Contest - Win a Daddy and Me bow tie set!

Hi Everyone!
So I have decided to run my very first contest, hopefully if this goes well it will be my first of many future free giveaways.

The prize for this contest will be a custom Daddy and Me bow tie set, colour/pattern to be chose by winner.

How to enter:

1st method - 'Like' the red bow tie on Facebook (if you already like it then you are already entered)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-red-bow-tie/185240011520797#!/pages/The-red-bow-tie/185240011520797?sk=wall

2nd method - recommend the red bow tie to friends, have your friends 'Like' the red bow tie, for the recommendation ballot the friend has to post on the red bow tie wall "the red bow tie was recommended by..." both the recommender and recommendee will both get an extra ballot

3rd method - become a follower of my blog - melissaheinrichs.blogspot.com

Contest closes Sunday April 10th @ 5pm, this will allow me to get the prize to the winner before Easter.

Thanks for Playing!

My Newest Creation...

So my goal was to post something every other day and less then one month into my blogging life I have already missed my goal several times...  this might stem from the fact that I only have two followers of my blog thus far and the two followers are my sister and my husband both of which I have to remind to read my blog after each post!

Despite the sad reality of the above statement I will continue on!

Now on to more exciting things, today's post:

I have been working on a new style of children's aprons, more boy friendly then my previous pink frilly ones yet totally customizable so that it could still be quite girly.  As per usual I called on my talented model to show off my newest creation.

So you can't really see the apron very well in the above picture but Jude is looking so darn cute I just had to share!



The apron Jude is wearing is size 2/3 so it is a bit large on him.



The neck strap on the apron is adjustable with a one sided tie.  There is a double pocket on the front and the pocket is lined with a contrasting red fabric (same fabric as the red tomato applique).  The apron also has contrasting topstiching throughout (in this case red).  The applique is a tomato but could be customized to most anything.

Feel free to contact me if you would like your very own custom apron for your little one.  Various sizes and colours are available.

A quick and tasty treat!

Today just seems like a lazy spring day to me so I thought I would share with you one of my husband and my favorite treats for lazing around - JELL-O Glazed Popcorn.  I takes about 25mins (or less) to make from start to finish and it makes 9 cups. 

Ingredients:

- 8 cups popped popcorn

- 1 cup salted peanuts or cashews (can be omitted and still tastes great)

- 1/4 cup butter or margarine

- 3 tablespoons light corn syrup

- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar or granulated sugar

- 1 package (4-serving size) fruit flavoured gelatin

Heat Oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place popcorn and nuts in large bowl.  Heat butter and syrup in small saucepan over low heat.  Stir in sugar and gelatin; bring to a boil on medium heat.  Reduce heat to low and gently simmer for 5 minutes.  Immediately pour syrup over popcorn, tossing to coat well.  Spread popcorn in 15x10x1 (or similar) pan, use fork to spread evenly.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and put into bowl immediately.  Break apart popcorn as it cools.

Enjoy!

Note:  To remove glaze from cooking utensils and pans just soak in hot water, the glaze will disolve.

How to tie a bow tie

I've been meaning to do a post about tying bow ties but it kept slipping my mind until today my little guy finally tugged on his just right and it came undone.

Like most people in my generation I turned to the all knowing Internet to learn how to tie my first bona fide tie.  I found countless instructional pdfs. and videos, not many of which seemed very helpful.  I remember the writer of one of the tutorials wrote that to tie her first bow tie it took her two hours of gleaning over several youtube videos and a beer and she was pretty sure that it was the beer that finally allowed her to tie the bow tie.  While I did not resort to beer I did spend about an hour trying to tie my first tie and I finally resorted to enlisting the help of my husband, but let me tell you it was well worth it.

I hope to one day create my own bow tie tying video but until then here is one that I found helpful:

Here's to hoping you have happy tying and get it right the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or even 10th attempt.  As a word of encouragement, it gets easier!  I can now tie a bow tie without the instructional video in under a minute and I think to myself how in the world was this so hard before?

Get your bow ties and aprons at Little Bird on Ottawa St.!!!!

I am excited to announce that as of Friday March 11th, 2011 some of my handmade items will be available at Little Bird located at 164 Ottawa St. N. in Hamilton. 

Little Bird is a consignment store that carries children's clothes in sizes 0 to 6x, children's accessories and gently used maternity clothes.  The store also carries a growing selection of locally made items (this includes stuff made by me!)

I currently have bow ties as well as aprons for sale at the store.  The bow ties are real bow ties that are fully adjustable, these would likely fit a person from infant to pre-teen.  I hope to make some tiny ties to better suit an infant's head size.  The aprons currently in the store are appropriate for a child approximate 2-3 years old.  Right now the aprons in store are soft and feminine complete with ruffles, aprons for boys and a size 4-6 are currently in the works, I will let you know when these are available. 

I do not currently have any good pictures of my products (I hope to post these shortly) however I do have one picture of my son modeling the first apron I made - don't tell my husband!  (;

Apron size 2/3 on my 10 month old boy

New Business Cards!!!!

My sister was over this weekend for my little munchkin's birthday (pictures to come in a couple of days) and while she was over she took some pictures for my new business card (see below).  I think it turned out fabulous, what do you think?

and

My sister is a professional photographer and she does wonderful work (and I am not just saying that because I am biased).  Check out her website at http://www.heatherwiebe.com/

My very first post...

So as the title indicates, this is my very first blog post.  I am new to the blogging world so I guess maybe what would be appropriate is that I tell everyone a little bit about myself.

For starters here is a picture of me:


Melissa & Jude - Summer 2010



This is a picture from this summer.  I looked for a recent picture of just me but it seems that in this last year, since Jude hit the scene, there have been no pictures of me solo.  I suppose c'est la vie.

I grew up in a small town in Haldimand Norfolk on a tobacco farm in the boonies.  After high school I moved to the city of Hamilton to attend McMaster University where I obtained a Bachelor of Commerce, along the way I married my high school sweetheart. 



After university I got a job as an Underwriter for a bonding company in Toronto where I worked for two years. 

On March 7th, 2010 our little bundle of joy was born. 

Jude Samuel - 6 days old

and I have been home with him loving the housewife life every since.  

Another new development in my life is as of today I am officially unemployed from the "workforce".  My maternity leave ended today and I am left with what now?  Shortly after Jude was born I dusted off my sewing machine and since then I have been dabbling in some children's dress-up projects.  I think they are pretty nifty and I hope to use this blog to showcase these items in hopes that you may want to purchase something off of me!  (: 

why the title 'the red bowtie'?  Much to the embarrassment of Jude, most of the items that I sew are for little girls.  But since I only have a little boy at home Jude often has to try on the girly items so that I can size them correctly (as per my husband there are no pictures, but you get the picture).  The first item that I made for Jude was a little red bowtie, so I thought it would be fitting to entitle my blog as such. 

Jude showing off in his red bowtie

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!