Little Miss Momma: July 2011

Cool Story and a Tiffany's Ring Giveaway

Cool story.

Since I started my blog a year and a half ago,

I have had a handful of readers who have been around since the early days.

Frequent and heartfelt commenters,

who manage to always brighten my day.

Every day I recognize the names on the comments

that come in on my phone from each of these gal's,

and I smile,

looking forward to what words of wisdom

or funny story they may have to share.

Whether they know it or not,

these girls have become a part of my little blog family.

They have given me comfort when I've made myself vulnerable,

made me laugh when I needed it most,

given me encouragement,

inspired me to do what I love,

and they remind me daily

why being true to yourself matters most.

One girl in particular,

Nicole of Miss Mommy,

has quickly become one of my favorites.

And just the other day,

she emailed me with an opportunity for y'all

that made me squeal with excitement.

You know that Tiffany's heart ring I wear ALL.THE.TIME...

the ring seen in nearly every picture I take {see 1st photo in this post}...

the ring that Tiffany's discontinued...

Well I found it online at another retailer a while back,

and Nicole bought it.

Not sure if its legit,

but it sure is stinkin cute and it looks just like mine.

Well Nicole, in all her awesomeness, got an extra ring,

and today she wants to give it away to one of YOU!

Because she's just super rad like that.

Exciting stuff!

Seriously, this ring is the apple of my eye.

This is Nicole.

Say, thanks Nicole for being as fabulous as can be.

Here's how you enter to WIN:

{please leave a separate comment for each entry you complete}

1. Follow Nicole's Blog, Miss Mommy, and leave a comment that you stopped by from LMM.

2. Like Miss Mommy on facebook and leave a comment on her wall that you stopped by from LMM.

3. Follow LMM.

4. Facebook, blog, and/or tweet about this giveaway and leave a link.

A winner will be selected on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011.

Good Luck!

Labels: Giveaway

Fleeting Moments

Nap time.

It's fleeting around these parts.

Every day it becomes a bit less consistent,

and I realize it's only a matter of time before it stops all together.

Like clock work, half way through his nap,

Baby W wakes up crying and looking around the room for his Momma.

He spots me, whines until I curl up next to him,

and then closes his eyes, usually puts his arm or leg over me

and drifts back to sleep.

He always makes sure some part of our bodies are touching

that way I can't sneak away without him noticing.

And yesterday, he wanted to be REALLY sure

I didn't escape our mid-nap cuddle session.

So he threw his entire body on me

and fell fast asleep.

You're not going anywhere Momma.

I love this boy and his sweaty bed head.

Labels: Mommy Tales, My Life, Real Life

The Art of Headband Wearing {and a challenge, AND a link party}

I love headbands. Everything about them.

I love that they hide a bad hair day, that they dress up a boring outfit, that they give your look a little spunk. I have nearly a dozen of them, from all my favorite shops out in etsy and blogland. But when it really comes down to it, I don't wear them as often as I could. I select my outfit and then add one of my extra cute headbands for garnish...then...just as I am about to walk out the door, I feel uncomfortable and take it off. I can't be the only one who goes through this routine, right?

So that's where my challenge comes in.

I challenge myself, and YOU, to wear a headband everyday for a week.

Even if you're just wearing sweatpants and a pony tail--throw on that headband, snap a picture and get ready to link up later next week. It will be a sort of What I Wore {on my head} link party. And we'd love to still have you play even if you only make it one day. What do you think?

In case you need a little headband wearing inspiration,

here are a handful of pictures showing some of the different ways to sport your headbands:

{just.lovely.things}

{cozette couture}

{just.lovely.things}

{ava marie creates}

{casey wiegand wearing just.lovely.things}
{Ainsleigh wearing a Kristi Hoskins design}

{casey wiegand}

{much love illy}

{love stitched}

So I'm thinking we'll have the link party next Friday, August 5th.

And then I will feature a handful of y'all in a follow-up post.

