Shower Kit: Baby Shower

I was asked to make a banner and some party favors for a baby shower recently. 

The hostesses didn't have much in mind as far as themes or even colors, so we decided I would use the mom-to-be's crib bedding as inspiration. 

The bedding was "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning" from The Land of Nod. 

I made a "Welcome Baby" banner. 

A closer shot so you can see the cute paper I found to coordinate with the bedding. 

I am partial to edible favors, particularly sweet ones.  The catch with this shower was that the mom-to-be and several of the guests were vegan.  {And a vegan baker I am not!}

I finally decided to go the store-bought route for the favors. I found these cookies at Trader Joe's: 

image via

 They were reasonably priced, and most importantly: vegan.  A few family members of mine eagerly sampled them and were happy with how they tasted.  

When repackaged, they looked pretty darn cute. 

Congratulations Ashley!

Can't wait to see how the rest of the party turned out!

Real Party: "Pair of Babies" Twin Shower

My friend Linnea is expecting 2 baby boys.  I knew what I wanted to do to celebrate them as soon as I heard (because that is how I think -- and I'm sure you all understand!).

Our theme was "Linnea is Having a Pair of Babies" and the shower based on a a pair of Converse sneakers.  

{Side note: the shower took place the day after Linnea and I were in Kelsey's wedding. Therefore I had to keep things pretty simple, and called in several girlfriends for lots of assistance.}

Lindsay and I usually like to get creative with food, and do lots of the cooking ourselves. But this time we ordered pizzas and Lindsay made a salad. That's how simple it was. But, the theme was still quite cute and I can't wait to share it with you! 

I had a few centerpieces made at my favorite florist in Seattle.  (I used them for these flowers also).  They do an awesome job.  I was even able to drop off the supplies before leaving for the wedding and pick them up afterward with out a second thought about it.  Thank you Thriftway!

We decided to place the vase of flowers inside the little shoe boxes, which were too cute not to use. 

My friend Megan made cookies. They were so cute I wanted to die. After I ate several cookies, of course.  :)

We had Megan's famous sugar cookies at my own bridal shower.  She was nervous to make them into the shoe shape, instead of her normal circles. I think she did a great job, don't you agree?!

My friend Morgan had the brilliant idea to make a baby sock banner, which went perfectly with our theme.  

And I bought some coordinating onsies to make another banner. 

I displayed the napkins and forks in another Converse shoe box.  

 If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you know my love of a children's book as a guest book.  We used Those Shoes, an adorable book that my teacher friend reads to her class every year.  It worked well with our theme, and has a great message that we knew Linnea would like.  Everyone signed the inside cover. 

When I asked my friend Marci to pick up some drinks, I thought she'd just grab a few sodas.  I was wrong! We had lemonade, a delicious pomegranate and lime fizz, and a yummy punch that had sherbet ice cream in it. Yum!

One other fun thing we did was tell everyone to wear Converse chucks sneakers. It made for some fun pictures. One girl had to borrow her husband's! 

Congratulations Linnea! Can't wait to meet the new little guys! 

If you are interested, I shared Linnea's first baby shower last year. 

Real Party: Red Egg & Ginger Party

We attended a Reg Egg & Ginger Party for a friend's baby last weekend.  This is a traditional Chinese celebration where parents introduce their new baby to family and friends.  

 {You can read more about this tradition here.}

They used this invite from Tiny Prints.  Isn't it sweet? 

My friend Lindsay and I made a small dessert table for the party.  They ordered cupcakes from Cupcake Man, and Lindsay and I made cake pops and then set up the display at the restaurant. 

They requested the colors of the table be red & yellow.  We made a little ribbon-trimmed runner. 

 Our cake pops were, of course, shaped like red eggs.  The guest of honor's traditional Chinese name was printed on little flags on the sticks.  Lindsay covered low boxes in fabric and ribbon, and we used some clear glass vase filler to cover floral foam. 

 Cupcake Man made some beautiful cupcakes: Ginger & Red Velvet flavored. 

We painted some eggs red and decoupaged others in yellow paper to hang from tree branches in the background. 

I've never seen desserts devoured so quickly at an event. 

What a fun little display to put together!

Real Party: Wedding on a Texas Hilltop

I mentioned my recent trip to Austin, Texas yesterday. 

We attended a beautiful wedding of some friends while we were there.  

The wedding was held at Villa Antonia.  What a gorgeous venue:  A sprawling villa in the hills outside Austin.  There is something so relaxing about going to a wedding where the ceremony and reception are held at the same location. 

The ceremony took place at the chapel at the villa.  It was a lovely ceremony and the couple looked ecstatic as the danced down the aisle. 

All the attendants danced down the aisle as well. It was so fun! 

{How cute are those pink shoes?!}

The cocktail hour and buffet dinner took place in the courtyard of the villa. 

The centerpieces were lovely: mixtures of different pink blooms in a variety of vintage silver vessels.  

After dinner we moved back into the transformed chapel to celebrate. 

The cake was beautiful and delicious. 

The first dance was romantic.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the candy bar before the kiddos demolished it.  :)

Congratulations Lesli & Sean!! 

What a fun party!

Our Austin Trip!

I spent a long weekend in Austin, TX recently.  What a great trip it was! I was so excited to get to check out this fun town. 

Here's a few highlights...

We had lots of tasty Texas bbq! 

 We went to Rudy's in Austin, and then did a mini road trip to Smitty's in Lockhart.

We explored Austin, including the South Congress neighborhood, The Capitol, and The University of Texas campus. 

As on any vacation, I checked out a couple local cupcake spots.  My favorite was actually a cupcake truck called Hey Cupcake!  Yummy & cute!

The reason we were in town was for a wedding.  Tomorrow I'll share all the details...

DIY Idea: Giant Spools of Thread

One last DIY project from the Cute as a Button baby shower I shared a few weeks ago.  You may remember the fun dessert table that Lindsay and I put together: 

Lindsay and I made giant spools of thread to use as risers for some of the desserts. 

They were easy and cheap to make! 

Here's all the how-to-details: 

For the top and bottom of the spools we purchased thin wood discs from Michael's, similar to these.  We finished them with some stain that Lindsay had left over from another project. 

We let those dry while we prepared the middle piece. 

Our bigger spools were made of Quaker Oats cannisters. 

They were the perfect size, and they are pretty sturdy. 

For the littler spools, we used sections of an old roll of wrapping paper. 

 We measured off 3 inch sections and then sliced them with a shape knife. 

(Don't use your best kitchen knife, this will surely dull it!)

We didn't want any of the printing on the Oats container to show through, so we covered with a brown grocery sack, using a glue stick to adhere it. 

We used strips of left over fabric as our "thread".  Wide ribbon, paper streamers or anything else you can think of would work for this as well. 

We secured the ends with a little hidden piece of tape. 

We attached the top and bottom circles with some glue. We used wood glue that we had on hand, but tacky glue or any craft glue would work just fine. 

Easy, right? 

Mother's Day Brunch Ideas!

Have you heard of Tablespoon? 

Its a fabulous site with all kinds of recipe and entertaining ideas...something  know you all are into! 

My ideas for throwing a Mother's Day Luncheon to celebrate mom are up on the site today and I hope you'll check it out. 

Tell me what your favorite part is.  Mine is the Mom-osa. ;)

Go ahead and share it with all your peeps too.  

Thanks! 

PS Check back soon for another DIY idea from my Cute as a Button Shower.