Since starting up the Lil’ Star Boutique I’ve been buying tonz of cute fabric and trying to get creative with the scraps. So here is my latest creation. Shoeboxes covered with fabric. I simply measured, cut and hot glued it together. Didn’t take too long at all.

Look how cute they look in my school room!

~Go Ice Skating!~

 {Outside on a pond, or at an indoor rink!}

Heidi loves to take time to plan fun and creative dates with her husband and wants to encourage YOU to ‘Re-Ignite’ your regular date nights as well!  She works as a Professional Organizer in Minneapolis, MN. Find all sort of other plans/lists on her website: OperationOrganization-MN.com.

Baby acne? What the heck! Babies aren’t supposed to get acne, they’re supposed to have that gorgeous soft skin we all adore and envy. Oliver and Lily both got the baby acne pretty bad when they were about 6 weeks old and it took about 2-3 weeks for it to go away. I was hoping that Brooklyn might get lucky and not get it, but nope, she started getting it about a week ago. Poor girl had little white heads all over her scalp and some on her cheeks too. So I went online to see if I could find anything advice and I came across a bunch of testimonials from other moms who had tried baking soda. Some also recommended Eucerin cream. So I tried both and was amazed that within one day it was 90 percent gone and by day two, completely GONE!!! I couldn’t believe it. Wish I’d known this for Lily and Oliver.

All you do is mix some baking soda with warm water to make a paste. Then put it all over the affected areas and wash it off. Afterwards I put some of the Eucerin face lotion on to moisturize her skin. I did mix a couple drops of Jojoba oil into the lotion before applying, but I don’t think it matters either way. Jojoba Oil mimics human skin’s natural sebum so it’s a great moisturizer for all skin types.

Pretty little princess…

30 minutes later…

Yep thats right. It’s poop! So much for the cute outfit.

I’ve been finding all kinds of cute hair styles for girls and trying them out on Lily. It’s been a lot of fun to get creative with her hair because I usually don’t do anything with it. She’s loving it too, she feels like a little princess Here are a few we’ve tried so far.

We got this idea from Princess Hairstyles For Girls. It was a Kim Kardashian inspired do.

Not that I want Lily to be anything like her, but she does have gorgeous hair

This was an attempt to do this…

But it was taking so long that we just quit half way.  I got the tutorial from Girly Do Hairstyles.

I found this one on Pinterest. There wasn’t a link to the website, but it’s pretty easy to figure out just by looking at it.

This one we also found on Princess Hairstyles.

We’ve sure been enjoying homeschool, especially this time of year when we can head down to our St. George home and enjoy the beautiful sunshine weather.

We spend most of our days learning to read, doing crafts, and exploring the world around us. Lily loves to catch all kinds of living things like frogs, grass hoppers, praying mantis, and even lizards. A few months ago we were down in St. George, spending an afternoon outside making a jewelry box.

We took an old box we got from Macy’s, tissue paper, tacky glue, and glitter.

Just mix a little water into the tacky glue and start painting it on the box. Then quickly add the stripes of tissue paper.

During our crafting fun we spotted a lizard in our court yard. We quickly called Sean over to catch it for us (he’s really good at catching them). Then it became Lily’s little pet.

In the process of catching it the tail had to be sacrificed

We weren’t about to just toss it away like some meaningless piece of garbage.

We turned it into art

Richer than I you can never be—
I had a mother who read to me.

-Strickland Gilliand

It’s that time of year again, New Years Resolutions, goal-setting, and a fresh start in all those areas that need improving.

If one of those areas is READING TO YOUR KIDS, then I have a book for you.

The first time I was introduced to this book was in the 6th grade. Our teacher Ms. Francey had decided to read a book out loud to the class every day following recess. At first I was thinking B-O-R-I-N-G! Who wants to sit at their desk perfectly still for 45 minutes. Ugggghhhh!

She started into the book “There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom” by Louis Sachar, and introduced me to the unforgettable Bradley Chalkers, who sat in the….

Last seat.

Last row.

Bradley was trouble. The students didn’t like him and the teachers didn’t like him, he bullied the kids, scribbled on his desk, and plastered the classroom with spitballs! Even the new kid Jeff Fishkin (who tried to be nice to Bradley) learned quickly to keep his distance when Bradley threatened him with “give me a dollar or I’ll spit on you!!!!!”

Everyone had given up on Bradley, His teacher, his classmates, even his parents.

Even me….

But one person never gave up on Bradley.

This person continued to believe in Bradley even though the whole world had given up on him.

I have fleeting memories from the 6th grade, but I remember vividly those days after recess when Ms. Francey read us this book… especially the moment when I buried my head in my arms, put my head on the desk….. and cried.

Bradley Chalkers changed me…he touched my heart. This simple little book gave me the first glimpse of what true LOVE is (not the romantic type) but REAL love, compassion, kindness and charity…

Because isn’t that what life is all about?

So if you want to read a great book this year that will captivate your children’s imagination, grab their attention and undoubtedly touch their hearts than definitely read There’s a Boy in the Girls Bathroom by Louis Sachar.

Cheers.

Ali

We all go through it after giving birth. That transition stage between looking pregnant and being back in our pre pregnancy jeans. It’s a frustrating place to be at, especially if you’re nursing. Dieting at this point really isn’t the best thing to do if you want to keep your milk supply. Although I still want to be dropping the pounds, I have made some progress as far as just being happy with my “mom body”. I know the weight will come off eventually so I’m just trying to enjoy this time of nursing, and indulging in more calories without really feeling guilty about it I do however need to cut back on the sugar a bit, that’s my weakness.

