Country Style Baby Shower

First and foremost, this was a team effort!

No way it would have turned out so cool without my Aunt Kathie, her daughter Jennifer and our buddy Candi! Candi, Kathie and Jenny worked on all the beautiful (and fabulously tasty) treats, while I just ate them shamelessly. (Hey, I worked out that morning running up and down the stairs about a bazillion times!)

Baby Wyatt is destined to be a cowboy, so that's what our theme was - well that and blue antique Ball jars. Between Jenny and I, I think we had about 12! Not to mention the 25 or so we made into door prizes and shower favors.  Check out the super cute, handmade invites here.

My contribution was mainly the games and prizes, while Jenny and I teamed up on most of the decor. Tissue paper pom-poms from Martha Stewart, burlap runners, raffia, jute, clothes pins, barn wood frame, simple white flower arrangements and a tree were all part of the show.

Thankfully my Aunt had a bunch of flowers and a TREE (random I know) from he older daughter's wedding a couple of weeks earlier.... Seriously a life saver. The tree had a bunch of cute baby items for momma to take with like travel sized baby ointment, socks, binkies and a hanging picture frame even.

DIY - Door prize Ball jar soap dispensers.
Aren't they cute?

Our door prizes were soap pumps made from Ball jars and Bath & Body works soaps. We also had party favors that were Cowboy Cookies in quart sized Ball jars... It had crossed my mind to make one of the games be "How many Ball jars did we use?" but as it was, we had more games than prizes! Jenny found the Cookie recipe on Pinterest. Jenny and Candi put them together in a mad dash a day or so before... I hear it was quite the mess considering they didn't have a funnel to use. HA! I wish I'd have seen it but they turned out SUPER CUTE!

Build-a-Baby Winner and Momma of the hour!

Game list included:

• Diaper Raffle
• Match the Animal Momma with the Baby (printable)
• Guess How Many Clothes Pins Are in the Jar
• Guess the Gerber's
• Build a Baby - from Playdoh (and momma chooses winner)

Plus my all time favorite because it's so helpful...

• Thank You Card Give-Away (People address the Thank You card envelopes to themselves and a winner is drawn from the envelopes.)

** Most of the rules to these games are either self explanatory or available by searching online so I won't go into more detail but everyone seemed to have fun. Awesome Games Available here.

The food was amazing, especially the gluten-free lemon butter cream frosted (and raspberry cream filled) cupcakes. Homemade by Candi!

I made the little flags for the cupcakes and I love how they look on the pedestal with the turquoise ribbon.

I could go on and on about the food but instead I'll just share the pictures and the decor with you now. If you see something you like, let me know in the comments, and if you have questions about how something was made or done, send me a message and I will do my best to explain. Otherwise the rest is a fully gratuitous post for the the baby shower.

Thanks for reading!

Party Favors - Cowboy Cookies in Ball Jars

It's a Cowboy!

Salted Carmel drizzle... oh yeah!

The spread also included 7-layer dip and Raspberry Chipotle dip among other yummies!

All in the details - that is burlap as the table runner.

Cowboy Cookies Galore!

Making a sheriff's badge for her Playdoh baby.

This was hosted at the Polson Museum - I'd use them again in a heartbeat!

Drink Bar with Real Lemonade.

Wooden letters Momma gets to take home and decorate with in the nursery!

2 Minute Book Review: Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Reading time for this post: 1 minute, 55 seconds. Read it Later



Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Author: Stieg Larsson

Audiobook read by: Simon Vance

This book was recommended to me by a couple people, and surprisingly, one of those was my father. I had wanted to read the book before the movie came out and then watch the movie in the theater. I missed my chance, but I refused to see the film before reading the book. As a disclaimer, I should say that the story is dark, shocking and disturbingly ugly and violent scenes. It's about murder, intrigue, revenge, love and vindication. This was not just a pager turner but I found myself looking

What I didn't like:
The book was a slow starter but since it is part of a trilogy, I can understand the necessity to take the time to lay out more than one storyline. Part of the difficulty in starting the book is that all the names, places, heck; even the currency is foreign as the book is set in Sweden. Thankfully, I listened to the audiobook so it was a little easier to follow. Once you familiarize yourself with the setting, the story moves quickly.

What I did like:
This was definitely a book I couldn't predict, which is somewhat refreshing. Sometimes I need to take a break from the predictable YA love story books I have a tendency to find myself reading. This is a "grown-up" book, and I was enthralled with the mystery and the characters. There were a few plot threads but nothing like the writing of Ken Follett. I find the female lead character, Lisbeth Salander to be an interesting character study. I imagine I'll find my answers in the subsequent books, but I feel like there is so much more to learn about her. I want to know what secrets she is keeping and why. She's a genius, socially awkward, untrusting, damaged, vulnerable and merciless.

Verdict:
I'd recommend this book most certainly, but with a disclaimer for those who aren't comfortable reading about the realities of a serial killer and could never watch Law and Order, SVU. I won't go into much detail here, but let's just say this is a grown-ups only book. (My niece reads these occasionally!) I like this one so much, the same day I finished the first book I reserved the third book and downloaded the second to my ipod from the library!