How To Bake A Cutie Pie or Carrie's Baby Shower

Last Saturday, I got to help host my sister's baby shower.

And you know how I love to throw a party!

This one was pretty fun, too, since Carrie is having a girl (Lola Claire) and we all love pies...hence the cutie pie theme. There were lots of fun ideas for a cutie pie baby showers online and we decided to use vintage quilts and tableware to make it even more lovely and sweet.

Casey (the hostess who let us use her house for the shower even though she had brand-spankin' new wood floors!) made this banner for her mantle. Very sweet.

This was our pie table. Notice THIS quilt under the pink and white quilt that is one that hangs in Phoebe's room, but I bought it at a garage sale so I didn't have to worry about dropping cherry pie filling on a family heirloom. :)

I took photos of the sweet pies because I'm a dork like that. Look how pretty my mom's cherry pie turned out. If you make homemade pies with homemade crusts, you know a "pretty" pie isn't always a guarantee, but this one was truly nice.

An egg custard pie. An old-fashioned (and kinda rare) pie that is a favorite of my dad and sister and me. And it seemed to be a big hit at the shower, too, despite almost no one having ever heard of it and it's odd name.

Sarah, my sis-in-law, made a yummy chocolate pie.

There were also three quiches, but I forgot to take photos of them. They were delicious, though. Oh, and fruit tray, but I didn't take a photo of it either.

We served all this yumminess on my mom's collection of vintage plates and silverware. The plates are all BLUERIDGE in all different patterns and the silver is all mismatched. How fun is that?!

We used some of her teacups for coffee as well.

The punch was served in champagne glasses. Cause we're fancy like that!

Because we were hosting a Cutie Pie Shower, we had "recipe" cards for baking a "cutie pie".

There were recipe cards on which to write a blessing or advice and we offered some prompts to help out those of us who have a hard time saying something inspirational spontaneously. You can find those prompts on pinterest (just look on my Party Idea board), but I couldn't ever find an actual link.

I never did get a photo of my sis and all her hostesses, but here's a good one of her and my mom. And it has to be said, Carrie looks like she's about to pop.

And here's one of the "girls" in my family. Me, Sister (that's what the grandkids call Carrie), and Sarah. I'm the only one not preggo in this photo...despite what my shirt might be telling you.  And I wish I had eyes, too.

As party favors on the way out the door, I made apple pies in a jar. I made them using THIS tutorial (that I've used before), but mine never turn out that well. I feel like they always look a little off.

They were topped with this cute little tag that my friend, Kristi, made. She makes all kinds of awesome party stuff (including the invitation, recipe cards, and thank you tags for this shower). You can find her stuff HERE and if you ever need any paper stuff for a party, she's your gal!

I didn't get a photo of the gift table, but it was covered in another vintage pink and blue quilt. Although by the time the shower was finished, it looked like a sea of pink! Precious. Now we're all ready to meet Baby Yo-Yo (that's what Phoebe and Big Brother Lincoln call her)...and I know that Carrie is more than ready! Especially since Lola's room is now filled with all kinds of pink things. :)



* Oh, and we also had a photo booth (I know, I've gone a little photo booth crazy!), but those photos aren't edited yet.  Hopefully I can get to them in the next little bit.

** And I finally posted again at EATING AT THE TAJ MCCALL. Due to Phoebe's birthday party and this shower, I haven't been doing much cooking lately. But I'm back at it...hopefully for a little while, anyway.

Show and Tell: Handkerchief Quilt

Yesterday was my birthday. I celebrated by getting up at 4:30 to fly home in time to see Phoebe's Watch Day at ballet and then conking out on the couch about 6:30pm. I'm cool like that like. But that's the reason I didn't post yesterday, in case you were wondering. :)

When my GREAT-AUNT passed away a few years ago and the family pitched in to clean out her house, they found several (and I mean several) quilts and quilt tops my great-grandmother had made. The quilts and quilt tops were divided up among her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren (my generation). Along with a few quilts, I was given the top of an unfinished handkerchief quilt. I received it because I've been collecting (off and on) vintage handkerchiefs to make my own handkerchief quilt.

I finally finished it in time for my sister's baby shower. We used it as a table cover...more on that later. And by "I", I mean "we". My friend Liz bound it for me since I dislocated my shoulder and was worried I couldn't get it finished in time. The quilt intimidated me because what was sewn together didn't have straight sides and the other pieces she had worked on didn't fit that I could tell. This gave me a reason to have to finish it. Piecing the last little bit was hard. I mean really hard. I spent the better part of two days trying to make it all fit together. I had to rip a few seams, although I tried to rip as few as possible, and cut a few handkerchiefs to fit.

