Real Party: "Full House" Sip & See

My friend Deb has 2 boys, which I introduced to you here and here. 

And now they've added a girl to the mix. The family is complete, with 3 Kings and 2 Queens, aka a Full House. 

Combining this with Deb's love of Vegas, we had the perfect theme for her Sip & See!

We had so much fun with this theme! 

 Drea made several huge red and black party poms. 

Lindsay sewed cards together to make a long banner that we strung around the room. 

 We had several full house hands displayed on little stands throughout the room. 

(These stands have been busy lately: they were originally used at my wedding, and more recently at the pinwheel 1st birthday party).

And I made a few little signs with the new baby girl's photo to put in my favorite Ikea frames. 

One said: "Deb & Daniel have a full house!"

The other said: "Watch out Deb, there's a new Queen in town!" 

 I made napkin rings out of playing cards, which we displayed in embellished vases.  Lindsay found the perfect paper plates at a Diddam's.

Lunch was simple. We had several different kinds of sandwiches. 

And we gave them fun poker-themed names! Drea made the mini card picks with a dab of glue and a toothpick. 

On the side we had chips and a few salads.  

I thought about making some kind of cute stickers to seal the bags of chips, but decided to use a playing card instead. So easy!

Desserts were Lindsay's cherry cheesecake layered treats (stay tuned for a recipe!), and Drea's red velvet cupcakes (aka Queen of Hearts Cupcakes). Yum Yum!

We bagged up some red licorice for party favors. Lindsay folded and punched cards to seal the bags. 

Thanks to the party crew: Lindsay, Drea, Leslie, & Jeani. 

And congrats to Deb on another baby. ;)

What a fun day! 

Photos by Lindsay Little and me.

Butterfly Centerpiece

I recently helped to throw a small bridal shower for a coworker.  I was in charge of some of the decorations for this quick little potluck shower.  

I fell in love with these butterfly napkins at a party store. 

I used them as inspiration for the color scheme and the centerpiece.

This centerpiece was oh-so easy and I was really happy with the way it turned out.  I found some wire butterflies at Michael's that worked with the color scheme. I attached them to thin wood dowels with glue dots and added them to a simple flower arrangement.  I used a bronze vase I already owned.  Simple! 

Congratulations Ruby! 

I can't wait for the wedding!

Real Party: Gray & Yellow Luncheon Baby Shower

My friend Leslie is expecting a baby boy. We threw her a lovely little shower in Lindsay's backyard a few weeks ago.  We tried to make the decor appeal to Leslie's style. We decided rather than do a specific theme, we'd concentrate on a color scheme she likes.  We settled on gray and white, with touches of yellow. 

First off, I have to give a serious shout-out to Jennafer of Oh Creative One. She helped with the invitations and other printables for the party and did an awesome job.  She was super fast and made any tweaks I requested almost instantly. It was a pleasure to work with her.  

Appetizers and drinks were out when guests arrived.

Foods were based off some of the mom-to-be's favorites.  We had a cheese plate, pigs in a blanket, and tomato bruschetta for appetizers. 

We strung a line of onsies over the appetizer spread.  Our friend Alana found these perfectly colored onsies at Target. 

Lindsay's re-purposed window-turned-pin-board held baby pictures of the mom and dad-to be.  Too cute!

We set up two long tables in the yard for guests.  I made some runners out of gray fabric.  Alana made floral centerpieces.

We had the cutest tented place cards made by Oh Creative One.

Lindsay made little fabric covered jars of candy for each plate.  Crisp white linens and pewter napkin rings finished the look.

 We decorated the area around the tables with ribbons and a garland. Lindsay sewed the circle garland and we strung it between trees.  We also hung ribbons from trees. 

I've mentioned on this blog before that my friend Leslie is a total celebrity nut.
(We played a celebrity themed game at her bridal shower.
And if I remember correctly, she actually won when we did it again at this shower, but we disqualified her since she won the first game.)   
So, we had to have a celebrity game at her baby shower also.

