high, almost to the rim so you don’t have big ugly air bubbles. Just a little space. Don’t worry you can always adjust it.
-Now take your lid with tree attached and screw it into place. Tighten it good and tight. Wipe down your jar and make sure you have a good strong seal.
-Add some cute ribbon and you’re done!

Now you’re ready to gift them or enjoy them. Be warned, they are addictive and you’ll want to make lots. You can also experiment with jar sizes and cute things to put in them (i.e. christmas balls, ornaments, figurines etc.). Have fun with the flakes, go make some MAGIC!! – Daria

If you make a Snow Globe please share your pictures or a link with us, we’d LOVE to see what you’ve made!

The Sugar Snap files are designed to fit right into you existing diaper bag…or purse…or any bag you want to tote around. I hope that my description can do them justice, as they are too cool! The Sugar Snap files consist of 5 pouches with easy to identify tabs such as: Lotions & Potions, Me & Mine, Dipes & Wipes, Shirts & Socks, Snacks & Supplies. All of them are attached to a ring but you can add or subtract pouches according to your plans for the day. I swear that they have the power to make any disorganized and frazzled Mommy look like an organized phenom! Lola and I were sent the Parker design (green pattern with orange trim) to try out and share with you. I have to tell you, I feel like a new woman. I absolutely love this product, instead of spending time digging and rummaging through my diaper bag to find stuff it’s all easy and accessible in those tabbed pouches.

If the labelled tabs aren’t enough, each pretty pouch has a mesh front so you can peer right in and grab what you need for your baby.

I’m so excited about Sugar Snap that it might just be my new “go-to” gift for all of my expecting mom friends. – XO Daria

Boutique Cafe {Daily Dish} Sample Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are honest, accurate, and not encouraged anyway by monetary donations. A sample free of charge was received from Celebrity Baby Trend Expert, Rachel Florio-Urso.

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY - Ready! Set! Get Clickin’ – it’s time to shop and save with our Black Friday merchants. We know you’ll find beautiful gifts for your family and friends. Please take a brief moment to Tweet this post on Twitter or share with your friends. Let’s keep everyone inside where it’s warm to shop today. Cozy up with your cup of cocoa and visit the deals we’ve discovered… Go Go Go!!

Promos and Discounts for BLACK FRIDAY:

Extra Frosting Please: Buy Two, get one free! Black Friday Sale! Just mention what your third item would be (equal or lesser value) in the notes to seller upon checkout. Valid 8am PST Friday through 8am PST Saturday.

Sweet N Snappy Designs:Promo 15% off! use code: HOLIDAY2012 entire shop on sale from 11/23-11/26

Lucky No.7: Promo 10% off! use coupon code “GIVETHANKS” Handmade quilts – sale now through Monday, November 26, 2012!

Jo Totes: All Bags Under $99! 1 Day Only >> ends Nov. 23rd 11:59pm EST.

Pink Fig Design: $25 Grab Bag of Patterns!! Grab your bag and fill it with patterns of your choice >> Choose from Pink Fig, Lila Tueller and Hot Scott Patterns.

Pink Fig Design: 40% off!! Coupon Code is PFBLACK40

You Can Make This: Over 100 eBooks and ePatterns marked down to $5! Black Friday – Cyber Monday >>

Boutique Cafe: BOGO on Sidebar Advertising!! Purchase one week in the sidebar, get 1 week free!! ends Cyber Monday 11:59 pm.

Groop Dealz: Free Shipping on Tons of items – up to 75% off! Shop now>>

Rothschild: 30% off Site Wide Plus Free Shipping Use Code THANKS2012

Clickin Moms: $50 off your purchase of $100 or more+FREE domestic shipping in the CM Store!Use Code BLACKFRIDAY valid through 11/25/12

Ruche: 20% Off Black Friday Sale! Use Coupon Code “2012BF20” *excludes children, bridal and sale items

Kiokko Bebe Couture: 45% Off your entire order! Use Code “BLACKFRIDAY”

PuraVida Bracelets: 50% Off Everything! Use Code {BLACK50} at checkout

Skip to my Lou: Silhouette only $229 and 40% off all supplies! Enter Code “SKIP”

Treasure Bay Fabrics: 25% off everything in shop! Use Code “SAVE25OFF” at checkout

Adore By Nat: 25% off everything in her shop! Use Code “2013BFCM” at checkout

JessicaSprague.com: 20% OFF Project Life Scrapbooking!! Project Life by Becky Higgins >>

Totsy: Up to 90% off for Black Friday Shop now >>

See Kai Run: 30% off plus Free Ship Amazing Children’s Shoes >>

Tiny Prints: 20% Off your entire cart + $10 Off Holiday Card! Use Code “20novsw” and Code “DOD1123” till 11/23

Shabby Apple: Save 20% Off on Everything! Use Code “JOYFUL SEASON” at checkout >> Dotty bonus: Add any item with polkadots to your order and receive Free Shipping with Code “20POLKA”!

Shutterfly: Enjoy 10 FREE Cards Use Promo Code “BLACKFRIDAY” Ends Sunday

***MORE Promos and Discounts coming in throughout the day

Wishing each of you a healthy and happy Thanksgiving with those you love!

We haven’t put out a new podcast in awhile, but our past ones continue to climb in listenership. In fact, I just checked and we’ve had over 500,000 all time downloads of Boutique Cafe show Episodes (and thats not including YouTube)!

Thanks so much for continuing to listen and participate in our posts. Wow! I’m so touched, as my goal has always been to have an accessible showcase for the handmade, sewing, DIY and children’s fashion community and all the buyers who love them. Over the years we have interviewed, spotlighted, and celebrated amazing mompreneurs and businesses (as well as a few memorable celebrities). This experience has been such a joy to me, and I hope to each of you. I’m elated that our listeners still love to grab their cup of cocoa and listen while they sew their latest project.

So, this begs the question…more podcasts?? Would you like more?

http://www.boutiquecafe.com/home/category/podcasts/

Do you have a promo that you want mentioned on BoutiqueCafe for Black Friday and Cyber Monday? We’re sharing all of our outstanding discount promos from you by opening up the opportunity for our Facebook and mailing list friends to share their deals!

If you have a discount or sale going on for Black Friday in your shops, Etsy stores, websites etc. and want our Boutique Cafe traffic please email me the details including: url, promo explanation and you’ll receive a linky in our Boutique Cafe Black Friday Listing!! Cost to be included is $2 (we want it affordable for everyone). Paypal your $2 payment to boutiquecafe@gmail.com right away, and send over your info. Happy Sales To You! – XOXO Daria

For those of you who Love a great deal, be sure to swing by BoutiqueCafe for all the Black Friday savings! See you here on Friday – minus the lines

Search
Legwear on Etsy here >>>

Please come follow @BoutiqueCafe, and share with your friends if you love #handmade #DIY #craft #sewing #giveaways and so much more! Thank you everyone for your help to reach this fun milestone. Daria
https://twitter.com/BoutiqueCafe

Enjoy these links to Etsy Halloween Items:

Halloween Treat Buckets & Bags >>

Kids Costumes >>

Halloween Dresses >>

Other Links include:

Halloween Toys >>

Pet Costumes >>

Treats, Bags & Favors >>

Decor & Party >>

DIY >>

Jewelry >>

Our Top 10 Frameable Halloween Art & Fun:

Halloween Subway Art eighteen25
Boo Art by It Works for Bobbi!
Say Boo and Scary On Indulgy
Boo Sign & Instructions The TomKat Studio
Trick or Treat Tip Junkie
Halloween Tags & Cards Lil’ Luna
Trendy Halloween Art Yummy Mummy Club
Too Cute To Spook This Kalil Life
Pumpkin Halloween October Subway Art {Scrap} Lifters
You’ve Been Booed! (Neighbour) Indulgy

Katie has just opened a fantastic new Etsy shop called LuckyNo7 and it’s stocked with incredibly beautiful handmade quilts of all sizes. Not only are they beautiful and meticulously made, but Katie has come up with an ingenious way to give back. For every 6 quilts that she sells, Katie will make and donate one to charity! Isn’t that incredible?! Hence the clever name of her shop… Lucky No. 7!

I’d like to invite each of you to take a moment to check out her shop on Etsy and support her new venture. These quilts are beautiful and would make a cherished gift for someone you love. Congrats Katie XO Daria

I’m definitely ready to make these for each of my nieces this Christmas as well as my little Lola bug. Can’t wait to get cracking on this adorable project! Had to share – don’t forget to bookmark her blog it’s full of awesome posts and ideas. XO - Daria

Growing up we had a fair sized garden and my mom did lots of canning. It was really more out of necessity than anything. We lived in a very small isolated community and in the winter we often couldn’t go to town for weeks at a time. We had a small community grocery store that had the basics, you know, bread, eggs and milk, but it was very expensive and didn’t have everything you needed.

My mom canned the basics….peaches, pears, cherries, salmon. Yes salmon, but don’t worry, today we will start with something far easier than Salmon.

I always suggest apples as a good place to start. They are abundant in the fall and very forgiving no matter what you do to them but since I am already up to my eyeballs in peaches, we will start there, and I’ll do this in laymans terms so feel free to follow along with a glass of wine.

What you NEED (there are lots of other things that are nice to have but you can start out with a very basic set up)......

~a large stock pot,
~canning jars (500ml/pint jars are great for beginners),
~fruit of choice (we are using peaches today),
~a pair of tongs
~a whole lot of ambition.

The very first thing you do is wash your jars and rings. I run mine through the sani cycle. Set the seals aside for now we will get to those shortly.

Now you want your peaches to be nice and ripe because you need to peel them. You can dip them in boiling water for ten seconds and then ice water to shock them and the skin should just slide off but I prefer to use peaches that are ripe enough that the skin just peels off without having to blanch them. Beware though, they are so yummy at this stage you may eat more than you can. So cut the peach around the pit the same way you do an avocado, then twist the halts and they should come apart, this is where you will be thankful that you got freestone peaches. The stone will come right away, then pick the stone out of the other half, it should pop right out. Then grab a piece of skin and just start to pull the skin off. If the peach is the perfect ripeness it should slide right off. You can leave them in halves for quarter them or slice them. Whatever you like then toss them in to the jars. Pack them pretty good, and get about 3/4” from the top.

Once your jars are all full you want to make a syrup to pack the jars with. I use a very light syrup. 1cup of sugar to 4 cups of water. Put sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil. While waiting for the syrup to boil Put the seals in another pot of water and bring them to a boil. Once boiled, remove from heat and set aside. Pour the syrup in to the jars leaving about 1/2”-3/4” of headspace. Use a knife slid into the side of the jar to remove any air bubbles and top up with syrup of needed. Wipe jar rim, using tongs remove seal from hot water pan and put on the jar, screw ring on but only finger tight. What this means is just screw it on and give it one good crank. Don’t go overboard tightening it. This inhibits the ability for air to escape and a vacuum to be created.

Once you have all of your jars filled and lids on place in your large pot….ideally you will have an actual canning pot with a rack but no worries if you don’t. You can buy the racks separately to fit in your really big soup pot or I just cover the bottom with extra rings until a little rack is created. Place jars in the pot and fill with water until there is 1” of water above the jars and put the lid on (I had not yet put the lid on in the photo to the left). Turn stove on high (if you have a flat top range you need to do this on a camp stove outside or at a friends house. Flat top stoves don’t like canners) once the water comes to a boil you start your processing time. For pints you process for 30 minutes and for quarts 35 minutes. Once the timer goes off, turn the heat off and remove the jars from the pot. Use tongs to do this and place the jars on a heavy towel to cool. You want to leave them alone until they are fully cooled, as they cool you will hear the lids snap, this means they have sealed. Once the jars are completely cool, check the seal by tapping on the lid. An unsealed lid makes a hollow sound and you can push it down in the center, a sealed lid is already sucked down on it’s own. Now you have canned peaches to enjoy over the winter. Peaches will remain shelf stable for at least a year. They are still good after that but a year is generally when the quality will begin to decline.

