Make Way for Baby - Boston Public Garden Baby Shower

In 2016, not only did we welcome our daughter, but we welcomed our second niece! We had so much fun planning her shower. My sister is always introducing me, friends and family to fun places and things to do in Boston. We wanted to incorporate some Boston details. We called it a "Make Way for Baby" theme and incorporated the classic children's story, "Make Way for Ducklings" and used the Boston Public Gardens as inspiration.

 

 

We also incorporated Boston and garden themed children's books, including:

Hello, Boston!

The Tiny Seed

Boston Baby

The Secret Garden

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A Journey around Boston

Swat Boat Season in Boston

Alice in Wonderland

Chrysanthemum

Inch by Inch

On the Loose in Boston

Waiting for Wings

The books were used as decoration in the cocktail hour area. We had a cocktail hour to give the parents to be more time with their guests. We called it a "Cocktails and Cravings Hour"!

The menu included-

Mom-osa

Belly-ni

Make Way Lemonade (lemonade with muddled cucumber, mint and an edible flower garnishment)

 

Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies and Milk Shooters

Cheeseburger Sliders

Chicken Finger Skewers

Popcorn

We had so much fun designing the room! We wanted to bring the outdoors in, so we asked the florist to bring in some greenery and flowers for the backdrop to the gift opening area.

 Instead of flower centerpieces, we asked for centerpieces to look like trees.

The chefs at the Taj helped bring everything together with mini swan puffed pastries, cheesecakes with swan feathers and they incorporated edible flowers in the cocktails and salads. In addition to looking amazing, everything tasted delicious. The kids were probably most impressed by the passed cookies and milk though!

We also asked our favorite cookie maker, Aisling of Aisling's Cookies, to make swan cookies as favors for the guests.

 

We ahad custom lollipops from Melville Candy Company and found free downloadable coloring pages and got crayons for all of the kids.

 

 

The cake was made by Konditor Meister.

 

We had so much fun showering the mom and dad to be with love! The Taj was the perfect venue. Everyone we worked with was incredible and they really made the day special.

Venue & Catering: The Taj Hotel Boston
Cake: Konditor Meister
Florist: Cedar Grove
Cookie Favors: Aisling's Cookies
Lollipop Favors: Melville Candy
Table Numbers: Oakleaf Designs
Cocktail Napkins and Stirrers: Sip, Hip Hooray!

New Addition

We've been talking about a new addition to our home for quite some time, but the addition we were expecting to work on in 2016 was postponed due to an even better addition! We welcomed baby E to our nest in 2016 and have been completely in love since her arrival.

Photos by Mel Madden Photography

Happy Fall!

I know it's still technically the summer, but fall is my favorite season and once Labor Day is over, the fall decorations come out. I love living in New England because it's great to experience all of the seasons, but I love fall the most. I love the cool weather, apple picking, the beautiful foliage, the tastes and smells of fall and it also starts off the holiday season.

It's also when the fall baking starts. Jim's happy for fall to arrive, too. Labor Day signals the end of his busy season. To celebrate the end of the summer/beginning of fall, I made these cookies over the weekend for him and his co-workers to help them get through their busiest day of the year.

What's your favorite season? Why is it your favorite?

Summer Adventures

It's been quiet around here for awhile. We last left off mentioning an upcoming bathroom reno. Well, our house had different plans as our kitchen started falling apart. Right as we were looking into quotes for the bathroom, it seemed like something would break or go wrong in the kitchen almost on a weekly basis, so the bathroom project was put on hold as the kitchen moved up the priority list. We're in the saving phase of that project. That's party why it's been pretty quiet around here. ... no projects to share. 

Our family also had some other exciting news. My sister and her bf bought a beach home at the beginning of the summer, so we were fortunate to get lots of invites and spent many fun days with them by the water. We've had a blast relaxing this summer spending time with lots of friends and family, but we're excited to start working again on some projects around here and some fun projects for the beach house!

Here's a glimpse of what we've been up to....

 We celebrated my mother's graduation... a life long dream of hers. We are so proud!

