Baby Showers: I Love Them

Saturday I had the pleasure of going to a gorgeous baby shower for our friend Laura, who is the most beaming happy excited precious mama-to-be! She and her husband and kitty family will be welcoming a little boy into their family very soon and we had a great girly day celebrating her.

We started off at Cachet Nail Boutique which is a GEM of a nail salon for any of you local readers. I think everyone here in Charlotte knows about the really popular spot here for mani/pedis that sometimes leaves a little to be desired. Cachet in the South End is the total opposite. The interior is so swanky and modern. My tech was friendly and professional, and a dad himself -- we had a good chat about the craziness of toddlers and babies. They have a complete menu of services available, and I decided to give my tootsies a little splurge and bypass the standard pedicure for the Mojito custom pedicure which included a minty scrub, a cooling menthol mask, and a massage lotion. For the $35 charge instead of the typical $25 charge, it was WELL worth the upgrade. It's not too often that I get a pedicure these days, so the small bit extra for the additional time and TLC was a no-brainer. Plus, it's about the closest I'm getting to a minty-lime mojito (sighhhh...) these days.

Lunch was awesome at Ruru's -- it was my first time there! I went with two of their tacos (Stage Five Clinger and Long Duk Dong) ... when they brought my order out, I was all "Um, I should have totally ordered more" but they were so flavorful and filling that it really hit the spot! The icing on the cake was literally the blue iced cupcakes that the hostesses had for everyone after gifts were opened. 

For the mama-to-be, I put together a little bundle of some items from her Amazon registry (the Mustela and the waterproof pads ... both items that I consider a must-have for a newborn!) along with a few other favorites. Here's what I gave her:

My #1 Fave (no shocker here): Mustela Physiobebe
on Amazon here
This no-rinse cleanser is so amazing for cleaning up baby bums, little spit-up messes on chins, milk drips from bottle feeding, anything! It smells heavenly and just gives an extra clean feeling.

Cotton Rounds for applying the Mustela Physiobebe
on Amazon here
I keep these right next to my Mustela bottle for ease. They work way better than cotton balls for application.

Bright Starts Rattle
on Amazon here
Camille has one of these (in girlier colors) and just loved it, so we got one for James, too.
We also tossed in another teething toy into the bag, also by Bright Starts.

Pampers Sensitive Wipes
on Amazon here
My love for these knows no bounds.

Boppy Waterproof Liners
on Amazon here
Seriously a must-have (are you listening, preggos?!) for those newborn days when you are up to your elbows in diapers. Surprise tee-tees at 3am don't mean stripping your entire changing pad cover off, just lay your baby on top of one of these (on the "pretty" changing pad cover) and if it gets messy, you just toss it in the laundry and put down a new one. We still use these -- I have one packed in Camille's travel bag so I can change her anywhere with the waterproof pad underneath.

I guess you could say that my typical baby shower gifts have somewhat changed these days -- I love putting together practical, tried-and-true favorites that were really indispensable to us in those first several months! I'd love to hear what some of your go-to baby shower gifts are as well!

Hosting Supper Club

Thursday night's Supper Club was a hit. Here's how we structure ours: when the time rolls around to host, you take care of the entire food portion of the meal -- appetizers, main course, dessert. The people who join you just bring a bottle of wine. We find that it works out really well that way because if someone has to cancel last-minute, you're just down one person and one bottle of wine ... you don't have to worry if they'd signed up to bring a side dish.

As I mentioned, we've been getting together for over ten years, so we are really comfortable around each other. We pick at each other, we wear our stretch pants, we tell embarrassing stories on ourselves, we let it all hang out. 

I kept it simple this year and went with some easy apps, a one-pot meal done in the slow cooker, and a dessert that I made the day ahead.

I had castellvetrano olives (my favorite), kalamatas, and a cheese and cracker tray.

I just served the appetizers right on the kitchen island since that's where we always congregate. I set up my Swarovski tree and had a few more holiday decor items displayed.

In our dining room, I had everything set out so all we had to do was grab our bowl and serve ourselves right out of the slow cooker in the kitchen.

