DIY Idea: Yarn-Wrapped Vases

At the Cute as a Button baby shower I recently threw my friend Lindsay and I made several yarn wrapped vases that we used down each of the tables. They turned out really cute and were really easy to make. 

Here's all the steps to making your own! {please excuse the iPhone picture quality}

Lindsay and I literally cleaned our refrigerators and found glass bottles that were almost empty or expired {oops!}. 

 Peel off the labels and wash them out well.  You don't have to go to crazy with trying to remove all the sticky label stuff in areas that will be covered with yarn.  Do check to make sure there isn't ink printed on the jars in areas that won't hidden by yarn. {We had a few with unfortunately place expiration dates}

 Start by placing a piece of double sided tape near the bottom of the bottle.  Place a piece of yarn on it and begin wrapping over the end of the yarn.  

 Continue wrapping round and round until the end of the yarn is completely covered. 

Continue wrapping the yarn around the bottle tightly, sliding down as you go to ensure the bottle is completely covered.  

 If you need to cover any curved areas of the bottle cover with completely with double sided tape and wrap carefully over the tape to ensure the yarn layers are touching. Its best to use more tape than you think is necessary to get good coverage over curves. 

 Ta-da! Just add a few blooms and you are ready to go!

Behind the Scenes: Cute as a Button Dessert Table

Last week I shared the Cute as a Button baby shower that my friend Lindsay and I recently threw.

I love seeing behind the scenes stuff of my favorite bloggers, so I thought I'd share some of ours with you. 

What I didn't tell you was that for a significant period of time before the shower Lindsay was traveling out of the country.  Much of our planning went on via email.  Here's the mock-up of the dessert table that I emailed Lindsay from when it was set up in my garage.  

I thought it was funny, and thought you might get a kick out of seeing it. :)

Happy Easter Weekend!

When I spotted this genius little project at Icing Designs, I knew I had to try it! 

As usual, my procrastinating ways got in the way. The Target dollar section was completely out of the bunny ear headbands by the time I got around to checking.  Sigh...

 So I came home with this ugly little felt bunny basket and a jar. 

And they just aren't as cute as what I'd pictured.  They do have a cotton tail though, I just didn't get a picture. 

Oh well...I'm officially making a new-Easter-resolution to not procrastinate so much next year! 

Hopefully the niece and nephews will at least like the candy. 

Happy Easter weekend to you!

Real Party: Cute as a Button Dessert Table

Yesterday I shared all the details of a baby shower that I recently helped to throw. 

I saved the best for last: the dessert table! 

 This was such a fun one to create. As I mentioned yesterday, we used thread, yarn, doilies, and lots of buttons in our decor. I tried to continue all this with the dessert table. 

Lindsay's grandma handmade the quilt the desserts sat on.  And believe it or not, that's part of fence from our garden hanging in the back. 

One of my favorite parts of the table were the two flower arrangements. I did one with spools of thread as the vase filler, and another with buttons. My friend Morgan arranged the flowers for me (as I've said before, I'm flower-challenged!). I was so happy with how they turned out!

Cute, cute! 

I spread a few of my yarn balls around.  And Lindsay and I made the risers holding the desserts...did you recognize what they are? Giant spools of thread! I'll share how we made them later.  

We kept the desserts pretty simple. 

 My cake pops (on giant spool risers). We used some of the leftover paper straws that I mentioned yesterday as the sticks.  I was nervous they would fall apart, but they did just fine.  Aren't the stripes cute?

Lindsay's mini cupcakes

 Frosted Animal crackers.  I was so excited when I remembered these cookies as I was trying to come up with one more pink item for the table.  I love them, and they are pink, and they don't require any special ordering or shipping. Easy-peasy!

 Chocolate dipped fortune cookies. These were such a hit at the Chinese New Year birthday party that Lindsay and I had thrown earlier, we decided to bring them back.  

 Lemon drops. 

Meringues.  I love the way these look! They might be the prettiest cookie. 

What an amazing day!

Real Party: Crafty Cute as a Button Baby Shower

My friend Lindsay and I recently threw a baby shower for our friend Janelle.  We were so pleased with how everything turned out.  This was an extra special party because the mom-to-be and several of the guests came from different states.  A plain-old baby shower turned into a girls' weekend! Hard to top that!

The shower was held in my backyard.  Lindsay made a little sign by putting some burlap into one of my barn wood frames to point guests in the right direction. 

The look we were going for was what we called homespun crafty.  We decided to do the classic Cute As A Button theme as soon as we learned Janelle was expecting.  We wanted to incorporate buttons, spools of thread, and yarn into the decor.  This wasn't only because we like the way they look, but also because Janelle is a crafter, just like Lindsay and I, and we thought it was a fun way to honor her.  

{Janelle used to give me sewing lessons when we shared a little apartment together post-college!}

 Lindsay and I made several yarn-wrapped vases for the the tables. We literally cleaned out our refrigerators to find glass jars that we could use. (I'll share a tutorial on this later!)

I made pink runners and we sprinkled buttons as confetti on every surface.  We bundled the flatware and tied the bundles with raffia and a button. 

Among the buttons we scattered some yarn balls.  And we had menus lined up down the table in the popular {$.99!} Ikea double-sided frames. 

Lastly, a take out box for the dessert bar {which I will share later this week} sat on each plate.  The label read "Sweet Baby Girl". 

We strung garland over and around the tables.

 I have been planning to do a doily garland for quite some time, and was so pleased with how it turned out. We could only find heart shaped doilies in pink, but I think the off-center half-circles actually looked quite nice when strung together. 

