ivy and james's baby shower!!!

friday was the date for ivy nownotsmith and james's baby shower!  their baby boy is due in october and we don't know when she's going to go on maternity leave, so we decided a late august baby shower was in order!

here are all the pics that came out well.  i probably deleted half of them, but i still came away with quite a few good shots!!

as usual, i took pics of the food:

cupcakes from metropolitan market:

i made triple berry buttermilk mini scones:

and fruit with devonshire cream also from the trollop along with pink virgin lemonade:

what makes it virgin?  i don't get it...

and spring had on bitchin' eggplant purple chucks!!

they looked a little scared and apprehensive about what might be in prezzies.  don't worry!  we were nice!!

no one had met james before and i'm so sure we all gave him a great first impression.  really...we're sane!

and then the gift opening:

they got quite a few handmade presents.  a baby afghan from julie and spring and a stuffed cat and baby changing mat from me:

and also lots of great stuff from everyone!

nicole and i had been planning for MONTHS to get her a framed pic of a squirrel in underpants for the baby's room.  i think it will look just delightful :)

bwa hahahahahahahahahah! (james thinks we're crazy!)

it was a good baby shower.  their baby is going to be adorable and i can't wait to meet him.  i'm going to totally miss ivy at work and will cry when she leaves...

but in the meantime,

have i ever mentioned what good friends nicole and i are?  see......

i just don't understand why she's flipping me off.  is it because her boyfriend looks like this???:

HAH!!!

i'm so lame...

it's inevitable...if i go to some kind of social function, i will take pictures of the food and nothing else.  i'm always happy when i actually take shots of something other than the food.  yet today was not the exception.  it was paul and kimberly's baby shower at work this afternoon and all i did was take shots of the treats:

om nom nom nom nom nom...

cake balls:

these cake balls were DELICIOUS!  except jane and i made schweddy ball jokes ALL DAY!  it was especially bad when i was sitting next to her in our friday morning meeting.  no more sitting by jane in friday meetings at work.  i get the giggles too bad.

oh, and this guy sat behind me at the baby shower and kicked my chair THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME:

so i took off his shoe and threw it.  note to self: also do not sit next to andrew at anything.  get giggles so bad i cry a little trying to hold them in.

but kimberly looked beautiful and paul looked like the happy papa he's going to be.  it's really too bad i didn't take any pictures of them or ANYTHING else except the food and andrew.

live and learn, alon, live and LEARN!!

changing mat tote...

paul and kimberly's baby shower is at the beginning of next month, so i got off my ass and got their prezzie ready.  i made a changing mat tote from a vintage pattern my mom gave me.  i modified the pattern somewhat, but the basic idea is totally the same.

the one i made is the stipey thing in the middle there.  basically, it's a changing pad and those flop out things are big pockets that fold inside to hold things in when you carry it.  there's supposed to be a removable rubber mat that's held in with snaps, but i just made it a permanent pad using extra thick batting.  the whole thing is washable, so if there's accidents (and it's a baby, c'mon now...) you can just stuff it in the washer, no problem.  

 they're having a boy and i didn't want to go with stupid blue, so i chose a nice thicker sea green cotton for the outside and a super cute brown with multi-colored hearts fuzzy flannel for the lining and the pockets.  it's lined with brown bias tape which matches the inside fabric.  and i really like green and brown together, so i hope they do too!

the pattern had a cute bear to put on the front of the tote, so i rolled with it.  you were supposed to sew it nicely on there with lots of folding and ironing, but i went with my standard of just sewing the sucker down with a zig-zag stitch.  i think it looks better. 

 mmmm...my icy juice looks pretty good sitting there.

so here's what it looks like all folded out.  i think the flap pockets came out pretty good.  the whole pattern is just rectangles, so it was super easy to put together.  and there are windows right above my sewing table (which is to the left of the picture) so it's casting a nice dark shadow from the light coming in.  sorry...it's a funny picture...

and with the pockets folded in on themselves.  cute little hearts :)

and the finished product!  i made the straps a little longer for being able to go over with paul or kimberly's shoulders without being too short.

it came out just like i wanted it to.  it's soft and squishy and really CUTE!!