The mac to my cheese

For this year's Halloween costume choices we decided to put the belly to good use.  I looked on Pinterest and checked out pregnancy forums for pregnancy costume ideas, and most of them were either gross or shameful.  The two most popular that I saw were the pumpkin belly (which I did for the carving party) or the zombie baby popping out of the shirt (so gross!).  There was also a list of very insulting ideas, such as being Jabba the Hut or a cow (talk about playing up one's insecurities about being fat and disgusting).  After all that research I narrowed my options down to two, either a 50s housewife and milkman or Juno and Pauly Bleeker.  Jeremy quickly nixed the milkman/housewife thing because he is proud of being the husband and legitimate father, and when it comes to husbands, Jeremy is pretty boss, so Juno it was.

Let me tell you, that was the most comfortable Halloween costume in the history of time!  Sweatshirt, T-shirt, skirt, jeans, sneakers?!  Amazing!  Pretty cheap too, all I had to buy was the orange and white striped shirt and the skirt, both of which I found at Goodwill, no problem.  I also found some gold basketball shorts for Jeremy that were longer than track shorts since he was worried about being cold.  He invested in the movie authentic hoodie and some sweatbands to really make it work.  I think we looked pretty spot on!

I carried around the DVD to make sure people could appreciate the authenticity/know who we were

Overall I think we put the belly to good use.  A fellow party-goer thought it was fake, which I enjoyed a little.  That would be serious commitment to the costume!  So exciting to think that next year we can try for a costume tri-fecta instead of a couples costume.  Hopefully the Bun will cooperate more than Roxy does!

Enjoying the finished corner

The final piece of the nursery furniture arrived yesterday.  Say hello to the ottoman, compliments of my lovely cousin, Jessica!

It says "hey"

This picture is also very special to me because it represents the first finished corner of the nursery.  Look left and you see the changing table cluttered with the to-be-hung mobile and various hanging supplies, look right and you see the blank expanse of wall eagerly awaiting a mural, but keep your gaze fixed here and it's perfectly ready for her.  For this reason I linger in the doorway and am wistful when I walk by.  So nice when things turn out like you imagine them to be!

Conquering the nursery with the cunning use of flags

Any Eddie Izzard fans get that quote?

ANYWAY.  This is yet another post about craft projects in the nursery.  I decided to make it a little longer and have some how-tos, so I can be like the fancy bloggers that actually help readers to recreate what they made.  So if you don't care to read about all the steps, feel free to skip to the end to see the pictures of the finished product!

This blank space of wall was staring me in the face every time I walked into the nursery:

Just begging for something beautiful, right?

My favorite nursery on Pinterest had several great ideas, one of which being a lovely flag garland with the baby's name on it:

I also stole their oval frame between the windows idea and miraculously found that rug at a local antique store

So since I have a TON of fabric from past projects that needs a good home, I just had to grab some $1 a spool ribbon from Michaels (I bought 2 but used 1) to get started.

 

Seriously. So. Much. Fabric.

I already had a triangle stencil from making paper flag garland for my birthday party, which I cut from a piece of junk mail.

Waste not, want not!

Then I traced it onto the fabric twice, with one of the long sides touching so I could fold it instead of sewing two seams.

Let's minimize the work where we can!

Because the fabric was wrinkly, and to avoid having to pin the triangles in place, I ironed them flat with the wrong side out.

Behold, my iron.

Then I just sewed the one long side.

Wrong side out, don't forget!

After I did all twelve an turned them right side out, I decided to do two strands of six instead of one long one and spent a ton of time arranging them.  The ribbon is a nice black and white stripe, and I placed it with just a little overlap so that most of the flag was visible.

I cut the two strands of ribbon after holding them up in the available wall space, so the flags had to overlap a little to fit

Then I played with the placement on the wall with the help of my old friend, sticky tac, until I liked how they looked.  Four nails later, this is the finished product!

This is probably arrangement #15.  I messed with it a LOT.

And that's it!  Fun way to fill lots of space for a grand total of $1.  I may end up moving them if I get more sentimental art in there, but for now I love it.

