Daria’s Life

The day finally arrived, despite my denial my little Noah has turned 4 years old today! Wow, I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown by. It seems like yesterday he was my tiny little newborn baby in NICU with tubes to help him breathe. Once he arrived home from the hospital I snuggled him up and remember just wanting to be alone with him, to cherish his preciousness. I felt so blessed that he was healthy enough to come home, and I don’t think I’ve let go of him since. He’s just my little miracle boy, full of smiles and funny expressions, sweet sounds and magical big brown eyes.

These days Noah loves to pretend he is Indiana Jones or Batman, loves anything and everything his big brothers are interested in, and still loves to cuddle up with Mommy. I honestly can’t picture my life without this little man.

Today for his Birthday I’m hoping to take him outside for some pictures. I’ll share them later. Happy Happy Birthday Noah-boah, Mommy loves you more than you’ll ever know!

HO HO HO! It’s our favorite time of the year, and Boutique Cafe’s 12 Days of Christmas is back for our FOURTH season of shows. This year we’re recruiting our guests a bit differently, due to the time crunch and increased schedule for Daria, we won’t be running auctions for interested designers/groups/shops to bid on a feature. INSTEAD… we ask that you email us directly as to availability, we will then invoice you for your purchase through Paypal so you can instantly purchase your interview with Daria, in our popular holiday shows that run at the end of November. That’s right - you’ll instantly know that you can prepare and plan for an interview on Boutique Cafe’s biggest shows of the year. Once the 12 spaces are sold that’s it, so don’t delay in grabbing your “Day of Christmas” feature on our podcast.

Our Buy it Now price is $100 per “Day of Christmas” and will feature you, your group, or your boutique related website during a podcast interview. You will have your clickable link and a few photos embedded in our enhanced feed, as well as your url in our shownotes for that show. Boutique Cafe also will be doing a press release during the holiday shopping frenzy to give attention to our 12 Days of Christmas guests. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m famous in my extended family for making simple, easy, quick, meals. I’m not a chef by any stretch of the imagination, so I love to try amazing new recipies that are made in 20 mins or less to add to our meal plans. This one is definitely a Keeper!!

I saw this presented by Giada De Laurentiis on the Food Network and it stuck in my mind. The ingredients are not at all what you would expect, but put together this is a winner to me. Plus it has chocolate so you can’t go wrong there!

Panini with Chocolate and Brie
12 slices sourdough bread
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
12 ounces Brie cheese, thinly sliced
1 (12-ounce) bag semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Directions
Preheat the panini grill.

Brush both sides of the bread with olive oil. Grill the bread slices until they begin to turn golden, about 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from the panini grill and place 2 ounces of cheese on 1 slice of bread (the bottom half), top the cheese with 1/3 cup chocolate chips, and a sprinkle of basil. Top with another slice of bread. Continue with the remaining sandwiches. Return the sandwiches to the panini grill until the chocolate begins to melt, about another 2 minutes.

Cut the sandwiches into 2-inch wide rectangles or small triangles and transfer to a serving platter.

Boutique Cafe has a rockin’ Holiday Gift Guide this year, full of deals/discounts/free ships and promo codes. All you need to make your holiday shopping a bit more merry.

Endulge in:

10% off with Sweet Girl Boutique + Free Gift Wrap
10% off at You Can Make This
15% off with Studio Jewel
$2 off shipping with Pammy J
Free Shipping at Two Little Witches
Free Shipping with Cinnamon Sticks
10% off at Baby Bella Maya
10% off at BonBon Cupcakes
10% off and Free Priority Shipping with D-Lux 57 aprons
AND MANY MANY MANY MORE!!!!
Don’t forget to snag our Holiday Guide Button to add to your sidebar. Let’s support these incredible small businesses and share the joy this season!

To join our guide as a retailer, please send an email to daria@boutiquecafe.com for more details.

The past few days have been the worst so far. The nausea is really horrible, it’s such an unfair symptom of pregnancy that robs you of feeling super happy all of the time. Despite my need to be in bed 24/7 at the moment I’m still in pretty good spirits. I saw the Dr. today and officially confirmed our impending little bundle for June 23rd. YAY!! I’ll be off to Calgary for my first ultrasound in about 2 weeks, they have 3-D imaging up in Calgary so I don’t mind traveling up for the chance to get a better image of our baby.

Even with how yucky I am feeling, I am doing MUCH better this pregnancy so far than my others. By now I would have already been in the hospital on IV’s with my boys, so I’m happy that I’m not in that state at the moment.

This is Marielle. She is the beautiful teenage daughter of Lisa, a dear friend of mine. Marielle desperately needs a kidney transplant, unfortunately finding a match for Marielle is extremely difficult. Her mother is one of the most generous, kind and talented people I have ever known. I know the agony of seeing her daughter in constant pain is tearing her apart, and the fact that she is unable to donate her own kidney to Marielle must be sorrowful for her. Lisa is exhausting each and every possibility as the ultimate advocate for her daughter’s care. Her bravery in this situation is awe-inspiring to me in every way.

Please help to save Lisa’s daughter and consider being a living kidney donor. Here is how you can help. Prayers are also much appreciated for Marielle and her family.

She’s at it again, Dana from Old Red Barn blog is giving away…not 1, not 2…but 3 Quilts!! Color me giddy, it’s just super exciting. And what better way to support this kind hearted and generous gal than promoting her blog for her, it’s the least we could do right???!

Way to win are easy:

1. Post a comment under this post
2. Blog about her OUTSTANDING giveaway (like I’m doing right now), twitter it, facebook mention it - whatever you’d like, just get the word out. (this gives you 5 extra entries)
3. Snag her button and fly it proudly on your blog sidebar! (this gives you 5 extra entries)
4. Create a video and upload it to YouTube about why you want to win. (this gives you 50 extra entries)
5. Suck up! (just kidding, I added that but really Dana just loves everyone!!)

According to the Chinese Pregnancy Calendar (which claims 97% accuracy) I’m having a girl!! Thanks handy dandy calendar, we shall see!

Here’s a link to one that I used

So yesterday we jumped in the car and drove up to meet with the case workers regarding, the sweet gorgeous little 18 month old girl we are wanting to adopt. I’ve decided to nickname her “Little Miss” when referring to her on my blog until we know if she will be ours for sure - when it’s official I’ll share her name.

Happy to report that the meeting was better than anticipated, and her case worker is just a stellar guy with an amazing attitude! Little Miss was there the entire time, and once she warmed up to us after a few minutes all she wanted to do was cuddle and play. It was super sweet beyond words. We have some paperwork and hurdles ahead, but this could happen relatively quickly if all goes well. She could potentially be home with us permanently in three months, but can visit lots before that and even stay with us for a few days at a time. It’s an amazing process to be able to bond with her before she comes home, I’m grateful for that especially considering her age. It would break my heart to just go and pick her up from everything she knows before she even knew us. I’m sure it will be hard for her to leave the loving foster home she has been in since only a few weeks old, and come to live with us. I’m encouraged by the amazing adoptive families I know of and their example. You can bet that I’ll be peppering Jackie with loads of questions. She just adopted a little girl from Taiwan a few months ago and it’s been thrilling to hear their story. She’s been so honest about their transition, the bumps and the joys. Thanks for that Jackie! XO!

Tonight my 3.5 year old came up to me and sweetly said “Mommy, I love our family!”

I can’t tell you how much I love that Noah of mine.