Beautiful Baby Shower

A new baby is like the beginning of all things~~wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities.


Finally! I am so excited to share with you all some pictures of our beautiful baby shower. The quilts that you will see in the pictures were all hand made by my mother and grandmothers. They are priceless and precious heirlooms for myself and my sisters.

These gorgeous tissue paper flowers are actually made from kits that were purchased at the Dollar Store. Each kit makes 25 flowers of assorted styles. There was just no way that I could ever find the time to make all of these flowers. A huge thank you to my dear friends Eloise, Marsha, and Kim for putting these all together for me!

The flowers were arranged in Vera Bradley diaper bags and used as decorations on the gift tables.

The beautiful mother-to-be, our sweet, sweet, Alicia.

Don't you have to have a baby at a baby shower? Here is our adorable little Maddy girl. Doesn't she look beautiful in her pretty dress?

My friend Mary, made this little flowered lamp for "baby no name's" nursery. She also made a little daisy lamp. She copied them after a popular Pottery Barn design. (I plan to make a special blog posting about her creation of these lamps - so watch for that!)

Mary and little Maddy girl. (Mary is wearing a beautiful necklace and bracelet that she created. Her jewelery is simply stunning!)

This is a picture of one of the gift tables before it crashed to the floor - just minutes before the shower started! (Apparently, the maintenance man who sat the tables up - did not lock the legs! Thankfully only 4 bottles of water were broken - it could have been a total disaster! ) We were just finishing the clean up when the first guests began to arrive!

This baby shower was such a collaborative effort from so many people. I simply could not have done this all by myself!These little bunny gift tags came from Belgium! I purchased them from Bumpkin Bears. The water bottles were given as gifts to everyone who attended the shower.

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The Evian glass water bottles were purchased at Big Lots ($1 each). My friend Marsha drove a 50 mile radius to purchase bottles from other stores for me. Finding enough of these bottles was a serious challenge! Thank you, Thank you Marsha!

The beautiful 5 tiered diaper cake was created by Nancy of Babylovediapercakes. This cake was amazing - it contained over 250 pampers diapers as well as blankets, toys, lotions,... Nancy shipped it to me in a huge box, already assembled and it was perfect when it arrived! The little knitted rabbit was purchased by me - I requested that Nancy leave the top of the cake plain so that I could add the rabbit. If you ever need a diaper cake - you simply must visit Nancy!

My sweet friend, Eloise made the most adorable little diapers that we used as nut containers. She used heavily starched cotton fabric and cut it into little diaper shapes and then glued the corners together. They looked so lovely on the food table! Thank you so much Eloise! ~~~The decorated grapevine tree that Mary designed was the focal point on the beautiful food table.

Everyone loved the white chocolate covered Oreo cookies! Amanda from Mandie's Candies created these just for me - adding the little pink bunny rabbit to match our baby shower theme. They were delicious and looked so beautiful in the pink depression glass bowl that once belonged to my mother. Amanda was a dream to work with! Please visit her if you need something created for your special celebration.

My friend Cathy, created these beautiful "dipped pretzel" gift bags. They were to die for! Tied with little pink and white ribbons - oh they were so lovely! Cathy is one of those people who can do almost anything. She is a creative and talented artist as well. She is available for future "pretzel dippings" as well as the creation of beautiful one of a kind cards. She can be contacted at cathcraft@earthlink.com

(Thank you also dearest Jan for your gift of these little goodies! )

Alicia and I are pictured by my knitted storybook blanket. I can hardly wait to hold that little baby and tell her stories about her blanket!

The beautiful petit fours were made by a dear friend, Suzie. She has made cakes for every wedding and shower in our family. She even catered the rehearsal dinner for my son and Alicia's wedding. She is amazing in her creations! They were absolutely beautiful!
Thank goodness for the petit fours - that way I could not mess up the cake cutting like I always seem to do!

My dear friend Jan made this beautiful multi-colored sweater and hat from yarn that we purchased in Estonia when we traveled on a Mediterranian cruise together. What wonderful memories this holds~~~

Mary knitted this little flowered sweater and hat for our "baby no name". Is this not adorable? Won't she be just so "chic" wearing this little ensemble?

Do you have a friend who makes you smile all the time? Meet my dear friend, Maria. She is such a wonderful friend and so much fun to be with - I always tell her that she is the "best date I ever had!" Maria brought her own equipment and video taped the entire shower! Priceless! Thank you so much dear Maria!

Almost 40 people attended the shower, and Alicia received so many wonderful and generous gifts. She and little "baby no name" are so blessed to have so many thoughtful people who attended the shower and gave such precious gifts.

Another beautiful baby quilt- this one was lovingly made by Grandma Debbie. She worked on this cross stitch quilt for over a year! Isn't it beautiful? Another heirloom for this baby.

Maddy entertained herself and all of us at the shower. She was eager to "help" Alicia open her gifts!

We love our little Maddy girl! Don't you just want to squeeze those little cheeks?

The night before the shower - we all gathered to begin setting up for the big event. Mary brought her adorable little grandson. With a little assistance - and some prompting - Maddy girl got her "first kiss"! Is this priceless or what!

There are 2 slideshow of more baby shower pictures just below. (If you want to watch the slide shows - you might want to turn the music on the blog off first!) The first slideshow is short and only takes less than 3 minutes to watch. The second slideshow contains all of the pictures and takes about 10 minutes to watch. So you can choose depending on how much time you have to invest!

