Vintage Pink Baby Shower

 I wanted to post this shower, even though my participation was more limited than usual. Usually I spend several weeks planning and creating, but since I had been at my mom's house for over a month I wasn't able to be involved as much. However, it was  a sweet, simple shower that was especially fun to help with since the mom is expecting her first girl, after having three boys!

 Sarah came up with the theme (and did most of the work) but I put together the simple pennant banner (inspired by this shower). It was just scrapbook paper with holes punched at the top corners threaded onto pink ribbon. The wire birdcage in the middle is from Hobby Lobby. It was a great deal for $5. The handkerchiefs in the center are mine- they are antique and belonged to my great grandmother!

 I hunted the internet over for a bird silhouette. I finally found this one, but I had to cut out the wing separately so I could position it to point outward.  It's just scrapbook paper, too. The clock actually belongs to Christy and is part of her regular decor, but it worked perfectly with the theme.

 Sarah usually makes the invitations, and often frames one to use as part of the party decor. This one had really sweet lace and pearl beading on.  We draped real pearls over some vintage china pieces she brought. I loved the romantic touch that floating candles add. There is something irresistible to me about the combination of flames and water!

 She wrapped a pink doily (I got those from Target after Valentine's Day for a steal!) around a vase filled with faux hydrangeas. We used scrapbook paper as a "runner" on the buffet, which we covered with a lace tablecloth. Christy, the hostess, even tinted the fruit dip pink!

 I have to say, I have gotten my money's worth many times over from that cake plate. It turns over into a punch bowl, too, so it was a steal at $10-from Walmart! We usually use disposable dishes, but we were able to borrow glass ones from our church that were a much better fit.

I need a cupcake stand! This one is Sarah's and it is definitely worth its weight in gold. Christy and her friend frosted the cupcakes and Sarah added edible "pearl" beads. They were gorgeous, and I had fun tinting this photo in Instagram.

It was nice to throw a shower that wasn't as labor intensive, I will post one later of the one we did this weekend. It was a *lot* more work! However, I think this one is a great example of how you can decorate more simply and still have it be beautiful.

Some things I didn't take photos of were the games. I was in charge of those, and we had fun listing girls' names for every letter of the alphabet (harder than you might think!) and tearing "babies" out of paper held behind our backs. I wish I had photos of that one-it was hilarious!

A "Very Hungry Caterpillar" Shower

I have decorated for quite a few baby showers (and I have a couple more coming up) so I feel like I know what I like. And I have to say, out of all the showers I have done this was my favorite! Part of that may have had to do with who it was for: my favorite oldest sister!

 

My sister is expecting her third, and since her other two are well past the toddler stage, I felt that she needed a shower! Besides, I have a personal theory (adopted from my mother) that every baby is a cause for celebration.

 

It was hard trying to decide on a theme because you can turn virtually anything into a shower these days. However, while trolling Pinterest, I noticed my sister had pinned these invitations to her "Toddler" ideas board.

 

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle has long been a family favorite. Besides being a great way to introduce the concept of days of the week, it is colorful, fun and has lots of drool-worthy treats in it! In essence, everything you need to springboard off for a shower theme.

 The food is the highlight of the book. If you have never read it, the little caterpillar munches his way through a variety of items. We tried to use as many of those as we could!

I also added a dish of gumballs to mimic the dots in the book, as well as a parfait glass of "Runt" candies, since there are several kinds of fruit in there as well. All the components looked so cheerful on the sweets table.

 One of the trickier elements was the "ice cream cone". The caterpillar eats through one of those, but it would have been entirely too messy to have real ice cream dripping everywhere. I had seen a suggestion to use mini ice cream cones topped with Oreo truffles, and those were adorable. However, time short and I came up with (what I thought was) a brilliant idea. I used sprinkled donut holes from Walmart, attached them to mini cones with pre-made bagged icing and topped each "scoop" with a red Skittle "cherry". They were super easy to make and a huge hit! Also, the caterpillar eats through a cupcake- Wally served me well there, too. On a platter covered by scrapbook paper, it all looked too cute.

 It was easy to choose the cake. The caterpillar munches through a slice of layered chocolate cake. I picked this one up at Costco and it was delicious! Since I was in charge of all the decorating and the food (I usually only decorate) I really needed to cut corners in the snack department. This decadent cake didn't feel like I did at all! I made the easy topper by gluing scrapbook paper triangles to ribbon and then I used straws (supported by wooden skewers inside) and simply tied it on. Love!

 Every item had a place card that included the day it was eaten in the book. These came together quickly- it is simply an index finger dipped in different colors of ink and pressed at the bottom of the card to form circles reminiscent of the ones in the book.