Any one want to try it?  I still have way too much fabric for one person to use!

 

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last weekend my boss hosted a Pumpkin Carving Party at their home.  As Social Coordinator I proposed it as a fun fall activity since large groups of people tend to interact better when there is a clear task to perform and to talk about if conversation lulls.  Jeremy and I brought our huge stash of patterns and tools to contribute to the night, and I printed a Grumpy Cat pattern from the internet for a little pop culture fun.  I also decided to have a little fun with the Bun and cut a Jack O Lantern face into an orange tank top I snagged at Goodwill for $2.  My roundness definitely stretched it out more than I was anticipating, so the eyes were more round than triangles, and the two teeth were not as prominent, but it definitely came out more "cute " than "spooky," so I liked it.

Paired with the pumpkin earrings, I felt very appropriately dressed!

It was a potluck party, and my favorite offering was this little guy that Emily saw on Pinterest:

Gross but tasty!

Jeremy and I carved our pumpkins pretty quickly, being veterans and all, then had fun wandering around to others and giving out some tips.

Jeremy doing a great job of modeling his

A closer look at Jeremy's, it was a body emerging from a graveyard

This pumpkin had fun once.  It was awful.

We had a great time socializing with lots of coworkers and getting down with some fall fun.  It will be so sad when I have to let go of a lot of the party planning stuff once I'm significantly more busy with significantly more important things!

Chipping away at the nursery

This past weekend Jeremy got to get in on the nursery fun.  It's nice to see how engaged he is, and to hear him have an actual opinion about little details like shelf placement or art selection.  We only tackled one big project, hanging a shelf we got from Ikea last month, but doing that let me decorate it, which spurred me to place all the rest of the art and accessories that we have.

The shelf from afar, white with red hardware, filling empty space to the right of the closet

I was playing with what to put on the shelf for a while, and even planned to hang a piece of art underneath the shelf, right below eye level when you walk into the room and look to the right.  However, that ended up being too busy and threw the room balance off aesthetically, so I moved the busy print above the shelf and ditched the fabric wrapped canvas.  I may end up using it as a board to display her art later, but for now it's hiding in the back of her closet.  I added the little state art I made at our company's Craft Night back in May, a milk bottle vase I got from Goodwill, and an antique toy car I bought the day of my shower in Downtown Dunedin because why not.  I was originally thinking of putting the box fan up there, but after a few sideways glances from Jeremy I realized that it was a poor choice, if only because the cord would be very pullable and dangerous.  Not to mention unsightly, but I should focus on her safety. :-)

Little bit of a closer look, the print is of St Francis and was purchased on our last anniversary trip

I also took the time to iron the cribskirt (no pictures included because it didn't make too perceptible of a difference), add strings to the 3D wall art, and finally hang the brass seagull on the wall between the windows.

She's all done and floating away!  Strings were so much easier than painting, by the way

Still working on what to put in the oval, but I like the look of the bird

 above the frame, thanks to Emily Henderson for the inspiration!

So that was our weekend of nursery work.  At that point we were still waiting for the glider to arrive, so completing small projects helped me to ignore the massive vacancy in the corner and the shelving unit floating in space.   Now I find myself poking my head in there more, enjoying how its coming together and dreaming of our little girl.  

Not too much longer!

Little touches

A couple of small details for the nursery arrived today, the Cuddlesome Fox from Anthropologie and an orange box fan from Target.  Certainly not earth shattering news, but worth posting because I always find it satisfying to add little touches that warm up a space without spending too much money or exerting too much effort.

I wanted to get a small box fan for the nursery after reading that it can reduce the risk of SIDS (something about air circulation I think), and because the room is both fairly warm and devoid of a ceiling fan.  The chandelier in there is WAY too cute to be replaced, so table top fan it is.  At Target I found a reasonably priced ($15 on sale) little fan that came in a variety of fun colors, and after lots of scrutinizing, decided orange would be a fun pop.  It might also tie into the fox mural nicely (once that is painted, of course), and what little Gator doesn't love some orange with her blue?  The picture is a little washed out, but here it is on its new living space:

Ta-da!

