Erica, Tracy, and Amy did such a great job hostessing. The food was delicious - Honeybaked Ham with rolls, cinnamon apples, sweet tea and lemonade, crudites, hummus with pita chips, and CAKE!
No seriously, we had CAKE. It was awesomely huge. About half of it is still in my fridge (for now.... I intend to eat a piece every single day till I go into labor, if it lasts that long... :)
The guests all signed a special photo with well wishes.
I'm going to keep the purple pen with the photo, so all the grandparents can sign it when they come into town.
Steven bought lovely flowers the night before the shower.
And then Erica brought MORE gorgeous flowers! I adore having fresh flowers in my house - I wish I would think to do this more often.
We even had balloons on the mailbox!
As you can plainly see, I am rather excited to be having this shower. (Also pictured - the Diaper Cake that Amy made for me!)
Tracy brought her sweet baby Charlotte (Charley for short); she was only six weeks old! Sitting next to Tracy is Jaimy - she is going to start working with me at our office starting this coming week!
Steven came back right as the shower was wrapping up, and I introduced him to little Charley, and then I realized that she is as old as Sophie will be when I have to go back to work. Hoo boy. Not really ready for that realization yet....
My neighbor Tina and her 7-yr old daughter, Avary, came for the shower. Avary was so very cute and helpful with all of my gifts. Each one I opened, she wanted an explanation: "What's that? What is it for? What does it do?" (These questions got tricky when I opened things like breastfeeding pads and Lansinoh cream...)
It was so very fun to open all the presents - I was just smitten with everything.
As we were opening gifts, the doorbell rang and a Fed Ex arrived from Steven's mom and sister!
Grammie Steele made Sophie a prayer shawl blanket - I read the card to Avary, and she loved it.
I will give you a better close up of what Jenny sent me later in the post. I have such fabulously talented and crafty friends and family!
Mom sent some gifts in the mail from Janie&Jack - I'll show you close ups further down in this post.
So very cute!
Also, this must be my "look how cute!" face, because I think I made this face in every picture. (PS, the excellent photography was provided by Erica and her shiny new camera with the super fast shutter speed. I have lens envy.)
Speaking of Erica, she had been telling me that she was making something special for the shower, and I secretly hoped that she might be sewing something fabulous. And sure enough, I was totally blown away - this is the first quilt that she has ever made. (She's an overachiever, clearly. :)
You can also see in this picture below the Bingo game that Amy organized - I partially played the game, but mostly just ate the Hershey's kisses... :)
So after all the guests departed, I took all of the gifts up to Sophie's room for their glamour shots.
Seriously, isn't this a stunning quilt? I just love it.
She did a freestyle quilting leaf pattern on the back - can you see it? My fabric photography skills are somewhat lacking.
The fabrics and colors are so so perfect!
This is exactly what I imagined for Sophie's room - only better than I possibly could have done it. I should apologize to Sophie because as of this moment, I have no intention of letting her put her grubby little mitts on it! :) It's too pretty to let a baby drag it around the house!
Come to think of it, all of the handcrafted gifts I got are really too beautiful to be subjected to snotty noses and spit up! Steven's sister Jenny made this gorgeous blanket for us - its cushy and wonderful!
I tried to take pics to show both sides of the blanket.
I probably crumpled it up like this carrying it from room to room for the best lighting. (Sorry Jenny! It was beautifully ironed when I got it out of the box!)
Jenny also made me these fabulous diaper/burp cloths! I love them! (Shameless plug - Jenny sells some of her beautiful wares on Etsy as Motifdesigns. Her main business is instrument polishing cloths, but I bet if you asked nicely, she'd make and sell you some of these beautiful burp cloths too!)
Here's our adorable clothes hamper, courtesy of my brother Matt and his wife Kristen.
My 4-yr old nephew Jay sent Sophie some hair bows, and....
Some jellies! He also sent an adorable handwritten (hand-crayoned) card, which I am putting directly onto the fridge.
I realized that I never showed you the other hand-made items from my work shower, so here are a few blankets crocheted by the secretaries:
They are crocheted borders sewn onto a piece of flannel.
And they also made me one fully crocheted blanket - so pretty!
Sophie has gotten some fabulous books - here is her library to date:
And here are some close-ups of her Janie&Jack wardrobe, thanks to Nana and Pop Huff!
The littlest pumpkin!
This dress has yorkshire terriers embroidered onto it! Love!
And here's one with tiny poodles made from french knots!
A monkeys onesie! With ruffle sleeves!
And, as we all know how much Sophie loves cupcakes: my little cupcake!
Complete with cupcake socks!
And a precious white sweater with stripey pants!
And last but not least, a brown velour footie onesie that looks so comfortable, it makes me want to go buy a velour tracksuit for myself.
Steven especially appreciated this onesie.
Here's a closeup of the card that Grammie Steele sent with the prayer shawl. Sophie is already being prayed over - I love that.
I managed to partially destroy Amy's beautiful diaper cake by moving it from one place to another, but here's the bottom two layers.
I like the ribbons she picked out for it! So cute.
The cake was made from newborn and size one diapers. I did not realize how tiny newborn butts must be. Wow.
And as it turns out, I am surrounded by super crafty folks - my neighbor Tina made Sophie several personalized embroidered items!
One of my favorites? The "take it up with my lawyer" bib. This might be a daily wear...
It was also super precious to see a burp cloth that said "I will steele your heart!" The second burp cloth says "Miss October." We joked at the shower that Tina will revise it if Sophie doesn't wait that long... :)
Steven really loved getting to see Sophie's monogram on the tag blanket. I love this idea - kids love the tags on clothing, so its a whole blanket with little tags sewn onto the sides for the baby to feel the different textures and shapes.
And she also made a sweet finger foods container and a sippy cup with Sophie's name and initial!
Doesn't it look so perfect paired with Jenny's blanket?
After I got it all unpacked, organized, and photographed, I realized that Sophie's little room is now complete. I never thought the day would arrive. We've come a long way from buying those cans of paint back in May or so....
And, just like clockwork, I started feeling some tiny contractions tonight. Nothing huge, and nothing worth calling the doctor about. I think part of me is just wishing her here as fast as possible. It still seems so long till October, but I know its almost time! Come on Sophie! Everything is ready for you now!
3 comments:
girlfriend, you are set! That quilt is AMAZING and totally ties the room together! Violet cannot wait to meet Sophie hopefully one day soon!!
Thanks Kristin! We'll have to get all these little girls together sometime this Fall! But perhaps we shouldn't - what if they turn into a roving pack of scheming teenage girls someday?? Eek! haha
I wish I'd have been able to make the trip to celebrate with you! It looks like an amazing time :) Can't wait for Sophie to get here. LOVE YOU!!
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