Congratulations to Genevieve Larson who won last weeks blog give away. Genevieve will win a girls peasant dress in an adorable apple print. Perfect for going back to school. Thank you to all of you who entered. To view this dress and others from Bella and Gracies visit http://bellaandgracies.etsy.com.
You may also check out Genevieve’s blog at http://mommyjen99.blogspot.com/.
I
n honor of going back to school, Bella and Gracie’s will be giving away a girls dress. The adorable apple pattern in this dress is perfect for impressing any teacher. Sleeves and ruffle trim of dress are in a brown polka-dot pattern. This dress is a “peasant style” dress with ruffle sleeves and an elastic neckline. To enter the contest just leave a comment on the blog stating what size you would like. A winner will be announced on Tuesday, September 8th.
Bella and Gracie’s is also having a sale on all girls dresses. To see all of Bella and Gracie’s products visit http://www.bellaandgracies.etsy.com
Bella and Gracie’s is proud to announce the arrival of Pettiskirts. With layers and layers of soft, fluffy chiffon these skirts are an adorable asset to any princess’s closet. Pettiskirts are available in several colors and any size. They make an adorable flower girls dress and create unforgettable pictures.
Pettiskirts are available for wholesale pricing and a discount is provided for photographers.
Visit bellaan
dgracies.etsy.com to see the Pettiskirts just added, more will be added soon!
Summertime always reminds me of my younger days basking in the sun trying to achieve that perfect tan. I would lather myself in baby oil, grab my friends and we would literally spend the entire day laying in the sun. The sunburns never bothered me, even when they blistered and peeled, like I was supposed to shed like a snake and get a new layer of skin. Now that I am much older, and smarter, I am starting to pay the price of all those basking days. Every new wrinkle reminds me of how stupid I was. I keep asking myself why no-one told me to put some sunblock on. Especially on my face!!! Or if they did, why in petes sake did I not listen to them.
Well the good thing is I am a parent now and at least someone can learn from my mistakes without paying the consequences. My children love to swim and I hound them about sunblock like there is no tomorrow. Even when they are not swimming I try and make sure if they are out in the sun they have protection.
Sometimes it’s hard to get enough protection on there face, putting sunblock near their eyes can be difficult. I always tell them to wear a hat. With my son it’s no big deal, he just throws on a baseball hat. With my daughter I had to be a little more creative. Her hat needed to be fit for a princess, and of course match her outfit. I decided to make some hats for all the princesses out there and now carry them on my site www.bellaandgracies.etsy.com.
It’s never too early to start protecting your skin from all the damage the sun does. I look at my daughters skin and realize I once had beautiful skin like that too. Just thought it would last forever, now I know better.
Tags: accessories, clothing, girl, girls hats, suncare, toddler hats
About a year ago I joined a group called “Innovative Mamas”. It is a support group for moms who own their own businesses. Through this group I have found valuable business and personal relationships. We all have a common thread, which is making our business succesful and supporting one another in this venture.
We have monthly meetings that range anywhere from marketing ideas to how to present yourself professionally ( I really liked this one!). Innovative Mamas also has a yahoo group where we can post ideas, links and any other information we think might help one another.
If you live in the Phoenix area I encourage you to check this group out. I have met some wonderful people and found the resources very beneficial. Check it out at http://www.theinmama.com , even if you don’t live in Arizona you can joing our cyber team through yahoo groups.
Running a business while working another part time job and having three children has been very stressful. I find that even though it is hard to make the monthly meetings, I always walk away glad that I came. I encourage all mom entrepenuers to join a group that supports you and what you are trying to accomplish.
Karen Stinchfield
Follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/bellaandgracies
In many of the Caribbean islands, kite flying is a big Easter tradition – the winds are high, the days are dry and sunny. I think it’s the same in many countries. In the Caribbean, some countries like especially Guyana and Trinidad have always had kite competitions, - style, fighting, flying. St. Lucia has more recently been reviving this tradition and as I type, from Barbados, I can hear the kites buzzing in the skies outside.
Traditionally, the kites of the Caribbean tend to be hexagonal with spines made from coconut leaf sticks. Long bamboo skewers would work fine too. Paper bag paper, craft brown paper, strong gift wrap or kite tissue paper can all be used – even copy paper.
Kids can decorate with markers and paints – kites often have faces of animals or characters from folk tales on them.
I am not a kitemaker – I have flown them – so I’ll send you to some links from people with good instructions – I’m also including the ‘sled’ kite because it’s so easy to make – so, go have some fun. Also some links that tell you more about the Caribbean kite and Easter traditions.