Here is a longer angle of how it will (hopefully) keep the air circulating above the crib without blowing directly on her.  Special bonus: white noise that doesn't turn off after 45 minutes.

You also get to enjoy the finish on the dresser from this angle, so scrumptious!

The little plush fox is from Anthropologie and I have been eyeing him for a while, as seen in my "Gettin' Foxy" post.  He is super cuddly and looks darn cute on the glider, if I do say so myself!  He looks just like the fox that will be in the mural too, so it seems we have a bit of a fox theme going on already.  Not sure if he's safe for the Bun for at least a little while, but I know that I will enjoy him lots until she gets her turn!

Don't you just want to snuggle up in there?!

And so nursery progress continues, slowly but surely.  I think I like it this way, nursery decorating has been one of my favorite parts of being pregnant, and I know I'll be a little sad when there is nothing left to tweak.  Because of that, maybe I'll never truly let myself be done in here!  

A little blue striped slice of heaven

The glider finally arrived!

Fits perfectly, don't you think?!

It took a significant amount of begging and pleading to get the delivery people to carry it upstairs, but since it was in a cardboard box and didn't quite fit through the nursery door, it got to hang out in the hallway for a couple of hours before Jeremy got home and moved it into the room.  Either way, we didn't have to call for back up to get it in the room, and for that I am very grateful!

And boy, is it comfortable!  I have found myself just sitting in it randomly a couple of times since last night, just to enjoy how nice it is.  Jeremy even held my feet up at one point to simulate what it would be like to have an ottoman, sweet guy, and it was awesome.  

Since I hate to leave things unfinished in even the smallest way, I already started styling it, and ordered the fox toy from Anthropologie that I want to hang out in there.  Until the fox gets here, the chair will look like this, dressed in a blue chenille throw I got a few months ago and one of the two white blankets that I knitted for her.  I'll probably replace her white blanket with a super plush one that Ashley gave me for my shower that I would love to be able to snuggle with consistently!

The blankets plus the softer morning lighting definitely warmed up the picture, so I think this shot better encapsulates the feeling of the room.  Very comforting and clean feeling, perfect for our little Bun.  

Only a couple of things left before this whole room is complete!

28th week doctor's appointment

Today I went for the Glucose screen appointment, as well as a routine check-up.  I was a little nervous, as many women call the prep fluid "nasty" and report having trouble choking it down in the five allotted minutes, but that was very silly of me.  I think with two years experience as a candy retailer, as well as life long experience gorging on candy and sweets, I should have known it wouldn't be anything to worry about.  It actually almost tasted good, just a little too sweet, like if you mixed too much Kool Aid powder into a glass of water.  I gulped that down in thirty seconds flat!  (Not sure if I should be proud or not, but here I am ;-) ).  Also, it should be noted that anyone that complains about this prep process has obviously never prepped for a colonoscopy.  THAT is nasty.

Any way, while I was waiting for my pancreas to show its stuff I knitted away at the last chunk of my first ever sweater and talked to the midwife about how I'm doing.  I'm always amazed that these are necessary appointments, but its just a very casual "how ya doin?" more than an intensive exam.  Bun's heartrate is still 150, my weight and belly are right on track, despite me feeling like it's way too large and in charge, and I'm healthy overall.  When the midwife used the Doppler this time, I think we caught the Bun sleeping because the heartbeat came out loud and clear just fine.  When she felt around to make sure her head was still high (it is, and safely nestled in my left side) she must have woken her up, because I got a couple of swift, firm kicks after that.  She may have been trying to express her irritation at being woken up for how strong they were!

Take away message of the day: we're both doing well, results with the glucose screening will be in within the week, they'll only call if they need to screen further.

