a baby shower

Recently my mom and I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for our close friend Valerie. She was expecting her 3rd little boy (who has since arrived safe and sound, and adorable!!!) and she had most everything she really needed for the baby but I personally believe that every baby deserves a shower, no matter how many siblings he or she has, so we themed our party around restocking her diaper bag. They had no idea what to name this little guy, and no big plans for decorating his room, but Valerie wanted teal and green incorporated somehow . . . so we ran with it! I sewed the flag banners the day before the party using cloth fat quarters and bias tape. We held the party in the back room of our church (since most of the invitees attend there, we wanted a central location that was large enough for everyone . . . and the place was packed!) My mom made the blue and green puffs to hang from the ceiling and we tacked up the banners in different places. Valerie also has a deep love for argyle, so the invitations (oops, photo of those to come) were argyle paper diaper bags. And since it was a brunch party, we had fruit and juices and we made muffins and frosted them with cream cheese. The diamonds are blue and green fruit roll ups cut up and the stripes were just more cream cheese dyed with neon food coloring. The invitations explained how this was a shower to restock the diaper bad and listed ideas of things to put in it. Mom and I picked out a diaper bag set for her and were able to find it in her colors . . . score!

We were really happy with how the shower turned out! And I love the colors . . . I dreamed in teal and green for weeks afterwards!

I really wanted to do a blanket for her that fit with her argyle-ness and that was in the teal and green, but I couldn't find anything online in the way of a pattern. There were TONS of purchase-able argyle things online, but none in the colors I wanted and none in crochet. I looked for fabric that might work for a rag quilt or a tag blanket but there was NOTHING good enough. So I took matters into my own hands and came up with my own:I crocheted the squares in the colors and in brown for a background, then set to work on making the half-squares to fill in the edges. Funny thing . . . half-squares are really just triangles (yes, I sucked at geometry) but crocheting them isn't as easy as it sounds. I tore out quite a few attempts before I got one that looked right. Perserverance, right? Finally the whole thing was done and I did a simple border to finish it off:

I love that the border looks like the bottom of an argyle sweater -- total accident! I think I'll write up what I did in pattern form and list it in my Etsy store . . . I can't be the only one out there who wanted to crochet an argyle blanket.

Anyway, Valerie loved the blanket and took it to the hospital with her . . . and I got a txt picture of him wrapped up in it, which is the part of making blankets that I LOVE!