We're All About Keepin it Simple

I hosted an little gathering this weekend in honor of a colleague's upcoming family addition, a little girl due in April. I've never been to a baby shower, but have heard horror stories about having to sniff chocolate candy bars melted into diapers and making adult diapers on guests using toilet paper. In fact, I'm sure heard about the former from my cousin, and then saw it on TV on an episode of The Girls Next Door. (Yeah. So what? I like Bridget. She's smart(er than the other two) Shut up.) Anyway, such things were not going to happen at this shower.

Just a simple get-together for 8 women, all faculty, where we would discuss important issues, sip coffee, and eat cookies.

But my genes kick in when I hostess, and a "simple party" becomes what a friend of the family calls "Loren Molnar Simple." It means that you serve 4 or 5 types of cookies, plus coffee, and tea, and pop, and probably juice and water, and then if someone happens to bring champagne, you serve mimosas. And maybe with the cookies there should be handmade petit-fours with pink glaze, because it's a girl baby. And finger sandwiches...probably vegetarian and not, and popcorn, and chips and salsa, and maybe someone wants something healthy, so you serve crudite and hummus (but it would be too much work to make the hummus, so you buy that). Then people bring French cheese and crackers, and bread and cucumber feta dip, and fruit, and cookies, and German cake. As my mom (that would be the aforementioned Loren Molnar) would say, "Just enough to keep body and soul together."

Our bodies and our souls? They were kept together like nobody's business.

(If you're concerned that John felt left out, please note that he was totally happy in the garage, cutting his birthday lumber into a workbench. He'd come in occasionally to eat the cucumber sandwiches and cookies.)

But then, we needed an activity.

I took a class on freezer paper stenciling at Bolt Fabric Boutique last fall, and figured we could do that. You know, instead of smelling candy-poop diapers.



Who's proud of themselves? Oh yeah, we are. Even the mom-to-be, who looked really skeptical, made that awesome rooster onesie. (The elephant one on the left is my doing.)



I did the cow here, with an attempt at "freestyle" painting for the grass. (I'm pretty pleased with my skills, and am glad that all the time watching The Joy of Painting with that afro-stylin groovemaster Bob Ross paid off. That's some "happy little grass" on that onesie.) I also made the "I read banned books" onesie. I know you're not shocked.



Older-sister-to-be needed to get something new too.

All in all, a really nice, simple party. The simple leftovers (and there were lots) left the house immediately and went to various neighbors. John helped me clean up, and we spent the rest of the night in the basement simply watching bad TV (though not The Girls Next Door, sadly). I cast on simple sleeve #2 for the cabled sweater and fell asleep early. Not a bad way to spend a weekend, simply.