Small Business Saturday!

Just a reminder today is Small Business Saturday!  Do not forget to support your local and small online businesses this holiday season.  I wanted to share some of my favorite small businesses:)

One Girl Cookies 

They are famous for their cookies and woopie pies!  If you are located in NYC or Brooklyn especially, you should check out their adorable shops! The owners were very generous and helpful to me when I was starting out. 

Blissful Eats

I met the owner at the farmers markets last year.  She makes fabulous Gluten Free & Organic Granola.  You can buy from her online or if you are long island keep your eye out for her granola in health stores and at the farmers markets.

Auntie Liz's Sweets

My cousin has a delicious small baking business too! If you live on Long Island and need custom cake pops or a cake email her!

Little Hip Squeaks

An adorable online kids clothing and baby accessories company founded by a Brooklyn mom. I espeically love the headbands for girls!

Little Miss Party Planner

Having a Holiday party and need help planning?  Have no fear the gals at Little Miss Party Planner do an amazing job, especially with small spaces if you live in NYC. 

Especially Paper & Bushel and Peck Paper

Both owners have done fabulous paper cake and cupcake accessories for me.  They also have some fun printables for all different occasions. Make sure to check them out!

Bridier Baubles

Need some fun jewelry for a Christmas present?  Shop Bridier Baubles this holiday season.

Jessica Haley Photography

One of our new friends in town has an amazing photography business.  If you are getting married next year be sure to reach out to her!

Raquel Bianca Creative

If you still need a family holiday photo be sure to contact Raquel! She also does photo books which make great Christmas gifts!

Baby Boy Gift Basket

Happy Monday and Happy Thanksgiving Week! I wanted to share a project with you today that I worked on last week.  One of my good friends just had a baby boy so I made a basket of treats for her. It is so hard to find time to do anything when you are a new mom so I made some healthy treats to keep her energy up! It was filled with Almond Granola with dates, raisins and walnuts, Almond Butter Whole Wheat cookies (based off this recipe) and some pumpkin butter that is great in yogurt and on toast.

I found a great basket at Home Goods to put everything in and found this adorable personalized train at Monograms off Madison.

To complete the basket, I added one of my favorite board books, Wherever You Are, and tied it up with cellophane and some blue baby feet ribbon that I had from a previous project.

This Saturday is Small Business Saturday, do not forget to support all of your local and online small businesses (especially during the entire holiday season).  I am going to try and share my favorite small businesses later this week!

Savanna's First 1st Birthday Party Part 2 and 12 month update!

I cannot believe Savanna is 1!!  Everyone tells you it goes fast and it really does.  The first 3 months feel long and then from month 6 on the time flew!  Savanna did have a ton of changes from month 11 to month 12, but of course there were still some developments.     

• Knows where her belly is
• When you ask if she wants you to take her coat off she will pull at the sleeves
• She pulls at her clothes to come off when we are running the bath
• She “brushes” her own hair
• If I have a necklace on she wants one on too
• She LOVES her books! Probably what she plays with the most.
• Plays with her dolls and pushes them around in her push toys 

Photo credit Raquel Bianca Creative (from her first birthday photos)

We had a small family party the weekend of Savanna's party and I wanted to share some photos with you from it!

Savanna is blessed to have 4 Great Grandparents!!

I thought this was a really unique and personalized gift and I wanted to share :)

For the desserts I made a small, simple soy free and dairy free smash cake for Savanna with one of Especially Paper's awesome banners.  I then made pumpkin cake pops, chocolate chip ganache cookies and an apple pie crumble.  

Chicken Vegetable Soup with Pasta

After the cold weather came in after Halloween I made a pretty easy and fairly adaptable chicken soup for us.  We have been passing around a pretty nasty cold and cough around here for almost a month! Luckily (well not so much for me)  I have had it the worst, but that is better than Savanna.  The doctor finally perscribed a z-pac and I think that may have finally kicked it!  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  

Healthy Chicken Vegetable Soup

INGREDIENTS

6 cups chicken broth*

1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1 cup onion

1 cup baby carrots, chopped

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup frozen mixed vegetables (I like zucchini actually but did not have any so used a carrots, peas, green beans and lima bean mix)

1/2 small tomato chopped up

1 tsp salt

1 cup uncooked tiny pasta (I used Ancini di Pepe)

Parmesan Cheese for topping

*The pasta soaked up A LOT of liquid which I believe is from the type of pasta so I would either recommend cooking separately or adding more broth/water depending on the type you use.  I added 4-5 more cups.

**I also added 1 cup of spinach to my bowl and the hot soup wilted it nicely.  

PREPARATION
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan and sauté onions until translucent.  Add in carrots, tomato and garlic, sauté for 5 minutes.

2. Put broth, chicken, and salt in, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked and vegetables are tender.

3. Add in frozen mixed vegetables and cook for 5 more minutes. 

4. Remove chicken to a plate to cool slightly. Add pasta to soup; cover and simmer 10-15 minutes minutes, or until tender.

5. Meanwhile, shred chicken with fingers or 2 forks. Add to soup along with the parmesan cheese (I left the cheese out of Savanna's and served hers at room temperature.  

Halloween Recap

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.  We most certainly enjoyed our first Halloween.  We had purchased a little dog costume since she loves dogs but it was too long and she hated wearing the hat portion (which actually made it look like a dog). After we wore it to our gym class party I decided to change to Cinderella.

My uncle had given her a Cinderella outfit last Christmas that was 6-12 months that we had never found an occasion to wear and it worked out much better than the dog!  

We have two friends that live on a great U-shaped block that was having a neighborhood party they invited us to. They had a little parade and party outside and Savanna enjoyed looking at all the other kids dressed up.  We didn't "get" trick-or-treating but I figured that.