We’ve been busy getting ready for the holidays, trying to plan ahead with presents and decorations to limit the last minute scrambling that inevitably happens each December. This year instead of our typical Week of Design, we’re talking about holiday gifts, presenting items we love and recommend, as well as items from our wishlists for fun splurge items.

We love children’s books and especially appreciate board books for little ones. The thick pages allow toddlers to turn the pages themselves (how empowering!) and are strong enough to stand up to lots of daily use (kids love repetition!) and drool. Here are some of our most treasured board books, which we’re read over and over and over again. (Yes, we have them all memorized!) Enjoy.

– Baby Love: A Board Book Gift Set/All Fall Down; Clap Hands; Say Goodnight; Tickle, Tickle
– Blue Hat, Green Hat
– Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
– The Carrot Seed
– Chicka Chicka ABC
– Forest Bright, Forest Night
– Global Babies
– Good Dog, Carl
– Good Night, Gorilla
– Goodnight Moon
– Gossie and Friends
– Hands Can
– Harry the Dirty Dog
– I’m as Quick as a Cricket
– Jamberry
– Mama, Do You Love Me?
– Mommy & Daddy Hugs & Kisses
– The Owl and the Pussycat (stunning illustrations by Jan Brett!)
– Planting a Rainbow
– Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes
– The Very Hungry Caterpillar
– Won’t You Be My Kissaroo?

We’ve been busy getting ready for the holidays, trying to plan ahead with presents and decorations to limit the last minute scrambling that inevitably happens each December. This year instead of our typical Week of Design, we’re talking about holiday gifts, presenting items we love and recommend, as well as items from our wishlists for fun splurge items.

Today we’re talking about items for the kitchen.

Kitchen gadgets I own, use, love and recommend (perhaps for stocking stuffers?):

– Chef’n FreshForce Citrus Juicer, Lemon (also available in the lime size) – shown above
As someone who squeezes fresh lime or lemon into my water everyday and loves to make mojitos all summer long, it feels imperative that we own an easy to use and easy to clean juicer. I LOVE this one. We own just the lemon size and it works well for both lemons and limes. This gadget works so well I can easily push the peels inside out to get every last drop in three seconds flat.

– Stainless Steel Straws – shown above
Dishwasher safe, BPA-free, reusable, durable, recyclable, perfect for hot and cold drinks. We love them and use them every single day!

– Oxo Good Grips i-Series Y-Peeler
I’ve used many crappy peelers in my lifetime and, believe me, they are so not worth it. This one is easy to use and not just for easy to peel vegetables either. I use it to peel more typically difficult items like butternut squash, no sweat!

– Harold Mini Measuring Glass
I own several of these and keep meaning to pick up a few more. They are wonderful liquid measures, so much easier to clean and use than measuring spoons.

Kitchen gadgets I’m lusting after:

– Oxo Good Grips Lemon Zester and Microplane Grater/Zester
After years of zesting citrus on our six-sided grater (SO not what it’s meant for!), I am ready to zest easily. For under $10 each, I may just have to buy these for myself.

– Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch Nonstick Baking Pans
We own two Williams-Sonoma Goldtouch loaf pans and they are completely nonstick. Not nonstick now and then not so much two years later once you’ve used them a ton and the coating has rubbed off. Our pans are as nonstick now as they were when we bought them several years ago and I LOVE THEM. I keep hoping that David will buy me these Goldtouch Mini Loaf Pans or perhaps this fabulous Goldtouch 6-Piece Essentials Bakeware Set that contains a muffin pan, a cookie sheet, a half-sheet pan, two 9″ cake pans and a cooling rack. With the breads, muffins, and cookies I would whip up, David would benefit from this gift too. Sigh.

– KitchenAid Mixer Accessories
I love our KitchenAid Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer that we received from my grandmother for my bridal shower. I lust after the Pasta Roller Attachment for Stand Mixers and have you seen this New Metro Design Beater Blade for KitchenAid Mixers? No more scraping down the bowl! I love it.

By the way, we also own this great cover that I recommend for anyone who owns a mixer. Keeps it dust free and ready for immediate use.

– Lodge Enameled Cast-Iron Casserole in Caribbean Blue
We love Lodge’s cast iron pans, but have you seen their new affordable enamelware?! I’m so in love.

Let’s get cooking!

No surprise that our craft projects have been taking a holiday spin lately. Today we’ll share a simple kids holiday tree project.

Note that this a messy project (lots of glitter!) and takes several days to complete (because of all the layers that need to dry)… You have been forewarned!

We started with these free empty yarn cones, picked up at a local craft resale shop (that benefits our town’s senior center).

We painted the yarn cones with crayola washable paint in green and purple. (Because doesn’t purple just scream holidays?! Miss Leyba thinks so and I quite agree with her.) Please learn from my experience and don’t use washable paint. We used it simply because cause a toddler was involved, but the paint was somewhat thin.

I only got a second coat on half of the cones (impatient toddler and who has time for second coats these days anyhow?!), so you can tell from the photos which ones received just one coat of paint. Regardless I think they turned out just fine. We’re all about the process versus the product here in Spritzer Leyba Land.

After letting the cones thoroughly dry, we used craft glue to made patterns on the trees and then covered them with glitter. For our first coat, we used green glitter (also from the craft reuse shop).

We then added patterns with glue and silver glitter, after the layer of green glitter thoroughly dried.

