Photo by Paul and Jill

Yesterday we published Part 1 of this post with a list of some of the coolest Finds featuring iconic and classic Day of the Dead symbols such as calaveras and calacas.
Today we continue with the feast. Enjoy!

Chocolate Day of the Dead Skulls

One of the most traditional aspects of a Día de los Muertos celebration are the chocolate and sugar calaveras, or skulls, you get and give as gifts.  It´s usual to personalize it with the name of the person you´re giving it to.  It´s wonderful to walk into Mexican markets around these days and see stalls full of these sweet and colorful confections.  I found an Etsy shop by the name of 2gorditas that makes these skulls by hand out of yummy white chocolate and hand-paints them, making each one truly unique.  For $15 you get a gift box with 6 chocolate skulls to give away as treats, favors or to use as cupcake toppers.  Oh yeah, you can also indulge in them all by yourself!  ¡Se vale!

Dia de los Muertos Sticker Book

Stickers make every kid happy.  This book has 25 vibrant stickers that celebrate Day of the Dead in English and Spanish.  It also introduces children to this traditional holiday and the festival atmosphere that accompanies it.  I’m also loving the $4.95 price tag on it.  You can find it on Amazon, via La Tiendita.

Muertos T-shirt for Dad

Have papá get in the Day of the Dead mood with this rocking t-shirt from the SleepyManatee Etsy shop.  He can do both Halloween and Muertos with this one and style it out.  This Find is available for $14 here.

Day of the Dead Crafts Book

I´m still  in search of my crafty bone (no pun intended!), but it seems to be hiding deep with in.  This book is perfect to at least inspire me to create Día de los Muertos inspired objects such as calacas, masks, skulls, altars and ofrendas (gifts) to place on the altars we make.  There are more than 24 projects that celebrate the festivity, making it a perfect starting point to gather your family around the theme.  It´s discounted at $13.95 in La Tiendita.

Las Flores de la Muerte

Frida Kahlo is one of the artists responsible for making the Day of the Dead celebration more widely known of and focusing on its mystical, colorful and joyous aspect.  This is a print from My Pink Turtle Studio that features a Frida and skulls wrapped in flower petals.  I had to include it as a find for it´s unique take and the gorgeous use of colors and patterns to bring this piece to life.  The print is an 8 x 10 reproduction of a folk art collage painting and will only cost you $15 to treasure it.  Go here to get it while they still have them.

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

While many are busy getting ready for Halloween, we want to spice things up a bit for the bicultural families amongst us with a little Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) feast.

Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 1st in Mexico and some Latin American countries.  It´s a day to remember the loved ones in our lives that have passed on.  We remember them with joy and happiness.

Latinos know how to turn everything into a fiesta and give it color!  Typical Día de Muertos iconic figures include the vibrant calacas, or skeletons, and calaveras, or skulls.  We´ve rounded up the coolest finds around the web of decorations, clothing, accesories and books featuring dancing and smiling calacas y calaveras for your very own Muertos celebration.

Handmade Skull Garland

We found this garland, and the one pictured above, in Raw Bone Studio´s Etsy shop.  You get eight colorful and handmade felt skulls with different whimsical expressions.  Nothing dark or spooky here!  Garlands always set the tone.

They are a bit pricey for $40, but this is something you can store away in your Día de Muertos box and bring out every year.  The memories it will bring your kids every year will surely amount to much more.

Skull Ornament

Nine ornaments made to resemble the typical sugar skulls kids get as treats during this holiday. Each ornament is handmade with soft, lightweight fabric so you can hang these unique pieces anywhere you want to add some Muertos cheer.  We found these at Miss Butler´s Etsy shop for $45.  Think Muerto´s heirloom at its best.

EL FESTIVAL DE LAS CALAVERAS

This book´s complete title is Festival of Bones/El Festival de las Calavera: The Little-Bitty Book for the Day of the Dead. Author and illustrator Luis San Vicente created a bilingual (English/Spanish) book that´s perfect for young readers to learn more about the Day of the Dead and the festive, yet respectful, atmosphere that surrounds it. So festive, even skeletons dress up to party!
Find this book for $10.17 in La Tiendita.

Skull Felt Baby Shoes

Cute, cute, cute!  Franny and June´s Etsy shop has adorable and unique handmade felt shoes that you will want to get for every baby in your life.  They´ve made a girl´s and a boy´s version for  Día de los Muertos decorated with embroidered sugar skulls you´ll want to eat off!  Get a pair for $24 at their online store.

Skull Pendant

A skull pendant with colorful Buri beads from WinkArtisans brings the bling to the holiday and elevates the Day of the Dead calavera to a fashion statement.  Find it at their Etsy shop for $4o.

We still have more Día de Muertos Finds to share with you.  We´ll see you here tomorrow for the second part of this calaca and calavera feast!

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

That’s exactly the way the publishers describe this Frida Kahlo Coloring Book for children: Big art for little hands.  And this is one I really want to get my own hands on.  I can even imagine myself begging my two-year old to sit down and color with me the fascinating 32 pages on this book.  She would probably be over it after roughly squiggling undefined lines with a couple of colors, while I sit there patiently trying to recreate the masterpieces of Mexico’s most known female artist with a palette of Crayolas.

Frida Kahlo’s work is a manifestation of identity through culture.  She, along with her husband Diego Rivera, revived many of Mexico’s lost colors, faces and traditions. This enchanting coloring book introduces her magical art to your budding artista at a level he can be comfortable with. Plus, for only $8.95 gives you a much needed dose of cultura amidst the plastic, the cartoons and the hyper activeness of children’s daily life.