New York Caribbean Kiters http://www.overlookednewyork.com/kite/images/kaziah.html
A good description of many of our quirky traditions http://globalvoicesonline.org/2006/04/15/dont-go-near-the-sea-on-good-friday-and-other-caribbean-easter-traditions/
Hexagon kite http://www.ehow.com/how_4683165_hexagon-kite-scratch.html
Diamond kite http://www.kiteflyerinfo.com/diamond-kite-design.shtml http://www.drachen.org/classroom_learning_Kono-dd-kite.html
Sled Kite http://www.hiflykites.co.za/free-kite-guides/make-your-own-kite-manual/dave-kite.htm
Submitted by guest writer Finola Prescott
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/finolaprescott
If you enjoy my blogs, please subscribe at the blog for new articles delivered directly to you by email or RSS
for tips & thoughts on living a productive creative life
http://sunrainor.blogspot.com/
for arts & crafts projects and tutorials
http://explorearts.blogspot.com/
showcasing the best of St. Lucia
http://artsandcraftsvillage.blogspot.com/
follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/finolaprescott
In honor of Easter, Bella and Gracies will be giving away a Dreamies. Dreamies are super plush stuffed animals with an enclosed sachet. Each sachet is filled with lavender buds, and essential oils of lavender, lilac and chamomile.
While your little one thinks they are getting a new pet, they are actually getting aromatherapy- toddler style. Lavendar, lilac and chamomile are all known for their soothing and relaxing aromas, helping your little one relax and embark in sweet dreams. (Hence the name “Dreamies”).
Now entering the contest is easy, just leave a comment on the blog www.bellaandgracies.com/blog with your email (so I can contact you if you win) and you are entered.
If you would like to have a little fun, go to my website bellaandgracies.com and view the Dreamies, they are under “baby gifts”. There will be a message under the description for the duck, find that message and leave it in the comment and you will double your chances of winning.
If you post my blog in yours you can triple the chance of winning. Just leave me the link of your blog. That way I can read your blogs too!!
The contest will go on until Saturday 4/11. I will notify the winner on Easter.
Thanks for reading my blog and participating in the contest. Good luck!!
Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/bellaandgracies
Easter and the Lenten period leading up to it are full of traditions in the Caribbean – for many islands, the season really used to start with Carnival during the two days before Ash Wednesday and when I was young – a few years ago – after partying ourselves silly at Carnival, we’d spend the entire Lenten season living quietly, eating sparsely, hardly any meat and certainly no sweets or desserts.
Nowadays, things are a bit less strict – I think for some, the change of our Carnivals to dates that suit our Tourism calendars better, has been part of the loss of traditional observances. Of course, eating fish – the cheap food of yesteryear – on Fridays doesn’t really make sense again either, but some things stay with us and I thought I’d share a few of them with you so you can get a taste of Caribbean Easter wherever you are.
What better place to start than food – by the time this ‘goes to print’ we will have moved from the Lenten period into the holidays but one of the St. Lucian traditional Lenten eats is a favourite of mine, so I thought I’d share that recipe.
But before I do, let me tell you, actually getting a recipe for this was a big reminder of how ‘word of mouth’ our traditions still are – it took a friend of mine spending an hour or more on the phone, even calling as far as Canada, to finally pin down the ‘recipe’ I’ll now pass on to you. So know that you’re getting a bit of insight that’s hard to find - I hope you enjoy a little experimentation, cooking by feel – very Caribbean!
Pennepis
It’s unclear whether the name means Pain Epice or Penny Piece – could be either, but whichever it is, it’s delicious; A flat, crispy ginger biscuit.
Ingredients
½ lb fresh ginger
1 cup sugar syrup with spices
Ok, so this can be anything from ½ cup water, ½ cup sugar to ½ cup water and 1 cup sugar – I’d use brown sugar, but I’m sure the traditional one uses white.
As to what spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, maybe anise and a little clove are ones that seem to end up in many Caribbean recipes, a good shake of each or a total of 1tsp should be a good starting point.
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
A little butter or lard – I’d say about 1 Tbs
Method:
Blend your ginger (scrape off the light skin with a knife first)
Blend in the sugar n spice syrup
Take 1 cup of the mixture and mix into flour and cut/mix in butter – knead until it is very smooth.
Spread/Roll out into a very thin layer – 2-3 mm. You can roll little rounds or long ovals – your choice.
Bake in medium hot oven and “keep a watch, it burns fast”.
No, I didn’t get how long it takes, not long, so keep a watch – it’s done when it’s light brown.
Let it cool and it should be crispy and very tasty.
