October 6, 2005 23:48 - Katrina, Adoption and Baby Shower

My website is only about baby shower ideas - so why I put the Katrina hit and adoption here?

According to CNN, three weeks after Katrina hit, there were still more than 2,000 children separated from their parents or missing altogether. How many of those children come from families caught in the grind of poverty we don't know, but given what we have learned in the past few weeks about those who suffered the most from Katrina, it's not unlikely that many of the children who have lost their families come from impoverished homes.

Eric Stange is a documentary filmmaker who has often collaborated with WGBH Boston.

He is working on a project called "Adoption Project".

What is a the Adoption Project?

Adoption: An American Revolution is a major multimedia project that will explore how transformations taking place in adoption today are having far-reaching effects on all our public and private lives.

The centerpiece of the project will be a two-hour documentary special for national public broadcasting. The documentary will feature a rich tapestry of original stories, illuminating the joys, the challenges and the impact of adoption.

The television broadcast will be linked to an ambitious adoption education effort, with innovative adoption-related materials for public libraries and schools, a new Web site with adoption resources, and more.

Again did you know almost two-thirds of Americans have a family member or close friend who is part of the adoption community?

You can help Eric and his colleagues to tell the real story of adoption through your support of this project.

Your donation will be used solely to fund Adoption: An American Revolution ¡ª an extraordinary opportunity for individuals to directly fund a project especially meaningful to them.

As the webmaster of Coolest-Baby-Shower-Idea.com, I encourage you throw a baby shower for adoptive parents and their new child.

But if you don't know how to plan a baby shower for adoption, dont' worry.

I've already prepare the answers about how to turn a long standing US tradition into a wonderful theme based baby shower for adoptive parents and their adopted baby.

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October 7, 2005 11:28 - Coolest Baby Shower Idea Has A New "RSS Home"

Coolest Baby Shower Idea has a new "home" for its RSS feed.

I'm adding RSS feature to my website which will let you know whenever any new or changed Web pages appear on the Coolest Baby Shower Themes Collection.

So I am changing the address of this RSS feed, which is the one that you have subscribed to. This feed will not be active any longer and, I will delete all the new pages and changes that were previously here.

Please delete the old RSS URL address and replace with my new one, by doing the following...

Right-click (control-click for Mac users) on any orange RSS button on a site, blog or news source that interests you. Start by right-clicking on the orange button below.

Then...

Select Copy Shortcut ("Copy Link to Clipboard" for Mac), and paste that URL into your RSS Reader.

And that's it! You're subscribed to my new RSS feed.

Right-click and get started.

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Don't want to download new software? Yahoo! and MSN have fantastic, one-step solutions. Just click one of the links below...

Add Coolest-Baby-Shower-Idea.com RSS to your "My Yahoo!"

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I hopt to have lots more coolest baby shower ideas to share with you!

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October 18, 2005 10:57 - Make Movies For Your Baby Shower?

Which kinds of movies can stimulate your babies and toddlers minds as weel as relax them?

Before you continue to read more, I mean if you're throwing a baby shower, why not check out these baby shower ideas directly from the Movie Studio in Hollywood?

Bonnie Sayers, the BellaOnline's Autism Spectrum Disorders Editor, talked about a one-of-a-kind baby video was created by the parents of triplets, and the parents of an infant and a two-year-old who decided to create a baby video.

Here is an excerpt from her article:

Calm Baby - Movie Review

Three years ago there was a segment on the local ABC news featuring the ladies behind this video, "Calm Baby". They are sisters-in-law with one the parent to triplets and the other has a toddler and an infant. They made this video for their children and when they realized how effective this video was they made it available online at a website located at www.calmbaby.tv.

Included in the price of $14.95 plus shipping and handling is an audio cd with twenty-three tracks covering thirty-four minutes of lullabies, nursery songs and classical music. Another option to order Calm Baby? is to call 1-800-236-9253. At the end of the video the credits show that most of the production on the video involved family of these two women.

The website gives a sampling of the music you will hear when viewing the video as well as some of the images found on the tape. Nicholas was seven when we got this and said that the music was lovely and several times commented on the cute toys profiled in Calm Baby?. His only complaint at the time was that he got dizzy at one of the first images of some spinning and twirling of lights.

Throughout the "Calm Baby" video are images of stuffed and rubber animals in various water arrangements. The rubber duckie is one of them plus a stuffed duck that has a continuing story in a few segments. The duck is like a puppet and he pushes a small purple bed, this is similar to a dollhouse item. Before the duck shows up again the screen has a white background with blue coloring at the bottom similar to waves floating around and some classical music accompanying the image.

This is a very relaxing and soothing video that could be played for children while parent is taking care of chores and before nap or bedtime. Older children will like to watch the various images that go by and remark on the colors and sounds and possibly sing along with the nursery songs.

I would certainly consider purchasing this for a baby shower gift.

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October 22, 2005 14:46 - Throw an eco-friendly baby shower?

The local parenting magazine in Portland, Metro Parent, recently featured an article about how to create an eco-friendly baby shower, based on a program started by the Oregon Environmental Council(OEC).

Parents who want to raise their children in an eco-healthy way have access to a great set of resources, thanks to the Tiny Footprints program by OEC. The Tiny Footprints program includes the new Tiny Footprints website www.tinyfootprints.org, and the nation's first eco-healthy Tiny Footprints Baby Shower Kit.

The baby shower ideas, from this party kit, are so wonderful and eco-friendly (healthy to the baby-to-come too!), including serving natural foods with organic ingredients, and using reusable tableware and decorations. You can also find lots of ideas about how to make your own invitation using recyled-content paper and your own creativities. And there are some unusual shower games and homemade craft activities that you can't find elsewhere, such as having guests each create a quilt square to be made into a blanket for baby, or collaborating on a special mobile for baby made out of special items brought by guests.

