Nursery Mobile.

 Hello. We have been so busy getting every last minute detail in order for baby that there has not been much time for me to finish this one item. A few weeks ago I posted about my baby shower and am back to show what I did with the pieces of my decorated chandelier afterwards.

 

 I really wanted to make a mobile to match the nursery's decor; so I saved all the pieces off the chandelier after the shower, added a grapevine wreath and some pretty scrap ribbon. 

 Here are what the animals look like close up. They are made with shrinky dink plastic. Originally I was going to do the entire mobile out of shrinky dink.... Then I thought that perhaps breathing in melting plastic might not be so good for myself or the baby (face palm); I switched to card stock to make the leaves for the rest of the mobile and tied them in groups of 3 and 4 using embroidery floss to make a leaf chain. Hmm, the pictures might illustrate that better than my description. 

 Next I tied them all to the wreath keeping in mind how I wanted them to look when I hung up the finished project.

And The pretty ribbon worked lovely to hang the finished mobile to the ceiling. And at long last it is done! Not much longer and we will be welcoming our son into this world. I am so excited to meet my little Red Panda. Take care!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 Happy Saint Patrick's Day. This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to post our nature table today. Wherever you are have a blessed day.

Baby Shower!

 Warning: This post has many pictures and is very long!

My dear friend SARN was so kind to throw a baby shower for us. After many months of planning the day of the shower arrived. The day was filled with laughter and love. This baby has many people who have stepped in and are fighting for the title of Grandma. Bear's mother gracefully sat and took it all in with a warm smile. She is the only person who has a true blood right to the title since my mother has opted to not be a part of this child's life. I let them all banter back and forth about this for a while. There is Nana, and Nona, and Grandmama, and Grams, and a whole army of Aunties, and so on and so forth. I don't know how I will keep them all straight in the end. What a lucky little boy this is to be so loved. You are all so precious to us. Thank you for being a part of our lives and letting us be a part of yours. Thank you for your love.

 The Decorations: The shower was a tea party and the decorations were based off of the nursery's decor. The leaves and animals hanging from the chandelier are going to be part of a project in the near future, so please check back in a week or so.

 SARN made these  trees for the shower and insisted that I have some of my felt table puppet animals present as decorations. The whole things was adorable.

 This owl greeted people as they came in my front door. I am tempted to leave him up.

 I had a hard time weeding out which decorations to post. There were so many trees, leaves, little animals (felt and paper), and so on and so forth tucked around the house. It was truly  beautiful.

 The Food: I have to mention the food. Everyone worked so hard. Even though my midwives have put me back on a dairy and gluten free menu I was still able to enjoy a lot of these things. There were a lot of finger sandwiches, berries, cookies, a few other sweets, and of course 4 different types of tea.

The Games: We played a few games such as:

      Hot Dolly. We passed around a dolly and everyone had to say a boy's name in alphabetical order before they passed it on. There could be no repeats. The timer went off every minute and whoever was holding the dolly when it went off was out. The last person standing won.

 Daddy knows best. I made a list of questions up for Bear to answer. Then I made a multiple choice list to go with them. The guests had to guess which answer they thought Bear answered. It was not necessarily always the right answer and it made for a lot of laughter. The person with the most correct won.

  Guess the Baby food.  There were 10 jars of baby food without the labels  They were numbered 1 -10. The guests had to write what they thought each food was without opening the jar to smell or taste. The person with the most right won. 

Our Wish Tree. This was not really a game but it was so beautiful I had to share. Each guest was handed a leaf and a ribbon at the start of the shower. On one side they wrote their name and address and on the other side they wrote a piece of advice or a wish for the baby and soon to be mum. Later in the shower we collected them, read them out loud, and tied them to these branches. There were so many beautiful things written. When I can finally bring myself to take this beautiful tree down, the leaves will be saved in a memory book.

The Gifts: Thank you everyone for your generosity and love. There were so many beautiful and thoughtful gifts and it was hard to pick what to post; but since this is largely a crafting blog I chose to post these two. This hat, sweater, and booties set was made by my lovely friend L. You can feel the love stitched into every inch of this set. L is a master of all things yarn. I know this set will be loved and carefully folded away when our son out grows it to save for his children one day.

 This amazing baby quilt  was made by my friend SARN. It is breathlessly beautiful. I had to take a picture before years of love turn this blanket into a velveteen rabbit. I know it will be treasured by my son. It is already a treasure to me. 

 The Favors: These adorable buttons were to perfect to pass up. I found them on Etsy at Pandalove Shop. The owner of the shop was very helpful and wonderful to work with. I know I will be going back for party favors in the future when our son is old enough to have birthday parties. 

We put the pins in bags with a few chocolate eggs and a little raffia to look like a nest. I think everyone was happy with them. They certainly were adorable. 

Thank you everyone for making this such a beautiful and memorable day. I know that there were a few of you who could not make it but wanted to be there. I know your love and support was with us in spirit. I am so lucky to have so many beautiful friends. I can't remember ever feeling such a beautiful outpouring of love like that. The whole day I felt like I was wrapped in a cocoon of love, laughter, and comfort, but most of all love. It was the type of shower every woman dreams of and I am blessed to have such wonderful friends and now these beautiful memories to look back on for many years to come. You are all my family and I love you all. Thank you and God bless.