Shower details

Hallie's shower weekend was such a blast. Being that it was at Phila's, I should have known there was not a thing to worry about! Phila was a wonderful hostess as always, and I would definitely recommend her place to anyone who is looking for a relaxing getaway in the Nashville area (Hachland Hall Vineyard).

The decorations, placecard/favors, guest book, and art activity all went very well. It was a wonderful group of friends and family that attended. The meal was delicious, presents went smoothly, and Brenda's idea to have guests paint on canvases to make a mural for the nursery was a huge hit...it probably helped that Hallie has a lot of creative friends.

There weren't many decorations, but we had fun with what we did do. If you are interested in details...here you go...

I made some pom poms after learning how on here. I would absolutely use these for a party again...they were so much fun! I had a little trouble separating them/getting them to look like perfect spheres, so I will have to try to figure out how to fix that next time. I folded the tissue and put the wire around the middle ahead of time, and the night before the shower, several of us poofed them. I wasn't sure if they would retain their shape well for Saturday, but they did.


After we poofed the pom poms on Friday night...


Voila! We hung them with fishing line and clear thumb tacks...and we didn't really even need any decorations with a beautiful backdrop like Phila has outside her windows!

Brenda had a great idea to use rubber ducks as a placecard/favor. I don't know HOW many conversations we had about rubber ducks and how to incorporate names, etc., but we knew it would be fun if they could be floating in water, and we had to have everyone's name on them. Brenda found some bowls that worked great, and I made some life preservers out of sheets of foam I purchased at a craft store. We weren't sure how it would all come together, but we were very pleased with the outcome.




For the guest book, we did the old photo guest book idea. I got a plain small binder (the size of a half page), I cut pages of cardstock for the inside, and we took Polaroids of Hallie with each guest, and had them write a message to her. Hallie's niece helped orchestrate all that getting done which was a huge help!

We served mimosas when guests arrived, and Brenda had bought these gorgeous cupcakes (more like "works of art", I should say!) and we ended up saving those for dessert that evening because Phila's lunch was so filling!



All in all, it was a beautiful day with new friends and old!!

Closet Organizers

I had seen these closet organizers that a friend had made as well as on Etsy, so I figured I would give it a whirl as part of Hallie's gift. You just tie these onto your closet rod and then place the appropriate sized clothing in between. I am not sure how practical they will be as I feel like you would have to have a good sized closet since these would take up decent chunk of space. But...it was fun to order some pretty fabric and give it a whirl...

If you are interested in instructions, here is what I did...I bought the wooden door hangers at AC Moore, then I cut the fabric out with a little extra all the way around. I mod podged the fabric onto the front, folding the extra fabric onto the back, and mod podging that as well. I then cut fabric for the backs of the hangers and cut that a teeny bit smaller than the actual hanger and mod podged it on (so it would cover the excess fabric folded from the front). Finally, I made the numbers on the computer and MP'd them on. However, the MP made the ink from the computer run...so I have to figure out a better way to do that next time. I found some fun ribbons for the ties and was all set. PHEW...have you ever seen the word Mod Podged so many times before?

Peonies

Growing up, we had endless peony bushes on the side of our house. I never had enough appreciation for those beautiful blooms. When we went to see the Sers in San Antonio, Sommer had the most beautiful peonies in our room.

Is it wrong to miss a piece of furniture terribly?

We are lucky to have a dear friend, Randy, who is an incredibly talented furniture maker. We were fortunate enough to have Randy make us several pieces during our time in Columbus. Each piece is incredibly crafted, made of such beautiful materials, and means so much to us.

As most of you know, I have grown up spending time at my grandmother’s cottage each summer in Northern Michigan…it is my favorite place in the world. Some recent renovations were done to the cottage, and being the sentimental sap that I am, Sean and I rented a U-Haul and brought home a cast iron claw foot tub as well as some exquisite doors. We had to the doors for a while before we figured out how we wanted them to be used. I met with Randy to go over ideas, and he ended up building us our most favorite and LARGE piece of furniture ever. It is so meaningful to us because of the history of the doors, and we miss the piece so much. At the time we designed it, I wasn’t thinking of how we would get the furniture into the multiple houses we will live in over the next several years. Needless to say, there was no way it was going to fit up the stairs in our current home.

So, I think about this piece often, more often than is probably normal ☺. I miss the storage for sure, but most of all, I miss the meaningful piece that was crafted by Randy.

I wish I had a picture of the full piece without the table in front of it!

One more piece from Randy...

Sidekick

I have fallen off the blogging circuit due to recent weeks of travel and lack of anything interesting to post before that…but I am trying to be back now that we have some time at home and baby planning will be in full swing! We have had a fantastic time traveling over the last 6 weeks and have been able to see many friends and family.

Between our 8 days in Texas and my trip to Nashville, we had our ultrasound. The best news was that the measurements were good...and we found out that we will be having a little boy!

When we were in Texas, Ryan's girlfriend, Jamie, made us a beautiful and tasty cake in honor of Sidekick. Turns out it was a good color selection with the blue :)

Time for Cobbler...

I had a craving for a blueberry cobbler, so I made that to bring to our friends' house last evening. I also made a peach one for our neighbors who came to dinner on Saturday. I definitely prefer the blueberry one...and the recipe could not be any easier! If you are craving a summery, fruity dessert, give this a whirl.

Image via Healthier Harvest

Creamy Cilantro Dressing

For those of you who like cilantro, we had a scrumptious dressing at our friend's house last night at dinner. Since I am growing Cilantro (although I can NEVER grow cilantro well), I figured I would try to make some myself...Sean and I thought it was very tasty...probably would have been better if I let it sit for a night before having it...

Here is the recipe I used...

Our friends served the Trader Joe's Cilantro dressing if you are looking to buy some...I think I will modify the recipe I made next time and try to make it closer to the Trader Joe variety.

Mocktails

Calling all moms/prego friends...so, I am not going to lie, I miss having a cocktail every now and then. When we visited our friends Matt and Emily in MN a few weekends ago, it was the perfect grilling out day, and Emily and I decided we'd best figure out how to make a good mocktail. We made some white sangria mocktails with loads of fresh fruit...they were so yummy. Since then, Sean has been great about whipping up mocktails for me usually consisting of fruit juices (passion fruit, pineapple) and sparkling apple juice. Does anyone have any suggestions/recipes?

I have been craving a Bellini - it would be even better if I was drinking a Harry's Bellini in Venice - so...I think I will try this one next...

* 2 oz peach nectar
* chilled sparkling cider



via Flickr

First harvest...

Despite our TEENY porch/garden, our little plants have been champs despite all the ferocious wind up there, we just harvested our first butter lettuce and basil. We had BLT wraps last night, and tonight we will have pesto pasta. I am hoping for dinner alfresco, but the skies look like they are about to open up.

Stained Glass Complete!

So, stained glass class wrapped up last week, and by the end, I was really enjoying it. I do hope that I will be able to do another project at some point. Jan and I had a fun time!