When you put up your jars remember to remove the rings and store them separately. This is important, if a seal breaks in storage and bacteria grows you want to know that when you take the jar down. If the rings are off, the seal will be broken when you take the jar down alerting you to the spoiled jar, if you leave the ring on the contents can ferment and bacteria can grow and the jar can reseal itself trapping the bacteria in and you would never know, and you put yourself at risk. Now this sounds scary, but in my entire life I’ve never had a jar unseal while in storage. I did have one jar of jam that looked iffy when I took it down but it was still sealed….I tossed it. Better safe than sorry.

So there you have it, happy canning!!
~Chey
The Happy Homemaker

Don’t forget to join The HappyHomemaker Facebook Page here for even more tutorials and tips!

Through Is This Really My Life Emily blogs everything from recipes, to personal events, to local hot spots (all while being Mom to 4 kids, a wife to one truly great guy, and drinking ice-cold Diet Coke when necessary).

I highly recommend her blog as a must-read, its one of the stops I simply have to make each day. Not only is Em a fun, honest and skillful blogger, but Emily is truly a woman I admire. She is lovely heart and soul (plus she has great hair, and amazing shoes!).

I invite you to discover Is This Really My Life and enjoy her blog post as much as I, and oodles of avid readers do. Congratulations Emily, this is a well deserved honor. – XOXO Daria

I thought canning these would be difficult, but it was actually quite easy and so much fun. Especially for Lola who tried to take a bite out of approx. 8 peaches while I was working on this yesterday. Stinker! Needless to say I was pretty proud of my accomplishment – 10 quart jars of peaches canned and ready to enjoy. The best part for me was knowing that I only had a short window of time yesterday, and I decided to fill it with producing something so worthwhile for my family. I love that feeling – imagine what I could do with a whole day!

Today I woke up and decided to try making Peach Honey, it’s AMAZING AMAZING! (want the recipe??)

Interested in learning how to can fruits and veggies? Let me know! I have a great source who is willing to share her techniques and canning expertise on Boutique Cafe for you soon. If you’re interested please comment.

50% off this week for all of our Facebook group members – message me for details to: daria@boutiquecafe.com

Sila Boutique is a beautifully laid out online shop, filled to the brim with gorgeous gift ideas. They carry everything from clothing, to decor, to Birthday gear, and even drool-worthy cell phone cases. I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to try a product from their shop here at home, and it’s the PERFECT fit for my life here on the island! If you’ve ever been to Vancouver Island you know that it’s rainy…really rainy…like, much of the year. Sila Boutique sent a Pluie Pluie raincoat in the cutest floral print for Lola to sport around town. The raincoat is a much needed accessory here in our climate, but the best part is how incredible cute it looks on my baby girl! I love it! I’m so grateful for shops like Sila Boutique that stock their virtual shelves with great quality products, this jacket is so well made. The Pluie Pluie raincoat is European styled and made of a PVC-free material that will keep your kids dry in the rain. The outer fabric is cotton with a waterproof polyurethane coating.

Sila Boutique doesn’t just stop at one cute jacket, I love that they cover all the bases and carry the matching boots and umbrella too! Now that’s catering to the posh tot. – Daria

For gift-worthy goodies at a great price be sure to check out Sila Boutique right now! Don’t forget to join their Facebook group for deals and new products. You can also Twitter with @silaboutique

Boutique Cafe {Daily Dish} Sample Disclosure: The opinions expressed above are honest, accurate, and not encouraged anyway by monetary donations. A sample free of charge was received from Celebrity Baby Trend Expert, Rachel Florio-Urso.

The idea behind {Styled} is that by using “simple steps to style”, anyone can quickly and easily put together gorgeous statement pieces of jewelry in just minutes. {Styled} by Tori Spelling offers 4 collections of components (Boho, Glitz, Noir and Glam) including necklace tops and bottoms, findings,connectors to finish your necklaces, even pendants to refine your look. The beautiful part is that NO TOOLS ARE REQUIRED, absolutely anyone can pull together the elements and create a gorgeous design you’ll be excited to wear and showoff.

I was sent a glorious box filled with components from the Boho and Glitz lines. There’s a certain thrill that comes from knowing you are going to create something new to dress up your style. I started playing around with the pieces and findings and realized how brilliant this system is, it’s so easy to do that you can’t get it wrong. If you’re personal style is simple you might opt for using a basic necklace top, bottom and connectors – if however you want to dress it up and inject your own flair you can literally keep adding to the piece to make it special and standout. There are no rules, you can use components from the {Styled} by Tori Spelling lines and even attach things you already own such as vintage brooches with their nifty connectors.

I loved the ease of crafting my own {Styled} by Tori Spelling jewelry. The Boho collection is very much for the free spirit who loves mixed metals, medallions and fresh colours. The Glam line incorporates beautiful metals in gold and bronze, highlighted by ivory, coral and sparkling rhinestones. Glam is very much about the metals and textures. I loved how both lines could intermingle with each other!

There’s nothing more girly than wanting to dress up your look with the perfect piece of statement jewelry, and there’s nothing more crafty than making it yourself! That’s what {Styled} by Tori Spelling allows you to do, and with countless combinations of components you can wear an original piece each day.

***GIVEAWAY: Now it’s your turn to build your own “dream collection” of jewelry with {Styled} by Tori Spelling. One of our lucky Boutique Cafe readers is going to receive $50 worth of jewelry from {Styled} by Tori Spelling!! Here’s how:

Each person can leave up to five separate comments…increasing your chances of winning! One comment per task completed.

• Leave a comment here on Boutique Cafe with which Collection in the {Styled} by Tori Spelling line is your personal favorite.

ADDITIONAL BONUS ENTRIES:

• Facebook about the giveaway and come back and leave a comment below saying you did.
• Tweet about the giveaway using #ToriStyle and come back and leave a comment below saying you did.
• Jump up and down yelling “I need some {Styled} by Tori Spelling Jewelry!!” and email us a photo of you doing it to: boutiquecafe@gmail.com

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: Sept 29th (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen. Must be a resident of the USA or Canada for shipping.

***UPDATE:
Congratulations to our WINNER Tara Molnar who will receive $50 worth of {Styled} by Tori Spelling Jewelry! We are thrilled for you. Thanks so much to everyone for your participation, don’t forget to check out the {Styled} by TS jewelry at your local craft stores and online.

I don’t know why I would limit myself like that? It’s silly to think that just because others are succeeding, trying and doing something, that we can’t have that experience of our own. I’m really grateful for this realization at this point in my life. Life is not a competition, it’s not meant to be a ride where the person who collects the most talents or party decor wins, no not at all. We can all have and experience so many things, regardless of who else may have tried first, or blogged, or sewed, or photographed it first. I hear so many of my friends having this exact same mindset that I was stuck in, it’s so easy to feel that way with blogs and Pinterest and social media sharing. They make great ideas and lofty goals seem almost commonplace. It’s easy to feel left out, left behind, not as good if we let ourselves. I admit I was guilty of this.

The great thing is that we are all unique, we each have gifts that when coupled with determination can create an entirely unique experience for us! What a blessing. I’m so grateful to feel this lesson in my heart now. I just wanted to share it with each of you, it’s something I try to remember each day as I admire the things others are sharing online, “I am awesome too” and I reach, and I try new things, and I can be brave. Each time I do my own experience is unique to me, so it doesn’t matter who does something first, who runs a marathon, decorates their living room, slipcovers their couch, homeschool’s their children, or shares it first. When I do it, it’s my own journey. How freeing that is to feel.

I can do it, I can dream and discover without feeling suffocated by fear. And so can you. I believe it and I wanted you to know it today. XO - Daria

In a few of her new videos Lauren shares how to made a Bib Necklace, Revamped Clutch, Washer Bracelets, Headbands, Stencilled Accent Pillows and more!! I’m totally hooked!

It’s such a fun era to see some of our favorite TV stars getting out of the Crafting Closet and sharing their DIY side in more personal productions (e.g. Tori Spelling with her new Craft Wars show). Our Boutique Cafe readers have loved this genre for years, and are enjoying that celebrities are crafting it up right along with us!

It’s like a dream come true for those of us who love crafting, DIY and boutique design. Lauren we LOVE your new videos, keep sharing! – XO Daria

Create a timeless piece of personalized art and get 25% off with promo code ITSAWRAP12 now through 11:59 p.m. (Central) on August 15, 2012. Find full details at http://www.mpix.com/promos/itsawrap12.

What an awesome time to stock up on gallery wraps as gifts for Christmas!

Ladies, I was so thrilled when Kaboo Bags wanted to showcase their bags right here on Boutique Cafe. The sample bag that was sent to me (called The Roxie in red) is 100% my new “go to” bag, in fact I’ve been toting it everywhere and loving it!

These gorgeous bags by Kaboo (named Olivia, Riley, Roxy and Tina) are jam packed with stylish features including trendy Chevron printed fabric interiors, great pockets for all your necessities, comfortable straps, gorgeous colours and styles so chic you’ll want every bag in their line up. Kaboo also has an added bonus, it’s a tech bag too! This classy line of handbags is smartly built around your ability to safely tote your iPad or tablet along with you in a perfectly sized pouch. Genius!

These gorgeous tablet bags are fashionable and functional. I absolutely am in love with mine and it’s ability to show off my style, as well as service the connectivity I need while on the go. – Daria

**Exclusive Boutique Cafe Readers Code! Purchase any Kaboo Table bag, and use code “BoutiqueCafe25” to receive $25 off your purchase!!

***GIVEAWAY: Win a Kaboo Tablet Bag of Your Choice!!
The wonderful people at KabooBags.com are giving one of our lucky Boutique Cafe readers the Tablet Bag of their choice! I’m so excited, aren’t you?!!

HOW TO ENTER TO KABOO BAG GIVEAWAY:

Each person can leave up to five separate comments…increasing your chances of winning! One comment per task completed.

• Leave a comment here on Boutique Cafe with what you like about the Kaboo bags.(tell us your favorite bag, we’d love to hear)

ADDITIONAL BONUS ENTRIES:

• Facebook about the giveaway and come back and leave a comment below saying you did.
• Tweet about the giveaway and come back and leave a comment below saying you did.
• Follow Kaboo Products on Pinterest
and come back and leave a comment below saying you did.
• Visit Kaboo website and PIN your favorite bag(s) to Pinterest
• Jump up and down yelling “I NEED A KABOO BAG!!” and email us a photo of you doing it to: boutiquecafe@gmail.com

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: July 31st (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen. Must be a resident of the USA or Canada for shipping.

PHOTO ENTRIES:

Oooohhh! Somebody wants to WIN that Kaboo bag I LOVE when you send me these fun pictures as part of your entries! Good luck Stephanie Cox!

