The crazy month of baby showers and travel for me and a new baby for Ryan is officially over. I’m back in Florida and busy editing away. Here are a couple photos I’ve been editing of Ashlynn from her newborn shoot. So precious. Hope you all are having a great week so far!

I stumbled across Crate and Barrel’s $100,000 Ultimate Wedding Contest and thought I should share. Good luck to anyone who enters!

You guessed it, I’m posting from Portland and loving my time here so far. In case any of you head to Portland visit like I did, here’s my little guide of my favorite places I’ve discovered. For those that don’t, I hope you enjoy the photos and my sharing!

Crowsenberg’s Half and Half
923 Southwest Oak Street
Portland, OR 97205-2804

Today I ate one of the best sandwiches of my life, the William Tell, from this great little hole in the wall coffee/sandwich shop. They even have deviled eggs! The guy working there was incredibly friendly (in true Portland style) and their ice tea made me wonder why I never order it anywhere (the guy said it would be a guilty pleasure and so I decided to try). The top photo is obviously the store and the watercolor paintings hung on the opposite wall above the bar stools. Anyway, it’s a must for anyone hopping off the Blue Max line to go to the Pearl District.

Powell’s Books
1005 West Burnside Street
Portland, OR 97209

When researching Portland I became really excited to visit Powell’s, and then less so when I got here. But I’m so happy I actually went. Powell’s takes up a whole city block and has a coffee shop and tons of rooms/floors of books. I was in book heaven.

Meet Liz (Matt is busy playing on his iPhone which is why he wasn’t in this one) who I am staying with. They are one of my favorite couple friends. We’re on the Max…. the train/metro of Portland.

Portland has these tiny artistic touches, like the tiny gold birds inlaid in the sidewalk at the Max station. I adore them.

Bethel Heights Winery
6060 Bethel Heights Road Northwest
Salem, OR 97304-9733
(503) 581-2262

Our day trip on Sunday took us to Bethel Heights winery outside of Salem. I completely lucked out with the blue skies and gorgeous weather.

Moonstruck Chocolate Cafe
526 Northwest 23rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97210-3207

Moonstruck has the best hot cocoa I’ve ever had! As you can see, there’s tons of little chocolates you can buy too. Honestly, the foodies that we are, we were pretty stuffed already when we arrived and didn’t try any of those.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my mini Portland city guide! I’ll be back in Florida on the 24th.

You may have wondered where I’ve disappeared to these last couple weeks. The answer to that is baby shower world!  Together with my mom and two other hostesses, we threw a baby shower for my sister on February 13th. I was in charge of the decorations and, yes, I love designing events and also my sister, so I went hog wild.

The one request that my sister made for the baby shower was that I whip out my old “Words from the Wise”. It’s a series of questions that guests answer to give funny/sweet/useful advice. I did a version of them for my sister’s bridal shower and we loved the variety of answers that flooded in. Along with that, we had the guests fill out the front of an envelope to help Liz with her Thank You cards. Pens (matching the shower colors/nursery colors) were in the middle of each table. I believe that if you’re going to spend money on an event, you should be able to take home the bulk of the items from the event for future use. In that spirit, each table had a different stuffed animal (Jelly Cat brand), blocks (from the Land of Nod), Pottery Barn bud vases (to match my sister’s house later), and cheap but gorgeous spider mums from the Fresh Market.

The favors came in the form of a cookie buffet. Each jar had a favorite recipe from our grandmas and also our aunt Teri (who lives in Kansas City and couldn’t make it). Both of our grandmas passed away and I know one of the hardest parts of Liz’s pregnancy is that she can’t share the excitement with them. This turned out to be Liz’s favorite element of the shower. It also turned out to be a guest favorite too, especially Grandma White’s nut cookies – yum!

Happy Sunday, folks!

Sometimes I just can’t believe how grateful I am for choosing the thing that I love for my job. Today, as I edit, I’ve got a goofy grin on my face because I just feel really lucky to be me (cheesy, I know, but true). Not too long ago Ryan and I did a maternity shoot for Seth and Stephanie. Yesterday I got an email from them that her water broke and they were in the hospital. This morning I met little Ashlynn Grace, thirteen hours old and… pretty humbling to get to share these moments with people… Short story? Seth and Steph are awesome, Ashlynn Grace is adorable, I’m lucky, and here are some of the photos…

Ashlynn, in her daddy’s arms while he’s saying how proud he is of her non-cone head.

Nana and her nana shirt.

A happy face as she wakes up for all of 10 seconds.