Thank you Shari!

A Big Big thank you going out to Shari- who is manning the shop alone for most of the summer while I go off with Mia for some summer fun. I will miss Happy Chickadee for a few weeks but I plan to get in some serious vacation time with my little bean.

Shari- you totally rock as a friend and business partner and woman in general. Happy Chickadee is the result of our hearts and souls and long hours and loves. Our shop is so much more than I envisioned, mostly due to you!

Thank you for going on this adventure with me! Love you babe!

Have fun and don't work too hard! I have organized my office, bought my tickets, documented my jobs, packed my camera, and I am off! I look forward to returning to the Happy Chickadee work but in the mean time,

be Well, be Happy!

XOXOXOXO

Amber

Happy 3rd Birthday Mia!

Mia,

I am proud beyond words and love you all the way to the moon and back a thousand times over. You are a total joy... Three years ago today you were born and changed my life forever. Thank you for being you! What fun you have ahead of you this year... Pre-School, Holidays, Vacations, New Friends, Old Friends, and the wonder of every day life through the eyes of a three year old. Ask questions, learn, love, and above all, be happy. You have got the whole world in your tiny little hands.

Love,

your Mommy

Mia's Birthday Party Theme

Check it out!  We made the above flip flop cake today!  Huge thanks to Emily!  

These Number Tees by Resa Design make great Party Gifts! We will be giving out special, personalized tees to the boys and custom monogrammed flip flops for the girls at Mia's birthday party next week. Fun stuff. Check out Happy Chickadee to order your own! Available in short or long sleeve.

A flip flop wearing, slip and slide going, cake eating outdoor swim party is what we have in store for my little mermaid! I can't wait to celebrate with some of our best friends next week as Mia turns 3 in cool relaxed and chill style that has become her. We will have homemade Popsicles, 5 cheese mac & cheese, frozen lemonade, and of course cake!

We are attempting a flip flop cake. I can't wait to see how it turns out! With a little help from the Cake Doctor (my new manual for baking) and good friends, we should be able to pull it off! Here is a link to a recipe for a flip flop cake... Betty Crocker Style! You can use this recipe OR do it like me, start with the box mix and doctor it up with added ingredients and homemade butter cream frosting.

http://www.bettycrocker.com/NR/rdonlyres/2B9921D9-CADA-45B9-B0A3-2AD559B87070/0/flipflop_cake_instruction.pdf

You can even print out a template! How cool is that!

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® yellow cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
Tray or cardboard, covered with foil
2 containers Betty Crocker® Whipped vanilla frosting

Assorted food colors
About 40 small round candy-coated fruit-flavored chewy candies
Assorted colors Betty Crocker® decorating icing (in 4.25-oz tubes) or Betty Crocker® Easy Flow decorating icing (in 6.4-oz cans)
1 roll Betty Crocker® Fruit by the Foot® Green Apple Wave® chewy fruit snack (from 4.5-oz box)
2 edible pansy or silk daisy flowers

1. Heat oven to 350°(325°F for dark or nonstick pan). Make cake as directed on box for 13x9-inch pan. Cool 15 minutes. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

2. Cut cake lengthwise in half. Continue cutting each piece to form flip-flop shape as shown in diagram. Place pieces on tray. Freeze pieces uncovered about 1 hour for easier frosting if desired.
3. In small bowl, mix 1 cup frosting with food color to make desired color; frost sides of each flip-flop. In another small bowl, mix 1 cup frosting with second food color to make desired color; frost top of each flip-flop. Place small candies around side edge of each flip-flop to look like jewels. Decorate top of each flip-flop with decorating icing. Cut two 6-inch pieces from fruit roll; cut pieces lengthwise in half. Arrange on flip-flops for straps. Just before serving, top with flowers. Store loosely covered.
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Follow High Altitude directions on cake mix box.

Birthday Party Bites

Ice Cream Sandwiches


¾ cup salted butter, softened
3 large eggs
2¼ cup fl our
1½ teaspoon salt
1½ cup macadamia nuts
1½ cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 bag white chocolate chips
14 scoops vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 325. In a mixing bowl, combine butter and brown sugar with a handheld mixer. Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix. Add flour slowly, and then add baking soda and salt. Blend until all ingredients are incorporated. Stir in chips and nuts with a spatula. Spoon cookie
dough onto a non-stick cookie sheet and bake for about 12 minutes. Once cookies are done, allow to cool. Then sandwich one scoop of ice cream between two cookies.




