sugar high

i don't think anyone will be surprised to hear the following confession, but i'll put it out there anyway. just so we're all clear: i have a massive sweet tooth.

i am perfectly capable of preparing a well balanced meal for my little family on any given night of the week. but when left to my own devices in the kitchen, i will invariably choose baking over cooking. lucky for me, i've got one heck of a sous pastry chef in the form of bug, who is always game for measuring and mixing in the kitchen. especially with the promise of something sweet at the end of the process.

as much as i love baking though, my cookie cutters and i had a much needed dtr (defining the relationship) talk earlier in the winter. i tried to let them down gently. but, i acknowledged, i simply couldn't continue to try to make it work any longer. we were over.

it started before bug's birthday in august. he had (surprise, surprise) a superhero themed party. and i found a set of wilton batman cookie cutters which i thought would be perfect for making treats to add to the kiddies' goodie bags. i bought my ingredients and dutifully blended them together using wilton's recipe (as included on the side of the cookie cutter box). i floured my surface, pressed the cutters, and gingerly placed them on their baking sheet so as not to distort the joker's face any further. and how did they look when they were done? like amorphous blobs. they were a mess. and i was not happy.

then, in october bug innocently picked up a set of halloween cookie cutters and asked if we could try them out. and we gave that a go too. to no avail. this time the recipe was more of the molasses and gingerbread variety. but, again, the recipe that was included with said cookie cutters totally let me down. we measured, we stirred, we baked, and what did we get for our efforts? not black cats, werewolves and tombstones. simply more amorphous mess.

after two failed attempts, it was over. i had sworn off my unhealthy relationship with my cookie cutters for good.

until december, when an old friend from high school forwarded her holiday baking photos to a few of us. i was amazed. these cookies were perfect. they were sugar. they were cut. and (in the pictures she sent) it was next to impossible to tell which cookies were baked and which were not. they held their shape beyond beautifully.

i immediately got the recipe. and bug and i baked sugar cookies with our christmas cookie cutters the very next day. i wanted to trust in the photos i had seen, but i was still skeptical. did my old friend know something i didn't? was her technique honed over years of practice and effort? thrillingly, the recipe worked perfectly. and the even more amazing part is that the recipe isn't complicated or fussy. it's simple and straightforward, which i love. even better? they taste fantastic. the are thick. they are soft. they have a sweet almond flavor. what more can i tell you? they are amazing.

the little sous chef and i baked valentine's day cookies yesterday. we used our new wilton heart shaped cookie cutters, but i didn't even flip the box over to see if there was a recipe on the back. i'm done looking. the perfect sugar cookie recipe has arrived. we think they turned out pretty fantastic.

thank you for sharing your family's recipe with all of us, stephanie!

soft sugar cookies

what you'll need: mixer, baking sheet, measuring cups and spoons, rolling pin, cookie cutters, icing, and the following ingredients

1 cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour

1. cream together butter, cream cheese, and sugar

2. add egg and mix well

3. add baking powder, almond extract and vanilla and mix

4. add flour and mix

5. chill dough until firm

6. roll dough onto well floured surface

7. use cookie cutters to cut. note: it is important to keep the dough chilled. tuck it into the fridge (or freezer) if you find it warming in your hands, or if it stretches out of shape when moved from floured surface to cookie sheet.

8. bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. may require baking for an additional two to four minutes depending on how thick they are rolled

9. cool for one minute on baking sheet

10. move to cooling racks

11. decorate

12. share with your valentine!

what's your favorite cookie decoration?

smitten with sophie

every so often a new children's product hits the market and i find myself feeling pangs of sadness and jealousy. sadness over the fact that my two sweet kiddos are already too old or too big to be able to use said snazzy new item. and as for the jealousy, i find myself envious of all those new mommies and babies who will never have to know life without said wonder. a little dramatic perhaps. but true.

with bug, it was the bumbo seat. he was well into toddlerhood when they arrived on the scene. their impossibly bright and cheerful colors made me crazy with longing... tangerine orange, lime green, aqua blue. the bumbo immediately became my standard baby shower gift. i was determined to share them with every new bundle of joy i met. at least i'm still generous when i'm jealous, right? well, lucky for me (in so many ways), bug's baby sister came along. she gave me the golden opportunity i was hoping for to add a bumbo to our own overflowing collection of baby gear.

and now, lulu is entering toddlerhood herself. a sweet little girl with plenty of opinions and personality to share with the world. and i adore her. but i've been jealous again recently... her name is sophie. technically, sophie is a teether toy. for all intents and purposes though, she is the most unbelievably adorable toy i've seen in ages for the zero to twelve months set.

sophie is a giraffe. she is made of soft rubber. she is the perfect size for little hands to grasp and maneuver. she's got plenty of appendages for gnawing. and she even squeaks. how cute is she?

after all those years of frozen, clear plastic duckies and rings... i think you may just agree that sophie is heaven. i'm smitten.

the only thing more adorable? these two handsome little guys, caught by their mommies loving on their own precious sophies. thank you, mommies (you know who you are), for sharing the sophie love with all of us!

jb with sophie...

z with sophie (in his bumbo no less!)...

have you ever seen so much pure joy captured in two sweet faces?

want to find sophie for a tiny someone you adore? she's available in our new shop. or you can check out her boutique on vulli's website.

what were your babies' favorite things to chew on when pushing through those first few pearly whites?

