My Surprise Bridal Shower {LATE POST}

Chocolate Cocktails (very yummy)

Hmmm...My surprise bridal shower was different shades of awesome, i'm truly blessed with the sweetest friends and i'm grateful to have them in my life.

You either throw yourself a bridal shower or your friends plan one for u; i have always been a part of the latter. I was kinda wary my friends would not be able to plan and execute a bridal shower for me 'cos i am always the planner and main player in all the surprise bridal showers we've held for our married friends. I've written about bridal showers and how best to plan them, as well as baby showers i have planned in the past and i know how they typically work, at least in Nigeria.

The typical surprise bridal shower starts with 2-3 close friends of the bride-to-be coming together some months before the wedding to decide on a date, venue, decor, activities and a budget for the shower as well as contacting the groom-to-be and letting him know their plans so he can help surprise the bride. After this they create a group usually on Whatsapp or BBM to invite other friends of the bride-to-be and update them on the plan so far, get more suggestions from them and inform them of the amount to be contributed per person and the account to pay into (of course na when e reach money matter people take off, act funny, etc. making money collection the most stressful/annoying part of the whole process).
I am always the one that kicks off this planning process and i know how stressful it can be (though i enjoy it) so u can imagine why i was nervous. Infact i thought i won't get to have a bridal shower! But ma gals came through for me *wide grin*

awon goons mi

My shower held on Sunday, 11th May 2014, the weekend before my wedding. Hubby-to-be was in charge of helping my different groups of friends link up, well the ones in Abuja anyway (my friends dnt all know each other. I have office friends, uni friends, etc.) and making sure i dressed up nice and arrived at the venue in time for my surprise. He did a good job.

My cake

Being the planning lover that i am, i asked Yoee to fill me in on the planning process and she told me how stressful and annoying it was (as i'd expected it'll be) but i enjoyed hearing every tidbit. There were those that contributed even though they could not make it to the shower(Mel who had just had her baby and Wyn who was in Lagos), i sent them thank you messages after the shower and pictures; those who argued on the agreed amount or paid late; those who went all out and made me gush. It was fun being the celebrant this time and hearing how the shower was put together. I even added an Excel sheet to my wedding budget of the whole planning process and those that contributed to making the shower a success. Don't mind me, i just like having this stuff documented so i can look back on it. Oya straight to the main shower gist.

Yoee told me they needed music for a get-together i think (can't really remember), so i needed to get my butt down dere with my laptop and playlist, she said she had discussed with hubby and he had agreed to bring me down. I guessed it might be my surprise bridal shower since that was the last day of the weekend before our wedding weekend. I sha dressed up and went with the flow, i randomly chose to wear a black and white gown and funny enough black was the color code for the shower. Hubby took me to Bolton White Apartments and as the door opened SURPRISE!!!! it was the sweetest thing, i was just grinning like a Cheshire cat, from ear to ear. They pulled me in and draped a bride-to-be sash over me and put a crown on my head. I really did feel special.

It held in a nice 2-bedroom apartment with a big living room, kitchen and balcony at our disposal, i loved the setup, decor and the cake(this is the EXACT cake i wanted, big ups to Yoee for catching my hints back then); It was so heart-warming seeing how much effort they put into everything. Yoee a.k.a Alcohol goddess brought the alcohol, Farida brought the small chops, pizza n soft drinks, Ejura brought cupcakes, Pauline was in charge of decor, Bola a.k.a Miss B was the MC and Joy was the Photographer/Videographer. I was the DJ still. lol.

enjoying my small chops

After hugging and thanking the gals, they finally got me seated on my 'throne', placed a tantalizing plate of small chops in my hands and things were set in motion by my able MC Miss B and her tiny voice. lol. The first game was 'How well do you know the bride-to-be?', everyone had a pen and paper and Miss B would ask them questions about me (my fave food, color, etc.) and they would write their answers down and the person with the highest no. of correct answers is the winner. This game was so funny 'cos they kept trying to ask me for expo or confirm if their answers were right while Miss B did her best to block my face so i wouldn't pay attention them. Chide won this game and the highlight was when Miss B read out some of the hilarious answers they had written, we all had a good laugh.

