Gloria's Baby Shower!

Way back on July 10th, I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law Katie and her first baby, Gloria.  I know - that was a long time ago.  Better late than never, right?

As soon as Katie told me she was pregnant, I began mentally planning her shower.  I was so excited to do this for her.  I had the basic framework of the shower planned but couldn't really go all out until Gloria was born and we found out that it was a girl!  

I had big plans for this shower, and most of them came to fruition, but the first trimester of my pregnancy got to me, so I didn't finish everything that I had envisioned but I still think it all turned out great.

I wanted to make/have things for the shower that Katie could take home as a reminder of the shower, and to use in Gloria's nursery.

I enlisted the help of a super talented scrapbooker that I work with, the uber-fantastic Hayley to create this:

It turned out way better than the version that I created in my mind.  It created such a wonderful centrepiece for the room.

And even better is that Katie was able to use this for Gloria's nursery.  Fantastic.

I bought the birth announcement off an Etsy shop called Tilly Claire's.  I absolutely loved it, and was excited that it was another item for Katie to take home after the shower.

Here are some more pictures:

Terrible lighting on this picture, but I wanted to show you that I made a cake! With pink icing! And put it on a table next to three different kinds of Jelly Belly's!  Yum.

And look at three quarters of the room.  I had to try to squeeze around 30 people in a room that was not big enough for 30.  We all made it work though.  Too bad I forgot to take pictures when there were people in the chairs... :( 

That 'G' in the bottom right corner? I did that.  Well, I bought a cardboard letter, and then painted it, and mod-podged fabric scraps on the top.  Another decorative touch that Katie got to take home.

The loot!

The beautiful momma lounging in the midst of all Gloria's new stuff!

And now for my favorite part - the quilt and baby photo!

Little Gloria is such a gift to our family and I was blessed to be able to throw this shower for Katie.  It was such a wonderful day that was spent with family and friends enjoying each others company and good food (a big thanks to my other sister-in-laws Linda & Nicole for helping with the food, along with my mom and mother-in-law).

I love babies.  Good thing that in 4 1/2 months I'll have my own!

Pumpkin Anyone?

I love fall.  Absolutely LOVE it.

There is nothing I don't love about it.

One of the great things that go along with Fall, is pumpkins.  Pumpkins for decoration and for eating.

I have never cooked or baked with pumpkin before so when I found this recipe I had to give it a shot.  It also helped that it was full of sugar and cinnamon and a maple glaze.

Thanks to a friend at work, I was sent this recipe and was sold.

I felt like this took forever to make (you need to let it rise twice for an hour each time) but it was worth it.

I forgot to take a picture of it before the hubby and I dug in, but this is what my version looked like:

Sorry for the poor picture quality, my phone was the only 'camera' I had handy.

I definitely recommend this recipe!

So yummy.

Menu Plan Monday - Week 158

Just because I wasn't blogging over the summer, doesn't mean I stopped menu planning.  I don't think I could function without planning my meals.

Now that I'm pregnant, I'm attempting to eat healthier.  Those that know me, know that I am not the best eater out there.  I tend to lean towards the quick and easy when it comes to snacking and meals.  A bag of chips and a pop was a standard lunch for me.

So, in the vain of eating healthy, I'm throwing lots of vegetables in to the mix.  

Here's what we're eating this week:

Monday:   Rosemary Ranch Chicken Kabobs with Rice (I'll be adding veggies to the skewers)

Tuesday:   Homemade Lasagna (I'll be throwing a lot of veggies in the normally veggie free sauce along with using ground turkey instead of ground beef and italian sausage)

Wednesday: Chicken Cordon Blue, Roasted Potatoes, Broccoli & Carrots

Thursday:   Healthy Homemade Mac & Cheese (there's a full butternut squash and head of cauliflower in this thing!)  This one is a new recipe too.  Hope it's good!

Here's to a healthy week - or well intentioned attempt at a healthy week.  At least my dinners will be healthy.

As always, I'll be linking up with OrgJunkie.

Happy Menu Planning!

Long Time, No Blog.

It has been far too long since I've posted.  It's not like I haven't thought about it, I have, a lot.  But there was something that was distracting me from blogging:

I'm pregnant!!

I'm 18 weeks along now (4 1/2 months) and feeling fantastic.  Although, at the beginning, was not feeling so fantastic.  Which led to the extreme lack of posting and extreme increase in napping.

We are so excited to be pregnant, it has been such a long road to get here (2 1/2 years to be precise).  After going through multiple doctors visits, blood tests, and an investigative surgery, we discovered that it was all about timing.  Clearly not our timing, or else this would have happened 2 1/2 years ago.  This was definitley God's timing.

With the extreme lack of posting, this also led to an extreme lack of checking up on my favorite blogs... which led to zero creativity and zero projects in the last three months (not that I had the energy).

I'm excited to get back in the blogging game and get my creative juices flowing!

I know I'll have lots to post about in the coming months with getting ready for baby and all that entails.

Here's a few things to look forward to:

• we're getting the built-in entertainment centre done in the living room! So excited about how this is going to change the look of our living area.
• Changing the office into the nursery! And losing my craft room to the new office... :(
• I felt like there was more when I started this list, but turns out thats all I can think of right now.

Thank you all for being so patient!