KSL interview!

OK, so last Thursday Amanda Butterfield (KSL channel 5) called me and said that she really wanted to come over and get a quick interview on my reaction to the CPSIA testing stay for the next year. I was very hesitant, there I was still in my pyjamas trying to get my 5 year old out the door for kindergarten, making the boys lunch and packaging up 15 orders...planning on hopping into the shower once the baby was down for a nap...you know usual "Mom" stuff. Amanda persisted "please, we'll be really quick, I just really need a statement from you regarding this, I promise we'll be quick".
When she arrived she said "your home isn't messy I don't know what you were worried about". I told her I wasn't worried about my home as much as the orders, my pyjamas and such and she wanted to put me on TV, never mind that she showed up on my doorstep 20 minutes after calling. I was freaking out. But a quick face wash, some fresh makeup and quick change of clothes and a earlier than usual nap for the baby and 15 minutes of Nintendo for my preschooler and Voila!...a interview for KSL!...with sweat dripping down my brow!

Happy Presidents Day!

This is amazing! I found this cupcake mosaic a la presidents day theme from cakewrecks.blogspot.com ~ Zilly Rosen and her team put together this mosaic with 5,900 cupcakes...(can you imagine baking that many cupcakes, let alone frosting them and assembling them, gotta love your work that's all I can say!)
It was assembled at the Smithsonian in DC on 2/13

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Happy Valentines Day!

I know that Valentines Day is a Hallmark created holiday but I still love it. It gives me excuses to shower my boys with extra love and surprises and gifts and hugs. What's not to love about that? Stephen had to work so we had a pretty low key Valentines ourselves. I arranged for a sitter and I took him to get pedicures and out for lunch. He loved the pedicure. He keeps saying, "my feet have never felt so amazing and that paraffin wax thing was great!"
We started out with heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and we had heart shaped sandwiches for lunch.


We made about a million Valentines this week, I was very grateful when that undertaking was finished! Just card stock, glue and crayons and some of those foamy stickers but the kids had a blast making them and I think they turned out pretty cute!


We ended the day with a treasure hunt. My boys LOVE scavenger hunts/treasure hunts and the like. In the interest of time I did a simple trail laden with cards that belonged to a really cute Valentines bingo came that I bought online and jelly beans. They had to pick up the bingo cards and the jelly beans along the way and follow the trail that went up three levels. Once they got to the top they got the big jackpot!



I didn't want to buy them anything that was going to be laying around accumulating space we don't have or getting broken or forgotten about. So I got them popping corn (cause we were out), rented a movie from RedBox (love those 1.00 rentals), made them a Pirate Valentine in keeping with the treasure hunt theme (arrrg me heartys, I luvs ya!) and a dust buster! Yes you read correctly a Dust Buster so they could vacuum up the popcorn if it spills (and it always spills)...plus they can do many other future chores with it! They loved it and we really needed a dust buster since ours broke 3 years ago. Kind of lame I know but I was really going to resourceful and practical! After the treasure hunt we played a rousing game of bingo using the jelly beans as markers...they loved it!
And the best part of the day is hearing "your the best mommy in the world", "you rock our world mommy!", "thank you for all the surprises mommy!"... that just melts my heart!

This is a picture of one of my most successful treasure hunts. It was for Gabriel's 8th birthday and using a legend I prepared for him he had to decode the message in order to find where his birthday gifts were hidden. He LOVED it! It's much cooler if you click on the photo and see it larger!

January give away!

Congrats to Biance Towler my January diaper cover giveaway winner! Here is the cover that she chose from my etsy shop.

Want a free cover too?
Blog about my covers/products on your blog and link it to me and drop me an email at olivejanedesigns@yahoo.com, random winner will be chosen March 1st. It's that simple!

Happy Birthday Ali!

So I have this darling friend who turned a whopping 39 this week!!!! I can't even imagine turning 39, I might have to go get fitted for dentures and compression socks when I reach that ripe old age!(just razzing Ali, she had a hard time of it!~) Ali is one of my dearest friends and is from Canada also so we are able to commiserate together when we get supremely homesick. We are "kindred spirits" (for all you Anne of Green Gables fans!)much like sisters, we are definitely straight shooters with each other, there's no holding back or pretension, and she never judges me and believe me she knows way too much about me, I give her lots of opportunity to judge...I adore her.

