Goodbye to Little Window Shoppe
May 18, 2009 by Emily · 62 Comments
My Dearest Window Shoppe Readers and Friends,
This post has taken me over a month to write - partly because this is my last post on this blog. I am so sad to announce that as of today, Little Window Shoppe is closing for good.
The decision was not taken lightly and was really hard to make, but a combination of factors came together that brought me to this post…very much wanting to spend more time with my family (I have a very busy two year old who needs more mommy-time), 
getting ready for baby #2 in November (I’ve been out sick for two months! But it’s totally worth it as we’re so excited to have a new baby come to our family), and finally getting ready for a move to a new state with my family this Summer (my hubby is starting a new job).
{Photo source: Wilson Library Reserve}
I have learned so much from blogging at Little Window Shoppe and will be forever grateful for the kind friends I have made and the amazing experiences that I have had here!! Thank you so much for taking time to make Little Window shoppe a part of your lives and for being such a fantastic community. And also, thank you for all of the nice emails and inquiries about how we are doing.
Before I say goodbye for good, I want to thank a few people who helped me along the way:
First and foremost, my husband Scott. He is an incredibly supportive husband and friend and was the first person to listen to my every idea and concern throughout my blogging adventures. He has also been Superman at my house and has cooked, cleaned, taken care of our two year old and helped me out while I was sick over the last seven weeks! I couldn’t ask for a better man in my life and I love him so much!!
I also wanted to thank Holly of Tutus and Turtles. She is so cool and listened and talked to me for hours on the phone as I worked out how I would end my Window Shoppe blogging days. Her blog has been an inspiration to me from the beginning and I think that her blog ideas rock!!
Finally, I wanted to thank each of the writers and contributors for Little Window Shoppe. Each of them had creative and beautiful ideas to share and I’m so grateful and honored that they wanted to be part of this blog with me. They have become some of my dearest friends and were the best group of writers a blog ever had! They even sent me tulips when I was sick (just about made me cry, I felt so loved).
Please visit each of their blogs to keep up with their cool ideas!
- Vanessa - her blog: I Never Grew Up
- Lauren - her blog: Supermom Central
- Michelle - her shoppe: Sweet Mady’s Paper
- Michaelle - her blog: Monkeys Momma
- Cassie - her shoppe: Madison Envy
- Kelly - her blog: Albany Mommy
Also, I wanted to leave you with a few additional recommendations of blogs I love - in case you are looking for new places to subscribe:
- www.simplemom.net - this is my absolute favorite blog to follow…it has the best family tips and ideas that make sense, the ideas are easy to follow and I just can’t get enough of its coolness.
- www.howaboutorange.blogspot.com - artsy, tons of crafts, diy ideas, printouts, and the best time-wasters ever.
- www.thepioneerwoman.com - recipes, photoshop tutorials, photography 101, down-to-earth life.
- www.makeandtakes.com - the coolest (and most creative) kids crafts ever!
- www.metropolitanmama.net - and for all you contest lovers, this Metro Mama has excellent giveaways all of the time - and she writes helpful articles with tips for parents. Love it.
There are so many more…but I think this is a great start.
If you want to stay in touch with me, you can follow me at a few sites:
- www.emilyjune.com (I’ll still be designing blogs and websites - starting again this fall).
- I’m also going to be checking in and updating my facebook page and my family blog regularly. They will have weekly updates of my family life and the cool fun things we are doing.
**If you want to stay in touch with me at my family blog or on facebook, just email me or leave a comment letting me know and I’ll send you the links.**
Thank you again for making this the best blogging experience I have ever had!!
Always,
Emily
Cupcake Party
March 30, 2009 by Michelle · 13 Comments
A cupcake birthday party is a fun and fabulous theme for girls of any age, especially when you combine your daughter’s love of cupcakes with her favorite color as the inspiration behind the party planning. In our house, pink is the color of choice!
If you enjoy planning parties like I do, then you definitely want to go all out with your decorating. The invitations are the first step. Invitations set the tone for the party. Here is an adorable Cupcake Invitation that you can customize in your color of choice. You can also purchase address labels, thank you stationery and party favor stickers that all coordinate. Don’t you love that?!