Yoee was having way too much fun torturing me

Next game was 'How well do you know your husband-to-be', i alone played this game, Miss B would ask me a question and i'd answer within 10 secs then she'd compare my answers to what Hubby-to-be had written for them. Yoee was on punishment duty, standing happily beside me as she was in charge of drowning me in alcohol for every question i answered wrong. This gehl eh!! she really wanted to drown me, even questions i answered correctly she'll say time was up and make me guzzle down *smh* luckily she only got to do that about 3 different times and that was how i discovered that i quite like Coffee Patron.

The process

Joy (on my left in the pic) won obviously. lol.

Next game was the 'Tissue wedding dress', the gals were divided into 2groups, they picked out their models and were asked to design an outfit on them using just tissue. It was too funny, i just sat down watching their 'creations' take form actually it was falling apart. I was to pick the winner and had to go with the model that managed to keep her tissue dress on. We all had a good laugh with this game.

The winning banana found a spot on the cake

Next game was 'Fastest fingers', the gals were all given bananas and a condom sachet, the fatest to get the condom on the banana properly is the winner. Oh my days, u had to be there!! i laughed so hard i fell off my seat when Miss B was inspecting the condom-wearing bananas. Ejura was the winner of this game. Some claimed their bananas needed a bigger condom (Magnum tins), some put it on backwards, some put a rip in it, some said the condom was to big for their bananas, some did not get it on all the way. It was too funny walahi!

Last game of the night 'Charades' had us rolling on the floor laughing while clutching our sides in pain with aching jaws. The gals were separated into 2 groups and each group would pick 1 person to be their representative; the representative would go to the opposing group and they would tell her a word or sentence to go describe to her group without using words and her group would try to guess it. Where do i even begin with how competitive and funny this game turned out to be, i even participated. Let's just say it involved trying to describe 'crocodile in the ocean', 'sex not in the beach' and 'igede dancers'. Try picturing how someone would describe the above to their group. It was crazy!

Hubby-to-be came around as we were rounding up so i cut the cake, took pics with him & d gals and he happily got a take-away pack of small chops and cake when leaving. The gals and i touched up, they cut cake to take away and we went to Sofa Lounge to karaoke and dance the night away. I honestly had way too much fun and laughter for one night. Ejura, Yoee and I finally went back to the apartment @past midnight, we cleaned up the messed up apartment a bit (we didn't have to but i have a bit of OCD) and put the leftovers in the fridge. I was given my lovely gifts and we crashed.

My gifts

Next morning, we put the apartment in order some more, warmed and ate our leftovers, looked through pics & vids and had a good laugh before checking out around midday. The shower was more than i could have ever expected and i'm grateful!

Toodles!XooX

My fave birthday gift!!!!

The Picture

My last birthday was December 23, 2013 and i put up a post about it here, i ; yes it's around the corner again, but then this post is not about my upcoming birthday so let's stay on course :)

I'm here to rave about my fave birthday gift of all time! A charcoal painting of me, the gift came several months (sometime after May) after my birthday from a close friend who i really cherish. I honestly can't be grateful enough for the creative and artistic minds i have as friends, i feel very priviledged to know them on a deeper level and having them around has definitely expanded my mindset and made me more conscious of the artistic and creative abilities i possess and that surround me.

Words cannot express how much i love this painting!!! I had given a close friend one as her birthday gift but i honestly could not justify getting one for myself without feeling extremelyyyy VAIN.lol. and that was the one thing i really wanted for my birthday. My birthday is around the Christmas period so u can imagine how it goes, i don't think i ever got to celebrate my birthday in school (Pri, Sec. or Uni) because we were always closed for the holidays by then and even @home, most of my friends would have travelled to their different villages or have holiday plans made by their parents. I would be with my family and get a cake and drinks and Jollof rice and chicken (of course!) and a few cards and even fewer gifts, i did not really mind 'cos i had gotten used to it, but i would made a big fuss if my friends did not call or text me (it was more important to me than gifts). I beefed my friends who had their birthdays in school and would get loads of gift as well as loads of pranks!! Drinks will be poured on them while they were fully clothe and they would be drenched in all sorts of mixtures the minds of the perpetrators could think up (garri,dusting powder,water,closeup, etc.) and some would even beat them LOL! *smh #goodol'memories. It was always hilarious, well to me anyway, alas i never got to experience that, though i don't really care for the getting drenched part.

