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.