Well, if you’re gonna have a party, you should probably have some good food on hand. And if you’re going to have good food on hand, you better have some fun-looking plates to eat it of off. And you’ve got some fun plates, you really ought to have some fun cups. And fun forks, spoons, and knives. And napkins.

And if you’re going to have all that, you should probably have a fun table cover. And a table skirt. And streamers. And balloons!

To sum up, if you’re going to have a party, you need party supplies. If that party happens to be a baby shower, SimplyBabyStuff.com has got you covered. They’ve got complete lines of party supplies to coordinate with an array of matching baby shower party themes. From placemats to name tags, everything you need is just a few clicks away. These high-quality party supplies will all but guarantee a memorable event.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

There are so many great ideas out there for baby shower favors. It just makes sense if you are on a budget to make your own and it can be a lot of fun as well! One my favorites homemade favors out there is the candy pacifiers. These are easy to make and they are adorable. People will be sure to comment on how cute they are and they cost nearly nothing to make! You need to get the big white lifesavers and colored jellybeans. You put 1 life save on top of the other lifesaver in a “T” formation and then you glue them together and let them dry. Then you glue the jellybean on the top of the “T” in the top lifesaver (that is the pacifier part). To dress it up a big get some pink and blue ribbon and put it through the hole of the other lifesaver. This makes for a great favor!

Now of course you do not want to use Elmer’s glue…you need to make some edible glue…icing. This is very easy to make and it great for other edible homemade projects that need that “glue” to stick things together. You are going to need an egg and powdered sugar.

You are going to blend together 2/3 cup of the powdered sugar with an egg white in a bowl. Microwave this for 45 seconds. This will actually help to kill off any bacteria because of the egg so that it will be edible. After you do this add another 2/3 cup of powdered sugar and whip it on high until is has a peak and has that nice thick and pasty texture that you need to stick things together. Add powdered sugar to make it thicker or water to make it thinner until you get it just right.

Remember, if you decide to make baby shower favors you will need to get quality supplies. Many online stores, such a SimplyBabyStuff.com, have ‘do it yourself’ supplies you can order. This makes the process so much easier! You can make 30 of them in a matter of minutes. The longest part is just the waiting of the glue to harden on the lifesavers. And they are quite delicious. Just make sure that you do not get jellybeans that taste bad. You are going to want to spring for the good tasting quality jellybeans for this project. This also makes for a great homemade project with children as well. Just be sure to wash your hands well and were gloves when handling the candy to make it more sanitary.

One month ago, my husband and I started our Lamaze class. I was 33 weeks pregnant and loving it. Mine has been an admittedly easy pregnancy with minimal morning sickness, no complications, and weight gain centered where it should be—my middle. At 33 weeks, I sometimes struggled to catch my breath or maintain my balance, but I was wearing any pair of shoes I wanted, delighted in watching and feeling my baby move inside me, and eagerly decorating a nursery. I remember that first day of class hearing some of the women further along say, “I just want it to end” and thinking to myself that I could never possibly feel the same way.

Well, I was wrong. The class is now over, the nursery is finished, and all the gifts from our baby shower have been put away. It’s a little like those days between Christmas and New Year’s: a state of suspension waiting on the “Next Big Thing.” And yet, it’s so much worse than that! Not only am I suspended between events, but I’m uncomfortable to boot. My feet and hands and face have swelled with excess fluid and, far from wearing “any shoe I want,” I’m stuck with the same pair of Croc flip-flops day after day. I sleep on a mound of six pillows every night to keep the fluid from pooling in my face, and I spend my evenings with a hot pad wrapped around my back and three throw pillows beneath my feet. I pout regularly.

And yet, I know this is a time to treasure. A time to revel in my husband’s closeness and my little girl’s still-developing life inside of me. I know that all too soon, my “couple time” with my husband will be much rarer and my little girl will one day grow up to tell me all the things I did wrong in raising her. But for now—despite the swollen feet and sore back—I have my husband all to myself and my little girl is still safely and lovingly stowed away inside me.  These things alone are worth putting off the Big Event a little while longer.

Posted by Stacy, a Dot-arilla Blogger

I think it’s fairly widely accepted that bacon is pretty great. Really, what can’t be made better by adding bacon? And yet, believe it or not, there exists a recipe that makes bacon even better! This is definitely a “special occasion” recipe—you don’t want to be eating this every week or anything (Or maybe you do. Your call.), but for an event like a baby shower, these caramelized bacon twists are just the little something your menu might need!

