First Time Mom and Losing It

Being a crafty mom I love to create homemade things and make the holidays special for my daughter. Valentine's Day is one of the super fun holidays that I love to craft for. I love the hearts and all of the pink and red!

For my daughter's first Valentine's Day she was almost 8 months old so I made her a Baby Friendly Valentine. Then on her second Valentine's Day she was 1 1/2 so I made her a healthy Valentine Cookie Bar and a Valentine's Day Shirt.

This year I decided to make her some Valentines that she could hand out to the other little girls in her dance class. I thought it would be super appropriate to make little bows for my daughter's cute little dance mates to adorn their adorable ballerina buns. First I went to my stash of bows and picked a cute pick chevron design. Then out came the glue gun, hair clip, needle and thread.


 First I cut a 14" long piece of the 1" chevron ribbon and a 1 1/2" inch long piece of the pink 1/2" ribbon.


Then I took the chevron ribbon and formed it into a figure 8.


Next you take the two loops of the figure 8 and bring them to the center and hold together.


Then you pleat the middle of the bow and take a needle and thread and sew through and around the bow a few times to hold the middle in place. Cut the thread and tie the ends. Trim the ends.


Take the light pink ribbon and wrap around the middle of the bow. Hot glue the ends together.


Take an 8" long piece of the pink ribbon and hot glue it around the clip.


Hot glue the covered clip to the back of the bow in the center. Print out the Valentine Bow Holder and make sure to print out on card stock using the Actual Size setting. Then I cut around the edge of the printable with a scalloped scissor. Cut out the little black rectangles with an exacto knife.

Clip on your finished bow.



To see more detailed pictures and instructions of the figure 8 bow or wrapping the clip in ribbon, check out my Easter Boutique Bow Tutorial

**I received the product below free for my review. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be a good fit for my readers. All opinions are 100% my own.



Now that I am incorporating exercise back into my routine I feel so much better. There was a period during the holidays that I didn't do any form of exercise. I started to feel tired, sluggish and my back was starting to hurt again. A weak core means an achy back for me.

I started doing exercise again with my DynaPro Resistance Bands and Door Anchor and already feel myself getting stronger in my arms and legs. DynaPro generously gave me one of their Exercise Balls to review so I was excited to get started on working on my core and back with it.

In the box you get the ball and a pump to inflate it. I remember years ago buying an exercise ball and it didn't come with a pump. It sat in the box for weeks until I went out and borrowed a little pump. The DynaPro Exercise Ball was super easy and fast to inflate and I was ready to get exercising with it.

I love how the box has pictures of tons of different exercises you can do with the exercise ball. I started doing these and then when I mastered them I did a search on YouTube for "exercise ball". Hundreds of videos showed up and I picked the beginner one shown below.

Then I came across the video below from Bryan n Rob where they show you 100 different exercises you can do with an exercise ball!  An exercise ball is a great investment if you are going to be working out at home. You can do tons of different exercises and it can be adapted from beginner to expert. If you are looking to purchase one I highly recommend the one from DynaPro. It is constructed of professional grade PVC and anti-burst up to 2000 lbs.  Click on the link to purchase a DynaPro Exercise Ball on Amazon. You can also take your chances and enter the giveaway below to win one!  a Rafflecopter giveaway No purchase is necessary to enter. One US entrant per household. The Winner will be contacted by email and given 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. The sponsor will be responsible for product shipment to the winner of this giveaway. 

This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Farmland® and Latina Bloggers Connect.


My family and friends like to get together on Super Bowl Sunday even though we are not huge football fans. My husband's birthday always falls around the date so that gives us the extra excuse to get together to celebrate. We have the usual American fare but being Latin we always throw in some Puerto Rican staples like chirraron del pollo instead of chicken wings and tostones instead of fries.

I wanted to take my yummy pizza dip and "latinize" it by adding some amazing picadillo with my favorite sausage from Farmland®. Picadillo is what us Puerto Rican's use to stuff everything! It is usually made with ground beef, pepper and onions, olives, sofrito and some tomato sauce. I wanted to make my picadillo extra special so I used sausage instead of the boring ground beef. Farmland®  Homestyle Sausage is my favorite because it is gluten free with no MSG. It has a burst of natural flavor with enough fat to give it the best texture!


First I diced some peppers and onions and softened them in a tiny bit of olive oil. Then I removed the casing from the Farmland® homestyle sausage and added it to the pan with the onions and peppers.


After the sausage has browned a bit I added the sofrito. When the sausage was completely browned and cooked I added the tomato sauce and cooked it on medium heat for about 5 minutes.



I took a small casserole dish and layered the softened cream cheese and sour cream in the bottom. Then I added a layer of the picadillo and then topped it with mozzarella cheese. I baked it in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The cheese should be browned slightly and bubbly.



Instead of your ordinary chips or tortillas I used platano and yucca chips!





Queso Fundido Sausage Picadillo Dip (Printable Recipe)

• 1 pound of Farmland® Homestyle Sausage
• 1/4 cup sofrito (found in the freezer section or substitute a few handfuls of chopped cilantro)
• 1/4 cup diced green pepper
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/4 cup olives stuffed with pimento, chopped
• 1 tblsp capers
• 4 ounces of canned tomato sauce
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 
2. Add the pepper and onion to a pan with a little bit of oil and cook until slightly softened. 
3. Remove the sausage from the casing and add to the pepper and onion. When sausage is starting to brown add the sofrito. Cook until the sausage is fully browned and cooked. 
4. Add the olives, capers and tomato sauce and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. 
5. Mix the cream cheese and sour cream and place in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Add the picadillo on top and then sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the cheese has browned a bit and is bubbly. 
7. Serve with platano and yucca chips.