Now eating things like pork especially are Easter treats but I’d prefer to share a couple of other sweet recipes with you. First in memory of my mother, who being a staunch Irish Catholic, is very much part and parcel of childhood Easter memories for me – Mary Jennings Clark’s Banana Cake recipe, unbeaten to this day, the best:
Ingredients
8 oz (Blue Band) margarine
12 oz granulated white sugar
4 eggs
16oz self raising flour or plain flour with 4 tsp baking powder, ‘bare’ ½ tsp baking soda
1 ‘good’ tsp salt
6-7 mashed ripe bananas (West Indian bananas are MUCH sweeter and tastier than Central American, also smaller, so you may need to use 5-6 Chiquitas, but know that you also won’t get as strong a taste)
Method
Cream margarine until white and fluffy
Cream in sugar until well blended
Slowly whisk in 4 eggs
Gradually stir in flour by hand
Stir in mashed bananas
Pour into greased and floured tins (about 8 in circles)
Cook approximately 1 hour at 350F
Done as soon as a skewer comes out clean
This tastes delicious, I have also made this cake with added cinnamon and nutmeg – about 2 tsps cinnamon ½ tsp nutmeg.
And lastly, a St. Lucian traditional drink – not necessarily an Easter tradition, but it’s good and luxurious tasting so, it fits the bill!
Lucian Cocoa Tea
We grow some of the world’s best cocoa in St. Lucia – Hershey used to buy it all, but nowadays a lot is used locally to make ‘Cocoa Stick’ – a pure cocoa product – lightly roasted cocoa beans are ground and mixed with spices to form sticks. These sticks contain full cocoa beans – the cocoa butter is not removed – this makes it very rich and the cocoa is probably healthier as those benefits people keep touting for chocolate depend on the lowest amount of processing. This is not a scientific evaluation, it just seems logical to me that the local cocoa is probably quite good in that regard!
So, best drunk early on a morning – dawn is good, or on a cool evening – it really heats you up.
Ingredients
Substitute dark unsweetened cooking chocolate or Mexican chocolate for Cocoa Stick
Grate about 3-4 Tbs
1 West Indian bayleaf (or ¼ tsp ground bayleaf)
½ tsp cinnamon or 1 stick cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp vanilla essence or a small piece of vanilla bean
¼ tsp ginger is optional
1 cup evaporated milk and 2 cups water or 3 cups full cream milk
1 Tbs cornstarch
If you use the whole spices, simmer them in the water for a few minutes first, then add in the cocoa and simmer for a few minutes more. If you use ground spice, you can do this all in one. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold water and pour in some of the hot mixed Cocoa Tea to thin the cornstarch, then mix that back into the main pan, stir until the cornstarch thickens the tea.
Strain and serve hot. Traditionally eaten with ‘bakes’ or hot creole bread and butter, but will go very well with Banana Bread too.
Now, off the Easter holidays food bonanza and onto the outdoors to work of some of those delicious calories!
Submitted by guest writer Finola Prescott
LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/finolaprescott
If you enjoy my blogs, please subscribe at the blog for new articles delivered directly to you by email or RSS
for tips & thoughts on living a productive creative life
http://sunrainor.blogspot.com/
for arts & crafts projects and tutorials
http://explorearts.blogspot.com/
showcasing the best of St. Lucia
http://artsandcraftsvillage.blogspot.com/
follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/finolaprescott
Investing In Women, IIW, offers free resources and informative articles geared to women entrepreneurs.
Currently the website includes updated information on Grants, Mentoring Programs, Foundations, and Educational Programs that support Women.
IIW receives valuable contributions from successful business women including articles on several topics from Strategic Networking to Internet Marketing.
A section of inspiring, business and entrepreneurial literature is also recommended by women from across the USA.
IIW was founded on the following ideas. A successful business owner sharing her knowledge is the best way to help another woman succeed.
Reciprocal marketing and Collaboration are two important keys to growing a small business and also promote social awareness of others.
The mission of Investing In Women is to inspire women to take a more active role in providing for themselves, their family, and the community. IIW provides access to information, resources and articles pertaining to women today. By investing in women entrepreneurs, who are often the caregivers of the home, we can show children that both women and men can provide for the family financially.
A future plan for IIW is a micro-grant program for women entrepreneurs; this will be available in March 2010. The focus will be on Micro-Grants because the goal is to help a large number of businesses.
Visit http://iiwomen.com for more information.
Time Management for the Rest of Us!
