The Lily Pad

These were super easy to make and so much fun for my little ones!

• Butter two slices of bread on one side with 1 teaspoon butter (or coat the iron with vegetable cooking spray)
• Place 1 slice of bread in the iron, buttered-side down
• Top with 1 1/2 to 2 slices of cheese (you can also add tomato if you like)
• Cover with the remaining slice of bread, buttered-side up
• Close the lid firmly and cook until golden brown (about 2 to 4 minutes).

**Hey Mom…Are you on Weight Watchers? If you use 2 slices of Nature’s Own Light (40 calories per slice) Wheat Bread, 1 1/2 slices of Kraft 2% American Cheese Singles and Vegetable Cooking Spray instead of butter…you too can eat like a kid! WW Points Value is only 3 points! Yummy!**

EASY CLEAN UP — just leave your waffle iron on and spray with a mixture of equal parts white distilled vinegar and water and let the cheese burn off.

Due to your valued patronage and and unwavering support over the past 6+ years, the PADShowroom and Patricia Ann Designs has (again) outgrown their previous space!! We are thrilled with our recent move to our beautiful 2000-square-foot showroom to better serve you and best represent our fabulous Mom-Preneurs' chic collections.

>
Please make note of our new address effective immediately:
Patricia Ann Designs & the PADShowroom
22821 Lake Forest Drive
Suite 113 – 114
Lake Forest, CA 92630
Showroom Phone: 949.716.4800

>
Click here for our Google Maps Link

>
With Hugs and Thanks,
Shelley Ann & Mary Patricia 'Pat'

The Bailey Baio Angel Foundation® Stride Rite® and BopStarBaby
invite you to the very first…

“Celebrity Baby Yard Sale”

Saturday, May 30th from 8:00AM – 4:00PM
in the Garden at the Sportsmen’s Lodge Hotel
12825 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City, California
Phone 800.821.8511/818.769.4700

There will be lots of wonderful new and almost-new children’s products – including clothing, accessories, toys, and home décor – all at excellent prices! Proceeds will go toward sustaining children and families affected by life-threatening metabolic disorders (including GA1 and other organic acidemia)! Click here for more information.

Have some time off this Memorial Day? Here are a few fun & inspiring springtime posts for you from around the blogosphere:

• Wonder @ Mommin’ It Up
• Icy Fresh “Squeezed” OJ @ Flipflops & Applesauce

• Simple Bandana Dress Tutorial @ Joy’s Hope

• Brownie Bottom Ice Cream Cupcakes @ Joy the Baker

• Spring Cleaning: Tips & Techniques @ Simple Mom

• It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful: The eBook @ The Nesting Place

• Sun Safety~ Is Your Sunscreen Putting You In Danger? @ Gidget Goes Home

Happy reading as we’re about to spring into summer!

Hi Everyone! This week Patricia
Ann Designs' products hit the shelves at Nordstrom NATIONWIDE!!! We are
so excited!!! Nordstrom ordered our Pink & Chocolate Hibiscus
Design in our Stroller Blanket and Burp Cloth 3 pack.

We also shipped them the same
products in Sky & Chocolate and Mint & Chocolate Hibiscus Designs which are
exclusive to Nordstrom. The prices are the same as our MSRP, so if you
love these collections PLEASE visit your local Nordstrom Infant Deptartment and “shop 'til you drop.” We want a great sales-through, so we'd rather Nordstrom get the sale than us. Thanks for your support!

~Shelley Ann

There's a fun campaign starting soon on Twitter that I think will be fun to follow! In just a few days the “Sling & Swaddle Journey” will have chosen 30 moms to participate in a competition on Twitter where the mom with the most followers, posts/tweets, and creative content will win! You can read more about it on the website, and be sure to check back there on May 25th to see who the moms are so you can start following them and supporting your favorites on Twitter.

While you're at it, you can follow us on Twitter, too!

Happy May! For the next two weeks we are selling all of our Patricia Ann Designs’ Couture Carseat Covers for 40% off!! Can you believe it?!!

