A wonderful gift for a new baby - books!

Welcome, Little One Gift Set by Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon

Browsing through a favorite book shop of ours, Powell's Books, I found this great gift set perfect for a new baby or one that's a few months old ;). The selection of books is thoughtfully hand-picked by the Kids' Team at the City of Books. My personal mantra has always been to read to children often and start young, instill a love of the written word with beautiful illustrations and you'll have a good learning foundation to build upon.

This set from Powell's Books comes with
- Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt
- Here's a Little Poem edited by Jane Yolen & Andrew Fusek Peters
- Mother Goose's Little Treasures by Iona Opie
- Won't You Be My Kisaroo? by Joanne Ryder
- All Around the Land Alphabet Wall Cards from eeBoo
- Baby Booties from Rich Frog

The collection is housed in a brown hand stamped box and wrapped with red raffia. Price for the set is $100.00 USD. It is available at Powell's Books flagship store in Portland, OR or you can order it online and receive free shipping.

[photo: powells.com]

Monster Caterpillers

Ginormous mama and baby caterpillers made with Play-Doh

Beach Fun

Watching her caricature come to life in Ocean City, NJ

Spotlight: Creative - Breakfast Jewelry

Breakfast necklace

I had some Fimo left over from a project and Kasie and I spent the afternoon making 'breakfast' beads... bacon, eggs, bagels, blueberries, strawberries and even a croissant! Got some dress shoe laces from the local pharmacy and our little girl strung them up. She was most happy making this for her aunt, my sister whom she calls yee-yee (Cantonese for sister on our mother's side).

If you're not familiar with Fimo, it's a plastic polymer clay that you mold and then once finished bake in the oven, 260 degress for 30 minutes. Not the best smelling kitchen afterward but they bake to a hard finish that can also be painted. I would suggest Fimo Soft for little kids hands. The original version is quite hard and takes a while to get pliable.

Giggle + Give Away

We're excited to let everyone know 9SpotMonk, our great letterpress line, is in one of my favorite kids stores - Giggle! Since our first daughter was born, we've been going down to the Wooster St. NYC store to stock up on all things modern, cool and baby. Every time we're in town, we visit their store. The kids love the great toys and books they have and we love all the great clothes and baby gear they offer. And now they carry 9SpotMonk kids stuff too. Take a little coffee break and visit Giggle today! Not near one of their 9 locations? Giggle.com

I'm doing a give away to celebrate!

We're going to give away 9SpotMonk Colour in Cards (you pick 5 of your favorites) and a set each of boy and girl place mats. We're going to randomly select 2 winners.

Give away ends on Wednesday, July 23. Good luck!

Rules:
1. visit the 9SpotMonk site and comment on your 5 favorite kids colour in cards, what you pick, if you are the winner, we'll send your favorites to you along with a set of boy and girl place mats
2. check back on July 23rd to see if you are the lucky winner, then send us an email to smuppykids@9spotmonk.com and we'll get it out to you! Continental USA residents only.
3. Good luck!


Letterpress Boy Placemats on 100% recycled paper from 9SpotMonk


Letterpress Girl Placemats on 100% recycled paper from 9SpotMonk

Spotlight: Eco Friendly Paints Part 2

Mythic Paint, Stronger, safer, smarter paint®

After our first posting about eco friendly paints, Sam Lueder from Mythic Paint contacted us to tell us about their wonderful line of paints, which is manufactured in the only zero emissions paint facility in the country.

Mythic Paint first and foremost is eco friendly, it is the world's first high performance, zero-toxin, zero-VOC (volatile organic compunds) paint. Did you know that up to 50 percent of the toxic gases and carcinogens from traditional paints can still linger around in your living space even after six years after application? Yikes. I am sure most if not all parents out there will want to avoid anything toxic coming near their children. Our kids have pretty bad food and environmental allergies so it is very important we choose something as non toxic as possible for the room they are in almost everyday.

Don't think for a moment that since they're eco friendly and non toxic that the colours are less than cool and stylish. Mythic Paint has over 1200 colours and they can match anything from grandma's vintage blue handkerchief to a stone found at the beach.

David Bromstad Color Collection - Kid's Room Edition

We're going to be painting the kids' playroom so it is also a super durable paint - crayon marks and scuffs can be wiped with any biodegradable detergent (what is a biodegradable detergent? It means that over time, the detergent will degrade into inert ingredients thereby making it safer for the environment.) and a soft cloth. I love low maintenance so this sounds excellent to me.

The paint should be here in the next two weeks, I better box up the toys and prep the walls.

I am looking forward to getting this room started!

Super yummy movie popcorn

Mushroom Popcorn from JustPoppin.com

Since school has been out, I've been letting the kids move bed time a bit later than their usual 7:30pm. Twice a week we've been doing movie night. It's definitely a treat for them as they are only allowed to watch very little television during the week.

Since the kids have food allergies, I usually make popcorn for them instead of buying bags of pre-popped corn. Some popcorn companies make other things in their factories like nut bars and cookies and I'm definitely worried about cross contamination. Ingesting just one peanut will have my two kids in the ER. So I make it a home. Plus I control the oil and salt so I know exactly what they're getting into their growing bodies.

Our all time favorite popcorn is a type called "mushroom popcorn". It's the same type of popcorn that you find in movie theaters. I'm a big fan of buying local but most places I went, they had only the "butterfly popcorn" variety which is basically what you would see in any microwave popcorn bag.

We have been getting our mushroom popcorn from JustPoppin.com. They have excellent customer service and they're super friendly. If you can't find mushroom popcorn in your local area, I suggest ordering from their site. Shipping can get pricey but that's with anything these days. Go ahead, order the 5lb bag, you will be happy you did ;)

Last thing - JustPoppin's kernels are grown in the USA and is NON-GMO, not genetically modified.

My no brainer recipe for cooking up popcorn on the stove:

Ingredients:

1 cup mushroom popcorn kernels

enough canola oil to coat the bottom of the pan

3/4 tbsp of sea salt

This yields enough popcorn for 6 hungry kids!

I have found that using our biggest 5.5 quart stainless steel pot with curved sides is better than any straight sided stock pot of similar size. Not sure why... but this could be a good question for Alton Brown

Instructions:

1. pour enough canola oil to coat the bottom of your pan and turn on the heat to medium.

2. add sea salt to oil and let heat for about a minute

3. add 1 cup of kernels and swish pan around so all or most kernels are coated

4. place lid on pot and wait to hear that popping sound

5. turn off the flame when you hear the popping sound coming to a close, should be like 3-5 pops per 10 seconds, careful when opening the lid, there is still residual heat so you'll still get some kernels popping at the end even when there's no flame on

6. pour in your serving containers and enjoy!

For further information or to order, visit JustPoppin.com

[photo credit: justpoppin.com]