Caramelized Bacon Twists

I have served these twists both on buttered croissants with turkey and a lettuce leaf and at brunch alongside quiche and potatoes—either of which are perfect pairings, in my opinion. There are never any leftover bacon twists!

1 pound sliced bacon

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350º F, and line a 15×10x1-inch baking dish with foil (Very important! Trust me!) Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a gallon-size ziplock bag and set aside. Cut each bacon strip in half widthwise. Place the bacon strips in the bag with the sugar mixture and shake until all the strips are evenly covered with sugar. (You can do this ahead of time and let the bacon sit in the sugar mixture in the fridge. It will get a bit runny/wet, but will also be nicely marinated.) Twist each strip as you remove it from bag, and place them on the prepared pan. Bake at 350º F for 15-20 minutes or until crisp (watch closely, they can burn quickly.) Serve immediately; or cool and then freeze them in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

 Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

When I was small, I always felt very badly for the kids in school who had summer birthdays. They never got to bring in treats to share with the class. They never got to sit there(slightly mortified) while their peers sang a birthday song just for them. Birthday party invitations couldn’t just be brought to school and handed out. “I will never,” I proclaimed, “Have a kid with a summer birthday. Those kids have got it rough.”

Fast forward (quite) a few years, and…I’ve got TWO kids with summer birthdays. Less than a month apart. How did I let this happen??

I carried those pitying feelings for poor summer-born kids right up until it came time to plan my daughter’s first birthday party. And that’s when I realized the power of the summer birthday: you can hold it outdoors! Picnics! Swimming pools! Bonfires! …I wouldn’t have to clean my house!

To say my husband and I have embraced the summer birthday would be an understatement. We’ve taken the old bit of truth about first and second (and third?) birthday parties being more for the parents than the kids, and run with it.

That first party was a doozy. “We never did have a housewarming party,” we reasoned. “This can take its place!” “It’s outside, we don’t have to worry about how many people we invite,” we said. “She’s only going to turn one once,” we rationalized. And then we proceeded to hold a (wonderfully) massive backyard barbecue birthday party for our sweet girl ourselves. It was crazy and festive and a whole bunch of fun.

And we really, really want to do it again this summer when our son turns one. Three weeks after his sister’s birthday.

Which is why we’d decided that this year, her fourth, would be the year we begin hosting a small, simple “kid” party for our daughter. We figured we’d let her invite a couple friends, play some games, eat some cake—you know, keep things simple.

And then, last week over lunch, our girl announced that she wanted to have a garden party for her birthday. “We’ll need ribbons and bows and flowers EVERYWHERE!” she said. “And I’ll invite everyone I like and they’ll all dress up!” She went on to outline her ideal menu (dessert-heavy) and flesh out her guest list (well over 30 when all was said and done) while I dutifully took notes (humoring her.)

 Now obviously, we’re not going to indulge EVERY party whim our daughter has, and we’ll be cutting her guest list down to a third or so, but she was so sweet as she relayed all her very special plans that we’ve agreed to a slightly larger party than we originally had in mind.

Which is making it a little tough to rationalize the raging blow-out we want to throw for ourselves our son just three short weeks later. Hmmm…we never did have that housewarming party…

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Did you know that you could get quality baby shower invitations online at a great price? Amazing, huh? Alright, maybe I’m in the minority that I found this kind of shocking. maybe Iwas always under the belief that you needed to go to someplace that dealt only with personalized invitations to get something of quality for an event like a baby shower. Didn’t you have to spend time going through pages of invitations looking for exactly the right one? Wasn’t this supposed to be easy? Apparently I missed the boat.

The baby shower invitations I found online weren’t pre-packaged in shrink wrap type invitations either, but they are made out of high quality paper and can be personalized using either ink or computer programs. Sure, they might cost $30, but that’s much cheaper than paying top dollar at some planners business.

This discovery got me to thinking: with these specialty online stores offering these types of services, are individual “boutique” stores becoming completely obsolete?  These boutique stores used to thrive in shopping malls and upper-class strip malls. it used to be that for weddings or baby showers or major birthdays, these boutiques used to be the best place to get classic looking invitations. Of course, because they were “designer”, they also tended to be a bit pricey. Plus, it took time to sift through the mountains of available invitations. The only times you would go to an online store for invitations would be for a children’s birthday party or maybe a thank you card.