WINNER ANNOUNCED!
And the winner of the Kaboo bag of her choice is….Anisa Febrina! Congratulations Anisa, and your comment:

Thanks so much to everyone for entering, and for your patience over the past few days. I fell into a vortex but I’m back and we have LOTS of great stuff coming up. XOXO

Boat Song by JJ Heller. Find more information about JJ Heller on her website. Enjoy!! – Daria

Lola and I received the beautiful Teal Pom Pom version of the Hoode Baby Warmwear to review, and immediately my 2 year old laid down on the floor with it and rubbed her cheek against the soft fabric. It was an instant hit! They offer several lovely options for micro fleece patterns, it’s a cinch to find the perfect gift.

As evidenced from their clever company name, Hoode Baby’s products have a handy hood built in which allows you to bundle up, snuggle up and cozy up your little one against the cold or simply for comfort. I’m picturing chilly summer nights that Lola will be cozied up in her Hoode Baby on the beach with us behind our home, and feeling only the warmth of a hug rather than a chill of the air. – Daria

You can keep up with Hoode Baby on Twitter and Facebook
Special Thanks to Rachel of Rachel Florio PR – Celebrity Baby Trend Expert (aka -a lady who knows everything baby and beyond)!

SwimZip has created an adorable and stylish line of UV zip up shirts and swimwear for boys and girls 6m-4T to help block all those harmful rays, in fact each SwimZip is UV 50+ and blocks 99% of UVA and UVB rays. These sweet zips priced between $24.99-$29.99 are also Chlorine resistant so they won’t fade out over time. As a Mom I appreciate the beautiful quality of the SwimZip guard, they were tagless at the neck which is a big plus, and I LOVE the no-pinch zipper flap!

Now let’s talk style, I was sent the “Caribbean Dolphin” rashguard in a pretty pink hue with white accents. Lola loved the dolphins printed on it and commented “a fish! a fish!!” several times. After searching the SwimZip website I’m now convinced that she needs the “Sassy Surfer” polkadot ruffle swim set which includes a rash guard and bottoms. You must check it out! For your boys SwimZip has adorable options as well, my personal favourite is the “Surfer Dude” set in striking white and red. Dress your little ones in SwimZip this summer and feel confidence that they are sun protected, with easy-off functionality when playtime is through. I love this summertime essential! – Daria

As you can probably tell my Lola is energetic and loves to do everything her 4 older brothers do, but she has a totally girly side too and is all about color, shoes and pretty dresses. She LOVED the Kokeshi Petti Dress, it’s vibrant and playful just like her!

Every piece Servane Barrau Designs creates is so beautifully crafted, the details are perfection. I love that her clothing fits so well into everyday living, for a child like mine who runs and climbs I want her to look precious but not be hovering over and trying to contain her curiosity so she doesn’t ruin her clothes. We literally stopped traffic when Lola went out in this dress (with her rubber boots, the current shoe of choice for Lola).

Thanks so much to sweet Servane, for this lovely gift for my Lolabug! We will treasure it!

I encourage you all to check out Servane Barrau Designs for whimsical girls clothing, and don’t forget to join her Facebook page to get all the great information and sale information first.

Thanks to my talented Sister in Law Liz of Lizzy Anne Photography for these photos of my Lola. I love them, you are amazing!

Lizzy Anne Photography is set for May 23, 24, and 25th in Victoria BC – that’s right, she’s coming to the island!! Currently a few evening slots are available on those dates for family portraits, senior graduate pictures, or even portrait sessions. Have a baby you want photographed? Need business style photos? Just let her know and we can work out the details.

Liz has an incredible eye and is a true artist. You may find a plethora of work she has done on her blog here, as well as her portfolio available for viewing on her website.

To sign up for a photoshoot time, on location in Victoria area please visit this post on the Lizzy Anne blog and leave her a comment. If you have additional questions or requirements you can email to: Elizabeth@lizzyanne.com

Special Island Pricing:

Family sessions are $250 (disc can be purchased)
1-2 hour session on location.
Editing of images up to 75
Online Gallery to share with family and friends

Senior Graduate sessions are $250 including disc.
1-2 hour session on location
Editing of images up to 30
Online Gallery to share with friends and family
Disc/digital negative of images

Any other photoshoot themes can be arranged. Email for full details.

I’ve had a deliciously fun time collecting handmade gift ideas for the sweet Mom, Wife or super woman in your life. Here’s a few great ideas and I’ve included our GIFT to you, a FREE Mother’s Day Printable from Boutique Cafe and our friend Maggie at Honeysuckle Art. Enjoy honouring the beautiful Mom in your life.

Polymer Clay Decorative Handmade Pears – on Etsy by SkyeArt

Ipad case – padded with retro colorful measuring tape and pocket (don’t forget to buy her the iPad too for extra points!) – on Etsy by PinkOasis

Gorgeous Felt Flower brooch white poppy – on Etsy by Roltinica

Custom Family Tree Typography Art – on Etsy by Lesleygracedesigns

Boutique Cafe and Honeysuckle Art FREE Mother’s Day Printable in several sizes!! Get it FREE here >>

I happen to know Patty in real life and have featured her many times over the years on Boutique Cafe, so the experience of seeing her book come to fruition is an added thrill for me. However, even if I didn’t know my little firecracker of a friend, I would be racing to the bookstore or Amazon to snag myself a copy of Sewing Modkid Style – Modern Threads for the Cool Girl. That’s exactly what I’m going to recommend for you to do, but first I’m dying to share my thoughts on Patty’s first book.

When it first arrived I couldn’t wait to peruse the pages. Everything Patty touches is beautiful and I knew her book would be too! For her first foray into the book arena Patty focused on utilizing knits for girls. Some may think that working with knits would be daunting or difficult, but Patty takes you step by step along the way guiding you through the process and making it simple. You might wonder “why knits?” and the answer is simply that Patty is a Mom herself and believes that your children should look adorable but also be comfortable. Knits are the answer to “dressing the modern, active child.” These clothes will move with your children and allow them to romp, play and rule the world. Patty also understands how you don’t want to dress your children in clothes that are boring, knits allow you to showcase their style and sprinkle in some attitude in their clothing.

Inside the pages you’ll be guided through the process of identifying different knits and picking out the best quality for your precious projects. I personally loved chapter 1: guide to sewing with knits, with techniques, tools and hints on sewing with knits for the ultimate success.

You might be wondering how extensive the collection of patterns and projects is for this book, and Patty does not disappoint. You can bet on the maximum bang for your buck because everything is here from dresses, to pants, to shorts, to skirts, accessories and even a knit quilt!! I’m having a terrible time deciding which project I love the most, I honestly just want to get sewing. I will tell you that I will definitely be making up the Bloom dress, the leg warmers, the yoga pants and the quilt!

In the very front of the book (published by Wiley) is a darling pocket filled with your precious patterns. Obviously there are many patterns out there in the sewing world to choose from, but Patty’s patterns are easy to use and so well done! Can beginners use this book? You bet! Can people who are sewing stars use this book? Yes definitely!

What I love about Sewing Modkid Style is that it’s so perfectly Patty in every way, from the design elements, to the photos, to the patterns, to the fabrics, it all comes together in a beautiful cohesive book. Way to go Patty – this is a work of art! – Daria

Here’s our Mini-interview with Patty Young – I asked Patty a few fun questions and here are her replies:

1. Your book is called Sewing Modkid Style, can you tell us how you would describe your own personal style of clothing and fashion love?

Patty: My own personal style is all over the place. The remnants of a 90’s Goth Girl in me still loves black and gray with all of her heart, while the new, more confident, 21st-Century-Mom part of me gravitates towards bright colors and bold prints. As I looked at my closet this morning I saw pinks, reds, oranges, citrons and turqs amidst a whole lotta black and gray. Clean, modern lines, with not a lot of frill, is what I love in a silhouette.

2. Was it fun for your daughters and husband to be included in the making of this book?

Patty: This was definitely a family project. My girls are so used to modeling for me that I’m sure they didn’t see much of a difference between this project and previous ones (pattern covers, catalogs, website, etc.) except maybe that there were more models involved, which was definitely more fun for them. My dear hubby, as I mentioned in my acknowledgments, pretty much took over and ran the household while I worked on this book and I will be forever grateful.

3. What did you learn about writing a book that you didn’t know before?

Patty: I learned that I can let go of my OCD/control freak tendencies and let others help. I was so used to being a one-woman-shop that I didn’t think I could ever let go of some of that control. But I learned quickly that when you’re working on a time-consuming project like this one, while still managing a whole company and trying to be a good mom and wife, you have to let others help you. It was liberating and refreshing!

4. Will you create patterns for women in the future? Please!

Patty: The future of women’s patterns for MODKID is still uncertain. Although our previous women’s pattern got a very warm reception from our fans, they are definitely not our best sellers. A recent report ran by Jon showed that girls’ clothing patterns outsold women’s clothing, purses and accessories by a large margin. This is not to say that we will never do them again (never say never, right?), because we still have some wonderful prototypes floating around the studio that beg to be made into patterns… but it definitely won’t be our focus anytime soon.

5. If you could say anything to your fans and supporters right now, what would you tell them?

Patty: That I definitely wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for their love and support. I so enjoy reading their comments and emails and I gain so much experience from constructive criticism. I live for looking at their photos on my Flickr groups and when I see shares on FaceBook or Twitter, my heart swells with pride and joy. Thank you so much for all of your support!

***GIVEAWAY: Win a Copy of Sewing Modkid Style!
The wonderful people at Wiley are giving one of our lucky Boutique Cafe readers a copy of Patty Young’s new book Sewing Modkid Style!! Aren’t you excited?!

*To enter, leave a comment telling us why you want to sew with Patty’s new book, Sewing Modkid Style

Additional entries: You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:
• “Like” Boutique Cafe on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
• Mention this giveaway on Twitter (with @BoutiqueCafe and @pattyyoung in the tweet) and leave a comment with the URL.
• Jump up and down yelling “I NEED This Book!!” and email us a photo of you doing it to: boutiquecafe@gmail.com

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: May 5th (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

Follow the Blog Tour:

Monday, April 2: Wiley Craft Blog

Wed., April 4: A Sewing Journal

Friday, April 6: Pink Chalk Studio

Monday, April 9: Melanie Dramatic

Wed., April 11: Stop Staring and Start Sewing

Friday, April 13: Generation Q

Monday, April 16: Lil Blue Boo

Wed., April 18: True Up

Friday, April 20: Paige Hill

Monday, April 23: Boutique Café

Wed., April 25: The Long Thread

Friday, April 27th, 2012: Sew Pretty Dresses

Monday, April 30: Prudent Baby

Wed., May 2: Our Busy Little Bunch

Friday, May 4: Fat Quarterly

Monday, May 7: Making It Fun

Wed., May 9: MODKID blog

PHOTO ENTRIES:

Gyl of Rhembein Photography sent in a few pictures of herself jumping up and down shouting “I NEED THIS BOOK!!”, I seriously LOVE that she chose to enter in such a fun way. I was laughing and loving this entry. Good luck Gyl.

I’d be giddy to have more photo entries – just do it!

*************WINNER UPDATE*****************
Well believe it or not, our winner is Gillian by random generator! Her comment that won this giveaway was:

“I would love to win this book and sew with it because (a) it is impossible to find in Canada – as you know Daria, ordering online is our only hope… OR WINNING IT!! and (b) I have always ONLY sewn my own creations and I would love to try some of Patty’s, having always been a fan.
~gillian”
Congratulations Gillian! And thank you to everyone for your support and participation on our Website, Facebook and Twitter. I have some new giveaways coming up soon so keep coming back, I want you all to win!

