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Personalised Baby Blanket
How can you express your happiness to your friends if they have just given birth to a new baby? A large bottle of champagne might go down well with the happy couple and a thoughtful present for the little one will also be warmly received. Unique types of presents are always the best and if you can personalise the present somehow then so much for the better. Ranges of personalised presents exist for tiny babies and they all look utterly adorable. Items like a Personalised Baby Blanket can keep tiny Timmy or little Lucy snug and warm on the coldest of winter nights. Reversible soft fleece blankets can be bought through retailers and they can be embroidered with the baby`s name and date of birth. Both pink and blue blankets can be purchased to cater for little girls or boys and cute little characters are embroidered into the corners. On a pink or light pink Personalised Baby Blanket you might find some cheeky little bunnies. The blue blankets might have teddies in the corner or perhaps a cute little dinosaur. You can show your friends how delighted you are for their new arrival by giving them a pretty and practical Personalised Baby Blanket to keep their little one warm throughout the day or night.

Badges
The basics of pin Badges stem back over numerous years but the fact remains that Badges are still as popular today as they have always been. When used as promotional pieces Badges can be highly effective and anyone that is considering putting a promotional campaign together might like to use Badges as a means of advertising. How many times have you seen politicians on the ?party` bus using Badges as means of promoting their party? You`ll see pensioners and kids, adults and animals wearing all types of the Badges in very prominent positions. The reason why badges are still popular as promotional pieces is that these little advertising aids are fun. If you want to promote your message in a positive manner then badges can be the ideal solutions. Bands that need the right types of advertising aids can use a variety of badges to good effect. Because they are relatively inexpensive to have printed, a cool looking badge can be given away to help build a fan base. In fact, if you look at the prices of batches of badges you`ll find that these inexpensive items can be printed for less than you would imagine. If you have specific artwork in mind you`ll be able to download it to specialist badge making companies and they`ll be able to make you a brilliant batch of bold badges. The basics of pin badges have remained the same for many years and they are still as popular today as they always have been.

As a busy working mother, I?m short on time, especially during the holidays, but baking Christmas cookies is a family tradition I?m unwilling to give up.

Over the years, I?ve come up with many ways to make the process of baking a large variety of cookies go much smoother and take less time out of my busy life.

You may want to start by checking out my 6-day program for hassle-free Christmas cookie baking ( http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/hassle-free.php ). In addition to the 6-step method, I?ve found an efficient way to prepare a large variety of cookie dough with minimum fuss by setting up a cookie assembly line. The best part about this process is that you can make 12 different batches of cookies and only have to wash the dishes once! This process assumes that you have already chosen your recipes and gone grocery shopping. You will want to use your longest available expanse of countertop for this. My assembly line turns two corners as it winds around my small kitchen, but that is fine.

You may need to make some adjustments depending on your individual recipes, but for most recipes, you can set up your assembly line like so:

Flour Line:

Large mixing bowl
Measuring cups and spoons
Fork for stirring
Flour
Baking powder and baking soda
Salt
Cocoa powder
Spices
Any other dry ingredients that are added to the flour in your recipes

Butter Line

Another large mixing bowl (or the bowl from your stand mixer)
A second set of measuring cups and spoons
Electric mixer
Wooden spoon
Rubber spatula
Butter, shortening, margarine and/or cream cheese
Sugar (white and brown)
Eggs
Vanilla and other extracts
Chunks such as raisins, nuts, chocolate chips
Rolled oats
Any other ingredients that are added to the butter and eggs in your recipes
Plastic wrap
Felt-tip marker

To avoid transferring flavors from one recipe to another, you will start with basic recipes that have no spices, chocolate, or other strongly flavored ingredients. Starting with your first recipe, go down the line measuring out the amount of flour, baking powder/soda and salt into one bowl. Then, combine the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla in your larger bowl as directed. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. After that, stir in any chunks.

Next, scrape down the edges of the mixing bowl so that it?s fairly clean, shape the dough into a ball, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Identify the recipe by writing its name on the plastic wrap with a felt-tip marker, and refrigerate it. If it is a slice-and-bake refrigerator cookie, form it into a log instead of a ball, according to the directions in your recipe. If you plan to bake much later, you can even freeze the dough. Most cookie doughs freeze very well. Defrost at room temperature while still wrapped in plastic wrap, and unwrap only when dough is thoroughly defrosted. Otherwise condensation could add too much moisture to your dough.

When your first batch of dough is prepared, wrapped, and stored in the refrigerator or freezer, return to the beginning of your assembly line, without washing your dishes, and begin preparing the next batch of dough. When you have prepared all the recipes that contain no spices or cocoa, move on to the recipes that contain cocoa, and finally those that contain spices. This way, you will only have to do dishes once at the end of the process, and you will have several different kinds of dough waiting to be baked.

When all your dough is prepared, then you can finally put away all your ingredients, clean up the kitchen, and do your dishes. Now if you plan to finish your baking today, you?ll have lots of space for rolling out your dough or setting out your cooling racks. If you plan to bake another day, you?re done!