Comfort, thy name is Snoogle

Throughout this pregnancy my body changes have been gradual enough that I never noticed it was becoming more challenging to sleep comfortably.  At some point I started to think it might be nice to have something between my legs while I slept, and I tried a throw pillow we already had, which worked pretty well.  Then I stayed with my cousin, Jessica, who let me borrow her Snoogle, and I fell in love with it!  I had no idea I needed more back support, leg support, and head support simultaneously.  Those two nights were amazing, the best rest I had had in a while, and totally shattered my illusion about being able to sleep in the same way.  If you have seen that episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall realizes that Lily chews super loudly, and then can't not notice it all the time, you know what I mean.  Sleep without a Snoogle became most unpleasant.

Thus began the search for my own reasonably priced Snoogle, which is nearly impossible.  I happened to find one for $25 on eBay, but after having the monthly budget conversation with Jeremy I was shy to pull the trigger without talking about it first.  Of course he said it fit in our budget, but just my luck, it sold before I had my chance to bid!  Blast!!!!  Jeremy very sweetly pointed out that my nightly comfort was worth any price, but I was on a mission, dangummit.  I see it as a personal challenge never to pay full price for pregnancy items, which are so often consigned.

Luckily for me I have several kind and generous friends and family members that reached out to me to offer their own Snoogles, free of charge.  I decided to take my cousin, Adrienne, up on her incredibly generous offer to not only give it to me with no expectation of getting it back (I would have to borrow all others offered), but also to completely pay for shipping all the way from Seattle.  How amazing is she for that?!
So I waited with bated breath for it to arrive and slept with a regular body pillow in the mean time (which was totally not right, slid around a lot, and often ended up on Jeremy's side, poor guy).

Last Friday, the heavens opened and the angels sang and my new (to me) Snoogle arrived.  The past four nights have been so incredibly restful, and I'm thankful that I'm not traveling any more this pregnancy so I won't have to go another night without it.

It's the little things that make this process easier :-).

Thanks, Adrienne!!!

Monthly state of the pregnancy address

Here I am, six months along!

In which my belly goes BOOM

Yeah, it's safe to say I'm rockin' a pretty serious tum at this point.  People can tell from afar that I'm pregnant, although if that stimulates any extra kindness or courtesy I haven't noticed (people in Greensboro are already pretty sweet).  My back has started to get tired consistently, leading to some achy times in the evenings, but nothing too severe.  The leg cramps pretty much went away this month, although the round ligament pain has decided to stick around and get more intense.  Cravings have grown to include tortilla chips and bean dip, with waffles still being the main attraction (not at the same time though!).  I'm keeping up with yoga, still knitting every day, and pretty much still enjoying this whole pregnancy thing!

Bring it on, third trimester!

Feeling more complex movements

Every day I think the Bun's movements are going to become more normalized, blend into the background, or at the very least, not catch my attention so much.  But every day this little one surprises me with how much she is growing.

Yesterday she started kicking a bunch, probably because dinner was tostadas and chips with bean dip.  As usual when she really gets going, I put my hand over her to try to feel it a little more, and maybe to get her to calm down some with gentle pressure.  When I did that, I was able to better understand her movements, which are getting so big!  It felt like I could perceive her head coming up right before her legs did, in a sort of rocking motion, from one end of my hand to the other.

It was so incredible.  At that moment I related it to feeling Ethan wriggle in my arms and had a flash of what it will be like to hold our little Bun.  Really hold a little person we made, see her arms and legs and fingers and toes, and kiss her little head.  It was just a flash, but definitely a great moment to remember.

The First Time I Felt You Were a Person.

Getting crafty, part 4

In which I finally start putting things on walls.  I always get a little antsy when it comes time to apply something permanent to such beautifully painted surfaces, so the process of getting my little 3D art installation above the changing table will be in multiple steps.  I took the first ones this morning before work.

Yesterday, this little girl finally came, and it looks amazing!

She's a little bigger than I anticipated, but all in all I think it will look nice, and still in proportion to the balloons.  Here she is acclimating to the room temperature and flattening out after traveling in a tube, but boy, is she cute!  Special thanks to Lark for letting me photograph her growth chart :-).

