NBD - 15 months later

It's only been 15 months ... ok, almost 16 months. But I have decided to work a little harder (not TOO hard) to keep up with my blog. I have been up to quite a lot ... but I don't seem to have many pictures at the ready. And everyone knows a blog with pictures is 100 times better than a blog without. For now, I will just tell you a few things I'm excited about.

1. I bought the new martha stewart living (b/c i let my subscription lapse for the first time in about 10 years) ... the horror!! And I am SO excited to read it. For some reason the summer issues are always my favorite. I just love the 4th of july ideas!

2. I'm a new subscriber to Entertainment Weekly. Apparently I should have started this subscription YEARS ago!! I guess I always thought if it was a weekly magazine it must cost gobs and gobs of money. But I found it on Amazon.com for $15!! that's 52 magazines for $15! And I had an amazon.com gift card. HELLO!! no-brainer :) Thanks, Santa Claus! And thanks JonMark for telling me to subscribe for umpteen years. I finally did it! I received the first issue of my subscription while I was away at Summer Camp and I spent my lunch break yesterday reading most of the magazine. Now I am already looking forward to all the books & movies and tv shows I read about! And I might just have to start watching True Blood. The magazine does these things to people! It makes you want to jump on every bandwagon out there! :)

3. Harry Potter 7 - part 2. I don't think I have ever been this excited about a movie before. Folks, I'm 32 years old and I can't wait for the final installment of HP to come out. I actually RSVP'd "yes" for a facebook "event" that invited all of creation to see HP at midnight on opening night. I think I might actually do it! (Full Disclosure: I have been to 3 or 4 HP midnight showings as it is. But I have never been the one with the idea to do so :) Now my HP-midnight-showing friend has a baby and I'm guessing she is not going to be the one with the plan this time ;). It is, however, a bittersweet feeling. I can't believe it's the end of the HP books/movies. It's really very sad. But at least we have Hunger Games to look forward to! Read the books, people. You won't regret it!

Other things I've been up to ...

I've catered quite a few parties since we were last in touch. I did a baby shower in May and another baby shower in June. They both turned out really well. But, I never got around to getting business cards printed. So, sadly it may be the end of the line for all those people i WOW'd with my awesomeness of party planning ;). Me = dumb.

I hope to get my hands on some pictures from the May shower because I forgot my camera for that one. I have gobs of pictures from the June Shower b/c it started at 4pm and I actually had time to think about grabbing my camera before running out the door. Maybe I'll make that my next post. I just have to download the photos! (sure, that won't take long at all) ;)

I was also a camp counselor at my church's youth camp last week. It was a really great week where we were challenged to take risks for God in our every day life. We focused on friends, family, online, church and school. It was a really inspiring week and my group was the best (Greek Fire!!). We have made a pact to continue our get-togethers throughout the summer. My co-leader, Aaron will be headed to Buffalo for grad school in the fall. So I see a Greek Fire themed farewell shindig in order. Any suggestions are welcome :)

Here's a picture of the best team ever ... Greek Fire:

Talk soon! At least, that's the goal :)

Erin's Baby Shower

ok - i'm FINALLY getting around to blogging about erin's baby shower.
lacy (our trusty photographer) was SO on top of things when she gave me a CD of all the lovely photos about 3 months ago!! too bad i just got around to uploading said pictures :)

so - let's get started ...
although, its been a while since the shower (in mid november) so i hope i can remember everything!

the shower was held at debbie's house. she has such a great space for a baby shower, birthday party, whatever! we've even held events such like an olympics party ... it's just a really great house with a beautiful backyard. i wish my backyard was 1/2 as nice as theirs - and i'm rather fond of our yard! but i digress ...

the party was a saturday afternoon at debbie's house ... mostly held in the beautiful backyard. but, we kept the food and candy buffet inside. but, more on that later.

here are a couple of photos of the backyard space.
we had 5-6 tables set for 4, complete with rented tablecloths in the shower colors of blue, green & brown; a drink station with personalized wine glasses (i personalized them with wine charms i made with each guests name, as well as the origin and meaning of their name - this was one of my favorite "touches"); we also had a little area with a comfy chair for the mother to be and a present table in close proximity to her. we also set up a table for the activity of the day. since i'm not fond of "shower games" and thankfully neither is erin (mom to be) ... we did an activity instead and it was a real hit.

ok - enough chatter - here are the photos of the outside space and other various "touches"






















and now about our "activity ... as i mentioned, erin is not a fan of shower games.
thank goodness for that - i really can't stand 99% of all shower games i've ever played.
and that's terrible of me - b/c EVERYONE plays them! i'm just a brat, i guess :)
anyway - so i had to get pretty creative when it came to filling our time with something fun to do. so i scoured TJ Maxx for WEEKS to get inexpensive onesies ... and i purchased fabric markers in various colors (from Michael's - with coupons of course) :) ... and we had a little "craft time"! i think everyone had a good time with it ... and they really turned out great!





the last picture shows the "winners" that erin chose! very cute.

and here are some pictures of the food table ...
the menu consisted of:
grilled chicken breasts with chimichurri sauce
orzo with asparagus & pistachios (one of erin's favorite "jeanine's kitchen" dishes) :)
prosciutto wrapped melon
fruit salad cups
green salad with cranberries, almonds & citrus vinaigrette

for dessert we had:
yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting (and blue sprinkles) :)
mini cherry cheesecakes
onesie sugar cookies (i WISH i would have gotten a picture of those!)



and here's the candy buffet table.
instead of a party favor that would probably be thrown in the trash, or collect dust in a closet, i set up a candy buffet and the guests filled up little paper bags with color coordinated candy! here's a picture of that ...



i also made a banner that read "How Sweet" to hang over the candy buffet. it didn't make it into this photo - but you can see most of it in this one!



and here is my favorite part!
the dum dum centerpiece! you can't really tell, but this dum dum ball is on top of a vase filled with color coordinated M&Ms ... a layer of brown, a layer of green & a layer of blue.




and that's about it!
it was a great time - and a beautiful fall day!
can't ask for much more than that!

so i'll leave you with one last picture ...


aren't these girls so cute? :)