vanilla ...

my post is up over on the zupas blog, and it is all about vanilla.

vanilla really is such an amazing ingredient.  can you imagine all your favorite desserts without it?

check out my post for a run down of all the different types of vanilla, where vanilla comes from, and my favorite brands, and kinds of vanilla to use.

click here.

{photo via amazon}

the soel swap ...

soel boutique at the riverwoods in provo, utah is hosting their semi-annual soel swap this saturday from 11-1!

if you have a lot of clothes, shoes, or accessories to get rid of, this would a be a great way to sell them off and make some extra cash to help fund your summer wardrobe, and perhaps pick up some clothing from others for a steal. 

my advice would be to bring that cash right back into soel, and choose from their darling selection of goods!  they are even selling swimsuits now!  happy selling!

soel boutique swap

saturday may 28th, 11-1
4801 north university ave. #430

provo, utah
801.426.9244

this is a sponsored post, if you have a product that you would like to promote and are interested in becoming a sponsor on the armelle blog, please email me at: carolinearmelle @ gmail.com for rates.

do you pin?

pinterest is the latest phenomenon, and i am a total convert!
i tried to avoid it, but it really is too much fun!
so visual, and so many pretty, pretty things.
basically, if you see a pretty image, you can "pin it" to your boards, and have it all organized into sections.
it's a great place to keep track of all your pretties.

do you pin?  leave me your pinterest link in the comments and i'll follow you.

click here to see my pins and follow me!

new to pinterest?  it's still invite only.  let me know if you need an invite, and i'll hook you up! (leave your email in your comment)

raw foods ...

i've been trying to eat really healthy to shed the baby weight (some days are better than others, and let's just not talk about my nursing appetite right now..), and i have loved looking at the inspiring raw food photos by angela hardison. 

it makes eating healthy very beautiful, don't ya think?

{photos by angela hardison}

to iphone or not to iphone? ...

the hubs and i are desperately in need of new phones.  our phones are ancient and work about half the time.  so, there has been a lot of discussion in my house lately about the iphone.   i am for, the hubs is against, mainly for the price, and monthly costs, plus we'd have to change phone companies.   there are many discussions about how droid is better, faster, etc.   the iphone is just cool, but other phones are just as fast or faster and cheaper.. , you can get the same apps on the droid phones... (all the husbands arguments)

so, what is your opinion?  do you love your iphone? or, are you a fan of other phones that are just as good or better?

and, what are your favorite iphone apps you can't live without? 

c'mon, i really need your help to convince the hubs...  let me know your opinion!

...specifically, what does the iphone offer that other phones don't?  any cool apps that you can only get through iphones?

truffle oil macaroni and cheese ...

we had a little luncheon at our house this past sunday for my little thomas' baby blessing.

i made a few varieties of macaroni and cheese, complete with toppings of your choice like: grilled mushrooms, grilled onions, bleu cheese, bacon, various other cheeses, jalapenos, and more!    it was so good with all the toppings!

today on the zupas blog, i am sharing an great recipe for one of the macaroni and cheese dishes i made, truffle oil macaroni and cheese.  oh man, it was tasty!

click here for the recipe.

{photo by me}

lime ricki swim wear: giveaway winner ...

and, the winner is?!

comment #9!    Congrats!  Please email me the swim suit of your choice and mailing address!  carolinearmelle @ gmail.com

 Rissa and Jared said...

I like the victoria one piece. Seems nice not to be tugging and tucking at two pieces!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: 

Result:

9Powered by RANDOM.ORG

the airplane party ...

after sharing the invitations, and the party favors, i am excited to share with you the actual party details!  i'll be sure to share all my sources at the end of this post.

it was nice to use a lot of items i already had, globes from my collection of globes, a vintage school map from ezra's room, and some vintage suitcases i have had for years.

i set up a table with "in-flight" beverages, and "in-flight" snacks.  i wanted to keep the food simple, so i wasn't too much work.  it turned out perfect to include the snacks and beverages like they do on airplanes.  and, of course the cake, made by my friend celeste of tiers of joy cakes.

we served lemonade in these cute glass jars (hint: these are starbucks frappacino drinks that i washed out and peeled off the stickers) with blue stripey straws, and fun flags i made using old maps from an atlas and my lifestyle crafts die cut machine using the party flag die.   the fun map pennants around the cake plate were made using the pennant die cut and old maps.