The next baby step was to lay out the balloons and the little girl on the floor to get a rough idea of the final look on the wall.  I took measurements of the available wall space above the dresser and changing table to help rein myself in and not be too expansive, and after multiple shufflings, I came up with this:

I ended up changing it from the layout I previously developed when I first made the balloons to keep the smaller balloons up toward the top.  I'm trying to play on perspective here to create the illusion of floating away, and I hope others will see it that way too.

I then grabbed my old friend sticky tac, or "mounting putty", which served me so well in my teenage bedroom's massively expansive wall collage.

If loving an adhesive is wrong, I just can't be right

I then started tacking up the girl on her backing paper and the balloons, and wouldn't you know it, laying it out on the ground was silly because I must have shuffled them around on the wall a bazillion times any way.  Oh well, this is why I love sticky tac, it stuck fabric to wall, unstuck, and restuck with zero marks.  Bliss for the noncommittal types like me!

These two are my favorite possibilities, and the last one is how she is currently sitting at home, waiting for me to make a decision and start hammering some nails.

This one just looked a little more "floaty" to me, maybe?

Hopefully by tonight things will be permanent and I can post final victory pictures!

Oh, the anticipation!

So excited to see this in the mail today!!

I especially loved the Nemo stamp!

I knew it had to be the shower invite, and sure enough, 

There it is in all its super cute glory!  Now I am officially counting down the days like a kid before Christmas :-).  Great job so far, Katie!!

Getting crafty, part 3

Having Sandi in town this weekend also gave me the chance to spend time in the nursery and to fixate on a couple of projects that needed to be done.

At my Florida shower I was generously gifted with several gift cards, two of which were promptly spent on the ruffle curtains from my registry.  I already had two basic sheer panels from Ikea a few weekends ago, and decided to sew the sheers to the curtain panel to allow for more light blockage.  I may someday opt for blackout shades, but for now I like the softness of layered sheers over wooden blinds.

The process was simple, just pinning the sheers to the back of the ruffled panels and sewing one straight seam across, under one of the ruffles to hide my often wonky lines.  The sheers were both longer and wider than the ruffled panel, but thanks to their lightness I was able to just fold the edges over without any perceptible differences from the front.  All in all in took me about an hour to pin, sew, remove errant stitches that messed with the ruffle, and hang.

Bad picture, but voila!

The other project was the crib skirt that I meant to do a couple of weeks ago.  I found the fabric at a craft warehouse in Durham (thanks, Nikki!) and thought it was the perfect combination of colors, pattern, and price ($4 for 2 yards, heck yes!)

Does it stand out to you like it did to me?

For the design I did my best to copy the one I originally had on my registry before I decided it was too $$, with a simple box pleat at the front.  I also scoured Pinterest for DIY tips, and of course found some great ideas.  I measured all the sides and the height needed, cut the fabric into strips, hemmed the sides, worked with Sandi to create the box pleat in the middle, and sewed the strips into one long piece to wrap around the crib mattress base.  I only sewed three sides since no one will see the back, and allowed enough length to at least cover all four corners.  I used Velcro strips to attach the skirt to the mattress, and boom!  All done!  The whole process took the rest of the weekend since I encountered some hiccups (measurements a little off, support beam in the way), but I think all things considered, it turned out pretty nicely.

The box pleat is not as neat as I would like it, so I may end up ironing it when I'm nesting

All in all, not too shabby!

One of the things that I love the most about this project is that the crib itself hides lots of little flaws, and its way far away from eye level, so perfection was not a must.  A true gift to this amateur seamstress!

Taking baby items for a test drive

This weekend I was lucky enough to play hostess to my friend, Sandi and her 3 month old son, Ethan.

Seen here plotting evil deeds

Besides the obvious benefit of getting to see one of my best friends and her absolutely adorable son for a couple of days, this visit also gave me an opportunity to try out some of our new baby gear and to see what life with such a young baby is like minute by minute.  Do things flow in our house the way I think they will?  What items are most useful?  What should I have within arm reach at all times?  How often can one realistically get out of the house with a baby?  How long does it take to get out of the door, and how long can you stay out?  The list goes on.

