Happy Valentine's Day!

Such a busy day today but I wanted to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Do you have anything special planned for today or tonight?

I made red cake balls with my girls yesterday. They started out as cake POPS but ended up as BALLS. She wanted something fun to bring to her class today. I took a quick photo so I'll post it later on.

Have lots of projects I'm working on and the girls will be home from school soon, so...gotta run!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and hoping you got everything you wanted from Santa!

And, if you don't celebrate Christmas, hoping you are enjoying your movie and Chinese takeout !!

My Favorite Holiday Ornaments

Can you believe Thanksgiving is done already?!? That went so fast! Before you're able to enjoy that last bite of stuffing, we're already moving on to Chanukah and Christmas. Can't even catch a breath these days!

Last night we started doing our holiday decorating. We celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas in our house so everything came out at once. It was fun putting up the tree and going through the ornaments. The girls get a real kick out of it.

Wanted to show you a few of my favorites.

The first three are from Anthropologie. I just love them!

Look how cute this house is

even the back is adorable!

My little 4 year old made this one yesterday out of Q-tips and something that was meant for the garbage. I was very impressed!

This next one isn't necessarily an ornament but gets put on the tree every year anyway. This is 5 years old - when my older one was only 2. This was her main group of friends when we were in Florida. We did a lot of fun holiday activities together. The pictures are so faded, by next year they probably won't even be recognizable anymore.

I really love owls, but mostly cute ones. So, the hubbs got me this one last year. It's a bit too realistic looking for me but the more I look at it the more I like it - even with a broken foot.

I really like the design and pattern of this one. Even my older one says "Mama,, that's so your style". I think she's right!

I used to collect little chairs a while back. Don't know why. All of a sudden I just started liking them. I have a few little chair ornaments but this one is my favorite. I love the retro feel to it. Doesn't it make you feel like you're at a diner waiting for your burger, fries and shake?!?

Did you start decorating your home for the holidays? Do you have any favorite holiday decorations?

{Field Trip Fridays} Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon Inflation

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Ours turned out well. I cooked a lot so I have plenty of leftovers which means I won't be in the kitchen for a few days. Woo Hoo!!

Since I knew I'd be cooking all day and wouldn't have a chance to get down to see the parade, I thought it would be fun to go see the balloons being blown up Wednesday night. I thought it would be a great photo op as well.

When I lived on 78th & Amsterdam, each night before Thanksgiving, the floats would come up Amsterdam Ave making their way into Central Park. I had the perfect view and it was always fun to watch.

My sister and I decided to take the kids down to see the balloons being blown up. We THOUGHT this would be a fun adventure for them. Riding the subway, seeing the balloons, the energy of the holidays in the city. We thought it would be great.

We prepared - my sister left the baby with a babysitter and only took her older son. This was the best call of the night. We made sure they were fed, dressed warm and went to the bathroom before we left. We thought we had all bases covered.

I was really looking forward to a magical evening filled with fun photos.

My girls started out ok.

We started out at 79th & Columbus. There was a huge line set up to go see the balloons.

The streets were crowded but believe it or not, it was a controlled chaos. At least the lines kept moving.

Then it all started:

"This is boring"

"Where are the balloons??"

"My feet hurt"

"I'm HUNGRY!!"

I tried to ignore it and luckily we got a little closer where you could actually see some balloons through the trees.

This was promising. It meant we were getting closer.

We made our way down to 77th street and just had to turn the corner heading east. The balloons were all lined up along 77th street.

It was hard to juggle 2 kids and a camera in this huge crowd. I constantly had to make sure the girls were right next to me. You can get separated in a matter of seconds. This made it almost impossible to get descent photos. It was basically a point and shoot scenario. No time to set up that perfect shot.

On 77th, we managed to see Shrek, Hello Kitty, Spongebob, Ronald McDonald, Kermit The Frog, and a couple of others I didn't recognize.

Then I saw this...

I knew all hell was about to break loose. I had to make a decision - my camera or my sanity. It took a few moments but I finally decided, my camera had to go back in my bag. It was over.

The whining, crying and complaining from my little one was at its peak. I thought I was so prepared! I guess I was wrong.

We got as close to the balloons as we were allowed and I thought seeing Spongebob would elevate her mood.

Nope.

"Pick me up. Pick me up. PICK ME UP!!!!!"

I ended up having to carry her as much as I can, taking breaks every few minutes so my arms wouldn't fall off. We made it to the end of 77th street, had to turn up Central Park West and head back across 81st street where there were more balloons. We whizzed through this side but I managed to see Spiderman, Buzz Lightyear, Energizer Bunny, Pillsbury Dough Boy, Snoopy and others less recognizable.

We made it out of the crowds, back over to Broadway and 78th and went to New Pizza Town, my favorite pizza place in my old neighborhood.

As if a miracle occurred, the mood changed and everyone was happy again.

Pizza. The miracle drug.

Who was that demon I was with for the past hour?

I learned my lesson. Next year it's just, me, my older one and my camera.

Have you ever been to this event? What was your experience? Did you go to the parade?

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy 4th!

Hoping you are enjoying your day with family and friends.

And get to see amazing fireworks tonight!!

Be safe! (when my older daughter was 2, her hand was burned by a sparkler. We'll never forget it!)

