A Baby (boy) Shower

This month I had the pleasure of hosting my cousin's (who is like a sister) baby shower.  She chose to wait until after baby was born to have it. She didn't find out if she was having a boy or a girl and she wanted to get lots of stuff that was for a specific sex. 

I made an adorable invite on photoshop, which I'm not going to share because it has his picture and all of is info on it. We had the party at the new grandma's house for space reasons.  So I didn't want to get to carried away with decorations.  Plus it makes for a lot of extra work.  I don't recall decorations from one shower I've been to over the years.  But I do remember key pieces that were really unique.  So  I made the most adorable diaper wreath (if I do say so myself) for decor.

The menu was delicious of course and made all by me that morning.  We had deviled eggs, cheesy potatoes (a recipe I completely made up that day!), little wieners, pasta salad, snicker salad and cake and punch.  Naturally I got the punch idea from Pinterest.

I did mine slightly different than the recipe.  I used white grape juice, 7 up, vanilla ice cream and blue food coloring.  None of the 3 grocery stores I tried had blue colored kool-aid.  Plus, I did not want the added sugar.  I tried a batch at home using blue Gatorade that tasted a little different, but still wasn't blue enough to emulate water.  The food coloring version was delish!

Whenever we have lots of family together, we always take the opportunity to update our 5 generation picture.  This is mine.  We are SO blessed!

We played 3 games.  First was a trivia game I made.  I created this using facts I found on the Internet.  I have created a free download for you to use - not the typo I have! oopsie!.  And if you want specific sighting or you want to fact check the answers, just google the questions.  

The trivia game I created has a typo! Oops! It's a nice ice breaker I suppose! :)

And the answers!

 Second was "guess what's in the bag" where you put miscellaneous baby items into lunch bags, number them, and then have everyone guess what's in the bag by feeling them.  I used all items you would find in a diaper bag to make it a little less complicated.

 Lastly we played gift bingo. I used the free cards I found.  But if you google "baby shower bingo card", you will get a lot of options to choose from.  You use the gifts the mom receives as your bingo squares and then whoever gets bingo at the end wins the prize.  If no one gets bingo, then the host can call out random items until someone gets bingo.  Of course this generated a 3 way tie for the last gift when I did it.  So I had a few extra baby trivia facts I didn't use on the first game.  I used the question, what's the average time it takes a dad to change the diaper?  They all guessed a time, and whoever got closest to the real answer won. 

I wanted all my prizes to me things I had made.  So this part was a lot of fun too!

2 votive candles, a bar of soap and a lip balm

dish cloths (I love those!), a bar of soap and a lip balm

a brag book made from toilet paper rolls and scrapbook supplies, a bar of soap and a lip balm

Like I said, that part was LOTS of fun! :)  I also of course, made my gift for the mom and baby too.  Another puff quilt...

It was a pretty easy event to put together.  And with fairly minimal stress! If there is enough interest, I'll do future posts on the specific parts of the shower (how I made the diaper wreath, my recipes, the puff quilt, etc)  Thanks for checking this out!

I made a Puff Quilt!

If you have read any of my posts, it's not hard to figure out I L-O-V-E pinterest! You may have seen the tutorial for this amazing puff quilt:


She has an awesome tutorial.  So awesome that even if you have NEVER made a quilt of any kind (much like myself) you could complete a puff quilt!! I think her's is amazing! But before I tried one myself, I had to check out more.  Enter "puff quilt" into pinterest search box.  And you'll see many beautiful ones.  My other fav is this one:























Can you believe this one was a give-a-way!!? Awesome! The post is on makit-loveit, but the blanket was made by Heidi at Honeybear Lane. All 3 blogs are really great!

So with all that beautiful inspiration, and a very pregnant best friend, I needed to attempt to make one.  I went to Joann's. I was super lucky and received a 60% off coupon back in May.  That was what made me decide to get the Minky for the back side.  (I'd never attempted to sew minky before.  I am not a fan.)  After my two little helpers and I decided on a few different fabrics and patterns we wanted, I headed home.  Of course I was extremely excited and didn't take hardly any before pictures.
But here are plenty during:

AHHH! Finally done stuffing!

I used minky, flannel and cotton. 

4 rows done!

I wanted my blanket to be small enough to throw over the carrier or stroller. Or to use for tummy time on the floor. Not really one to wrap him up in.  So I made mine a little smaller.  But I am so madly in love with it!

Of course I had to add a tag! :)

Ready for giving! Everyone in my family wanted to keep it because it was so cuddly.  My husband even asked if I'd make him one.  I'm fairly certain he was serious. 

