SHOWERed with LOVE {pt. 1}

I cannot even begin to tell y'all how incredibly blessed I've been feeling.  I can't even find the right words to describe how absolutely, perfectly, adorably, special my weekends have been lately.  My baby showers have begun and although I had wedding showers and felt so much love then ... a baby shower is a whole new thang.

It seriously leaves me almost speechless at how much love Baby U is receiving and no one even knows him yet. Shane and I are so blessed to have so much love in our lives. And to be surrounded by people who care for us, it such an incredible feeling. Whew. Emotions on emotions on love on love. I'm a happy happy happy soon-to-be-mama.

SOOooo enough sap -- here are the deetz.  Our first shower was thrown by my Mother-In-Law and "The Bee's".  It's her group of 11 gal pals that call themselves the Bee's, yes like a bumble bee, and the Queen Bee of each of their families :)  There's a whole lot more I can share about these ladies ... and Oh.Em.Gee. their recipes {they have their own cook book y'all} are to DIE for. Like finger lickin', perfect for party entertaining good.  But we'll save Bee's news for a later post.

It was a Sunday shower at Hurstbourne Country Club and it wound up being the PERFECT spring day :) Such great weather and the sun was shining BRIGHT on my ole' Kentucky home.  They stuck with my Nerdy Nautical Nursery Theme and hosted a Nautical themed shower. 

Their decorations were seriously adorable. Paying attention to detail is definitely their forte. 

I couldn't get over how cute the center pieces were! I didn't take a great picture, but they were all hand made.  The little rods holding the sails were thread spools, how stinkin' clever - Ahh. I die.

Love, love the little rope tying the napkins. :) Again, details.

And last but CERTAINLY not least, the cake. OMG the cake.  Not only was it the most delicious thing you have ever eaten, but seriously SO CUTE!!!  And don't worry - I promised a name reveal - that's coming in part 2 - but here are the initials - B.U.B.

BUB! Are you kidding me?! How did I not realize his monogrammed initials are BUB?!?! It's the perfect little name and I didn't even realize it! In my head, I kept thinking BBU -- not monogrammed BUB. Seriously, I have to pinch myself because it's so cute {I don't care if I am bias...agree with me it's cute}.

And of course they didn't stop with cake.  There were also matching cupcakes. With INDIVIDUAL polka dot holders. BEYOND perfect.  I may or may not have taken 3-4 home after the shower ... I mean, I would have felt bad if they went to waste! ;)

Next came the gifts, SHOWERED with gifts.  So overwhelming and so fun seeing all of the miniature items.  That was one of my "bazinga" pregnancy moments. Yep, I just used the word BAZINGA - deal with it.

 The lovely hostesses had everyone bring sweet Baby U a book in lieu of a card {cutest idea ever by the way, if you're hosting a baby shower anytime soon}.  Everyone wrote the sweetest notes in the books and now little man seriously has an entire library of all kinds of great books, with personal messages included. He's gonna be so smart!

My mother-in-law and I rounded out the day by handing each of the hostesses a fabulous concocted hostess gift in true Bee fashion.  We worked on them for hours the week before, and were pretty happy with the way they turned out!

Each little basket included:

 2 bumblebee hand towels from a local little shop | Work the Metal

An adorable little bumblebee dip bowl and bumblebee spreader | Cartwheels

A delicious little jam or salsa jar | The Fresh Market

We filled them with goodies, extra tissue paper and crinkle paper for garnish.  Then wrapped them in love with shrink wrap and topped them off with adorable honeycomb and bumblebee ribbon {Shout out to Susan for finding the awesome ribbon, it was the PERFECT accessory!} and we even stuck a little baby bumblebee in the center of every bow :) Adorbs, if I must say so myself.

A Big, BIGGG thank you to all of those that helped to host the shower and all others in attendance.  Seriously, makes my heart smile!  Little man is coming into so much love.

Nerdy Nautical Nursery Inspiration

That's right, Nursery inspiration for Baby U that is both NERDY and NAUTICAL.  What a great pairing!  Okay I lied, really it's not that nerdy - it just involves the letters of the alphabet - and Nerdy started with an "N" which sounded good in front of Nautical, to make the title more catchy.  To-MAY-toe, To-MAH-toe.

Alright, so hubs and I (okay I lied again). Hubs and I have been scouring ideas for nursery inspiration and relentlessly FORCING hubs to look at them and provide feedback.  And we've both pretty much agreed we like the idea of an alphabet theme and/or a nautical theme.  Now, I'm not talking matchy-matchy, baby-baby, themes here - I'm just talking a general direction to inspire my creative juices to start lil' man's room.  And the line I'm walking between a cute baby room and a cutesy baby room is very thin, people.  It's so hard to find sophisticated decor that will look good in a nursery and "not too grown up" or cute and fun decor that doesn't look too cheesy. 

Alas, I think I have finally settled on some images that have successfully inspire me and also challenge me to create the perfect hub.  The perfect hub of course, that is to be: Baby U's haven of ever exploring nautical inspirations to encourage him to chase his dreams, with an undermining tone of the alphabet to inspire focus and the importance of higher education surrounding his peaceful and splendid nurserydome (I'd add more adjectives if I was clever enough to think of them, because I feel they are indeed THAT necessary to depict excitement and convey my intensity - although, let's be honest, really I just think it looks pretty).

Okay, enough talk.  Need more action.  So here goes - my inspirational pictures.  Don't worry, I'll make sure to narrate as we go along :) And SHWING this is my first attempt at using polyvore to create a board! Sooooo fun.  I may have to use this more often - Lord help us all.

Alright, so here's what we're working with.  As I mentioned, we both could agree on being fans of either an alphabet theme or a nautical theme. But I was really having a hard time finding one that I totally was in love with.  I kept finding some elements that I liked but I couldn't find a way to bring it all together. That was, until I stumbled upon the great photo of all the letters individually framed in the top left of the collage.  

I LOVE LOVE LOVEEE all of the different letters, and I love even more the idea of utilizing different picture frames to separate them from being one large clutter. But I LOVE the gallery wall vs. painting or printing directly on the wall.  So, my plan is to find all different kinds of letters (SHOPPING. STARTS. NOW!) and mod podge them with a sepia/tan tone vintage map to help keep it sophisticated and neutral.  THEN, agh I die, the next step is to incorporate some nautical pieces into the alphabet.  These will allow for some pops of color while also layering the theme.  So I'm thinking a boat life savor or a sailor captain steering wheel (as seen above) as the "O" or light house as the letter "I", for example.  

The alphabet wall will obviously be the main focal point, and other pieces will just be accents throughout the room.  We're currently torn between 2 cribs:

....OR....

I think I'm kind of leaning more towards the Davenport, because it looks a bit more bold and has a little more character.  But Larkin was my original choice, so I'm always nervous to throw a change up this late in the game.  

Another FUNN finding.  Hubs and I were strolling through our local Peddler's Mall this past weekend and stumbled upon this beauty.  Which I think will be the most PERFECT piece of accent furniture to Baby U's nursery, don't you? LOVE.

So that's it my loves.  A truly fabulous Nerdy and Nautical Nursery.  The Hubs and I are taking a babymoon in a couple of weeks, so we're planning to gather all of the materials before we head out.  That way when we return it's full on nesting mode to put the finishing touches on lil' man's bedroom! EEEeeeek.  It's all becoming so real!