Do you struggle with managing your time? Let me offer some assurance, you are not alone! As spring approaches I begin to feel certain pressures to accomplish various tasks that I know are going to place an additional burden on my time, as if I have any spare time. Planning activities for the kids during spring break, spring cleaning, Easter, searching for summer camps and other activities to keep the little ones busy, family vacations, summer visitors, the list goes on. Naturally my thoughts go to questioning my ability to pull it all off and how to squeeze an extra hour out of my day! The problem is, time management for me can often feel like squeezing my feet into a gorgeous pair of Prada’s that happen to be 2 sizes too small. I know if I can just manage to pull it off, it will feel (and look) darn good! But alas, the struggle continues. I recently discovered what, at least, part of the problem is- all of the brilliant people who design time management strategies think differently than I do. Basically people rely on either the right side of the brain or the left side- depending on which side you prefer has everything to do with how you prefer to “manage” your time! The vast majority of the time management training programs and books are written by left brain dominant people. Let’s face it, to develop a time management system would require a left brain person! Their approach to managing their time is to
· Plan
· Prioritize
· Schedule
· Implement
They can go through each of these steps with relative ease because this system supports their preferred thinking style. So how do you know what which side of your brain you prefer to use? Well, there are countless surveys on the web to tell you. Here is a link to one such site.
Take the brain dominance survey http://http://www.ipn.at/ipn.asp?BHX to help you to discover if you are right brain or left brain dominant.
Once you know which side of the brain you prefer to use, now what? Well, if you are left brain dominant, the odds are you have a neatly organized daily planner and stopped reading this article just after the title. I am likely addressing the right brain dominant folks at this point. So, let’s recap, to effectively manage time we need to
· Plan
· Prioritize
· Schedule
· Implement
Let’s break each of these tasks down and talk about the obstacles that a right brain dominant person could and likely does encounter.
Planning- ah yes, the daily to-do list. The opportunity to capture on paper all the tasks that need to be completed- preferably today. For you left brain folks who are still reading this, you can hammer out a to-do list with typical ease. You can automatically shift into thinking about “what should be done” and limit your list to those items.
This task for the right brained individual can create quite a stumbling block. Here is why- right brain dominant don’t view to-do lists as “what should be done”, but instead look at a to-do list as an opportunity to capture everything that “could be done”! The list of a right brain dominant individual can include more than just work related tasks, it can include personal tasks, family tasks and entertainment task. To further complicate matters, the to-do list can quickly turn into a brain storming session for the creative right brain thinker. The end result can be a list of not just to-do’s but of all of the exciting and creative projects that their minds just brainstormed as they contemplated what could be done!
Prioritize- When you ask a right brain dominant person to prioritize the items on their to-do list, they would argue that it is all important. The reason the item is on the to-do list to begin with is because it is important. Unlike left brain dominant people, who can prioritize list of item to accomplish in a day and prioritize with relative ease, this process feels a little too restrictive for the right brain dominant person.
Schedule- Hand a left brain dominant person a day timer and they can transcribe their prioritized to-do list into a logical and sequential schedule, nicely organized by level of importance. Hand a right brain dominant person a day timer and ask them to do the same and they will likely want to know what other day timer options are available! Right brain folks on a mission to purchase a planner will likely return with several planners! They have good intentions and they have brainstormed a variety of methods of using a monthly calendar, weekly calendar and daily calendar. Check with them within a month and they will likely tell you that they got off to a good start and eventually quit using the day timer.
Implement- This is the reward for the left brain dominant person, seeing all of their hard work pay off. They can follow a schedule with relative ease. They have put forth the energy to develop and prioritize their daily to-do items and have logically ordered them in their daily schedule. Implementing the schedule is the easy part.
To the right brain dominant person, sticking to a schedule does not allow room for interruptions during the day. These interruptions are often seen as welcomed. They present opportunities to brainstorm ideas and take a break from the daily grind. Right brain dominant people are very tolerant of interruptions and enjoy have the flexibility to stray from a daily schedule.
During the month of March I will be focusing on articles that address time management and decided it would be the ideal time to offer a Give-Away to support this theme. Mom’s Daily Retreat is offering a TrulyMom Planner give away. I chose this planner for several reasons; first, it is very pretty and opens into a small desktop, how convenient. The main reason I chose this planner is because it Truly addresses the needs of both right and left brain people. For those left brain dominant women, there is a calendar which contains both month and weekly format. In addition (you right brain women will love this!) it has 4 separate notes pads, one of which is a post note pad, to jot down ideas, last minute reminders, random chicken scratch and of course, to plan your day. They even include some darling heart stickers to mark those extra important dates or events. To enter to win this must have planner, please submit your information here http://www.momsdailyretreat.com/giveaway.html
Coming up next week: Time Management Tips & Tricks!
Amelia
“Earth laughs in flowers”
http://www.thedesertdirt.blogspot.com
Twitter Moms: The Influential Moms
Network
