Mama Dinner

In addition to celebrating years of friendship with my college friends, our 2009 ladies weekend trip from a few weeks ago also celebrated one of us becoming a first time mom. Many of us had already celebrated Baby L with a shower a week earlier, but we wanted to surprise the new mom-to-be with a unique something just for her.

In our emails before the trip I affectionately referred to this idea as planning the "mama dinner." It was not really meant to be another shower, more of a celebration of this new chapter for Soon- to-be Mama L.

Shower or not, the surprise afternoon started with ice cream and an invitation for Mama L to join us for a pedicure and special dinner. We were all going to be together regardless of the invite, but it was a nice way to start the special celebration. After pedicures we headed back to our hostesses house, while Mama L was relaxing the rest of us prepared a special table and finished up dinner and dessert.

Orange gerber daisies matched with green apples and seedum blooms from the yard created a summer centerpiece.

A large hosta leaf was the base for place card apple and each place setting (we even broke out the fine china).

We shared pasta and green salad with fresh vegetables, lemon cake with raspberry for dessert, wine and sparkling cider for Mama L. After dinner we presented Mama L with a basket filled with warm fuzzies and notes for her to use and read pre and post baby.

On the Road

Roadtrippin' to Virginia to visit my college ladies. I'm not back until late Sunday.

In my absence take a look at this article about reviving true cocktail parties. So true, especially the part about "Use glass." I think this means I should be living in the 1960's. Maybe I can pretend when I get my vintage bar cart set back up in our dining room. That's right, I found the one I mentioned in this post. It's going to take some cleaning up, but I'm pumped.

No need for an umbrella, because it's a baby shower

Two in fact. I have two wonderful friends both due with boys later this year, so of course I had to be in the middle of shower plans.

Shower #1 was for Baby V and his mama. The V's are our neighbors so we hosted at my house. Shower number #2 was for Baby L and both of his parents. The L's are both college friends of me and Carolina hubby so the shower was for the ladies and the gents alike.

Both of the showers were fairly traditional-light food, gifts, activities (notice I said activities, not games). We hosted them both in mid-afternoon, so there was no need for a huge meal. For shower #2 we actually stuck exclusively with dessert (plus a bit a fruit and cheese).

We chose themes to follow for both showers-jungle (which actually matched Baby V's nursery) for one and trains for the other. Themes help jumpstart the planning and creative ideas and give a cohesive feel to the event from invitation to event to party favor. They don't have to be tough, just choose colors to stick with.

To follow the train/dessert theme, we used toy train sets as decoration and I made railroad crossing cookies. For the jungle, the cake and diaper cake were decorated with jungle animals.

I quickly learned that I really dislike most of the traditional baby (and wedding) shower games. I like the idea of having something to do besides eat and open gifts, but really I don't want to smell or taste baby food. Celebrations at Home seems to have a similar opinion. I have come up with a few "activities" that I think are a good compromise.

#1-For a small shower full of creative guests gather scrapbook materials and have each guest create a page for one of "baby's first...". Leave room for mom to add pics and have guests sign each page. Mom gets to keep a personalized baby book.

#2-Help build baby's library by asking each guest to bring to the shower a special or unique, unwrapped children’s book to add to Baby's bookshelf. Include a tag with the invitation for guests to write a simple note about why then chose the book. Make sure no one signs the tags then ask mom to guess who brought each book. The books make a nice display at the shower as well.

#3-Help eveyone get to know each other at the shower by asking each guest to send or bring a baby picture of themselves. Post the picture with out names for shower guests to guess who each picture is. It was neat to play this game with adults.

#4-Wish baby Happy Birthday for years to come by asking shower guest to sign a birthday card for baby to be opened on Birthday's 1-18. Grab several cards and envelopes for a wide range of ages and make sure guests write which birthday the card should be opened on. Send the stack home with mom so she can remember her sweet shower as baby grows up.

The (Bar) Cart Before the Horse

One accent that I have seen pop up in lots of living, dining and even outdoor rooms is the beverage/bar/cocktail cart.

Image from Southern Accents

The trend has come around again from a time when Manhattans and martinis were more than just a SATC reference and hosting or attending a cocktail party meant, "Everyone owned the essential bar ware, a swank cocktail shaker, an atomic designed cocktail tray, and cocktail glass. Then there were the unspoken rules. The rules of dress, music, and vocabulary. Seemed as if everyone embraced the leisure of the cocktail party." (From http://www.retrovintagecollectibles.com/).

Image from Style Redux

Being ahead of the trends as I so often am (not so much:), I had a vintage cart in my college apartment. It was my grandmother's and looked very much like this one (expect mine was chrome):

Image from Bryn Alexandra

As I packed up to get married and move in with Carolina Husband I passed along the cart (maybe to my sister, I can't really remember) expecting to never think of it again (sigh). Now that they are all over the place again I would love to have it back in the only modern-ish room in our house--our bright red dining room.

Can't you picture this (filled with similar glass ware and beverages, of course):

Image from Restoration Hardware

somewhere in this room?

Paint Chip Perfection

I couldn't help using this this idea from July's Real Simple Magazine as a jumping off point.

Don't stop with using the idea just to set the table with place cards. Use the chips as colorful stand up labels for food dishes or cheeses at a party. With a hole punch and some ribbon, the chips (or at least their descriptive names) might work as wine glass charms.

The magazine suggests using lots of different color chips for a "Technicolor Tabletop", but it would also be a creative way to continue a specific color theme for a dinner or party, by using several shades of just one or two colors.