Baby Shower Time!

This is a pic of me, Kathy (mid), and Erin. Erin stayed with us over the past week and a half during her visit back to SF after moving in March. I miss her a lot and it was such a pleasure having her back for some great conversations and adventures - we traveled around the city, went to Napa to watch a psuedo cello concert and eat delicious food, found sun in Berkeley with our friend Tawney, visited newborn babies and friends, shopped til we dropped, celebrated the one year anniversary of our church, and walked a lot! Among other things, we also had a baby shower to attend/help with, so here is some about that:

Two weekends ago, I helped throw a shower for my good friend Kathy Locke (middle of the picture) who is expecting her second baby in late September. The Locke family (consisting of Kathy, Jeff, Jonas, and soon Penelope True/Penny) has been a particularly special blessing for Dan and I this year - helping us make some big decisions and sharing their experience as parents with us as we prepare for our own little one. Because of this, I really wanted to make this day special for Kathy. Along with being a wonderful friend, she is also the planner of all planners and the craft visionary of all visionaries, so I tried to think of things that reflected her and her style. Here are some pictures of the creations for the shower (photos by Judy Kwak):

A wall of old baby pictures from some friends that came and quotes. One of my favorites was Mark Twain's: "My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it".

These are the hanging cross-stitch hoops Erin and I made for Penny's name and for Kathy to hang in her

nursery at home.

These are felted soaps I made for favors. Take a bar of soap, cover with carded wool, run hot water over it and scrub until the wool adheres. This makes for a permanent washcloth on the soap and is perfect for little ones. My friend Leslie made the cute labels for the soaps. I'm seriously thinking of selling these to friends and potentially online. Though, Etsy.com has about 12 pages of felted soaps already, so that means I need to find a unique way to market myself and start to get out there with some established clients. These were SO EASY to make and pretty cheap, though you will be surprised what people charge for them in stores like Anthropologie and online - upwards of $20!

Well, we are heading to Tahoe today for our retreat with our House Church, so I need to start getting things ready for our trip. We are actually going to bring bun bun with us on the trip today, so I'm hoping that he does alright with the LONG car ride. He's been shedding lately but is becoming more snuggly and friendly. Though, as Erin can attest, he is just as mischievous as ever! He knows just where he is not supposed to be and bolts to those locations as soon as I open up his cage so he and roam around. He's too smart for his own good!