For the party, your daughter would look so sweet wearing this Cupcake Dress or the matching Cupcake Aprons shown below. You could serve pink lemonade and small sandwiches cut out with a Cupcake Cookie Cutter served on these Cupcake Carousel Plates. Your daughter will also love seeing her birthday cake when you present her with a large cupcake using the Wilton Cupcake Pan.
If you wanted to do individual cupcakes instead, this book, Crazy about Cupcakes, has a lot of cute decorating ideas to help you to get started. You could set up a decorating station and have several different bowls of sprinkles and tiny bits of candy for your guests to add their own toppings. Your guests could also decorate cupcake shaped cookies to package up and take home with them.
In addition to cookies as a favor, Etsy has a great collection of Cupcake Soaps that any girl is sure to love. Place the cookies, soap and maybe a few cupcake stickers into a little bag topped off with the cupcake favor tag and ribbon and you have the perfect goody bag! Of course if you really want to go all out with your cupcake themed party, what little girl wouldn’t love this fun table made by Imaginative Play Toys.
Written by Michelle of Sweet Mady’s Paper and Sweet Mady’s Notes
Jessie Steele Apron Giveaway
February 18, 2009 by Emily · 632 Comments
Contest Update:
*We have two winners!! The randomly chosen winners for this contest are: #169 Eileen Swaney winning the onyx apron and #437 Krystle winning the cherry apron - Congratulations! Thank you to everyone who participated - please stop by again as we have a new contest each week.*
It’s a Party at Little Window Shoppe!! (A pretty awesome one if I do say so myself!) This month, Little Window Shoppe is celebrating a birthday, woo hoo! In honor of this happy occasion, we are celebrating with you (of course!) and have 10 giveaways scheduled over the next two weeks - so be sure to stop by and join in the festivities with us.
Here’s the first giveaway:
Flirtatiously cute (don’t you think?) with decorative details and a complimentary cut, these beautiful Jessie Steele Hostess Aprons bring a vintage-like quality back to your kitchen. They are machine washable, come in one size that fits most and make a charming hostess gift too.
As soon as I found Jessie Steele, I knew I had discovered a lifetime favorite!
Win It:
We are giving away two aprons! Which means that there will be two lucky winners (one apron for each). One winner will receive this beautiful Onyx apron and the other winner will receive this delightful Retro Cherries apron.
To Enter:
Simply leave a quick comment letting me know which apron style (pictured above) is your favorite! This giveaway ends on Thursday, February 26th at midnight PST. The winner will be chosen randomly and will be announced at this post Friday, February 27th. Good luck, everyone!! (Please feel free to read our contest rules for additional details)
(Optional) For extra entries:
- Are you a Subscriber? Just let us know you’re subscribed to Little Window Shoppe in an additional comment.
- And (Or) Blog about this giveaway and include your blog link in an additional comment (fyi: comments with links are temporarily held for moderation)
Cute Cards for the Recipe Box
November 26, 2008 by Emily · 5 Comments
Good Morning! Today is going to be a great day, I can tell. It’s November 26th and chances are that you are preparing and planning for Thanksgiving (maybe you’re even already prepared). We are so happy to visit family this week too and since we are bringing the pie, I’ve had pie recipes on my mind all morning. As I was digging through the recipe box - I started thinking about how much I love collecting recipes….
There are oodles of new delicious recipes waiting to be tried this Thanksgiving and I think I may need a few new recipe cards (just in case). How about you? Whether you are saving new recipes, looking for a perfect hostess gift, or simply must have your sister-in-law’s take on potato rolls, a cute recipe card is great to have.
Today’s recipe card finds are hip, cute and simply creative:
Isn’t the little chef chick card adorable? I would love to have this one in my kitchen! Find it at Pulci’s Shoppe.
Top Left: Tweet Tweet Recipe Cards by DazeyChic ~ Surrounded by little birds, you get a set of 10 Tweet Tweet cards! Each has room on either side for the title of the recipe, serving size, and directions.
Top Right: Bite Me Recipe Cards by Terri Taylor Design ~ This “bite me” recipe card set is a best-seller and includes 12 cards hand trimmed to 4″ x 5 3/8″. Each comes with its own bite mark on the corner trimmed out by hand, making each card slightly unique.