I thought this site was great and its creative ideas are useful to any parents-to-be and baby shower hostesses.

And if you really want to creat an awesome earth-friendly party setting, click here for some "green" and environmental homemade party favors - as we all, inlcude the new baby, have eternal bond with nature.

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October 27, 2005 19:06 - Baby Shower Recipes From The Tearoom

I found some great baby shower recipes from La Tea Da in Lousville (at Dolfinger's, 4600 Shelbyville Road).

Sonya Pabon and Sarah Veal both enjoyed meals at La Tea Da functions. Veal writes, "I had this salad at La Tea Da. It had beets in it. It was so wonderful! I thought that I would never like ¡­ beets. I was wrong!" Roasting the beets with orange peel gives this salad its special flavors.

Pabon described the two offerings she enjoyed at a baby shower at the tearoom: "First is a finger sandwich with a pimento cheese and apricot filling (fabulous) and a small square dessert bar that had some type of liqueur in it and a crusty top and bottom."

Debbie Wheat at La Tea Da sent the recipes for her winter salad, "goldenrod" tea sandwiches and Evelyn's pecan bars.

Here is one the special recipes from La Tea Da - Winter salad

5 medium beets, washed and trimmed top and bottom
1 navel orange, peeled, peel and fruit reserved
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons honey
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
4 shallots, peeled and coarsely diced
1/2 pound of baby lettuce or other tender salad green

Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a roasting pan, place whole, unpeeled beets and the orange rind. Drizzle both with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cover tightly with foil. Roast until fork tender, about 1 hour. Reserve pan juices, but discard the orange rind. When beets are cool enough to handle, rub off peel and cut the beets into ?-inch dice.

Add 1/3 cup of the pan juices (add more olive oil if there isn't enough juice) to a bowl along with the mustard, honey and vinegar. Whisk until well-combined. Toss beets in this dressing.

To serve, place a small pile of tender lettuce on each plate. Divide the beets among the plates. Garnish with sliced orange and chopped shallots.

Serves 4.

Per serving nutrition data: 239 calories, 14 grams fat, 3 grams protein, 23 grams carbohydrate, 5 grams fiber, 130 milligrams sodium.

And here are more baby shower recipes including Evelyn's Pecan Bars and Goldenrod Tea Sandwich.

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October 30, 2005 01:29 - Have A Community Baby Shower

Community 'shower' helps Womenspace

Taking the traditional baby shower to a new level, local women philanthropists are inviting the community to shower Womenspace with furnishings for rooms for children and families in offices the agency will move into early next year.

But the project goes beyond mere material objects for the 30-year-old nonprofit shelter and support agency for survivors of domestic violence, Womenspace Executive Director Cheryl O'Neill says.

It's a symbol of the community taking ownership of the issue, of the agency moving from behind the scenes into full view.

"The community seems to be welcoming us with open arms. The way they've taken this issue on as their own, it's what we've been working toward for a long time," O'Neill says.

The community shower also demonstrates an untapped and powerful resource that took form last year in the Women and Philanthropy Initiative of United Way of Lane County, initiative Chairwoman Stephanie Connor says.

Altogether, 200 women take part in the initiative, whose mission is to share time, talent and treasure with the community. The 60 founding members raised $260,000 last year for United Way programs.

"It is wildly successful. Women want to come together to do something wonderful and spectacular for their communities," says Doris Towery, chief operating officer and development director for the local United Way.

"We want to help women to be engaged, to get involved in volunteering, to mentor young women."

The community shower will furnish three rooms in the new 9,000-square-foot Womenspace office under renovation at 16th Avenue and Pearl Street in Eugene. It will be three times the size of the current office.

Because of its layout, the new office also will be more secure and more visible to the community and to clients - helping give the agency a higher public profile and remove some of the mystery about its operations, O'Neill says.

The shower will furnish a room for small children, which will feature a safari theme, and a room for teenagers, which will include video and computer gear. A small kitchen also will enable survivors and children to get meals while receiving services.

The new rooms and kitchen will support families in transition to better times, Towery says. "This is the celebration of these women being able to start a new life that is healthy and safe," she says.

Members of the Women and Philanthropy Initiative surprised even themselves with their success the first year, Connor says. The idea for the community shower was born in the group's monthly meetings, Connor says.

"It's got a great future. What is so exciting is that we decide what direction we want to pursue. Where does the passion take us? What are the needs?" she says. "I love the idea of having a community shower. I like the idea of being able to open this up to the whole community. There are so many people who have been affected by domestic violence."

COMMUNITY SHOWER

The Women and Philanthropy Initiative of the local United Way is showering Womenspace in celebration of the nonprofit domestic violence program's new location in Eugene.

What: Shower for Womenspace

Where: At local Target stores in Gateway Mall and on West 11th Avenue in Eugene, or on the Web under the gift registries at www.target.com.

How: Womenspace is listed in the gift registry at Target with goods it needs to equip a kitchen and rooms for young children and teens in their new office. Registry names: Womenspace, Children; Womenspace, Teens; Womenspace, Kitchen.

Who: Community members can contribute by purchasing the listed goods for Womenspace. Donations may be left at Target stores' customer service counters for delivery to United Way, or may be dropped off at the United Way office, 3171 Gateway Loop, Springfield.

Alternative gift: Checks for the Womenspace capital campaign for the new office can be mailed to Womenspace at P.O. Box 50127, Eugene, OR, 97405.

More information: Therese Nguyen at 741-6000, Ext. 119, or e-mail tnguyen@unitedwaylane.org

Published: Saturday, October 22, 2005

By Bill Bishop
The Register-Guard

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