A Meaningful Gift for a New Mom

Having your first baby is such an exciting time!  We have had many books come through our printers to celebrate this special occasion as a gift from a husband to a wife or as an extremely special gift from a group of family and friends to the expectant mother at her baby shower. Rather than one more rattle or pacifier, give a personal baby shower present that the new parents will treasure long after Junior is out of diapers.

One of the many options for a "Baby Shower" themed book

There are many creative ways to create a Bellflower Book for your favorite new mom to let her know that she is loved, appreciated and cared for.  Here are some of our favorites!

A personalized memory book full of favorite photos and warm wishes makes a beautiful and unique gift for the new Mom.

Invite her closest friends and family members to shower her with good wishes.

This creative baby shower gift could include reasons why she’ll make a great mom, tips for motherhood, fun memories of her life before children, or reminders of why she is so important to you.

Don’t forget that Moms pregnant for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time (or more!) need encouragement too!

Why not make a personalized book full of reasons why you think this special person is a great Mom? She will love the encouragement.

Make a custom photo book for the baby!

Have friends and family contribute photos and write special letters to the new baby welcoming him or her into the world. Include favorite stories about the new Mom and Dad, advice from older brothers or sisters, or favorite memories from grandparents and other relatives.

A personalized book for the baby is a unique shower gift that will be treasured by both the Mom and the little one (when she learns to read).

Build a custom cookbook!

Collaborate with friends and family members to create a book of delicious and easy recipes. Make sure to include a photo of the finished product! What a great resource for the busy new mom!

Do you have an idea for a "New Mom" themed Bellflower Book?  Please let us know!  We'd love to include it in future "inspiration" :)

Grandma Corrigan's Irish Soda Bread

It is March!  Spring is almost here, so naturally I had to make my Grandmother's special Irish soda bread.  Even though she was 100% German, she always created one heck of an amazing St. Patty's Day dinner.  I always loved her soda bread because it was extremely moist, unlike a lot of the drier versions out there.  This year I decided to make the bread into muffins and they turned out great!

My Grandma was a huge lover of holidays so every holiday holds a special memory for me of special "Corrigan Family Traditions".  I am happy to share this one with you!

Grandma Corrigan's Irish Soda Bread Muffins

Preheat oven to 350

Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup golden raisins

roughly 1/2 a cup of powdered sugar and buttermilk set aside for glaze

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients and raisins together.  Make a "well" in the center.  Add the buttermilk and then mix together.  If you choose to make a bread instead of muffins, pour the dough into a greased round or square cake pan and bake for roughly 45 minutes.  Check the top, once it is starting to turn a golden brown pour the glaze of equal parts buttermilk and powdered sugar on top and cook for an additional 5 minutes.  Make sure to insert a toothpick in the middle to insure it is baked completely.  Sometimes the center can get gooey.

For muffins, pour batter 2/3 of the way in greased or lined muffin pans and bake for around 15 minutes, add glaze to the tops and bake for and additional 1-2.  Again, you will know when they are ready when the tops start showing signs of turning a light golden brown.

Enjoy and happy St. Patrick's Day in advance!

Etsy Favorite: Sweet Charity Designs - Art Helping to Educate -

Sweet Charity Designs

Handmade jewelry from freshwater pearls and genuine stone



This Etsy shop is close to my heart because it is MINE!  Since I became pregnant with my son close to seven years ago I have been making and selling jewelry, donating 100% of the proceeds to causes close to my heart.  By working with Sister Mary Clement of the Sisters of Saint Casimir I have raised close to $10,000 for the scholarship fund at Maria High School on the South Side of Chicago where I formally taught. I always thought of Maria High School as an oasis in the inner city because it was a safe please for girls to go to school and reach their full potential.  Sister Clement and I make quite a team!  I purchase the materials and create the jewelry, and she attends craft shows all over the Chicago area selling it.