5 Cheese Mac & Cheese

3 tablespoons butter
6 ounces Velveeta cheese
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese
½ cup Monterrey jack cheese
pepper to taste
1 pound large shell pasta
½ cup American cheese
½ cup white cheddar cheese
¾ cup whole milk



Preheat oven to 350. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 9X13 glass baking dish. Fill a large pot with water and cook pasta according to package directions. In a medium saucepan, heat all cheeses,
one tablespoon butter, and ½ cup milk over low heat. Stir constantly. Once cheese is melted, stir in 1/3 cup milk. Keep on low heat until pasta is done. When pasta is done, drain and place shells into prepared baking dish. Top with the cheese mixture, mix well to coat all pasta. Bake in oven for 30 minutes. Turn oven up to 500 and bake for 3-5 minutes. Season with pepper and serve.




Frozen Lemonade

1 can of frozen lemonade
(Minute Maid)
4 cups ice
cherries for garnish
¼ cup grenadine



Empty one can of frozen lemonade into a blender. Pour in ice, and grenadine. Blend well. Pour into serving glasses and garnish with cherries.




Sweet Tea Sandwiches



Cream Cheese, Basil, & Tomato

3 tomatoes
1 loaf buttermilk bread
6 large basil leaves
2 avocados
1 block sliced cheddar cheese
cream cheese
salt & pepper to taste
1 large heart shaped cookie cutter
mayonnaise to taste

Slice the tomato and spread cream cheese on half of the slices of bread. Season with salt and pepper. Top the pieces of bread with tomato and one basil leaf each, then top with the other to pieces of bread. Center the cookie cutter on the sandwiches and press down hard to cut off excess sandwich. Place heart shaped sandwiches on a serving plate.


Avocado and cheddar
Slice the avocado. Spread mayonnaise onto each slice of bread. Season with salt and pepper. Top with avocado and cheddar, then top with the other to pieces of bread. Center the cookie cutter on the sandwiches and press down hard to cut off excess sandwich. Place heart shaped sandwiches on a serving plate.


Above are some of my favorite party recipes, these are all great because they work for the kids and the adults... no more worries about having to have separate age appropriate snacks! The ice cream sandwiches are great and easy to serve. All of these recipes come straight from the heart... they were all featured in the cookbook I wrote a few years back with my mom and my sisters... Seriously one of the funnest projects ever! You can see it on Amazon.com

Enjoy!



All Recipes and photos are from Every Day Vacation.

For the love of Food, Friends, and Family We invite you to get a girl's eye view of how cooking has brought us together as a family and made us the best of friends. Our cookbook is called Every Day Vacation for a reason. We live our lives simply enjoying every day. This cookbook comes from the heart of our sisterhood. It expresses a notion of solidarity, unity, and uniqueness. Every Day Vacation is a collection of recipes and photographs that represents cooking and entertaining in a light-hearted and simple way. From beginning to end, tradition and innovation come together to create truly unique dishes. With more than 100 recipes, we cover everything from appetizers, side dishes, main courses, deserts, drinks, pet recipes, and menu ideas as well as a list of suggested wines. We believe that the photographs are just as important as the recipes in showing you how to present food; therefore, there is a color photograph for every recipe in the book. Every Day Vacation is a wonderful cookbook for everyone, including first time cooks. Use this collection of recipes and photographs to spur your inspirations and create genuinely memorable meals. Take a vacation from your every day life.

Twirly Girl Dresses super sale 4 days only!

Wowza! Crazy good deals on Twirly Girl Dresses, just for 4 days! We adore these dresses and this is such a good deal... usually 75.00 these dresses are all on sale for just 57.00! Its two fun and fabulous dresses in one! These are perfect for parties, Birthdays, fun in the sun, and also super cool with a tee layered underneath for Fall/ Winter.

Shown above is the same dress, just reversed! We love this Hearts and Swirls, there are other versions at Happy Chickadee as well!

Twirly Girl came to be after the designer searched for a dress for her daughters after their request for something very special. They described their ideal dress as something dressy enough to go to a ball, but comfortable enough to run around in, twirly, and finally reversible so it can flip for new moods! It was not to be found, so it was lovingly created by this resourceful mom. The trend grew quickly and now Twirly Girl dresses and skirts are a favorite for girls and their moms; twirly and fun, and two for the price of one!

Each dress is reversible - just flip for a new mood! It’s two dresses for the price of one! Lots of ‘extra’ fabric in the skirt makes these dresses twirl every time your little girl spins and dances, and she’ll have a hard time resisting the urge when she puts one of these on! Each Twirly girl dress is made in limited runs, meaning your little girl gets a unique dress not many others will have. In fact the Happy Chickadee Twirly Dresses are not available in any other boutique or online!

