Birmingham Baby Shower

Last weekend our friends here in Birmingham threw us an awesome couples baby shower.

We had a fun group in attendance of our parents, neighbor friends, and our friends from UAB.  From the start of residency, we've had this awesome group, and while it's rare that we all can get together at once with the husband's crazy work schedule (atleast one is on call pretty much any given day), we always have the best time.  It's nice to have this family of friends who moved to this new city at the same time with home being far away.  Most are from Texas and Oklahoma which is way further away from home than we are.  But they have been there to encourage and support us when we struggled to get pregnant.  Sometimes hanging out with them on a patio laughing and talking was just what I needed to lift me up.

So these women were so sweet to put together a shower to celebrate our little miracle.  You could feel the love in that room for our Hannah.  And it really is a blessing to have friends that care for us so much that already love our daughter before she's even here!!

They had the book, The Poky Little Puppy, for all our guests to sign with wishes for Hannah.

Sarah made this beautiful diaper cake!  I love the giant pink ribbons, and the ducky is way too cute.

Kendall made these delicious strawberry cupcakes with strawberry icing.  She is a pastry chef here in Birmy at Urban Standard, and she always brings the best baked desserts to parties!  And I love the little H flags.

We received so many generous gifts from our friends and parents!  Thank y'all so much!!

My mom worked so hard to make this gorgeous baby quilt for Hannah.  I was so surprised.  I had no idea she had been working on it.  I need to get a better full picture of it to post, but it is too cute.

Overall it was a beautiful weekend with both sets of Hannah's grandparents visiting.  The azaleas were in full bloom.  We grilled out and played cornhole on Saturday.  I got a pedicure as a gift from my sweet mother in law, and Weston and our dads hung the chandelier to complete Hannah's nursery.  It was just a wonderful weekend!

Shabby Chic Nursery Curtains

Baby girl's room is practically finished, and I can't wait to do a post on the entire room.  But I think a few of the items still deserve their own post and shining moment.  The next item up is her shabby chic curtains!  I ordered extra fabric for the curtains when I ordered the floral fitted sheets for her crib.

 
I love how soft and sweet they look.  They help make her room feel very girly next to her gray walls without overpowering a room with a ton of pink.  Well, I guess to some this may still be a lot of pink, but for me, it's a restrained amount.  With my mom's help, we sewed two flat panel curtains and lined it with a white fabric to help darken the room for nap time.  I love sewing flat panel curtains and using clip rings.  It makes it really easy, and I love the simple look.

 

My mom suggested adding ribbon tabs rather than using the clips, but I thought of a way to combine the look of both.  The pink ribbon bows are the shabby, and the shiny curtain rings are the chic.  And I spent forever finding the perfect curtain rod which ended up coming from Home Depot.

So I found the curtain rings marked 80% off at Bed, Bath, and Beyond because it came in the old packaging that had been discontinued.  I saw the exact same rings marked full price in the new packaging one rack over.  I needed two packs of rings which ended up costing me $4 rather than $20!  I then tied the bows before attaching them to the clips and heat sealed the edges by running them across my lighter.  I just used a dab of hot glue to attach them to the clips, and I was finished!

Shabby chic curtains complete!

Cover Girl

My latest home design "go to" is putting a cover on it.  Lamp shades?  Cover.  Back of bookcase? Cover.  Bottom of dresser drawers? Cover.  It is such a fun way to make something your own.  Now I shared how I lined Hannah's drawers with wrapping paper back here.  But I haven't shared with you my lamp shades and bookcase projects.

Our guest bedroom redo really deserves it's own post once it's finished.  So I'll just share the lamp for now.  I ordered fabric to cover a plain white drum shade with fabric.  The lamp base is from Target, and the filler I got at Pier 1 imports.

Covering this lamp shade turned a bit tricky because it wasn't a true drum shade.  The top diameter of the shade was slightly smaller than the bottom.  And with the fabric I chose, I needed the pattern at the bottom to stay consistent.  So I had to sinch up the fabric at the top of the shade just slightly.

I used a thin line of hot glue along the top and bottom of the shade.  Then trimmed excess fabric over the shade, but I left a centimeter over to wrap around the inside of shade to give it a finished look.

My other shade I recently covered was in Hannah's nursery to have next to my glider.  The lamp was another Target find.  And it was much easier to cover because I used ribbon with little rosettes I found out Hobby Lobby.

 Because the ribbon was much lighter and more sheer than the heavy home decor fabric, I used fabric glue rather than the hot glue I used for the guest bedroom shade.

I think it's so sweet, and the lamp looks perfect with her shabby chic nursery.

