Sweet Memories Family Shop

Mother's Day Gifts

2007-05-05T02:03:00.000-07:00

And here we go again... one of the most impressionable holidays of the year is knocking on our doors. It's the time to show your love and appreciation to the sweetest and dearest person in the world, the one who loved and cared for you without asking nothing in exchange, your mother.

To help you, we have added in our family store a few unique gifts for this special day. From mother's day t-shirts to framed panel prints and bags, any of them can be a suitable gift for her.

"Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall, A mother's secret hope outlives them all."

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Double Trouble

2007-05-03T04:54:00.000-07:00

Double Trouble Gifts for twins seem to be liked by everyone... Do you have baby twins? Then you should try some of our baby clothing items. Your babies will be adorable by wearing them and will make everyone smile. Keep them beautiful in our new colors available, blue and pink.

And don't forget to pay a visit to our family gifts.

Due In T-shirts

2006-10-24T23:05:00.000-07:00

Now, you can find at Sweet Memories Family Shop new and cute maternity t-shirts. With the newly launched due in t-shirts, you can also tell everyone what it's going to be: a boy or a girl. The t-shirts and gifts are available in 2 colors: blue for announcing a baby boy, and pink for a girl. Just take a look. They are sweet!

Due in December
Due in April

The t-shirts are available for any month of the year here: Sweet Maternity Clothing.

Leave me a comment if you like them. :)

Babies Love ...

2006-09-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

New on Sweet Memories Family Shop : BABY FUNNY GIFTS

What do babies love? Being a baby is the sweetest thing in the world: they are funny, loveble, hugged by everyone. Therefore, cute and funny clothing is always welcome... A simple toddler t-shirt, a bib or an infant creeper can say something amusing like:

I Love Boobies , I Love My Geek Daddy

I Love My Daddies And They Love Me

I Love Veggies

I Love Milk

I Love Apple Juice

I Love Toys

Family Reunion Design

2006-07-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

A new family reunion design is available at Sweet Memories Family Shop. On various t-shirts and gifts, this design has a beautiful color and can easily express how amazing your family is. The t-shirts are available for every member of your family (e.g: amazing mother, amazing uncle, amazing grandpa) or for the whole family - the amazing family. Very interesting and fashionable are the black t-shirts.

I Love My Cousin

2006-05-23T01:41:00.000-07:00

I Love My Cousin bib... This was the first item I sold when I opened the store. It began the way I wanted... with love... I never thought someone will buy this one. I was just waiting and waiting to see my first sale until one day : "You made a sale". And after that I sold more and more t-shirts with this design... It seemd there were many people who loved their cousin.After a while the design dissapeared from google search and no one ever bought it ever again. I sold many other things but this was the beginning, a sweet one. I hope one day someone will find it again and buy it to bring him or her luck, because it brought me luck, brought me sales. :)

Mother's Day

2006-04-22T02:58:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Around the World - almost a month until 14th of May

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday". Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter*), "Mothering Sunday" honored the mothers of England.

During this time many of the England's poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe the celebration changed to honor the "Mother Church" - the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm. Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration . People began honoring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Mass ever year.

In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day. Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which also celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.

From Holidays on the Net

Comboutique Sweets

2006-03-27T07:12:00.000-08:00

Lemon Ice Tea

2006-03-22T12:35:00.000-08:00

1879 - The oldest sweet tea recipe (ice tea) in print comes from a community cookbook called Housekeeping in Old Virginia, by Marion Cabell Tyree, published in 1879:
Ice Tea. - After scalding the teapot, put into it one quart of boiling water and two teaspoonfuls green tea. If wanted for supper, do this at breakfast. At dinner time, strain, without stirring, through a tea strainer into a pitcher. Let it stand till tea time and pour into decanters, leaving the sediment in the bottom of the pitcher. Fill the goblets with ice, put two teaspoonfuls granulated sugar in each, and pour the tea over the ice and sugar.

A squeeze of lemon will make this delicious and healthful, as it will correct the astringent tendency.

Hot Chocolate

2006-03-19T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hot chocolate is a beverage typically consisting of milk, chocolate or cocoa powder, and sugar. It became popular in Europe after being introduced from the New World.

History

The first users of cacao were most likely the Olmecs, a Native American people of Mesoamerica and the oldest civilization of The Americas (1500-400 BC). Later, the Maya civilization consumed cacao-based drinks made with beans from their plantations in the Chontalpa region of present-day Tabasco, Mexico. They created a drink which in Nahuatl was called "xocolatl" (xococ, bitter atl, water), the "x" being an archaic Spanish phoneme with a similar pronunciation as the modern English "sh". This drink was made from roasted cocoa beans, water, and a little spice. Cocoa beans were also used as a currency.

Following the European "discovery" of America, Christopher Columbus returned from the New World with cocoa beans, but the Europeans favored other, more practical trade goods. However, in 1517 Hernn Corts landed on the Mexican coast near Veracruz. He made his way to Tenochtitlan to see the famed riches of Emperor Moctezuma and the Aztec empire.

Montezuma introduced Hernn Corts to his favourite drink, "chocolatl", which he served in a golden goblet. "The chocolatl was a potation of chocolate flavored with vanilla and spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold."[1] Moctezuma consumed his "chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem, leading to the belief that it was an aphrodisiac.
Corts returned to Spain in 1528 with galleons loaded with cocoa beans and chocolate drink making equipment. The court of King Charles V soon adopted it, and "chocolate" became a fashionable drink popular with the Spanish upper class. Additionally, cocoa was given as a dowry when members of the Spanish Royal Family married other European aristocrats. It took nearly a century for chocolate to achieve popularity throughout Europe, as the Spanish kept the delicacy secret.

