My Punny Valentine - College Care Package

Our congregation has a program where families can adopt a college student for the school year.  We are asked to encourage them throughout the year with prayers, cards, care packages, messages on social media--generally whatever we are comfortable with.

We adopted a young man whom we have known for a long time who is a senior.  With Valentine's Day approaching, I thought we could send him a little care package, ya know, "show the love". :)
When I started looking for valentine ideas for guys, all I seemed to find were gifts and cards for a boyfriend or hubby.  That was just a little too romantic for what we were aiming for, and anything funny seemed inappropriate as well.  I also wanted to send some practical items along with some of his favorites and of course, something silly.

As is tradition now at our house, valentines must be punny.
So, I did some googling, and walked through a store or two, and came up with the following list of punny phrases and items.
Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut out hearts and hand-wrote the notes on each one.  Maybe when I have more time and experience, I will do this with the print and cut features of the Cameo, but I kinda like the handwritten part.

THE LIST:
You have been o-fish-ally heart-attacked! (Goldfish) 
We wheelie like you! (Hot Wheels in school colors)
You are all write in our book! (pen)
You are looking sharp! (Sharpies)
For nacho average guy (Doritos)

Yoda best! (Yoda)
You da balm! (Carmex lip balm)
We think you are Extra special! (Extra gum)

We love any raisin to be punny! (yogurt covered raisins)

We hope that in Subway we made you laugh!  (Subway gift card)

Our niece stayed with us the night after I shipped this box, so I "heart-attacked" her as well, since she loves puns.  She was also headed out on a youth retreat for the weekend, and I knew she would NEED a candy supply.   Unfortunately, I did not get a photo of the candy that I left on her bed, so you will have to use your imagination:

Lemon tell you something....(Box of Lemonheads)
You are beary special and.....(Haribou gummy bears)
You are o-fish-ally our favorite valentine!  (Swedish Fish)

I hope that you have had a happy Valentine's Day doing whatever you love!

House Divided Baby Shower

Every once in a great while I have these creative spurts and I just HAVE to do a project.  A baby shower for a dear friend put me into one of those spurts.   I was part of a wonderful crew of people who all have different and awesome talents, and we just work well together.   Since the mommy-to-be is a huge sports fan and she is one half of an  "Alabama House Divided", we chose to do a football theme for the shower.  Plus, it was unintentionally planned for Super Bowl Sunday.

(In case you don't live in the South, or watch college football, and don't know what an Alabama House Divided is, that is where one spouse is an Alabama fan and one spouse is an Auburn fan.   Hard to believe, but those couples DO exist.)

Invitations

So, my task was to come up with the invitations that were being mailed.  After a quick (ha!) perusal of Pinterest,  I came up with these designs.  I created them using Powerpoint and Google Images.

    

 I loved the fact that they looked like real tickets and that I could do two on one piece of cardstock.   They were roughly 4.5" x 6.5", so they fit perfectly in a business-sized envelope.   We sealed them with these "Special Delivery" stickers that I made up on Avery.com.

 

Gifts

While I was perusing Pinterest, I saw a pin for a football shaped baby blanket.  The instructions looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a shot.  Click here for the instructions.   I did change a few things. 

First, I used a different material for the back; I chose a blue/brown dot snuggle flannel from Joann's.  Note: Pay attention to the widths of your material or you get to make a second trip to Joann's!  Yes, voice of experience.

Second, I added a layer of quilt batting.  So, when I was ready to cut the back and batting, I layered it top to bottom : brown, blue, batting and pinned. Remember-pretty sides together.  Be sure you have the space to do the pinning; I did mine on the floor since I didn't feel like cleaning off the dining room table.  Which means I had feline assistance until I threw him out of the room.

 Third, being an engineer and a football fan, I changed the laces configuration to make it true to life with one long center lace and eight short laces.  (I did refrain from making them to scale though)  This change was almost my undoing, but I finally figured out that I should sew on the long lace first, and then sew on the short laces.   The long lace was 1.5" wide and 15" long.  The short laces were 1" wide and 4.5" long spaced one inch apart.  

This was the first time that I had ever sewn using minky (the brown material), so it was bit of a struggle to get it to stay put with the white fleece.  Once I got the hang of it, I was able to knock it out in no time.   For an experienced seamstress, this would probably take less than a couple of hours to do.  

I am NOT an experienced seamstress.

Corsages

One of the tasks I chose was to acquire corsages for the mommy-to-be and the grandmas-to-be.   I had an idea of what I wanted, so I contacted a friend who owns Rabbit’s Nest Florist and shared with her some photos I found on Etsy.   I was looking for something reminiscent of homecoming corsages, but without the big ol’ mum in your face, plus we needed to incorporate all of the school colors.   She came up with these, which we all just loved!

 

Decorations

I had absolutely nothing to do with these, but wanted to share the awesome creativity of my friends.

 

Goal post made from PVC pipe and fittings on the gift table

Goal post on the food table on opposite side of room

Diaper cakes on the mantel with baby bottles in referee coozies anchoring the balloons

"Thank you for taking time out to celebrate our all-star!" with Starbursts and diaper cakes

The guest "book" - football shaped wooden plaque

Food

We decided to stick with quantities of a few shower standards that were also considered tailgating goodies.   

Since the format was afternoon come-n-go, we chose to go with the following:

Punch chosen by the mommy-to-be

Pigs in blanket

Veggie tray

Meat and cheese tray

Fruit tray

Nuts and mints

Football shaped mints

and the star of the food table, the cake!

If you are planning a House Divided shower, I hope that we have been able to give you some ideas!