SNAP! The Conference was to target the best in modern handmade, contemporary craft, mind blowing events and DIY - right up my alley! The added bonus was that SNAP! was being held in Utah, a place that many of my nearest and dearest call home. @emihill and @brassyapple were both there, and tweeting all weekend, go read their tweets! I would have loved the opportunity to network with all of the attendees, and I hear everyone was dressed so uber-cute too!

In all seriousness, I feel so blessed that I was able to share the experience of Cold Play with the guys I love so much. Especially that my teenage son was so thrilled to be at a cool concert with his old parents. What a great kid! Being right next to the stage and having Chris Martin within a foot of me was pretty great too, he sang his heart out! It was undoubtedly the BEST concert I’ve ever attended. We danced, sang, screamed, laughed, and had confetti from the gigantic confetti canons all over us.

And so now as I read all the blog posts, tweets and Facebook updates about the SNAP! conference and all you talented gals were able to learn together, I will take comfort in my amazing evening with Cold Play. I vow to be at SNAP! next time!

My hats off to @Taunitweets, the founder of SNAP! The Conference. Well done Tauni, I’ve heard nothing short of RAVE reviews. You deserve Cold Play tickets my friend!
XOXO - Daria

Follow me on Twitter @boutiquecafe

Happily, our Emily is attending and will be there at SNAP! – just watch for the gorgeous gal in the cutest shoes! This is her! Can’t wait to hear the scoop on SNAP!

XO - Daria

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of smelling diesel fuel before, you know it’s crazy strong smelling and seeps into everything! We spent some time as a cramped family at a local hotel while air scrubbers worked 24/7 to make our home liveable again. We are back in our home but the long and tedious work of reclaiming the land is now being done. This means jackhammering out loads of concrete patio, digging out huge trenches in front of our home, and now “under pinning” the house to reinforce the digging that has to occur UNDER the house. Finally once all of that is done (and that is weeks away), they will tear out the concrete and lino floor in our laundry room and the wall that was soaked with diesel as it all poured in.

I have been working my way through our laundry that we unfortunate enough to be in that room when the fuel leak happened, it’s tough to get the smell of diesel out. I have felt SO sick from it, it’s been a nightmare. I’ve found the best solution for the odor problem is washing them with baking soda, Tide and a bit of Dawn dish detergent. This seems to be the best concoction thus far.

In any case, that is the lovely situation we find ourselves in. Yet I want to convey how lucky we feel that we are back in our home, and things will be taken care of. We feel blessed to live here on this beautiful island, and we have so many kind friends who have cared for us over the past weeks as we’ve dealt with this mess. Lucky to know we have so many to lean on!

So that’s the scoop from my end of things – just wanted to share with you! XO Daria

I hope you enjoy and will follow my boards on Pinterest, I love sharing what I love with you and I also truly enjoying seeing what each of you is interested in and working on. If you’d like me to follow your boards on Pinterest be sure to leave me your linky.

Hippity Hoppity Easter’s On It’s Way >>

**As an added bonus: Remember that DIY Owl’s Nest Tutorial I made back in Dec of 2010? Well you can also make those cute and easy nests for Easter and use them in a ton of ways to add a special touch to your Easter baskets or your Easter table. You could make smaller nests and set one at each place on your table for Easter dinner filled with a treat, a message or a beautiful colored egg. Here’s the original tutorial for making my nests, enjoy! Since it was originally put together for Christmas, you’ll have to use your wonderful imaginations and visualize some eggs and bunnies.

PS - My amazing friend Megan at Brassy Apple has her own Nest Tutorial here as well>>

Brassy Apple makes Mondays the BEST day of the week!

Introducing the worldwide launch of Summerlove, the latest collection from designer Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics.

The Summerlove Collection captures beauty and innocence with its vintage-inspired prints and evokes the spirit of young and carefree romantic adventures. With a palette that mixes sun-kissed warm tones with a splash of aqua, you will definitely get swept away by this collection. We love Pat Bravo, she is so talented!

FREE:
To download Summerlove’s free quilt pattern “Sandcastles” (shown in the video), go to http://goo.gl/yMz5u

On Etsy you can find well over 6,000 current items for children’s St. Patricks Day delight including clothing, accessories and more. Etsy is a great place to shop and support the handmade and boutique community – We {HEART} Handmade!!

Click to discover the perfect St. Patrick’s Day gifts and clothing for your kids here>>

Whether you own your home, or if you rent and can’t alter your environment with paint colors, Shelley has great inspiration to create walls you’ll love!

Enough said, go check it out now

Now our sweet readers and viewers can Pinterest to your hearts content, and easily reference the HUNDREDS of product reviews, designers, crafts, projects and podcasts we have shared over the past 7 years! Yes sir, we sure LOVE you guys!

We are currently working on a complete Pinterest Board with links to each and every review we’ve ever written in our Daily Dish! That’s hundreds of amazing products that we have loved, tried and shared with our readership. We’re excited for you to rediscover some of our past faves, or perhaps stumble across something new.

Thanks for sharing the {LOVE} of Boutique Cafe by Pinning what you love from our site. XOXO - Daria

P.S.
Follow all of our pins and boards here—>

I really shouldn’t be surprised. We loved Harley’s The Best Candy in the Whole World CD. (You can read my review of that CD here.) And I’m not a big fan of “books on tape,” but Harley has made me a believer.

We were sent a copy of Harley’s High Dive but had yet to listen to it. I wasn’t sure if my kids would sit through 12-minute and even 20+-minute stories, but they totally did. In fact, they wanted to sit in the car when we  pulled into the garage just so they could finish hearing the end of “Field Trip.”

Entertainment Weekly has called Harley “the Mark Twain of contemporary children’s music,” and I believe that to be true. His “High Dive” had us all laughing and giggling through the entire story and a certain line about a certain goat in “Field Trip” had Nathan chuckling long after Harley had moved on with his story.

Comments heard from the back seat:

“That is the awesomest!” ~ George

“No, that is super fun!” ~ Olivia

“My cheeks hurt from smiling so much!” ~ Lauren

My cheeks totally hurt—I was smiling for the 15-minute drive to and from the school event. We finished up the CD the next day and George asked to play it again from the very beginning. Sadly, we had just pulled into the garage and I’m unsure of the van’s battery life. We’ll just have to go on another family drive!

Bill Harley’s High Dive and Other Things That Could Have Happened is available starting February 14th. You can read more about it here and check out Bill Harley’s on Facebook too.

You know. Kind of like this:

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And now you can provide your daughter with her own fun and productive quiet time!

Choose Friendship Co. is giving away one (1) winner’s choice of either My Friendship Bracelet Maker or My Ribbon Barrette Maker!

Additional entries: You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:
• “Like” My Ribbon Barrette Maker on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
• “Like” Boutique Cafe on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
• Mention this giveaway on Twitter (with @BoutiqueCafe in the tweet) and leave a comment with the URL.
• Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway and leave a comment telling us you did so.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: February 3rd (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

For Valentine’s Day this year let’s get pinned together. – XO Daria

Pinterest Valentine’s Day Board

Believe you me, this is about as far from a geeky technologically savvy review of the ZAGGfolio for iPad 2 as you can get. Not only did the video file of the final—and best—take go all corrupt and shut down my computer, I had to record the review in my bedroom for two reasons:

• It was the furthest removed from the kids who were watching Mulan on full volume in the family room. (They were also fighting about something but I chose to ignore them as usual.)


• My bedroom had more light than the office because Nathan had Scotch taped the light switch in the “off” position. Apparently it was powering his hard drive and if we flipped it, Armageddon would ensue.

Trust me, you don’t want to mess with the light switch when it’s controlling something in his half of the office. Been there; done that; barely survived.

It’s all quite sad because this beautiful red beauty…

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...and its accompanying wireless keyboard…
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...should get a shout-out equal to their awesomeoness.

If I had it my way, my video review would look something like this (except those would be my hands and the fingernails would be painted in OPI’s “Yodel Me on My Cell”):







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Instead of a marketing team and a professional studio, I had a 14-year-old videographer, a badly lit bedroom (but not so badly lit as the office in which I’m currently straining to see the keyboard) and not nearly enough caffeine and chocolate.

You’ll also notice I could’ve used a bit more practice sliding the ZAGG wireless Bluetooth keyboard into the ZAGGfolio case. I find it easier to leave it in the case—just slip in the iPad 2 and go—so I rarely remove it…except for the occasional video review. Madison got it right on the first try; obviously I have issues. It truly IS simple to slide it in and out of the case no matter how I make it look on the video.

Again, not enough practice (and not enough caffeine).

Also, I’m an idiot.

Speaking of my video review of the ZAGGfolio for iPad 2, here it is in all its non-scripted glory. Hopefully you can see past me and catch how cool this case really is. Because it’s really, really, REALLY cool.

Yeah, good luck with that.







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Yep, I said “criminey.” I was channeling my grandfather. Sadly he knows even less than I do about sliding a wireless keyboard into the case.

And I just realized the link at the end of the review is wrong. Let’s hope those watching the video review over on YouTube are smart enough to search my site once they that “404: Page Not Found” error pops up. sigh

You can check out the ZAGGfolio for iPad 2 keyboard case and all its colorful options on ZAGG.com. You’ll also find all those super techy specs I failed to mention in my review.

At $99, which includes the wireless Bluetooth iPad 2 keyboard, it’s a steal.

Just don’t steal mine. After the night I’ve had, I will hunt you down and make you watch Mulan with my kids.

P.S. I’ve checked out “real” reviews on the ZAGGfolio and it’s received some seriously high marks including quite a few “Best of” product awards.

P.P.S. Buy one. Your iPad 2 will thank you.

P.P.P.S. Couldn’t resist including this super short gag reel. Enjoy. (I promise I won’t be doing any more video tech reviews any time soon.)







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Disclaimer: I received the ZAGGfolio in exchange for this review. All opinions, thoughts, videos and their accompanying subtitles are mine. I totally claim ownership of it all (except for the official ZAGG video, of course).

What I love about Girl’s World is how Jennifer has designed patterns for every aspect of a girls world – fashion, accessories, decor…it’s all in here! Published by Chronicle Books, it’s a gorgeous feast for the eyes and is guaranteed to get those creative juices flowing just by cracking the spine. All patterns are enclosed and ready to go, inside the inner front cover pocket. The rest is an indulgent glimpse into the beautiful world of a little girl, and how you can recreate that in your own homes.

Now to Valentine’s Day – I would love to suggest a few projects that would be great bets to create for Cupid Day.

Sophie Glittered Apron

This simple tulle apron, would make a darling project for your little girl’s Valentine’s Day. Surprise her by creating this tulle apron with glitter ribbon. Then have her wear it over a sweet solid dress, the apron will totally jazz it up and look amazing! Don’t forget that you can always embellish with a simple heart pocket for a cute Valentine’s effect.

Gigi Ruffled Pillow
Check out the Gigi ruffled pillow! Isn’t it gorgeous as a throw pillow for a bed, or as an accent pillow? Perfect for the little girl who loves to cuddle up on her bed and tell you about the cute little boy she likes at school.

Valentine’s Day Banner
Project No.21 in the book is a Happy Birthday banner, but this project is so versatile you can easily work your magic and create a Valentine’s Day banner in a snap. Using pre-made felt letters you can mix it up and create a banner for any occasion or any name in your family!

Chloe Paper Doll Overnight Bag
This overnight sack is such a sweet way to say I love You to your little girl. If slumber parties are on the horizon, this would be a darling unique present that she can take along and know how much you love her. So sweet!