When guests arrived, we had some light appetizers and drinks out. 

 We served fruit skewers, and hummus and spinach dip with veggies and crostinis. 

A large ice bucket held assorted soft drinks, lemonade, and white wine.  Guests helped themselves, using mason jars as glasses.  Is there anything cuter than a mason jar with a striped paper straw?  I'm doubtful...

The way some people were raving about their lunch, you would have thought we'd done something more complicated. 

We had two kinds of sandwiches: turkey club & roasted veggie.  They were wrapped in parchment and pink & white twine.  

On the side we had potato chips.  We bought small white bags and fancied them up a bit with a label and some rafia. 

We also had 2 salads: Caesar & spinach.  Yum!

We had guests write advice or wishes for Janelle and put them in a little scrapbook.  I also couldn't resist having people sign the inside of a kid's book {if you are a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I love this!}.  We choose Corduroy, one of my favorites, about a bear searching for a missing button. 

One thing is for sure...this baby girl is going to have lots of great shoes! 

Just like her Mama! ;)

Come back tomorrow to see the dessert bar! It'll be worth the trip, I promise!

Now is when I say a serious round of thank you's. All my girls that flew in for the occasion were such a HUGE help with set-up and clean-up: Linnea, Megan, Marci, & Morgan.  And Deb & Drea showed up early and got right to work too.  THANK YOU to all of you! This would not have come together without all of your help!

Real Party: Camping Sip and See

One of my readers, Michelle of The Nature of Grace, recently shared her pictures of an adorable Sip and See with me. 

If Michelle had told me she was going to put together a camping-themed event to celebrate a new baby girl and use predominately pink, I would have probably been a little skeptical.  But she definitely pulled it off! Especially when you consider how quickly this party was thrown together: one week! 

There are so many cute touches.  Here...I'll let you see for yourself: 

 Faux wood signs were found throughout to welcome and guide guests to different areas. 

A "nature walk" was set up in the yard for the smallest guests to participate in.  Too cute! 

I love the pretty pink blooms in mason jars & rustic looking cans, and of course the humorous little sign. 

A handmade sign with the baby's name in sticks helped set the stage...My mind is spinning with how many ways this idea could be used! 

And bundled sticks for her initials too! Love! 

You can't have a camping party without s'mores!  {I believe those are even pink marshmallows!}

Party favors consisted of {dolled-up} TP, and trail mix.  Toilet paper has never looked so good! 

There are some fun ideas here that would be appropriate for many other kinds of parties: kid's birthdays, couple's shower for an outdoorsy pair, etc. 

What a cute shower Michelle! Thanks so much for sharing it with us. 

Real Party: Bridal Shower Photo Booth

I showed you the photo booth we set up at the recent bridal shower that I helped to throw. I just had to share some of our pictures.  The maid of honor, Michelle, had so many fun props for guests to use! It was a BLAST...as you can see:

Real Party: Pink & Gray Cherry Blossom Bridal Shower

Before I could even finish telling you about my crazy 3-parties-in-3-days weekend, I had another shower to throw and went MIA for a little while.  Phew...exhausted. 

But I think my party calendar is empty {for now}, and its time to finish sharing all the details. 

To review...a few weeks ago, I flew up to Seattle and helped to throw a Bachelorette Party for my bride-to-be friend Kelsey, and Sip and See for my friend Shannon, and then a Bridal Shower for Kelsey over the course of 3 days. I am finally able to share the bridal shower with you! 

Kelsey & John have decided to do a cherry blossom theme for their wedding, using the colors pink & gray.  We did the same for her bridal shower luncheon.   

 I was in charge of the centerpieces. I punched about 1 million paper flowers out of different gray & pink papers and packed them in my suitcase. 

The maid of honor, Michelle, had glass vases and several branches, so I attached them when I arrived using glue dots.  They were quite easy and wallet-friendly.  Kelsey liked the look so much that snagged them to use them somewhere at the wedding! 

Michelle made some giant party pom flowers which we hung in the dining area.  They were made from napkins! 

The food was simple, but delicious.  We had a panini bar and several salads for lunch.  We had all the fixin's, and 3 panini grills set up in the kitchen so people could grill their own.  It was a hit! People loved this lunch and it made the set up very easy. 

Per usual I was in charge of desserts...

 I made cake pops and cupcakes. 

The cupcakes were adorable, thanks to the gum paste cherry blossoms that I ordered from an Etsy shop called Tiny Diesel.  Shirley was so easy to work with, and was able to make the center of each flower silver to match our decor.  Guests loved these and they really looked beautiful. 

Michelle created little quizzes about Kelsey and John that we used as a game.  She spoke with each of their moms to get some fun facts about them.  For example: "What was Kelsey's first job?"  Many people were surprised that she had worked as a dishwasher! I still laugh about that. 

Michelle was brilliant and used this cherry blossom invitation set from Target for the quizzes, printing on the back and front of the invitation sheets.  They looked amazing!

We also had a little "wish book" for people to contribute to.  The RSVP cards from the Target invitation set were perfect for this. 

Our one mini guest was kept occupied with cherry blossom coloring sheets, and left over ring pops from the Friday night Bachelorette Party.

The last activity we had was the photo booth, which is always fun. 

I'll show you some of the pictures later this week.  We definitely had a great time posing here.
I got the idea of the tinsel heart from this Valentine's Day post at Hostess with the Mostess.

And last, but not least: party favors! Cherry blossom scented lotion and some pink-wrapped chocolates. 

What a fun party! I've said it before, but I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE WEDDING! The official countdown is on!