 I was insistent on having giant lollipops like the ones in the book. These were beastly to find, and ended up costing me $3 a piece at a specialty candy store, but I loved how they looked! I used a tall glass vase filled with colorful gumballs to hold them in (gumballs are from the dollar store).

 The fruit looked terrific, too! The hostess suggested setting them upright and it gave them great three-dimensional appeal. I love to vary heights to make it interesting. We wrapped forks in napkins and tied them with ribbon. It makes it easy to grab what you need.

 The guest of honor's favorite part: the mini Claussen pickles! Doesn't every pregnant woman supposedly crave pickles? I was glad that I didn't forget these.

 The polka-dotted paper straws were a last minute purchase from Amazon, and they looked adorable. I found the suggestion to use Trix cereal online, and realized that wouldn't work because it wasn't the right colors. Walmart to the rescue! There "Great Value" knock-off was perfect, and the salami and cheese (from the book) with my addition of crackers looked great.

 We purchased the book marks from Amazon, too. We cute off the caterpillar part (the rest said, "Hungry for a good book".) and taped it Archer Farms water bottles on pieces of coordinating card stock. We also served raspberry lemonade in Mason jars. All the drinks nestled in a big, bright bucket of ice.

 A better shot of the water bottles. I love, love, love, the individualized touch that adding your own label brings, don't you?

  The mason jars were perfect, too. We cut circles of waxed paper slightly smaller than a flattened cupcake liner. You lay the whole thing over the mouth of a mason jar, and it becomes a perfect covered glass! The cupcake liners would have turned into a mess, but by lining it with waxed paper it worked great. We provided a skewer to punch a whole to insert the straw into.

 The banner wasn't my first choice, but necessity is the mother of creativity. I used pre-cut foam circles and foam letter stickers (from the dollar store!) to make my own caterpillar. Since the one in the book isn't perfectly round, I cut the edges to form rough ovals. I added pipe cleaner antennae. I always feel like "Welcome" is an appropriate baby greeting, right?

 The beautiful guest of honor. I whipped up the scrapbook pennant in no time: cut triangles, hot glue to ribbon and it is instant cuteness!

 Three of my marvelous helpers! Also, my dear, sweet younger sisters. I could not have done it without these cuties! Katy made the pom-pom caterpillars, bought the water bottles and drove me around. Kelly did the place cards, packed the favors, made the water bottles and watched my son! Lisa Dawn was my "brain" and kept me sane, as well as making the ice cream cones and assembling the drinks. My mom isn't pictured but she provided funds, organized the guest list, secured the host home, loaned tons of dishes (including the cute buckets and mason jars) and billions of other things!

 My sister and me. I was so glad to be able to celebrate her little G3 with her. A baby is always a blessing, but this is one we have waited a long time for!

 The favors were simple: a bookmark, some Skittles, and round magnets, to mimic the dots in the book. We tied it all up in clear cello bags closed with ribbon.

 This is one of those "better in theory" ideas. I had seen a multitude of these balloon caterpillars on the internet. It looked easy enough, but it was really tricky to vary the balloons to make him seem rounded, my first "head" popped, and then the only place to hang it was over a vent! It was a tangled mess at the end of the party, but you can't have a party without balloons!

Katy made these pom pom caterpillars to keep the food company. They were a big hit too. One of the best ideas I had (and a last minute one) was to have each of the guest do an anagram of the baby's name. For each letter in the name they listed one or more adjectives. I was surprised that a group of 12+ women, few of them repeated the same words, and reading them made my sister cry. She plans on keeping all the copies, written by each woman, in a scrapbook. I think it made for a special blessing. Definitely one of my favorite parties! Thank you, Hungry Little Caterpillar, for providing such great inspiration!

50th Birthday Bash!

I promised I would post about my Dad's 50th birthday party. My mom, my sisters and I all collaborated on the theme:Flintstones! It was a terrific theme-so much more fun than the typical "over-the-hill" parties. The Flintstones TV show came out around the same time my dad was born, so that made it even more fun.

My sister is an amazing party planner! The two of us together: unstoppable. Robyn knows that it is 100% presentation when it comes to an event, and the details make it perfect. See the sprinkling of rock candy as confetti on the table? Also, most of the fun names for the foods were her ideas.

Even the kids' tables got some special extra touches. Cupcake liners filled with rock candy and other sweets were a cute touch. Filling up the balloons was a little bit of a hassle (we may or may not have visited three stores to get them done, but that is between me and Lisa Dawn) but the kids loved them!

A better view of the final presentation! The dinosaurs on the wall are from the Dollar Store, as are the ferns in the centerpiece. I love that place! I made the banner and realized that I only took really far away photos of it. Ugh! I fringed all the edges of the pieces to make them look like animal skins. It was the perfect touch.

Some more of the fun treats. Pretzel sticks and chocolate rocks became perfect "sticks and stones". Putting everything in terra cotta pots made it look so much more "Stone Age".

