Thursday, January 30, 2014

Snow! A Winter Wonderland


It has been a few years since we got snow in this part of South Carolina, but we woke up to snow yesterday. Of course that meant I needed to take my camera outside and snap some pictures. I hope you enjoy these. What a magical winter wonderland!

View out the front door


Big Fluffy Flakes That Stick to the Trees


No Gazing in the Gazing Ball Today


Would you like a seat in my garden anyway?



View on the way to the barn.


Piper says "Neigh" to the snow and Sydney doesn't care for it either!



Thanks for visiting and stay warm!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Andrea's Baby Shower


The baby shower for my younger daughter is the most I have been involved in creating quilts and other things for quite some time so I'm sharing. This is the quilt that I made for her baby shower. I finished it at 1:30 a.m. on Friday and the shower was on Saturday. Oh, well, it was completed and wrapped by the time the shower started. What more can I say?

We had a wonderful time at the shower and for those who might want ideas for baby showers or just a peak at the fun we had, I'm posting some pictures. Sorry about the lighting and lack of clarity on some. It was a hectic time and my camera, for some reason, doesn't do well in the light that we have in the family room and that's where we were most of the time.

Here's the diaper cake that I made with my husband's assistance:



It was the first time I ever made one and wasn't too bad to assemble. I highly recommend an assistant to help by holding the rolled diaper as you tie it. We used various sized pots and pans to hold the diapers in place until we could tie them and that seemed to work really well. The bottom layer has Hershey bars included. An idea I saw on Pinterest was to shade in the "she" with pink highlighter. We did it, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It took several coats. We also highlighted the "her" on some of the candy bars.


We asked the guests to write baby advise on the little paper baby clothes and put them up on a ribbon that said "It's a Girl." They are attached with little pink clothespins. This was lots of fun and something my daughter can have as a keepsake of the shower. It also worked well for guests who could not attend. We just added their words of advice.


We had goodie bags for the guests to take home. I included pretzels, pecans, M&Ms, and pink peppermint popcorn that we made. It was an experience to have all the cookie sheets of popped popcorn waiting for their peppermint drizzle! The pencil tied on the bag is special for 2014 as the "Year of the Horse."


Here's the cake that I made for the shower. The theme was Carousel Horses. I had a very hard time finding anything with that theme that could be used at a baby shower. These carousel horses are Valentine cards that I ordered online. They are held up by pink drinking straws. There are also some fresh strawberries on the cake. Hollowing out the center of a large strawberry helped to hold up the straw that supported the center.



You might guess that my daughter and I like horses. She is holding up a gift that I bought for her. I marked the tag so it came from her horse. The quote is from Shakespeare: "Though she be but little, she is fierce."


My daughter with one of the gifts from her older sister - a super awesome baby carrier.


One of many presents from Andrea's mother-in-law. This outfit says "Who's Sleepy?" So cute!


And who can resist horse booties?



The horse related presents were a hit with both of us... and how about those people who gave baby advice that every little girl needs a pony? All of the presents were wonderful and my daughter, son-in-law, and I appreciate the people who showered her with such wonderful gifts. I also appreciate all of my husband's help in getting ready for the shower. He was "Super Husband."

Thanks for sharing the baby shower with us. I have 2 more UFOs completed off my list and February should bring my first granddaughter. It's so exciting! We can't wait to meet you.