Sweet Treat For St. Patty's Day

In case you haven't checked your calendar lately, this coming Wednesday, March 17th is St. Patrick's Day. Why do I like this holiday? Not for the drinking (not big on alcohol - especially beer), not for the corned beef and cabbage (eeew!), but for the green. I love seeing eveyone dressed up in green! All shades of it. Well almost all. I don't even know what the offical shade is called - maybe pastel green, but it's that green shade that comes in a pack of pastel printer paper. I could definitely live without that one! Otherwise, it's my favorite color.

Another reason I like it is beacause of these personalized chocolate bars.

Chocolate pretty much goes with any holiday. I'm an authorized consultant for Cherubs-n-Chocolate. They have hundreds of preprinted wrapper designs just waiting for a personalized message to be printed on them. Just like this one...

These little guys are so popular because they can be given as party favors (I use them all the time for my girls' parties), thank you's, birth announcements, giveaways at trade shows, weddings and more. I'll do a whole separate post on this another time but today I just want to focus on the green ones.

If you are having a party or need something fun to give out at your office or school, I can definitely help you out. Or if you own or manage a bar or restaurant, this would be a great handout for your customers. You can even have a coupon printed on the back for their next visit. See, always thinking ahead! While I am working on setting up a new shopping cart, feel free to just e-mail me at stacey@TotalCityGirl.com for orders or more info. There's a minimum order of 12 bars and they are $2.25 each. Such a deal!

Do you have anything special you do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

Winter Wonderland Gift Tags

I have my last holiday craft show of the season coming up this Saturday December 12th here in Riverdale. I always get a burst of creativity just before each event. It's a good time to showcase something new.

As I may have mentioned before, I have a little problem. Actually, it may not be that little anymore. It seems to be growing and growing by the minute.

I am completely obsessed with paper and ribbon!!

There - I said it. It's all out in the open now.

Yes, I know, weird right?!? Not chocolate, or food, or alcohol, or shoes.

Paper and ribbon.

That's what does it for me. I have soooo much and I can't stop myself from getting more. I'll give you a peak at some of my stash but let me tell you - this is a teeny tiny snippet of what I actually have. I can't show you everything. It's just too soon in our relationship. We're still in that La-La stage. Let's wait till we get a little more comfortable with each other. Then forget it, all my secrets will start flowing out. For now, this is all you get.

Paper...

and ribbon.

I just can't take it.

So, since I was looking around at my mounds of paper, I decided to make something new. I started making some really sweet gift tags. I love packaging and making things look special. I can't help it. It's in my blood. I may not have a gift basket biz anymore, but I can't seem to tear myself away from packaging.

I have some wintry themed paper with cool colors of blue and green. Each set comes with 5 different designs.

I think I may bring some with me to the gift fair this Saturday. I also added some to my ETSY shop.

If you're in the Riverdale area on Saturday, stop by and say hello!

Here's the info:

Holiday Gift & Craft Fair
PS24
660 West 236th Street
Riverdale, NY 10463
Saturday December 12th - noon to 4pm

Thanksgiving Giveaway

I've been so busy lately that it wasn't until I actually took a break, plopped myself down on the couch, put on Foodnetwork and saw every show was about Thanksgiving, that I realized Thanksgiving was next week already!! How did that happen?

I LOVE Thanksgiving!! Thanksgiving and Halloween are my 2 favorite holidays. Mmmm - I can't wait to have my mom's turkey!! She makes THE BEST turkey ever!! So simple but so yummy! Stuffing too. What could be better than stuffing with gravy poured all over it?!? Only 9 more days until I'm in stuffing heaven!!

I'm doing Thanksgiving at my house. I always do. I like it that way. Can eat our own food, cook exactly what we like, and we don't have to travel. I like having lots and lots of people but this year everyone is spread out so I think it's going to be a small one. You know what that means...more STUFFING for ME!! YAY!!

To show how giving I am and to celebrate Thanksgiving, I'm having a little giveaway.

I'm giving away 1 dozen Thanksgiving themed personalized chocolate bars.

They can be used as place settings, hostess gifts, going around to your clients and wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving, or of course, just hoarding them all for yourself. That wouldn't be very "giving" though, would it?!?

The wrappers can be personalized on the front

and the back

so there's plenty of room to say your thanks.

Here's what you do to enter:

At the bottom of this post there is a link called "Comments". Click on the link and it will bring you to the Comments section.

Tell me:

What are you doing this Thanksgiving?

Are you cooking, going to a family member, going to a restaurant - whatever it is, I want to know.

Now, here are the rules:

One entry per person

Entries will be accepted through noon tomorrow - Wednesday 11/18.

Winner will be selected at random and announced around 8pm also tomorrow - Wednesday 11/18.

Make sure there's a way for me to contact you - an e-mail address or something in the comment.
(Chocolate bars are classic Hershey's© Milk Chocolate bars)

Can't wait to hear what you guys are up to!!

Good luck!

Button Up!

Did you know that today - November 16th - is Button Day?!? I bet you didn't know that. Well, good thing you have me to keep you informed of all these important dates. Stick around, there'll be more!!

I've been really busy getting ready for all the holiday gift fairs I have coming up. Got through one yesterday. Still recovering today. For these fairs, Ive been making lots of hair accessories - headbands to be exact.

Perfect timing - in honor of Button Day, I recently made this one...

What d'ya think??

I think it's fun and silly and happy.

Exactly what Button Day should be.