The Baby Shower

I was treated to the most beautiful shower I've ever had the pleasure of attending. My mom and her friends are absolutely amazing when it comes to planning. The decor was gorgeous and the food was delicious. I'm lucky enough to have cousins who bake like professionals and they provided the most amazing cake and cupcakes.

Myself, my mom and my sister.

The shower theme was nautical. We love living on Whidbey Island, we love the ocean that surrounds us and we love our boat. We are so excited to introduce the northwest island life to our son and nothing fits us better than all things nautical.

The afghan on the left with the anchor was hand made by my cousin, Rachel. She did an amazing job. The quilt on the left was made by our close friend and neighbor, Uschi. The quilt was one of my very first gifts for the baby. I completely skipped a bedding set because of this quilt. The rocking horse is from my friend, Alison. She stained it to match his bedroom.

Poms, eyelet lanterns and stars hung above the food table. They've all come home with me to hang in his bedroom. The giant frame was held chicken wire - I took photos early so you don't get to see all the adorable photos that were attached of his ultrasounds, my weekly belly photos and a few of me as a child.

The shower was at 11:00am, so we had a brunch spread. It was delicious. Mini crustless quiches, strawberry spinach salad with the most amazing dressing I've ever tasted and fresh bakery bread.

There was a great sparkling fruit punch along with lemon water. We drank from mason jars and each little straw had the cutest little striped red and blue flags on them.

The cupcakes were made my the Cupcake Queen herself, my cousin Rachel. She knows how much I love fondant and she made marshmallow fondant star toppers for each cupcake. I'm also a frosting girl, and she totally outdid herself on the frosting for these cupcakes. I was in heaven.

My cousin, Brynn made the blue velvet ruffle cake. I'd come across a picture of one on Pinterest and had to have it. This is the absolute best velvet cake I've ever eaten in my life. The frosting was cream cheese and sadly didn't like the sun. But I don't care, it was delicious! My sister came across this adorable whale topper and my brother colored it for her. It was pretty sweet of him!

The blessing table was incredible. Each guest wrote a sweet note to our baby boy and hung it on the line. At the end of the shower they were collected in a small album for me to take home. I'll get to read each blessing and prayer to him as he grows.

Pinwheels made the center pieces on each table and were the favors for our guests to take home. My mom let me help with these, which I loved. I'm a crafty person so I was happy I got to help with something!

The little guy was spoiled rotten!

Carrie, Jennifer, Mom & Lisa

These are the ladies that made it happen. Carrie hosted in her gorgeous back yard, making for one heck of a garden party. They all helped my mom collect and implement ideas. They set up and took down the entire thing and also helped prepare the food. They're amazing and my mom is so lucky to have the best friends.

There are more pictures floating around on other cameras. When I end up with those I'll post more of the fun. A big thank you to everyone who made the shower so incredible special. I felt beyond blessed. From those who helped plan and put on, to those friends and family members that attended. It was an amazing day I'll never forget.

A project! Baby Boy's Cradle

I am so excited to be sharing this before and after. I couldn't be bothered to take any better pictures, but they still show just how beautiful this piece of furniture is.

I was searching Craigslist several months ago for a dresser for the baby's room. I had no luck with a dresser, but I did find this great cradle! I sent a picture of it to my husband who immediately replied that we must have it. The next day I picked it up from a darling military family in town. Her very last little boy had outgrown it and she was (not so ready) to part with it.

We wrangled it in to the back of my sister's Volkswagon Beetle (boy was that a task!) and went on our merry way. We made a pit stop at the grocery store on the way home, and while inside a woman spied the cradle in the back seat of the car. She was in the process of leaving us a note about it when we came out. Her daughter-in-law was due in September and she wanted to know if we were selling it. Nope! Sorry! She was bummed, but wished me well.

It's an old piece that had obviously been modified and that was just fine. I'd take it apart to paint it and put it back together ensuring it's stability. It also came with a brand new mattress, off white sheet and set of bumpers (only 3 months used). I'd started pulling it apart to prep it and realized I should probably take a before picture.

I absolutely love the way it turned out. It took some sanding and wiping down to prep it. Then it took a tedious 4 coats of paint with a foam brush. I actually chose to pick up a quart of Martha Stewart's Wrought Iron (the lighting doesn't really do the color justice) rather than using spray paint. Baby boy's color is a dark muted navy blue. There just weren't a lot of options in spray paint matching what I really wanted for this piece and it would have been far more expensive for the amount of cans I needed. I didn't even use 1/4 of my quart of paint and now I have more left over for other projects for his room. I did pick up a can of spray paint matching the hooks the cradle hangs from for the rest of the hardware.

This picture doesn't show the completed project. The eye bolts currently on the cradle are old and rusted. We weren't able to find the same size at the hardware store so we attempted to spray them to match the hooks. Problem was, we can't tighten the bolts at the bottom any farther up. This means the stop on the cradle (the function is there, but we have to create a new stop) won't work. Can't have the baby unsecured while sleeping and unattended. We've picked up some marine rope that we'll be replacing the eye hooks with, keeping with my nautical feel. We can then adjust the height to ensure the stop works properly.

The stop is a small dowel that I painted the same color as the hardware. We picked up a small crystal knob to attach to the end of the dowel to place and remove the stop. It will be attached to the frame with a piece of marine rope so that it doesn't get lost. If I don't attach it, I'll lose it for sure. That's just how I am! I am overall pleased with the quality of this old piece and the stability after modifying it. I can't wait to have baby boy sleeping in it!

Total project cost:

Cradle: $40

Paint: $13

2 foam brushes: $1

Spray paint: $8

Dowel: $1

Decorative knob: $4

Rope: $5

Total: $72!

Still less than half the price of a brand new cradle and the bedding was included! I love to restore old peices and I know that as we use this for our son and future children, that mommy and daddy made it just for them. Love that!

The cradle will be decorated with a custom pillow that I plan to make, along with two very adorable blankets I've crocheted for my little man. It will all be ready for his arrival so I'll have pictures posted of it in it's final resting place before he gets here!

Weeks 29 - 33

Life is good here! Time flies by at the speed of light and sometimes I find myself overwhelemed at the things I feel need to be done around here. Time, please slow down just a little!

My pregnancy is still progressing beautifully. I'm down to the last 7 weeks before my due date and I'm starting to finally understand what uncomfortable is. I was just asked last night if I "turtle" out of bed. I gave a quizical look and realized exactly what they were talking about - yes, I get stuck on my back when trying to roll from one side to the other or trying to sit myself up out of bed - turtling is a great description of that!

29 Weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

33 weeks

(I love the roundness of my belly from the front!)

Baby boy moves constantly. It's the one thing I will miss the most about pregnancy after he's born. It's so nice having him with me all the time. Getting to "take" him to work with me, rubbing my belly to wake him and "spend" time with him. I love all of that. My husband and I were discussing the other day how we know we will be so tired and sleep deprived, but we've just waited for him for so long, that we kind of feel like that won't matter. We'll just want to spend every waking moment we can with him.

I'm now attending appointments every 2 weeks. We're getting down to the wire. As of right now we have 6 weeks and 3 days until my due date. Friends and coworkers are starting to place their bets on when the little man will make his appearance. At my last appointment a week ago his estimated weight from measurements was 4lbs 3oz. He looked incredible. I'm so blessed this pregnancy has been problem and complication free and that my boy continues to grow as healthy as possible.

My baby shower is on August 20th and I'm very exicted to get together with family and friends to celebrate my son. I can't wait!