We glued on embellishments. We used silver stars, but you could easily use buttons, mirrors, felt pieces, dried flowers or leaves (and turn it into a fall craft, rather than a winter holiday craft).

I zig-zagged glue and then rolled a cone, shown below, in the glitter on our newspaper for a more tree-boughs-covered-in-snow sort of look. (Who knows if I was successful but it was fun!)

Here are our three trees drying:

We then covered them with mod podge to seal the glitter on and to add a gloss finish to the trees.

Here’s when I thought I messed up and that the trees would be snow covered if the mod podge stayed white and didn’t dry clear (pardon the harsh lighting):

Imagine my relief when I found them the next morning, all glossy and dry, with no hints of white left over.

Phew!

Now to store them in a safe spot until December…

We’ve been busy getting ready for the holidays, trying to plan ahead with presents and decorations to limit the last minute scrambling that inevitably happens each December. This year instead of our typical Week of Design, we’re talking about holiday gifts, presenting items we love and recommend, as well as items from our wishlists for fun splurge items.

Etsy shops with wonderful gifts for kids!

Beautiful, Simple Posters:

InkTreePress Check out their Alphabet Canvas Growth Chart!

Sarah & Bendrix Original and Handmade Love these heart paper cuts.

Creative Thursday Adorable, friendly animals! Perfect for kids!

Felt food and felt toy patterns:

Bugga Bugs Creative felt patterns for toys and food.

Ume Crafts Delightful felt food patterns and kits!

Felt food (already made for those of us lacking the time or inclination or skill to sew it ourselves):

Mixed Baby Greens Salad (by dashingBean) and Sewn Sweets Bacon, Eggs, and Oranges by Sewn Sweets (plus many more creative and well-sewn items in their shops!)

onenonly88 Incredible cakes and treats!

Printables:

Sarah Jane Studios Love her illustrations and printable, seasonal paper dolls.

Quality wooden toys for babies and toddlers:

Little Alouette
Eco Friendly Wooden Organic HANDMADE beautiful Montessori and Waldorf Wood teethers, organic blocks, safe infant and toddler toys, modern traditional rattles.

Just Hatched
Handmade wooden puzzles and toys. I LOVE their Wooden Leaf Puzzle and Wood Teether with the International Breastfeeding Symbol.

Blackberry Mountain Toys and Treasures! I am quite fond of their Autumn Accents Table Decor, Nature Table or Autumnal Sorting Play Set and Rainbow Matching and Sorting Game, Ball, Scoop and Cups Set.

We’ve been busy getting ready for the holidays, trying to plan ahead with presents and decorations to limit the last minute scrambling that inevitably happens each December. This year instead of our typical Week of Design, we’re talking about holiday gifts, presenting items we love and recommend, as well as items from our wishlists for fun splurge items.

Some music the whole family can enjoy:

Elizabeth Mitchell’s You Are My Little Bird and her new 2010 album, Sunny Day.

Beethoven’s Wig 2: More Sing-Along Symphonies (my favorite of their four cd series) and Music Together Family Favorites 2 featuring some of our favorite songs from music class!

For making music together, here are some items that we’re putting in Miss Leyba’s stocking this year:

Castenets (Miss Leyba’s favorite instrument for free musical play in Music Together class) and Trophy 4-Bell Wristlet (we recommend four per child, one wristlet for each arm and leg!).

Kidsplay Maracas (their size makes them easy to hold on to) and Egg Shakers (fun for dancing with too!).

What better way to encourage creativity in your family than a little hootenanny improvisation?!

Our toddler loves reading books about ladybugs, making up sing-songs about ladybugs, and flying around pretending she’s a ladybug. It came as no surprise when she insisted that we bring home this dress-up costume for Halloween (and, no, I wasn’t allowed to make one — sigh). Ah, ladybug love.

Imagine our delight in finding hundreds of ladybugs swarming our house!

We had to dress up as ladybug to match.

Yes, we may have missed Halloween, but we don’t need a holiday to dress up in our house.

Evidently while romping around the yard with ladybugs, one must be in costume.

Ladybugs love umbrellas too. I learned that this was not an optional accessory. So there.

And, yes, that is chocolate all over her face. Just cause we didn’t go trick or treating doesn’t mean we withheld the chocolate. We’re not that mean. After all, if the adults are going to indulge, we need to set a good example and share. There’s enough chocolate for everyone in this house. Well, maybe.

We’ve been busy getting ready for the holidays, trying to plan ahead with presents and decorations to limit the last minute scrambling that inevitably happens each December. This year instead of our typical Week of Design, we’re talking about holiday gifts, presenting items we love and recommend, as well as items from our wishlists for fun splurge items.

I’m a big fan of Etsy. I love that the money from sales go directly to the artists. I love the idea that art can be affordable. I love the idea of art being accessible. I love the diversity of artists selling their wares. I love browsing the site, adding new favorites, and day dreaming of things to buy. Here are some items that I think are splurge-worthy.

Artwork and Posters I Heart Lust After:

Choose Joy, Keep Calm and Conjure a Patronus Charm, and Kitchen Conversions

Lake Waters, Leap 33, and So Cozy

One of a Kind Hand Printed Tea Towels:

Block Printed Organic Cotton Mason Jar Towel and Set of 4 Seasons Tea Towels

Lovely Jewelery:

Blue Topaz Trio and Monet Gemstone Sterling Stacking Rings

Favorite Shops:

Janet Hill Studio

David bought me the above necklace for my first Mother’s Day; love it!