{December Projects} Wry Baby-Inspired Shower

In December, my coworkers and I had a joint Holiday Party and Baby Shower for our friend. Our office parties usually involve me making a lame attempt at decorating our nasty store room with balloons and plastic table clothes and coordinating a potluck. I was so happy when they heeded my suggestion to go to the restaurant in the Holiday Inn upstairs from our office. (The same place where they had my bridal shower.)

I’ve always wanted to host a shower around my favorite go-to baby gift, the Wheel of Responsibility and Safe Baby Handling Tips book by Wry Baby. Since the guest-of-honor was a guy, I thought this was the perfect opportunity.

Wheel of Responsibility Napkin Rings

I pulled the baby head image from the Wheel of Responsibility and recreated a miniature version to sit atop napkin rings.

Menus

Each guest was greeted with a menu that I fashioned after the Wheel of the Responsibility.

Table Decorations

I scanned a few tips from the book and mounted them on tent cards cut from black card stock for centerpieces.

I also made a table runner out of red and black paper from the 'Source, of course.

I brought all of the vases and candle holders from home.

We topped everything off with cupcakes from our office favorite (You're Welcome, co-workers!), Sugar Bliss. I added some not-really-matching red and black flags to the cupcakes. I should have made some wheels of responsibilities or danger symbols for those, but I was DONE with cutting after finishing those napkins.

{December Projects} Christmas Cards

I adored the store-bought Christmas cards that I sent last month. I’ve been collecting these Walter Erhard cards from sample sales for the last four years.

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I finally collected enough to use them for my 2010 Christmas cards. Unfortunately, I didn’t have 100 of the same card. Picking what card to send each person was SO HARD. It finally came down to things like, "Janet's favorite color is blue and she lives in the city, I'll send her this one." or "Hmmmm, her son went to Iowa, I'll send her this gold and black one."

This card was my favorite:

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Since I bought them at a sample sale, they didn't have envelopes. I ordered envelopes online (I forget where) and decorated them with red and green labels from you know where. Oddly enough, I received just as many compliments on the envelopes as I did the cards.

{December Projects} Mother C’s Birthday

Andy and I hosted his mom’s birthday party on December 5.

 Andy and his family took the kids to see Santa Claus at Macy’s (booo!) on State and then came to our house for afternoon snacks.

I made unique place cards for each guest.

I couldn’t find holly and berries at the local stores, so I ended up with lame centerpieces. A floral arranging class is on my 2011 Bucket List (I am not saying the word “resolution.”).

Fastest. December. Ever.

December and Christmas 2010 were, by far, one of the finest holiday seasons that I can recall in a long while. We averaged a holiday party a weekend, went Christmas shopping, and celebrated all of my favorite traditions.

 1. Christmas Tree Shopping 2. The Music Box Christmas Show
3.  Welcome Yule @ the CSO 4. Christkindlmarket

Also in December, my little sister graduated from Nursing school. I don’t know if I can refer her to as “my little sister,” as she turned 28 this month, but in my world, she’s pretty much a fetus with a nursing cap.

 

Andy and I celebrated our first Christmas morning at home. I was sad not to wake up in my parents’ house, but my dad had a nasty cold, so we came home on Christmas Eve. Andy refuses to turn on our fireplace, so we opened gifts in front of the crackling Yule Log Channel...next to our unused real fireplace...

...and next to our dud tree -- the branches started falling within a week.

Best of all, December was speCRAFTular  this year. Many posts to follow.

I (Heart) Banners

As I type this, I'm staring at a Santa head, tree topper, and stray garland that have yet to be put away. However, I'm already fretting about how bland the house looks after a few months of fancy. I'm thinking that I need to get started on some Valentine's decorations.

I'm loving these oil cloth banners found on Flickr. You can find the tutorial at Oil Cloth Addict. I think that they're a must!

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I'm also digging these fabric hearts from the a is for annie.

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And these crochet hearts? So jealous of people with kick a*s crochet and knitting skills.

 

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You-Know-Who's quilled heart garland is definitely on my radar. Kits, I can always handle.

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New Rug

We need a new rug in our living room. When we first bought our place, we couldn't afford the fancy shag that we wanted, but didn't want to risk getting something scratchy online at a discount site.

We ended up buying a cheap (in price and construction) alternative from Home Depot. Only 1.25 years later, it looks like total crap. We're toying with getting a shag remnant somewhere, but I like to poke around to see what else is out there. I might be digging the lourdes sánchez bull's-eye rug from west elm. Not sure yet.

 The colors seem so much more vibrant in this photo.

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At $399, it's must cheaper than the plain shags we've seen. Not sure how it looks in the grand scheme:

 

Living Room Lamps

We purchased two new lamps for our living room back in November - the Jonathan Adler Capri bottle lamps!

Does the big brown wall need some small art or decoration next to the mirror?

I purchased them from CSNStores.com with a coupon, gift certificate, and birthday money, so they were a great deal cheaper than the retail price.

Becoming a Better Person in 2011

I'm trying to convince Andy that having this would make me a better person, but he's not biting.

Why does The Container Store have their annual sale in January. Who has that kind of cash after Christmas? I  hope that they send me another 20% coupon around Bonus Day. That will be sweeeeeeeeeeeeet!