Bottom Left: I loved the whimsical touch to these printable recipe cards by Wildolive! They are priced at just $5 and the PDF document contains 16 4×6″ card designs that you can print out again and again as you add to your recipe collection. Genius really.
Bottom Right: Stand Mixer Recipe Cards by Winifred Studios ~ This fun set of 48 recipe cards includes 3 different designs (pink, blue, and green), measure 4″ x 6″ and include “Recipe”, “Ingredients”, “Instructions”, and “Serves” on the card.
And last (but definitely not least), Fork and Spoon Recipe Cards by Just Another Day ~ this set of 12 recipe cards features utensils design in aqua and measure 4.25×5.5″.
Just top it off with a little charm and a recipe and you’re all set. What is your favorite Thanksgiving recipe?
Re-Discovering the Joys of Dinner
October 8, 2008 by Emily · 6 Comments
I have been trying so hard in the last year to be a better menu planner for my family. I was honestly really tired of having a ton of food at home, but “nothing to eat” - you know that feeling? In my own personal quest to make dinner a more cherished part of our family day, I have come across menu-planning websites that I LOVE. Today I want to share with you FIVE things I love about Dine Without Whine (DWW)!
- First and foremost - the services, once you sign-up you will receive a menu and shopping list via e-mail each week by Thursday afternoon. Even if you don’t sign up - there are so many free resources to help you feel excited about planning again - I was all about this, who doesn’t like free, right?
- When you are first checking it out, you can request their “free gift” called Menu Planning For Today’s Busy Family - A Comprehensive Must Have Menu Planning Resource. (It’s a PDF document that basically gets you pumped up and ready to menu plan - this totally inspired me).
- You will receive free email updates with links to articles that help you to keep it up, some of these include:
- Eight Reasons Why Menu Planning is a Terrible Idea (So funny and Oh so true!!)
- Mouth-watering Smoothie Recipes
- Success stories, family dinner videos and more.
- DWW lists a ton of facts about how much money you can save each week at the grocery store and how to menu plan with coupons - my husband really loved this part about it.
- And finally, if you’re not sure yet, you can try it out for one penny ($.01) and after that it’s a little more than $1 per week ($6.95/month) for the service.
Tips for Mixing Up Lunches and Snacks
September 24, 2008 by Emily · 10 Comments
Introducing Nicole the Editor for Momtrends, she wrote a great post for Little Window Shoppe with very helpful tips for mixing and matching lunches and snacks for your kids throughout the year. I’m really excited to share her ideas with you today, thanks Nicole!
Can you imagine fixing more than one hundred peanut butter and jelly sandwiches this year? Neither can I. Packing school lunches can be mind numbingly dull. So to mix things up this year, I’m taking a Bento Box approach.
Here’s the idea. It’s all about mixing and matching and using colorful small containers. On Sunday after shopping I enlist my junior chef to help fill up the containers. Then each morning she can grab four containers (one from each group) plus a dip and stash them in her lunch box. This saves Moms from scrambling each a.m. for a fruit, protein, carb, veggie, and dip.
Kids too young for school? This method works for toddlers too–organize your snacks for the week to find a few extra minutes in the day for mom.
To get you started, here’s some tips from each category:
| Fruit (this is the easy one) | Carbs |
| blueberries grapes apple slices or applesauce strawberries, raspberries |
popcorn pretzels whole wheat bagel chips mini pitas |
| Protein | Veggie |
| hard-boiled eggs rolled lunch meats cheese ground turkey or beef |
Green peppers tomatoes, celery bib lettuce (great for roll-ups) broccoli spears |
| Dips | |
| salsa hummus yogurt |
With all these on hand you can simply fill small containers and get your kids involved in packing and selecting the snacks. The fun part is storing the snacks in colorful containers. Here are my picks:
Eco-Friendly Bento box set $26.95
Rubbermaid 44 pc. Set $24.99
Tupperware has awesome items like the Lunch n’ Things Container $7.48
And I love the idea of keeping lunch green by putting sending all these reusable items off to school (just be sure to label everything). To take the adorable lunch one step further toss in a fabkins cloth napkin to be clean and green.
Cupcake Shoppes
September 23, 2008 by Vanessa · 7 Comments
During Martha Stewart’s Cupcake Week, I was quite jealous of all the cities featured on her show that had fabulous cupcake shoppes. I am loving the comeback the cupcake has made over the past couple of years and I recently was surprised to learn that Utah does have it’s very own cupcake shop in Salt Lake City.
