Hot Pink and Black

This past Sunday I helped host a wedding shower at church. The couple getting married is Lindsey and Mike. To be quite honest, I don’t know either of them all that well. I am friends with Lindsey’s mom and grandmother (they attend our monthly Ladies’ Night Out events) and just adore both of them, and since they are all still fairly new to our church I said yes when asked if I would help. Those of you that know me and know how much I loathe attending showers can pull yourselves up off the floor now. Believe it or not I sometimes do things out of the kindness of my heart.

Here are Lindsey’s mom, Shelia, and grandmother, Emma. They are both really sweet ladies. Emma turned 90 years old this year and she drives herself to Curves five days a week. She has been to Curves over 1,000 times! Isn’t that great?! I hope I have her spunk if I make it to 90. Emma used to always tell me how cute she thought Tony was.

Here’s the whole family. Lindsey and Mike are on the left and the big guy is Lindsey’s dad. He was less than thrilled about having his photo taken and quite frankly frightened me a little bit.

We decorated with hot pink toile tulle (thanks Sara - I'm ignorant when it comes to fabric!) and black ribbon as those are the colors Lindsey is using in her wedding. We had lots of good food prepared by the hostesses – isn’t that the best part about attending a shower? I think so!

Nicole made the punch and it was quite good. I’m not usually a fan of punch with sherbet in it, but this one wasn’t bad. At one point Nicole was bringing me a glass of punch and she somehow dropped the glass and the punch went all over the walls and my foot. We had a good laugh about that. Nicole tried to wipe down the wall without anyone noticing, but it ended up being kind of streaky. Later, the bottoms of Allison’s shoes were sticky – she had been standing where Nicole dropped the punch. An hour or so later, I told Nicole she had nothing to worry about – one of our older members spilled her punch on the floor and was cleaning it up. I guess it wasn’t a good day for punch.

Allison made the cheese straws which were delightful. Our minister, Jason, really loved them too. I told Allison she should make some for him, put them up on the pulpit with a note that says, “Keep it short, Love, Allison.” Do you think it would work? I was lucky enough to take some of the cheese straws home with me and ate them all the next day as a snack at work.

For some reason I didn't get a photo of the cheese straws, but here's Allison serving cake.

Allison is a faithful reader - hi Allison!

Mrs. Irma made chicken salad, which seems to be her specialty. Any time we have salads at our Ladies’ Night Out events, Mrs. Irma makes chicken salad. She makes it for a lot of showers too and it’s really yummy. I took some of this home with me too, but was only home for about 30 minutes before I had to leave again and forgot to put it in the fridge. So, I had to throw it out because I’m not so sure about eating something with mayo in it that’s been sitting out for hours and hours.

I made toffee fruit dip, a recipe given to me by Erika. It’s really easy to make and was a huge hit at the shower. Lots of people were asking for the recipe. I asked Erika about posting it on here and she said it would be okay. You must make this for your next party. It’s so good for the fall and best served with apples.

Toffee Fruit Dip
1 – 8oz package of cream cheese, softened
¾ cup of brown sugar
1 bag Heath toffee bits (these are located beside the chocolate chips)
Mix together and chill. Serve with apples.

Easy, right?

Fruit Dip, Apples and Mints

Janet and Deborah made the mints and brought the nuts. Why are mints and nuts a staple at showers? Sandra picked up a cake from Sam’s that was very pretty and really moist and delicious. I’ve never had a Sam’s cake that wasn’t good. I thought I took a photo of the cake, but now can't find it - figures!

Lot’s of people came and we were really pleased with the turnout. Believe it or not, I actually had a nice time. I had a great time talking with Nicole and Allison and we laughed a lot, at ourselves more than anything else. The only thing that was bad was that I missed my Sunday afternoon nap. I think that’s why I don’t really like showers – because they are on Sunday afternoons, during nap time. Other than that it was a fun afternoon and the happy couple received a lot of nice gifts, which I guess is the whole point of it all anyway.

These are the kitchen doors going out to the dining room. It cracked us all up that the signs said "yes and "no" as to which door you are supposed to use.