These are Rice Krispy treats cut out with bone shaped cookie cutters. See what I'm saying about the details?

"Bamm-Bamm" clubs- another of my sister's genius ideas. Just rock candy sticks, but they take on a whole new personality when placed in a cute container with a place card. I am all about place cards- they make everything more fun!

A last minute idea that was a HUGE hit. Literally it took me about 10 minutes to put this together. I printed off photos of all my Dad's family and friends and used animal print ribbon taped to the walls as a holder. I bought mini clothespins and simply clipped the photos to the ribbon. I had several of these all over the room and everyone loved them. I am definitely planning on doing this again. Everyone thought it was so fun to look at all of them. This would work for a multitude of parties and would be so easy to coordinate with different themes.

My gift for my Dad. My Mom asked everyone to give my Dad 50 of something. I decided that 50 "Warm Fuzzies" were in order. I wrote down 50 good memories and things I love and admire about my Dad and put them in a jar. Simple, but hopefully meaningful too!

My sister free-handed Fred! Crazy! She printed an outline off the internet and used it as a guide to paint Fred. He made the perfect photo backdrop. Aren't Grams and Gramps so cute?

It has become a tradition to photograph the four generations of "Littles" when we are together. I can only hope that I am as beautiful as my Mom and Grams when I am their ages.

Me and my sisters. Good grief, I love these girls! I miss them so much. We are just the best sisters ever. I am so blessed to be counted among these five. From left: Lisa Dawn, Robyn, Katy, Kelly, and of course, me. We are the best party planners, EVER!

I couldn't resist taking a photo during the prayer- I promise though, it was right at the "amen". I just love that our family prays together. I am without a doubt so proud to be part of such a godly family.

My Mom and her Mom. Don't they look so much alike?

And last, but not least, the Birthday Boy and my Mom. He was grinning because he was about to open his pile of presents!

It was a great party. Planning it with all my family was so fun. My aunt graciously provided her clean home and helped put it all together. We ate so much good food (ribs, of course!) and laughed so hard. I wish we all lived closer, but then I think we would be having a party once a month due to all the birthdays...

Ladybug Baby Shower

I have had a couple of people ask me about how I do my banners. This is my fourth one, and I think they get better every time. The first part is thinking about how the banner will interact with the theme- namely, what is it about the theme that I want to say with the banner? For the "tiny" shower, I wanted it to be small. For the "farm"shower I wanted it to have barns. I need to post pictures of my Dad's 50th birthday party- it was a Flintstone's theme. That one was a little more tricky, but I wanted it to look Stone Age. This one was easy- ladybug theme- ladybugs on the banner! I always use the shower colors as my palette, that is a no-brainer. Next, I usually do a sketch like the one above. It is kind of a brain-dump, I figure out what I want to say, how many separate pieces I will need, and what I want to special pieces to look like. As you can see, I played around with the shapes of the pieces, and how I wanted the ladybugs to look. Ignore the numbers- I was re-using a piece of paper- I have to work while the inspiration is hot!

And the finished piece! I used pre-cut, peel and stick letters from Michael's. My sister suggested them for my dad's banner and they are WONDERFUL! It makes it look so much more put-together. I always do my special pieces first- in this case, the ladybugs. I wanted an oval, rather than round, shape. I realized I had a container that, fortunately for me, was the perfect size for my dollar store felt. This banner took: 2 packages of felt, (at mine I can get packs of red,white, black and green- perfect!) 1 roll of dollar store ribbon, 1 separate piece of yellow felt, black pom-poms, black pipe cleaners and two packs of pre-cut letters. The letters were definitely the most expensive part, they run around $6 a pack. However, Michael's takes competitors coupons, and I had a 40% off to use. That made them a little more reasonable, and also because they are so linear, it is easy to cut other letters to make the ones you need (for example, I lopped off the two tops lines of the "E" to make some extra "L"s.). I should have taken better photos, but the ladybugs have some great detail. Their spots are pom-poms, and the antennae are pipe-cleaners! I was really happy with how it turned out!
Not so happy with how this photo turned out, though. So blurry-ugh! I filled my vases with red carnations and they have little felt ladybugs on the front. My baby shower buddy, Sarah, handmade the scrapbook sheets for the guests to sign as gifts for the honorees ( it was a double shower- and one mom is having twins!). My friend Denise loaned us the adorable ladybug rainboots to add to the theme.

I decided to buy balloon sticks and I was really happy with how they turned out! Sarah did the tablecloth and the buckets. You can barely see the black and white pinwheel in the flower arrangements, but they were really cute.

Anyway, another shower that we pulled off in about a week! I really am considering going into business. Just kidding- there is no way Joel would let me! But it is really fun, and I know I will most likely be able to use my experience in the future.