It's a baby shower for Blondie!

Last weekend was the second of two baby showers that I've helped to plan this fall. This one, a Beatrix Potter Tea Party for Blondie, who is due with her first baby, a little girl, in December. I've been working with Blondie's sister, Sporty, throughout the fall to get things coordinated for the shower. While this one was a bit more stressful to get together and resulted in little sleep for Sporty and I, it was still a great event.

I headed down to San Diego after rehearsal on Friday and found Dressing Queen and Sporty hard at work on the food prep. Thank God for Dressing Queen - she generously volunteered to help with the food at the end of Vino's shower and we quickly took her up on the offer. While Sporty and I had a good outline of what we wanted to do, it was great to have Dressing Queen offer her expertise and to clean up the final menu. I love to cook and all, but things have been so crazy this fall that it was a blessing to have someone else really pulling the food stuff together.

After a yummy dinner from Sporty's mom, we got down to business putting together the favors and tissue poms. Oh, the tissue poms. Yes, they're adorable and in the end, I'm so happy we used them, but oh my. They took for-ev-er to assemble. We we're punchy by the end and it looked like the kitchen table had exploded with tissue paper balls. Heh.

The next morning we were up super early to get everything ready. Vino, Dressing Queen and their mom Crafty joined us as well and between the 6 women (including Sporty's mom) and the two guys we recruited for brawn, it all came together right as the first guests were arriving. Nothing like cutting it close. ;)

Sporty's mom has several sets of beautiful china that she has collected over the years. She happily let us use them for the shower. Each table was set with a different pattern and I think that they fit the theme beautifully.

Hard at work in the kitchen!

Appetizer Table

We also had a full spread for lunch - 2 tea sandwiches, chicken salad in cucumber cups, spinach salad, but I completely neglected to take pictures of it. Oops. :/

Dessert was mini NY-style cheesecakes with strawberries and pumpkin spice cheesecakes.

The happy grandmas-to-be

Games and gifts

Group Pics

It was a such a fun afternoon and I think Blondie had a great time. Blondie, I'm so excited for you and can't wait to meet your little girl in just a few weeks. :)

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Our group has now planned almost a dozen parties together for one another - baby showers, bridal showers, birthday parties, etc. The moms always joke that we should just go into business together already. We all just laugh it off, but I think that after planning these two showers practically back to back, it was a thought that seriously crossed my mind. Realistically, we all just live too far apart to ever consider it for real, but I've never met a group of women who are able to plan events so efficiently and without any drama. We all just seem to feed off of one another's ideas and visions and the events develop and grow in ways that always appear to be more than the sum of their parts. Sure, we all put in a ton of work to make the parties beautiful and special, but it's always more fun than it should be and I look back after all of the hard work and am so happy with the final product. I love these girls so much and am so happy to consider them all friends and partners in crime. It'll be nice to have a bit of a break, but let's get back on the party bandwagon soon ladies. Anyone up for starting to think about 1st birthday party themes for the wee ones? ;)

Ramble, Ramble

Life is hectic this week. Well, technically, it's been hectic for several weeks and it's going to continue to be nutty until November 21st, but this week is particularly bad. Rehearsals and baby shower prep and mother-in-law's birthday all falling right at the same time. I'm pretty surprised that I've been able to keep it all together so far, but my head is just a jumbled mess of thoughts and to-do lists. For example:

* I'm like the queen of flat tires recently. I'll take full responsibility for one of them, but I've had like 5 or 6 this past year and the rest were so not my fault. Another one this week in the middle of everything else that's going on about set me over the edge. Thankfully, the lovely techs at the dealership got everything fixed quickly and free of charge, right before I lost my mind.

* Love that the holidays are upon us, but don't have much brain space to enjoy the season just yet. Soon though. I'm already planning what goodies I want to bake/assemble later this month. The list is long. Like that's a shock to anyone.

* Starbucks red cups are back!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!!!

* I'm knee-deep in rehearsals (more on that later this month) and while it's a lot of extra time and stress on the body, I'm loving it. I love the people that are on the team, I love the work that we're doing and I love being reminded of my high school days where practices and rehearsals were a common occurence. Even the small act of pulling out my old beater dance bag has put a smile on my face. I think we're all feeling a bit worn out at this point, but I'm making sure that I sit back and really soak it all in and enjoy the process right now. I know that once it's over and it's back to "normal" life, I'm going to miss it so very much.

* Since I don't have time to go to a spa right now, but could really use a little extra zen in my life, I picked up some lavendar bath gel and lotion. Wish I had bought it weeks ago. Perfect way to unwind after a long, long day. Hot shower, lavendar bath stuff, comfy clothes - yup, perfection.

* Putting the finishing touches on the gifts for Blondie's baby shower and I've absolutely fallen head over heels in love with one of the dresses I made for her. Like, if we ever have kids, I'm totally asking her to borrow it. How sad is that?! It's just a perfect marriage of pattern, fabric and finishing techniques that add up to one kickass dress. Pictures soon. Once the shower is done though, I'm taking a couple of weeks to just sew for me. Me me me me me. ME. And the projects that I'm wanting to tackle first are somewhat boring, but that's okay. At least they'll be for me. ;)

* I really need more hours in the day. Even just one or two would be fabulous. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one that feels this way.

* Haven't had a real conversation with Jim since sometime last week. Why, you ask? He's away at his first real trial and has been just as stressed and over-run with work as me. At least I've been getting 5ish hours of sleep a night compared to his 2-3 hours. Eeek! He's home this afternoon just in time for his mom's birthday dinner. I miss him, but at the same time, it's probably good that both of our hectic weeks happened at the same time. At least I know I'll see him tonight and at Thanksgiving. Heh.

Okay, well after that brain dump I feel better. And now, back to the never-ending to-do list. Wheeee!