Baby Shower

There are some things that I have been itching to share for the past week or so, but today I threw a baby shower for my friend Sara which meant two things: 1. I've been busy! and 2. Some of the things to share were related to the baby shower and I didn't want to ruin any surprises!

So first things first - I have recently (maybe a little late to the game) discovered Pinterest and I am now obsessed. You can find anything on there and I love having an easy way to browse tons of creative projects, recipes, and cute clothing. I'm just getting started so I don't have much on my own page yet and I have to remember to "pin" things whenever I find things I'm interested in, but I'm really excited about it.

Ok - now on to the baby shower. I'd never thrown a baby shower before, and actually I've only ever been to one before. I'm not usually a big "shower" person because I think all of the games are a little weird, but luckily almost everyone coming to this shower already knew each other so there wasn't much need for icebreakers and lots of games. I did, however, want to put a lot of effort into the decorations and food and I've been browsing the internet for inspiration for the past couple of weeks.


I tried to limit the number of things I made (but if you remember my post from around Thanksgiving time you probably know how well that went). I actually didn't even finalize the menu until yesterday - Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Phyllo Triangles, Cheese Straws, and Stuffed Mushrooms. It wasn't until after I decided on the menu that I realized everything was cheese-filled, oops! I also couldn't resist making mini-cupcakes even though I decided to do an ice cream sundae buffet as the main dessert. I bought this cupcake tree for my other friend Sara's bridal shower last year and it's just so cute I can't help it. We also rounded out all of that cheese with a veggie platter and some lemonade. That does balance it, right?

Two of the recipes - the cheese straws and the phyllo triangles - were new to me for this event, which I don't normally like to do. I prefer things to be tested out before serving them to guests, but I was also stumped for what to make so I did what I had to do. The cheese straws were good and interesting - definitely not like anything I'd made before. Also - I guess Cheez Its do kind of taste like real cheese because these were pretty darn similar tasting! I made one batch last night and they were good but pretty spicy (red pepper flakes) so I decided to make second batch this morning without the spice in case some people weren't a fan. If you're interested in the recipe I got it from Smitten Kitchen and they literally only took a few minutes to make - the longest part of the process was grating the cheese! I don't know how to store them though - she suggests in the refrigerator but that seems weird. I put the batch from last night in a plastic bag but that made them a little soft and I had to re-bake them this morning for a few minutes to get the texture back.


I actually got the second new recipe from Smitten Kitchen as well - it was based on a Spanakopita recipe but had options for different fillings. I kind of love caramelized onions, so I chose that one. This was my first time working with phyllo dough and it was kind of fun, but also a lot of work. I have a very important note about this recipe though - bake them on a rimmed baking sheet! There is about a million pounds of butter in there and when you go to bake it on a flat sheet it will spill all over and pool up in the bottom of your oven causing all of the smoke alarms to go off and you having to ask your boyfriend very nicely to clean out the oven for you while you get ready so that you can continue to bake and don't totally ruin the party. Phew. I warned you - don't do it. Or maybe just don't use a million pounds of butter like I did.

Ok - now let me tell you about what I made for the gift. I saw the tutorial for these burp clothes a few months ago and thought they were really cute but also though why the heck would I need burp clothes!? And then it dawned on me - baby shower gifts!! This did mean that I finally had to learn how to use my sewing machine - luckily Jonathan was able to show me how. I had actually set it up and wound the bobbin and threaded the thing a year ago but never could get it to stitch, I have no idea what was wrong then but it works now!


We also got this super cute, super soft teddy bear (because every kid needs a good teddy bear) and a few other baby related things and put them in this wicker basket. The basket originally came with a fabric liner that was not very cute, so Jonathan took it apart and made one with this cuter fabric that went with the theme a little bit better.



I was really pleased with how it all turned out - I couldn't really get a good photo of the whole set up with this camera, which is too bad because I think the decorations went with it pretty nicely, but I do have a few other random photos to share!

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend too!

-C