Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Preparations and being busy......

Monday found Don & I both suffering fron a case of wanderlust as we been becoming regular little homebodies as he's healed from his surgery and I am adjusting to my new job! As we were picking up, straightening, and cleaning around the house sort of in a hit and miss fashion, I telephone my dd, Amber, when taking a coffee break. Desiring to "do something!" yet not actually having any particular ideas in mind, while talking with Amber on the phone, I asked her how she'd like to go to Burlington's Baby Depot and she said she was feeling up to it. So, after we finished getting cleaned up, Don & I picked Amber up, did a couple errands around town before we headed out.

On the ride down to Columbus we chatted about a little of this and little of that. The baby shower, the baby, things she had, items she needed to purchase yet, and things she desired. After some idle chit-chat and small talk, we decided we'd like to stop and do lunch too, so as we approached Sawmill Road, we made a pit stop into Olive Garden for a delicious lunch.

While eating lunch, Don was teasing both of us about sitting in Burlington's while Amber & I shopped for 3 hours, LOL! and I'll be damned if he wasn't right! I guess I sort of broke him in while I was there prior to his surgery doing some Christmas shopping. Anyways, Amber & I did spend close to 3 hours shopping and browsing.

I decided to go ahead and purchase the baby crib for my home, the one I had previously looked at. It is a Simplicity 4-in-1; so the baby can grow with the bed before I'll need to switch it out in a couple more years back to the twin bed.

I am really like the idea of the baby being able to sleep in a separate room, where it will be a bit more peaceful allowing the little one a bit more rest. The weather will be breaking soon and by then, Chaos will be spending more and more outdoors. Maybe this will encourage me to finally finish that room with some of the things we've been desiring to do but haven't actually gotten around to them yet! {like get some of the boxes of my art supplies out into the studio where they belong, LOL!}

I'd also like to get the bi-fold doors hung up in front of the washer and dryer. We've had them, just never got them hung up and we need to purchase a small door for the closet. We took the closet door out several years ago when I first moved in, deciding it needed replaced. Shortly thereafter, we had the washer and dryer brought up from the basement, built a small wall to hang bi-fold doors. That wall assisted with the decorative look of making the closet appear to be more than than the box in the corner. {*wink* another one of my brillant ideas!}

I originally painted that room Martha Stewart's lilac with white ceiling and trim, 4-5 years ago, so I don't plan to repaint the room. I love the lilac and white in there, with touches of dusty blue and a lighter lime green. The ceiling is in great shape, having been popcorned as after thought when we had the entire house re-wired and our contractor came through that room's ceiling while wiring, LOL! It also features a newer overhead light fixture on a decorative medallion.The garden fairy/dragonfly theme already establish in the room will work well for a nursery, as I can decorate accordingly for either a boy or a girl. Guess I'll be waiting to either buy or sew my own bedding!

A good Spring cleaning of the carpet and draperies, some minor repairs, removing some of my dragonfly knic-knacks, and finally moving some boxes of art supplies that need to go out to the studio anyways, and we'll be all set! A small bookshelf and dresser will provide me with enough storage for the baby's clothes and things, although, I will need to re-arrange the placement of some furniture within the space. Moving a small bookcase will allow for the closet door to open, so I'll probably do a bit of re-arranging of the bookcase before we get the crib out of layaway. In all reality, the room really won't be needing too much done. I have a small chair that is comfortable enough to sit in for a short amount of time, that can be placed in front of the closet door, allowing me to look out into our backyard, and it can easily be moved, if needed. So, other than purchasing the crib matress, matress pad, a waterproof pad, bedding and a small lamp, we're pretty much set. Maybe a few small container or baskets to hide some of the clutter of all the baby items will assist in providing a uniformed appearance.

The crib, I purchased, has a trundle drawer that slides underneath for additional bedding storage as well as a few toys. I will need to make some repairs to a couple white trophy style shelves on the walls as they simply sit on the brackets. A couple of nails and a touch up on paint will do the trick! and I do think I'll move them to another wall, way from having over the crib.

Amber has been suffering a bit of depression and anxiety which is pretty common as she is concerned about having what she needs to care for her child. To brighten up her day, I bought her a new pair of maternity jeans and a top along with spending a hundred dollars for baby items she needed. I didn't mind helping out and cheering her up!

She's desiring to keep her cost down in decorating so has decided to go with the Baby Looney Tunes theme. Since it is an older theme, a lot of the items and accessories can be found in discount and outlet stores. She has some wall apparel sticky things and we found a matching diaper bag, moist baby wipes container, a rattle, and a crib mobile. So, all in all, it made for a wonderful day!

Yesterday, I worked on preparations for her Baby Shower. I typed up all the Game sheets we'll need, got them saved and ready to be printed. Then, I moved on to creating a Baby Shower program for Nancy & I to follow, the water bottle labels, and decorated up the Party Favors I'd previously purchased.

I think I mentioned discovering some vintage looking pastel colored candle votives at Michaels' for $1, purchasing a dozen vanilla scented candles, white toile circles, cookie cutters, charms, and various odds and ends. Anyways, I decided to decorate those up.

