Blessingway

Yesterday didn't start very auspiciously--I only slept about 1 1/2 hours and was completely exhausted. But I dragged myself out of bed and started getting ready for my Blessingway. First we made cream cheese frosting. Zari and Dio each got to frost their own cupcake.

The frosting was really good.

I thought about making a belly-shaped cake, but decided to keep it simple. Simple but colorful. We dubbed it the "crazy rainbow cake."

I used this sour cream cake recipe with a few modifications: cut the sugar in half, added 1/2 tsp salt, doubled both baking power & soda, added 1/8 tsp orange extract and 1 tsp almond in addition to the vanilla. A double recipe made a bundt cake and 24 cupcakes.

True to form, I was painting woodwork for the bathroom until 15 minutes before the Blessingway! You can see a bit of paint on my left arm.

We had a snowstorm all day, so several people weren't able to come. I had chipped about 4 inches of ice and sleet off the sidewalks and front steps the day before, so I delegated the shoveling to Eric.

We started out with sharing a thought or poem or just words of encouragement. I gave a little history lesson about LDS blessing rituals for childbirth. I think it's important to remember and reclaim our history as women.

We took a break to eat snacks and cake. Then to the fun part: the quilting bee! Here's the quilt stretched on its frame. I made the 4 squares in the corners, plus the blank square on the upper right. After the baby is born, I'll embroider its name and birth date and applique its footprint on the blank square. I love how it turned out!

The quilt is made of cotton batiks, embroidered cotton, and silk dupioni. It's even more vibrant in real life. The squares were a mix of appliques and geometrical quilt blocks. Not surprisingly, I got lots of fish & ocean themed squares because of the blue fish batik...

We had a lovely time filled with conversation and girl talk. Just what I needed!

If you weren't able to make it because of the snow, or if you're a long-distance friend or blog reader, don't forget my Virtual Blessingway tonight at 8 pm EST!