You have through Sunday, May 31st at midnight to place your order!! MSRP is $110 and your 40% off makes your special price just $66!! If you
place your order on line, just use the coupon code “CARSEAT”. Or if you live local to our OC showroom just mention this coupon to get yourself 40% off!!

Infant Carseat Cover: Cocoa Sky Dot with Sky Blue and White Gingham Trim

14 Sweet Weeks of Giveaways from The Lily Pad Blog!

Well, readers, the time has come for our last giveway in this series! It has been fun getting to know some of the product lines featured at PAD Showroom and the moms behind them.

This week’s giveaway is brought to us by PAD Showroom and the Punkybunks Baby Boutique!

Punkybunks Baby Boutique is a place where you will find fabulous items for you and your baby. The boutique features the Punkybunks Collection: stylish diaper bags; must have essentials bags; adorable bibs; fun and feisty toddler aprons; luxurious satin trimmed hooded towels and much more. They also carry organic, earth friendly and SAFE products for the whole family; including Klean Kanteen and Nature’s Baby Organic skin care line.

Hollie White, owner & president says, “We strive to bring you the most unique, hard-to-find, quality products. You will love the assortment of plush blankies with matching accessories; designer socks; leather shoes; gorgeous hair bows and hats; fashionable nursing shawls; comfy baby clothes and many more fun things that you just can’t live without.”

Hollie started the Punkybunks online boutique and loves that she can run her business while still staying home to raise her adorable kids. If you’re dying to know where in the world she came up with the cute name (I was sure curious!), be sure to read about it on her About Us page.
This week a luck reader will win a $25 gift certificate to Punkybunks!

How to Enter to Win the Gift Certificate:

1. Click to enter via our entry form (*mandatory*)– no comment here necessary.

2. Tweet or blog about this giveaway and post a comment with the link to the tweet or blog post.

3. Follow us on Twitter and leave a comment telling us.

4. Subscribe by RSS or email to our blog and leave a comment telling us.

5. Put this code for our cute button on your blog and leave a comment with a link to your url:

Giveaway ends Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at midnight, PST.

Good Luck!

Do you ever feel inundated with plastic toys?  I know I do.  Sometimes it’s hard to find for our kids the simple, more environmentally-friendly type of toys that we had growing up.  Try finding a metal toy pot/pan set or simple wooden blocks and you’ll see what I mean.  Non-toxic (and by that I primarily mean non-plastic) toys exist, but they are often hard-to-find and/or hard-to-afford.  Thankfully, we have the internet to help us find these sort of items.

But it can also be hard to know how to teach our children how to live a greener life.  By far, the best way to do this is by modeling a sustainable lifestyle for them, but sometimes it helps to be more specific and practical with kids, too.

Here are a few ideas for going green with your kids without breaking the bank:

1. Get Crafty. Babies and toddlers will love to play with a few balls of yarn or some fabric that you might have lying around. When they’re a little older, you can even teach them to knit, like Amanda Soule does in her book, The Creative Family .

2. Think Simply. Sometimes the best toys come from things lying around the house.  We all know how much fun a cardboard box can be for a little one. I once made a shaker toy out of a toilet paper roll and some beans, and covered it with duct tape – my daughter loved it!

3. Go Outside! Living in San Diego county provides the benefit of great weather.  Go outside with your kids to play in the yard, at the park, or at the beach. Instead of the cheap plastic toys (which will probably break or may get chewed up by a curious pet), round up a few items from your kitchen (think empty cottage cheese or yogurt containers) or garage that could be used for sand toys.  You could even go on a nature walk and inspect the plants you find.

4. Plant a Garden. There’s no better way to teach your kids about living a more sustainable life then by showing them how to grow their own food. You can even start small with a few pots and some herbs.  I recently planted a few seeds and let my toddler help me scoop the organic potting soil into an egg-crate in which I planted the seeds.  I want to start teaching her even at a young age how growing our own food saves fossil fuels that are normally used up to bring food to our grocery stores.

If you have more kid-friendly green ideas, please share them in the comments!

I came across a fun video with Shelley from Patricia Ann Designs, showing off a few of PAD’s products.

Click here to view the video!