The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

First gift certificate order of the year with a Merry Christmas in the message!

The big sellers at Wells Street

What did everyone want at the Wells Street Art Festival this weekend? maggie delaney. We were hopping all weekend long and loving it. So, what was the big hit in the maggie delaney booth? The perfect dress - the Monarch and the maggie delaney bandana. Spring in Chicago has been chilly and rainy, and everyone was drawn to the Monarch sun dresses, floating in the breeze.

The other hot item was the maggie delaney bandana. We noticed a couple different moms buying one bandana for their baby girls and then coming back later to buy 3 more! The babies can't easily pull them off, and they look especially adorable on the baby girls who are not sporting a lot of hair.

summer arts festival time and maggie delaney give away

maggie delaney is excited to see our adorable dresses hanging on clothes lines at two of our favorie summer arts festivals: Wells Street in Chicago June 12 and 13 and the Brookings Summer Arts Festival in South Dakota July 10 and 11.

In honor of all of the great summer arts festivals out there, maggie delaney is hosting a drawing right now on the maggie delaney Facebook page and the maggie delaney Fishbowl blog. Post your favorite summer arts festival on either our Facebook page or blog, and you will be entered into a drawing to win a maggie delaney monarch in the orange you glad it's spring fabric combination (you choose the size). Post by Wednesday, May 26 to be entered in our drawing.

orange you glad it's spring?

Having lived in the Washington, DC area for a good portion of my life, I absolutely, positively love spring. The cherry blossoms around the tidal basin make me smile. I remember waddling around the tidal basin when I was super pregnant with Miss Maggie, just wishing she would be born. And, I remember when she was not quite a year old, she and I woke up really early (probably 5:30 am) on a Saturday morning and I packed her and the stroller in the car, drove into DC and watched the sun rise as we walked through the cherry blossoms.

At any rate, what I love most about spring is seeing color again. After the dreary skies of late winter and the white snow and brown grass, the colors of spring are so encouraging and hopeful. I never get into the newness of the New Year, but I love the newness of spring. Spring must be the season for optomists.

To celebrate the optomism of spring, maggie delaney is featuring a fabric combination we call Orange You Glad it's Spring in the ready made/store portion of our website. Order the dress in sizes 3-6 months up to 8 years now, and we will ship it to you right away.

To a t

We are trying some new t shirt concepts . . . we'd love to hear what you think of this one.

This was designed to go with the alien flowers skirt for our Facebook contest winner, Su. When I went to drop it off at her house, there were two storks in her front yard. She had twins! So exciting. I am hoping that the outfit will make her oldest daughter feel special as she finds out what having siblings is all about.

A Chicken in Every Pot

I made a stir fry yesterday from "Cuisine at Home," and it was not good -- at all. So, I had to redeem my dinner-making prowess tonight. I ran to a Giada for help. I love her family cookbook.

I made this amazingly simple baked chicken tonight for dinner, and Maggie said it was the best meal she has ever had! It really was delicious. Here's the recipe:

Giada's Garlic Citrus Baked Chicken

That's Giada photographed above, not me... I'll have to work on that one. I don't think there's a recipe.

Halloween Sugar Cookies, oh my!

Just a bit confused Saturday morning... I woke up thinking Halloween was this week and I needed to make sugar cookies for Henry's Halloween party at school this week. It's opening pheasant hunting season so the kids and I were husband/fatherless on Saturday and I started sifting powdered sugar and mixing the dough, using the delicious sugar cookie recipe my mom always used from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book. I usually double the recipe, which means I have to use 3 cups of powdered sugar and a whole pound (gasp) of butter. Wouldn't Julia be proud? At any rate, I must need to brush up on my multiplication tables because I went to double the eggs... and, well, the recipe calls for 1 egg and soon I realized I had put 4 eggs in the dough! I was a bit sad about needing to dump a pound of butter when Maggie suggested that I quadruple the recipe instead. I decided we could easily give away sugar cookies and went for it. It was 6 hours later, when I was on the phone with my mom, that I realized Halloween is two weeks away... So, now I have a bakery size lump of sugar cookie dough in my fridge. I'm steeling myself to roll out all these cookies. I think they'll keep okay in the fridge if I bake them now and frost them just before Halloween? Any bakers out there with some advice?