Now that the economy the way that it is people aren’t as willing to spend the money that these boutiques charge for invitations. Because of this, online stores have seen an opening to begin offering designer invitations. Most people are not willing to totally sacrifice quality in the name of saving some money, but if you can it within the same ballpark then that’s enough to win the people over. Remember, despite what you might think most people don’t really give an invitation that much thought when they receive them in the mail. It’s all about perception and, in a way, getting people on a subconscious level. Stuff like design and font make a difference, but only to those who are really looking for it to begin with.

So yes, if you’re looking to save some money on invitations online stores might be a good place to look. you might be surprised what you find.

While decorations shouldn’t be the focus of the baby shower you’re throwing (there’s usually a soon-to-be mama involved), great visuals do make things a lot more fun. Decorations set the mood and help to make sure everyone’s ready for a good time. And it’s always so fun to see each guest’s reaction as they walk into the room you’ve gussied up for the special day.

Banners are always a great way to make a statement (literally!), but never underestimate the power of a great centerpiece. And if you happen to have balloons that match your banners and centerpieces (and your tableware, name tags, and party favors), well, then you’ve gone to decoration heaven.

SimplyBabyStuff.com has spent a lot of time thinking about decorations, and they’ve worked hard to develop great options for just about every decorative element you could think of. If you wanted, just about every inch of your party room could covered in super cute decorations. We’re not saying you should actually wallpaper the room with well wishes for the mother-to-be…but isn’t it nice to know you could?

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

I’ve mentioned here before that my daughter often wears kitty ears and a tail for most of the day. Her ears are a simple construction paper project she and I did together. We actually made the ears a couple years ago, and though she is incredibly careful with them, they are made from construction paper…so they’ve certainly seen better days.

It became time to make new ears…but how to convince her to give up her beloved pink and black paper pair?

The tail she wears is basically a strip of knit pink yarn (think tiny scarf) that she tucks into the back of her pants and skirts. I decided that some knit ears would be a perfect match for her tail…and much more durable than construction paper! So, as phase one of Project Kitty Ear Replacement, I innocently took her along on a trip to the yarn store. As we walked through the store, feeling the soft yarns and exclaiming over the beautiful colors, I started a conversation about which yarn she thought would make the best kitty fur. She immediately latched onto a soft, fuzzy burnt orange yarn, gushing “Oh! A ginger kitty! That’s the best kind!”

Luckily for me, she’s (practically) four, and completely ok with the idea of buying a skein of yarn just because it reminds you of a cuddly ginger kitty. (Oh, who am I kidding? I’m in my thirties, and I’m completely ok with the idea as well.) Anyway, I got the yarn home, and began experimenting on the sly with some ear shapes and styles that would allow her to slip them on a headband just like her trusty paper ears. 

Once I had perfected the design, it didn’t take long to whip up a pair of fuzzy ginger kitty ears one night while she was sleeping. I decided the best way to (hopefully) replace her paper ears would be to just leave the new ears for her to discover on her own when she got up in the morning. I left them at her place on our kitchen table, where she would see them at breakfast, and I crossed my fingers she wouldn’t toss them straight into the bottom of her dress up trunk.

Really, I had no reason to worry.

When she got up the next day, she walked directly to them like she had kitty radar…and froze. Her eyes got huge, and she wordlessly looked up to see whether they were really for her or not. Her daddy gave her the go-ahead, and she pretty much wore them for the next four days straight (taking them carefully off to sleep, of course.)

A few days later, she and I were chatting over lunch, and she said “You know what’s funny, Mama? …I wear my new ginger ears, and I still wear my old tail. Even though it’s pink.”

(pause, pause)

“…would you like me to make you a ginger tail, Baby?”

“YES! YES! YES!”

And back to the knitting needles I go!

Baptism is one of the most significant milestones in your child’s brand new, bright little life. But all too often, the occasion is treated more like a minor holiday. For some people, a baptism is like Groundhog Day with a quick trip to church—rather than the truly meaningful occasion it should be.

Well, a special baptism starts with a special baptism invitation. It’s a quick and easy way to dress up the day. SimplyBabyStuff.com has an elegant collection of baptism invitations that range from cute to classy to classic. Many of the different invitations are available in standard or high quality velum overlay versions. And they’ve even got matching thank you cards.

 These baptism invitations can help to add weight to your baby’s special day, letting your friends and family know how important these traditions are to you.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger