You may or may not know that Eli’s Lids is inspired by my son Eli. He is just too funny and is still inspiring me everyday.

Here are some of his antics today…

First, he was eating meatballs and green beans for breakfast (for breakfast! his mom must be crazy!). He started singing “meatballs, meatballs” I thought that was just hysterical and started singing along… then I see what he is doing…

That’s right, meatballs in my super cute new shoes. The shoes I got for my hot hubby’s swank work party this week. Swank as in drive to LA get new shoes and a new silver dress. That’s right silver!!! I think it is a bit much but my hot hubby likes it (wink).

Later, while we were playing he totally ate it and hit his lip. Complete with blood. Which got all over one of my favorite shirts during the snuggle-kisses-get-better-time. It was worth it… I love a good snuggle!!

Later, while I was watching our friend’s daughter, Adalee (adorable name, I know!!), he was so generous and gave her his 3 most valuable possessions to play with. What a sweet boy… or maybe he is just trying to impress the ladies!

Later, he was giving me something with an empty hand saying “boog“… yep he was handing me a booger! Which I thought was pretty cool because he didn’t wipe it on anything. No picture of the booger, sorry.

Then my inspiration did this…
I heart this kid!

I haven’t done a baby food blog in a while but rest assured I’m still making it. I have a few more tips to share in no particular order…

• If the veggies I blend are too thick I used to use good old H2O to thin it down. Recently I had a few cucumbers and I thought “What the Hey? I’m throwing this thing in the blender” (because that is what I always think when I see a cucumber). The result was total watery greeness. Great for thinning down thick veggies and it has a bit more nutritional value than water. Plus I’m all about giving my little gal as many tastes as possible. I have also used grapes but if you do, be sure to fish out any skins that might be floating around!!
• If you want to add a bit of healthy fat to make their coats gleam then hard boil some eggs and add the yoke (not the white!) into the blender. (Thanks for that tip Amber)



• We have found that in the blender vs. food processor debate the blender wins hands down. No surprise big chunks of sweet potatoes for baby!

• At your local warehouse store there should be giant bags of frozen veggies. Mine has a 5 pound bag of mixed veggies (corn, carrots, green beans and peas) for only $3.88. That makes a C$#% load of baby food!!! and the pieces are super small for little fingers when they can start to feed themselves.
• FYI – baby food should only be kept in the fridge for about 3-5 days. So only make a bit at a time. I have gotten into such a grove that it doesn’t take more that a couple of minutes to whip some up. I use the frozen veggies (mentioned above) so that speeds things up A LOT.

No reason for this picture… except that I like it and Eli is in his Lid!

I think matching is awesome… and I don’t mean cordinating… I mean full on same fabric dresses for the girls and same fabric button down shirts for the boys matching… parents included! I may have been meant to be a mom in 1983… oh well…

When I was preggers with Eli I shared my matching outfit fantasy with my Hot Hubby. He thought it was “lame” and said he would never do it. I countered back that I usually pick out his clothes for big events (don’t we all) and he wouldn’t even notice (till it was too late) that he was coordinating to a “T” with his son!

Kinda funny now that when my hot hubby is in charge of dressing his son somehow they are wearing the same color shirt…. mmmmm… I say…. you think matching is lame? Ha! You have been caught! He smiles and doesn’t say a word… he doesn’t have to… he is overflowing with pride for his boy.

Of course he wants that connection with his son. To me matching is like putting your banner over your little one. Saying this one is MINE and I love him. And I love him because he is MINE.

To our perfect (in our eyes) son and daughter, our banner over you is love!! We love you because you are ours.

Anyway, matching totally RULES!!!!!!

I adore my pumpkins this year. I copied the “BOO” from some fake decoration ones I saw and I got the bat idea from a magazine (black foam paper for the wings, hot glued to a toothpick). But I’m most proud of my comic ones…

…because I thought up the idea myself.

Try it, you will adore yours too!!!

Pink (I know) but with a bit of edge! Just like the boy’s Halloween tee, the Tomboy Halloween tee can be worn the week of Halloween or year round. Long sleeved 100% cotton pink thermal with an adorable heart fashioned to look like a skull sewn on the bottom left. AND because I just couldn’t decide what I liked better, I created another option… three heart/skulls sewn front and center. The hearts are sewn on with contrast black thread and have black “awesomeness” sewn all over. Tee is pre washed and frayed around the edges of the hearts.

I love crafts!
Eli is finally getting to the age where we can start to create things together and I LOVE it. This is a crayon project straight from my childhood.
Recycle (I’m so Green) broken crayons and the ones with the tips worn down… because we all know we only use the nice sharp ones!!!

Peel the wrappers off all the crayons. I did this the night before (with help from my hot hubby) and it really helped. Hot Hubby used a razor blade to slice the wrapper and they came right off… huge time saver!

Separate the crayons by color and grab a cute toddler (yours I hope!).

Be Silly…

I didn’t want my crayons to be big blobs of brown/grey so I separated them into like colors.

I did do one rainbow crayon as a tester. The trick with the rainbow crayon is to pull it out before it has melted too much… just when the top looks wet. That way the colors don’t bleed into each other too much. I think I did mine just a bit too long.
Preheat oven to 225 and put the muffin tin in for about 5 minutes for the rainbow crayons and about 10 for the solid colored crayons.
Pull out and let cool. If you are in a hurry, put them in the fridge or freezer. Be sure not to drop them… that clean up would be grueling…ug…

I heart them!! I did try one layered one… that was a little more complex. You melt the bottom layer color in the muffin tin, while it is cooling use a can (throw away soup can is great) to melt the next color. Pour it on top of the first layer in the tin. Keep going for as many layers as you want… notice I only did two… it is kinda time consuming. Layers would be great for older kids because there is more stuff to do.

This was so fun! I hope you enjoy it too 🙂

Rest in Peace sweet Jack-O-Lantern carved with Jack-O-Lanterns. Your 4 days of spooky beauty will be remembered for… maybe 4 more days. You were well loved (by mold!). Jack is survived by 3 little pumpkin bats, a comic decoupaged pumpkin and 3 pumpkins that spell “BOO.”

The Halloween Tees are done and I love them!!! This super cute tee can be worn the week of Halloween or for all the little punk rockers to wear year-round!! Long sleeved 100% black thermal tee with plaid skull sewn on the front.

The skull is sewn on with contrast red thread and has red “awesomeness” sewn all over the place.

Tee is prewashed and has a great frayed look around the edges! I love it!!AND it is only $14…

Halloween tee comes in two sizes:
12-18 months
2T

Click here to buy…

The Tomboy Halloween tee is coming and I love it just as much… maybe more… than this one!

Cora has been helping me sew some awesome Halloween Tees! The Boy tees will be coming out tomorrow and the Tomboy Tees will come out Friday (at the latest). The tees are long sleeved soft warm thermal.