i jumped on the bandwagon of the fun bunting on cakes, and made a bunting out of paper airplanes i folded from paper from an old map book i found at the thrift store.  i just taped the paper airplanes to some bakers twine and tied them between two skewers.

it was fun to put together some "in-flight" snacks.  i put an assortment of snacks in a vintage suitcase, peanuts, chips, pretzels, popcorn, rice krispie treats.

i made the map garland out of some old atlas' and one of my favorite die cuts from lifestyle crafts, the nesting pennants die.  it makes it so easy to just crank out some cute garland out of any kind of paper. 

a fun thing we did for the party was go to an actual airplane museum.  we met our guests at a the local air force airplane museum and let the kids run around and check out all the old airplanes.  my husband even came up with a scavenger hunt for the kids.

the "baggage claim" area.  where the guest picked up their party favors.  (i ended up putting the favors in another small vintage suitcase, but forgot to get a picture after i made the switch.)

my little birthday boy was all smiles that day.  it really made it all worth it to see how much he enjoyed his party.  afterwards he gave me a big hug and thanked me for his great airplane party.  what a cutie pie!

i can't believe my little ezra is four?!

{to see more of the airplane party, click here}

party sources

large vintage school room map:  thrifted

glass jars:  starbucks frappacino jars, cleaned and stickers removed (you can find these at most grocery stores, i bought mine at costco)
blue striped straws:  kikkerland
gray striped trays: ikea
globes: vintage, thrifted
vintage suitcases: thrifted
striped table cloth:  ikea sofia fabric

cake plate: martha stewart

cake:  by tiers of joy cakes

map paper:  thrifted old atlas books

* to receive 20% off any items from lifestyle crafts (used to make many of the decorations), use the code ARMELLE at checkout!

{all photos by me}

airplane party: the favor bags ...

i always love to put together little party favor bags to go with the theme of the party.

i put together these little favor bags with some draw string canvas bags from etsy.  i then used my lifestyle crafts die cut machine with the circle and star cutters to make the old school air force logo out of wool felt, and just glued them on the bag.

inside the favor bags, i put peanuts, a toy airplane, a compass, airplane stickers, a foam airplane, and a candy airplane.

the candy airplanes were a lot of fun to make, i originally saw the idea here, and i decided to make them using push up pops, fruit striped gum, colored hair elastics, and lifesavers.

my little army of candy airplanes.

be sure to check back for some more airplane party fun.

{to see more from the airplane party, click here}

* to receive 20% off your order from lifestyle crafts, use the code ARMELLE at checkout!

{all photos by me}

airplane party: invitations ...

back in april, we threw my little ezra an airplane party for his fourth birthday.

before you think i'm nuts for throwing a party when my newborn wasn't even quite two weeks old, i actually had this party in mind for a year now. so i had slowly been buying things and making things for the party for a while.  that really made it nice to put it all together the day of the party.  ezra had been asking me when his party was for the last six months, so i knew i had to pull through despite just having thomas.  and, it was a success!  the little man had a blast!

i make these "boarding passes" in photoshop after these cute invitations i saw over at hip hip hooray, via little frills.  i also ordered some airmail envelopes from amazon to put the invites in, i thought it was a cute way to incorporate the airplane theme.

it was fun to put the party details on the boarding pass invites, including the departure date of the party, arrival time, destination, food service, etc.

i'll be sharing more from the party soon, so stay tuned.

{see more of the airplane party here.}

{all photos by me}

blankets for mr. thomas ...

can you believe how tiny my little thomas is still?  he has the cutest little chicken legs, if i do say so.
anyhow, i wanted to share a few blankets i sewed for the little guy.

this first quilt is my absolute favorite.  i love all the colors and the stripes!  the other side is a soft white minky fabric.  my friend jessica made a darling one for her little girl after she was inspired by a cute bib from modern thread.  one of these days i'll have to make jess post a tutorial when she's not so busy, because they really are cute and not too hard to make.

this yellow, black and white blanket i started originally for my little norah, i even bought the cutest pleated ruffle yellow trim for it.  well, it goes to show you how great i am at finishing sewing projects.  so, i finished it for mr. thomas.  it is also yellow on the other side.

it's also nice for taking pictures of the little peanut.

this last one i used an amy butler fabric i had lying around forever.  i made it small on purpose, it's the perfect size for car seats.  it's a soft off white minky fabric on the other side.

wow! i proud of myself for actually finishing a few sewing projects around here.  you'd seriously die if you saw my list of things i need to sew that i just haven't gotten around to doing... it's pretty sad.

lime ricki swim wear: review and giveaway ...

