Vote Yam '08

Even though it is smack dab in the heat of summer, and our summer seasonal Tradewinds Tripel is about to hit stores, just like the grasshopper and office supply and clothing store commercials are telling us, it's time to start preparing for fall. Instead of stocking up on protractors, notebooks and erasers, we at The Bruery have decided to hoard a different sort of supply, namely yams. I am sure you are thinking that I must have misspelled yeast, or that I meant to say hops, with the hop shortage and all. But we like to think a little different here, and we have a yearn'in for the yams. 440 lbs of yams to be exact.

Tomorrow we will be brewing our fall seasonal- Autumn Maple. And for this beer, we have decided to abandon pumpkin for the OTHER fall favorite- yams. It's the year of the yam. Pumpkins are so over. They have no flavor of their own, carving them with those cheesy pumpkin carving knives is hopeless, and they always end up just getting that fuzzy mold on the bottom of them, well before Halloween. Now yams are the true friend- freshly available year round, , better nutrition than a regular potato, and just the right amount of phallic shape to warrant a snicker or two at the grocery store. Oh and those sweet potato fries that everyone loves so much? Really yams.

Pumpkins have had their day, so now it is time to give yams a chance. We will be hand roasting 440 lbs of yams on the barbeque, to be added to this special beer. Oh So Yammy! Maple syrup, molasses, and traditional pumpkin pie sort of spices will be added as well. We will report back with how it goes!

Tea Party – Baby Shower Favour Ideas

In our previous post titled Tea Party - Baby Showers we discussed different ideas that you could use for baby showers with a tea party theme. Here are some favour ideas that we can create for you:

1. Our mini-purses pictured above can be filled with four different types of exotic teas (tea bags) for the guests to enjoy after the party.

2. The Floral collection sachets can also be given as favours with samples of teas or tea seeds.

3. A mini-cup and saucer with a tea bag wrapped in clear cover and tied with ribbons. It will make a perfect keepsake baby shower favour.

4. If you want to shift away from the tea favours then you can use any of our favour boxes to fill with cookies or chocolates. Tip: Put them in clear or polka dotted bags before placing them in the favour boxes.

If you don’t have time to put the favours together yourself, Finest Expressions offers complete Wrapped up! service. Once you select a favour design, just give us your order details and the complete favours will be delivered to your doorstep.

Tea Party - Baby Shower

One of the most popular themes for a baby shower is that of a ‘Tea Party’. There are a lot of beautiful decorating ideas, recipes and gifts that you could work with to throw this wonderful themed baby shower.

Start with getting tea party invitations to reflect this theme and set a tone for the event. If you can’t find the tea party invitation cards then simply design your own. See our post on Do-It-Yourself Baby shower invitations. Some ideas for design could be to cut out the invitations in tea pot shapes or to create an invitation that looks like a tea bag cover.

If you are not having an intimate gathering of a few or don’t want to bust out your good china, use exquisite fancy paper dinnerware such as the Caspari Collection. Mix and match to create your unique style for the tea party.

The menu could be absolutely delicious for this baby shower! Serve delectable treats such as mini sandwiches, pastries, biscuits and scones. Check out Joy of Baking for scrumptious tea party treats. You could select a variety of exotic and herbal teas for the beverage bar. However, keep in mind that some teas are not safe for pregnant women to drink.

For the main table centerpiece try our 3-tier My Tea Party- Baby Diaper Cake. Its beautifully designed with 45 diapers, baby clothes, toys, silk flowers and ribbons. For favour ideas, check out our post on Tea Party – Favour Ideas.

Its an elegant theme that the mom-to-be and guests are sure to enjoy!

Baby Shower Bombonieres

Baby Shower party favours are a little token of appreciation you can give to your guests for being part of your baby celebration. Petit and adorable baby shower bombonieres are 8” inch tulle circles filled with sweet goodies. We fill ours with colour coordinated jelly beans and tie them with pretty floral ribbons.

If you would like to fill them with your own contents, we offer do-it-yourself bombonieres kits, that comes with the 8” inch tulle circles and pre-cut ribbons. All you will need to do is get together with some friends and have fun while putting your baby shower favours together.

Personalize them by making your own tags or getting them custom printed from Vista Print.

Stay tuned this month for more adorable and trendy baby shower favour ideas!

Do-It-Yourself Baby Shower Invitations

Creating your own baby shower invitation is a unique way of adding a personal touch to the event. It’s easy to design and it’s a fun project to work on for the baby shower.

You don’t even need to know how to use funky graphic design programs. All you would need is the user-friendly MS Word. Pre-packaged card-stock usually comes with instructions on how to set-up the Word document. Another option is to use one of the many free invitation templates available on the web.

Notables Stationers, a fine stationery company based in Edmonton, Alberta has a wide selection of fine paper and envelopes to help you create your own baby shower invitations. Apart from blank paper stock and imprintables, they also have ribbons and brad/clips to help assemble the invitations.

Here a few suggestions and tips to design your own baby shower invitations:

1. Keep your design simple. Don’t crowd it with a lot images since this will make it look cluttered.
2. Use white card stock if you are planning on using colour images. This will bring out the colours really well and won’t look too distracting.
3. Instead of using a folded card design you could use post card stock that might be easier to print on and you don’t have to spend time folding it.
4. Try to stick with using two fonts at the most and use a font that is easy to read. Go easy on the italics and bold function so that you give your design a clean look.
5. Use a picture of mom-to-be or the parents-to-be to add that personal touch and customize the invitation.

Above is a sample invitation we designed using MS Word. Since it’s a couple’s baby shower, so we tried to go easy on the pink and used very little italics. Always keep the theme of the baby shower in mind and try to work that into your invitations as much as possible.

Lastly…have fun and let your creativity flow!

Product Of The Month - Welcome Little Princess

Our creative team at Finest Expressions is always striving to create gifts that are not just beautiful to look at but also incredibly useful for the recipient. Our product of the month is a baby girl gift basket that is based on a princess theme. Its contains unique gift items that you won't find in usual baby gift baskets. This includes a Piggy bank set and an adorable note pad for the parents to keep track of her highness' attendees (a.k.a baby sitters. )

Contents:
• Two Pairs of Socks
• Piggy Bank Set includes:
• My first Curl
• My first Tooth
• My First Piggy Bank
• Baby Sitter Notes
• Body Suit
• Cap
• Princess Message Pillow

Available at Finest Expressions-Designer Gifts & Gift Baskets .

Keepsake Box

In one of our earlier post we had talked about how to involve the older siblings in making mom something special for her baby shower. Here is a keepsake box made by a Finest Expressions' older sibling for a very special baby brother. With a little help from grandma, the 6 year old big brother was able to take a simple cardboard shoe box and transform it into a perfect keepsake box. Its wrapped in blue felt cloth and is accented with little felt stars. It even has a little cut-out window to put a picture of the new baby.

At the baby shower, all family and friends wrote down their baby advice or special quotes on a piece of paper and we stored it in here. So its now become a special keepsake box filled with love from family and friends that mom can keep forever.