What's in your heaven?

My sister and I like to play this game where we ask people what/who would be in their heaven?  For example, in my heaven there would be spinach artichoke dip by the bath tubs served with thin tortilla chips, Tiff's Treats chocolate chip cookies, a constant stream of new release movies, and all my favorite people!

The baby shower my friends threw for me was so thoughtfully planned out and included lots of my heavenly things!  They had a menu planned perfectly for me with spinach dip and thin chips, all of my favorite people were there, the jungle nursery theme was used for the invitation/decorations, and they bought me my diaper bag!  They knew me well enough to know I would have never purchased a fancy diaper bag for myself.  I still LOVE it and obviously use it daily!  I have to say Special K looks adorable with it too when he gets stuck toting it around ;)

My friends did such a great job with the shower!  I wanted to get them something useful, but relevant for all the thought they put into it.  It is always a challenge to find something that a handful of people will like, goes with the shower theme, and won't break the bank.  I will share with you what I gave to them and two precious hostess gifts I received last weekend to give you some ideas.


Idea #1...My gift to them...I did some research and found the cutest idea!  Get them some shower/bath essentials and write on the card, "From my shower to yours!"  I went to Pier 1 and bought them animal print bubble bath, an eye mask, and scrubbing brush to match the shower theme, but you could obviously buy whichever bath products you wanted.

Idea # 2...One of my childhood friends is having a baby in December and gave us the sassiest coolers at her shower on Sunday!  I just love it!  All of our coolers are so masculine...it is nice to have one I could tote to a tailgate.

I couldn't find this exact one, but found a couple other options for girly coolers.



Turner Tennis



Built NY

Idea # 3...On Saturday, a college friend of mine who is due in November gave us gifts and the card read...

If you are having trouble reading, "Janann, Thanks for helping me get ready for my bun in the oven.  Happy Baking!"  Inside the bag, the most adorable apron by Sugar n Spice on Etsy.

Super cute idea!!! This apron might actually get me in the kitchen!!!  Sugar n Spice has many other aprons to choose from or you could buy anything baking related...

Sprinkle Cupcake Mixing Set

Or take the literal interpretation of "bun" and give Williams Sonoma sticky buns... 

Sticky Buns

I think I may have just added a couple more things to my heaven!  Those sticky buns look yummy!  

What did you give as a hostess gift?  Also check out the Now Stylebook.  They did a great post on wedding shower hostess gifts that could work for a baby shower too.  

Now, please indulge me...What is in your heaven?

Funny Friday: Baby Shower Etiquette

Some good advice:  Don't get too drunk at a baby shower.  This video is cleverly titled, "Drunk at a Baby Shower."  Can you say party for one?  I think her head might roll off!

Doodle

I love hosting showers for my friends, but I dread being on the initial email chains.  The reply alls get a little cumbersome.  Trying to select a date is overwhelming especially when there are lots of host-i (my plural version of hostess, just seems easier to say) .  Plus, the lead hostess ends up in an awkward position having to pick a date someone is unable to attend. 

I am about to give you a fabulous gift freeing you from said email chains and allowing the lead hostess to use the simple majority rules philosophy when selecting the date.  I was introduced to it a few weeks ago and it is my new love!  I give you DOODLE...

Doodle lets you easily set up polls to send to your fellow host-i to check the dates that work best for them.   I use it for all sorts of things...girls night out, trips, showers, meetings, etc...The administrator of the poll enters their own email address and Doodle sends them a link to share with the fellow host-i.  It takes at most two minutes to setup.  Everyone selects the dates they are available without having to open a Doodle account.  Best of all, it is a FREE service!  Here is an example of what your poll will end up looking like:

Free your inbox from the flooding of reply alls and use doodle!

Let them Eat Cake

I got curious about the origin of the phrase "Let them eat cake" attributed to Marie Antoinette when I was working on this post.

It was reported to Marie that the people of France were so starving there was not even bread to eat...She said "Then, let them eat cake" not fully grasping the severity of the situation.  Well, according to multiple sources (phrases.org and wikipedia.org to name a couple), there is zero proof that she ever uttered those words.  Consider this your daily history lesson.

When planning a baby shower a few weeks back, we decided that we would let our guests eat cake.  Sandy's Unique Imprint in Fort Worth makes exquisite cakes, so another host suggested we use her.  We agreed that we would use a majority of our budget (about one fifth) toward the cake since it would be both a center piece and dessert. It was a HUGE hit!  My friend took Sandy the shower invitation and this is what she created...

I thought my friend's idea to match the invitation (invitation printed by Prints and Paper) to the cake was fabulous (I know it sounds so simple, but this kind of thing would have never occured to me)!  It made such a statement.  The cake was expensive, but it served as a conversation piece, a decoration, and tasted delicious! 

After the shower, I was thinking how cakes are normally passed over in the planning process since they are quickly cut into and eaten.  But if a cake is done right, it really adds to the atmosphere of a party.  

My memory temporarily escaped me, but when I was writing this post it dawned on me that this happened at my wedding.  When we designed our cakes, I had not clue how much they would add to the atmosphere of the reception.  Here are pictures of our wedding cake and groom's cake (made by Frosted Art in Dallas).  Unexpectedly, the cakes ended up being my favorite part of our wedding...take that back, top 5 favorite things!

Apologies!  I took a picture of a picture of the groom's cake from my wedding album because I didn't have the individual pictures.  A quick shout out:  The WONDERFUL Summer Carlin took my wedding photos (not the one on the left...that was an amateur shot ;) ) and created my album.  She also does baby photos, so if you are in the Fort Worth area definitely check her out.  She is the best!

Man, this post made me hungry...I may need to stop by the bakery on the way home today!

Don't forget to enter the 10,000 hits giveaway!

Shout Out to the Type A

For all you Type A personalities, here is a GREAT baby shower (or any party for that matter) budget planning tool. We used it recently and it worked so perfectly!  Here is a broken up version of it.  If you would like the excel spreadsheet with all the formulas, please email me and I can send it to you.  It can be easily adjusted to fit your needs. 

Date:
Time:
Location:
Baby Name:
Hostesses	Tasks	Can/Can't Attend	$ Spent
Name		?
Name		?
Name		?
Name		?
Name		?
Gift Registry:
Approx Invited Guests:
	Overall Budget
If $50/hostess
If $75/hostess
If $100/hostess
If $125/hostess
If $150/hostess

Task:	% value
gift	30%
invitations	12%
stamps	4%
flowers	6%
food/cake	15%
alcohol	15%
water/drinks	4%
napkins	4%
cups	5%
plates	3%
silverware	2%
rsvp email/phone	0%
	100%

 

if $50/hostess, $ to spend	if $75/hostess, $ to spend	if $100/hostess, $ to spend	if $125/hostess, $ to spend	if $150/hostess, $ to spend
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Actual $ spent

$0.00