The Buidling Blocks of Baby Showers

I am so excited to announce that my sister is pregnant! This is her first child, so I hope beyond anything that she has a safe pregnancy and delivery! And while she carries her first bundle of joy I get to plan her baby shower! So I of course am spending a lot of time researching all of the creative ideas that others have done for their showers and how I would like my sister's to be. I will have to be careful not to give away too much information in my posts because I want my shower to be a surprise for my sister. But I'll go ahead and share themes and ideas I find that inspire me.


I'm always impressed with the party themes I find on Hostess With the Mostess, and for this post I have to share one I found on that site: the Rustic Glam Baby Shower. What I really like about this shower is the unique favors for the guests and decorations, such as the building blocks!

Mail Center

It's here! My mail center! I have finally found a desktop center to organize my incoming and outgoing mail. I did not go with my original plan to buy the desktop station that I found at the Container Store. Instead, while shopping at Target I found this smaller option, which only cost a fifth of the price! You can't beat that. And it serves my needs, with some room to "grow."

Right now I have folders for "mail to file," "bills to pay," and "outgoing mail." But I may also make folders for "my roommate's mail," "coupons," and more. There is room for more folders!

I'm excited to get my mail and start using it. I encourage everyone looking to organize their desktops to spend some time thinking about what system would work best for their needs and brainstorming different options to achieve it. I certainly didn't think I could achieve it for $5.00!

Valentine's Day Toes

This is late, but posting anyways...


My niece loved my snowflake toenail design so much I painted them special for Valentines Day for her.  (I knew I would be seeing her just a few days after it). She loved them, although not as much as the giant snowflake. But my nephew was kind to point out how outdated they were, saying, "the heart needs to come off now because Valentine's Day has past."


I love the wisdom and advice of three year olds.  :)

Baby's First Birthday

My niece is about to turn 1 and since she is my first niece I am very excited about it!

Being, somewhat, in the line of event planning (albeit, these are corporate, very large, educational, and formal-business events for clients) I love the prospect of planning her first birthday.  Sadly it's not an honor I get to have since my sister-in-law will want to plan this special day for her.  But what harm can it be to envision all the fun types of first birthday parties that can be thrown?!  And dreaming is free!  Here is one of my favorite ideas on Hostess with the Mostess' blog:

A little sunshine - but this is good for a warm day, and it's currently February.

Since my niece's birthday is close to Valentines Day I guess it's only fitting that she have a pink and heart-shaped themed party. Or at least that's what I would throw for her if it was my choice! :)

So, here are some cute ideas for her party, if I was throwing her this Valentine's Day theme party:

Food:

• Heart shaped ham & cheese and PB&J sandwiches
• Heart shaped "jello-jigglers"
• Cut cheese hearts and serve with crackers

Drink:

• Fruit-punch with heart-shaped ice-cubes
• Adults - red wine, red-wine spritzer, or add champagne to the fruit punch. (Just keep it separated from the kids punch!)  :) 

Either a birthday cake or cupcakes:

• I like the idea of both for a first birthday so the birthday child may dig into his/her cake and surprise us all with the adorable mess he/she makes experiencing their very first birthday cake. And the rest of us may enjoy a clean and well portioned, and themed/well decorated cake of our own. 
• A heart shaped strawberry or red velvet cake with pink butter-creme icing would probably be the cake I would make. 
• For cupcakes, same type of cake and icing but add a decorative topping like a chocolate heart or a red cherry. Or make a label/flag, attach it to a tooth-pick that reads "Baby's First Birthday!" 
Like these pictures: 

 

For decorations:

• A "Baby's First Birthday" sign is a must. 
• Heart shaped balloons with normal shaped balloons, all red, pink and white. And of course, a happy birthday themed balloon. 
• Pink streamers in the shape of the number 1.
• Set-up a main table to house the cake on display, the punch, food, and presents. Start decorating this table by  covering it in a white cloth. Keep it simple to not take away from the other decorations or cause the room/table to look gaudy.
• Sprinkle candy hearts as confetti on the main table top instead of real confetti. 
• A bouquet of flowers on the main table. Every party needs a nice bouquet of flowers. 
• Tiny bouquets of heart-shaped lollipops.
• Pink/white plates and napkins that say Baby's first birthday

And here is a great article of tips on what to consider when planning your child's First Birthday Party.

Now I just have to wait in anticipation for my niece's birthday and see what type of party she has. No matter what, it will be special and fun.

Organizing the Closet

I mentioned in a previous post that a major project of mine in January was to reorganize/clean out my closet. I have a large closet (although not a walk-in, sigh), which I just love. Since I love it, and being organized so much, I spend a lot of time thinking about the system I have for my belongings in it and whether or not it is as efficient as it could be for my needs. 

Therefore, I have spent a lot of time this past month wondering if I like how I have my clothes organized. I can only assume that this means I am not completely happy with my arrangement, but I am not yet willing to completely redo my current set-up. My major dilemma is that it seems most people organize their clothes by color, but I organize mine by most worn (most easy to reach locations), then season (second most accessible based on current weather), then style, then color. I wonder if I should change it to be only by color – completely by color. Does this really work for most people? And if so, would I too like this more? Would I still find this just as specific and useful? How do you organize your closet?

Mail Center

What do you do with all your mail? If you are like me you struggle to keep it from piling up on you. It's extra hard for me - I think - because I live in a small apartment that I share with another person who also has their own mail and personal items, and need for personal space. So I can't very well allow each area of my life to take over the apartment. But nor can I force myself to find a way to put every tool/container I need into my small bedroom.  And over the years I have been toying with different filing systems to put in bins in my closet or under my bed, in decorative boxes displayed openly in my room, etc. But all these ideas lend themselves to a format that is always "closed-off" in some manner from me, making it difficult and unappealing to use. Then, I read this really useful and simple system that A Bowl Full of Lemons uses called her "Mobile Command Center."