Get yours today at Happy Chickadee.

Princess Birthday Party Cakes that aren't, uh, princessy!

So Finley wants a princess birthday cake. Hmm, not exactly what I was envisioning! I had hoped to make a cake that looks like an open book. There's a Wilton pan out there that is shaped like that and I thought I would do that and have some fairy tale text in there, to tie into her book party theme. But I think she's totally going to be crushed if she doesn't see a princess cake. Can't do that to her on her big day!

So I've been searching online for princess cakes that aren't emblazoned with any of the Disney Princesses. Not that there's anything wrong with them or anything :) in fact, I should give those girls the credit they deserve....Aurora and some of her books got us through an Emergency Room visit a few weeks ago, and Cinderella ice pack is always in the freezer waiting to help when a new bonk, bump or bruise comes about. And Ariel helped teach Finley how to enjoy swimming in the pool again! Oh, and I can't forgot Belle, whose brown hair makes Finley feel very special because she too has brown hair :) So though these imaginary ladies have helped us in many situations, I was hoping to go a little more 'artsy' for Finley's birthday cake.

And then I found my dream fairy tale castle cake (above). Am I crazy to try it? The directions seem pretty clear, and I would probably improvise and leave out a bunch of the candies and replace with icing that's piped. I think it would be soooo cool!

Here are a few others I found that looked super cool (though WAY too hard for a lousy baker like myself to try). You can click the pictures to access the links and instructions or process. I have a terrible habit of not following recipe directions, which really doesn't work very well when the task at hand is baking. Go figure! :) So these will most certainly not be in my repertoire, but aren't they so great?



Please comment if you've seen other cake designs I should look at, and more importantly, attempt! My husband would be super happy if I did a few trial runs ;-)

Shari

P.S. I just came across this Cake On the Brain blog and am drooling just looking at it! Though it doesn't have princess cake ideas for me, it has plenty of others. Gotta file this one under Yum :) Plus the author is from Vancouver, BC, once my stomping grounds, so click, visit and drool!

Lima Bean Fans

Chloe was the winner of the Happy Chickadee photo contest and her mama used the prize money to buy these super cute personalized plates from Lima Bean Kids for Chloe and her new baby sister Phoebe!  So cute!  Thanks for sharing Robyn!!!  Visit Happy Chickadee today to personalize one for your kiddos!

1st Birthday Party Fashion

The first birthday is really such a wonderful and exciting time, cake, music, fun and lots of photos! Happy Chickadee has some super snazzy looks for this special occasion... We love the Kicky Pants bamboo dress shown above and the Coco Bonbons Hallie dress. Sweet and innocent! Baby Sara has the most special, detailed dresses and they would all be perfect for a birthday party! Check out our selection here...

Mad Sky and Barn are also super cute picks for celebrating the big 01.
Happy Chickadee is full of great gifts for those almost 1 gals as well! Check out our infant gift section to get some great ideas.

Mad Sky and Barn Organics on sale now!

Get great prices on our entire inventory of Barn Organics and Mad Sky for a super limited time. Shown above is the birdie Dolly Dress by Barn Organics and the Floral Skirted Onesie Dress by Mad Sky. More styles at Happy Chickadee and all items are included! We adore both of these lines and they make just the best baby gifts.

Barn Organics are 100 % organic printed cottons. Barn Organics fuses modern prints with a natural vibe. A kind of throwback to the way things were: retro prints, 60''s style, and soft organic cottons. Pure, simple and non-polluting; Barn Organics are Made in the USA and are 100% Organic Cotton and recycled products.

Mad Sky is proudly made in the USA and sweat shop free. Mad Sky’s signature fabrics that blend unique prints with flair and whimsy make this line a favorite for babies and toddlers. Sweet feminine florals and modern colors make up the most popular Mad Sky line, the Asian Collection, and are in harmony with the Mad Sky tag line: Peace, love, and babies.

Visit us today to get these great pieces on sale, it won't last more than a few days!

Birthday Week(s) are upon us!

So Amber and I have the good fortune of having daughter's born 11 days apart (how cool is that?). It's neat because now we can bounce birthday party ideas off one another, favor choices, food, decor etc! Plus when they were little we could compare every milestone and all the trials and tribulations of being a first time mom, but that's a whole other story!

So very soon the girls are turning three (OMG where has the time gone!?). With Mia's birthday coming up at the end of May, and Finley's the beginning of June, it is getting to crunch time and we're birthday planning fools right around now! :) The kids are totally different from one another, so their parties obviously will be as well.

