Ready to POP- A Baby Shower Story

Last night, I helped throw a baby shower for my good friend Heather.  You all know the drill: Offer to help throw baby shower.  Look at decorations for baby shower.  Decide you could make cuter ones that are cheaper than the ones you can buy. Go all out and hand make everything at the last minute the week before the shower. No?  Just me?  Oh well...that's how things tend to go around here.... (Hold on to your hats, folks, this is a long one!)

DIYed tissue paper flower wreath for the door

Let me tell you, we had so much FUN getting everything ready for this shower! Jess, Laurie, and I had a great time decorating yesterday. Laurie had great ideas about how to arrange the flowers and the tables, and came up with the idea of using the piano as a feature table (genius!).  Jess was a decoration arranging/hanging machine.  I was in and out a bit looking after Elijah (we had to steal a diaper from the middle of the diaper cake for a poomergency...), so I feel these two ladies did most of the hard work.  But, it was really fun putting this together with them!

It all started when I made a little doily bunting.....Then, there may or may not have been more bunting.....And a few  a bunch of tissue paper flowers and pom-poms. (hey...it was a big room to decorate!)

Jess had a really cute idea for a theme: Ready to Pop!  We really rolled with that. I DIY'ed a chalkboard sign for a little feature table (and, of course, we stuck a tissue paper flower on that).  There were some little yellow, pink and white sweets in a jar, and a picture of mommy & daddy to be, and an ultrasound photo of baby.

POPcorn table (Piano covered in a sheet!)

We had a variety of vases and jars, which Jess wrapped in different fabrics, ribbons, and lace that went with the theme!  Some of them displayed flowers on small tables around the room, and some of them had hard candy in them.

We arranged the tables in a T shape, with the savoury food table at the back.  This table had lots of food items that fit the theme : Mini POPpadoms, POPcorn Chicken, and my very own recipe creations: Caprese POPs, and Pepperoni Pizza POPpers! I designed the labels...Of course the food had to be labelled! (Are you throwing a baby shower this spring/summer?  Click on the colour you need for my very first free printables! BLUE, PINK, YELLOW versions and  available.) 

Food tables

Cake and Cupcakes by Jess- Amazing, right?!

Caprese POPs (recipe post to follow later this week! :)

The gift table featured a diaper cake made by Jess, and there was also a pot for people to contribute towards the purchase of a mattress for baby E, since all of the other major items were already taken care of.

So beautiful, right?!

Laurie was in charge of the games, and we played Advice for Mummy MadLibs...It was so cute and funny! (E.G. giving David Beckahm advice about giving birth to a chimney that will be skiing several times a day...HA!) We also had a little blindfolded diaper changing race at the end.

My favourite part of the whole thing, was blessing my sweet friend Heather.  She has such a sweet heart, and there are a lot of people who really love her here, so it was fun to share the evening celebrating the fact that she is about to be a mommy!  (It makes me tear up a little thinking about it... love you, Heather!!) Also, baby showers are a fairly recent development in the U.K., so it was fun to show a lot of the guests what a baby shower is all about!

Seriously...how beautiful is this Mama to be?!

Laurie, Heather, Me & Jess

Have you planned a baby shower for any of your friends?  What was your favourite part??

The Organization Station (The Big Clean-Part 2)

When I begin my spring cleaning, I find that it helps if I have a system.  Otherwise, my mind tries to go in a gazillion different directions at once.  This year, I've been utilising an "organization station" to try to help me focus and de-clutter as I go.  Here's how it works: you will need four laundry baskets (or bags, or boxes....some sort of receptacle for accumulating things):

1) Donate
2) Sell
3) Sort
4)Throw away

Place items into the various categories as you carry out the organization portion of the Big Clean.  Once you have finished a room, take the items to the master "organization station", where you can combine items from every room. You could also put things directly where they belong if you have already organized the place where they live. Here is what my "Organization Station" looks like (and probably will for the next month...)

It's not pretty, but you get the idea!

 Clothing items that you are getting rid of should be sorted into donate and sell piles.  Donate the items that have been well loved, and sell the stuff that your mom/friend/sister talked you into buying and you have worn twice or never worn.  Once you have finished organizing (or, when you feel like you need a break), and you have a good sized pile of things to "sell", and about an hour.  Take a few photos, list them on eBay, and move on.  After your eBay auctions end, anything that hasn't sold on will also be donated. (There will be a mini-post next week with some tips on selling stuff on eBay as you organize if you haven't ever done it before!) You're not losing anything by not selling them, but it won't hurt to have a little extra money in your pocket.

The final basket is for things to "sort".  The trick here is to keep on top of this throughout the day.  As misplaced items from one room end up in the basket, take them with you when you make a trip to the room where they do belong. This way, you should be able to keep on top of these items throughout the day.  To be honest, I haven't been very good about keeping on top of this so far.  I figure that once I have a room in tip top shape, I can take take a quick look through the "sort" basket, then take items to their newly organized home!

You can either let "throw away" items build up throughout the day month long process (resulting in a few triumphant and rewarding trips to the bin at the end of the Big Clean), or you can throw away as you go.  I think I'll just wait and do it all at once so that I can really fathom how much crap we have accumulated since we moved here. Also it probably won't all fit in our outside bin, so I will have to take it to a larger one somewhere else.  (I haven't properly sorted through all of our stuff since we moved here two and a half years ago....oops!).  I am being ruthless this year.  I try to keep things relatively clutter free....but at times it's difficult to silence my inner pack rat.  "You might need this one day.....as soon as you throw it away, you will be looking for it".  Enough, I say!  Enough!  If I haven't needed it in over 2 (or more) years, chances are I won't need it tomorrow. Or the next day.

This is all the trash....from upstairs.

So...there it is: The Organization Station, and a few helpful tips for getting organized as you go!  

Jim is Superman...Clark Kent is a Fraud

That's right. Clark Kent, eat your heart out. James Wightman is actually Superman. (By the way, I'm convinced that being married to Superman is directly linked to my unrealistic expectations of myself. See my first blog post.... Queen Elizabeth I of Lists and Spreadsheets).

Today, Jim built compost bays for our garden. My friend Susan, who is amazing and environmentally conscious, should appreciate this project as we are both using recycled materials (old railway sleepers) AND composting! We're so green. Anyway....

First, Jim gathered the materials he would need to make the compost bays: Railway sleepers, tape measure, and a chainsaw.

These wooden beams are the railway sleepers...and he lifted them. All of them. (Anyone but Superman would obviously be dead from such exertion). He stacked them together to form a sort of large "E" (but with an extra space...so there are three rectangular spaces).

This is the result about half way through....

Next, Jim used a chainsaw to cut a notch in the wood so that the beams would fit together more securely.
And here's the bird's eye view of the final product:

So, we now have compost bays! Also....my husband is a total BA.