Drea whipped up this cute game and everyone had a lot of fun trying to name the babies and their celebrity parents.  Guess who won? The mom-to-be of course! :)

We also had guests write a message to the baby in a children's book.

We chose Frederick mostly because it matched our color scheme, but what an adorable book to help start the baby's library. 

Lunch was served next.

We had a "slider bar". It was adorable and yummy!

 We had both beef and veggie sliders with all the fixin's.

We served Caesar and kale salads. 

We also had mac & cheese and potato chips (served in cones -- thanks to Katie!).
No one went hungry at this shower!

With all the yummy food, I was afraid that no one would eat my dessert.

Luckily that wasn't a problem!
These push-pops were so fun to make! I just layered chocolate chip mint ice cream and chocolate cake (with a little frosting mixed into make it sticky), and then topped them with whipped cream. 

Party favors were Deb's homemade caramel corn.

Embellished with stickers by Oh Creative One. 

Congratulations Leslie! I cannot wait to meet your little man!

Inspiration: Tying the Knot Bridal Shower

My friend Megan recently asked me for some ideas for putting together a "Tying the Knot" bridal shower. 

I decided I'd share what I came up with for this cute theme with everyone! 

Decorations for this shower all involve yarn!  

I love the yarn balls strung from the ceiling, forming a kind of knotted chandelier (as spotted on Hostess with the Mostess).  I found some great DIY instructions for making these here.

I made these yarn wrapped vases for a baby shower a few months ago.  DIY instructions are here. 

The possibilities are endless for this yarn-wrapped word.  The couple's names or initals or the wedding date are fun options.  Or Love like the one featured here is perfect for a bridal shower.  Great DIY instructions are here, by Family Chic. 

Lastly, a bowl full of yarn balls is the perfect centerpiece.  Hostess with the Mostess has DIY instructions here.  (I've made these before and used a straight pin rather than a glue dot, and it worked great as well.)

A few other ideas: 

Purchase a length of rope from a home improvement store.  

Tie knots in the rope. 

Run it down the center of a table, or a long a fireplace mantle.  

Or

Hang pictures of the couple from a thin knotted rope.

Licorice comes in almost any color you can think of.  Licorice knots would make perfect cupcake toppers for this bridal shower! Thank you Fete Fanatic for this inspiration.

Martha Stewart shares the recipe for these "Wedding Knot" cookies here.

Napkins should be tied into knots, of course.

Pretzels are the perfect knotted food.  Pretzel snack mix served in cute cones is a great appetizer.  Chocolate covered pretzels would make great cupcake toppers.  They also make great favors.  These are packaged from a set of "tying the knot" printables by Nellie Design,  available here. 

Sandwiches make a great main course for this shower, as they can be wrapped in parchment paper and tied with a knot.  (These are from a shower I threw). 

I love this theme! Am I missing anything? 

Real Party: Cowgirl Baby Shower

Several of my girlfriends threw me a Cowgirl themed baby shower a few weeks ago.  It was incredible!

They used this invite from Etsy, but had the colors adjusted to fit their vision for the party.  I was so excited to see what they had up their sleeves after receiving this in the mail!

The shower was held in my friend Lindsay's backyard. 

Two long tables were set-up for a sit-down brunch.  I loved the burlap runners, mason jars holding babies breath, and pink party poms in the trees. 

 

Each seat at the table had a cute little cowgirl boot place card, a pink napkin tied with a gingham swatch, and a card of wishes for guests to fill out. What a wonderful keepsake for me to have!

The food, and presentation of the food, was amazing.  My friends are very good cooks, and everything was homemade and delicious! 

The appetizers consisted of mini croissants, scones, coffee cake, donut holes, and yogurt parfait.  Everything was to die for!

Mason jars served as drinking glasses.  Lemonade, water, and tea were available. 

