Live Your Dream

MDS: Oh Baby!

Do you remember all the preparations for my sister's baby shower back in September? I finally put together a scrapbook layout for Ella's album.

Season's Bistro

Here are pictures from my sister's baby shower on Saturday. The "new" place--The Season's Bistro--was AMAZING. It was absolutely perfect.

I couldn't choose just one picture to show you the inside.

We were almost the only ones in the restaurant until halfway through her shower. The atmosphere was perfect and the wait staff was so professional and helpful.

Of course my Mom made the diaper cake, corsage, and cake. Does it look familiar? ;)

They are naming their baby Aiden Matthew but my sister wanted to keep the cake simple.)

Lisa and her daughter Addison (almost 3-1/2). Her official due date is October 1.

Burpcloths and More

I finished my sister's burpcloths last night! In fact, I made 4 of them and decided one (draped for you to see) was pretty girlie so I kept it for myself. :)

I bought a color-coordinating pack of fat quarters from JoAnn's and Gerber diaper burpcloths. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now that I have done a set (and renewed my limited sewing skills) I just might make another to keep on hand for baby gifts.

Then I finished up her thank you cards and made the matchbox favors (wrapped Hershey's special dark nuggets with scraps from the Chocolate Chip Patterns DS paper).

{supplies}
Paper: Whisper White
Ink: Certainly Celery, Cherry Cobbler, Chocolate Chip
Stamps: Baby Steps, Because I Care
Accessories: Certainly Celery 1/2" poly-twill ribbon (SAB), clear box

I forgot to open one of the matchboxes when I took a picture so you have to imagine the nuggets inside. :)

{supplies}
Paper: Delicate Dots DS (SAB), Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Baby Steps
Accessories: Big Shot, Matchbox XL die, Sticky Strip, linen thread, Crop-a-Dile, Chocolate Chip 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Sizzlits Lots of Tags die

I hope I have everything packed for her shower. I will be sure to bring my camera and take lots of pictures to share with you tomorrow!

Baby Steps Shower Invite

Do you remember that I'm helping throw a shower for my sister on Saturday? I called the tea house this afternoon to confirm the number in our party and the number had been disconnected! OMG. I even called 411 and did numerous searches on the internet. It wasn't until my brother (genius) found an email address on facebook that I was able to learn that they are now out of business. Apparently whoever came to open the tea house this morning found the locks changed. Weird.

It wouldn't have been so bad except the tea house was 1-1/2 hours from my house and I wasn't familiar at all with the area. Yikes. My BIL suggested another city nearby. I got on the phone with their visitor's center and in about 10 mintues I had a reservation at a similar place downtown on the square. Sigh. Never a dull moment, right? :)

With all that going on, I realized that I never shared her invitations with you...

{supplies}
Paper: Crumb Cake, Certainly Celery, Whisper White, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cherry Cobbler
Stamps: Baby Steps, Nursery Necessities
Accessories: Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots EF, Word Window punch, Crop-a-Dile, linen thread, Scallop Border punch, Stampin' Dimensionals

Ella's Announcements

I'm sure you think I fell into a black hole somewhere! It's been a challenge to take care of all the details related to Ella and keep up with housework. Thankfully my husband has taken some time off of work to help with the transition. We finally decided on announcements and sent them to be printed today. (I decided against my initial design here.)

Whew! Tonight I hope to get all the envelopes addressed (why didn't I do that BEFORE Ella arrived?!) and finish my thank you notes. Next week I resume teaching so I had a bunch of little details to take care of today. Tomorrow (wink, wink) I am supposed to write out a schedule to figure out how to schedule our days into Ella's feedings. :)

(For those of you getting an announcement in the mail...act surprised!)

BTW, I designed the announcement in My Digital Studio. I just {heart} that program!

Pregnancy Journal

Last night I finally finished my pregnancy journal! (I didn't start it until mid-week...) I will still add to it until Ella is born but I am SO thankful to have had time to write everything down. Fortunately I had saved memorabilia but I had to search dozens of emails to get specific details.

Here are just a few pictures of the journal. I definitely filled up almost 3/4 of the book!

{supplies}
Paper: On Board Art Journal, paper tablet, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum, Cool Carribean, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Certainly Celery SAB ribbon (from 2009), Scallop Edge punch, Regal Rose 5/8" grosgrain ribbon, Big Shot, Timeless Type Alphabet Junior, random SU ribbon tied on the binding

I also got Ella's diaper bag monogrammed yesterday (from this post).

Baby Star Card

Where has the time gone?! I got preoccupied this week with finishing all the tagging for an upcoming consignment sale and then the littlest one got sick so I had to take a break from new to accomplish the old. I finally finished the tagging and today I started (hehehe) on my pregnancy journal. I am writing a lot more than I thought I would. I guess that's what happens when you know its your last.

Anyway, here's a quick card I put together by copying the design on a gift bag. My Mom has to attend a baby shower tomorrow at her school so I supplied her with a bag and a matching card.

{supplies}
Paper: Barely Banana, Bashful Blue, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White, Certainly Celery
Ink: Pretty in Pink
Stamps: Nursery Necessities
Accessories: Pretty in PInk taffeta ribbon, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions folder, Big Shot, Stampin' Dimensionals, Large Star punch

Work Baby Shower Pics

Here are pictures from the baby shower at my husband's office yesterday. We brought the boys and they had a blast eating M&Ms and playing with their M&M men that one of the sweet girls brought them. The sugar effect was pretty instant. :)

Another belly shot...36 weeks...

You can imagine that I was busy making up thank you cards again and then I took the boys and ran errands today to finalize what we "need" for Ella's arrival. It was a long, cold, and windy day! I was thankful for leftover pizza for dinner, and a movie to watch with DH while I wrote thank you notes. I figured when my elbow hurt I needed to take a break. Hopefully I'll finish tomorrow and get back to consignment tagging...

I hope you had a fantastic Saturday!

Alternate Medallion Cards

Do you remember this post about hostess gifts from my baby shower? I needed two more gifts for a baby shower at my husband's office tomorrow. I ran out of Soft Suede and Basic Black 5/8" grosgrain ribbon so I had to improvise to make 4 more cards. Here you can see the improvised version vs. the original.

{supplies}
Paper: Very Vanilla, Basic Black, Thoroughly Modern DS
Ink: Soft Suede
Stamps: Medallion
Accessories: Scallop Trim punch, Soft Suede 1/2" polka-dot ribbon

Mores Shower Pics

I bet you thought I had the baby since I haven't posted since Sunday. :) hehehe

We enjoyed our MLK day and then I used my "free time" yesterday and today scheduling events for an upcoming piano competition. I'm still not done but I needed to take a break so here are some pictures from Saturday's baby shower.

My Mom and Me

A big thanks to Jennifer for taking these pictures!