Happy New Year! I bet you can guess one of our Resolutions…

January 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

So yes, it seems as though Ties & Tutus has fallen off the planet, but we have excuses, we swear!  Before I divulge all of the reasons it has been MONTHS since our last blog post, let me first say that we hope that all of you had a lovely holiday!  For both Nora and myself it was a wonderful holiday season, where we were excited to see the joy in our children’s eyes as they marveled at lights, presents and of course their new-found friend, Mickey Mouse.

Ties & Tutus has unfortunately taken a back-burner to our intensely busy schedules. I took some crazy pills and decided to have another baby, making me now a mother to two under two.  My second daughter, Elliana is already two months old and it has been rewarding, yes, but at this stage, a bit more on the exhausting side.  Nora has been busy herself, not only running after a toddler, but taking on a position with Origami Owl!  We are thrilled to say that while adding quite a bit to her plate she has been very fortunate in business and has truly enjoyed the experience that has come with joining the company.  We have therefore neglected our lovely blog… when we began we had young babies who napped twice a day; we now have toddlers that run a mile a minute!  We’re lucky if we get in one hour nap at all and when we do, we usually end up napping ourselves…

However, like mentioned, we our hoping to resume our blogging on a (semi) regular basis in this upcoming year!  We wish you nothing but joy, health and happiness in the upcoming year!  Here’s to lucky 2013!

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Even Bloggers Need Breaks!

July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

It’s summer!  And if you live in Arizona like Nora and myself, that means you are HOT!  We’ve both decided to get out of the heat for a bit and head west to where your clothes don’t stick to your body with a simple five minute car ride!  So, to California we go!  Nora will be spending time in the LA area and taking her 14 month old to Disneyland and I will be going to San Diego and visiting Sea World!  We both couldn’t be more excited for some quality time with our families, new experiences with our kiddos and, of course, to get out of the heat!  Full Mom-reports on our trips when we get back, but until then, have fun and stay cool :)

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Grady’s 1st Birthday Party

May 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Well, after some serious denial, I am ready to admit that my baby boy is officially one.  His birthday was nearly a week ago, but I just wasn’t ready to come to terms with the fact that he’s a toddler.  It feels like just yesterday that I found out I was pregnant, sniff sniff!  After an amazing day with our little family on Friday, we kicked it into high gear and celebrated his pirate party (arrrrrg…) with our closest family and friends on Saturday.  I have to show off my favorite part of the party, the dessert table.  A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Cuteology Cakes for creating the most amazing dessert bar imaginable.  Not only did it look adorable, every single thing was delicious.  And yes, I personally tasted each and every item.  Thanks for the addition to my love handles, Cutology Cakes (click here to view their website and tell them Ties & Tutus sent ya)!  =)

Happy Birthday Grady: Dessert bar from Cuteology Cakes

The CUTEST smash cake in history.

Mini red velvet cupcakes with gold coins - http://www.cuteologyshop.com/

 

Chocolate covered Oreos, ummm...to.die.for!

Chocolate dipped pretzels, yummy!

Push Cakes - like the old school Flintstone push pop ice cream, but filled with the most delicious cake and frosting. The kids LOVED these!

Cake balls topped with chocolate pirate hats. Perfection.

If you are in the Phoenix area and looking for desserts for any occasion or party, give Cuteology Cakes a call.  I promise you, you, your guests and your tummy will love it.

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It’s Hump Day, Here’s a Giveaway!

May 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Who doesn’t love a little babe in a knitted hat?  Today’s giveaway is for a $15 gift certificate to Little Blue Bird, an online boutique for baby accessories.  Little Blue Bird offers custom hats, head wraps, softies, hair clips and so much more.  In order to be entered in today’s giveaway you must do 2 things.

1.  “Like” Little Blue Bird on facebook.

2.  “Like” this post on the Ties & Tutus facebook page.

What an awesome giveaway for parents and photographers alike.  Good luck, the winner just might be you!

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The Cuteology Cake Winner is…

May 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Tracy Weiner Lowe!  Congratulations Tracy!  Please email me at nora@tiesandtutus.com to claim your prize.

A great big thank you to Cuteology Cakes for sponsoring this giveaway!  Be sure to check back next Wednesday for another Hump Day Giveaway.

