It's The Cat's Meow

Well my Halloween costume arrived today. Just in time, right? I didn't order it until Monday because we had barely even had time to think about Halloween between our Cali trip and planning the baby shower. And to be honest, I didn't even figure out what I was going to be until I was looking at costumes online. Normally I like to plan in advance and put something interesting together. You can see some of our past Halloween costumes here. In the end I couldn't come up with a brilliant idea, and Josh wasn't really offering an immense amount of input, so I impulsively told him I was being a flapper and that was that. We have decided that he will be a bootlegger. That basically consists of his "Clyde" costume from two years ago with the addition of suspenders (which he has been wanting anyways) and a bottle of booze. So, despite having a generic fringe flapper dress, I have been determined the past few days to polish up and improve my Charleston dance moves. I've been watching videos on youtube and last night I watched several dance numbers from Chicago and tried to pick up a few steps. When Josh got home I tried to teach him the basic moves and he didn't do too bad, but dancing rhythm doesn't seem to translate that well for drummers. Anyway, tonight I'm going to practice some more, mostly for my own enjoyment because it's not like I'll be able to make good use of this stuff to dance the night away at the part we're going to. I just wanted to lend a little authenticity to my costume. Tonight I'll be viewing some of The Cat's Meow and Singin' In The Rain for more inspiration. Above is my costume, although I've got a red boa and black gloves to go with it. And for fun here's a video of Ginger Rogers & Lucille Ball doing the Charleston together. I picked up a couple of moves from this. Did you know that Ginger Rogers was a Championship Charleston-er? As a matter of fact she won right here in Fort Worth, TX. :)

Stephanie's Baby Shower

So, bff Stephanie is currently growing two babies in her belly. That's right, twins- a boy and a girl! This weekend I hosted a shower for her family and friends. This was the second shower I've thrown for Steph, and this time around she wanted things to be really simple. I chose a bird theme that I knew she would love and almost everything else just fell into place. I looked through the archives of a couple of blogs I frequent, namely Oh Happy Day! and Brooklyn Limestone, for some ideas and everything came together really well, I think. I used some kit invitations that I actually found in the wedding aisles at Michael's, and embellished them with a little birdie stamp to work with the theme. I went with a light lunch-ish menu of tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, kettle potato chips, veggies with dip, fruit salad, and blueberry crumb bars. I had lemonade, iced tea and coffee to drink. Michael's also provided the grapevine wreaths that I "nested" the sandwiches in, the little birdies that matched my yellow and blue color scheme, the twig & nest combo, and the card stock to make the sandwich flags. I bought two small bunches of delicious smelling freesia for the tabletop and voila! I think everyone had a good time, and Stephanie and her husband Rodney got a lot of stuff that's going to come in handy once little Logan & Hadley get here. Here are a few pics. Oh, and the cake? It was made by Steph. Because she wanted to make her cake, and because she makes awesome cakes. If she hadn't been dying to make this particular cake design then I probably would have done some of those bird's nest cupcakes that have been around the blogosphere and back again. Or talked her into doing it. Because she's awesome. Here are a few pics. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate the soon to be here babes! Edit: I neglected to thank Josh and Holly for being super helpful with the party prep and even more so with the clean up. They rock!