The only changes I made to the tutorials (although I didn't follow them exactly) was instead of doing a slip stitch to close it, I did an invisible stitch.  Which I'd also never done. It was a little more time consuming and I only ripped it out twice! But I was much happier with the finished appearance. 

Also worth noting, if your minky gets to long when you are closing the last seam/pocket, I just folded mine in on itself.  I would have taken a picture of it, but you couldn't hardly tell that it was even there.  So there wasn't much to show!

Even if this project intimidates you, or you are just a beginning sewer, I still think this is a project anyone could do and the end result is worth every minute!!

My favorite (kitchen) products!

As much as I love my craft room and being productive there, I equally love my  kitchen. So I'm going to go a different direction today and show you my other favorite room. The house fire that my family experienced last year was another lesson in finding the silver lining, the blessing in everything before us.  Well, one of those blessings was the kitchen I've only dreamed about.  And not only is it my dream, but it's also functional for us if either of us is in a wheelchair again.

My kitchen is not fully stocked yet, but its not to bad.  I have many favorite kitchen products obviously, but I will keep this list to my top 5.  This will be harder than you think for this girl! Let's get started before I start second guessing my list!

First on the list is actually first and second.  And it's a necessity.  (see how efficient I am?!) Number one is the Range and Number two is the microwave/range hood.



A TON of thought went into this purchase.  More than your average bear I think.  First of all,  I already knew I wanted the smooth top vs. the coils.  Due to the little ones, I knew the knobs MUST be on the back against the wall, not on the front above the oven like most units.  My third requirement was it needed to be a double oven.  I use the oven almost every day, and there are so many times when I need two ovens.  I often bake two things that need different temps, or I only need part of the oven instead of the whole thing.  And why waste energy? Lastly, I thought I needed black. I like stainless steel appliances but I don't like the upkeep they require (for this stage of my life)and the cost on the unit I wanted was way out of our price range.  Because God is awesome, I found the unit above! I suppose I should mention its a whirlpool although I could not tell you what model :( Sorry! When it comes to my appliances, that's not so important to me!

The second thing is the microwave range hood.  I knew I wanted an above range microwave.  This is an inside wall in our house.  So we originally thought we would need one that just recirculates the air instead of venting it outside.  When the house was gutted we could have had this changed and had a vent added.  However, if we did that we would need to make some changes (aka sacrifices) that we were not willing to give up.  So back to the original one.  Again, I wanted a black one so they matched (My things MUST match...its an illness) And the whirlpool Gold was the perfect solution.  It has my favorite buttons, like popcorn and reheating plates along with the must - baked potatoes.  But this microwave takes it a step further.  It comes with a removable rack so you can cook twice as much stuff at once.  No more waiting to use the microwave.  And it also has a really cool melt/soften butter button which I love! Check it out further here  (I would also accept it's "lower" version for less money)

My third favorite thing is pretty common these days, but in my opinion, still a must - the Kitchen Aid Mixer.  I use it for EVERYTHING.  My favorite attachment is honestly the flour shield.  Its so simple but so practical and while it doesn't do a perfect job, it does a good job.  What color is mine? Well it was either this or white since that's all Kohls stocks (I saved 180.00 on mine using coupons, Kohls card and kohls cash! :)

But since my kitchen themes is red, white & blue, it worked out just fine!

Fourth on the list in a huge luxury item, but I never want to leave my kitchen now!! :) I got an under cabinet TV that is also a dvd player, radio, and bunch of other stuff I don't use.  I did a lot of research and I decided that the best bang for my buck was this one from Amazon.  I am happy with the product,  but if I sit at my  breakfast bar I do have to squint a little to see it clearly, so if I had it to do again, I would pay the extra for the larger screen. Either way, still a great purchase!

Now, the last item on my list was a tie.  It was either my tupperware containers with blue seal, or the pampered chef Ultimate Mandolin.  Since I don't have my pampered chef stuff replaced yet - a party is on the to do list - and I keep my tupperware containers on my counter, I have to give the win to them.  I don't necessarily use them every day, but when I do use them I never have to worry about whats inside.  No bugs (ick!) no air  "leaks" which means whats inside is always fresh and ready to go.  I suppose I should mention I use mine for my flour, sugar, brown sugar and powdered sugar, respectively. 

So there you have it - my favorite top 5 kitchen items (currently in my kitchen! ha!) And honestly, the only thing I would add would be my pampered chef stuff. I hope you enjoyed  this break from the crafty life. 

PS -  if you want to see my whole kitchen, I will be posting those pics on my personal blog sometime soon.  http://inmytoday.blogspot.com/