Baby Shower Fun!!

Recently, I had the enormous pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my best friend!  I have to admit (willingly and happily) that, except for a very brief moment in the beginning when I just had all of the "pieces" of the theme/supplies but not much of a plan as to how exactly I was going to pull everything together and make it super cute, I had the absolute best time planning and hosting this shower!!!

My friend and her husband decided early on in their pregnancy that they wanted to keep baby's gender a secret from everyone but themselves..... making my job a little more complicated but also more exciting because it forced me to try to come up with unique ways to do a gender-neutral theme.  Along with choosing greens and yellows for most of their registry, they chose to decorate the nursery with frogs.  When I saw this on their registry I thought, "I can toad-ally do this!!!" (A cheesy play-on-words, I know, but I couldn't help myself!)


So away I went planning, shopping, scouting out ideas on Pinterest and at JoAnn Fabrics, laying things out on our dining room table, rearranging ideas 72 times, all the while trying to make this an absolutely fabulous baby shower!  And it turned out that planning this shower was some of the most creative fun I have had in a long time!!


I chose to theme the shower 'Green' with splashes of frogs and duckies throughout.  I kept things as simple as possible, which I think is part of what made the shower such a huge success!!  So, here are the details:

The door hanger....

Everything all setup...

An autograph plate for the guest book..

A Stork Bundle filled with diapers...

Flowers sent from an out-of-town Aunt...

'Wishes for Baby' Cards...

Diaper cake filled with goodies for baby
and the soon-to-be parents!!!

Since the shower started at 1pm, I knew that most people would eat lunch beforehand, but I still wanted to have some goodies for them to enjoy just in case.  I also knew that I wanted as much of the food to correspond with the fact that we were at a baby shower as possible.  So I came up with an assortment 'kid-friendly' finger food snacks... I found most of my ideas on Pinterest but found ways to make them unique for this shower... I like the idea of having individual servings of veggies and dip, so I bought small plastic cups that were about 6 inches tall, poured a small serving of ranch dip into the bottom of the cup and then added the carrot and celery sticks ; I used mini waffle cone bowls to serve grapes and blueberries; the meat/cheese/cracker tray consisted of ham and turkey slices rolled up, Mickey Mouse shaped cheese (purchased at Wal-Mart), and animal crackers.  Sadly, I only ended up with a picture of the punch, but rest assured, everything was cute and delicious and the guests enjoyed it!!

My friend's sister-in-law is a self-taught baker who loves baking for the fun of it, and when she found out that I was throwing this shower, she immediately offered to make some yummy desserts for it!!  I found this cake idea off the internet and it couldn't have turned out any better!!  She also made sugar cookies in the shape of onesies and put a letter 'b' on them for baby's last name!!  Cute cute cute..... and yummy too!!!

          

        

And finally, we all know that a good shower has cute favors for guests to take home with them.  And, thank you again to Pinterest, I found one of the cutest ideas ever (here)!!!  I personalized it with a thank you message from the baby and added a plastic binky favor (found at JoAnn Fabrics) to each one.  I am so so pleased with how they turned out!! 

                   

And finally, to completely spoil my friend and finish her baby shower, I found an idea on Pinterest to make a photo album detailing the shower for the soon-to-be parents.  The idea also showed doing a photo booth as a way to record who attended the shower.  It was so much fun!!!  For the photo booth, I already had the frame purchased for another project but it was perfect for this!!  (I included my picture so you could see what it ended up looking like.) 

My version of the 'photo booth'...

And then I found a small photo album at Target that was green with blue and green polka dots (making it perfect for a boy or a girl!!).  I incorporated one of the napkins from the shower into the book, put pictures of the details, guests, and the mama-to-be as she was opening gifts.  I made a section with all of the 'Wishes for Baby' cards.  I do wish I had gotten pictures of the food and a 'photo booth' shot of the belly.. but if I do another baby shower, those things will definitely not be forgotten!!  The book turned out fantastically, if I do say so myself.... sadly though, I did not get a picture of the finished product.  I just might have to sneak a few pictures of it after baby comes!!  :-)

I had a blast planning, organizing, and executing all of my ideas... and several guests commented on how much fun the shower was........ All in all, I think the shower was a HUGE success!!  I seriously can't wait to throw another one!!!  :-)

So Begins A New Chapter....

Well, we started this year with lemons but have definitely made some pretty good lemonade so far!!  My husband and I had been renting my grandmother's house for the past 2 1/2 years, but around Christmas time the arrangements just became too stressful so we decided to make a change.  We have temporarily moved into my parents' basement (I know, not the most idea thing, especially with three children under the age of four) while we find a house out there that is waiting for us to find it!  We are taking advantage of the situation by paying down student loan debt and getting ourselves into a better financial situation, which will hopefully help us get pre-approved for a home loan.  And I have to say that it's pretty cool seeing the relationships building between our girls and my parents... some new routines have definitely been established with PoPPa!  Now I wonder how we will ever move out again!?!


With my new-found "freedom" from our previously stressful living situation, I have been feeling a gradually building surplus of creative motivation and inspiration... due in very large part to Pinterest (is that not the best site ever?!?!?!)!!!  I typically am really creative when it comes to recreating projects that I see in a magazine or picture of something that someone else has done.  However, lately I am finding that I am actually recreating ideas to fit my own ideas/design/styles.  I am even beginning to think up some "creative masterpieces" of my own and can't wait until I have some time to try them out!!  Until then, I am happily working away on my Pinterest recreations!  My hope is that by sharing my recreations, and eventually my own creations, you too can get your craft on!!!  Here are a few of my recreations.... Happy crafting!!

My first recreation was this card hanger.. I love keeping cards out for a while after we get them but hate the clutter it creates on my shelves/countertops.  I actually created a Christmas version of this hanger first (find the original inspiration here), but then recreated it to work through the rest of the seasons of the year.  I had some pre-painted wood shapes from Michael's, added some ribbon and clothes pins, and then hung it on the wall with Command Hooks.

I loved this idea as a different way to preserve vacation memories (original idea can be found here)... I am definitely one of those who loves to bring home a bottle of sand when we go to the beach for vacation, but all I ever really do with my sand is put them into individual vases and label the vases with a glass marker.  I don't know if I ever would have thought to put all of the sands together into one jar, so.. thank you Pinterest!!!  :-)

March is a busy month for us birthday-wise... my middle daughter's on the 4th, my husband's on the 5th and my youngest's and my father's on the 17th!!!  Trying to plan a party for a 3, 31, 1 & 61 year old is not exactly easy.... needless to say I was SO grateful when I found this Sweet Shoppe Party idea on Pinterest!!  It was so simple to organize and put together, it was cute and festive, and everyone had a great time!!  Plus, I had everything ready to go the night before so that I was actually able to enjoy the party and watch my girls open their presents!!!  :-)

In an effort to keep track of our meals for the week, I recreated this menu board using an 8x10" frame, a tabletop stand, dry-erase marker and a template that I created on my computer.  I wanted to use the white plate idea, but am still searching for the perfect plate that doesn't weigh 10 pounds!!  So until I find exactly what I have in mind, this is working out really well for us!!

I love this idea.... such a fun and cute way to leave notes for people in your home!  I found the frame on sale at Hobby Lobby (love that place!) and printed out the "I love you because..." on white cardstock.  Then we use dry-erase markers to leave messages for each other.