Finley adores books and hates crowds. So a small intimate (4 guests!) book party is what we are up to this year. This is a picture of the invitation I made. They're Laura Ashley cards that I picked up and I printed the text and stuck them in there. It says "Once upon a time, not too long ago, in a land not so far away, there lived a young girl named Finley who loved to read books..." Finley loves Fairy Tales, so that's why I went this route.

I was majorly inspired by this woman who wrote all about her daughter's 7th birthday party which was entirely book themed! Well, maybe I was more than inspired, I ahem, plagiarised a little :) But I do give credit where credit is due so there it is! I plan on using some of her other ideas too perhaps. I'm tinkering with the idea of a treasure hunt based on books though it might be advanced for 3 year olds. Thoughts?

Anyhow, I'll reveal some more details over the coming weeks, don't want to ruin it entirely for those 4 guests! ;-) Plus Amber and I were thinking about doing a few themed posts, starting with kids parties, so you'll probably see some of that over the next few weeks over here.

If you come across anything brilliant about kids birthday parties, PLEASE leave us a comment and share, we'd love to hear from you!

Next post...the perfect birthday party outfit...we have some awesome ideas! As a teaser, here is Finley this morning in her Twirly Girl dress, how awesome is that? :) More Twirly Girl designs can be found here.

Happy planning!
Shari

Last Chance to Order....

The above fabulous fabrics from Ajo.Bebe are going to be discontinued soon! Please visit Happy Chickadee before the end of May if you want to order any of the awesome Ajo.Bebe custom items in any of the above fabrics. We will be unveiling a slew of new fabrics for the Ajo.Bebe items soon so stay tuned! We can't get enough of the fresh and fabulous prints that cover nursery decor, gear, accessories, gift sets, and more.

Happy Custom Shopping!

Amber

Beary Basics Dress in Sundrop Rose is Back in Stock!

Woohoo! This fun Beary Basics dress in Sundrop Rose is back in the house! We sold out in only a few days on the first run so we reordered, isn't it super cute? Parties, play, pictures, and more! Its the perfect combo of fun, happy fabric, girlie cut, and its durable enough for lots of wear. Available in toddler sizes. Visit Happy Chickadee to get one today.

Happy Chocolate Chip Day!

Here at Happy Chickadee we can pretty much find something to celebrate every day of the year... We especially love the ones centered around chocolate.  Can you believe there is actually a national Chocolate Chip Day?  Crazy Yes, Good Yes.  So Get Baking this May 15th, Mia and I will be making Chocolate Chip Muffins tomorrow to celebrate... coment here if you want the recipe!

Now if only I could find a national nap day I would be in heaven.

Something to sweeten the deal... Any purchase made on May 15th will receive a special gift included in the order.  Get Shopping, we promise it will be worth it!

xoxoxo, Amber

Did you know about the Registry Program at Happy Chickadee?

At Happy Chickadee you are able to create gift registries and it is super simple! You can create Baby Shower, Birthday, or All Occasion gift registries and add products to them by visiting your desired product page. Just select the Gift Registry bag (shown above) and the item will be added! Once you select the items you want, you can email out your registry list to friends and family, simple as that! We love this tool... what better way to get exactly what you want? Gift Certificates are available as well if you are not ready to make a concrete choice, just visit out gift certificate selection and add those to your gift registry! Whatever the occasion, a Happy Chickadee registry is sure to get you some fab gifts.

National Apple Pie Day is as American as...

Free Shipping!  Wooohoo! use code applepie at checkout to score free shipping on all orders over $15.00.  This code expires May 15th so hurry up and shop!!!  

That is pretty sweet, huh?  So enjoy some pie, calories don't count on holidays, right?  And do some guilt free shopping!  Head to Happy Chickadee now to select your favorite All American picks.  

Today is all about YOU Mama....

Happy Mother's Day!!
It's a day I never thought too much about until becoming a mother myself. Yes, I always made sure each year I had a special card and gift for my own incredible mother...but I had no idea I would feel like the most special person on the planet on Mother's day, when actually being a mother.
"This day, it's for me!" I thought, on my first Mother's day, and still do.
This day sure is all about us. We sacrifice so much each day and today is the day when the people in our lives that we love can take that extra moment to say "Wow, thanks. That's a big job you've got there!"
So take a load off, look around you, and enjoy the day and allow yourself to take a compliment- you've done a great job!
xox
Shari and Finley (pictured at 13 days old)

Finley Loves to Rock the Happy

Finley puts The Happy in Happy Chickadee for sure... Check out some of her favorite looks, Baby Sara and Resa Design Tees are surely at the top of her list! Shari and Finley add the little extras to make Happy Chickadee funky and fresh... So sweet, cute, fun and carefree!

