hi! happy wednesday evening to you. hope your day went well.
mine was go, go, go.. i had multiple meetings at my office today, had to run some work errands, toted the pups to and from daycare, and headed to momma b’s immediately after work for a baby shower!
i grew up across the street from the johnsons.. they have been our family friends since the beginning of (my) time. the youngest johnson sibling, lindsay, is pregnant with a little girl.
pretty sure it’s surreal for me, as i still picture her as a little girl. sigh, i’m getting old! anyway, my mom, sister, and i planned and threw a shower for lindsay tonight. it was so much fun working out all the food, decor, and details. 
i found some super cute bird cage invitations on etsy and personalized them with the shower deets.
there were “add ons” available to match the invites, which i thought was fun. we added on water bottle labels…
wishes for baby cards for guests to fill out…
and cute bird cage labels for all the food!
i may as well just show you everything.. it was all so tasty.
to drink, we threw together a cucumber peach refresher. yeah.. i made that name up on a whim. it was a 2 liter of sprite, 2 liters of water, one can of white peach juice concentrate, sliced cucumbers and peaches, and ice. easy and really good.
on the savory side, we had lots of salads, dips, and bites.
i made a layered greek dip. as a fan of mexican 7-layer dip and anything greek or mediterranean inspired, i have always wanted to throw something like this together! glad i finally did–it turned out to be a big hit.
i was a lazy cheater and bought all the layers pre-made from trader joe’s, but you can easily make them from scratch. on the bottom i spread white bean basil hummus, followed by olive tapenade, then a layer of tzatziki, then a layer of tomato basil hummus, then i topped it with mediterranean feta and a balsamic glaze drizzle. i served it with pita chips. i was also going to add a layer of diced roma tomatoes, but spaced it. this was such a quick and easy dish! i highly recommend you try it the next time you have to bring something to a party… or just make it at home and park it on the couch with a bag of stacy’s pita chips and devour it yourself. i won’t tell.
we cheated again with the turkey pinwheels.. these are from costco. they are pretty substantial in size, so we cut them in half and skewered them with toothpicks.
my sister made this harvest grain salad from danica’s recipe. i’d forgotten how good it is!
my mom and i put together these caprese skewers using mozzarella, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil.. finished with a drizzle of balsamic glaze.
some of the guests contributed to the spread. we had italian pasta salad…
fruit…
an incredible green salad (my favorite item of the night!) that had artichokes, avocado, bacon, and some amazing dressing that i NEED to get the recipe for. stat.
veggies & dip…
poppyseed swiss salad.. it was great, it had apples and swiss cheese and cashews!
no get together is complete without some sweets. we had chewy brownies, mint brownies, and miniature chocolate chip cookies made using the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.
my mom made some of her famous strawberry shortcake in trifle form. it’s simply torn up angel food cake, a dollop of whipped cream (and you have to whip your own cream with heavy cream, sugar, and lotttts of vanilla extract!), and diced strawberries. i grew up eating strawberry shortcake this way and no other can compare for me!
this shower was so fun and it was great to see a lot of familiar faces! it was actually a shower with all the ladies from my mom’s ward, so they all knew me when i was younger. congratulations to lindsay! she is going to be an amazing momma, i already know it.
PS after the shower i managed to head to gold’s to complete the GPP workout i missed today. it was lots of shoulder work in one simple movement. it was only ten minutes long, so that was nice. i actually really liked it–it’s called squad and you can see how it’s done here. kinda complicated to explain, but there’s a video on that link. i also did 200 double unders afterward, i am trying to do this daily! i hit a new PR for the longest string.. i got 47 in a row! so close to my goal of 50 :)
ok.. time for bed! good night! or good morning or afternoon.. whenever you are reading this!
Qs~
1. what is your go-to dish to take to parties?
2. what is your favorite sweet treat?
xo. janetha g.