Workin' for Baby Mason and Eating Too Much (again)

So I don't know what's in the water around town, but three of my very good friends are very pregnant (yes, I'm on a strict diet of bottled water). When three announcements came one right after another, the non-pregnant amongst us divvied up our friends and coordinated with each other so everyone had a shower to plan and two showers to attend. I got Shawn's shower to plan! When I asked her what she wanted, she explained that she was less concerned about getting things (see note: re: what the heck is in the water around here - there's plenty of baby paraphernalia in our crowd to choke an elephant) and more concerned about having her nursery ready for the big day. So we scheduled a work party instead! Here is the invitation Mr. Smith designed for the soiree: 

hahahaha but who's with me, right?

In my typical type A fashion, I organized the event to a T. Shawn had four priorities to complete that day: paint the nursery, sew curtains for the French doors and window, make a bird mobile, and crafts that involved wall art and making personalized cute onesies for Baby Mason. I assigned a point person to each activity and we are off!

mama was curtain maker extraordinaire 

jenny, rachel and moi were on the bird mobile

craft table! lindsay is super excited about her project.

kristina and amanda, drinking and painting

shawn showing off one of her cute onesies

celebrating the completion of our first bird

shawn and katie busily crafting

nesting the birds in the mobile - this was super cute; the branches light up at the ends.

even marty caught the crafting bug

all the cute onesies in a row!

I highly recommend this to any mothers-to-be. Everyone kept complimenting me on what a wonderful idea I had and I passed the credit along to Shawn (who's idea it was) about the first five times, then just totally took the credit all for myself. We had great food (mostly of the gluten and lactose free variety - thanks Sarena!) and I made cute favors for everyone: Shower Recovery Kits. They were bandanas tied up with a sewing kit, BC headache powder, purse compacts of aspirin, bandaids, and a king cake baby. CLEVER - thanks for the idea, Jenny Poo!

In other news, it was Marty's birthday! We ate at an authentic German restaurant!

the main course was meat with two meat sides. mr. smith and i ate on this for four meals.

a guy even played the accordion! 

On Sunday, Amanda came over and I made homemade drop biscuits (props, Aunt Adri) and we fried some sausage and....

homemade eggs from moni and jeffry! thanks, guys! actually... their chickens made the eggs, not them. but you get the idea.

look how pretty they are!

In other culinary news, friend Lola Alapo invited me to lunch! She asked I join her at the monthly Ready for the World cafe, which changed formats this year. It transformed from a cafeteria-style free-for-all, to a seated, four-course meal designed by one of the students in the UT/PSTCC Culinary Institute. I am ALL ABOUT a working lab, yo (especially if food is involved). Lola had blogged about her first experience with the RFTW cafe and suggested I do the same. Um. Yeah. I ate each course before I thought to take a picture. I WAS HUNGRY! AND IT WAS GOOD! Today was Belgium. Or Bolivia. Or... I forget. It began with a "B." BRAZIL! That's it. So, I did second best, and am blogging about Lola blogging (how arty am I?)

lola taking a photo of her sexy, sexy dessert (i'd eaten about half mine already)

post-gastronomic-fest!

And now we have a standing date for the rest of the semester - yippee! Thanks for the invite, Lola! Maybe I will pick up some geography intel as a result of this.

That's all for now. Over and out!
M