Get this Find in La Tiendita, powered by Amazon.

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

I swore I wouldn’t be one of those moms who started her baby’s memory book with fervor and wrote something on it every single day from the moment she was born only to stop doing it abruptly after about her second birthday. But, I have to fess up: that’s exactly what has happened.

However, because I believe in second chances, a couple of weeks before my newborn, Santiago, was born back in August, I frantically started looking for a memory book for him, but all I could find were different versions of the exact same one I’d bought for Vanessa more than three years ago. The weird thing is that they seemed to be from different companies and the designs and font were totally different, but the content was exactly the same.

And then, I found this memory book in Spanish called “Esta es mi historia” sold exclusively through the online store, Dolls Like Me, which we recently reviewed here. And I was truly surprised by its originality.

Here’s a few things I really liked about it:

• It’s in Spanish – Yay!
• It’s a three-ring binder – meaning you can add or take out the pages
• As you can see in the picture above, it includes categories that only Latinos celebrate, like Reyes Magos.

Ok, time for another confession. The memory book goes all the way from birth to your child’s high school graduation. I’m sorry, but I don’t see it happening. If I thought going all the way to first grade was too much, imagine keeping memories for 12 more years! Anyhow, it’s nice to know it’s there. I bet I’ll probably be really diligent and excited about filling out the pages of some of the years, while some of the others will stay as clean and empty as they are right now Either way, at least it’s totally different from anything else out there!

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to our winner #2 – Benita G!

We’re giving away one of this truly original memory books to one lucky winner! To enter, please visit Dolls Like Me and come back to leave us a comment about any of their products.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, October 18th at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

Anything that helps make mealtime at my house more fun and cute gets an A+ in my book. Add to that the fact that these chic Alphabet Placemats are bilingual, double-sided, heavy duty, washable and can be personalized with vibrant colors and by adding your kid’s nombre.

An ingenious mamá of three from Miami created a very special line of Alphabet Plates and Placemats that can be completely customized to make it a unique gift for your family or a special friend.  Just head over to the very easy to navigate online store and choose from the many options to create your own designer melamine plate to treasure.  The option to personalize the plates is genius enough, but she also realized the huge need for bilingual products to serve our multicultural families.  So, she decided to offer the option of choosing from six languages, including Spanish, to create custom placemats.

We have a double-sided one with the words for fork, napkin, cup, knife, plate and spoon in English in one side, and Spanish in the other.  You can have fun designing  and getting your own for $20, or you can win one here!  You know we like taking care of you like that.

A Giveaway!!

This giveaway is now CLOSED.  Congratulations to the winners:  #10 MICHELE and #31 CHRYSA!

We’re giving away a 2-sided English/Spanish placemat in the color of your choice to TWO lucky winners.  This is a truly unique find.  To enter go to the Alphabet Plates website and tell us which color combination you want for your placemat if you win.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Friday, October 9th at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

{Make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified of our weekly Finds, special discounts and more awesome giveaways.}

Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

Creativity, culture, imagination and fun all in one little kit. I wished I would have found these make-your-own-piñata kits when my girl turned two.  Since she´s terrified of basically all types of piñatas after she witnessed the destruction of a Dora-shaped one, this one would have been a perfect way to involve her in the process and maybe that way she would have been more receptive to the idea.

We could have picked the shape she wanted from the elephant, dinosaur or pig.  Each box from Curiosity Kits comes with five vibrant colors, decals, stickers and more to help us creatively and easily put together a lovely piñata.  Imagine how proud your child will feel when he finishes this project!

Maybe next year I´ll go crazy and get many kits in all three animals and make it a party game.  Then we´ll have the kids stuff the piñatas with candy and take turns at them, or, more peacefully, have them take their piñatas home as a party favor.  Or I´ll just keep one around for those long rainy days perfectly suitable for some cultural arts + crafts and an improvised indoor piñata fiesta.  Que llueva, que llueva….

Find this Fiesta Elephant Piñata at the online toy store Action Toys, Inc.

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Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "

Etsy is my favorite site to browse for original, artistic and unique Finds.  You´ll be happily surprised at the many cute things you can find for our niños and for ourselves that are bursting with attitude and have been created by Latinos y Latinas.

I´m especially fond of supporting artists who are keeping it real by doing what they love.

It was here that I found Miss Butler´s Etsy shop where she showcases her vibrant creations which are all made with fabrics that remind her of her travels thru México and Latin America.

Her Spanish-English bean bag set is so wonderfully unique that I had to share it with you.  Kids like to throw stuff around, that we know very well.  Why not give them these adorable bean bags to release some kiddie tension with?  Or, you can just keep them to yourself-yes, we´re allowed- to use as door stoppers or paper weights.

Each set comes with four bean bags made with colorful fabric prints.  One has a burro on one side and words in Spanish on the flip.  There´s one with a folkloric Mexican niño and niña with a piñata on the reverse.  Another bag will teach them colors in Spanish and English and one more with numbers from 1-6 in Spanish.

This will be one of those things you own that people will be asking about:  “How cute!  Where did you get this?”  Well, since these are handmade and the fabric is so special, this is truly a rare find and you can tell them so.

A Giveaway!!

Congratulations to our winner:  Heather Goldsmith!!

We’re giving away a set of Miss Butler’s bilingual bean bags!  For a chance to win it go to Miss Butler’s Etsy shop, then come back here and tell us what else from her catalog you liked.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends Sunday, September 13th, at midnight EST.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

{Make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified of our weekly Finds, special discounts and more awesome giveaways.}

Secret Phrase: "One of the greatest feats of human development is the acquisition of language. "