As i have grown older, i've been lucky enough to have friends being around to celebrate my birthday with me. My 23rd and 24th birthdays being the most 'Friendful' birthdays! and i'm more than grateful for the experience. I honestly have no idea how my 25th birthday will go and to be honest i'm not really thinking about it (stalling getting older as much as i can!!inevitable though), a holiday trip with the hubby will be nice though, y'all know how much i love to travel :D. Anyways bk to my fave birthday gift so far, the painting was given to me by Ishy B and it's a portrait of me from my wedding. He couldn't have selected a more perfect image and i'm pleasantly thrilled about it and found the perfect place for it in my new home. 

Big thanks to the artist behind the work TeenezMartinez. It was painted to perfection. You can check out the painting he made for my friend as well as other paintings he has done and the stages involved on his blog and instagram page. I put up a post about it a while back.

Ok i'm done raving about my painting. lool. It was definitely worth the wait :D

Toodles!XooX

23 on the 23rd of December (II)- Super late post

 

I turned 23yrs old on the 23rd December, 2012. Whoop Whoop!! oh thank you all, you are far too kind *curtsies and bows...ignore me abeg *giggles. Allow me revel in the awesomeness that was my birthday via this post. Merci, as you oblige. I celebrated my birthday in December (did a quick post here, 'cos i knew it'd take me a while to do a full post; did not tink it'd take me this long though *Covers face*) and my age and date of birth happened to be the same number 23. Yes i'm one of those people that note things that have the same no. #judgemoinot. I had the most awesome birthday ever or shall i say birthday week!! I got loads of gifts and was able to have a small get together with my friends which is what i have been craving for a couple of my birthdays now without actually getting it. I got a Nexus 4 android phone from le boo, a beautiful abaya from one of my friends that travelled to Dubai earlier, a cake, a set of make-up brushes, 2 NACK dresses, a NACK top, alcohol (White wine & Amarula which are still in my fridge, i'm not a fan of alcohol), perfumes, earrings, necklaces,cards, chocolates a red & black, bodycon gown, money and the gifts are still rolling in from people that were not in town during my birthday. I can't even start to quantify the calls, text messages,Facebook posts/messages, Tweets/DMs, BBMs, DPs & PMs, etc. I felt too too loved! This was definitely not like my other regular birthdays.
God definitely always makes a way, i had been looking forward to my birthday since December began, i wanted to have a get together and do something different from my usual birthday which normally just entails me chilling at home with my family, i get a cake and a few gifts, most of my friends are usually outta town for the holidays. I was that kid that never got to celebrate her birthday in School 'cos we were always on vacation by the time it came around and because it's Christmas period, there's usually so much preparation for that, that my birthday gets rolled over, which i have never liked! but i learnt to live with it, cherish the few gifts i get, phone calls, texts, etc. Woe betide u if u are my friend and forget my birthday!!lol, but that was back then anyway, in the years of recent, i don't even stress about people forgetting my birthday. Oya o, back to my birthday.

My week began with me stressing over what to do for my birthday and my broke state, before i knew it Friday was upon me, i got my beautiful Abaya from my friend, Habib, on Thursday so i 'launched' it to work on Friday, lol. After work hours another friend, Bolaji, took me for ice-cream (Blue bunny- birthday cake flavor) and pancakes @my fave ice-cream place Dunes!! We chatted, ate and he dropped me off @home, i saw le boo later in the day and we chilled and jisted about my birthday plans.

Saturday, some friends came to visit me and one of them came in from Zaria to pass the night @my place, i cooked Jollof Spaghetti, watched some series, jisted with my friend and just chilled wondering if my birthday would be like any other regular day that would just pass by. Saturday evening, le boo and my very close friend ND, called me up to get dressed that we were going for a dinner. YAAAaaaayyyyYYY!! (My friends are the best). We went to Uptown Asian Cuisine & Lounge, some people were also having a suprise birthday party there, it was really cool. I wasn't so hungry though + i was upset with le boo at the time (can't remember what it was about though) so i had some WonTon soup, we jisted and took loads of pics, i had a really good time and got back home around 11 pm.

