Posts tagged family
Teresa’s Baby Shower: Ready to Pop Theme
07 months ago
by Erin
When my sister told us this past Christmas she was pregnant, my first thought was BABY SHOWER! OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, it was probably more like HOORAY! Nevertheless, I couldn’t wait to get planning with my mom for the PERFECT baby shower.
Ready to Pop Invitation
The first thing I did was research baby shower themes. I didn’t want to do the typical pastel themed baby shower, I wanted to do something unique and different. That’s when I came across these Ready to Pop Baby Shower Invitations from CandlesandFavors.com. I loved the saturated colors and since my sister and her husband love movies and movie going, I thought it was perfect. It’s also gender neutral if your guest of honor has chosen not to find out the sex of the baby until the delivery day.
Food/Beverage table
I carried the theme into the decor of the food/beverage table in a few ways. I grabbed some yellow napkins, utensils and red plates from Target and Big Lots! that went along with the theme. I had some red party cups for beverages, which fit in perfectly with the theme. I bought a couple yards of the red and while polka dotted fabric from Joann’s and made a table runner to give it a punch of color. I really wanted red/white stripes, but I couldn’t find any, unfortunately. The fruit arrangement went in a cute red bucket found at Joann’s. I placed condiments for the popcorn bar (more on that in a minute!) in baby jars I covered with red ribbon. All of the food and beverage items were labeled with place cards that I made by mounting yellow scrapbook paper on to an existing place card, and then writing the name of the food on red ink on white index cards. A friend of Teresa’s made the gorgeous diaper cakes that went on each table as a centerpiece. Finally, we added red, white and yellow balloons for a finishing touch.
Tea sandwiches and other appetizers.
I decided to save on money and do a light lunch/appetizers rather than a full on meal. My husband is a caterer, which also helped. He made some tea sandwiches and other appetizers, as well as the fruit arrangement. Thanks to him I also didn’t have to rent any table linens, they all came from our garage.
I also came up with the idea of doing a popcorn bar to add to the light lunch offerings. I had a bowl of regular popcorn and a bowl of kettle corn, with an assortment of toppings in the baby jars with red ribbon glued around them. Condiments included kosher salt; cheddar and nacho cheddar cheese powder; red, white and yellow M&Ms; and chocolate chips. I originally planned on using these favor boxes from CandlesandFavors.com, but unfortunately I didn’t read the description closely enough. So when the boxes arrived I was surprised to find how tiny they were! Instead I went out to Target and got some of those plastic popcorn boxes from the dollar bin. Beverages were simple: water, iced tea, coke and diet coke.
Onesie table
Instead of games, I wanted to focus on activities the ladies could do during the shower, while visiting with Teresa and each other. One of the ideas we came up with was this Onesie decorating table. We supplied iron on designs, stencils and fabric markers and blank onesies and bibs and had each of the ladies decorate them. They really enjoyed it and now Teresa has PLENTY of onesies for baby!
Click each image to make it larger!
I also had a picture frame with a white mat so the guests could sign it with wishes for Mama and baby. This table also had a photo album with baby pictures of Teresa, and some assorted pictures of her husband as a baby.
Picture frame
I made little rosettes for the grandmas and guest of honor. They were really simple, actually! The rosettes came pre-assembled from Michael’s. All I had to do was attach a pin to the back and write the sentiment on a sticker and put it on the front. I also added a ribbon to the Mom-To-Be’s.
Mom-to-Be and future grandma!
After playing ONE game (it wouldn’t be a baby shower without at least one game of baby bingo, right?) and opening presents, we called it a day. My sister had a wonderful time (and got a little teary eyed when she opened the baby quilt I made for the baby) and all of the guests had a good time as well. I loved seeing everything come together and I loved how the theme carried throughout the shower!
Scarlett’s Quilt!
02 years ago
by Erin
Right after I finished Jason Jr.’s Quilt, I had to begin on another one because my husband’s brother and his wife were expecting a baby! We were going to have a baby shower in June, so I wanted to have it ready by then.
I used the same book as before, Quilts for Baby: Easy As ABC by Ursula Reikes, but a different pattern.
Again, I went to Joann’s again to buy my fabric. I tried to get some better fabric than the last quilt, I felt like the patterns in Jason Jr.’s quilt weren’t bold enough. These were the ones I came up with:
I usually like to use flannels or equivalent for the backing on the quilts, to give it a cozier feel. For this quilt I used thinner batting, so I was able to machine quilt it rather than having to do it by hand, so the process went by a LOT quicker! I still need work on the actual quilting parts, though. They still end up a bit crooked.
The finished product:
Can you spot which of the squares was put on upside down? 
Despite that error, the mom-to-be loved the quilt and I hope the baby girl will too, once she is old enough!
Jason Jr.’s Quilt
02 years ago
by Erin
Earlier this year, my husband’s cousin had a baby boy named Jason. I had been wanting to try my hand at quilting for a while, so I decided it was the perfect time to start, so I could make a gift for the baby. My husband bought me a sewing machine that previous January and I was dying to use it, this was the perfect excuse!
I went to JoAnn’s (my favorite craft store) and started in the books section. I ended up buying Quilts for Baby: Easy As ABC by Ursula Reikes. If you know a bit about sewing but nothing about quilting, like me, this is a great book to start with. It tells you everything you’ll need to quilt, and it has lots of simple starter quilts with very clear, easy to understand directions. Apparently the design I chose was one of the harder ones, but it didn’t feel like it with this book.
Fabrics I chose for the quilt.
Piecing together the squares was a bit challenging, as you can see. Not all of my blocks match up perfectly, but that’s something that comes with practice. Improved skill in cutting and sewing straight will correct those types of mistakes.
I thought my sewing machine wouldn’t be able to handle machine quilting the blanket, so I ended up quilting it by hand! You can see here in the picture that I mis-cut the backer for the quilt, so I used some scraps I had to supplement the width.
Finally the quilt is done!
The quilting lines are a bit crooked, but that can be solved by using a quilting frame that I ended up buying after this project was finished. I was pretty satisfied with the outcome, especially for my first quilt, and eager to start the next one.
