A Wreath of Flowers for Cambry

A Blessing Way is a way of honoring, celebrating and empowering a mother before the birth of her child.  Simple as that, and there are all kinds of ideas out there about how to support a woman with a modernized Blessing Way gathering.  I chose just a few elements for our evening.

One suggested idea is to give the expectant mother a foot bath using herbs and flower pedals in the basin of warm water and/or create a wreath of flowers for her head or bare belly.  

Well now.   I did what I would have preferred.  Ain't no one looking at my belly at 8 1/2 months pregnant.  Cambry is is the definition of feminine to me, I could just envision her with a wreath of flowers around her head.  Am I right or am I right?

I was pretty much hiding in the laundry room as guests arrived to create this little number.  I didn't even have a base 18 guage wire wrapped in floral tape, as suggested to start out with.  And I didn't wrap the individual flowers with wire and tape either.  I pretty much just wired flower and leaf stems to one another to connect them, and then wrapped floral tape around the little wire wraps so they wouldn't poke her head.  I think I made this in 15 minutes or less.  Of course I had a different vision in my head, but some things just need to be simplified.  

I used white spider mums, mini pink carnations and eucalyptus buds and leaves.  

Blessings for an Expectant Mother of a Sweet Baby Girl

In this post, I just want to share the visuals from our evening of supporting Cambry.  It took place the first week of July, and as I scan through images from that night, I am still moved by the powerful feelings I had from that evening.  I'll give details throughout the week of the highlights and elements.  But for now, I'm overwhelmed with the thoughts running through my head.  It was sort of one of those nights you couldn't possibly describe, and it's exhausting to try, so just keep it all in your heart.  And at the same time, it was such a delightful and inspiring evening celebrating friendship, motherhood and womanhood, I really want to share the aesthetics and other elements for friends to share with expectant mothers needing support.

The concept was inspired by a sacred ceremony from the Navajo Native American Tribe.  I am from Arizona and went to elementary school with many friends who were from the Navajo Nation.  I hope I was careful to not show disrespect to a very sacred ceremony they traditionally share with expectant mothers in their tribe, but instead, honor those traditions by incorporating modernized elements from that ceremony in our little gathering of girlfriends brought together to shower this mother with enough love and support to carry her through her upcoming labor, delivery and loving of this brand new baby girl.

For today, just enjoy the eye candy from the event.

Thank you Nanette for your beautiful home and garden you graciously shared for this gathering.  She is constantly the hostess and distingued foodie of so many events and many are consistently blessed by her friendship and acts of charity.

FYI: June Hates Cake

Convo with June:

Me:  What kind of cake do you want for your birthday?

June:  I don't want cake for my birthday, I hate cake.

Me:  Well what exactly should I make for your birthday "treat" then?

June:  Why don't you make the rice krispie treat like you did last year?

Me:  Okay, (not exactly what I had in mind visually, but that's okay, saves me 5 hours)

June:  No, wait, how about lemon poppyseed cake?

Me:  Okay, I can do that simple enough.

June:  Hold on, I love lemon bars (and glazed donuts) too.

Me:  Well which is it June?

She'll have all of them please, (plus one more).  

Happy Fourth of July and All Things Red, White & Blue!

 He walked out just as I was taking a picture.

He even coordinates.

I bought these long flag banners from the old Martha Stewart Catalogue probably a dozen years ago, I miss that catalogue.  She had classic collections for every holiday. 

The Pringles can Buzz Light Year jet packs that June made for Danny last night.  She used 2 Pringles cans, red duct tape, and my ribbon scraps for the fuel fire flames. He doesn't seem to want to take them off.  June, that's pretty innovative I'd say.

Old Glory draped over the tv room door.

I remember sewing the above bunting (It's a full 10 yards) when we lived in Sugarhouse back in '98.  I purchased 10 yards of red, navy and white broadcloth and cut each fabric color in half to make two long strips, then cut them in half again to make four.  Then I sewed three strips, one of each color together to make a red, white and blue large piece.  If you do it using this method, you can make four buntings.  Pictured above is just one, but it surprisingly took quite a bit of time and then I didn't know where to drape them.  If you don't prewash the fabric and let the color set in, and they get wet at some point, the red dye bleeds all over the white and it's a red, pink and blue bunting.  And a huge bummer.  Yes, I did that.  I wrapped it around our outside house post and then we got rain.  Sad.

But I found a perfect place inside our little La Casa de Los Venados for one of them.  

 Elsa made these darling little spatterware mugs in her art class this year.  Check out her the handles she crafted.

 I love that after 10 years of storing these old sign letters from eBay, I finally have a mantel to put them on.

More Martha Stewart little ribbon garlands and one of her Old Glory flags.

The blocks below are from Chasing Fireflies.  They are pretty rad.  They have all the Presidents of the United States on one side, trivia on the other sides, and the flag when placed in the correct order.  The other vintage flag below is one I just draped over the lampshade.  

 The Lady of Libery and old history books I had on my bedroom bookshelves growing up.  I think my dad bought them at a school auction.  He used to buy us all kinds of cool things at those school auctions.  I remember seeing fiberglass Eames chairs.

A gift from my dad's collection.  His friend wrote a book using this old Royal.

  What's nesting in the teacups this month?

 You know the routine, it's the same day, place & time every year.

I love the U.S.A.!