Hooray! At last I get to talk about Rebecca and Chiara’s baby shower, which we hosted yesterday, and which I’ve been dying to talk about for weeks now. The baby shower gods were smiling on us; the sunny, breezy weather could not have been more perfect. We had a lovely time.

Are you ready? I have a lot of photos for you.

First, the decorations.

My friend Cathy hosted the shower. We set up lunch in her screened in porch. Here’s what the table looked like:

The yellow gingham with green rick rack trim tablecloth and napkin rings were made especially for this shower. Who can resist rick rack?

The placecards (the little white decorative boxes) were a Martha Stewart kit from Michael’s, which we embellished with these sweet daisy flower stickers (also Martha). Inside were two yummy pieces of chocolate from the local chocolate store.

We also put up a flag garland to decorate.

The other side of the porch, with the food and gifts, looked like this:

Take a closer look:

A chicken and goat cheese salad, fruit salad, homemade bread and an eggplant and tomato tartine.

Do you love this detail on the gerbera daisies? It’s adorable, right?

And the delicious cheese platter. Daryl is quite the food stylist!

Here we are, pouring a glass of wine and getting ready for lunch.

(Apologies to my friends Cathy, Daryl, Michelle, Rebecca and Chiara, but I can’t show everyone the baby shower pictures without showing them my fabulous friends, can I?)

The guests of honor: Rebecca on the left (having a girl), Chiara on the right (having a boy).

Michelle and Cathy.

Lunch. It was delicious.

And dessert was even better. Lemon cupcakes with lemon marscapone frosting (recipe forthcoming tomorrow), and Daryl’s excellent blueberry tart, which I failed to take a picture of. Apparently, I was too busy scarfing it down.

And the gifts? We knitted baby blankets for them, added some homemade burpcloths, and put them in homemade reversible tote bags. Here’s Rebecca’s:

You might recognize the Amy Butler fabric for the tote bags.

We sewed some cute flannel fabric to one side of a cloth diaper to make burp cloths.

And here’s Chiara’s blanket and bag:

Opening their gifts:

And as a little party favor, I made some homemade sugar scrub and added a crocheted scrubbie (from this Etsy shop).

Everything about this shower was homemade – from the tablecloth and napkins, to the food, the gifts, the decorations and the party favors – and I think it made the day so special. It’s a true testament to the creativity and generosity of my friends that they put so many loving details into the day.

We know each other because all of our oldest children were in the same pre-Kindergarten class together four years ago,  and since then, we’ve been going to dinner every month, having  play dates, taking trips to the park, and helping each other out with babysitting, picking up kids from school and all the other things friends do for and with one another. Believe me, I count my lucky stars all the time that I have such good friends.

What a day.