Stuff and things (one of my better titles, really)

Whooo-eeeee was it hoppin' at the Dollar Tree on State Street yesterday. That is the place to be on a cold, windy 1 p.m. hour in March. Never in my life have I seen someone spend $300+ at a dollar store. (And I'm a very experienced dollar store shopper, let's give a quick fist pump for Rexburg's Honks...) Until yesterday, that is. I had the particular privilege of being two people behind her in line, and it only took about half of eternity to ring her up. From what I could see, she was planning a rockin'-good-time party and she had basically cleared out the ENTIRE contents of the blue section in the party supply aisle. As luck would have it, I was there for a few party supplies for a rockin-good-time party of my own (a.k.a. Rachel's bebe shower).  It's just a good thing our parties aren't going to be the same color scheme or otherwise I would have had to fight her for some plastic forks.

Segue? Segue.

The little miss Clara K. turned 11 months old yesterday. Mmm-hmmm. So here's where I'll brag and tell you that she's pretty much the best baby in the world that's 11 months + 1 day. We started the day off with a bang at 8:15 when I woke up, processed what time it was and then experienced total shock that the little dear wasn't squawking for us. I went and listened at her door and could hear her doin' the shuffle and the bunny hop but her little lips were as silent as could be. She must have been quietly contemplating what she'd like for her birthday, while dancing. And really, who doesn't do that in the morning? And from there she proceeded to cute up the whole day. Everywhere we went it was cute-this, and cute-that.

But as I was saying. Rachel's baby shower is tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it for several reasons. One because I'm hopeful that all this planning will turn into something pretty cute—I even got Oh My Crafts to make a banner for it (more on that later), because as we all know, it's not a party unless there's a banner present. And secondly because I've had a box filled with shower odds and ends by my bed for the past who knows how long and I'm sick of tripping on it daily for the past who knows how long. The obvious answer would have been to move said box but why bother? I mean, the shower's tomorrow anyway. Finally, it's been this race against time because Rachel's "let's make it happen" baby seems to think he's entitled to entering this world before we have the baby shower. Which, uh-uh dude. That was NOT part of my planning—her due date isn't even until the end of April anyway, and the last thing any of us wants is to relocate the shower to Rachel's hospital room (most of all, Rachel, I'm sure). (Take it easy, everyone; we wouldn't really relocate the shower to the hospital room, that'd be way too many bowls of fruit and chips and dip to have to carry.) Anyway, I'm sure he'll be a perfect gentleman and wait out the baby shower before he decides to make his move. (Right, Rachel??)

And speaking of Clara's birthday, once the baby shower is over I can start using my endless amounts of free thought to start planning a little birthday party for her. However—how much planning does a 1st birthday party really require? According to some of the idea/design blogs I like to browse, I'm going to need to repaint the apartment aqua, rent a European pony (that breathes out glitter) and purchase at least 27 cupcake stands to house my so-cute-you-don't-even-want-to-eat-them cupcakes. Am I the only one that feels that kind of pressure from blogdom? Oh, okay—you caught me. I'm just being dramatic. I'm actually just thinking that we'll present her a cupcake on top of a nice, big cardboard box because, really, that would make her day. And, although we're quite excited for her to turn one, it's not like she has any idea what's going on, and she'd probably be a little wary of a glitter-breathing pony anyway. So that settles that.

You're wondering what kinds of design blogs I browse? You don't even want to know.

Anyway, as with tradition, here's a picture that has nothing to do with anything I just blabbed about. This was taken last week. When it wasn't snowing.