Ex Libris

You may remember the gorgeous bring-a-book baby shower thrown for me by Andrea. It was lovely. The shower itself was the proverbial cake- the fact that it was a bring-a-book shower was the icing on the cake- and the gift that Andrea brought Tate a few weeks after he was born was the cherry on the icing on the cake. I have been waiting to share it with you until I got some good pictures, which I think I have officially done, so now you can all hurry out to buy your own bookplate stamp by AsspocketProductions.

Isn't it adorable?

This is such a great gift, completely affordable and completely personalized. Asspocket does such a fantastic job of offering many different designs so that you can choose something that fits the person you are gifting it to, and I am so happy with the quality of the stamp, and the old-fashioned, post-office-stamp quality of the big wooden handle. It makes me happy just holding it.

Also related to books, the long-awaited bookshelves finally arrived! Two big boxes met me at the door yesterday. Zach was kind enough to build one bookcase for me after dinner so I could tell what they would like, and I am so happy with them. I will post pics soon, but they accomplish just what I wanted, which is to make the books look so colorful and so appealing. Tate won't be able to help being drawn in by them.

And in other news- could Zach's strawberry rhubarb pie look any more delicious? Mmmm...

Party Details

I am loving these party details by Fete owner Jung Lee. Here Jung shows off some of the personalized stamps Fete has created for wedding and save-the-date invitations courtesy of Zazzle. http://www.feteny.com/ I love the idea of paying such close attention to every visual detail of a party invite. Just think of all the endless ways you can make your invitations stand out with personalized details like modern, designed stamps. And when I think about trying to balance motherhood with the very real fact that I (as my sister says) "don't want my home overrun with plastic crap", I was excited to see these chic, disposable placements/napkins called My Drap. You unroll and tear them at the perforation just like papertowels. It is when I find things like this that I think "of course! Why didn't I think of that?!" Because the idea of using cloth napkins for dinner or picnics is so appealing. But is it just me and my messy life, or do cloth napkins seem to get stained within just one use? So I feel like they are a waste of money. The My Drap products have such clean design details to take them above the humble papertowel but below the expense and potential fussiness of formal cloth napkins and placemats. And they come in all sizes, too! Cocktail napkins- dinner napkins- the perfect way to teach little kids about place settings without worrying about anything being too precious. And you can wash them, and use them a few times, before eventually throwing them in the compost pile (because yes- they are compostable!!)

And aren't these disposable plates and cups amazing? Who says having kids and kid parties means cheap, wax-covered disposable dinnerware? www.branchhome.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=39&products_id=612