My last cover job was an idea I got from a design book written by some of my favorite bloggers from Young House Love.  I wanted to dress up a simple white bookcase that I got from Target.  The idea is to cover the back of the bookcase with fabric, wallpaper, wrapping paper, or whatever you like.  I found wrapping paper that I thought would go, and I wrapped my cardboard cut to size of the back of the shelves.  It fit so snug in there that you don't even need to attach it to bookcase.  And if I decide to change it, it's inexpensive and easy to remove!

I haven't had the chance to decorate the top of the shelf or add to her book collection yet.  So it looks very unfinished at this point.  But I love the extra storage it will give her, and I love adding more patterns to the room.

Waiting for my Mini Watermelon

Well I am long overdue to post pictures of the baby belly.  I guess I left off right at the end of my second trimester.  Well the third trimester has been going great.  Hannah continues to grow, and we even got an ultrasound a couple weeks ago.  More on that awesome experience later.

I will be 34 weeks Thursday, and we are getting so excited to have her here to hold and love.  Although lately, it makes me sad to think I can't keep her safe in my womb forever.  I'll miss feeling her movements and knowing she's safe and sound.  But I know having her here will be even better.

I'm still feeling good and trying to stay active.  Although, I'm realizing I can't do as much as I once could with the ever growing produce in my belly.  We've been cleaning out cabinets, closets, bathrooms, and the kitchen pantry to make room for baby things.  It's a good distraction with me not working right now, and I absolutely love getting rid of things and decluttering.

At my 32 week appointment, my doctor gave us our last ultrasound.  Hannah was looking healthy and right on size with all her measurements being close to the 50th percentile.  Although, there was one measurement that is measuring 2 weeks ahead and 90th percentile, and that is her head size!  Which to me makes me wonder what size of head I'll be dealing with at 40 weeks!  Yikes!  I really shouldn't be surprised that her head was measuring large.  I come from a long line of large noggin' babies.  Thank you Griffey genes.  But I guess it just means that she'll be super smart with so much room for her brain to grow.  :)

The best surprise from my ultrasound appointment was that they switched it to 4d so we could actually see our baby!  I had no idea that we would get this, and to top it off, our ultrasound tech was so sweet and really let us enjoy seeing our baby.  Now before I got this ultrasound, my thoughts were that all babies look alike in this 4d ultrasound.  Now I think that I have the cutest baby ever to have a 4d ultrasound.  :)

Isn't she lovely?  And the news I am really excited about is that Hannah has hair seen floating in the amniotic fluid in the ultrasound.  Her head is to the right of the picture, and the white spikes are her hair.  I am shocked to think that most likely she will come out with some hair.  I was a bald baby, but Weston had some blonde hair as a newborn.

And one last baby belly shot from last week.

That's all for now!  Hannah's nursery is almost finished.  Can't wait to share with you some of the updates to her room this week!!

Franklin Baby Shower

Over Easter weekend, my best friend, Jenny, with the help of her mom and our friend, Jen, put together a fabulous baby shower for Hannah and I.  No detail was left untouched.  Jenny rented out the loft space of the Henpeck Market.  This charming little market used to be a gas station/market which has now been converted into a restaurant and shop.  It is right next door to the elementary school I attended and met my sweet friend, Jenny.  Twenty years later we're having baby showers.  I'm still wrapping my head around it.


My mom and I before the shower.

The best hostesses, Jen and Jenny

The food was so delicious!  And the dessert table was decorated so cute.

And I loved the flower centerpieces.  They reminded me of my wedding flowers.  Jen and Jenny put together the arrangements themselves!  So amazing!

My mother in law had thyroid surgery 10 days prior to the shower, and we weren't sure after the surgery became more complicated than anticipated if she could even come.  Thankfully, she turned around for the better a couple days before the shower.  It wouldn't have been the same without her.

My Aunt Marsha and sister-in-law, Lindsey, were able to come too.  So we snapped a picture of the Griffey women.  I meant to also get a picture with my future sister-in-law, Jade, who was on spring break from grad school at UT and came too!

And one of my college roomies, Andrea, was there, and she's expecting a baby in August.  She found out she's having a girl two days after our shower!

  

I still can't believe all of the love that was in that room.  I am so blessed.  Everyone was so extremely generous, and Hannah now has an incredible wardrobe.  Little girl clothes are so much fun!

Weston's cousin made this diaper owl for us.  She is so creative!

  

And the little boxes on the table were party favors made by Jenny's mom.  Each box had a tiny candle and a poem that said:

Here is a candle for you to light

once the stork has made his flight.

 With the flicker of the flame,

Say a prayer in Hannah's name.

Isn't that so sweet?  I just loved everything about the shower, and I can't believe it was all for our little family. I am so blessed.