Baby Shower Aftermath

Just as I thought I was getting the nursery near to completion, we were given a wonderful surprise baby shower from the colleagues at my husband's office, and this was the aftermath. Actually, this is the organized photo, but you wouldn't know it.

We have been so overwhelmed with our friends, family, and co-worker's generosity these past couple of months... and our baby girl is going to be so lucky to have all these wonderful people in her life. We cannot thank every one enough!!!   

And in other baby news, as I'm sure you will see plenty in more updates later, we have followed a tradition started by my mother-in-law. When she had each of her five kids, she picked an animal for them to collect. My husband Logan collected lions, and for Baby D, we chose hippos. We liked how they were an animal that are often found with lions and gators (what UF grad doesn't have a collection of gators?!), and that they are pretty darn cute too. Has anyone seen the pigmy hippos at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo or Harry the Hippo?! We have started a hippo collection for Baby D, and love that for our surprise shower, they made a diaper cake with lots of hippos!!! It is too precious!

Check back soon (I promise, it will be done this weekend!) for our finished nursery and more cute hippo details.

Under The Sea Baby Shower

This past Saturday, I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Nikki. She is expecting a boy in April, and since her nursery is an aquatic theme, the other hostesses and I had a lot of fun coming up with cute decor and food for her Under-the-Sea baby shower!

First, I decorated the living room coffee table with netting (last used here) and my 2012 New Year's decor, with some new white daisies.

On the fireplace mantle, I used my vintage lettering, some ocean colored ribbon, and two crab trap floats ($2.29 each from here). What I found ironic was that the floats ended up looking more like baby rattles than actual sea-themed decor.

The dining room was magically transformed with the jellyfish chandelier. The how-to coming later this week!

I used a few more floats, netting, and pops of color from things I already had around the house, like the teal candlesticks. The plates and napkins were found on clearance at iParty, and the cute basket and cutlery is from the dollar store. I simply tied the napkins around a set of silverware and tied with a coordinating ribbon.

I made the same punch as I did for another baby shower, except this time, I froze the fruit ahead of time to keep it extra cold. It was served with Barefoot Bubbly, and some crazy straws I picked up months ago at Pier 1 on clearance for $1.50/pack of 6. They certainly made the Ocean Punch more fun, especially for the preggo mama and me, who couldn't enjoy the bubbly!

Since the shower was being held from 1PM to 4PM, we decided to keep the food light, as some people may have had an early lunch. In keeping with the theme, we made small tuna salad and chicken salad sandwiches, and put them on Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish bread!

 I also made a warm crab dip (recipe later this week) and added low fat Ritz crackers and Wheat Thins.

As if the Goldfish bread wasn't enough, we had to have actual Goldfish!

And for the sweet tooth, I had mini fish bowls (from the dollar store) filled with Swedish Fish and Gummy Worms. 

As recently found on Pinterest, I decided to stuff sugar ice cream cones with fresh fruit. Next time I would use the larger waffle cones, but I thought these held a good amount of fruit -blueberries and grapes filled the bottom, and we topped with strawberries, peaches, pineapple, and raspberries.

And then there is Wally the Whale. He is a cake I made with Funfetti cake mix and cream cheese icing, topped with raspberry blue straws.  He was so cute and so fun to make, I kind of didn't want to cut him up! But he was delicious, and served as the perfect centerpiece too!

As if there was not enough sugar in the cake, we sent guests home with little fish baggies filled with kettle corn drizzled with chocolate. 

So there is our baby under-the-sea themed shower! I was pretty happy with how things turned out, and would definitely use the decor and theme again. Check back later this week and next for all the details on how to make the jellyfish chandelier, Wally the Whale cake, and warm crab dip!

Monkey Baby Shower

This past Saturday, I helped host a baby shower for my dear friend Janet, who is due in August to give birth to her son, Max. Since she is doing a monkey theme in the nursery, we decided to have a shower that had a bit of a monkey theme. We kept the colors to yellow, green, and brown, and I used the monkeys sparingly. However, I did make some great banners in the party colors, and they are kind of the grown up versions of vines (which monkey's swing on- get it?). There will be a post later on how-to make the banners. Here is a look at what we put together:

For flowers- I love fresh flowers! Simple is usually best, and can be a great accent to any party decor, even if they are in small bunches. I bought these bunches of mums and daisies at Publix 3 bunches for $12. I love how the white daisies have green centers. I simply put them in clear glass vases and tied the brown and white polka dot ribbon, that we used on the invitations, around them.

For decorations, I made three banners using fabric quarters from Joanns and the brown and white polka-dot ribbon from Michaels. I also used some green glass ornaments to hang on the chandelier to give a pop of green.

Since we wanted to keep things simple, we opted for a dessert shower... lunch is sometimes hard to do with more than 10 people and no where to formally seat them. We had the shower at 1:00PM and served punch with champagne, fruits and veggies, some small veggie wraps, cookie bars and mini cupcakes, banana bread, and a candy bar with Runts, Lemonheads, Twizzlers, and pear, banana, and chocolate flavored saltwater taffy (bonus points for those of you who noticed the "banana" references).
 

I also used the same monkey clip-art from the invitations and paper punch to create the food and drink labels.

For games, we played "Guess the Baby Food" and "Measure Mommy's Tummy". For the "Measure Mommy's Tummy", I put a little spin on the game to go with the monkey theme. I went and bought two Barrel of Monkeys and the guests has to guess how many monkeys would make up the circumference of her belly. We showed them the length of the first 12 monkeys just for an estimate. She ended up only being 14 monkeys around! And for the baby food game, as expected, we had some unwilling participants who couldn't bring themselves to eat the baby food. I made this sheet for guests to use to write down the ingredients.