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The Spot of Tee Giveaway Winner is…

April 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

…Kelly Lynch Weber!  Congratulations Kelly!!  Please email me at nora@tiesandtutus.com to claim your prize.  A great big thank you to all who entered yesterday’s giveaway.  Don’t forget, if you want to order your own customizable ONEsie from Spot of Tee, click here.  Be sure to check back next Wednesday for another wonderful giveaway!

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It’s a Hump Day Giveaway

April 25, 2012 by 2 Comments

Today’s Hump Day Giveaway is from one of my favorite etsy shops, Spot of Tee.  Most of you know I have an almost-1-year-old {insert tear here} so started the search the perfect little outfit for his 1-year-old photos.  I fell in love with this shop due to the fully customizable abilities.  Today, Spot of Tee is offering a $20 gift card to be applied any purchase.  To be entered in today’s giveaway, you must do two things.

1.  “Like” Spot of Tee on facebook by clicking here.

2.  “Like” our post on the Ties & Tutus facebook page (that’s how we see your name, so do it!)

Good luck!

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Alice Cooper’s The Rock at 32nd Street

April 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Living in the Valley of the Sun definitely has its perks.  Lucky for us, we share this city with a number of celebrities who love to give back to the community.  Alice Cooper is one of my favorite local celebrities because of his love for this city and the children who grow up here.  As a former teacher in the Paradise Valley Unified School District, Alice Cooper holds a special place in my heart.  He recently donated a large sum of money to the PVUSD Arts Program.  Not only did he donate funds to continue the program that is always on the chopping block with public education budget cuts, he personally attended a board meeting, giving parents, students, educators and administrators the chance to meet him face-to-face.  Alice Cooper and his wife Sheryl are opening a local children’s and teen center on 32nd Street this spring called The Rock.   This new center will be located near 32nd Street and Thunderbird — my old stomping grounds.  Way to go Alice Cooper!

Go to www.alicecoopersolidrock.com for more information or read below to see what this facility will offer.

Opening Spring 2012, The Rock at 32nd Street Teen Center has been the dream and passion for Alice and Sheryl Cooper and the entire Solid Rock team for the past 12 years. The time has finally come to make that dream a reality. A collaboration of Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock and Genesis Church, The Rock will minister to teens through the music, dance, art, vocational training in sound, lighting, and staging, and fellowship in a new, safe facility. With so many public schools forced to cut vital programs like music and dance due to lack of school funding, The Rock will cultivate a love of the arts to inspire and challenge teens to choose artistic excellence instead of drugs, guns, or gangs. Who knows what amazing performers, choreographers and producers might come from The Rock?
 
PHASE ONE
Music Instruction – teens learn to play guitar, bass, drums, form a band or practice with their existing band
Dance Expression – teens will express themselves through dance, and learn various forms of dance
Open Mic – an opportunity for teens to showcase their singing and musical talent and other forms of creative expression
Coffee House – a small coffee/snack shop for gathering and fellowship
After School Programs – mentorship with homework, projects, activities
Vocational Training/Education – hands on training for sound, lighting, staging, and production
Game Room – provides a place for fun and fellowship featuring video and other interactive games
 
PHASE TWO
Recording and Sound Room – teens will learn how to mix and record music and rehearse
Computer Lab – access the Internet (monitored), complete homework projects, enhance computer skills and learn
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How to Garden with Kids

April 11, 2012 by Leave a Comment

With spring in full force, I went searching the internet for articles on gardening.  Those who know me know I have a black thumb.  I kill anything and everything green.  I can’t even keep a cactus alive, it’s ridiculous.  To challenge myself I thought I’d attempt to create an herb garden.  It will give me a little bit of motivation to keep the things growing because I can reward myself by using the fruits of my labor in my everyday cooking.  In my search, I found an amazing blog filled with children’s activities, this post dedicated to gardening with kids.  I must admit, this makes gardening seem fun and easy!  If you haven’t discovered Quirky Momma Kids Activities Blog yet, let me welcome you to your new obsession.  Her stuff is truly amazing and you will get so many great tips and ideas.

How to Garden with Kids: 18 Tips from It’s Playtime!!!

I love the sense of awe that gardening with my kids gives them.  They just love watching new life spring from a seed (and let’s be honest, they also LOVE to get muddy).  This is our favorite time of year.  It must be many of yours too as we had a bunch of gardening activities linked up last week (and over the year) to our weekly Kid’s Meme, It’s Playtime.  Thanks to all who contributed!
how to garden with kids

Create a compost bin with We made That.  She taught her kids how to be responsible with their waste.