So Cupcake
3939 S. Highland Dr.
Salt Lake City, UT 84124
Phone: 801.274.8300
Store hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
“So Cupcake was created through inspiration, love, and a never-ending craving for something sweet. With a background in social work, we have enjoyed helping families heal and make positive choices in their lives.
To continue with this tradition So Cupcake wants to continue to kindle the sweetness of life in other people and in their relationships. We have a daughter who lives with cerebral palsy. Celina is full of life, love, laughter, and has an exquisite appetite! Where she lacks in mobility, she excels in her incredible imagination.
Celina’s undaunted courage set in motion our sweet endeavor. Hence, all that we are and all that we feel is part of each little cupcake created.”
The shoppe itself is darling, you will feel special as soon as you walk in and sit down. Their decor is fun, inspiring and beautiful. The cupcakes are delicious and adorable!
Cupcake Names: Starry Starry Night Vanilla, Coco Delight, So Cozy Cinnamon & Sugar, Hanky Panky Red Velvet, Irrationally in Love, Studmuffin Blueberry, So High the Moon Lemon, Rockin’ Purple Velvet, Yummy-licious Brownie, So Goldie Peanut Butter and Muy Muy Mocha. How could you not fall in love with a cupcake with any of those titles 
If you live in Utah, be sure to treat yourself and someone you love to So Cupcake.
Don’t live in Utah? Check out these shoppes to see if there is one near you! If you don’t luck out at one of these links, you can make cupcakes of your own using my favorite cupcake blog as a great resource to start: Bakerella.
Additional Links:
- Vanilla Bake Shop
- Swirlz Cupcakes
- Happy Cakes
- Violet’s Cakes
- Susie Cakes
- Kara’s Cupcakes
- How Sweet It Is
- Trophy Cupcakes and Party
Vanessa’s blog www.inevergrewup.net - Ideas and Reviews to Help Parents Entertain, Care for and Educate their Children.
iLunchBox
September 11, 2008 by Emily · 2 Comments
Before you read about this awesome iLunchBox site, I just wanted to mention that the Peek-a-boo ($70) Contest ends tomorrow (Friday) and only has about 25 entries!! Your chances of winning (whether for yourself or a friend are really great!! So, if you haven’t already entered, you can right HERE).
Now onto iLunchBox - Do you pack a lunch for yourself or your kids? We are dedicated lunch-packers at my house. My husband is a health teacher and I think he has ”Super-Size Me“ memorized, so we don’t eat lunch at the cafeteria as much as we used to.
If you are a lunch-packer too, I think you’ll like this site! It is a resource center and portal of information for parents and caregivers dedicated to the pursuit of a healthier lunch for school aged children. It combines recipes and menu ideas with a focus on nutrition, lunch and portability as well as tips and tricks to make lunch easier.
Simplify Your Life One Cup at a Time
August 13, 2008 by Emily · 5 Comments
You’re having a little get-together and instead of standing there as the ’marker goddess’ labeling each and every cup, try an Etch-It Cup and let your guests (or kids) do the work for you. These smart little cups have an etch-able black surface so it’s easy to impress a name on them using just your nails. Pure Genius.
Priced at $7 for a pack of 18 and available in clear and red colors from my favorite party shoppe - Plum Party.
The Sonora Grill
August 13, 2008 by Emily · 4 Comments
Being originally from Arizona, Mexican food is a regular staple for my weekly meal plan. I love fresh Mexican food and am always happy to find a new restaurant.
If you LOVE Mexican food too and are anywhere near Ogden Utah, you absolutely must visit The Sonora Grill. Chef Mortenson, of the Sonora Grill, has spent 40 years in the kitchen and has learned from famous celebrity chefs to bring you only the best.
They also buy many of their ingredients locally, which means that everything on their menu is fresh. You will definitely want to keep tabs on this site as they are planning to introduce a few interesting recipes on their blog that you wont want to miss.
Bonus:
The Sonora Grill also has an Early Bird Special from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. where you can get 2 entrees and 2 drinks for $20 and they also have a printable coupon on their website for a free dessert.
Featured Shoppes
