Baptism

Hard to believe our little one is already 4 months old.  Here is a look at the baptism, which was at the end of October, but I thought was appropriate to share as we celebrate the feast of Theophany this week.

The new icons in our temple!  Dmitry Shkolnik  and a crew of 3 other iconographers, 2 flown in from Russia, came and spent a month at our parish creating these icons.  They were completed the week before I was churched - so I left with a sanctuary of blank white walls, and returned to this!

            

The table overlays were unbleached cotton muslin from Hobby L*bby, very inexpensive, but has the look of raw linen.  Since it was fall,  I used a lot of white pumpkins to decorate, but didn't go with a complete fall color scheme since I still wanted to enjoy the pastels of a little one!  Instead, I used a lot of  white with milk glass vases on each table and beautiful blues for the flowers.

Buttermilk spice cake iced with cream cheese frosting, yum!!!  I decorated the cake with gumpaste sugar roses and hydrangea.  The roses were some I made years ago when experimenting with new techniques for realistic sugar flowers.  I also had hydrangea left over from my brother-in-law's wedding cake, and I made a handful of new ones to fill in.  Hydrangea are my favorite flower, and I love them in sugar almost as much as live ones.

I also made pumpkin pies in a jar, a quick uncooked version of this seasonal favorite.  These were a huge hit, and the best thing is, you can make them up ahead and they store wonderfully!  I put them in the mini mason jam jars, and stored them with the lids on in the refrigerator.

Loved this take home gift idea, honey from Holy Cross Monastery, in jars from Betterbee (it appears they no longer carry the 4 oz size).

 

Jordan almonds are a baptismal tradition for us as well, so the kids helped me stamp muslin bags with a blue cross design, and we filled them with blue and white Jordan almonds as favors.

Cider punch served from the glass jars I usually store my pasta in, and jam jars from the pantry for glasses.

Menu:

selection of cheeses and fruits, cheese phyllo triangles, proscuitto and phyllo wrapped asparagus, stuffed mushrooms,   stuffed pumpkin, mini quiche, individual pot pies, stuffed eggs, Captain R*dney's cheese bake, corn dip, fall salad with pumpkin seed oil vinaigrette

For the little ones, we rolled brown butcher paper across the children's tables and taped it in place.  Twig styled colored pencils were placed along the length of the table.   The kids had a great time coloring on the paper while they ate!

Pinterest Inspiration Page 

I hope you all had a merry Christmas and blessed Theophany!  My blogging is a bit sporadic these days, but life is full and I thank God for that.

Parisian Shabby Chic Baby Shower

It was a riot of pinks and Parisian touches, for a friend having her first baby.  She is having a girl, and she is a French teacher, so the theme came quite easily!

Hot Cafe du Monde coffee in tea cups, or Vietnamese iced coffee Vietnamese style a la Pioneer Woman served in recycled St*rbucks frappuccino bottles (this will be the third party we have used these bottles, they are perfect for so many things from lemonade for little fairies to "Drink Me" bottles for an Alice in Wonderland birthday).  And no brunch would be complete without mimosas!

Mich*el's Craft Stores are a great source for pretty boxes and decor, and is seems the Eiffel tower theme is big right now!

My favorite cake icing, raspberry buttercream from The Cake Bible.

A selection of French cheeses, mini quiche, creme fraiche with fresh berries, madeleines, palmiers, mini cinnamon rolls and mini breakfast casseroles to fill the belly.

Made my first pennant banner decorations - what an easy way to customize a table!  And after the shower, they went to the Little Princess' room to hang.  An easy tablecloth option is cheap white sheets from W@lMart, I have 3-4 of them that are a great background for most any party theme.  The rest of the table decorations were shabby chic birds from around my house and milk glass vases I have accumulated over the past few years.  Both will make a reappearance at the next event I am planning....baptism for our coming little one.

And of course, dessert crepes!

The expecting mom looking so very chic with her momma (that's my mom on the far right who hosted with me).

For links to fun inspirations and recipes, here is the pinterest board I created for this shower.

A Picture Perfect Saturday Morning: or blessings #206-214

yummy home baked goodies, Laura's little maple cakes, lemon corn muffins, fruit and salad....

.....freshly squeezed lemonade.....

......dancing on the front porch to Pa's fiddlin'  tunes .....

... an excursion to a 200 year old mill - where the cornmeal for those yummy muffins was ground....

....little girls in bonnets all in a row....

.... watching the fish.....

....dancing like no one is watching....

......a final turn on the tree swing ...

......and beautiful bouquets of flowers to take home with the memories - Thank you V!

Pretty in Pink

It's been a while since I helped coordinate a baby shower.  This one was decidedly pink.

 

Champange with a dash of pomegranate juice, and sweet pink fizzy drinks for those with child!

Dainty little cupcakes topped with my favorite, raspberry buttercream.

merengues and pretty pink candies were happily consumed by the littlest guests,

 chicken salad on croissants, green salad topped with raspberry vinagrette, creamy pink frozen fruit salad, and asparagus wrapped in proscuitto and phyllo dough,

topped off with a handful of rosy-cheeked little girls excited over the impending arrival of another cousin. 

Hard to believe these little pretties were once babies, too.

Raggedy Ann Days

As a child, my bedroom was decorated in the red white and blue of R*ggedy Ann and Andy.  My favorite color is still red :)  So, earlier this year while reading Nie Nie, I found the link to this darling party.  I knew then I had to dig out some old R*ggedy Ann dolls and revisit the colors of my childhood!

First, plenty of lovely flowers, real and paper, all in red and white.

Next, add lots of sweets! Striped lollipops from here, and instructions for the amazing (super easy) lollipop tower.

Red cherry sours and aqua jelly bellies from the grocery store filled apothecary jars to tempt the little ones......

.....who could resist?

But before too many sweets, some potato salad and blue cheese slider burgers, Barefoot C*ntessa style.

To top it off, a few "couture" cakes to complete the meal......

....cute as a button, don't you think?

Speaking of cute as a button, get a load of these "rag-a-muffin" cuties in their party dresses.  We don't usually give them a gift on their birthday (with the exception of milestone birthdays) since I consider the party gift enough, but I usually gift all three girls a new dress for each birthday. 

For patterns, check out Pink Fig's "tea party skirt" and "cuppy cake dress", and Portabellopixie's Claire.

Time to say goodbye to our guests, send them home with a few more sweets, and a little rag-doll love.

Happy Birthday to my two youngest dolls!

                                

Now mommy is tired, and ready to give her feet a rest :)