I used new fabric on the back and binding...and I don't want to hear any lectures about it either. There's a school of quilting thought that says you shouldn't use new fabric on old quilts. One should only use vintage fabric. But this isn't their quilt and if I did that, I'd never ever get it finished where one could enjoy it.

When all the quilting and binding was finished, I loved it.

This isn't the greatest photo and the quilt needs a good ironing, but you can sorta see all the different handkerchiefs.

There were so many and the prints are so pretty. When I say I love it, I mean I absolutely adore it. Every last handkerchief.

And even more than finishing a project that the great-grandmother I never knew had started, was hearing my grandmother and my great-aunt talk about the handkerchiefs they remembered their mother using. A few of them were even my grandmother's. We know because they have the letter B embroidered on the corners.

I'm not sure yet where this quilt is going to live. I want to see it everyday, but I don't want people to use it much. Some of the handkerchiefs have tiny holes or weak spots and I don't want it to fall apart. Wherever I find for its new home, I know that its beautiful because I love it and it tells a story. My two favorite things about the objects I put in my house.

Project 52: A Great Leap

PROJECT 52: A Great Leap

My kiddos.

Leaping wild and crazy on Leap Year.

Cause we're cool like that.

And, no, our backyard is not on Tatooine.

Phoebe's Arty Party Part II or The Photo Booth

The Photo Booth at Phoebe's ART PARTY was so much fun! I know it's all the rage now and all over Pinterest, but it really was fun. And not too terribly hard.

I learned a few things about Photo Booths, too. I had ordered some props from an etsy site and then decided to use some butcher paper I had from another project for the background. The balloons I found at Target. I'm sure I could have done something more creative, but I had most of this stuff. I had a hard time finding a place to put the Photo Booth and even the spot I found had funny lighting, but it was the best I could do. I also wish I had made the backdrop a lot wider and had the paper run under their feet, too. I think that's the only major change I would have made, though. Well, that and the lighting and my photography skills. :)

I think I got some good ones, though.

Phoebe's Arty Party Part I

I decided to break the big Art Party up into two different posts since I had a photo booth and most of my photos came from there. I'll try to get those posted tomorrow.

In the meantime, I'm sharing the photos from the actual party. I didn't take as many of all my decorations like I usually do. I think I was too busy at the photo booth.

I used the paper chain idea again. I think it's my new favorite decorating technique. Sure it takes a bit of time, but it's cheap and packs a punch. Phoebe and Eli actually put most of this one together. I just used a package of construction paper. The tissue fans were ordered HERE because they had the right color combos.

I didn't get a good photo of the table I set up the living room to be party central. I used four card tables and lined them up white paper tablecloths and a roll of wrapping paper from Target for a pop of color.

This is where we did all our art. I had one of those ceramic figurines that you get cheap at Hobby Lobby for them to do when they got to the party...while I wasn't snapping their photos at the photo booth. A few kiddos had to take them home unfinished because it's pretty common for people to arrive at our house late for an event because we live so far out of town.

Then we did some multi-media art. I found 12 x 12 canvases on sale in packets of two at Michaels. I had all kinds of goodies to collage with, feathers, loofahs, sponges, straws, and a variety of paint brushes.  Most of the canvases just turned out grey since they used all the different colors!

I don't have a good photo of the cake table, either, since I used my kitchen table and it was backlit. Oh, and guess who forgot to roll the wrapping paper along this table.

We had veggies with ranch, pita chips with spinach dip, fruit k-bobs, fried mozzarella bites with marinara, colorful popcorn, punch (in THESE jars), and cake.

Oh my, the cake!

I admit, I was pretty darn proud of my cake. I'm not a great baker and I'm even worse at decorating. (You should have seen the ugliest cupcakes I took for Phoebe's snack yesterday for her birthday!) But this one turned out exactly as I had planned. Well, except for the fact that I had intended to make big, colorful dots with the icing, but I ran out. So I improvised with sprinkles.

And it was tall! Seven inches!  Phoebe was very impressed.

The colored popcorn was a big hit, too. I know there's a link on Pinterest, but I was lazy and just bought it from the popcorn place in the mall.  And I way overbought!  I sent home lots and lots of popcorn with the party guests. I think I should also mention that all the food was thought up by Phoebe (well, except for the pita chips and spinach dip...I figured we needed something savory with all that sweetness) hence the inclusion of fried mozzarella bites which necessitated the buying of a Fry Daddy.  Oh yes, I've become one of "those" people who owns a Fry Daddy.

Again with the badly lit photo, but it's still sweet. She loved her cake and was so excited for her friends to see that even though it was white cake, the layers were all different colors!

Getting ready to blow out the candles. The lighting is better here.

Here's the inside of the cake. I wish the green layer had been more of a lime green than a forest green since it was so close to the color of the blue layer. Oh well. It was still the most spectacular cake I've ever made.