You can recycle DIY watering cans, just like Childhood List.

Share garden fruit together – I love the Garden that At Home with Ali showcased

Have fun creating gardening labels – these are adorable labels created by Dilly Dally Art.

Enjoy a post-gardening snack of garden cupcakes, along with Anna of The Imagination Tree.

Grow edible art and create an egg carton cress caterpillar – inspired by Science Sparks.

how to garden with kids

Looking for something simple and easy to grow?  Try peas.  Thanks Educators Spin on it!

Use toilet paper tubes to create planters, from Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

Use an Egg carton as DIY seed pods to start your plants.  Perfect size for a window sill.

Experiment with sunlight and watch the plants follow the sun as you rotate them – thanks Mama Smiles.

Want to recycle those Easter Eggs?  Use the shells as a nutrient-rich seed starter.  Great tips from Babylandia (be sure to translate the page).

Love this Kids garden table – give your children space to create and observe with At Home with Ali.

Gardening dreams

What a great way to start seeds.  Housing a Forest had a great idea to a plant their seeds in a sponge.  It contains the sprouts, is soil/mess free and it is able to be planted as a unit.  Brilliant.

Have limit space?  Looking for a contained garden?  Why don’t you make a herb garden inside mason jars?  That is what Weeping Cherries did with her kids.

Another great  Eco-friendly gardening pod to start your plants are the rinds from fruit.  My Romana Apartment used grapefruit peels as plant containers.

Toad Haven had fun learning about plant growth and Eco-systems by creating terrariums from water bottles.

We are looking forward to starting our spring garden – TipNut has a great list of things that you can both grow start indoors to give your garden a headstart or to have a smaller garden indoors.

The kids will love to watch their plants grow in sock heads – Happy Whimsical Hearts had a blast making these faces.

Looking for more reading??  Here is a tutorial on how to create a mini-greenhouse out of a CD case… and a good garden has lots of worms!  NurtureStore shares how she created a wormery with her daughter.

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Tax Freedom Day

April 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment

With Tax Day looming, here is some uplifting information according to cnn.com.  Excuse me while I go throw up.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — More than three months of your hard-earned wages are going straight to your tax bill this year.

Americans will spend an average of 29% of their income on federal, state and local taxes in 2012, the Tax Foundation announced Monday. That’s more than the average family spends on food, clothing and housing combined, the organization said.

And it means that most Americans are going to need to work 107 days just to be able to earn enough money to pay their taxes.

“Tax Freedom Day,” as the Tax Foundation calls the date that the average American is finally free of its tax burdens, arrives on April 17 this year, coincidentally the same day taxes are due. That’s four days later than last year.

The day has been arriving later in recent years, thanks to rising incomes — and therefore higher tax liabilities and tax collection.

“As the economic recovery continues, the growth in individual incomes and corporate profits will increase tax revenues and push Tax Freedom Day ever later in the year,” the Tax Foundation said in a statement.

This year’s Tax Freedom Day is still about a couple of weeks earlier than the latest one on record, which occurred on May 1, 2000. During that time, the economy was booming and Americans paid 33% of their total income in taxes.

The Tax Foundation, a research group that favors lower taxes, calculates Tax Freedom Day each year based on income, Social Security, sales, property and other taxes.

But not everyone agrees with the organization’s methodology. The left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, for example, argues every year that the report overstates the share of income that average households spend on taxes.

Chuck Marr, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ director of Federal Tax Policy, said in a statement that this year’s Tax Freedom Day report “leaves a strikingly misleading impression of tax burdens.”

He said the 29% share of income that the Tax Foundation cites as the ‘average’ tax burden is higher than what 80% of American families actually pay.

State-by-state: In addition to a national Tax Freedom Day, the Tax Foundation calculates a Tax Freedom Day for each state, based on individual state taxes.

The day has already arrived in Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi, where average incomes and state taxes are lower. Tennessee taxpayers celebrated Tax Freedom Day the earliest — on March 31 — and the holiday fell on April 1 in Louisiana and Mississippi.

South Carolina and South Dakota will celebrate soon afterward, on April 3 and April 4, respectively.

States with higher average incomes will be last to celebrate. Connecticut residents won’t be free of their tax burdens until May 5, and those who live in New Jersey and New York won’t welcome Tax Freedom Day until May 1.

via Tax Freedom Day arrives April 17 this year – Apr. 2, 2012.

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