Enjoy!

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Vintage Baby Gift Tags - Decorated Grapevine Tree

Have you ever had a friend who did something so precious and wonderful for you that just seeing it moved you to tears?



My dear friend Mary created this sweet little grapevine tree using the Vintage Baby story gift tags. When I posted about these earlier, so many of you contributed such creative ideas. (Thank you for your suggestions!) Your ideas caused me to remember this little grapevine tree tucked away in the attic.



Using her imagination, Mary created this magical little tree using tulle, ribbons, flowers, and her very own little beaded creations. She made beautiful little pink ribbon flowers~~~



She wrapped the gorgeous pink tulle all around the tree and then added the little Vintage story tags. Don't you love that little bunny? And how about that little bunny stamped ribbon - my favorite!

She glued some of her beautiful crystal beads to the tulle~~~

Those pink plastic flowers were part of a collection that once belonged to my mother. My mother use to own a little florist and she was a master at creating floral arrangements. After she passed away, I found several boxes of these plastic flowers in her attic. When Mary's daughter got married a few years ago, I made several flower arrangements for her bridal shower using some of my mother's flowers. Mary in turn, took these flowers and gave them new life in this little grapevine tree. I think it was seeing those flowers again that really set me to bawling.

Here is my favorite little tag - the one that says "The End." I just love that one. I love the little heart on the tag also - so very sweet.

Is this not the most wonderful gift of time and talent from a friend? Can you not just see the love that she put into this creation?

She made these little beaded flower vines from her fabulous bead collection. (Mary makes the most beautiful jewelry - I simply must show you the piece that she made for me on the occasion of my 50th birthday!)

Some little piece of beauty and imagination every where you look~~~
And just for me - this cute little turtle because she and I both love turtles! Isn't he just adorable? This is going to be the most beautiful thing at the baby shower!

Here is a picture of her work in progress~~~

and here is a picture of the tree in her little craft room - the place where I first saw it and had to sit down and have a big cry!

Tomorrow is her birthday and yet the one who got the gift is me. Thank you dear friend. Happy Birthday~~~

Vicki

Moses Basket for "Little Baby No Name"

For 30 years this little Moses basket sat in my attic, wrapped in sheets and plastic bags - all but forgotten - until last week~~~


My Mother found this little basket at a flea market near their winter home in Florida. She lovingly hand made a little mattress, blanket, and decorative edging all around the basket that we used for my son when he was first born.




Sadly, my parents are now gone and when I brought this little basket out to the light of day last week, I also brought out a flood of precious memories.


My mother had decorated this basket with a gingham fabric that was printed with bunny rabbits in reds and blues. Just perfect for a little newborn boy. Just seeing it again after so many years, made my heart stop.
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There was no way that I could preserve all of the fabric decorations, so I ever so gently removed my mothers careful stitches one at a time so that I could make this little basket brand new and fit for a little Princess. I know my Mother would have loved and approved of this little creation, but it broke my heart to have to undo some of her stitches.
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Even though I removed the outside fabric, I saved the mattress as it was originally covered by my mother. I just simply wrapped the mattress in this little pink blanket, tucking it in along the sides - it can easily be removed for washing. I also have saved the original blanket that she made - just in case. (Don't you think that it would be sweet to take a picture of our grand baby laying on the matress and covered by the blanket that was once used by her Daddy?)



The outside of the basket is decorated using two crochet lace pillow shams that once belonged to my paternal grandmother. This bedspread and pillowcase set was one of the treasures that became mine when she past away last year. (I am planning to use the bedspread as a table covering at the baby shower---).
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The pillow shams were then tacked to the basket from both the inside and out. I like the way that they are lined with the muslim cloth, it seems to make the lace design look prettier. They are also rather heavy and seem to hang nicely along the basket.

The top and sides of the basket are decorated with pink ribbon roses, pink satin yo yo hearts, crochet green leaves, some green ribbon from my stash, and a beautiful flower that is complemented by some exquisite ribbon embroidery.

Each piece is individually sewn on by hand and it took me one very long day to complete this project. This is not the kind of project that you can do in your lap - so I had to stand and lean over the basket to do all the sewing. (Ouch for my back!)

This last little heart is not actually attached to the basket, but rather hangs freely from the little green ribbon. (I was feeling a little whimsical I guess--).

The beautiful green ribbon was left over from my last year's Christmas gifts that were wrapped by my friend, Mary. (She knows that I save everything!) I was thrilled to have an opportunity to use this pretty ribbon in such a delicate and dainty way. There is also a little tiny piece of this beautiful ribbon in the top of the beaded hat that I knitted for "Little Baby No Name". (Go back to the top of that posting and see if you can see the ribbon!)

The lace design on the pillow shams was just perfect for me to weave the ribbon through along the edge of the basket. These little bouquets of ribbon roses look so pretty around the bottom of the basket and also at the sides, near the handles.

Decorating this little basket was indeed a labor of love. Following the stitches created by my Mother, with my own little hand made stitches, gave me a feeling that I can not describe - except to say that it filled my heart with some tender feelings that I know have not been there in a very long while. (I miss her so--).

("Can you see this Mom? I hope you like it---")

vicki