Ashley's Pink Baby Shower

I was so excited to be one of the hosts for my friend Ashley's baby shower because she (along with her husband and future daughter) is just such an important part of my life. I couldn't wait to help spoil them rotten!

The shower was held at a neighborhood clubhouse, and it was the perfect location. Here are some of the photos from the day -- a great time was had by all, and her sweet baby girl received some of the most adorable gifts. You can tell that baby girl and her parents are very loved!

I provided two of the appetizers -- sausage balls and cucumber sandwiches. They were both a hit! And don't you love the piggy platter? I got it in college from my Little Sister in ADPi ... she said that, according to her mama, "every Southern girl needed a piggy platter."

  

Ashley arrived to the shower and looked darling in her black dress! You will be able to see through these photos how happy of a person she is. :)

One of the other hostesses put together this adorable frame with little bubbles that everyone could sign. A cute and modern idea for a typical guestbook!

  

Here's the mama-to-be with the hostesses. It was so easy to work with this group ... very relaxed.

This was a gift I went in on with two other girls -- a video monitor for baby girl.

I also got her this teething necklace, which she loved! Pink is definitely Ash's color.

Instead of cards, we brought books for her daughter. I found this adorable Mother Goose rhymes book for her.

And because her mama was a soccer star in college, I decided baby girl needed to have her own set of cute active wear, too!

Hosting this shower was such a fun way to welcome her sweet daughter to the world. Only a month or so to go! 

Five On Friday

Maybe it's just me, but did you feel like this week flew by? I'm thrilled it's Friday, and I get to work from home today, so ... icing on the cake!

Time for Five On Friday, let's do this.

O N E
Speaking of icing on cake... we have a very important little man's birthday celebration this weekend as he turns one, and I can't wait to love on him! It seems like just yesterday that we were waiting on pins and needles to hear of his safe arrival. Meeting him a year ago has made our lives better.

T W O
For the nursery, we decided to purchase a new light -- and we are so in love with it. Madly in love.

We had a pretty awesome pendant light before which hung over our desk, but without a desk underneath it, it was hanging too low. And the girliness quotient just wasn't there. 

I just love the light patterns that it casts on the ceilings. I have a feeling our little girl will love them, too!

This bad boy is a Home Depot find, and it is less than $70.00. Pretty great find, right?! You can buy your own here. And if you order online, don't forget to go through Ebates! I actually purchased it online through Ebates and used the "pick up in store" option. That way, I didn't have to pay shipping and I still got cash back in my Ebates account.

T H R E E

I have to know -- has anyone tried the recipe for oven-dried strawberries? Apparently you bake the slices for three hours on low heat. I'm certainly intrigued but I want to hear reviews from friends first.

F O U R

This past Saturday, I was able to have the most delicious brunch with a girlfriend and she brought along such a sweet gift for me ... lovely green Chewbeads! I already had one aqua strand and I was so excited to get this green strand for a totally different look. Plus, they will look so cute layered. These necklaces are the coolest. Mama can still look stylish, and baby has a soft, silicone, and most importantly, SAFE object for teething! The necklaces are BPA-free and nontoxic. They are even dishwasher safe. 

The new green one I got is sold here, and they also have other fun styles like this pink one and this sunny yellow version too. These make such a great gift for moms -- in fact, I gave one to my friend Ashley at her baby shower last weekend!

F I V E
Lastly, and most importantly, a huge thank you to all of you who had such sweet things to say about Drake. I had some pretty amazing comments on the blog and even a few personal emails too. We are continuing to monitor the lump on his tummy and just want to do all we can to make sure he has the happiest, healthiest, most comfortable life. So really -- thank you all for taking the time to send some well wishes our way. It is much appreciated, more than you may know.

Now, your turn to link up! I hope you will join me and my wonderful co-hostesses -- Darci, Natasha, and Christina. Playing along is simple!  Just write a post about five things on your mind today, anything goes really, post the logo below on your blog, and then enter your post address below in the link-up section. It's a great way of meeting new friends and getting more eyes on your cute blog :)

Drake Update: Our Sweet Pup

When I posted a photo of Drake the other day on Instagram, I had some questions about how he's doing. It just warms my heart to know people are thinking about him!

After the initial incident in early January where we noticed he was licking his arm -- to the point of removing (with his sandpapery tongue) a deep chunk of the skin and tissue -- the healing process began. For Drake this meant antibiotics, steroids, and a cone. We are done with the pills now, but he still is a conehead. At night, when we can keep a very close watch on him, we like to give him some time outside the cone, but a few times he has gone for his arm and then the cone has to go right back on.

This photo is from last night -- he was occupied enough with a rawhide and then a big bone that we were able to leave him cone-free for quite some time while he was in the room with us.

Now comes the "insult to injury" part. For a long while we have been monitoring with our vet a growth on his chest that has progressively enlarged. The vet has aspirated it before (removed some of the fluid with a needle), but it keeps growing. We check it constantly and touch it gently to see if he ever has a pained reaction -- so far, nothing. But this week I noticed that he had a boo-boo on the growth where either he rubbed it against something and it was scratched, or -- I don't even know if this is possible -- maybe even the stretched skin grew so thin that it opened a bit? We had him in the vet the next morning. 

