Symoane's Baby Shower

My coworker Symoane is due at the beginning of April, and a few coworkers and I worked together to throw her a shower.

Golden Anniversary Party Invitations

My biggest project to date (aside from these cookies) was to make invitations for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  I originally thought it would be about 20 or 30 invitations, but it ended up being 52.  I went through several iterations before finally deciding on this layout and design, but I am thrilled with how they turned out.

I used gold 5x7" cards (on sale at my local Paper Source store), and printed the information on luxe fino cream paper from Paper Source. I used this stamp and this gold ink stamp pad to add a little shimmer.  I downloaded the font for the invitations from DaFont.com, which has been my resource for fun fonts lately.

Not only did I make the invitations, but I also made RSVP cards and inserts which show directions to the party location and information about a nearby hotel where I reserved a block of rooms.  The maps were fun and easy to make - I've made them before, using this tutorial from Weddingbee.com.  

The party is a few short weeks away and I have a few other ideas up my sleeve, so they might be making an appearance on the blog as well, so stay tuned!

Patrick's Birthday Party

Patrick turned the big 3-0 back in November, and along with the help of his family we threw him a party at his brother's house after Thanksgiving.

I had a lot of fun working on the invitations, and turned them into a spin-off of the Tour de France logo, given Patrick's love of cycling.  The map of the US shows every place that Patrick has lived.

The party wasn't a complete surprise, but Patrick didn't know the party's theme until the day of the party, so I used address labels from Paper Source that said "Confidential" on them.  I also thought the Simpsons stamps were perfect.

We had a great party with a lot of Patrick's family -- Patrick's sister, Rachel, helped me do decorate the cake!

Baby Shower

One of my best friends, Carol, is expecting a baby girl in a few short days.  With my mom's help, I threw Carol a baby shower at my mom's house back in November.  We had about 20 ladies at the house for the shower, and it was a nice, relaxed time.

Earlier that morning, I sent my dad on an errand to pick up balloons to tie to the mailbox outside, and to liven things up inside.

We ordered a mixed bunch of hot pink flowers from FlowersAndFreshness.com, which my mom rearranged into a few smaller arrangements for the living room, dining room, porch, and kitchen.  My mom knows her stuff when it comes to arranging flowers!

Michelle, another one of my best friends (all three of us went to pre-school together, and we're still good friends today!), suggested that we string a clothesline and hang baby clothes to it as another decoration which doubles as a gift for the mom-to-be.  I think it looked great and the onesies tied in with the onesie theme for the party!

 We set up drinks (sodas, tea, coffee, and limeade) on the kitchen counter, and spread out the food around the dining room table.

After we ate, we migrated to the living room, and played a game that Michelle organized.  She dug up 12 songs that all contained the word baby, played short snippets of them, and we had to guess the name of the song and the artist.  It was surprisingly tough, and Carol showed us how it was done and got the highest score!

I baked a yellow cake, and decorated it to look like a onesie.  There were some curse words uttered during the making of that cake - I think I forgot to add the ingredients in the correct order (I forgot that you first mix the "dry team" and the "wet team" separately, THEN mix them together).  And then when I was taking the cake out of the pan it ended up in two pieces -- a middle piece and an O-shaped outer piece.  Slapped it back together and decided that my sins would be hidden by the cream cheese frosting.  I baked the cake in a rectangular 9x13 pan, then cut out the sections for the legs.  Those cut-out sections became the sleeves of the onesie.  This was my first official decorated cake, and I have to admit that I was very happy with my final result.  To serve the cake, I took one of my mom's cookie sheets (the kind that has a rim on only one side) and covered it in aluminum foil.  One other trick for ya - before frosting the cake I put pieces of wax paper beneath the cake.  Then I decorated, then chilled the cake, and before serving I carefully pulled the wax paper out.  This kept the foil beneath perfectly clean.  It is becoming increasingly clear to me that I spend too much of my life watching The Food Network, since I now know random tidbits like that.



The invitations for the party were my biggest craft project to date, and the onesie cookies were also a lot of fun to make.  Those two will have posts all to themselves.

Carol, I'm so excited to meet Babynayshus!!!  Miss you!!

(Carol, me, Rachel, Michelle - the four of us went to pre-school together, and the three of us were Carol's bridesmaids at her wedding in 2005!)