My toile circles weren't big enough to allow them to be gathered on top, so I drapped them over the candle filled votives, and the glass votive itself has a footed pedastal base which worked great! A thin rubber band held the toile in place and I added pastel colored curling ribbon to accent them. Upon discovering there were 100 clear party favor bags in the package I'd purchased for the cookies, I decided to use some to keep the party favor dust-free. A few adjustment to them, trimming and cutting along the seams allowed them to be slipped over top of the votives and more curling ribbon added. I punch a decorative paper butterfly punches out of various pastel colored cardstock and added them as an additional accent. All in all, I'm pleased with them! ........ {smiles}

I looked through my Pfalgraff stoneware and found a small bowl designed for dip that can be used to hold the plastic diaper pins for the "Don't Say, Baby!" game. The toile was a bit too small to add, so I'll probably find something to fill it a bit --- maybe a piece of pastel tissue paper will work. Anyways, I discovered we'll have plenty of serving dishes that will assist with establishing the shower theme.

After working on the computer creating all the game pieces to be printed out and copied, I decided maybe I'd try my hand at creating her baby shower invitations.! Unplanned but after a bit of experimenting, and I discovered a design I liked so I set out to creating all the pieces for it.

I used a 6 petal daisy punch to punch through a sheet of stonewashed blue and sweetheart pink cardstock, I punched out all 30 of them in each color. Then, I overlapped the punched pieces, the pink over the blue, so the petal of the blue underneath shown through the petal pieces of the pink. A yellow Forsythia's bloom and a purple spiked aster were glued on top making them very pretty to look at! I cut a section of lavender cardstock and tore the top and bottom edge and stamped using an Anna Griffin stamp that says, "An Invitation" in black ink, then punched 30 rose single rose leaves out of some minty-looking green cardstock. I add the floral punches to the left side of the stamped text and the leaf below the bottom of the stamped text to provide some visual balance, prior to matting the torn lavender cardstock onto a pale yellow mat. A section of the torn lavendar carstock hangs slightly below the yellow, quietly peeking out.

Deciding I didn't want to add to much color to the invitations, I chose white cardstock to add the above matted decorations, then using a border punch, Don & I punched a lacy style border to the bottom front of the invitations. He was a godsend in creating that border as my punch is hard to work through cardstock! To make the inside as decorative as the card's exterior, I'm laying in sheet of blue and green vellum which peeks through the lacy border on the front of the cards. {15 will be blue; 15 will use green vellum}. Once my design idea was established, I set out cutting out all 30 invitations and Don assisted with punching the lacy border along the bottom edges.

So, now I simply need to measure the yellow and lavender mats used on my prototype, tear the top and bottom edges of the lavender cardstock, stamp the text, add my embellishements. The green and blue vellum will need to be cut. I haven't decide if once the text with the invitation information is actually typed, printed, and copies are made, if I'll layer it above or below the vellum, but to save some of my xyron adhesive, the vellum will be folded before being ran through, so that the interior of the card is only adhered at the base. I'm thinking layering the text under the vellum will soften the invitations providing more of the baby shower appearance by softening the actual text. Anyways, it is a start! Invitations and party favors, LOL!

I'm looking for a cone shaped party favor template to fill with Hershey kisses and pastel M&M's. I'm not certain what size I'll need but am thinking a 3, 4, or 5"; probably a 4" with a folded gathered top that can be hole punched so sheer pastel ribbon can be tied on for a closure and a tag can be added. If the event that I'm unable to find a template in any of the various magazines and books I have, I may just need to get creative and create my own! If anyone has one they'd like to share, I'd love saving the time looking for one......... please leave me a comment on how I may contact you and I'll send my email addy to you.

I do have a pillow box template and a small chinese take out box that I could use, but I really like the cone shape and think they'll work better. A bit more decorative and party themed!

Ok, enough baby-related things........... {smile, can you tell I'm gonna be a first-time grandmother and am getting a bit excited?! LOL!}

I worked last night! Bob called while we were out shopping on Monday; I could have worked Monday night to Tuesday morning had I been home, so I called and declined for Monday night but picked up the remaining hours for the week. My work schedule is as follows: Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, Thursday/Friday, and Friday/Saturday. I'll end up with 24 hrs. this week, and a 24 hr. paycheck for last week.

I noticed a lot of the items I'll desire for the baby shower were on sale this week, Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix, {although I haven't tried them and have a recipe from the Wilton website for a sugar cookie and royal icing.} Funfetti icing that is white with sprinkles separated on top, and some cupcake pans {can you believe I don't own any!} so I may do some shopping after I get off work on Friday to pick some items up at sale price and kill the one hour wait before I can pick up my paycheck.

I also need to look at GFS and price the tablecloths and one table skirt I'll need......... I may just pick them up all at once or a piece here and there since I'm in the area already for work; haven't quite decided that yet. I need to check the bottle water to see if it is on sale or wait until it is. I'm hopeful that Nancy will help out with the food and refreshments, although I'm fairly certain that she will.

Well, shoot! Time's slippin' away........... I should be getting off this computer, getting some dinner rustled up in bit, do a bit of housecleaning. I want to relax a bit this evening, maybe find a movie on TV to watch, or work on either the invitations or the Art Idea Journals. I definately need to be focusing on both of those within the next week so I can turn my attention to re-organizing the studio and getting it cleaned. About a day and a half and it should be ready to go, ROFLOL! I think I'll save the dusting to doing a few days before........... {Man, I'm on a roll today!}

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