Eleven Year Olds love making cupcakes

November 5, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

My daughter, Broadway, who recently turned eleven, has been enjoying creating tasty treats in our kitchen for about the past year.

When she has her friends over, they will put on their cooking aprons and start the mixing and baking process. They typically will focus on brownies. Sometimes they follow a recipe, and sometimes, they just wing it, throwing in a little of this and a little of that.

Either way, they always have a blast and thoroughly enjoy the process of baking together.

This past weekend was Broadway’s birthday party and one of her best friends gave her a very appropriate gift…..a cupcake maker! Not just any cupcake maker, but one that can also create little quiches and breads, and the list goes on.

I thought I would share a few photos of this very special gift.

Preparing the dough for the mini quiches. Broadway used the pre made Pillsbury dough and cut out perfect round pieces of dough for her quiches.

Placing the dough in her cool new babycakes cupcake maker.

The finished product. She made a quiche recipe from the book that comes with the cupcake maker. We were all very impressed with the taste. The ingredients included egg, half and half, scallions and bacon. Yum.

Here are some of the delicious vanilla cupcakes Broadway whipped up with her new wonder machine. Again, very tasty!

Such a fun gift and already well used! We love that. Mountain Man and I are really enjoying the fact that one of our kids is already able to cook a full meal for the family. And she loves it!

Mrs. Meyers – Aromatherapy for your house

April 13, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Mrs. Meyer’s Geranium Counter Spray

I love having a fresh smelling house, but I do not enjoy scents that are more like perfume rather than a natural scent like a fresh ocean breeze, for example.

Well, I have finally found the best cleaning product line with the best scents around. Mrs. Meyers Cleaning products are wonderfully fresh and natural and truly make wiping down my kitchen counter a delight. 🙂

My First Discovery of Mrs. Meyer’s Cleaning products

My family and I were at a dinner party at a friend’s house and we noticed a fresh scent in the air that really was like no other. It was not filled with chemicals, it was natural and it seemed to pervade throughout the whole house. The scent was from the geranium soap that was in the bathrooms and kitchen.

I remember that the next day, I went to my local ACE hardware store and purchased the geranium soap and kitchen counter spray, and the rest is history. I simply cannot go back to traditional stinky cleaners.

Different Scents to try

Currently, my favorite scents in the line are geranium and apple. I started out with the counter spray in geranium and used it for at least a year, until my local store decided to not carry that scent anymore. I tried basil, another fresh scent in their aromatherapy line. The basil is nice, but, in my opinion, not as great as geranium. Still, it is very refreshing. There’s just something about that geranium…..

After the basil, I tried the lavender which is nice as well, but I think better for the bathrooms than the kitchen. My kitchen is in the center of my house, so when I started using these aromatherapy cleaners, I focused on my kitchen spray first. The smell seems to permeate throughout the whole house. For my kitchen, I enjoy the geranium, basil and apple.

My 10 year old daughter loves the apple scented pump soap in her bathroom. When we ran out last week, she put the empty bottle in my purse to remind me this was a priority purchase for the day. 🙂 When you walk into the kids bathroom, it smells like an apple orchard. Very natural and fresh. Love the Apple!

In a nutshell, we are currently using geranium and apple for both the kitchen and the bathrooms and love it.

How Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Products Began

It is not really a surprise that these wonderful products were inspired by a Mom. This Mom, Thelma Meyer, is an Iowa Mom of nine children!

One of Thelma’s daughters, Monica, was walking down the cleaning aisle at a grocery store and she noticed that the products were all filled with foul smelling chemicals. The harsh chemicals in a home with young children is rather startling to a young mother, when you consider that the scene could be so much different. It occurred to Monica that she could create tough cleaners that smelled like fresh botanicals and herbs, instead of chemicals. She wanted to name her creations after her Mom, Mrs. Meyer, to honor her old fashioned values. You see, these cleaners are honest and straight forward goodness from nature that is tough on dirt as well.

Thelma wishes she had access to these cleaners when she was raising nine children. She says that having an aromatherapy experience every day while you are cleaning is a dream come true and would have helped her greatly when raising her kids.

I know I am very thankful for Monica’s diligence in creating these products. My house smells like a botanical garden and apple orchard and I just LOVE it. In fact, my whole family loves it.

The Scent List

Below is a list of the current scents offered by Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Products. Looks like a still have quite a few to test out in my humble abode. Will report back to you when I’ve tried out some new ones. Honeysuckle sounds particularly interesting…..