Sunday was upon me!yikes...still no plan, but i had decided to cast all my worries away and let the day unfold itself. I went to church full of joy that came from somewhere i honestly do not know. I woke up early, got dressed for church and my friend dropped me off close to church, i sang songs of praises and thanks as i strolled the remaining distance to church. It was the first service and it was a swell one!! I had just 3k on me at this time but i wasn't even worried about that. I gave out of it for my offering to show my appreciation to God for all he had done for me thus far and all he will still do for and allowing me to see another birthday hale and hearty. I danced well well during praises and thanksgiving, the highlight of the church service for me was when some elderly people and youths came to dance 'azonto' and 'etighi' at the front of the church, it was hilarious although one elderly lady got it to the T. After church i strolled back home, singing and full of even more joy. I rested a bit, ate and my friend travelled back to Zaria.

I was home alone, enjoying my series and responding to calls, texts, chats, etc. when two of my friends came around separately. We jisted a bit, then one of them told me to doll up that we were going to Transcorp Hilton to have lunch, as i should not be at home dulling on my birthday...lol I Agree!! I got ready and i had a swell time! i had mashed potatoes and Stake and a Peach Melita for dessert *bliss with 2 Chapmans (i love chapman and *btw rich people dey enjoy o!!).
He dropped me off @my close friend's place where i played with her niece and nephews and they gave me a card with the sweetest wordings (dose kids just know how to light your world), we watched some cartoons and i gave my friend some money to help me get 2 packs of canned coke in case anyone came around to greet me when i got home.

I received a call from eju while there that she was baking me a cake as my birthday gift (awwwww), i felt so loved and then i got a few more calls from Mandie and his 2 bros and Saidat that they were on their way to my place (oh oh). I said my goodbyes to the kids and my friend promptly dropped me off at home. Lucky for me they had not waited too long. Le boo and i made up and he also came over, Eju came over with the cake and Josi ,Esiri, Francis and Ma bday mate Chinedu joined us. We chilled in my small room, jisted, ate the cake and had drinks and everyone left with a slice of cake. I also gave my neighbours and the guards some cake. I was super happy when the day was ova and slept with a smile on my face.

I had a brief embarrassing moment though, the Jollof Spaghetti i had made the day before had gone bad because i did not heat it before storing it (it had fish in it) and i had no clue it was bad 'cos it dint even have an odour!!! I warmed it when my guests were around and served it to 2 of dem, just for them to taste it and tell me it had gone bad!!! I cringed, apologized profusely and took it away to trash it. *shrug-these things happen.
All in all, it was a great birthday week and holiday :D

Toodles!XooX

Surprise Baby Shower!!!

Mel has given birth!!! and on her wedding anniversary too!April Kid!! How awesome is that?! And seriously that seems like the best anniversary gift to give her husband, though i'm not sure how much fun it'll be for Zoey sharing her birthday with her parent's anniversary. But we'll wait till she's old enough to care about that. I'm soo excited u'd think sey na me born. I went straight to the hospital to see her as soon as i got the good news. Okay let's take some steps back, this post is called 'Baby Shower' afterall and it definitely happened before Zoey's birth. So here's the jist bout how it went down.

Y'all know we love surprises!! So of course the baby shower was a surprise planned with Mel's husband (He's always a huge supporter of our surprise plans). We went with the easiest plan and minimal cost. We started by creating a bbm group and adding close friends to the group, we agreed that we would not be contributing money this time around, instead each of us picked something to bring and to handle, e.g. i chose to bring a cake, handle decor and make waffles, while others picked snacks, pop corn, drinks, food, ice-cream etc. 

We agreed to get to have the shower at her house, we spoke with her husband and he let us know when they were back from church, so we arrived at the house one after the other. I was the first to arrive around 3pm and i went with a friend, Mel was sooo surprised to see me and not long after the other ladies arrived as well. She went to change into a comfy picture friendly outfit while we decorated the house. We did not know what gender she was having so i used pinks, blues and whites for the decor. I had done quite some research (Pinterest mostly) before the day so i had a programme for the shower and fun games for us all to play, my experience with the bridal showers also helped because i knew the type of games to select based on the guests attending the shower so no one was bored. You can check out the programme & games here  and here for other useful links(themed drinks, decor, music,etc,). 