There is so much more that I can’t show you in one post (memory boards, pin wheels, canopy’s and dresses), you’ll have to run out and grab a copy to cherish. You can pick one up on Amazon.com too!

*** Giveaway! Jennifer Paganelli is giving one winner a copy of her book “Girls World”!!

Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:
• “Like” Sis Boom on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
• Visit Sisboom.com and leave a comment telling us what inspires you most from Jennifers collection of fabrics, patterns and books.
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
• Post in the SisBoom Facebook group and tell them you saw the review on Boutique Cafe!

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: Feb 3rd, 2012 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Shirley Clark for your Tweet:

Thanks everyone for entering – more giveaways are coming so keep entering!

Click to view the Lola Pink Collection>>

When describing Lola Pink Servane says:

“The Lola line offers us this season bold colors, beautiful floral motifs, versatile designs and lightweight fabrics. This is also a partnership with a well known shoes Designer: Bear Feet Shoes. For this collection I took my inspiration from Asia, more precisely from Japan. All our unique and trademarked patterns/graphics are taken from nature or Kawaii inspired…”

Other elements used in Lola Pink include The Kokeshi dolls, which are wooden dolls from Japan. As well as the “Cuteness” aspect, which is a prominent part of the Japanese culture right now, from the noun kawaisa meaning “lovability”, “cuteness” or “adorableness”.

Express Yourself! Think Cute! Think Pink!

The Lola lineup will be rolling out in 4 collections – First on the agenda is the LOLA PINK Collection available right now on the website! Subsequent collections (ie: Lola Blue, Lola Exclusives, and Lola Essentials) will all mix’n match with each other as always, that’s one of the things Servane Barrau is known for. Be sure to watch Boutique Cafe over the coming weeks as each new collection launches, we’ll be sharing the details and offering great opportunities to WIN special pieces from this collection for your little darlings.

*** Giveaway! Servane Barrau Designs is giving one winner an adorable “Dotsy Dress” from the Lola Pink Collection!!

Here’s how to enter. You can do as many of these as you’d like. Each one is worth one entry into our giveaway; please leave a separate comment for each one you do:
• “Like” Servane Barrau Designs on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did. **This step is critical in order to win!

Additional entries:
• Visit ServaneBarrauDesigns.com and leave a comment telling us which item from the Lola Pink Collection is your favorite.
• Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
• Post in the Servane Barrau Facebook group and tell them you saw the review on Boutique Cafe!

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: January 31st (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

update: Congratulations to Odessa Frey!! You have won the darling Dotsy Dress from Servane Barrau. I have emailed you instructions for claiming this prize!

Thanks to everyone who entered, more Servane Barrau giveaways will be happening soon!

I just discovered the blog called This Fresh Fossil, it’s so fun! The bloggers chronicle improvements they are making to their 1st home. Tutorials, freebies etc. are available on the site.

I couldn’t help sharing this FREE grey Chevron pattern background download for all of you. Simply follow the link and download to your desktop using their instructions. Chevrons are so hot right now, it’s nice to get a cute one for free! Happy Happy Day!

Being the Mom of 5 children I have a goal this year to get ahead of the ball and plan better for my kids events. Project #1 is Valentine’s Day - Last year I was snapping these pictures before school on Valentine’s Day itself and rushing to get the cards printed and ready before the kids got home at lunch to take them back for their friends. I seriously had my glue gun plugged into my minivan and was hot glueing heart shaped lollipops onto their cards in the Costco parking lot! People were stopping and laughing, I was a sight to be sure! Thankfully I managed to finish the cards and they were a Huge Hit at their school. This year I want to plan ahead better so I can involve them in the card making for their friends, and I don’t look like a maniac with a glue gun in public again.

Last Year’s Valentine Cards – 2011
Snap your pics, edit in Photoshop and add some cute text, I had them printed at Costco on photo paper, then hot glued a heart shaped lollipop into their hand on the image. Supercute right?!

My Valentine plans this year are being greatly influenced by Pinterest. I have an awesome board with Valentine ideas ready to share. I think we’ll be doing the Moustache Cards this year with my boys. Let me know what you are doing and don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest for inspiration and fun all year long!

Pop by and see who you can spot! What an incredible year it has been, we loved seeing you at various events and sharing the designers and products that inspire you, and make your life beautiful!

Looking forward to a bright and shinning 2012 with all of you.

First of all I love to go to “The Source” AKA Pinterest for amazing ideas on New Year’s Eve parties and printoffs. Pinterest is a treasure trove and you’re sure to find the perfect little touch to add to your celebration whether a big party, or fun time at home with the family tonight. Here’s the link to my own New Year’s Board on Pinterest – have fun and please follow me, I’d love that and I love to follow you back!

Another great source for New Year’s ideas is our dear friend Megan over at Brassy Apple! All week she has been sharing awesome ideas for a festive New Year’s, and she knows her stuff. Memory packets, New Year’s Surprise Bags, shakers, time capsules and more! Go check it out – you’ll love Brassy Apple.

I LOVED this free printable from Simply Creative Insanity (don’t you love the chevron??!!) Print this cute saying off and throw it in a frame – you can use it anywhere in your home tonight for a little New Years fun.

Whatever your plans I hope you have a safe and fun New Year’s Eve. Take care and enjoy the relationships and make some memories. Be sure to snap those pictures tonight and preserve those moments in a creative way. Thank you for all of your ideas and involvement with Boutique Cafe in 2011! Happy New Year to all of you! – Daria

May you all feel the joy of the season, and your cups of couture will be overflowing with creativity in the New Year! From my family to yours I wish you the happiest holiday. XOXO - Daria

“I try to be true to myself in any holiday decorating. Keeping my personality even in the face of Christmas glitter. I fell in love with a banner at Anthropologie. But did not fall in love with the price tag! Every year I feel like I have to decorate before I start on my other Christmas projects. So this year I did this one for myself before anything. A treat to me for all the hard work I’m about to embark on to pull off Christmas once again. It has been the perfect touch at our front entry and I love walking past it everyday! Merry Christmas to me! You can give yourself this gift too! Here is what you need.” – Liz

Supplies Needed:
-15 Sheets of Felt various colour ( you might want to buy a couple extra to allow for matching options)
-Cross stitch Thread ( I bought this huge pack at Walmart for $10 ‘craft thread’)
-Yarn 3 colors
-Needle
-Printed Letters I used Arial in Bold and outline size 160
-Sewing machine
-Mat and Cutter
-Safety Pin
-Elastic band

Make your cuts. You should be able to get 2-3triangles out of each sheet with salvage
You will need 2 triangles per letter in the banner.

Save your salvages. If you only need 2 out of the color, stop cutting. The Salvage will be used for your letters and circle details.

Next print your letters, cut and trace them onto the felt salvages. Then cut out. Use any extra felt to cut out free hand circles of various sizes.

Line up 2 triangles of the same color. Sew ¼’ seam around all edges. Center and pin letter of contrasting color and sew as close to edge as you can.

Use your floss (craft thread) and needle to do a blanket stitch around the triangle. I doubled my thread for a thicker detail. Pick a thread of a contrasting color yet again for this look. Repeat on your circles as well. This part is what takes the most time, but the look is so worth it!!

For the braids use your colored yarn. I chose a variegated to save on money and still get a variety of color. Cut your full length of both Merry and Christmas and enough to hang, about 4.5 m. I used 2 length per section of the braid for a total of 6 strands. Tie ends in a knot and put a safety pin through the knot. Attach to carpet or somewhere you can anchor it.

Before braiding wrap up each section and put a rubber band around to make it easy to manage and easy to pull more length as you braid. Braid, braid, braid! Then repeat with second color way.

Voila!!

Now your ready to string your banner. Take your cream Yarn on a tapestry Needle and pull through the top portion of each triangle. This is also the time to randomly string your circles on between letters. To attach the braided portion you will need to cut small slits at the bottom portion of the triangles through only the back layer and feed through. If you use the safety pin at one end, it’s easier to pull through.

Once you have everything spaced how you like on the strands of yarn, pull your top and bottom strands together at the swag you are happy with. Do a simple slip knot to attach the strands, as well as create a loop to hang it from. You can either trim or let the ends dangle like I did. YOU DID IT It’s beautiful! Hang it and feel the Christmas spirit! Of course you could spell anything for any occasion in any color way and it’s sure to light up your day!

At the end of it you have this incredibly festive banner to love for years to come! Enjoy and Merry Christmas to you all!

This simple and quick “chili con quese” dip is so easy to make, we let all the kids and grandkids help. Plus, it is a tasty treat for those in our family that are “gluten intollerant”. You can even make it a couple days before the party.

Why the name? Because it looks like “throw up” after you make it!

One recipe is great for 12-15 people. Easy to double the recipe for a bigger crowd.
We add an extra 4-5 more bacon strips to our dip, ‘cause we LOVE bacon. (My personal favorite meat!)

Gramma Halladay’s Throw Up Dip

1- can chili (without beans)
2- cans stewed tomatoes, drained
3-5 pieces of bacon
1 large onion-diced
1 lb processed cheese (Velveta)—cut into small chunks

Fry the bacon and crumble into small pieces. Add diced onions and cook until onions are soft and translucent.
Drain the stewed tomatoes and add to the bacon/onion mix. Stir and simmer for a few minutes. Add the chili and the cheese chunks. Cook over low heat until cheese melts.
(I transfer the dip to a crock pot and let it simmer until party time!)
Serve warm as a dip with tortilla chips.

Save the leftovers and reheat the next day—sometimes it even better!

Its the best “throw up” you have ever tasted!

Gina Halladay
www.QuiltersBuzz.com

Big Soft Ginger Cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

You can find more great recipes on my blog:

www.pinkfigdesign.blogspot.com

Under the Pink Fig Recipe Collection Tab on the right side bar.

Here is the link to the cookie recipe on my blog:

http://pinkfigdesign.blogspot.com/2008/12/on-first-day-of-christmas-my-true-love.html

Instructions by Emalee Grambo. Photography by Patty Young.

Our pink tree, while a fun experience, was definitely a group effort to put together. So find your friends and neighbors to help you put this beauty up.
For starters, you will need some sort of small round object for the tip top of your tree. Being a sewing studio, we had plenty of sewing embroidery hoops lying around and we chose one that was 4” in diameter. Anything similar to this will work great. Just be sure there is no chance whatever you choose can crack… the first item we used—a clear plastic plate—cracked when we tried to put the tree up. This tree ends up heavier than you think.

You will also need:
1 Hula Hoop (at least 3-feet wide)
Colored duct tape or spray paint to cover the Hula Hoop if you wish
Clear fishing line (a bit on the stronger side)
180 shatterproof ornaments in glittery pinks (or the color of your choice)
Clear tape and a hot glue gun to reinforce areas of your tree

We decided we wanted our tree to be about 10 feet tall with ornaments placed every 6.5”. So:

1. Mark your hula hoop and embroidery hoop with ten evenly spaced marks around the circumference.
2. Cut 10 strands of fishing line at 12 feet each.
3. Starting at one end, measure a foot and mark with a permanent marker. From this point measure every 6.5 inches and mark with a permanent marker. About a foot should remain at this other end as well. This will allow room to tie each strand to the top and bottom hoop. All 10 of your fishing line strands should be marked in this way.
4. Proceed to string your ornaments onto each strand and tie three knots at each mark you made. On 5 of the strands, leave the very last mark empty. On the other 5 strands, leave the second to last mark empty. These will be the “top” of the strands. This will keep the very top of the tree from getting too congested. If you have the space, spread each completed strand on your floor to keep it from tangling up with one another. (Trust me on this!)
5. Once you have all ten done, spread them out as best you can in a circle around the object you have for the tippy top of the tree.
6. Tie the top of each strand, alternating between strands with the last mark empty or the second to last mark empty, to each mark on your tippy top tree piece. From four evenly spaced marks on this tippy top piece string fishing line to create a loop to hang your tree.
7. Now this is where you will need all the helping hands you can find. Have each person grab two strands as you lift the center of your tree up. If you don’t recruit these lovely friends, you will be spending the majority of your afternoon untangling these ten strands and your pretty pink tree won’t be looking pretty anymore.
8. Once you have your tree hung, you can proceed to tie each end to your hula hoop where marked. We found it most helpful to place the hula hoop onto a flat surface at the level where we wanted our tree to fall and then tie each end to the hoop.

