Halloween & DIY Costume Ideas

Love, Love, Love Halloween! Over the years, I've made several of my own costumes  - taking pride in creating something and not spending a ridiculous amount of money at a costume store. Some of my creations (which you may see pictured below) include Lara Croft of Tomb Raider, Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Alex of a Clockwork Orange (one of my favorite movies of all time), Carmen Miranda, Poison Ivy, a basketball and net/back board (when I was preggo ;-) and last year I dressed as Alan from The Hangover. I've continued the tradition with my son Liam and last year (his first Halloween) we dressed him as Pepe Le Pew. I've always liked the idea of playing classic and whimsical characters from movies - and because Sam and I have talked about dressing up as a duo this Halloween, we plan on taking the role of Mary Poppins and Bert (hopeful that we will find the right attire at a thrift store).

             Here is a photo of me dressed as Alex from A Clockwork Orange

    and below is an image of the real Alex from the movie. 

         My pregnant belly painted as a basketball - equipped with a net and a  backboard. This was a really fun costume to work on!

  from last year dressed as the Alan from the Hangover (with Liam playing found baby). 

Below is the movie poster with Alan and baby.

Sam and I are trying to decide which look we will try to achieve as Mary Poppins and Bert - which of the two below do you like best?

In doing some research for other DIY adult and baby costume ideas, I came across a few that I thought were clever and cute. These were taken from the Martha Stewart website and Woman's Day Magazine website. 

 Beehive Costume

Chicken Costume

Goldfish Costume

Adult Jellyfish Costume

Are you working on a creative costume this Halloween? I'd love to hear about it!

HAVE A HAPPY AND SAFE HALLOWEEN! 

-Alby & Sam

Autumn & Apples

The fall is our favorite time of year! We love when October rolls around and offers it's cool breeze and beautiful foliage in autumn shades of browns, yellows and reds. The colors always provide for plenty of DIY inspiration...and as the weather becomes colder, stay at home days offer more time to get creative (as an FYI, we as a family do not watch more than 1 hour of TV a week!).  Halloween happens to be one of our favorite holidays - pumpkin carving followed by a warm pumpkin pie and seeds that have been baked to crunchy, toasty perfection? Yes, please! Pardon me if I sound too Martha Stewart-ish. 

To take advantage of the wonderful weather we had last weekend, my family and I made a trip up to Warwick, NY to go Apple picking at Pennings Orchard. Applefest was also happening in the downtown area so we stopped in to check that out as well and enjoyed delicious greasy burgers, Jamaican Oxtail and Goat and Funnel cake - sounds like a pretty interesting combination, does it not? lol We had a great time, particularly exploring all the different type of apple breeds that we were not familiar with .  Our experimental apple sauce for the week was a great success with a mixture of Jonagold, Honey Crisps, Ginger Golds, Galas, Romes, Cortlands, Golden Delicious and Braeburns. 

Here are a few photos from our visit: 

      Liam snacked on quite a few apples - stretching that $25 minimum for the bag we had to purchase!

 Liam with Grandma Lisa and Grandpa Julio

Liam & Sam 

Sam & Albelisa 

a pretty little bee that decided to munch on my apple

In the end, we realized the bag of apples weighed more than Liam so they had a ride in his new stroller

If you haven't planned an apple pickin' adventure this fall, what are you waiting for?

Thanks for reading! Alby & Sam 

Seeds n Sprouts baby food - Our exciting new venture!

Sam and I have been MIA on the blog front for quite some time now. It's all due to our diligent work with a new start-up venture we have embarked on - a baby/toddler food business! All of the baby food is prepared using produce purchased from the local Farmer's Market (Union Square or Inwood) and some of the ingredients are organic. Our food has no preservatives, dyes or fillers.

I don't recall exactly how we came to pick the name Seeds n Sprouts but I know it had something to do with the natural process in which fruits and vegetables grow - it starts with a seed that is planted, and up sprouts a tasty meal! The name also served as a metaphor for babies and their development. Getting this business off the ground has proven to be a challenge beyond what we expected - from deciding what our menu should consist of (which was mainly Liam approved meals), to the packaging, the logo, passing a food protection course and exam, the permits with the NYC Department of Health & other state agencies, insurance, legal issues, marketing and the toughest endeavor of all, finding a NYC restaurant that would allow us to rent their commercial  kitchen space for a few hours a week and take on the liability of a third party (us).  To date, we have made significant progress on several of these matters - but lingering is the contract with a restaurant and the inspection by the city so that we can actually sell our food!!!I met with a the Owner of The Greentree  http://greentree.com/gt_home.html (a local Riverdale restaurant) last week and he agreed to allow us to rent his kitchen space a few early hours on weekends. We are trying to work out the legal kinks but hoping to be up and running by sometime in November.

Now, for the fun stuff...this is what our logo looks like - what do you think?

In order to help get the word out about our business we had a photoshoot in our home and invited a few of our friends who have young babies. The babies wore Seeds n Sprouts onesies or t-shirts that were made by my father who owns a silk-screening business and they (along with the parents) all got a sampling of our food! Here are a few of my favorite shots...

This is baby Alice - eating our Super Smash n Spinach

                              and this is baby Carly, eating our Apple Sauce; Applause!

                                      This is baby Kal-El eating our Mini Muffines

                                          baby Michael eating our Squished Squash

and this is our son Liam eating Musical Chairs (bean salad)

For additional photos of our event  (including fabulous photos of our food) please visit our website, www.seedsnsprouts.com

or our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seeds-n-Sprouts-baby-food/135004843202238?ref=ts

Recently, we hosted our first (of many) baby food tasting parties - these are some of my favorite shots 

We will continue to keep you posted on our progress! Thanks for reading and if you know parents who may be interested in our food, please refer them to us! 

Thanks much! Alby, Sam and baby Liam <3