Scenes from the French Countryside

How I wish I could tell you that I really was in Provence, but since I am grounded for a while, my friends just decided to bring the French countryside to me! BFF Mads, her (and my) sister Prits, and our good friend Mutya organized an absolutely lovely French-country-themed baby shower for me and le petit monstre. My amazing BFF pulled this off despite being yaya-less and nursing a newborn! I am incredibly lucky to have her in my life!

(Top) With Mads, who doesn't look like she just gave birth less than two months ago! (Above) With BFF Ching, who provided the prizes for the games, and party decorator/official photographer Mutya. What pretty friends I have, n'est-ce pas? (Incidentally, Mads speaks fluent French.)

Mutya decorated the tables with dainty glass vases filled with purple and blue flowers, and glass bowls with mini-chocolate bars. These were placed on top of white and silver doilies.

I think I overindulged. I absolutely cannot resist Crunch and Reese's!

It was a carb-filled afternoon, with yummy sandwiches, croissants, and quiche...

...a selection of delicious cheeses (my fave? The truffled cheese!)...

...and a crepe cake (so French!) with Nutella cream. (The eclairs were divine! The fudgy chocolate cake was from one of the guests.)

There were fun games, including a "compose a lullaby" one, which pitted my highly competitive high school friends against my equally competitive college friends. The winning lullaby (sung adagio to the tune of Justin Bieber's "Baby"):

...which led to me doing a lot of this...

Photo from Mutya

To go with the theme, I dressed in a doily-like lace dress, gold sandals, a turquoise-and-gold necklace, and a gold bangle. Mutya gave me a beautiful bouquet. I love getting flowers!  

There were gifts, of course (thanks, everyone!), and great advice from mommy friends, including Mads. (Her words of wisdom: "Sleep while you can!") To thank them all for their generosity, time, and love, I gave them the smell of the French countryside: lavender. I had lavender soap made, wrapped it in some tulle I had lying around, and included a little thank-you note from little monster. 

After most people left, some of us chilled with Mads's family, eating cheese and salami, and drinking wine (water for me). Ahh, to have had a glass of champagne would have made it perfect! Just a couple of weeks to go!

Before and After: Old Chair

Finally, another item checked off my to-do list! I had been meaning to have this old chair repainted and reupholstered with fabric that I got from Real Living's style editor, Gwyn.

This chair is part of an antique-y desk set that I got from my mom's house. The matching desk has been turned into a vanity. You can see a hint of it in this post. And the chair?

So cute!<3

I'd been wanting to have this done for a really long time, but when I asked around for quotes, the prices I got were pretty steep (as in I could buy a nice, new chair for the same amount)). I finally thought of asking interior designer Grace Moslares, who took care of repainting and rewiring our house before we moved in. She gave me such a good price. If you're looking for a pro for your home projects, email her at magarainteriors@yahoo.com.

Hmm I should have had the desk repainted too...

Pillow Talk (and a Bedroom Sneak Peek)

Was going through our linen closet and was pleasantly surprised to find a set of charming pillowcases that I had forgotten about...

These were given as a wedding gift, and feature iconic chairs by Le Corbusier (Chaise Longue), Charles Eames (at least, based on the website--I can't for the life of me remember what it's called), Eero Aarnio (Bubble Chair), and Arne Jacobsen (Ant Chair). Since I can't get my hands on any of these chairs just yet, I guess the pillowcases will have to suffice. Too bad they don't have my dream Barcelona Chair (white, please). Um, yeah, I salivate over designer chairs the way other girls drool over designer bags.

These pillowcases look so cute against our purple sheets, mocha walls, and painted headboard! In this photo, there's also a hint of our vintage sidetables--stolen inherited from my mom--IKEA lamps, and retro-looking iPod dock. Will do a house post once I finally get everything in order! I am so raring to get a humongous plant for the living area...but since a cactus (a cactus!) is practically dying in my care, I'm a little worried about how a larger, higher-maintenance plant would do.

Baby, Baby, Baby Oh

I volunteered to take care of decorations for a friend's baby shower today. I loved this post so much that I chose a color palette of blue, orange, and brown--equal parts sweet and sophisticated, and subtly boyish.

I wasn't quite as thorough as my peg (for one thing, we don't have stores that sell really nice scrapbook paper for a dollar!), but doing this really inspired me to develop my baby shower styling skills! A few photos...

I made banderitas bearing the name of the baby boy, who'll be making his grand entrance any day now.

Mommy Rhea joked that she would be using the same banner at Aaron Matthew's baptism.

I used cartolina and some striped wrapping paper from The Wrap Shop. My friend Sheila added the bibs.

I originally wanted to hang blue and orange paper flowers from the ceiling but 1) the Japanese paper that looked orange in National Bookstore's light turned out to be yellow in daylight, and 2) it wasn't feasible to hang them. Our host Tita Grace called their househelp to take a look at my handiwork, and Yaya suggested that we use the flowers as centerpieces, with some real blooms (from Market! Market!) right at the center. Ingenious!

Aren't they purty? One of the shower organizers, Sandy, asked if she could take one home, the way Pinoys take home centerpieces at weddings. Haha

If you want to learn how to make these paper flowers, click here.

Sheila brought some baby clothes and shoes that she intended to hang, but she decided to just scatter them throughout the dining room. These were mixed with some balloons that Tita Grace had on hand.

I'm starting to dream up baby shower themes and am raring to decorate another friend's upcoming party! Too bad it's still about four months away!