Christmas Confession #1: I’ve never let my kids decorate MY tree. They can put their handmade ornaments on their smaller trees in their room. I know, I’m a bad mother.

Christmas Confession #2: Even though your Santa may wear a RED suit, mine doesn’t. I loathe RED. There is not a speck of RED (or Christmas Green) in my house during the holidays or any other time. My Santas have Gold, Cream, White, Silver, and Aqua robes…LOL!

Christmas Confession #3: I like getting Christmas cards with pictures of your adorable kids. Except the ones that include those annual summaries of their overachievements.

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas! Lisa – The Domestic Diva’s Disasters Blog

Lisa’s Glamorous Lined Christmas Stocking Tutorial

Materials Needed:

• 1/2 yard outer fabric
  
• 1/2 yard lining fabric
  
• 1 yard fusible interfacing
  
• Sewing Thread

Print out a template or trace an existing Christmas Stocking.

Stocking Templates:

Tipnut’s Stocking Template

Martha Stewart Hankerchief Stocking Template

Martha Stewart Quilt Stocking Template

Martha Stewart Remnant Stocking Template

About.com Stocking Template

Woman’s Day Stocking Template

Fuse interfacing to the back of both your outer fabric and your lining fabric..

Layer both outer fabric and lining fabric right sides together. Trace template and cut out layers.

Sew one top of outer fabric to one top of lining fabric. Repeat with second outer fabric and lining fabric.

With right sides together, place outer fabric/lining piece on top of other outer fabric/lining piece. Sew together …

leaving a 3 inch opening on the lining (for turning).

Clip your curves.

Turn right side out and press.

Stitch Lining Opening closed.

Stuff lining inside outer fabric. Fold over lining to outside to create a self-cuff.

Make Cuff

Measure the circumference of the top of the stocking (mine is 16 inches) and add 1 inch to that measurement. Now take that measurement (for me it’s 17 inches) to cut the width of the cuff fabric with a height of 7 inches. My cuff fabric is 17 inches by 7 inches. You following this?

Fuse interfacing to the back of your cuff fabric.

Fold in half width-wise, right sides together.

Now fold height wise.

Stitch through all four layers of raw unfolded side. Turn right side out. You now have a cuff with the a raw bottom edge

Line up raw edge of cuff with finished edge of stocking. Stitch or serge.

To make a loop to hang your stocking, cut and interface a 2” x 10” piece of fabric.

Fold fabric in half lengthwise and stitch to conceal raw edges.

Fold finished loop in half right sides together. Stitch or serge together bottom edge.

Attach loop to inside cuff seam. Stitch.

Fold cuff to outside of stocking, add a fancy crystal brooch, and hang your stocking!

We have read this book multiple times in the few days we’ve had it. George and Livi love it and it’s easy to see why. The illustrations are fun and colorful, the writing is clever (“You’re seriously not going to believe it.”) and the addition of lift-the-flap-style fun seals the deal.

The book includes 8 fun recipes perfect for feeding a hungry giant, including the popular Pizza-Sized Cookie. We’re anxious to try the Ginormous Blueberry Muffin. (Perhaps that will be our Christmas morning treat!)

I love this Q & A with the author. If you’re still wondering if you should buy How Do You Feed a Hungry Giant, this will help you place it in your shopping cart.

Q: What was the inspiration behind the story?
A: Well…I would have to say my kids. They were six when I wrote this story…the age of the priceless questions. You know what I’m talking about…do your toes ever stop growing? Why do chickens have wings if they don’t fly? I am sure that there was some Saturday morning that Declan (Oscar in the book) asked me how much food a giant would eat.
...
Q: How can parents use Hungry Giant to talk to their children about the importance of charity?
A: The story is about a little boy helping to feed a lonely, hungry giant he finds sitting in his backyard. Oscar has a big heart and so does his mother…and at no point are they scared by the giant’s size. I used this story and Oscar’s instinct to help to talk to my kids about the opportunities they have in their day to help those around them. I also talked to them about thinking a little bigger…yes, you can help the boy in your class pour his milk AND you can help a boy you have never met by donating a can of food. If you are lucky enough to have what you need then you have a responsibility to help those that don’t.
...
Q: In what ways can families incorporate philanthropy into their {holiday} traditions?
A: Take a moment to talk to your children about the issue of hunger, take a moment to teach your children to be grateful for the food in front of them and the family around them. If you are lucky enough to have what you need then you have a responsibility to help those that don’t. You could even have your children start their own food drive. Little kids LOVE looking through cabinets and finding things to donate. If they feel a part of it and like what they are doing is making a difference they will experience the joy of helping others.

Monogrammed Cranberry Ornament

You will need: – Some “Cranberries” I used little red foam vase fillers – Glue Gun – A Letter – Burlap – Wire

1. Glue the Cranberries around the boarder of you letter.
2. Continue to fill in the rest of the letter.

3. Make your burlap bow – above is how I made mine

4. Glue your bow right on top!

5. Take your wire making a little hook and glue it to the back as close to the centre as possible

6. Hang it on your tree!

I didn’t have a Christmas tree so I display it on – so my lovely barren tree outside our apartment will have to do! Merry Christmas!

This recipe was passed down from my Grandmother who’s ancestors used to run a bakery in Germany.

My little frosted men might look unassuming in their simplicity, but I assure you they are extremely delicious, addictive, and make for a wonderful family tradition!

RECIPE:

5 cups sifted flour1 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp nutmeg1 egg well beaten
3 tsp cinnamon1 cup light molasses
1/2 tsp ground cloves1/3 cup water
1 tsp ginger1/8 tsp baking soda

Sift 1 cup of the flour with salt, spices, and baking soda. Cream shortening. Add sugar gradually to shortening beating till light and fluffy. Add egg and slightly warmed molasses. Stir in water. Add remaingin flour 1 cup at a time till dough is soft and moist. Chill for 6-8 hours. Roll about a quarter of it and cut with cookie cutters. Continue. Put on lightly greased cookie tray and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool and then ice with mixture of confectioners sugar and water beaten till smooth and colored with food coloring if you want to be creative.. Raisins can be used as decoration.

Jenny Alden Barth critiques and reviews desserts at www.DessertDarling.com with a 5-cherry rating system to guide you to the very best. She eats the good, the, bad, and the ugly so that you don’t have to.~

Hi this is Daria’s Mom. One of our family’s favourite Christmas traditions is making popcorn wreaths to give away to friends and neighbors (and teachers). It is an easy treat to make and tastes yummy!

I use an angel food cake pan to get the shape of a wreath, and then I also form my own candy cane shapes, which are also fun. If you want to be creative you could do star shapes or whatever else you can think of to make this fun and interesting. Our children still look forward to this tradition and now we are passing along to our grandchildren. Hope you enjoy as much as we do.

Here’s the recipe (I do up several batches)

Pop 1 ½ cups of popcorn (remove all unpopped kernels).

Syrup:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
½ cup marjarine
1 pinch salt
Bring to a boil while constantly stirring. (Burns easily, watch closely)
Cook to almost soft ball stage in cold water. Remove from stove and add 1 tsp. Vanilla.
Pour over popcorn. Mix well.
Pour syrupy popcorn into well sprayed angel food or bundt pan. Press and leave about a minute to take form.
Remove from pan and decorate with jube jubes, and/or Christmas candies of all sorts.

Note: Prior to preparing the recipe I cut out cardboard squares big enough to hold the popcorn wreath, or rectangular ones to hold the candy cane shapes. Cover the cardboard with tinfoil and you are ready to go. Makes it easy to deliver your decorated treat!

GUBS was definitely a game for 10 and up. It had a lot of different types of cards, and we had to refer to the guide quite a bit throughout the game. I’m not sure we’ll ever have everything memorized, but once we got the hang of it, we enjoyed the strategy and scheming. It’s definitely hard keeping those little GUBS safe!

As for City Square Off, this was by FAR our most favorite game…probably are most favorite game of Gamewright’s to date. Even George, our six-year-old, loved it! Granted, he didn’t quite of the strategic forethought as the older kids, but he totally understood how to play. Think of it as Tetris meets urban planning. We played this one constantly over Thanksgiving break. It’s definitely a must-have for the kids.

Both games are award-winning (as usual for Gamewright) and both are extremely fun to play. And both need to be under your Christmas tree this year. (At least make sure City Square Off is!)—Emily

These sweet sayings are Free for you to download and print off at your local print shop (or at home on your printer). Put them into a cute frame and place them around the house to make your holiday festive and bright. These make an easy and affordable gift for someone you love as well. We’d love to see pictures of where you place your prints and how you display them, post a link to your blog if you share them – (*remember good things come to those who share…).

We have two NEW Holiday designs available for 2011:

“Joy Love Peace Believe Christmas” in a classy and beautiful tree formation

“Have yourself a Merry little Christmas”

Each download is available in 3 sizes (4×6,5×7,8×10)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you.

With much love,
Daria, Maggie and the entire Boutique Cafe Team

FREE DOWNLOADS
Click to download the sizes you wish
“Joy Love Peace Believe Christmas” Tree
4X6
5×7
8×10

Click to download the sizes you wish
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
4×6
5×7
8×10

**Last Year’s Free Printables are still available for download here >>

For even more Heather Bailey Inspiration:
Follow Heather on Twitter here>>
Join Heather on Facebook here>>
Indulge in Heather’s popular blog here>>
Shop Heather Bailey’s online store and website here>>

***GIVEAWAY! Heather Bailey is giving away a signed copy of “Signature Styles” book ***

**Special Thanks: Thanks again to our friends at Quilt Market for inviting us as Press to their events. We love to attend their amazing Markets and bring you the most incredible interviews and products. Visit www.quilts.com to learn more about upcoming Market events in your area.

**Special Thanks to Megan (Brassy Apple) and Emily (Is This Really My Life) for being my incredible Boutique Cafe support team at Market providing video recording, interview support and lots of Diet Coke. I love you both!!

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

Today I am grateful for: – a new and comfortable home – island living is quite special – my adorable, supportive and gorgeous husband who I love more each year! – 5 of the sweetest children ever created – extended family and friends who make this life beautiful and full of possibility – my freedom to worship, believe and have hope each day, and for those who fight to make that possible – each of you! Truly, I am grateful for you!

Happy Thanksgiving my friends

These sweet sayings are Free for you to download and print off at your local print shop (or at home on your printer). Put them into a cute frame and place them around the house to make your holiday festive and bright. We’d love to see pictures of where you place your prints and how you display them, post a link to your blog if you share them – (*remember good things come to those who share…).