-

wow! can you believe it's already swim suit season?!
well, i'm not quite ready for it just having a baby 6 weeks ago and all; but i am ready to be outside enjoying the nice weather, that is for sure!

the nice people over at lime ricki sent me a swim suit to review.  i had a hard time choosing from all the cute suits, but i ended up choosing the auburn tankini top (pictured above top right), with the yellow bottoms.  i also loved the one-piece suits, especially the ruffle swim dress ones, but i love that you can mis-match any top and bottom with the tankini tops.

overall, i was very impressed with the quality of the suit.  you can tell they are made well, and will hold up for quite some time.  they seem to run very true to size, and they also have a sizing chart on their website to help you pick the right size.

they also have the most darling little girls swim suits (ages 2-12) i love that you can mis-match any tops with the bottoms.  and it is also really nice to have the rash guards as an option.  i'd love one for my little norah!

so, are you ready for the best part?  lime ricki is giving away a swimsuit of your choice to one of you lucky readers!

and, for the rest of you, lime ricki is offering all of my readers 10% off your entire order, just type in the code Armelle10 at checkout (good until may 26th)

giveaway rules:
-visit their site, and in your comment tell me which suit you would choose
-only one comment per entry please.
-anonymous comments must leave an email address
-giveaway ends wednesday may 18th at midnight!
-winner will be announced thursday may 19th.

good luck!

lime ricki sent me a swim suit to review, all thoughts and opinions are my own, if you are a business and would like to send me your product for a review, please email me at: carolinearmelle @ gmail.com.  

all about oil ...

forgive me for my lack of posts, blogger has gone crazy, and i have been doing most things with only one hand lately with the three kiddos, so it can be hard to get some posts in.  but, stay tuned, because i have some really great posts in the works, as well as a fun giveaway.

anyhow, yesterday on the zupas blog, i did a post all about choosing cooking oils.  with so many to choose from, how do you know which one to use when?  well, check out the post and you'll be an expert soon enough!

click here.

{photo by me}

happy cinco de mayo ...

happy cinco de mayo!

i hope you are all having a fantastic day!

if you are still scratching your head on what to serve tonight, check out the recipe for these amazing honey lime enchiladas on my post over on the zupas blog today.  click here.

{photo by me}

motherhood, a favorite moment ...

today, i am sharing a favorite motherhood moment over on the my favorite things blog.

check it out, here.

{photo by me.  my little ezra (4) and norah (22 months), pre-thomas..}

free priority shipping for mother's day ...

good news for you mother's day procrastinators....!

i am offering free priority mail shipping (usa only) on orders from my armelle jewelry shop until tuesday night, may 3rd at midnight! just enter ILOVEMOM in the code section at checkout.

happy mother's day shopping!

product review: puj baby tub

the nice people over at puj sent me one of their amazing baby bath tubs for me to review, and try out with my little thomas.

and, wow!  i wish i had this with my other two children.  i really loved how easy the tub is to use in your own sink, and you don't have to bend over all awkward as you try to do it in your tub (which is really nice when you are still recovering after just giving birth), or deal with a slippery infant in your sink.

one of my favorite things about the puj tub is that it is really easy to use, and you can do all one handed, which let's face it, these days i am doing everything one handed.  it is also really nice that it can be stored flat, and take up minimal space when you are not using it.  and, the material is nice and soft for the little ones, and non-slippery.

my only concern with the tub is that the water runs right onto your baby, so you need to be very careful not to bump your faucet to the really hot water.  i've never done that, but that is something i had thought about while using the tub.

overall, i really love it and would definitely recommend it!  i think this would be a great gift for any mom, super convenient!

{all images by puj}

Puj sent me a tub to review, all thoughts and opinions are my own, if you are a business and would like to send me your product for a review, please email me carolinearmelle @ gmail.com.