The vet has spoken to us before about surgically removing it, but with Drake being 14, we were more concerned about him going under anesthesia than we were with a non-painful bump. The vet supported our decision. This time around, the topic of surgery came up once again. He thinks it may be a sarcoma, which he said can potentially grow to volleyball size. VOLLEYBALL size.

We have a tentative surgery date scheduled mid-month for the Drakester and I'm really nervous. I know he is growing older, but I just want him to meet our daughter so badly. Furthermore, selfishly, I have a lot of anxiety about thinking of Drake not being around and how the extreme sadness that we would feel could affect my pregnancy. I have tried really hard during this time to only let Baby Girl experience the best of life in utero -- happiness, love, belly rubs, peanut butter cups, Beyonce.

If you have any words of wisdom, please do send them my way. And we would appreciate all of the good thoughts and prayers for our Drake that you could send!

Week 27 Pregnancy Journal

How Far Along? 27 weeks

Size of Baby: A head of cauliflower (14.5 inches). Baby weighs 2 lbs now!

Gender: Our sweet, sweet girl.

Weight Gain: A gain of two pounds this week from last week. Now up a total of 11 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight -- but since I lost a few pounds in the first trimester, up 14 pounds total from my lowest pregnancy weight.

Maternity Clothes: Thank goodness for them. I got to wear my one splurge during this pregnancy to my girlfriend's baby shower on Saturday. This dress is from Pickles & Ice Cream here in Charlotte and it's so comfortable and beautiful! Here I am in it with my girlfriend Ashley and her sister-in-law. All of us have little girls on the way!

Nursery: Making steps! We have an electrician coming out this coming week to install a new light in the nursery (among other tick-list items) and her closet is being redone this weekend. We have about twelve paint chips to decide amongst for the wall color. Last night I went out and purchased her little hangers for the nursery closet and just about died over the cuteness. They are so tiny! (Sidenote: although it may not be super glamorous, Burlington Coat Factory has quite a decent baby section ... who knew?! I got a few 10-packs of pink velvet hangers for $4.99 each and they even have Boppy pillows there for $25!)

Movement: All the time! Changing from more of an internal flicking movement to rolling around and protruding. Yep, protruding baby parts from my belly. It's awesome.

Symptoms: This belly button is way shallow. No stretch marks to date -- applying my various oils like it's my job. Bending at the waist is becoming a real challenge, so now I'm totally getting why gals love dresses in the third trimester! Putting on pants is no easy feat ... I have to bend my legs outward like frog legs to get in my pants. And shoot, if I drop something on the floor -- there's a really good chance I may decide to just leave it there.

Sleep: Sleeping fairly well, even when I was out of town three nights this past week in Rochester.

Cravings: PEANUT BUTTER CUPS. I'm not telling you how many I eat per day. Gotta get that in check because the glucose test will be this Friday. And if you're curious, the little tub that Aldi sells (Choceur brand) blows Reese's out of the water. Out. Of. The. Water.

What I Miss: Regular shopping. I had $15 in birthday money that Banana Republic gave me that I had to spend by the end of January. Last Friday evening I took myself to the mall and saw all of these cute clothes with nipped-in waistlines that just won't work. Next year!

The pink sweater from BR did come home with me
but that cute striped number in the back was a big no-go.

Best Moment This Week: On a shuttle at the Philly airport, a mom offered me her seat (although I was happy to stay standing) and then a man asked if I needed any assistance getting my bag down. The sweetness of people on the shuttle was just really blowing me away and I had to fight back tears of gratitude!

Looking Forward To: Eeek -- our Florida babymoon! More details to come! Sun + sand + palm trees, we are ready for you!

Preliminary Nursery Inspiration

It has been a lot of fun planning out our nursery, and I am thrilled to have the colors down pat! The palette will roughly be similar to this color scheme.

via

I posted a sneak peek of some fabrics I'm considering on Instagram today (@alizadventures) but the hunt is not yet over. I want this room for our little mamacita to be pretty and feminine, but also sophisticated and not very "babyish." 

I've always had a good experience ordering fabric from fabric.com, plus you can go through Ebates -- big plus there. They currently offer 4% back on your purchase. That can really add up! Plus, fabric.com has a "design wall" that you can virtually add fabric swatches too to see how they pair up together. How easy. Not a sponsored opinion at all, by the way -- just my own personal experience!

One option that I'm really liking is this one:

There are also some great emerald green fabrics out there, too, that I can use for accents.

I will also be incorporating a good dose of black and white in the nursery, because -- well, babies' eyes love black and white! Rather than a stark white, the combo I'm looking for is a little more of a black/off white. Nothing too ecru or ivory though. Can you tell I have a definite vision?

Once I have the fabrics finalized, we will be painting the room and adding in all of the fun baby items we have accumulated or have our eyes on. The crib will be ordered today and I'm picking up some new lighting for the room this afternoon as well. 

Here's another photo I found online of a similar color scheme that I'm going for.

via

I'm just slightly giddy over this color combination!

Phew -- progress feels good.

So there's a little idea of the direction we will be taking the nursery in. If you have any ideas for the room, I'd love to hear them!