Although I am still raising money for the scholarship fund Sister Clement campaigns for, the items currently in my Etsy Shop were made to raise money in support of my son's former preschool teacher's mission trip to Haiti.  She will be working with the Brad Reddick School in Savanette, Haiti. As soon as I found out she was going I volunteered to raise funds. It means a ton to me to be able to support such an amazing woman and I am so happy that the many students at the Brad Reddick School will have the priceless opportunity to learn from her.


Please spread the word about what I am trying to accomplish.  My jewelry is made from quality genuine stone, glass and freshwater pearls and each piece is created by me by hand.  A piece of jewelry from Sweet Charity Designs makes the perfect "gift that gives back" so please think of us when you are looking for a special gift for someone!  I have also been commissioned to do jewelry for weddings, proms and other special occasions.



Making jewelry is one of my favorite stress relievers and I love that I can use my talent to help others.  If you have an idea for how to help me promote my cause, please email me at kerry (at) bellflowerbooks (dot) com.

Great Quote to add to a Wedding Themed book!

We have many customers who create a Bellflower Book as an exceptionally meaningful wedding gift for someone special in their lives.  I saw this quote on Pinterest and thought it would make a great page in a wedding or engagement themed book!

Guest Post Series - My Birth Story

My Birth Story

by,

Barbara Clemont - Ferrand of the blog Footprints in the Sand 

 The Survival of an American Wife and Mother in France

When my first son was born I took the time to write down all of those details that I didn’t want to forget – time we arrived at the hospital, time of birth, length, weight – all those things that seem important at the time.  I never took the time, however, to write down the emotion of the day. 

In a way it all still seems like a blur, even two year later.  My son decided to make his arrival a month before his due date.   I had no idea I was in labor and thankfully my husband urged us to rush to the hospital or I might have given birth at home.

The moment the midwife informed me that the baby would be arriving that day, fear kicked in.  Not the fear of having a baby, but the fear about having a healthy baby. All around us the nurses were preparing for the worst – incubators and the like.  They were very honest that the baby was premature and he might be born with complications.  This was certainly not what an emotional woman in labor needed to hear.

After the epidural calmed my physical pain, everyone in the room disappeared to let my husband and I get some rest.  In those moments of calm my husband sat next to me holding my hand.  This was definitely not how either of us had expected this experience to happen.

In those moments I realized that it would be the last time that it would ever be just the two of us.  As I closed my eyes I could hear the machine slowly humming the baby’s heart rate.  The sound was so rhythmic and warm, bringing us reassurance that we would be able to get through it.

After a few hours the doctors and nurses were back in the room guiding me through the birthing process.  Through it all, my husband’s hand never left mine.  And in a matter of minutes our son, Nathan, was born. 

Before I could lay eyes on our son, I turned to my husband who had tears in his eyes.  The love for his son was instantaneous and I suddenly began to cry.  I had so much love for the moment; so much love for my husband, for my son.

After a few moments they placed my son on my chest, and I was flooded.  In one instant I had become a mother; we had become a family.

Looking back now, I wouldn’t change a thing; the magical moment of being just two people and suddenly becoming three.  The notion of family suddenly changed and we had all of the family we could have ever needed in that room.

To hear more from Barbara check out her blog Footprints in the Sand, Facebook Page, and follow her on Pinterest  and Twitter

If you are interested in sharing a birth or wedding story with us, please contact kerry (at) Bellflowerbooks (dot) com

Are you following us on Pinterest???

Are you following us on Pinterest?  If not, you should be!

Pinterest is a new social media site focused on visually sharing and organizing great ideas discovered online.  We are addicted!

An Example of one of our "Pin Boards"

Follow us on Pinterest to gain access to "pin boards" full of ideas for home decor, Bellflower Books,  delicious recipes, organization, gardening, kids crafts and activities and many, many more!

Our username is BFBOOKS

Hope to see you there!