Also, will the Bun possibly be cuter than little Blue Steel?  

He models her white blanket and baby toys quite well, yes?

Well, I'm happy to say that things went very well.  Maybe Ethan is just an extraordinarily good baby, but no moment (during the day when we saw him) got too overwhelming or taxing.  I still remember how to soothe a baby and was reasonably good at getting him to sleep.  We had much of what we will end up needing in the first few months, and should always remember to keep a burp cloth close.  White noise is awesome, as are swaddles.  The swing will be very useful for actually putting a baby down on the first floor.  One needs to plan any outings at the beginning of the day to coincide with awake or nap periods, definitely not when a feeding will need to occur, and definitely not at the last minute.  Time out of the house should be limited to an hour or less without needing to pack major supplies and bring as much extra help as possible.  Nothing is precious, everything will be drooled on/burped on/peed on, so don't let unwashable things around the baby.  Even the smallest baby will actively seek the most dangerous object from a variety of items (seriously, he went for my boring old sewing scissors on an ottoman full of colorful yarn and baby toys, yikes!)  These are just some of the lessons I learned from just 48 hours with someone else's baby.  

I'm sure the Bun will teach me many more!

Call her Sasha Fierce

This little Bun is a little scrapper already!

Yesterday during a doctor's visit she did NOT want to be monitored.  The midwife called her "squirmy" and chased her around with the Doppler some, trying to get a steady read to no avail.  Eventually the Bun made her way to the left upper corner of my uterus and the midwife used her hand and the Doppler to sort of trap her there long enough to measure the heartrate.  It cracked me up that every so often the sound of her heartbeat was interrupted by a "pow, POW!" that was her kicking up at the device.  She did not like being stuck there, thankyouverymuch.

Too funny!

It's a thing!

Pregnancy brain, that is.  I hoped it was just an excuse for people to be a little absent-minded, or a product of sleepless nights, but even though I have been getting all of my rest, I'm seriously dotty right now!

I have been leaving things in random places, losing my phone a couple of times a day, calling clients by the wrong name, but worst of all, I have been subbing incorrect words into sentences.  Usually its a word that starts with the same letter, or at least has some relevance to the sentence, but sometimes I scare myself that I can't conjure the right word to save my life!  The sad thing is, I can't think of any specific examples at the moment because of the aforementioned pregnancy brain, but trust me, I've been sounding very foolish lately.  I'm so grateful that Jeremy can usually understand me based on the context of the sentence, but geez, this girl needs to cognitively get it together!

Although I hear pregnancy brain morphs into mommy brain, and thus my cognitive faculties will never be the same.

Sad thought.

Getting crafty, part 2

With Jeremy handling the assembly of the crib I was itching to contribute something to the Bun's nursery two weekends ago.  And when my fingers get itchy, my hands get crafty.  So after the crib was done I tackled two tasks that I have had the materials for for a while, covering a generic lampshade with cute fabric, and making 3D art to be hung over the changing table.

The lamp project was fairly straightforward.  I found a white lamp with a red plastic star pull in a thrift store in Delaware before we moved, sans lampshade.  Because it was only a lamp base, it was only $6, so I grabbed it and made plans to get a generic lampshade later.  On an unrelated World Market trip I found a  simple cream colored lamp shade that seemed to be the right size, and at $10 I decided to pick it up to save for later.  The final piece of the puzzle was the fabric, which I was thinking should be a black and white stripe to match the fox's shirt in the mural.  However, after seeing the fabric in person I decided to go for the uber-trendy chevron, which is more of a subtle echo than complete match, if only to introduce a little variety.

In covering the lampshade I was first considering just sewing it, but after some serious, honest insight I realized that I often struggle with sewing straight seams.  I accept this about myself.  So, thanks to Young House Love, I discovered no sew tape, which has the effect of sewing without the seams.  You just iron the pieces that you want to stick together, and voila!  So I started by hemming all the sides of a piece I cut to roughly be the right size. I then just glued it to the lampshade with hot glue, bing bang boom.  My measurements turned out to be a little too rough, so I had to stretch it a little, but other than a slight warping of the pattern, I don't think it was noticeable (here's hoping I don't fixate on the imperfection during long bouts of nursing next to this thing).

