Shower Power!

As usual I was awake and rearing to go at 7:30. I love my mornings since I have them all to myself, and in just a few months I'm sure I will love them for sharing with my baby, but for now I'm cherishing my mornings as my time. I posted all of the notes I took from my last centering session to our birthing forum for the other mama that couldn't make it last time, and also in full, true, nerd spirit I've volunteered to take and post notes at all our sessions so we can all discuss anything else we think of after our bi-weekly meetings. NERD love!!

Today Jason and I are picking up Jocelyn's changing table with drawers so I can start putting away all of her clothes that she already has (feeling so grateful). We're going to clean out her room and also put our Areo bed in there for our guests, and change the sheets in our guest room for our visits coming up soon! I also need to go through all of the clothes that I want to hang for our shower decorations on a clothes line in our living room. Holding up all of these cute sweet clothes makes me go into cute overload, I can just picture her in them, and my whole body shakes with squeaks of excitement. OMG. BABY!!! I'm ridiculously out of control, especially tiny socks. I didn't think I would be so totally, well, "squeaky" with all of these baby things, but I can't control myself, they are just (high pitched voice) TOO MUCH! *EEEEP!* Love!

Okay. Well, I wanted to restrain myself from posting what I've been working on for the shower, but this morning I thought, I'm too excited not to share my party favor creations. For my guests, there will still be plenty of other fun surprises, so if any of them are reading, I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything. I'm just so excited to give these presents out to everyone who attends!

Here are the spoils I picked up thrifting with god mama Chenoh and Liz, tons of party plates (to donate back after we use them for our guests), and tons of mugs and cups that yesterday Jason and I bought a bunch of lil succulents to fill them with and give to our guests as favors (I still need to scrub off the grease-pencil prices on some of the thrifted cups).

I am almost finished making all of the tea-bag shaped, organic lavender sachets to give each of our guests with their tea cup succulent (except my sewing machine jammed so I have to fix that to finish the last bunch of dog-eared edges). The fabric for these was also thrifted, and I think they came out really cute for my first attempt (at making them, and learning how my sewing machine works). Instructions for how I made them at the bottom.

Here's our goodies basket with prizes for our game winners to choose from, some good ones! I think I might still pick up a few chocolate bars to add in here too. Those crocheted things are hand-made finger puppets from Peru - an elephant, lamb, zebra, and monkey (from my work), and then there are a bunch of funny magnets (to the right), and a few small handmade coin purses (to the left), Hand fans, and air-plane sized bottles of booze, the clear ones are local tequila and the glass bottle is shaped like Texas. We also have a bunch of plastic halloween rings to give everyone haha since she'll be a halloween baby (again wish I thought of the goth/halloween in July themed party earlier! haha that would have been fun).

And of course my lovable helpers (if only for moral support)... and as usual Molly our black cat is being shy so she's not pictured. And the last one of me and my belly with our messy dining room table filled with baby and baby shower stuff (spot a Houdini nose top left? haha).

Now I'm going to write the next batch of thank yous, and make our photo booth props (bows, glasses, mustaches (and its hard to see but I'm wearing a tiara in the pic above for the photobooth as well). I was thinking about making some construction paper garlands for the photo booth too, which might be cute, we'll see. I also need to make our signs for our middle name suggestion mini tin bucket, and our birth time/weight/height mini tin bucket. The closest guess for her birth weight/time/height wins an Amazon gift card at her birth! Also I'm going to fill a pretty vintage bottle I thrifted with candies for a guessing game of how many beans. We have a bunch of other games lined up too, that should be a lot of fun, but I'll wait to post those after our shower to not spoil the games for anyone.

