Showering Sarah

A few weeks ago, Jenny, Laura and I co-hosted a baby shower for Sarah. We held it at ArtJamN, a paint-your-own canvas studio. We were able to bring in our own food, and we had a spread of confetti rice krispie treats, lemon drop cupcakes and caramelized onion dip with veggies and chip. 

We also had rainbow fruit skewers and pasta salad skewers. We wanted everything to be hand-held for easy painting. You can also see the cute invite, and the table runner, which matched. 

Here's the mom-to-be as her friends began to arrive like Dana. 

Jenny, one of my co-hosts.

There was some serious conversation going on here.

But Kendra was still all smiles. 

Someone tell me to stop crinkling my nose when I laugh!

Before we began painting, each of us signed a note to the baby, and the instructor told us how everything was going to go. 

I think Sarah enjoyed herself. 

We played Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would start the painting. 

The group began with the sky.

The canvas was so large that several of us could paint at once.

We painted the sky blue all over the canvas. 

The instructor had already outlined a design with a texture. 

Laura and Kendra worked on the grass area. 

Fun times!

All of a sudden, the painting really came together. 

Dana was in charge of the red leaves. 

How pretty is this?!?!

There's a heart cut into the tree, and there's a little bird on the branch. 

Sarah is going to hang it in Baby's nursery. I kind of want it to hang in my house!

Here's the group in our aprons. 

And one without aprons. 

I think everyone really had fun, and Sarah got a one-of-a-kind piece of art out of the deal. 

Birthday Finale

I really love birthdays, and I decided to host a March birthday dinner. With Chris and Laura sharing a birthday and Charlie's birthday just days before, it seemed appropriate. 

Everyone had a gift at their seat. Even the non-birthday people needed a little something. Notice our new table centerpiece? It's a shaft of a barrel from Buffalo Trace distillery in Kentucky. It used to be a part of a barrel that held and aged whiskey. Chris drilled holes in it, and now it holds tea lights. I wonder if the wood feels less manly?

Back to the party. I strung up a Happy Birthday sign and decorated our sidebar with a few birthday goodies.

The birthday girl and her guy.

The birthday guy and his girl.

Here's the birthday cake I made. More about it later.

The full set up.

Sarah got a slightly belated birthday gift from Laura and Matt. It was a birthday type of evening!

Chris and I gave Laura this necklace.

And we gave Charlie this St. Jude golf shirt.

Chris racked up too. This is a box of goodies and a gift certificate to a company called You Bar that lets you create your own granola bars and other goodies. Very cool gift. I'll report back as to what recipe he makes.

Chris also got a very nice dopp kit from Sarah and Charlie. Totally needed for my traveler.

Sarah and Charlie gave Laura a furniture-making book. I think we're all secretly hoping to benefit from it!

And now back to the cake. Yep. I made that.

It's a six-layer cake, and each layer is flavored with a different fruit. I didn't want to use Jello, so all the flavoring is natural. I prepped each fruit in its own bowl, and then added my cake batter.

I baked all six cakes separately and then stacked them on top of each other once they had cooled.

And, I didn't really want to use food coloring, but the second-from-the-top layer has just two drops in it. The flavor run down, from the top, is strawberry, grape, orange, kiwi, lemon, blueberry. It was a little labor intensive, but I thought it looked festive for a birthday(s) party.

And, every birthday party needs a clown!

See the cake: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e551040fb7883401348009898b970c 

The Bachelorette #2

My second bachelorette party was in Greenwood, MS, at The Alluvian and Viking Cooking School. 

It was for Jenny. She was excited to be there. 

And so was Laura.

Friday we went to dinner at Lusco's 

and had this waiter. 

Laura and I got into the spirit of things by splitting a wine cooler. Yes. A wine cooler was on the menu...and they only had one...and we split it in frosted mugs. We're classy ladies.

As we were leaving the restaurant, a group of older folks were leaving and asked us what we were doing there. We told them it was Jenny's bachelorette party, and they gave us bottle of wine and two Mike's Hard Limonades in celebration. 

Random? yes. Awesome? yes.

Here's the gang, sans Sarah, after dinner.

Friday night we played some games, talked a lot and went to bed. Saturday we got up, had some spa appointments and headed to lunch. 

Sarah and me at lunch. 

Saturday night was our cooking class at the Viking Cooking School. Look at the super cute aprons! The green ones were from Laura, and she had our names put on them. Jenny's apron was black and white and had her name in purple. Such great keepsakes, and they made for super cute photos.

This was the menu for the night.

We also had some wine to aid in the cooking process. 

We were all happy to be there!

This was our plate after all the cooking was done. It was a feast!

Did I mention that we got to torch our own creme bruelees? 

Jenny really had the touch. Note the torch and the brulee are on fire. 

Happy Bachelorette Party, Jenny!