And last but not least, I went to a local soap shop, Milagros, to get Milk and Honey soaps for the guests, "From Janet's Shower To Yours". I used the same ribbon to tie little clear bags and I made tags with the paper punch.

Despite a rough morning, we pulled it all together and it was a really nice shower. Janet got most everything she needed to complete her nursery as well. Check back soon for some of the recipes and how-to's on the details!

How To: Onesie Wonders

At the baby shower I hosted last night, we had one activity for all guests to participate it: Onesie decorating! Since we weren't opening gifts or playing any games, I came up with this activity to give guests something to do other than eat, drink, and mingle. It turned out to be a hit!

First, I went to Michael's to get some fabric markers.I chose to use fabric markers instead of puffy paint because we were using space within a restaurant, and I didn't think that they would invite us back if we messed up their tables and chairs. And I also didn't want people to create onesies that resembled the one Meredith did on Greys Anatomy.

Next, I went and bought several packages of white onesies in various sizes, so that the twins don't out grow all of them at once. I suggest some of the 0-3 months, 3-6 months, and 6-9 months. Since they are twins, I opted for the the 0-3 month onesies because they will most likely be smaller than usual babies for the first few months. However, many newborns outgrow the 0-3 month onesies within the first few weeks, so for a single baby shower, I would recommend using the larger sizes of 3-6 months, 6-9 months, and even the 9-12 months. You can always pair the onesie with cute pants or skirts for a less baby look.

Next, I scoured the web for funny sayings to provide for the onesies. It is always best to give guests a few funny options if they feel they lack creativity in coming up with something on their own. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Daddy's Little Tax Deduction
• Stop Texting and Change Me
• Its All About Me
• Spit Happens
• Nobody Puts Baby in The Corner
• I Crawl the Line
• Does this diaper make my butt look big?
• High Fashion Meets Tiny Toes
• I Drink Until I Pass Out

Before the shower, I pre-washed all the onesies per the directions on the fabric markers, and then I cut square pieces of cardboard and placed them inside the onesies, so that when we decorate, the marker would not bleed through to the other side. I also taped the sleeves and bottom of the onesie up at the back, so that the guests would have a nice square area to write or draw in.

Also, on about half of the onesies, I cut out and traced these shapes (from Microsoft Publisher clip art - template below) onto cardboard.

Then I used a thin line of puffy paint around one shape in the middle of the onesie. I let these dry for a few hours before stacking them to bring to the shower.

Sometimes it is easier for non-creative people to have a small area to write lettering in, if they are not good freehand writers. It also really dressed up some of the lettering!

Our guests had so much fun! And some of them came up with the cutest designs! These are the cousins of the twins, and one of them made a onesie that said "If you think I'm cute, you should see my cousins" - It was my favorite!

And after they were decorated, I followed the directions on the fabric markers and washed the onesies before giving them to the Mom-to-Be. Here's how a few turned out:

Some of our guests got really creative with their drawings and lettering, and I was so happy with the results! You can see from the pic that the Baby Gaga one is a 0-3 month old onesie with long sleeves, and the others are short sleeved ones that are in larger sizes. They were so cute, and the new parents loved opening them all up to see what their guests had come up with! It was such a fun and easy activity, that we may just use it at other showers to come!

Sip & See Shower

As you know from this post and this post, last night I hosted a Sip and See Shower for my friend Kim. We had it at the beautiful Columbia Restaurant at the St. Petersburg Pier, and the evening views of the water and downtown were breathtaking. When I arrived, I had a little issue with the valets parking my car, but the sight of dolphins in the bay calmed my nerves and made me appreciate the beautiful afternoon.

The restaurant had a few small tables set up for us to sit at, as well as room to mingle. While we could have simply used the white linens provided, I decided to go with the fabric I ordered and cut at home. One of the other hosts took my turquoise vases and had floral arrangements done by a local florist. Using bright spring colors, the flowers of tulips, gerbera daisies, and lilies really popped above the blue suzani fabric.

Here is the mom-to-be Kim (in pink) and some friends:

We had a menu of heavy appetizers - chicken croquetas, crab cakes, and The Columbia's famous Cuban sandwiches and red sangria. My Aunt Karen, another host, ordered the cutest cookies as favors:

Each bag had two Onesie cookies in them, one in pink that read "Its a girl", and one in green that read "its a boy", since Kim is having twins and one of each! They turned out so cute, and were the perfect dessert for our guests to take home. They were delicious too... I ate mine as a reward for my hard work later in the evening!

Hostesses Barbie & Karen (second from left, middle) and guests

Since the shower did not include the opening of gifts or games, we did a little activity of decorating onesies for the babies! I made one before the shower to give guests an example. I had a set of directions and a suggestion list of funny phrases to help guests who may be creatively challenged.

We all had a great time just mingling, eating, and decorating, and I think it was a successful and stress-free shower for all! Check back later today for the How-To on onesie decorating too!

Baby Shower Inspiration

As you may remember from this last post, the Baby Shower for my friend Kim is coming up. Since it is being held at a Spanish restaurant, and she is not a fan of pastels, I went with a Spanish/Moroccan theme, as far as colors go. I had in my photo archives the following pics of inspiration if you know the source, let me know!):

I Have also ordered this Titan & Birch colored Suzani fabric to dress up the tables:

 

What's great about using fabric for tablecloths is that you can always wash it  and use it for another project. Maybe future pillows for my brother's house?

Also from my inspiration files was this photo of a vintage vase with bright flowers. Using the Suzani fabric as a base, we have turquoise and red vases that will have bright yellow and pink flowers in them that will be placed around the space. 

And since we are not opening gifts, there will be a little activity for all the guests to participate in. More details to come!