Thanks to Duncan Hines for sponsoring my writing. There’s no limit to the baking possibilities, so grab your favorite Duncan Hines mix and Comstock or Wilderness fruit fillings and Bake On! www.duncanhines.com.

Oh hi, who wants to talk about dessert? Or drinks? Or maybe holiday parties? How about a fancy sparkly dessert themed holiday party I’m throwing for my baby girl when she turns one this month? I’ve got myself on a pretty strict baking schedule to get as much as possible done in advance, so my house is FULL of sweets right now. After the cake near-disaster at Evan’s 2nd birthday, I decided maybe fancy frosting is little outside my skill set, in the same way running a marathon is outside my skill set. You think, come on, it’s just running. Anyone can run. Here, let me just run right into the kitchen and make a cake worthy of its own TLC special. (more…)

Thank you to LiveOn for this sponsored opportunity to blog about storing and sharing my most important memories with those closest to me. Although story ideas were provided, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

There are a lot of ways to share photos online. Email. Facebook. Shutterfly. Snapfish. Flickr. Blogs. I use all of them, in one way or another, on a weekly basis. It’s great that even though they’re far away (or far far away) (or really really far far away – Hi Carolyn!) my friends and family can see little parts of our lives.

I sometime worry about the impermanence of all those formats though. I realize once you put something on the internet you have to be prepared for it to be out there in the world forever (did you hear that, teenage cousins on Facebook? FOREVER), but what happens if my server crashes? What happens when I lose my password or my account gets hacked? What happens if the hard drive where I stored all the photos from Little Evan’s first year of life fails unexpectedly and they are lost forever (true – very sad – story)? (more…)

Thanks to Plum Organics for sponsoring my post about tips for baby feeding magic. What if you let baby choose what’s for dinner? Check out their cute “Quest for Yum!” video and see what happens!

The first time around I made all of my kid’s baby food. Well, technically. I took a class on how to steam and puree veggies (here’s a tip: you steam them, then you puree them. It doesn’t matter how. That’ll be $50) and I bought my weight in sweet potatoes and avocados.  I spent a whole weekend making, portioning and freezing a dozen different kinds and flavors. I was Supermom, provider of healthy organic meals! (more…)

I spent two hours yesterday trying to pick a family photo from our beach pictures to put on our Christmas cards. I was super excited to get them designed and ordered and maybe even addressed before Thanksgiving. I am On Top Of Things! I am Planning Ahead! I have 9 whole weeks to get this done! People will know I thought of them BEFORE January 1st! (Although last year’s late card can probably be excused due to the baby-having I was busy with the week before Christmas.)

Of course, after two hours staring at 300 practically identical photos I decided I didn’t like ANY of them and we’ll have to take a new one. I just can’t bring myself to put a photo of myself in a tank top on a Christmas card. OK FINE, so the real reason is I’ve lost 10 pounds since that trip and who wants to send every single person you know a picture where you’re fatter than you actually are? So “take a really awesome family photo” is on our list of things to do this week, right along with “clean entire house” and “knit a couple of sweaters”.

FORTUNATELY, Shutterfly makes the rest of the card super easy. Even more fortunately, they offered me free Christmas photo cards this year (although my beach photos were already all uploaded to their site, since I ordered an adorable photo book for Sara, the friend whose birthday we were celebrating) in exchange for telling you all which one I like best. How could I say no?

Pros: Lots of pictures, classic design, short and sweet

Cons: My family is never going to look that picture-perfect and I’m jealous

Pros: Cute and creative, I look good in blue

Cons: Not very Christmasy

Pros: I don’t have to write a separate Christmas letter!

Cons: I don’t think we did enough interesting stuff this year.

Pros: Fresh design, love the message, could use a black & white picture so our clothes don’t have to match

Cons: I CAN’T MAKE UP MY MIND!

Now here’s the best news of all: Shutterfly has given me three codes, each good for 25 free cards, to share with you.

Leave a comment below telling me about your holiday card tradition – do you skip them? do you write the BEST family newsletters? do you make your family wear matching pajamas and pose in front of the tree? – and I’ll use Random.org to pick a winner next week. You don’t have to be a blogger to win, just make sure you use an active email address when you leave your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Good luck! Are you totally freaked out now, thinking about how Christmas is only 9 weeks away?

Thank you Old Navy for sponsoring my post today about baby and toddler styles. Old Navy is giving you 30% off everything in their baby and toddler summer collection, plus get an additional 15% off in-store.

After dressing a boy for almost 2 years, I have to say I was really really looking forward to blowing a zillion dollars on dresses and pink and butt ruffles and tiny adorable shoes. I maaaaaay even have started buying little girl clothes while I was still pregnant with Baby Evan – you know, just in case the doctors were wrong.

And then I got pregnant with Caroline and was totally stopped in my tracks. One tiny corner of baby girl’s closet holds those few things I bought before she was even a twinkle in my eye…and the rest is STUFFED WITH STUFF. Stuff that didn’t cost me a dime.

One word: Hand-me-downs.

Wait, is that three words? Whatevs. My point is Caroline could wear a different outfit for the first 365 days of her life without a single repeat. As far as dress clothes go? Girl is set until she’s at least 6. It seemed like everyone I know was suddenly trying to unload adorable, barely worn baby clothes.

And the best part about dressing a baby? She has no opinion! I can put her in anything I want! It’s like having a tiny living doll! Wait that sounds totally creepy and insane! Exclamation point!!!

But even though 80% of her clothes are pre-loved, I try to mix in special handmade or vintage pieces so she doesn’t feel so…second childy. Not that at FIVE MONTHS OLD she’s going to get a complex or something, but it eases some of my maybe-I-don’t-treat-her-special-enough-because-I’m-so-busy-with-the-toddler guilt. I have issues, but at least they’re the kind of issues that lead to adorable baby outfits.

There’s her easy to throw on for a last minute special playdate look:

Leggings knit by me!

There’s her cool 70’s style look:

Vintage pinnafore from my own baby-hood

There’s her spring wedding look:

Shrug knit by me, booties knit by my friend Jenny

There’s her chilling around the house look:

Vintage koala overalls from my own baby-hood (possibly the cutest picture of Caroline EVER)

There’s her summer playground look (pants are great for swinging!):

Handmade felt headband by Giddy Up and Grow

And this is what she was actually wearing today after I finally got her out of PJ’s:

Rosette headband by Allora Handmade, blue skirt by Uff Da Designs

I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.