Guest Post Series ~ My Wedding Story by, Alyssa Duncan

This wedding story is from Alyssa Duncan of the blog inthelandoflou

My husband and I got engaged in September of 2009. He took me on a trip to beautiful Lake Tahoe and proposed in Emerald Bay. It was perfect. When we got back, we started looking at dates for getting married. We had originally planned on summer of 2010 but the more time went by, the more I didn’t want to wait that long. So hubby proposed Valentine’s Day. He thought it would be sweet to always have our anniversary on the most romantic day of the year (and part of me still thinks he wanted an easy anniversary date). But the more he thought about it, trying to plan anniversary trips around Valentine’s would be really hard. So we chose the week after, February 19^th. We wanted to keep it small and sweet, hubby had been married before and I was engaged before, so I wasn’t interested in doing everything, down to the last detail, all over again. So we limited our guest list to immediate family and a few close friends…no more than 30 of us all together.

Then, just after the New Year, we got the news that he would be deploying to Haiti. He was supposed to be back in time, but it wasn’t guaranteed. If he did indeed end up getting back before our planned wedding, February 19^th, we weren’t sure if we’d have enough time to go get our marriage license before we left for our honeymoon the next day. On the morning he was supposed to leave, he ended up getting held back a day. On a whim, while I was sitting at work bumming out about him being gone the month before our wedding, I called him up and suggested just going down to the courthouse and getting married that day. “Okay…” is what he came back with, haha. Then it was a mad scramble to get down there. I had to call someone in to cover for me at work, he had to try and get off work early…My mom really, really, really wanted to be there…so after some haggling, we decided to let my parents and then Chad’s mom and his brother come down from Denver to see us get married. I ran back to the house, my mom brought me a white dress from her closet, I did my hair really quickly, Chad rushed home from work, and we got to the courthouse JUST before it closed for the day. Phew!

We raised our right hands in front of the woman who was processing our paperwork, my mom snapped a couple quick photos, and then we stepped out into the hall (underneath the cheesiest flowered arch in front of a mint green wall) to exchange rings. WE signed our names, had our witnesses sign theirs, and just like that…we were married. We all went back to our house, both families gave us cards, and then left us to our newlywed devices….;) We had a nice dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then came back to the house to…wait for it…do homework. Yep, Chad had a course to complete that night so we cracked a bottle of wine, shared a glass, and then he went up to the office to complete his class. Trust me, that’s not ALL he did all night…so it turned out splendidly.

The next morning we were up by 6 so that he could pack all of the last-minute stuff, our buddy Gary came by at 7, and he was off to the airport by 7:30. I didn’t even get to spend the first 24 hours as a married woman with my husband. :/

In just under a month, he came back, we got “married”(again) at our originally planned wedding ceremony with our 30 guests, my bi gwhite dress, and his handsome teal bowtie. We didn’t have a formal reception,just punch and cupcakes, and visiting with our friends and family. After maybean hour, we headed downtown to take some wedding pictures and after we were finished, rushed home to get out of our wedding finery (we were not made to live in fancy clothes). Since we were leaving the next morning for our honeymoon in Vegas, we returned his tux that night, went to Target and bought a backpack and a dvd shelf, picked up dinner at Panda Express, and fell asleep onthe couch watching The Bourne Identity. Yeah, we’re classy like that.

We left early the next morning for Vegas and spent a wonderfully relaxing week seeing shows, walking the strip, shopping, eating, and of course…loving on each other like CRAZY.  I look back at our“double wedding”, one at the courthouse, one with less than 30 people, and I wouldn’t change a thing. We didn’t go into debt over our big day, we spent it with the people we’re closest to, and it was perfectly memorable. This week is oursecond anniversary (we count our first wedding as our technical anniversarydate, but still celebrate the second one with a nice dinner or something) and I couldn’t be happier…married for two years, Momma to a six-month old baby, and full of stories to tell about it all.

To hear more from Alyssa check out her blog or follow her on twitter @mrsalyssaduncan

***If you are interested in guest posting for us please email me at kerry (a) bellflowerbooks (dot) com