Yes, the shade is slightly askew due to a few millimeters difference in the size of the socket and the diameter of the lampshade base.  I will have to figure this out later.

The next project was a little more time consuming.  I've seen lots of Pinterest projects with embroidery hoops covered in fabric and love the look, so I figured out a way to install some in Bun's room.  I found lots of scraps of red fabrics in my fabric bin, and snagged a big piece of solid red fabric on a recent crafty expedition to an art warehouse in Raleigh.  I covered the set of embroidery hoops that I found at Goodwill for $4 as well as the ones left over from the Craft Night I hosted for work back in May and turned them into red balloons.

To do this I first stretched the fabric over the inner hoop, cut it to size, then glued the edges to the inside of the inner hoop.  I then separated the inner and outer hoops and covered the outer hoop in strips of the same fabric.  The final step was putting the two back together to make what appears to be one solid colored 3D circle.

 Close up shot of one of the hoops.  Note that you can only see wood at the top under the screw.

Eventually they will end up on the wall, but for now I was playing with the layout on the floor.  My hope is that the final product will look like a bunch of red balloons floating away with a little girl holding onto the strings at the end.  The little girl is a decal I customed ordered from www.ltlprints.com, made from a picture I took in Lark's nursery.  As soon as the decal arrives I will put it on the wall, but for a quick preview, here are the balloons on the floor, and the little girl I had printed:

Here's hoping that they come out the way I think they will!

Brie the Mommy

This past weekend I got to enjoy my Florida baby shower thrown by my wonderfully crafty and loving mom.  The theme was "Brie the Mommy", or more specifically "Pat the Bunny," one of my favorite children's books.  My mom has been planning this event since we shared the news, and boy did she have fun and get productive!  If anyone ever wonders where I get my creativity and initiative when it comes to party planning, it's definitely her.  There were lots of fun, personal touches and I truly felt showered with love!

I also really enjoyed this shower because it was the one that is more family heavy, with both of my aunts, two of my cousins, and my sweet second cousin/former flower girl in attendance, along with my lovely mother-in-law.  Everyone pitched in to make it a great day, and I think all the guests had fun!

All of the guests were also extremely generous, and there isn't anything we received that I wanted to return.  There were no duplicates, lots of gift cards, and most items were from the registry or hand crafted with love (can you believe it?!).  How lucky we and this little Bun are to have such amazing people in our lives!!

 The cake, made to look like the invitation, and made of red velvet, my favorite!!

 The cake table with tissue poms and coordinating fabrics

 All over the shower were large, handmade pages looking like pages from the book

 The prizes for all the games, and a picture of my late grandmother as a rememberance

A celebrity match game to match baby photos to famous people, including Big Bird :-)

 Another page from the book

 The favor bags, handmade and decorated with fabric flowers containing flower bulbs, a handmade bookmark, chocolate, and my favorite sugar cookies ever!

 A place where the guests could sign a page in the book to be assembled from all the pages at the shower

 Yet another page featuring one of my favorite pictures of Jeremy

 Peek a boo game with pictures of Jeremy and I as babies/kids

 The tasty spread!

 My cousin Jessica gifted me with this tiara and these mardi gras beads, just to make sure I looked fabulous!

 This is the only good shot of the flower in my hair, the same flower I wore to announce we were having a girl

 Holding up the pink Cubs shirt from my Chicago aunt, Gail, 

proving that Cubs fans aren't made, they're born!

 Official 25 week belly shot, she's growing so fast!!

 Holding the gift from Ashley, knit hat and cute church outfit!

Showing off the handmade gifts from my cousin, Nicole, including a reversible coat, 

plush geometric toy, and matching burp cloths

What a beautiful day it was, and big thanks to everyone that came!  Thank you notes will be in the mail soon!