bloggers baby shower

On Sunday, Blog Power Events finally hosted their blogger's baby shower. The weather was beautiful, a perfect winter's day, and there was plenty of homemade goodies to munch on, and lovely friends to chat with!

Now, before we go any further, I have to tell you that I've stepped down from Blog Power Events. Bringing bloggers together is still something I'm passionate about, but life took a huge turn this year and I need to step back and focus on my family.

photo courtesy of Sew.Cook.Laugh.Live.

Renee from NeeSay, Cass from Cass Can Sew, Trudie from My Vintage Childhood and I are all adding to our troops (third babies for Renee and Cass, fifth for Trudie and I). As you can see, we're all at varying stages of bumps - Renee is due in October, Cass and Trudie in August, and me, well, any day now! I also finally got to meet Anne from Domesblissity, and spend time chatting with Jos from Sew.Cook.Laugh.Live. and Rachel and Lisa.

We all exchanged gifts. In typical organised Cate-fashion, I realised at 8pm the night before I didn't have any wrapping paper, so I improvised with butchers paper and my washi tape collection! Love how it turned out!

photo courtesy of My Vintage Childhood

Would you believe I forgot to actually photograph my gift? I created baby albums for the girls, using a two-up album and the Project Life Baby digital products. (I forgot to create one for myself, though I'm re-inspired to start my project life album again.)

It was interesting that we all went with gifts that played to our strengths.  Back row - in the green owl bowl, Renee made chocolate brownies (I've still got some left, downside of gestational diabetes is only one a day!), Lisa was inspired by pinterest to make lolly jars, Rachel painted the beautiful balloon canvas. Down the front from right to left, Trudie put together a package with a vintage dress and some paper crafting bits and bobs, Cass sewed a little beanie and pants, Jos has been teaching herself to crochet and created the beanie and edged the bunny rug, and gifts from two fabulous sponsors - Handmade Redcliffe gave the earrings, and Safety 1st sent the medicine syringes.

photo courtesy of Blog Power Events

There was also one big surprise - Dorel Australia gave us all a Coco Bassinette from the Mothers Choice range!

We set ours up as soon as we got home (let's face it, if we didn't do it then, it might never have been done!) It's tucked into a corner of our room (I was lucky enough to get the walnut colour which matches our bedroom suite perfectly!), and will come in handy for day sleeps and move-the-baby-away-from-the-children moments.

And the kids had heaps of fun, playing on the beach (with dad supervising), while mum chatted and ate yummy food. A fantastic day was had by all!