Basil
Lavender
Lemon Verbana
Geranium
Rosemary
Blue Bell
Honeysuckle
Apple
Parsley
Rhubarb
Baby Blossom

Hope you enjoy these wonderful products as much as I do!

Seatbelt Bags – Could I finally have found the perfect handbag?

March 28, 2012 by Mom on the Make Leave a Comment

Camel Large Satchel Seatbelt Bag

I am a handbag fanatic and thoroughly enjoy the hunt for the perfect bag.

The whole process of checking out a new handbag is an absolute treat for me. 🙂

My research and discovery process will typically include:

Trying new styles (hobo, clutch, satchel, tote etc…)
Checking out the compartments that are inside
Determining if I need a short or long strap
Asking myself, “is the material waterproof?”
Will the purse stand on its own or slouch when I put it on a table?
If one of my kids draws on it, will I easily be able to clean it?
Will I feel stylish carrying it?
Can I easily fit my iphone in the interior compartments?
Will I need to buy a different size wallet so that it will fit better in my new purse?

After trying many different brands and materials including leather, faux leather, vinyl, cotton, straw etc…, I have finally found the handbag for me. The style, as you might have already guessed, is the Harveys seatbelt bag.

The History of Seatbelt Bags

Red Large Tote Seatbelt Bag

The company, Harvey’s Seatbelt Bags, was founded in 1997 by an Orange County, California husband and wife team, Dana and Melanie Harvey. The couple was in the process of restoring their 1950 Buick. When it was time to install the seatbelts, Dana decided to use the extra seatbelt material to create a handbag for Melanie.

Well, of course, she loved her handbag.

From there, they realized that this handbag was pretty darn unique and sturdy and fashionable, so they started to create the bags for friends and family. The bags were very well received, and this lead to Dana and Melanie using their garage to create these wonderful seatbelt bags for gifts and for a business venture.

The Buick that served as the initial inspiration for the first seatbelt bag was then sold to fund their growing business. So, that Buick played a very important role in the phenomenon of the seatbelt bag. 🙂

Style and Design of the Seatbelt Bag

When Dana and Melanie started out, they only made single color bags. They created their first print bag in the summer of 2006 and have not looked back. The colors and designs run the gamut from silver to aqua to black to polka dotted and so on.

Black Medium Tote Seatbelt Bag

The bags are offered in many different styles including:

Satchels
Messenger Bags
Laptop Bags
Baguettes
Totes – Large, Medium or Small
Backpacks

The multi-colored styles are very fun and when running around town, these handbags grab a lot of attention.

Even though they have been around for 15 years now, it always amazes me that the seatbelt bag look is still a new one for a lot of people.

I always receive compliments when carrying mine around town.

My personal experience with the seatbelt bag

I personally own the Large Satchel in champagne color, the large tote in the chocolate, and the medium tote in black. I thoroughly enjoy all of the colors and sizes.

The next one I’d like to add to my collection is the medium tote in teal color. It looks so refreshing for spring. 🙂

Treecycle Large Tote Seatbelt Bag

My three favorite features of this bag are:

Unique look
Sturdiness
Easily stands on its own with built in feet
And, of course, Looks Amazing

Since there are little metal feet at the bottom of the totes and satchel style bags, they stand up so easily, which I love.

Since my bags tend to also serve as a mobile office for me, being able to stand the bag up, as I sort through the contents is a major plus.

Teal Medium Tote Seatbelt Bag

Since I mentioned the cute teal color medium tote, I thought I’d include a picture to the left. The small tote is big enough for a wallet, water bottle, keys, sunglasses and a few odds and ends. The medium tote in black, as pictured above, is slightly bigger and can hold a few additional items like an umbrella and camera for example.

The Sterling Baguette style looks very stylish and fun as well. To be honest, this one is on my wish list as well.

Sterling Boxy Tote Seatbelt Bag

I’ve included a photo of this one to the right. The baguette is smaller than the totes in height, but it could be great for the essential wallet, keys, phone, and sunglasses.

Sometimes I think I should carry much smaller purses like this one, so I’m not tempted to carry around too much. 🙂

I think seatbelt bags are absolutely wonderful, and they have made me realize that, yes indeed, there is a perfect handbag.

I know it sounds silly, but I actually look forward to picking up my seatbelt bag every morning so I can show it off. 🙂

Mom on the Make

Finding fun amidst the chaos of Motherhood