We have two Holly Jolly designs available:

“All is Calm, All is Bright”

“A Little Cup of Christmas”

Each download is available in 4 sizes (4×6,5×7, 8×10, 11×14)

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you.

With much love,
Daria and the entire Boutique Cafe Team

FREE DOWNLOADS
Click to download the sizes you wish
“All is Calm, All is Bright” (colors are Turquoise and red)
4X6
5×7
8×10
11×14

Click to download the sizes you wish
“A Little Cup of Christmas”
4×6
5×7
8×10
11×14

Maubys

Embroidery Boutique

Sweetpeas Ribbons & Bows

Squirmy Worm Studio

Painted Butterfly

Runwayz Boutique

Spunky Little Monkey

Cutie Pies Couture

Squiggly Twigs

Peekaboo Beans

Peanut and Bean

We make inclusion easy, affordable and fun for small business owners! After all, that’s what we love more than anything at Boutique Cafe, helping businesses get noticed and doing so shouldn’t cost a fortune. We’re here to help and we love supporting you.

Let’s make it an outstanding year once again! – Daria

We’ve lived in our home for over three years and I still have blank walls. With this home I’ve been a bit pickier about how I decorate, choosing pieces that have meaning or make me happy. (Don’t worry…there are pictures of the kids here and there.)

When A Vintage Poster asked if I would be interested in reviewing a couple of their posters, I checked out their website before replying. I wanted to make sure their collection had something I would want in our home. Funny thing is, I found a few things. The simple designs and beautiful colors were perfect and I had a hard time narrowing down my choices…such a hard time, in fact, they were nice enough to send me two for review: Star Struck and Bookworm.

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Star Struck is the perfect fit for our basement home theater and Bookworm is going to look just right next to our large black bookshelf in the office!

I was going to wait to write the review until I’d found the perfect frames but again, I am picky and it would’ve taken me way too long. With the holidays around the corner, I wanted to spread the word about A Vintage Poster because they have a poster for everyone on your list, including yourself.

Here are a couple of my other favorites:

...

Along with illustrated and quotable posters, A Vintage Poster offers custom designs. You can put your children’s names, family name, child’s name with birth info (birth date, weight, etc.) or whatever your heart desires (as long as it fits on the poster).

And fit it should because size isn’t problem. They offer 8×10 ($12), 11×14 ($14) and 18×24 ($28) sizes (pricing is only a titch more for custom designs). With those sizes, the variety of colors and the amount of designs, the possibilities are pretty much endless!

Just think what a great gift this would be this holiday season! You’d definitely be the favorite if you aren’t already!

*** Giveaway! A Vintage Poster is giving one winner her choice of three (3) posters in 8×10- or 11×14-inch size! ***

•   Visit AVintagePoster.com and leave a comment telling us which poster is your favorite.
•   “Like” A Vintage Poster on Facebook and leave a comment telling us you did.
•   Tweet about this giveaway and leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.

Include a valid email address for our drawing. We’ll draw the winner from the comments and contact her via email. Deadline: November 23, 2011 (midnight). The winner will have 24 hours to claim her prize or a new winner will be chosen.

In our interview Jennifer shares her book “Girl’s World” (published by Chronicle) with our audience. Girl’s World is full of 21 projects to sew for little girls. It’s a gorgeous book full of patterns and inspiration. If you have a little girl in your life, you need this book!

Find out more about Sis Boom and Jennifer Paganelli herself at www.sisboom.com. Join her Flickr group SisBoom Sightings here>>

***GIVEAWAY! Jennifer Paganelli is giving away a “Girl’s World” Prize Pack! ***

**Special Thanks: Thanks again to our friends at Quilt Market for inviting us as Press to their events. We love to attend their amazing Markets and bring you the most incredible interviews and products. Visit www.quilts.com to learn more about upcoming Market events in your area.

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

Have a safe and fun Halloween everyone! If you blog about your children’s costumes be sure to link up with us and share in our comments section. We LOVE your ingenuity and of course the cuteness!

Chelsea Baby has the answer to cute feet couture, with their adorable high end baby booties. This is an eco-friendly line of luxury mini footwear sized 0-6 months and 6-12 months. Eco-friendly that is, because of the use of Sensuede, a beautiful stain resistant material that is “100 per cent green in the milling process”.

I personally had the delight of receiving a pair of their “Bucky” shoes pictured above. They came beautifully packaged in a clear plastic box perfect for gifting right away, but that’s not all…not by a long shot. The Chelsea Baby shoes are incredibly plush and soft, featuring cotton fabric on the toe and with a unique snap on bouquet for girls and a snap on bow tie for boys.

At Chelsea Baby the styling of each tiny shoe is an irresistible indulgence! You can follow the lady who started it all, Chelsea Geenen herself on Twitter to learn about promotions, deals and the latest from this fab entrepreneur.

For your next baby shower, wow your new Mommy friend with luxury and style for the tiniest of toes. – Daria

PROMOTION
Chelsea Baby currently is running a 20% off promotion on their website for a limited time. Visit Chelsea Baby and click on the “DEAL” button at the side of their page – then share the promo on Facebook for your 20% off code. Sweet Deal!!

You’ll also find a host of ideas for those of you who like to sew and craft your own. See Halloween on Etsy Here >>

This video is quick, but it’s all you need to get started with your own Slice Fabrique. Let the projects begin!

Find out more about the Slice Fabrique here>>

**Special Thanks: Thanks again to our friends at Quilt Market for inviting us as Press to their events. We love to attend their amazing Markets and bring you the most incredible interviews and products. Visit www.quilts.com to learn more about upcoming Market events in your area.

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

Snap a photo and send it in to Megan! Each photo will help raise money for cancer research and will be donated to Stand Up 2 Cancer.org (remember – 1 only photo per person this month! You’ve got to encourage your friends to submit!). Let’s show off those shoes everyone!

I’ve been intrigued by the SodaStream home soda system ever since I first heard my sister-in-law rave about it, but I wondered if it really was worth the investment in the system, bottles and flavorings. Yes, it’s more environmentally friendly than cans, but if that’s it’s only selling point, I’m not sold. (Sorry, it’s true.) It would have to make really good soda—and a lot of it at a reasonable price—for me to place one on my kitchen counter.

Guess what? I now totally have one on my kitchen counter and we absolutely LOVE it!

SodaStream sent us their Genesis Soda Starter Kit plus a selection of their flavorings to see if they could win us over…and win us they did. Here’s a video of us giving our SodaStream Genesis a test run. Yes, it’s about 10 minutes long but every minute is worth it because you’ll see:

• Me trying to figure out how to put the thing together.


• Me being a smarta** to Nathan.


• Madison learning how NOT to shake a SodaStream liter bottle to mix the flavoring.


• Madison and I learning just what the “buzz” sounds like when pressing the button.


• Me trying to figure out how to open the single serving packet of root beer flavoring.


• George equating his tasting the root beer to “living in heaven” or some such craziness.

The video had me laughing out loud when I watched it (and wondering why Nathan didn’t tell me my shirt was all tucked up in back). He’s never going to be a professional videographer at this rate!

Since our first test run, we’ve sampled quite a few flavors from the variety pack and enjoyed every one. I have yet to give the diet cola flavor a taste test, but Diet Coke is a hard habit to break. Of course the fact that SodaStream diet flavors don’t have aspartame helps. (They use Splenda.)

SodaStream offers 30 regular, diet and caffeine-free flavors. Oh, and their regular flavors contain no high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The lack of HFCS and aspartame makes me feel better about giving my kids diet soda for sure. Other benefits? No heavy cans or large 2-liter bottles to store in my fridge. (That means more room for string cheese, Slim Fast and yogurt.) This image pretty much says it all:

On the day of the session it was crazy – we weren’t sure we could even make it in time driving up from Lethbridge. But made it we did, and in spite of reports of possible rain we had beautiful evening light. The only major issue were the millions of biting and nasty mosquitos threatening our very lives. I joked with Wendy that she would have to spend hours photoshopping them off of our faces.

Between the travel time, and the time of night our kids were crazy monster children ready to pounce. Lola wouldn’t stand still and was constantly escaping and running down the paths yelling “RUNNNNNNNN” Noah was freaking out about ants on his shoes, and Joshy and Brigs were trying to behave but couldn’t sit still or resist trying to parent the other kids. It was a gong-show comedy playing out right in front of my photography blog icon friends! I could die! Wendy in spite of all the chaos was cool, collected and darling – all the time telling me how precious my children were and how perfectly we were dressed. I love her!

Seeing the images today brought tears to my eyes. These are the last family pics of our family in Alberta, they are treasures to me. I love and stand in awe of how Wendy was able to capture such beautiful shots of our family. We love each other and she was able to get that, despite all of the chaos. I can’t tell you how much I recommend the Blue Lily experience, they are the travelling vagabond photographers who just might be in your neck of the woods next. I have many more images I couldn’t share on here, but I love them all – the shots of my individual children are beautiful too. Come over and I’ll show you all the shots! Thank you Wendy + Tyler – we loved being “Blue Lily-fied” and can’t wait to do it again. XOXO - Daria, Nathan and family

You can catch up with the photography and travels of Wendy + Tyler (and their adorable insanely well behaved children) at Blue Lily Photography Blog here>>
Join in the Blue Lily family of the happily photographed on their Facebook page here>>

Enjoy some of our family shots here:

We’d like to invite a few of our readers to share your favourite project, craft or DIY idea on Boutique Cafe this month. Posts should include clear photos, and will link back to your own blogs. We also require a mini bio about you (and a headshot – say Cheese!).

If you are interested in strutting your stuff on BC simply email me your idea. We are so excited to see what you come up with to share with our readers, and it’s great exposure for your blogs and businesses as well.

Email your ideas to: daria@boutiquecafe.com

“SOUL never lose your sense of awe and mystery, stay curious, And remember that it is truly a gift to be surrounded by all the people and all the stunning beauty that you Love.”

I hope you enjoy my interview with the beautiful and talented Amy Butler- please leave her your comments and questions. – xo Daria

GIVEAWAY!! Amy Butler’s goodie package Giveaway will include her book “Style Stitches”, all her new patterns + a few great surprises as well for one of our very lucky Boutique Cafe viewers!!

For Entries to Win Simply:

Comment in our shownotes below, tweet on Twitter, Share on Facebook, or comment on YouTube for multiple entries to win a Prize Pack!! Draw Date is September 17th at Midnight, must have valid email address to win.

Amy Butler Fabric made into dreamy clothing:

Many more interviews are on the way, keep tuning in and enjoying your Cup of Couture and So Much More!!
**For those of you who have arrived from the Amy Butler Bloghop – WELCOME!! If you search our past podcasts you’ll find many more Amy Butler interviews, and oodles of other great designer interviews as well.
Amy Butler Facebook Group>

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

Ryders has been around since 1986 when Brent Martin, on his way to becoming the first Canadian Mountain Bike Champion, wanted a pair of high-performance sunglasses at a budget-friendly price. Ryders Eyewear was the result, and Brent’s been making stylish, sporty, sport-friendly eyewear ever since.

We make performance glasses for human powered activities that get your heart racing. Fun stuff like mountain biking, trail running, hiking, road cycling. If you want to wear your Ryders for other heart pumping activities like rollerblading with your pals, streaking the quad or naked bike riding – please be our guests (and send photos!)

Making sunglasses is not sending rockets to the moon. What we do is keep it simple, get out of the way of the sunglasses and let them do their job. We make great sunglasses at a great price so that our customers can get outside and perform at their best.

