Shanna's Baby Shower

Shanna's Baby Shower. The event I have been planning for weeks. Stressing about. Shopping for. Finishing projects for. (Does it bother anyone else that those sentences end in a preposition, which means they are not grammatically correct? Doesn't bother me enough to figure out how to change it.)

Anyway.

It was a bit frantic the few hours before. I took a lot longer to make the frosting and decorate the cupcakes than I thought. J helped so much. I appreciate him so much. I told him thank you at least 17 times throughout the day.

Here he is making the baby carriage out of the watermelon. It looked fabulous.

I stole this photo from my sister's Facebook page because I forgot to take a close-up!

My beautiful painted table with the awesome spread. It was a jungle theme, can you tell? Those ham and cheese rolls were a big hit.

Jennifer won the diaper raffle. And then won baby bingo, but was gracious enough to allow the game to continue so that someone else could win.

The big cupcakes.

The little cupcakes on my stand. J was washing something at the sink.

The lion was on the invitations...which I made in photoshop. They turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

J was waiting to cut the cake and he unintentionally looked creepy.

If you're wondering why Dano is in all of the photos in the next sequence, it's because I stole these from FB too. I have some gorgeous sisters/mother. You're welcome for the eye candy.

She's not taller than me! I was crouched over holding something and it was awkward OK!

Shanna got some really good stuff. You can count on my family; my parents and sisters got her a car seat, a pack-and-play crib, a bathtub, and more. Look at all those presents!!

Baby bump.

The boys were in the back room playing video games.

One of the games was to make a play dough baby. Shanna judged the winner.

This is the one my mom made.

The other game was to give out a list of animals and write down the baby animal name. For example, a baby fox is a kit. That game ended up being hard, but it was with the jungle animals theme.

Someone made a sperm and egg.

Opening presents.

I probably shouldn't post this, but this is hilarious. I would take a photo like this.

After everyone went home, my Dad and brother came over and we had a family dinner. There was a very intense game of Jenga.

We manage to keep each other entertained.

I think my sister had a really good time. I know she got a lot of stuff she really needed, so I am really glad. I am beat. It is such a relief to have that done. I've never hosted a shower before and it is WORK.

Labor Day and a $26 Ottoman

Here is the ottoman I found at Goodwill for $10. You can tell that the faux leather is completely cracked and the bottom is pretty scratched up. But I saw the potential.

Kristi and I took it apart and got to work.

She took the bottom piece and painted it while I took the top piece and re-upholstered it. Then we got together on the glorious holiday that is Labor Day and finished it.

But first we had some baby shower favors to make.

I am so glad these two helped me. This project would have sucked otherwise.

It was Kristi's idea to tie the bags with little rubber bands (the tiny hair bands) and add the cute little babies on the front. She is a creative genius.

I made that up myself, hehe. Pretty proud of that. Those are bath salts, in case you can't tell.

In order to do the buttons, we had to buy a wicked long upholstery needle.

There were only six buttons but I am pretty sure it took an hour. You don't even realize how hard it is to stick the needle back through and get it through the tiny hole in the board. I've done this twice before when making headboards (found here and here) and it's still not easy. At one point my mom and dad both tried to help, and they can vouch for me that it is not as easy as it sounds. I ended up sticking myself and bleeding three different fingers, because you have to feel around and go by touch, and you tell it's finally through when you bleed all over the new fabric.

But it looks fabulous. $10 plus $16 in materials - you can't beat this $26 ottoman.