The tortellini dish was out of this world. I don't think you could call it a soup because it's super creamy -- more like a cheesy pasta dish. Everyone loved it. I used turkey sausage in it, and I served it with garlic toast.

And our Millionaire Pie was delicious -- we ate almost all of it, and I finished off the last two slices after lunch the next day.

We ran two separate gift exchanges "Dirty Santa" style (or Yankee Swap, White Elephant, whatever you may call it) -- a $5 gift exchange before dinner and a $15 gift exchange with dessert.

I was really excited about my $5 gift for the swap. I found this air plant for $4.99 at Aldi. It's living! How cute is it?!

Truth be told, I didn't snap a photo of the one I gave as a gift before it went home with its new owner, but I did go back yesterday and I bought another one for myself.

So, everyone went home with full bellies and two new gifts. I'd say it was a successful night!

Tonight's Supper Club Plans

Tonight I am hosting Supper Club! We rotate hosts each month, and this will be my first time hosting in December (in the ten years we've been gathering). I'm really stoked to have ended up with December, because this is when we do our Dirty Santa gift swap. We love this. It's the highlight of our year!

Typically, we all bring a $20 gift. This year, to keep the unwrapping and swapping going on for a little more time, I asked the ladies to bring two gifts -- a $5 gift and a $15 gift. That way, we have double the opportunities for stealing! We'll run the two swaps individually and I'm thinking about doing one before dinner and one between dinner and dessert.

I'm always the one that bites off more than they can chew with dinner plans, and I end up stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is sipping wine, eating appetizers and chatting. So this year I vowed to keep it really simple.

Appetizers: Cheese selection, two kinds of olives, crackers

Dinner: Crockpot Cheese Tortellini Soup (recipe here) and homemade garlic bread

Dessert: Millionaire Pie (recipe here)

I'm so excited to see these girls that I love so dearly. And I have two wrapped gifts under the tree that I hope will be a hit in our swap (I'm especially excited about the $5 gift!). I'm proud of us for getting together every month for ten years ... that's not always the easiest. There's nothing like good girl time.

A Gorgeous Wedding Weekend

One of my very best girlfriends was married this past weekend in what turned out to be one of the loveliest weddings I've seen!

She is such a classically beautiful person and that style was definitely reflected in all of her wedding design choices.

Everything got kicked off Friday at 11:30 for a bridal brunch. I wasn't sure whether to bring my big camera or not, but as soon as I arrived, the bride told me her mom's camera battery just died and that she would love it if I could capture some shots. Done and done!

Kerry gifted the bridal party Gigi New York clutches in black with our gold monogram stamped on them. LOVE.

This last one was an accidental photo that someone took of our feet but I love it :)

The rehearsal dinner that night was so much fun and featured pulled pork sliders, mac & cheese, banana pudding in mini mason jars, a bluegrass band, and a montage of video toasts that all of us sent in as a surprise to the bride and groom.

The next day we all met at Wilson's on Washington to have a little lunch and get hair and makeup done.

  

That photo above ... I have never seen my friend look so positively stunning.

We headed to the reception site to get ready for the evening before taking a trolley to the church. 

The best part was, we got a sneak preview of the reception room. Perfection.

Yes, those are matte gold sequins on the tablecloth in the table below. So fun.

They also had pillows with their custom wedding logo done.

The band out of Atlanta was doing soundcheck and they were AWESOME.

The groom's car made the perfect getaway vehicle!

We had about two hours at the church before their wedding so we relaxed and played Heads Up on my phone.

After the ceremony and photographs, the bridesmaids and groomsmen joined the new Mr. and Mrs. in the trolley, popped some champagne (cans) and headed to the Poinsett Club.

We had a blast on the dance floor. The groom picked the perfect band. I love this photo my friend Linds took.

She also snapped this one which is hilarious. Looks like my friend Ash and I are smooching. We are just close talkers. :)

After we sent the bride and groom off with a rose-petal departure, we had the great (?) idea to head to a champagne bar downtown. We were only there for a bit before I lined up our return home with Uber. That's what I'm doing below in the photo, not being antisocial on my phone ;)

So three cheers to the new Mr. and Mrs.! I'm a smidge sad this wedding is over as I was looking forward to it so much. It was the perfect celebration and reunion of friends!