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!

happy mail

Who doesn't love getting something in the mail other than bills? And when it's little parcels of cuteness, well, that's even better!

This beautiful, summery top made it's way from England to my mailbox (last month, but it got lost in a pile on the desk) - Thank you so much, Deb!

And this cuteness made me cry! It's come all the way from Arizona, USA! Thank you, Deb!

And this little parcel of bits and pieces is from Chipper, as part of Sian's Great Big Swap of Very Small Things! And it's all so spot on! (there's also a couple of stamped journal cards, but I didn't discover them until I'd taken the photograph - I was so excited to see the truck and veneers and flowers!)

When did you last get a parcel in the mail?

BPE | blogger's baby shower

inspired by these cards by Wendy Sue Anderson

When Rachel and Lisa heard that I'd never had a baby shower before, they wanted to throw one for me. And then we heard that Trudie from My Vintage Childhood, Cass from Cass Can Sew and Renee from Nee Say were also pregnant and due around the same time, so we decided to have a big party!

I've been scouring pinterest for fun ideas, trying to plan something not-too-cheesy and heaps of fun and I've got a couple of ideas for cute little gifts I want to make for the other mums (because isn't half the fun of a baby shower silly games and gifts?!) It's shaping up to be an awesome day!

So, if you're a Brisbane local, consider this your invitation to join us for a fun day (I've got my fingers crossed for good weather, my kids are so excited!)

And if you're not local, don't forget about the online baby shower my friend Deb is hosting on May 30th {AEST} - I'm still trying to figure out a way to combine all the blog posts that will be shared into an album for bubba.

I think I can safely say I've been spoiled by my friends. I'm so excited to see these two events happen!

guest post | a bloggy baby shower for me!

Hello friends of Cate! My name is Deb ~ I blog over at PaperTurtle, and I’m throwing an online baby shower for our dear Cate.

Since Cate lives in Australia and I'm in the US, it would be a bit tricky {if not impossible} for me to host an actual baby shower in her honor. And since we have been blog friends for over three years now, it kind of makes more sense to do it the bloggy way.

You're all invited ~ and you don't necessarily have to have a blog to join in the fun!

There are a few different ways you can participate:

Create an 8"x 8" scrapbook page to be included in a scrapbook for Cate.

Photograph the layout and create a blog post to publish on Wednesday, May 29, 2013.

Link to my Bloggy-baby Shower blog post on that day and join the party!

(I will provide more specific details as that date gets closer.)

or

Create a baby-blog post to publish on May 29, 2013 and link to mine.

Your post should include something mommy-baby related.

Ideas include: helpful tips/advice, a game you've played at a

baby shower, baby photos of yourself or family members...

basically anything random and baby-ish.

or

If you don't have a blog but still want to create a layout for

Cate's scrapbook, you are more than welcome to do that as well.

♥ ♥ ♥

Scrapbook layout specifics ~ Are you ready for a challenge?

In order to have some sort of cohesiveness throughout

Cate's baby album, please use the following guidelines:

♥ The base must be a white, 8"x 8" piece of cardstock. You can use textured or flat, you can embellish it like crazy, but please start with white.

♥ Please leave space on your layout for a 4"x 6" photo that Cate can add later on.

♥ Cate loves the color purple {They don't call her PurpleCrazyMum for nothin'!} so please use purple in your layout, and feel free to incorporate other colors as you see fit. I'm planning to use pink and purple on mine.

♥ If you plan to use a specific theme {i.e. bath time, Daddy time, a nursery rhyme} please let me know before you begin designing your page. I will keep a list of specific page themes so that we don't end up with duplicate subject matters.

♥ When your layout is complete, mail it to me. I will gather all of the pages in a scrapbook to send to Cate. If you plan to do a blog post and link to my blog {PaperTurtle} on the day of the shower {Wednesday, May 29}, photograph your layout before sending it my way. :o)

♥ Please RSVP for the bloggy-baby shower by leaving a comment on this post. Make sure that your comment provides a way for me to contact you {either by way of a link to your blog or an email address}.

I will remind you of this fun event over the course of the next five weeks, but until then, I will leave you to your creative thinking process!

I've tried to cover all the bases, but I'm sure there's something I've left out!

Please leave a comment and let me know if you have any questions,

and also let me know if you plan to "attend" Cate's Bloggy-baby shower.

Ooooh...I'm so excited for us to do this for Cate!

Hooray for baby girls!

{and blog-friend-moms!}

♥

PS: My email address is djturtle{at}cox{dot}net if you need to contact me.

PSS: Thanks, Cate, for having me as a guest blogger today!

blog power events | high tea

We held our first event for Blog Power Events last Saturday.

We had High Tea at The Emporium. They set us up in a corner of the cocktail bar, giving us the space to be as noisy as a group of ladies can be without being disruptive to other patrons. The service from the waitstaff was absolutely stellar (and reminded me why I loved working functions and five star locations.)

To break the ice, we spent time last week making hats and fascinators, which everyone chose to put on when they arrived. And it was quite startling how every hat seemed to suit every personality.

The best part was meeting new people - as in people we had never met before (well, except for two) From left to right this is Vanessa, Leanne and Wendy.

In typical blogger-fashion, we chatted about random things - from the lack of ironing in each house, to the amazing food we were scoffing, to the things people would like to see from Blog Power Events. Left to right - Gillian, Rachel, Shari.

I looked around the room at one stage early on and noticed that everyone was peering at their phones. And it was totally ok, because everyone else got it! Left to right - Lisa, Helen, Caitlyn, Cass.

We were offered mimosas on arrival (orange juice and champagne), and I wasn't driving for one, so got to enjoy it to the end. The Emorium has an on-site bakery that made all the beautiful pastries (what is the deal with macarons? I actually didn't like it that much! But those vanilla eclairs were the bomb!)

Tea was served

With jam and cream (probably the only let down of the day, they were more bread-like than scone-like)

I even managed a super-quick snap of the wash basin as I was leaving - think warm water, hand lotion, a chair, and paper towels that felt like cloth.

A pretty awesome day all round.

I can contribute!

I've been working for a couple of weeks behind the scenes on a big project with my blog buddies. It's a huge undertaking, something that I've had doubts about since we started.

Not doubts about the project, it has the potential to be amazing. But doubts about me, and what I can bring to the party. Because I don't have PR skills, I don't have marketing skills, I'm not even very confident about what I am capable of doing.

But today, I realised that I do have something to contribute. And I guess in a way, it's thanks to my dad. Because I have business skills, and knowledge about business that I can answer some of those tricky questions, like "do we have to register for GST?" (yes), "do we need an ABN to open a bank account?" (yes). And my dad pushed me to take accounting class in year 12. And while I hate every minute of working with numbers, I know enough to not be over-whelmed when someone says "I need to see a balance sheet and P&L"

What can you contribute when you didn't think it was possible?