for the birds

bug is a collector. it's really not his fault. it's genetics, pure and simple. his grandpap is a collector of world war two books, model airplanes, old romance novels, milk glass, old fishing tackle, and mcdonald's fast food toys (and that's not really even scratching the surface). his grampy searches craigslist and ebay on a daily basis in hopes of finding all manner of odds and ends he's looking for. my husband and i are no better. i've got more art history books, milk glass, and needlepoint pillows than i could ever use. my hubs has, well... really, anything electronic will do.

with all of this at work in his dna, it should have been no surprise to me when, over last summer, bug acquired the habit of collecting pine cones whenever we visited the park. it was always the same scene. first, the excited squeal: "momm-mme!". then, the race to find me from across the park. next, the ceremonious display of his thrilling new find. always followed by my utter shock and amazement at this unbelievably beautiful tree dropping. and last, his insistence that we really, really needed to bring it home with us. what mother could turn away such innocent pleas from her adorable three year old son?

this would have been okay if it had happened once or twice. but my little boy is a true collector. and so, by summer's end we had amassed a collection of pine cones to rival the most dedicated child's collection of thomas trains or bakugan toys. we had a lot of pine cones.

on occasion throughout the fall, i would remind bug of the presence of his pine cones. say when i found another two or three in a cup holder in the back of the truck. or in the bottom of the stroller. or when my eyes focused for a moment on the large clear, glass jar on the kitchen counter which proudly displayed the majority of bug's collection. each time i would make the mistake of asking if he might (pretty please) be ready to dispose of them. silly mommy. of course he wasn't ready to get rid of them. he thought they were great.

fortunately, as tends to happen with most things around here, it all sorted itself out. it took several months for this project to resolve itself. but i think we're all pretty proud of the result.

fall eventually turned to winter here in the mid-atlantic. and we actually got some snow. and bug and i talked about how the birds have a hard time finding food to eat in the winter when snow is covering the bushes and the ground. and bug decided that we should make baby bird feeders with his pine cones. not just plain old bird feeders; baby bird feeders. perfect. bug and the future mrs. bug (his little buddy lou) had a ball creating their baby bird feeder masterpieces on a cold winter's day earlier this year.

the final product hanging in one of our trees...

we're hoping the birds like them just as much as the kids enjoyed making them.

baby bird feeders

what you'll need: pine cones, peanut butter, bird seed, butter knife, small bowl, plate and string.

1. gather pine cones

2. fill small bowl about half full with bird seed

3. using knife, cover pine cones thoroughly with peanut butter

4. roll pine cones in bird seed

5. set pine cones on plate until dry

6. using string, hang pine cones in trees

7. watch out the window for customers!

what are some of your childrens' favorite winter arts and crafts projects?

regreet

i knew there was a reason i had to call uncle back in december. as if the holidays weren't crazy enough already, our whole family got sick again. it never fails. poor little lulu suffered through her second bout of croup over christmas, and the rest of us all had massive virus-induced colds that lingered for far too long. our plans with my parents, my husband's parents, and many beloved friends got totally thwacked due to our various illnesses, but such is life. the good news is that we made it through and are more than glad to be on the other side of it now. we're all finally healthy again (knock on wood) and now it's a new year.

yes, the new year. 2010. a fresh start full of hopeful promises, and a much needed clean slate. dear readers, i'm happy to say that luluandbug is back! and i think it's high time for a regreet on two fronts.

first off, no, i do not actually think that "regreet" is a real word. however, with all the retweeting that gets done these days, regreet feels like exactly the word i'm going for with this post.

and so, my first regreet is for luluandbug itself... allow me to re-introduce myself and this lovely little blog. i am amie. a gal who is a wife and a mommy. a lady with an unfailing type-a personality, and a creative streak that desperately needed an outlet other than yet another arts and crafts project forced on her kiddos. luluandbug is my free therapy, and i'm thrilled that you're along for the ride. thanks for stopping in, come back anytime, always feel free to comment or send me a note if you have feedback to share, and definitely pass luluandbug along to friends. i'm here entirely for your entertainment.

which brings me to my second regreet. i had intended to post this project at a much more seasonally appropriate time (like two weeks ago), but today i'm going with it anyway. as my final nod to the holiday season.

i'm sure that every last one of you is far more organized than i. that you have already boxed up and stored away all those christmas decorations. and that the only holiday greeting cards left in your homes are the extras leftover from the batch you sent out to your friends and relatives. well, the "holiday" part of today's post will miss the mark for you. but for that one reader out there who is still clinging to those last few vestiges of the holidays. for that reader who may just perhaps still have all those greeting cards sent by your long distance friends and relatives, do i have a regreet for you. and, for all you smarty pants readers who already ditched the holiday cards, read on anyway... this project is really for all seasons.

the good folks at st. jude's have come up with a great idea. you send them your used (yes, used) greeting cards, and the children at their ranch will transform them into new cards to be sold the following year. a project for the kids that teaches them the importance of reuse and going green, and also puts a few dollars in their pockets. it's so simple: gather the cards, drop them into an envelope, and mail them off to be repurposed. fabulous. now, naturally you won't want to send them all of those adorable photo cards you received. because frankly it would be a little creepy to see the smith family photo show up on a "new" card. but you get the idea.

and where's the silver lining for those with no holiday cards left to share? the st. jude's ranch recycled card program accepts all greeting cards... birthdays, thank yous, get wells, congratulations, you name it. saved 'em up and send 'em out. and know that you're doing your part to save a little bit of ink and paper that otherwise would have been spent on printing brand new cards.

here's a photo of a few of our holiday greeting cards before they were stuffed into their envelope earlier today.



if you're interested in donating your gently used greeting cards (holiday or otherwise), visit st. jude's ranch recycled card program to read more and copy down their mailing address. the program is currently accepting used cards through february 28th.

how do you reuse in your home?