I’ve been exercising a little each day, and my goal is to start eating healthier calories instead of all the sugar calories I’ve been consuming. I’m working on some printable weekly meal plans with grocery lists that I’ll be sharing soon.

So after I had Brooklyn, I shared a picture of my post baby belly, now the belly is not so round, it’s just really squishy. Both Oliver and Lily get a kick out of jiggling it and kneading it like dough. Here’s a recent picture of my mom body, I must admit though, I am wearing spanx, and these are still my maternity jeans too.

Here’s my tip on how to drop ten pounds.

Put your hands on your hips like this…

Ya see?

Looks like I actually have hips now right Well guess what? I don’t. Not yet anyway.

So what do you think of my outfit? I did a little shopping the other day. I got a bunch of new clothes from The Sweetest Thingz, one of my favorite places to shop. I needed some things that would fit me in this in between stage and they had a bunch of cute things to choose from.

Go check them out!!!

I can’t believe a month has already passed since my last guest post for Crystal (Simple tips to grow your blog business). Given Crystal loves “balance” (and so do I!) I thought I’d do this month’s post on some of the top websites and apps I use to run my blogs and freelance business. They all help me to stay really organized, and, of course, balanced!

If you like these sort of things, I have a huuuggge directory of around 400 other useful websites, tools and resources for bloggers and mompreneurs. Check it out at theblogstylist.com.

1. Instapaper
This is a website that essentially acts as a bookmarking tool. You install a bookmarklet on your browser, and then no matter what page you’re visiting on the web, you can click “Read Later” and it will be saved to Instapaper for you to access and read later from your laptop, iPad or iPhone.

2. Reeder
Reeder is an iPad and iPhone app that makes reading RSS feeds on the go really easy and a nice experience. It syncs with your Google Reader account, so you don’t need to sign up for extra logins etc. It will also let you share posts you’re reading via Twitter and more.

3. Evernote
This would be the website app I use the most. It’s like a digital note book, but it also allows you to add web clips, images and more. All “notes” can be tagged and categorized for easy search and retrieval. iPhone and iPad apps mean you can access all of your synced notes wherever you are.

4. Freshbooks
If accounting isn’t your strong point, Freshbooks can help you to stay on top of sending and receiving invoices. Its basic features are free, and it’s fairly straightforward to use (thank goodness!).

5. DropBox
DropBox is a website that gives you online storage. You can use it in a number of ways, including as a place to back up files from your computer, or as a folder you can share with your friends (or anyone who has the URL to access it).

6. BackUp Buddy
I use and love WordPress.org (the self-hosted version of WordPress). It’s a great platform, but it does involve being responsible for things such as theme and plugin updates and also backups. BackUp Buddy is one of the easiest ways I’ve fount to backup my sites. It’s a plugin that you install, just like you would with other plugins. Great for peace of mind! (Also: I have all my backups automatically sent to my DropBox account – it’s set and forget!)

7. Google Docs
Google Docs can be used for so much more than just typing documents! They offer spread-sheets, presentations, drawings and even forms. If you ever need to do a basic survey with your blog or website visitors, this is a free and simple solution to try.

8. Bit.ly
Bit.ly is a URL shortening website. It can be used with Twitter clients such as TweetDeck. It’s great to not only track the click-through rate on links you share via Twitter or Facebook, but you can also use it as a simple URL cloaker if you’re into affiliate marketing via your website or blog.

9. Aviary screen capture
This is a really nifty website that I use as a Firefox Add-on. In one click I can quickly make screen grabs of any web page, whether it’s the whole page, the visible portion, or an area that I select. I often use to to collect images that I use for web design inspiration. The Aviary website has many other features including a free sound editor you can use to create podcasts.

10. TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a Twitter client that is used to manage multiple Twitter accounts. However, even if you only have one account, it makes following Twitter lists, hashtags and your inbox easier than clicking around the standard Twitter website.

Do you use any other websites or apps? Which are your favorites?

Every year Christmas just gets better and better when you have small children. This year Oliver really got it. He was so full of excitement he even woke up Christmas EVE morning and came running into our room saying, “IT’S CHRISTMAS”!!! His reaction on Christmas morning was just priceless, I had to show you this short clip of him waking up. You gotta watch it.

Sean and I of course stayed up pretty late that night setting up.

well, I guess I just watched…

drooling…

I mean look at those muscles…

he’s HOT!!!

Okay anyway, enough of that

Lily woke us up at 3am. We told her she needed to go back to bed for a few more hours. So she sat awake in her bed for two hours before coming in again. So 5am it was.

We set out these pictures for the kids to see, and boy were they excited.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the website you can make these on, but just in case you haven’t, it’s called Elf Cam.

That morning our house quickly went from this…

to this…

It took me two days to get it back to normal again, but we sure had a lot of fun.

I got Sean a new ipad (because the kids have kind of claimed his existing one), and Sean got me these…

I know what you’re thinking, it’s exactly what I was thinking when I opened it. I was like, uh, what the heck are these!

Then I read the card he gave me. It said something about him not knowing what it was like to watch an entire movie thinking the main actor was George Clooney only to find out it was Mel Gipson all along. Basically what he was saying was that my eye sight sucks and for Christmas he was giving me a new set up eyes. In other words he payed for me to get Lasik eye surgery.

Creative right

So yes, I have bad eyes and I NEVER wear my glasses or contacts. I hate them, so I just get used to seeing things a little blurry , which can be a little embarrassing sometimes. Like for example, I’ll be out at the store or something and I THINK I see someone I know, so I wave and smile. Then once I get up close and see the confused look on the persons face, that’s when I think, well maybe I should start wearing my contacts.

We all had an amazing Christmas.  I love my little family so much and can’t imagine life without them.