We even were able to pull off a surprise party with friends and family. 

 I took a girls trip to Disney with my mother, sister and niece. We had a blast!

 We spent lots of time at the beach house with friends and family.

 We took our first trip to Martha's Vineyard. We had never been and our friends gave us a full tour of the island. We just went for the day and had a blast checking out all the different areas, including the location where jaws was filmed. 

We also got to invite my in-laws to the Beach House and spent a week with them showing them the area and they taught me how to golf! 

 We celebrated my birthday over the summer with family. 

 As part of my birthday gift, my sister took me and my mother to see Finding Neverland with Jeremy Jordan (also from Newsies and Smash). It was amazing and a highlight of the summer. It just got picked up for Broadway in the Spring! 

We also attended a few weddings. We're so happy for all of our friends! We had so much fun celebrating with them. 

It's been an amazing summer. Probably the best one yet. What have you all been up to? 

Congrats on dropping anchor!: Housewarming Gift Ideas

When I heard my sister and boyfriend were moving in together, I wanted to get them a little something. My sister, like me, appreciates a good theme so I thought it would be fun to go nautical  (surprise, surprise). Their home isn't in a beach town though, so I don't want to get nautical gifts that may not fit with their home. Here are some of the things I thought of:

one Scouts Honor Co. card

two Chelsey Emery custom address stamp

three Steveston Wine Co. merlot

four Crane & Co. anchor stationery

five homemade cookie inspiration via Martha Stewart Weddings 

six Anchor & Arrow anchor wine stopper

We decided to go more nautical with the wrapping and note in the card than the actual gift, but I sttill think it was fun to tie it into a theme. We went with the Scout's Honor Co. card, a Chelsey Emery address stamp and found a pretty navy and white pillow from a local shop that will go well with their new living room design. We received a lot of wine when we moved in, which was greatly appreciated, but I figured it would be fun to do a little something different for my sister and her bf. I do think the Stevenston Wine Co. merlot would pair perfectly withe the Anchor & Arrow wine stopper as a gift, so I'm keeping this in mind for the future. I also love home made cookies and stationery. All being held in the back of my mind for future gift giving.

What are your favorite housewarming gifts to give or receive?

New Art: Custom State Art Print

One of our friends, Meghan, recently gifted us with a really nice gift- a piece of art for our home!

We've been in our home for over three years now and haven't really put up a lot of art, even though I think homes look so much better with it. I just have a hard time choosing art for our home, so we have lots of bare walls or art that has yet to be hung.  I was so excited when we received the custom print that works perfect in our guestroom, which currently has bare walls. It's a print of Rhode Island, with a heart over Newport, where we were married. It has our names and wedding date on the bottom. If you've followed along since our wedding, you've probably noticed I love sentimental touches, so this was the perfect gift. I love how it looks in our guest room. It even inspired me to add a few pops of pink to go with the little heart on the print. Thanks Meg!

Have you received any personal items you were really excited to display in your home?

Bathroom Inspiration: What to do with the walls?

At this point, we've pretty much picked out everything for the bathroom, but we have yet to decide on the walls. Originally we were going to tile halfway up, then we talked about just painting the walls, then we talked about grass cloth wallpaper, or some combo between these.

We' both really love grass cloth wallpaper. I really love variations of gray or greige. Now that we are going more neutral and simple in our bathroom reno, I like the idea of adding subtle details like the texture of a grass cloth wallpaper.  I originally wanted to do a patterned wallpaper and Jim wanted to do a  darker charcoal paint, but I think this will have a greater impact while allowing the room to stay light and airy.

I really love what was done in this space:

Traditional Powder Room by Chicago Design-Build Firms Orren Pickell Building Group

We're on the fence though because there is a lot of moisture in the room since it's so small. We also don't know if it's worth it to higher someone to wallpaper such a small area. We thought about doing it ourselves, but if we're paying for everything else in the reno, we don't want to mess it up with this one last piece if we make a mistake with something we aren't familiar with. 

 

Would you go tile, paint, wallpaper (grass cloth), or some combo of these if you were us?