We Love it.

xoxoxo

Amber

Thanks to all of you who wear Happy Chickadee

Chloe with the Stella Ruby Hiccup Decor Bird House

Elle in Baby Sara

Abby in Right Bank Babies Pants

Mia in a Baby Sara Thermal... with Disneyland Goo all over it :)

Mia in Right Bank Babies

Feel free to send us your favorites!

Amber

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day!!
We just want to send this blog post with a happy little shout out to all our mama friends out there! This week is all about you!

Moms, Daughters, Grandmothers, and so on... may we all celebrate this day and acknowledge those that mean the most to us. Today and every day.

While we don't sell many items specifically for mom, we want to do everything we can to help make mom happy! Saving money? That always makes us happy! :)
Take 25% off your order for the next two days!* How's that for bringing a smile to your face?

A few restrictions apply.**

Use code welovemom at checkout. We really do!

** Code cannot be used on the following items: Kids Crooked House, La Petite Maison, Jennifer Delonge and Stray Dog Designs.

We also love supporting Mom made goodies. Here are just a few of the mom owned companies that we adore.

Ajo.Bebe Apple Blossom Coco Bonbons

ElleBows & More

Mothers Day

A Mother loves right from the start.

She holds her baby close to her heart.

The bond that grows will never falter.

Her love is so strong it will never alter.

A Mother gives never ending Love.

She never feels that she has given enough.

For you she will always do her best.

Constantly working, there's no time to rest.

A Mother is there when things go wrong.

A hug and a kiss to help us along.

Always there when we need her near.

Gently wipes our eyes when we shed a tear.

So on this day shower your Mother with Love.

Gifts and presents are nice but that is not enough.

Give your Mother a day to have some peace of mind.

Be gentle, be good, be helpful, be kind.

Happy Mothers Day.

Carol Matthews

Lots of love and best wishes,

Amber & Shari

Congrats to Chloe- the Photo Contest Winner!

Hey there check out this cool chick- this is Chloe sporting the Knotty Baby Legwarmers and playing with the Stella Ruby bird house from Hiccup Decor. We love this photo! Thanks so much to all of you who sent in your photos, we LOVE seeing them. Please send them to us anytime and we will try and post them on our blog. Chloe will receive a 25$ Happy Chickadee gift card good towards any order.

How Far We Have Come

Does that Chick look familiar to you? No, you say? Well you would be right!

This was our first attempt at a Happy Chickadee logo... We had spent a lot of time with our web designer to get this logo but as soon as we saw it up on the big screen we both knew it wasn't right and we hurdled into the other direction, finally landing on perfection (in our own minds), at the logo you see below. It is more than a logo, it is a feeling, a Happy point of view.

About a year ago when we began this journey of opening a store together we spent many a nights trying to figure out what exactly we wanted and how to get there.

The name was pretty easy, and all Shari. I adore it and have yet to get tired of it even after seeing, hearing, and saying it thousands of times. Bravo Shari!

The rest was a bit harder. Shari and I were great friends but came from very different points of view, backgrounds, aesthetics, ideas, experience, etc... We both wanted this store to represent what we both individually loved and we still wanted a collective, cohesive front in which to base the store. Shari was calm and patient with me when I wanted to fill the store with overly girlie, cupcake themed items and understanding when I put the kibosh on some too artsy/ out-there brands. We seem to have struck a balance between my crazy pink, bling, Barbie loving girlie style and Shari's unique, off the beaten path, modern style to form what is known today as Happy Chickadee Style. Somehow, we have achieved this!

Yes, we still butt heads from time to time, but Wow! What a year. We called each other and were giddy over our first order, (Thanks Mandy!) and then again on the first order by someone we didn't know! And we were excited about our order shipped to Japan, Our 100th order was awesome, our 200th order was exhilarating. We are now awaiting our 300th order, but I am pretty sure that will feel pretty cool too. Blog reviews, magazine reviews, and more have all helped make Happy Chickadee a little more known and we really appreciate it all! Getting the name out there is such a huge part of our success.

Its such a great feeling to know we went for it, and we are making it, all the while staying true to our goals, ideas, and image. Thanks to you, our readers, followers, customers, and friends. Without you, Happy Chickadee simply wouldn't be.