Crystal's Shower

On Thursday night I threw a baby shower for one of my besty pals, Crystal (wife of Jed, who is the D in DM Photo).

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. And since I'm married to a photographer, I hired (bullied) him into coming and taking some pictures for Crystal:

We had mulled cider, caramel corn (by Catherine), pumpkin cookies and peanut butter cup cookies (by Krystal), molasses cookies (by one Bethany), clove cookies (by other Bethany), fleur de sel caramels, caramel peanut butter chocolate pretzels, cream cheese chocolate chip ball, and chocolate chip cookies.

(I don't even want to LOOK at my kitchen until after Christmas)

Since the guest of honor (right) is diabetic, she got a bowl of fruit instead. I know, I know. I threw a dessert shower for a diabetic. In my defense, she does really love dessert. In very small amounts.

I used this tutorial to put some of Crystal's favorite ultrasound pictures on glassware I found at Goodwill. I then used them as votives on the table (see one of them on bottom right)

I ran out and got flowers at the last minute from a local florist (I knew I was going to forget something)

This is such a gorgeous picture of her! She looks like a little prego model.

Favors! Inspiration from here. I did a pumpkin spice cake baked inside the baby food jars I've been hoarding for 4 months topped with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting (Shawna, in response to your question, you eat them with a spoon).

I blogged a similar recipe a long time ago but it's not exactly the same, so I'll post it here (it's reeeeaally good):

4 eggs 2 tsp baking soda

2 c sugar ½ tsp salt

1 c salad oil 2 tsp cinnamon

2 c flour

1 15oz can pumpkin

Cream sugar, eggs & oil. Add flour, baking soda, salt cinnamon and pumpkin. Blend well with mixer. Bake 1 hour in preheated 350 degree oven in a greased tube pan or 2 loaf pans. (Load pans may cook more quickly…check at 45 min.)

½ c butter 1 tsp cinnamon

12 oz cream cheese, softened 1 tsp vanilla

2 c confectioners’ sugar

Cream butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in confectioners’ sugar, mixing until smooth. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla. Spread over baked cake.

For the baby food jars I reduced the temp to 325 and baked them for 20-25 minutes. I would imagine it would be about the same for regular cupcakes.

And, one last picture:

On the right is my friend Catherine. Her little girl, Chloe, is 3 months older than Wes, so we hang out a lot. On Sunday Wes almost knocked me, Aaron, and Catherine's husband over in an attempt to get to Catherine. And then later Chloe reached for me and called me mom. I think we maybe spend more time together than we realized.

I hesitate to even post this one since the one thing I didn't have time for before the shower was a shower of the water-y shampoo-y variety (and a nap would have been nice). But Janssen wanted to see my new coat, so Janssen, this unshowered picture is for you.

It was a really fun night and Crystal enjoyed herself, and that's what really matters. Everyone went home happy and very sugared up.

BUT! The night wasn't over! Up next, I talk about:

The Twilight Movie!