Baby Shower!

Tina and Me - will explain loo roll later in post!

Thanks to the lovely Tina of Secret Ingredient: Love last Saturday night was an opportunity to giggle and act silly all in the name of celebrating the impending arrival of the newest little one to my family.  In her sweet kindness, Tina hosted a baby shower for me with some of my sewing buddies.

L-R: Ruth, Ros, Me, Tina, Barbara and Heather

Me and Judith (she was the photographer of the prev pic)

Baby Showers are still not very common in Northern Ireland so it was quite a novel experience for most of us, but Tina had everything in hand to make sure we got to be daft for an evening and then appropriately coo over cutesy baby things, having eaten scummy nibbles and baked goodies throughout, of course!

I did tell Tina I was up for the games as long as it didn't involve Twister. I think I might still be a mangled heap on her lounge floor if that was the case - not sure where my centre of gravity is located at this late stage of my pregnancy!

So, after exercising our grey matter with baby related quizzes and long-forgotten nursery rhymes we got down to the practical stuff.

This was us having a race to put a nappy on a balloon.  I think maybe Heather won (she's on the right in the pic above) and all I can say about my own performance is I'm glad my baby will have limbs so there's a chance I will get the real task completed right way up!!!

I think Judith was taking the empathy thing a bit too far and decided to birth her balloon before diapering it!

There were a few concerned faces as Tina passed around two rolls of toilet tissue for another game, but it turned out that all we had to do was tear off a single strip length which we thought was the size of my bump circumference.

Ahem!  Well, most guesses weren't too far out, but Ruth was soooooo generous in her estimate that both she and I fitted into her strip length!  It was too funny not to share with you, even though I told her I wouldn't (sorry Ruth).  Truth is, I feel as big as her guess!!

After the games and more chatter, these lovely friends showered the bump and me with some gorgeous gifts.

Tina had made these gorgeous softie hexie playballs for the baby.  She knows my love for hexes well.  They're fab!

This is me inspecting the frame purse "Mummy's Emergency Kit" that Tina stitched for me.  It had brilliant essentials inside - you know, like antibacterial hand gel, hand cream, PARACETAMOL and CHOCOLATE!  Just the job, I'd say.

There were super generous gift bags and baskets choc-full of goodies and smellies for baby and me.  See that wee giraffe in the front basket?  He and I are in love!!!  He's so soft and squishy, baby might have to wrestle him from mum!  There are absolutely no excuses now for baby and I not to smell divine all summer long, and most likely well into autumn and winter too, if the volume of gifted products is anything to go by.  You girls are the best!

Judith stitched two very sweet bibs for the little one which Ruth decided needed to be worn as earrings for the evening.  Not sure they're really me somehow.  I think baby is safer dribbling on them.

And here is Ruth again with re-purposing ideas for a gift Judith made.  I clearly have no idea what alternative use she is actually proposing here for this gorgeous baby changing clutch.  Look at my face!  Judith has proper pics of the clutch on her blog.

How lovely it was to share a laughter-filled evening with friends looking forward to a new little life.  A huge thanks to Tina for showing us how a Baby Shower is done and to all of those lovely stitchy friends of mine for coming along to join in the giggles and bless baby and I with such thoughtful, useful and beautiful gifts!

Eight months and counting!