We all wore colorful beads to spice up our outfits.

Our music playlist comprised of only songs that had baby in it-Justin Beiber, Britney Spears and More

We had loads of fun playing games and left the house at around 7pm to go to the Karaoke Bar before we rounded up for the night, I had a swell time with this shower. We made waffles and had it with ice-cream, had cupcakes and a cake with a Supermom topper, Pop corn, Fried rice, Peppered chicken, Juice and soft drinks, water, biscuits, cookies and other mini pastries. The games we played were:

• Midnight Diaper-This game was fun, i made a list of funny and witty statements and handed everyone markers and 2 diapers each to write on, the mom-to-be picked her favorite stamement and the guest that wrote it was the winner. We then piled up all the 'marked' diapers with the statements into a stash for the mom-to-be and dad-to-be to use when the crazy midnight diaper changes start. Hopefully it will put a smile on their faces on such days.
  
• How huge is Mel's Tummy- For this game, all the guests picked a ball of yarn and cut it to the size they felt the expecting mom's tummy was, after all the guests have cut a piece and have it in hand, each person will measure their string around the baby bump and the guest with the closest size to the bump wins.
  
  
  
  
• Guess when Baby 'Cool' will land and the gender- I printed a Calendar with only the month of April since i knew that's when mel was due and passed it round for each guest to write their name in d date box they thik the baby will be born and draw the head of the gender they felt Mel will have. There was no winner for this game 'cos we had to wait till she gave birth to find out.
  
• How many nursery rhymes do you know- This game involved guests singing the nursery rhymes they know and trying to top that of the others while i took note of the number of the nursery rhymes each guest had mentioned, after a little while i told them to stop and the guest with the most no. of rhymes won. (It was fun reliving our childhood through this)
• Baby name game- I modified this game a bit and made each guest write 3 names for a boy and 3 names for a girl that they felt were really cool names then i made Mel pick her favorite names for both gender and the guests that wrote the names were the winners.
• Name that Baby Animal- This was my favorite game 'cos i laughed till my tummy hurt, i had printed a list of many popular animals and some rare ones like Platypus, Kangaroo, etc. and i was the moderator. I would read out the name of the animal and the first to get the name of the baby animal would get a point, at the end, i tallied each person's point and the guest with the highest point wins. I got all sorts of hilarious guesses from the guests and the game was also educative.
  
• Advice for the mom-to-be -There was a mom among us so she gave a lot of useful advice on how to prepare and care for the baby while the rest of us focused on talking about her keeping her relationship and home and also asked each other questions and got useful answers.
• Name that Disney Cartoon- For this game i did a mashup of many different popular old and new Disney toons and while each clip played, the first to get the name of the cartoon gets a point, after the clips finished playing, i tallied the points and the guest with the highest number wins. Watching the tunes was definitely a fun trip back in time and we all had loony smiles on our face by the time it was over.
• Draw a baby- No artistic skills needed for this game, had a good laugh looking at the stick drawings from the guests

Gifts

The momma-to-be got 2 gifts, a diaper cake from me (i learnt how to make it on Youtube here with just diapers, baby wipes, rubber bands, blankets, Bibs and Ribbons) and a baby bottle sterilizer.

The guests that won the games got Bon-Bons  as their win. I eventually gave the other guests though! Its all about having fun afterall.

We compiled all the docs used and advise written into a folder and gave it to the mom-to-be as a keepsake

We all got to take a piece of the cake home and some mini pastries.

Pictures

We took tons of pics, each winner with their game item and the momma-to-be, personal pics with bibs, group pics and at the karaoke bar.

When the shower was over, we cleaned the whole house and kitchen so she wouldn't be stressed with doing the cleaning, then we went over to the karaoke bar and bellowed some sweet tunes out with the momma-to-be before we went to our various homes. We also left the daddy-to-be lots of eatables to show our gratitude for his support!

All the best planning or having a baby shower. 

Toodles!XooX