One more week, so excited! I also want to congratulate my cousin Aj and his new bride (as of yesterday) Megan! Congratulations you two love birds! I was thinking of you, and am sure that your wedding was as beautiful as it could possibly be, there is no place like home in Mendocino, especially when it comes to weddings. Love back home to all the family, looking forward to seeing you in the months to come after Jocelyn arrives! xoxo

How to make Tea-bag Sachets:

Supplies:

• fabric
• twine
• tea bag tags (I used wooden ones)
• sewing machine
• filling (I used organic lavender, I think cedar chips would be nice too)
• Stitch Witchery (or other iron-adhering tape)
• Iron & Ironing Board
• Damp washcloth
• Patience
• Cardboard
• Charcoal pencil (or pen)
• Scissors

How to:

1. Measure a piece of cardboard into a rectangle of how big you want your tea bags to be as a pattern for tracing your fabric pieces. (Remember the fabric will be folded in half, and leave room on edges for stitching).
2. Trace around cardboard onto fabric for as many sachets as you want to make (I made 35). Cut along lines and remember they don't have to be perfect.
3. Iron all fabric pieces with the backside of the fabric facing the iron.
4. Fold rectangles in half, with the backside of the fabric facing out.
5. Stitch up along the two edges leaving the top open to fill. I started the sewing machine at the top where the two folded edges met, so I would get a clean line down and finished off the bottom. This way if there is some unstitched sections at the top its okay, you are going to close that after filling it.
6. Fold all of the pockets inside out, to show the fabric pattern now facing out
7. Fill each pocket with lavender (or other filling). I used 3 large spoonfuls, fill however much you want. I also bought a 1lb bag of filling for 35 sachets, and my pouches are roughly 3 x 3 inches. I still have a little bit of filling leftover.
8. Cut pieces of twine to desired length of tea string. Cut one, and use as a guide for cutting other pieces. 
9. Tie one end to your tea tag (I bought small wooden gift tag labels on amazon - 50 pieces for $5), and put a small knot in the other end of the twine (to help secure it in the tea bag when you sew it in).
10. Cut lengths of stitch witchery tape so that each piece will fit along the inside of the top of the tea bag to seal together (you might be able to skip this step, but I did it to be sure that everything was secure - I also didn't just cut the length across, but I cut enough to wrap around the whole inner edge all the way around for extra strengthening. 
11. Fold down each of the tops of the tea bags to give a finished edge (it was easier to do steps 8, 9, 10, and 11 on their own for me, but you could do these as you go for each tea bag, depends how many you are making and what you prefer). 
12. Take one tea bag, and wrap a piece of cut Stitch Witchery around the inside of the folded top seam. Take one twine/tea tag and put the knotted end down into the sachet, so the knot is below the stitch witchery tape (this part was a little tricky and took a little patience to line up just right)
13. Once in place, lay flat on ironing board, and place the edge of a damp washcloth over just the top seam (with the tea tag out of the iron's way) and press the iron on a steam setting on the first side and hold for 5-10 seconds. Carefully pull back washcloth (it will be very hot), flip the tea bag and replace the washcloth and hold the iron on the other side for another 5-10 seconds. 
14. Remove the washcloth and carefully check that the stitch witchery stuck together to bond the top seam (it will be very hot). 
15. Set aside to dry and cure (takes a couple minutes). If any did not stick, follow steps 13 and 14 again until they adhere.
16. Once all tea bags are sealed on the top with tea tags, take back to your sewing machine. Fold down each of the top corners and line up to sew down and secure. I sewed back and forth to give two passes of stitches to hold the corners down (and make extra sure the twine was secure)
    ** You can probably skip this last step if you want - They actually look pretty cute as squares, and seemed pretty secure - but I thought they were cuter with the folded down corners, and the extra stitches add more strength. **

And that's it! I was also thinking of decorating the tea tags, by painting/drawing/coloring something on them (a heart, a J, a T&J etc), but I like them left blank as well and think everyone will enjoy them more that way, rather than branding them for our baby with our names etc. I also want people to pick their own cups, so didn't want to write people's names on them. It does take some time, and some patience, but I think they are super cute, and something that your guests are MEANT to just throw in a drawer and forget about, haha so even if they turn out looking kinda funky they will still do their job and be a sweet gift :)