Yummy

Hello To All. Well summer is here for The Monkey (school ended last Thursday). And The Bubby will be finished with his sophomore year of high school at the end of this week. There was an end of the year potluck at The Monkey's school so I thought I'd put a twist on cupcakes I agreed to bring.
I found this fun recipe in one of my baking books . I altered it just a tad and it came out great and the kids and parents loved them. These are so fun.
Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cone Chocolate Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups of self-rising flour

1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 cup white bakers sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
4 eggs room temperature
6 oz unsweetened chocolate melted see note
1 cup half and half milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 bag of semi- sweet chocolate chips

Note: To melt the chocolate, place in a double boiler over simmering water on low heat for approximately 5–10 minutes. Stir occasionally until completely smooth and no pieces of chocolate remain. Remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm 5–10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl put flour aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the chocolate, mixing until well incorporated. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the half and half milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but do not over beat. After mixing pour bag of chocolate chips and mix in with spoon. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended and the batter is smooth. Carefully spoon the batter into flat bottom ice cream cones, filling them to the top of the cone. Still using the cupcake pans (or muffin tins) place one cone in each hole. Bake for 20–25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Be careful when pulling pans out and placing them on the cooling rack. Some cupcakes may get lopsided and may fall over.
Cool the cupcakes for 20 minutes and make Glaze Topping.

Glaze Topping

Melt
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 Tblsp. canola or veg. oil
Pour into a separate bowl and dip tops of cupcakes
Sprinkle with sprinkles

Makes a little over a dozen.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, let me know.

Mmmm I Love These

I've been getting a number of compliments on the earrings I received on Mother's Day.
I LOVE THEM.
So I thought I'd spread the info:

They are from Polli in Australia. Check out their other items; simply beautiful.

You can purchase them on line from the Polli website
or you can get them at the hippest store in Davis, California

Nestware
204 G St
Davis, CA 95616
(530) 757-6400

Ask for Lynn or Rosalie, they are the owners and the coolest ladies in town.


Thank you Honey, I love you.

Thinking About Being A Mom

It's been a few days since Mother's Day and I've been thinking about how lucky I am. It's not because my family had breakfast waiting for me while I was still in bed or that I got to go to some spa and indulge or anything else that some moms get to experience on that day. In fact, Mother's Day seemed to be quite a normal day (I did receive a pair of beautiful earrings and had my gym membership renewed. Sweet). I worked (as any small business owner does) and did laundry and other household chores (like any mom or dad does). I am lucky because my family loves me, we are healthy and our boys are happy. After dinner I took The Monkey to get some special mommy's day ice cream. As we were walking back, he wanted to run in and out of the water fountains at the park. I stripped him down to his bare nakedness, which he was happy about, and let him run free. As I watched him play in the fountains and let him share with me his excitement, I stopped and soaked up that moment of no worries or stress, just us giggling and playing together. I have learned from what others have told me with experiencing how fast time does go by. Already, The Monkey is no longer a little baby he once was. He is now a little boy. I will hold on to our time as mother and son, always, and treasure each phase of our life together, never forgetting what joy he brings me when he smiles.

Springtime with The Monkey

The weather here in Northern California has been beautiful lately. This has afforded all animals to enjoy the benefits of spring, including The Monkey. In the last week he was able to play with and walk his godfathers' dog CheChe Lobo. The Monkey was gentle and listened well. CheChe was pretty happy too. Moving on, at the beginning of his school day on Thursday, The Monkey witnessed three new baby chicks being hatched. This is a good because the first chick that was hatched earlier in the week will now have bubbies. The Monkey was very sad and wanted it to have a mama, dada, bubbies and a meow. Now that it has three new bubbies to play with, The Monkey wants to know when will they have a meow of their own. Hmmm. And finally, The Monkey's car "had a leak" (created by himself with water), so instead of taking it to the shop, he wanted to fix it. "Mama, I will fix it, cause it's my job to do. I like to fix things." Note the different tools and how his car has water underneath it. As his mother, I am taking great joy in watching his imagination grow and watching what he does with it. I hope he always finds ways to fix things and make them better so others can benefit from what he has to give.

Cool New Products

Cool capes by Superfly Kids that let the imagination fly.

And cute bags by Kissycake that both kids and grown-ups will enjoy.

We are so excited about adding hand-made artistian products from around the country to our website. People can go to any WalMart, Target or Toys-R-Us to get gifts for their kids but if you won't something truly special and hand-made (and well made) keep visiting our site and get something as unique as your child. We'll keep you posted on other play items and our new designs that will be coming soon.

In the meantime check them out.

May Cute-of-the-Month

Check out nina and tom's cool baby and kid's clothes and their May Cutie-of-the-Month.
Cute, no?

Plastic God

The family did something crazy and went to San Francisco for 1/2 a day to see our dear friend Plastic God. He had been asked to paint a room for Hotel D'Arts, in his notorious style. Plastic God and nina go way back, about 15 years. We met at Pasadena City College, where we were taking design, painting and drawing classes. He knew he was an artist, nina didn't know anything. Plastic God went on to The Art Center, worked in the corporate world, quit that and now makes his cool heads that he is famous for (nina has Billy Idol and Police). nina went on to drift around (a.k.a party), fall in love, finish school and now makes baby and kids clothes. Strange where life takes you. It was great to see him and talk about things, past, present and future, all the while having The Monkey run around the pub. I'm so glad were still friends and miss the old days a little.

Tell Oprah

Do you love nina and tom onesies as baby shower gifts? Do you love our Onesie-A-Month gift idea?

Tell Oprah

And receive 30% off your next purchase. Just forward us your email confirmation from Oprah and we will send your special coupon code. Thank you for your support.

The Week of Gifts Part III

Books, books and more books. The Monkey loves reading. Here are some of the books he received:

The Giving Tree
A classic. The Monkey has his own, the cherry tree.

Big Dig
A 10 as far as Pop-up books go. Very animated and functional.

Olivia Forms A Band
The latest in Olivia's life. The Monkey can't get enough. He has us imagine a new story every night before he goes to bed. His favorite theme, Olivia eating an apple pie and/or riding a train.

Olive, My Love
A very sweet book. We believe this book came from the author listening to Led Zeppelin's "All of My Love". Rock on.

The Week of Gifts Part II

Another cool gift The Monkey received was this Caterpillar Bulldozer by Bruder. The monkey likes to go over to the park and make mountains, big and small. He won't let us throw the box away because it's the garage for the bulldozer. He likes to recycle.

The Week of Gifts Part I

This last week as been a good one for The Monkey. He celebrated is 3rd Birthday and sort of learned who the Easter Bunny is. With those two events he received some pretty cool gifts.
The first being Haba's Block and Tackle. For those non-physics types, like myself, a Block and Tackle "is a device for lifting weights where a rope or chain is threaded over pulley wheels. If the upper 'pulley' is loose, the power needed to is merely the weight of the object, divided by the number of ropes caring the weight." That means that this little wooden toy can lift up to 350 pounds. Pretty cool. What was funny, was when The Monkey opened the gift, we were all trying to show him how it can lift a basket full of blocks, but Tom wouldn't have that. He grabbed our friend's wooden chair to show The Monkey this law of physics. It has evolved from that wooden chair, to a five gallon bucket filled with various objects, to, as you can see, The Monkey himself sitting in his car. I'm so thankful we have insurance.

This Little Piggy Wears Nina and Tom

We just got an order from This Little Piggy Wears Cotton. Super cool. They are a west coast chain of baby and kid's clothing with eight stores and their website. Check them out and look for the Piggy wearing Nina and Tom in late May. Yeah!