And it got me thinking of what I could do. I came up with a happy compromise for my situation. A small "mail center" of mine own. I will make mine own small filing system that sits on my desk that wont take up too much room but still allows me to easily file my: incoming bills (that need to be paid), papers to file, my outgoing mail, and storage for stapes, envelopes, and other desk-top items. This special organizer is: The Desktop Station.

I'll post pictures of my mail center and let you know how it's working out for me once I get it up and running!

Let's Get Organized, Organized!

One of the things I love to do with my free time is to organize! I love it even more when I get to organize someone else's place/space/things. But that rarely happens, most people don't like others throwing out and re-arranging their belongings. So for most of my cleaning and systemizing pleasures I have to find it from within, and that's just fine. I will be writing a number of posts about organization tips, lessons and adventures here, especially this month since I learned that January is "National Get Organized Month," according to the National Association of Professional Organizers. I have a special post I am working on about my closet - a big undertaking recently - more on that will come soon. And now I have found the blog, A Bowl Full of Lemons, with which I am completely obsessed! I will undoubtably be posting in the future about what I learn and read from her - the most immediate being my adventures participating in her "get organized challenge." Check back for more to come. 

Quotes

I love quotes. I think no matter how complex life is, it can be broken down into simple moments, sayings, words, feelings, lessons, etc. So I live by quotes. They capture something inside of me ... hmmm maybe the communicator inside me ... as communication is what I choose to focus my profession in.  I must love communicating! 

Today's quote, from TheDailyLove (a handle I love to follow on Twitter) was: 

"Remember, diamonds are made under pressure! Stay calm & say 'bring it on!'" 

What a beautiful way to view being put under pressure. And it's so true. I love this outlook. And I love thinking I can come out of a stressful situation looking even more spectacular!  :) 

Hopefully this is inspirational to you on a stressful day as well! 

Champagne Cupcakes

A few days before New Years when the work week was quiet I will admit I was able to catch some of Oprah. Okay, it's also only because I knew the Georgetown Cupcake girls were going to be on, so I was watching for them. And I was pleasantly surprised with the New Years Eve dish they made. I was expecting a cupcake for sure, but they made more of a production with it. Sparklers and all! 


The cupcake they made was the Strawberry Champagne Sparklers and I decided since I was hosting my friends at my apartment for our New Years pre-going out party I would make these as a special surprise. Since the Georgetown girls were nice enough to share their recipe on Oprah.com I had to take advantage of this opportunity. So I enlisted my younger sister to spend the afternoon baking with me, and here is how our adventures went. 


The cupcakes: These were simple to make. Since most of my friend's don't have a big sweet-tooth I decided to just make the mini-cupcakes. (Plus I don't trust my friends with fire/sparklers inside my apartment.) Recommendation - if you are just going to make the cupcakes you can add a little more of the cut-up strawberries. 


The icing: This is tricky because you want to pick a sweet rose Champagne, so it's good to have an idea of what your options taste like. But I guessed, and picked a moderately priced Italian sparkling Rose and liked my outcome. I came just a little short on confectioner's sugar though and then used the full 1/2 of Champagne. It turned out that it was too much champagne so it never became a creamy, firm texture. It tasted fine, maybe a little too sugary. So be sure to have plenty of confectioner's sugar and go shy on Champagne. Whip this well and add things slowly until you have the perfect balance, would be my recommendation. 


The ganache: Thank goodness I had my sister helping me bake. She knew just how to melt the chocolate. I would never have understood the directions. And she did a great job. Our chocolate came out perfect. But watch the chocolate carefully, any slight variation can turn perfect ganache into a disaster in seconds. Also Nestles semi-sweet chocolate chips work great.  


Just look at these cupcakes. Given the disaster with the icing, it was hard to use, but we did a good job making it work. Aren't these cute? We topped them with strawberries and some that we didn't put ganache on - for crazies that don't like chocolate - I put sprinkles on top to keep them separate. But I realized these cupcakes really need the ganache, it adds so much to the the flavor and breaks up the power of the sugar and Champagne sweetness.  

So we gathered up all the cupcakes and divided it up among friends and family. We gave it among numerous people, some very harsh critics, but everyone loved them! For a first time making them, I have to say we really made yummy cupcakes worth baking and sharing again. (My next time though I will have more visually appealing icing.) 


Here is the recipe on Oprah.com: Georgetown Cupcake's Strawberry Champagne Sparkler Cupcakes 
And now they have listed a low-fat recipe option. 
Here is their segment on Oprah. 

In With The New and Out With The Old

Each Jan. 1st I love to start my new year off reading the "In and Out" list printed in The Washington Post.  But there are always some items I don't understand, so this year I thought I would make my own list. Having never been one for making New Years Resolutions I thought this would be a fun idea.

So here's my list, which incorporates some from the WashPost article and GlobalPost.com that I agree with.

Snowflakes

Every now and then like to paint my toes in a festive manner; for a season or holiday occasion. Since I haven't done it for a while I decided to do it for winter, with a snowflake on my big toe. I think this dates back to when I was young and on a swim team where we would paint our nails before a race. Only now, instead of painting the nails on my hands I keep it to my toes so I'm not showing them off like a little girl anymore. 

Here's a picture. I need to get a real manicure pen or stencil kit so they can look better. But you get the point. It's still a cute idea. And my 10 month old niece loved them! That's enough affirmation for me.  :)