This was one of my favorite parties to put together. Then again, I think I say that about all my parties. Brad was impressed, too, and asked why I never throw him a birthday party like that. I told him that adult parties intimidate me because I'm not cool enough to know what normal, fun adults would want to do. Kid parties are a lot easier. They are so much easier to please. :)

Happy Leap Year! Anyone doing anything creative or special this Leap Year?

Happy Birthday, Phoebe

Baby Girl turns 5 today.

Sigh.

Turning five is a big deal. It's as if she's taking that giant leap from babyhood to childhood. Five is when she'll open the door to being a big kid and walk through leaving behind the toddler you've grown to love. You still see them as your baby, but really, they're not.

This is the first year she's gotten this whole birthday thing. Last night, she counted up all the "special" things that were going to happen on her birthday (there are ten) and declared, "I'm not scared! I'm just excited!" This was the year she lost all her baby talk. (I'm so glad I wrote about it HERE!) She's grown long and lanky...taller than any of her friends. This was the year she finally figured out that the deer crossing sign had nothing to do with SANTA'S REINDEER. This was the year she started her last year of preschool. This was a year of a lot of "last times" and I probably didn't even realize most of them at the time.

And while I know that her fifth year will hold lots of wonderful times and at some point, I'll look back and remember when, right now I'm just a little sad that she's not five anymore.

Sigh.

Still Editing...

We survived Phoebe's fifth birthday party. I can't wait to post about it, but I have to wade through the 603 photos I took. And that's not an exaggeration. I actually took 603 photos. I think it's a new record.

Until I get them editing and posted, I'll be spending my last day with a 4-year-old child.  (sniff, sniff)

Project 52: Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever was this week's theme for PROJECT 52.

Hmmmm. Hard to interpret since this year's winter weather forgot to show up. It's been in the 60's and 70's here and I know we're not the only ones.

So I took a photo of what I usually do when we have cabin fever. I bake...even though I'm not very good at it. This week I was working on Phoebe's birthday cake. And it was so pretty!

Not quite sure how the actual cake will turn out, but the mess it made in my kitchen was a lovely one.

What I'm Working On This Week

I'm getting ready for Phoebe's 5th birthday party this weekend. It's an "Art Party" because, as the girl says, "I love art!" She thinks anything to do with crayons or scissors or glue or tape is art. School is her favorite place because she "does art all day long!"

I found the invitation template on Pinterest (where else?). It's a free DOWNLOAD, but it did eat up a heck of a lot of ink! Then I stuffed each one with 8 crayons from a 120 count Crayola crayon box. If I'd known back in the fall that this is the party we'd be having, I would have stocked up on the 8 count crayon boxes when they are on sale for like 40 cents because the 120 count box has lots and lots of crayons in pink/red shades, but not so many yellow/orange shades. I felt like my boxes were heavy on the pinks and that frustrated this control-freak just a little bit because I couldn't do a ROY G BIV variation in each box.

But handing out an actual crayon box was super fun. The kids *loved* them!

So I've been spending my week in a plethora of bright colors. It's been awesome! Seriously, I think this is the party I've had the most fun getting ready for. Party details coming next week.

Until then, I'm buried under a pile of art supplies, balloons, and rainbow colored food.

Eli's Life

I found this on Eli's bedside table the other night.

It reads (and I'll do a little translating):
"My life has been hard and easy. My sister Phoebe is 4 years old. Her friends are nice but Phoebe is mean and bossy. My mom is 33. She's kind of mean but usually nice."

Posting this makes me a little nervous for a couple of reasons.

First, I'm afraid you'll see just how hard it is for him in the writing/spelling area and how far behind he is.  I feel that, at almost nine, his writing ability is closer to that of a young first grader.  It breaks my heart.  I can only see how much I haven't done for him in this area.  To be honest, I don't always work as hard on this with him as I should because we just end up going round and round. Which leads me to the other reason I'm nervous.

Second, the last few weeks have been especially hard between Eli and I.  I find myself constantly pushing him and pushing him to do more, behave better, exceed expectations. I'm a LOVE AND LOGIC failure because I know the consequences of his mistakes will not be enough to make him change. I know my boy. I know how he thinks, how he operates. I know what he's capable of.  So I push and I push and I push.  I can't let anything go because there are so many things he needs to work on. Especially the last few weeks.  I keep thinking that this too shall pass, but I'm praying that it passes soon. I'm not sure how much longer I can take it. I want to enjoy my child again. I want to want to spend time with him.  I want to, at least once, be the fun, understanding parent. But someone has to address the disobedience, the disrespect, the bad attitude, the social awkwardness, all the things that should be a thing of the past but we are still working on them.

And if anybody tells me I'm doing a great job or that Eli is awesome and wonderful and amazing or  anything else that might be encouraging, I might throw up.  It's not how I feel and, apparently, neither does Eli.