Development

Drinking chocolate was originally a cold mixture of ground cocoa beans and water with the addition of spices such as cayenne pepper, pimento, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla. The ancients drank it from large bowls so they could take in all of its aromas. By the time it was introduced to Europe, the more pungent spices in the drink were replaced with cane sugar and it was served hot instead of cold.
After being introduced in England, milk was added to the after dinner treat. By the 18th Century, so-called "Chocolate Houses" were as popular as coffee houses. The first "Chocolate House" opened in London in 1657. Because it was so expensive, hot chocolate was considered a drink for the elite.
"Hot chocolate" is a retronym and the drink was originally simply called "chocolate". The subsequent popularity of "chocolate bar" forced the invention of the term "hot chocolate" to distinguish it from "chocolate" which now means "bar chocolate".
By 1828, the first cocoa powder producing machine had been developed in The Netherlands, which generated a less acidic, more processed cocoa, now known as dutch-process cocoa. The new form of cocoa was easier to blend with warm milk or water.
Americans began using the terms "hot chocolate" and "hot cocoa" interchangeably, obscuring the considerable difference between the two. True hot chocolate is made with dark, semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces and stirred into milk.
A modern American concept is the addition of marshmallows to hot chocolate. Some packaged hot cocoa mixes come with small dry marshmallows.

Place in modern society

Today hot chocolate is consumed throughout the world. It is especially popular in New England during the winter, where it is made to accompany large snowstorms. Hot chocolate is also popular throughout Europe.
In Spain, hot chocolate and churros was the traditional working-man's breakfast. This spanish style of hot chocolate is very thick, having the consistency of warm chocolate pudding. Due to the high fat content of this meal, it has fallen out of favor with the more sedentary lifestyles of the urban age.

from Wikipedia Open Source

Martisoare

2006-03-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

1st of March, first day of spring... Martisoare everywhere, white and red, so simple and so beautiful gifts for the loved ones when celebrating the arrival of spring. People are smiling for the first time this year, looking for a martisor for the family and friends.

How did this little symbol of spring appeared?
The legend says that one day the sun came down to earth as a human being, with the face of a beautiful boy. A monster kidnapped him and no one had the courage to fight for the sun. The world was sad, the birds were singing no more until one day when a courageous young man left for the monster's palace. He traveled for 3 seasons, summer, autumn and winter to get to that palace. In the last day of winter he fought with the monster and saved the sun...but he was really bad injured and died...His red blood mixed with the beautiful white snow. Therefore, in the memory of his courage the young people make these red and white little gifts named ”martisoare” to celebrate the beautiful spring and the sun the hero never saw again.

Pink Is Life, Pink Is funny

2006-02-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

Have you ever wondered what's the real colour of life?

Is it really pink? So warm colour, a colour of sensibility and dreaming with your eyes open... and laugh :)

So there was a big pink man driving down a big pink road, in a big pink car and hit a big pink dog. so he got out of his big pink car and walked across the big pink road and into the big pink forest and came to a big pink house, and knocked on the big pink door, and a big pink man answered. the big pink man goes i need somewhere to stay for the big pink night.. the big pink man says ok, you can stay on the big pink 3rd floor. just go up the big pink stairs and it's the big pink door on your big pink left...so another big pink man goes down the big pink road, and runs out of big pink gas stay for the big pink night. so the big pink man says that you can stay on the big pink 2nd floor. just go up the big pink stairs and it's the first big pink door on your big pink left o another big pink man is driving down the big pink road and runs into a big pink fire hydrant.and he gets out of his big pink car and awlks across the big pink road, and into the big pink forest and comes to the big pink house and knocks on the big pinkdoor, and asked the man to stay at his big pink house for the big pink night o the big pink man says sure you can stay on the big pink couch so in the mornin the big pink man goes to all the big pink mens' rooms, and says that breakfast will be in the big pink dinnin room in a big pink 5 minutes so when they all get to the big pink dinnin room, the big pink man asks what they want for breakfast the 1st big pink man says i'll have a big pink bowl of cheerios the 2nd man says i'll have a big pink bowl of cheerios the 3rd man says i'll have a big pink bowl of frosted flakes so what did we learn from this joke? every 2 out of 3 big pink men prefer cheerios over frosted flakes.

Still Winter....

2006-02-25T02:33:00.000-08:00

Mother Winter is not leaving us yet...still snowing...big, white, easy snow flakes float in the air above us. It's so cold. Everywhere red noses, white trees, sad people. The fluffy clouds let the sun send some of his glimmer, but too little. I remember how I loved this time of the year on I was small...I still love it.

This silence...EVERYTHING is quiet.... nothing moves, no one speaks... no sounds, no voices, no music...just a deep silence covering all things around me... my feelings and my thoughts are mute... a moment in time, a point in a millon... trying to touch the sky. but not able to make a move, trying to see beyond the clouds and I am blind...

Family The Greatest Gift

2006-02-23T23:50:00.000-08:00

We only have one family in this World, one life. Don't wait for tomorrow to tell your family you love them.

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." Erma Bombeck

If the family were a fruit, it would be an orange, a circle of sections, held together but separable - each segment distinct. ~Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Father! - to God himself we cannot give a holier name. ~William Wordsworth