Lindsay converted an old window into a pin board and used it to display sheriff badges for all the guests.  This served as the backdrop for the appetizer display. 

And a sweet bunting banner hung over the display.  

After guests lingered for awhile, the actual brunch was served.  (After all those apps? I know!)  My girlfriends made a chili cheese egg puff, happy potatoes, turkey sausage, and spinach salad.  Again: YUM!

The recipe for happy potatoes can be found here.  Trust me, this is one you should include in your next brunch. 

The party favors were, of course, Bakerella's famous Cowgirl Cookies.  Too cute!

Thank you so much to all the girls who made this incredible shower happen! 

Lindsay, Janelle, Jeani, Drea, Katie, Leslie, and Deb!

Between this shower, and the nesting shower I shared a few weeks ago, this baby girl is LOVED!

Maybe a new record? For us I think it is: 

8 pregnant guests at the shower! 

I'm waiting for the first one to pop - any day now! :)

Real Party: Japanese Cherry Blossom Baby Shower

This past weekend was my friend Lindsay's baby shower. 

We did a Japanese Cherry Blossom theme in pink and gray.  Her nursery is  going to be pink and gray cherry blossoms, and we added some Japanese touches as a nod to her culture. I was so happy with how everything turned out! I think she was too. 

I used this invitation from Ink Obsession Designs.  The designer, Erin, was fabulous to work with. She reworked the invite for a baby shower and got it to me very quickly when I found myself running out of time. 

A sign welcomed guests to my backyard.  

Konnichiwa means Good Afternoon or Hello in Japanese. 

My friend Drea made several pink party poms and then painted cherry blossoms onto white lanterns.  It made a beautiful display. 

When guests arrived we had appetizers and drinks out. 

Itadakimasu means something close to Let's Eat in Japanese.

Appetizers were potstickers (with little flags inspired by this wedding), spam and vegetable musubi (which Lindsay loves), and Japanese rice crackers (served in doily cones made by Katie). 

All the food labels had both the Japanese and English names for the foods on them. 

I made a sparkling pink lemonade and had several kinds of white and sparkling wine. 

Guests found their seats at one of three tables around the backyard.

I made runners for the tables. 

Drea, Deb, Christina, and I made tissue cherry blossom branches centerpieces. These were based off this tutorial on Hostess with the Mostess.  They were fairly easy, but time consuming.  But it paid off. I loved the low centerpieces on each table.  

 We also used some of the branches to make a tree for guests to hang advice from. 

Katie made napkin rings out of Japanese paper from Paper Source.

We had the favors at each place setting.  We had Pocky sticks, which came in the cutest pink and silver packaging, and sugar cookies with custom cherry blossom toppers. 

The toppers were from Sweet'n Treats, who is a sponsor of this blog. They were adorable.

This picture is so washed out that it doesn't do the topper justice. Check back tomorrow and I'll have more pictures and tell you all about how I used these toppers. 

Lunch was Hawaiian plate lunch foods (Lindsay's favorite!).  We had green salad, sticky rice, mac salad, teriyaki chicken, and kalua pork with cabbage.  It was delicious. The meats were from Takahashi Market. 

After a leisurely lunch, it was time for dessert.

Drea's cherry blossom cake was one of the highlights of the shower. It was just as tasty as it was beautiful.  We also served strawberry mochi ice cream on the side. 

How beautiful is this cake? 

Lindsay will have one well dressed little girl. :) 

Congratulations Linds, can't waaaaaait to meet her!! 

Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the shower! Some I mentioned already, but I'll do it again: Drea, Deb, Leslie, Katie, Christina, Jeani, Megan, and even Janelle (from afar!)

Vendors: 

Linens: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Catering: Takahashi Market

Cookie Toppers: Sweet'n Treats

Invitations: Ink Obsession Designs

On another note...Look at these preggo friends I have!

I told you there were going to be lots and lots of baby showers coming up! :)