I had a few of our close friends over this week for cake, tea and presents and girl time of course. I PROMISED I would post my recipe for her birthday cake. Glad you liked it girls....
Happy Birthday Ali, sure do love you, idiosyncrasies and all :)

I am a cake snob...I LOVE a cake from scratch, especially when my Mom makes it...but I have come to appreciate the fact that sometimes when you are in a pinch and need a quick cake a doctored up cake mix might be the way to go, so I'm including both and you can decide which one you have time for.


Lemon Cake

1/3 cup soft butter
1/3 cup soft shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour (sifted)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice (preferably freshly squeezed)
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 tbsp fresh lemon zest

preheat 350 degrees.
grease and flour 3 8" layer pans
cream butter, shortening and sugar together until fluffy, beat in thoroughly 3 eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and add gradually while alternating with wet ingredients (water/juice and extract). Pour into prepared pans, bake until cake tests done (check after 12 minutes since layers cook faster). Finish with clear lemon filling in between layers and frost with lemon cream cheese frosting! Call over your girlfriends and enjoy!

if you would rather just doctor up a box cake here is the recipe:

1 yellow cake mix
1 3 oz package of instant vanilla pudding
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lemon juice
4 eggs
1/3 c oil
1 tbsp lemon zest
combine all ingredients, pour into 8" greased and floured layer pans and bake at 350 degrees for 12-20 minutes.

Clear Lemon Filling

1 cup sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
2 tbsp grated lemon zest
1/2 lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
combine ingredients in saucepan, bring to rolling boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. Chill before using.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting


2 3oz packages of softened cream cheese
1/2 cup softened butter
2 tsp lemon juice
beat on low until light and fluffy. Gradually add 4 cups powdered sugar. Add more if necessary until desired spreading consistancy is achieved. Stir in 1 tsp lemon zest.

FOE tutorial time!

Ok, so by multiple requests I am finally getting my act together and hopefully my customers will forgive me that I am really behind in orders and taking an evening to put this tutorial together. So here it is.....right HERE!

If my tutorial was unclear here is another on youtube if you feel like it would make more sense to see it visually. You might still want to read my tutorial though cause it offers a few tips that may expand on what she demonstrates.

Also here are a few suggestions besides skirts and covers to use FOE on and they are really neat ideas!
Dalia's dress

A blouse

Sadie's dress

Also here is a couple of great places to get FOE:
1. this is where I get my 5/8" FOE for children's clothing etc.

2. I also LOVE Crystal from Foe your diaper.com She has a great selection of the 1" plush FOE and great customer service, often has great sales AND she's Canadian...what more could you ask for!

Cheap clips??

Does anybody out there know what it's like to do a marathon hair cutting session with 4 (soon to be 5 once Simon needs a haircut...I've been putting it off!) boys/man that need haircuts all at once? Picture if you will a freshly washed floor that I was hoping would last at least for 2 or 3 days and then it happens...."honey, do you think I could get a hair cut today?"....then Son #1 "Mommy I need a hair cut too!"...then Son #2 "Mommy I really need a haircut too and please don't cut it like Troy from High School Musical cause I really don't like my hair tickling my eyes and it's not appropriate for school!"...then son #3 "Mommy my hair is really long too and it tickles my ears can I go before Gavin?"

And then the mayhem begins, trying to keep the 16 month old out of the hair that's piling up without success, having little particles of hair that have now become needles poking into my shirt and pants (and I've already showered!), trying to keep heads steady, making sure my husbands is PERFECT he is quite a stickler...despite the fact that his increasingly grey hairs have a mind of their own, and of course I am left with all the hairy clean up and suddenly my clean, sparkling floor is no more. To any woman out there that knows my plight my heart goes out to you. But when I think of the thousands that I've saved us...well, I'll be doing it again in a couple weeks.

kind words from stellablue!

Today I received the sweetest email from one of my etsy customers, check out her darling baby, photography compliments of unscripted moments. thanks Stellablue, you made my night.


Hi :)

I recently purchased a cover from you. We had some newborn pictures taken today and our little one was wearing the cover. It looks great in the pictures and I just wanted to pass it on to you! We LOVE the cover and can't wait to buy more :)

Thanks for making such a great product!!!

Stellablue