With shatterproof, polarized lenses to reduce glare plus UV protection and a scratch-resistant coating combined with a thermoplastic frame making them durable, flexible and light, you can see why I love these sunglasses for the pool. And the 11-hour car ride. (Flying objects are not unheard of somewhere between the Nevada and California state lines.)

I’ve already mentioned one of my two biggest reasons for loving these glasses (they’re super lightweight). The other reason is the superior coverage. The lenses on the Solace sunglasses are nice and big without being too big. There’s no errant sunlight making it’s way into my eyeballs; my entire view is polarized and shaded and I love it!

Ryders Eyewear has an awesome selection of women’s sunglasses, from the Drill and Nitrous to the more casual Duchess and Fray designs. Love them all!

As for price, they are right on target with Brent’s vision to design high-performance, stylish, durable sunglasses at a reasonable price. The Solace sunglasses are under $70—a great price for all the benefits this pair offers. You’ll find styles for under $40 all the way up to just under $90. Can’t beat that!

Now if Ryders Eyewear could cut out as much noise as they do glare, the 11-hour drive would be even less painful!—Emily

This week I’m heading out to the Island with my hubby and Lola in tow to seek out a home for rent. I’ve only visited Victoria once before, I don’t know anyone out there so it’s a bit scary, coupled with sheer exhilaration at the thought of such a big adventure.

If you walk around my house right now you’ll see little notes all over with two columns:

Great Things about moving to Victoria / Not So Great Things About Moving to Victoria

Missing our dear family and friends definitely lands on the right side of those lists (and right at the top). I’m not entirely sure how I’ll cope without a direct road to our parents homes within arms reach. We’ve been so blessed to be near our family the past 4 years, within an hour or so. Every few minutes my mood changes and you may catch me mid cry or mid laughter at the craziness of what we are doing.

Victoria BC is beautiful. An island surrounded by the ocean, beautiful beaches, lovely weather (goodbye Alberta winters), gardens, orchards, vineyards, whale watching, and a slower pace. My ultimate dream is to have a Palm Tree in my front yard…it’s gonna happen folks.

Hence this post is just to let all of you know that I’m here and have many things to share, however I’m not sure exactly when the posting will take place. I’ll post as I can over the next few weeks. Lots of Market Videos still to share and giveaways to well…giveaway!

XO - Daria

It’s a long way from Long Beach, California to Boulder, Colorado… or is it? Fresh Produce first sprouted in 1984 in Long Beach, selling silk-screened t-shirts in bright graphics and custom jewelry at the ‘84 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the parking lot across the street from the coliseum. The concept then is the same as now – to bring the emotions, the colors, the sensations, the leisure of beach life to everyday life through fashion.

Known and loved by women ages 6 months to 60-plus for lush colors, year-round sensibility, simply inspired design and coastal comfort, Fresh Produce continues to delight customers around the globe.

Apparently I didn’t sport the tunic quite right. I tied it rather than letting it the ties hang loose and I have to admit, I like the more casual look better. Here’s a photo from the site:

And here’s my take on it:

The Swing Capri was super soft and super comfortable. It could be due to the 92% Rayon, 8% Lycra fabric or the nice, wide leg. Or both. Whatever it is, it works and makes for the most comfortable pair of pants you could own. The Rio Crescent Moon Tunic is also comfortable but not as “cool” as I thought it would be. Though it’s 100% cotton and on the thinner side, I still got a little toasty in it, but it would make for a great transitional shirt for summer to fall or spring to summer. And it is flowy and airy, though I think I prefer the more bright, “beachy” colors better like seaglass and sunrise.

Some of my other faves from the site:

Impromptu Dress

Girl’s Koi Pond Jersey Knit Dress

Coastal Wrap Cardigan

First, a bit about Wolverine:

The footwear, apparel and gear reflects the values of the craftsmen whose pride in their work has made Wolverine the gold standard for comfort, quality and performance. Wolverine products are among the finest to be found anywhere in the world, with advanced technologies that add unparalleled safety, durability, and especially comfort. Wolverine will handle the toughest days and keep coming back for more. They are RELENTLESS BY NATURE.

Then I noticed this diagram on the inside of the lid:

And found this cute little dial under the sock liner:

So apparently these hiking shoes are awesome inside and out. They have this customized comfort system with four settings: I for enhanced inner support; O for increased outer support; F for firming things up; and C for added cushion. You remove the liner, choose your setting, set both disks the same and replace the liner. How great is that?

Question is, could these shoes hold up to a 13-year-old at a week-long camp for girls? And an 11-year-old who knows how to beat up a pair of shoes? I gave one pair to Madison and one to Lauren so they could test drive the Wolverines. Here’s what they had to say.

Madison
“Hi everybody! This is Madison. My mom asked me to write a review on the shoes Wolverine. I took them to Oakcrest {a five-day camp for girls} and used them for hiking. They were SUPER comfy and didn’t give me blisters on the first time I wore them! I love the design on the shoe. I had to use them on a three and a half hour hike and my feet didn’t hurt one bit. I heard people complaining about their feet, but I didn’t! They were even good in the mud and rain. When we were hiking down, lots of people were slipping. I didn’t fall because of the great traction on the bottom of the sole. These shoes were the best!”

Lauren
“Hey people! This is Lauren and I am writing a review on the shoes I used. The first time I used them I walked to and back from the school and my feet didn’t hurt only my legs did. The second time I used them was when we went on the alpine slide and while on that I slipped! {Clarification: The shoes had nothing to do with her flipping her sled. She was going way too fast around a turn. The end result? Fiberglass burns and a gash on her knee that need over 11 stitches!} The shoes looked great with blood-red inside and little dots only on the right shoe! Just kidding. They were my favorite tennis shoes and still are and the red came right out”

—————
Yes, I totally washed them in the washing machine in cold water on gentle cycle and then air dried them. I hesitated to do so due to the leather but she had really bloodied up the inside of the one shoe. They washed up perfectly and are good as new! I was super impressed! Both girls raved about how comfortable they were. I’m kinda sad I gave both pairs away. Dang.

Wolverine shoes are not super cheap, but if I were an avid hiker or outdoorswoman, I would make the investment. These babies survived camp with nary a blister; a trip down the Alpine slide before rolling around in fiberglass, rocks and dirt; and being washed in the washing machine. If they can survive all that, they will definitely last years and years. And years!—Emily

You can catch up with Carina on her blog, in her Facebook group, as well as on the Northcott and Riley Blake websites. If Twitter is your thing, you can definitely catch up with Carina on Twitter as well by following @carinagardner

**GIVEAWAY
We are giving away an adorable Carina Gardner Ruffle Dress pattern, to enter our drawing comment and share this episode for an opportunity to WIN! We’ll draw a winner on July 25th, 2011!!

Many more interviews are on the way, keep tuning in and enjoying your Cup of Couture and So Much More!!

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

1. Footprint Butterfly – for all those little budding Picasso’s out there, get out the paint and use their feet as butterfly wings. This would also make a fun gift idea for Grandparents, it’s always so darling to capture the smallness of their little feet forever.

2. Adorable DIY Bird Feeders – Bird watching is always an interesting adventure for little ones. What’s even better? Getting a bit messy and making bird feeders. These ones are so adorable, and super easy!!

3. Puff Paint Artwork – you can make this puffy paint in your very own kitchen with self-rising flour, salt and food coloring. Cook in the microwave to puff it up. Voila!! You’re Awesome!!

*Check out my original suggestions here>> as well More ideas to come soon – let me know how your children enjoy these activities too!!

One thing I don’t have to locate is the Coghlan’s Bug-Eye Headlight my kids received so we could review it for the Daily Dish. I always know where it is: either on George’s or Livi’s head or on the kitchen desk when not on George’s or Livi’s head.

The kids LOVED this headlamp the minute they put it on…which was the minute I opened the package.

The Bug-Eye Headlight is compact, lightweight and designed just for kids. Powered by a bright white LED – that never needs replacing. Comfortable elastic head strap. Perfect for kids who love the outdoors!

I’m thinking we’ll be packing it for our trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa in August because there’s always some serious backyard camping when we go! I’ll probably need a second one so I don’t have to keep an eye on the timer as George and Livi share. (At less than $9, it’s a no-brainer!) I like to limit the number of battles and they’ve had a couple over Coghlan’s Bug-Eye Headlight. Can’t blame them!—Emily

When I was sent Pearl Izumi’s women’s Fly Top from their P.R.O. line, I was all over giving this baby a test drive—or ride.

The top features Pearl Izumi’s In-R-Cool fabric technology “that cools the body for optimal comfort.” The fabric also:

• Provides optimal moisture transfer with a “superior hand feel” (yay for super lightweight, super soft fabric!)


• Flatlock seams (yay for no chafing!)


• Reflective elements for low-light visibility (yay for not getting hit!)


• Sublimated graphics (yay for something that sounds super cool!)

Yes, it’s part of their running collection, but I’m way okay with mixing and matching! Can you tell how lightweight and breathable this fabric is? Just look at it lying on the table—it’s nearly paper thin (or at least cardstock thin)!

You can even see my fingers (and ring) through the fabric:

Because of the everlasting winter here in Utah, I didn’t get to try the Fly Top until the Goldillocks ride in May. But it was the perfect weather—and event—to do so. It was a 42-miler that started out when the weather was still a bit nippy but ended up in the pleasant 70s. Though I survived my first long ride, Pear Izumi’s Fly Top did more than survived; it performed beautifully! It was almost like wearing nothing at all, which is nice if you’re into that sort of thing.

Unlike wearing nothing, the Fly Top does provide you with sun protection. The body has a UPF of 40+ and the mesh a UPF of 30+. I just wish I’d had sunscreen with 50+ between the end of the cap sleeves and the top of my arm warmers!

Available in black, red and white, Pear Izumi’s P.R.O. Fly Top is a must for runners and cyclists alike…especially those who only cycle (or run) in fair weather.—Emily

Violet shares her beautiful collection of fabrics called Peacock Lane, as well as her children’s clothing patterns and a bag pattern for Indygo Junction!

GIVEAWAY!! Violet Craft Prize Pack including a Fat Quarter Pack of the ENTIRE collection (all 24 designs across both color ways!!) – she says “I don’t think they should be separated!” and we quite agree, they are Beautiful together!

Violet is offering an awesome GIVEAWAY for one of our very lucky Boutique Cafe viewers!!

For Entries to Win Simply:

Comment in our shownotes below, tweet on Twitter, Share on Facebook, or comment on YouTube for multiple entries to win a Prize Pack!! Draw Date is June 27th at Midnight, must have valid email address to win.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Winner Kelly Irene. And Thank You to everyone for your awesome comments and involvement. We have many more prizes to giveaway so keep commenting and sharing. XO!!

Many more interviews are on the way, keep tuning in and enjoying your Cup of Couture and So Much More!!

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>

(*Please be aware that YouTube Videos are loading slowly for some people – they are working on the issue)

GIVEAWAY!!
Lucy’s offering an awesome GIVEAWAY for one of our Boutique Cafe viewers!! Comment in our shownotes below, tweet on Twitter, Share on Facebook, or comment on YouTube for multiple entries to win a Prize Pack!! Fabric and Hot Scott Patterns galore up for grabs – don’t miss out!! Draw Date is June 27th at Midnight, must have valid email address to win.

Many more interviews are on the way, keep tuning in and enjoying your Cup of Couture and So Much More!!

** Click button below to view video coverage, or view it on our YouTube channel right here>>