Sound good?

Rock the headbands girlies!

Also, if you know of any good headband shops,

put a link in the comments for us.

Labels: accessories, fashion, style

Whoopie Pie Recipe

Easy Whoopie Pie Recipe

(using cake mix)

Whoopie Pies are like the new cupcakes, maybe even the new cake pops.

They are easy to make, adorable and beyond yummy. You can make them from scratch, or...you can be like me, and doctor up a cake mix to create these treats.

Let's make these bad boys together:

Whoopie Pie Ingredients:

2 packages of Devil's Food Cake Mix

4 eggs

1 1/4 cup Crisco {shortening}

Frosting Ingredients:

4 cups of powdered sugar

8 ounces of cream cheese

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Combine all the whoopie pie ingredients and mix. The batter will be thick, that is normal.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This is VERY important. The whoopies cook really fast and the parchment paper helps prevent them from burning on the bottom.

Use a tablespoon to scoop spoonfuls and place 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely because they cook really fast.

This batch will make about 24 complete whoopie pies {2 cookies per pie}.

While you finish baking the rest of the pies, get started on the frosting.

Combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth.

Put all the frosting in a large Ziploc bag and cut a small hole in the tip.

Take your cooled whoopie pies and apply a large dollop to one side using the plastic bag.

Put the other whoopie on top.

Add your favorite sprinkles.

And enjoy!

You can even add food coloring to the frosting for a more festive look.

Holy cow, these are good. Seriously.

Hurry and wrap them up and get them out of your house,

unless you're prepared to eat all 24 by yourself in one night.

Labels: DIY, recipe

$50 Giveaway to the Little Miss Momma Shop

You don't want to miss this one!

Head over to Babies.com for your chance to WIN $50 to

the Little Miss Momma Etsy shop!

Labels: Giveaway, Promotions

Unexpected Adventure

Sometimes I have one of those days where its harder to get things done.

My mind wanders, I'm not as effective, I forget why I walked into the room.

And then, sometimes one of those days turns into one of those weeks.

Like this week.

As hard as I tried, everything I did seemed to take 3 times longer than it should have.

I used to get down on myself when I had days like these.

But after two years of motherhood, I've learned that this is just part of the territory.

Not only with motherhood, but with life.

Sometimes life takes longer, sometimes we're not at out best, sometimes we only write two blog posts in a week, and sometimes we don't brush our hair.

And you know what?

I think that's okay.

_____________________

This long week ended with a day trip to Huntington Beach to get our family photos taken by Kristen Duke Photography. I hadn't been to Huntington since I was a kid, and I had no idea how much fun it would be.

That's the lovely Kristen, in her super duper cute outfit with a necklace I nearly ripped off her neck {but I didn't think that would make a good impression so I just took a picture instead}.

Can I just tell you that I was fairly confident about this outfit going into the shoot. I loved how the ruffles flowed. I loved how I could still breath in it. I loved that it required minimal adjustments to be picture ready after wresting with a toddler. And I loved that it was a mere $12 at Gap's super sale. But then I took a look at these few pics that the hubs snapped after our shoot with Kristen, and I started second guessing my outfit selection. To answer your questions/thoughts/emails in advance, NO I am not hiding a pregnant belly under this dress--the glorious, overflowing ruffles only make it appear as such. Oh well, right. Live and learn. I'm sure Kristen's mad photography skills will help take the focus off my extreme "ruffleness" and lack of obvious waistline. Note to self: sometimes tighter clothes actually make you look skinnier, and sometimes looser clothing just makes you look...well..rufflely.

As we headed back to our car we noticed a farmers market just getting started. So we loaded up on some of our favorite things for the drive home. Chips and salsa, kettle corn, fresh strawberry lemonade, banana bread, and raspberries. Mmm, mmm good. It was an unexpected bonus to our already fun adventure. Future trip to Huntington Beach is already in the works.