Owl Baby Shower

About a month ago I co-hosted a baby shower in our home for one of my sweet friends!  The theme was owls (which I borrowed from my cousin and her friends!).  I chose owls because the baby's gender was a surprise and her boy and girl names both began with the letter H....so everything was about Whooo Baby H would be!  Here are some of the details below!

Come on it and see what we did for Baby H's Owl Shower

The cupcake table.  We picked VERY bright happy colors!  I loved them so much I wanted to redecorate my house in them.  These SUPER darling cupcakes were made my the guest of honor's SIL.

They were so cute and yummy!

The mantle with H's all over!

I went a little crazy with these poms.  They are just so pretty and easy to make!  I had a lot of people ask me about them at the shower so I will probably do a post on how to make them.

I made these cute little owl signs for everything...it's the little things that make a big difference...don't you think?

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Table where guests could sign in and then take a treat on there way out.

The favor tags say..."Thanks for coming it was a Hoot!"

The food table.  The shower was at 2pm (after we all got our toddlers to sleep) so we served fresh fruit, veggies and dip, cheese and crackers, and Baby H cookies!

This sign idea was also  borrowed!

More poms!  Love them!

One of the co-hosts brought these gorgeous flowers (and the darling cookies)!  We put them throughout the house.  There were so bright and cheery and I LOVED the gerber daises!

I ate so many of these!  They were so good!  She ordered them from a local bakery Treat Me Sweet.

I used scrapbook paper to cover our family pictures above this table.

A few notes...

All of the paper for the signs/banners are from Hobby Lobby

Plates, napkins, utensils, etc. from Hobby Lobby

Flowers from Central Market

Matching white rectangular food trays (love these) from Party City

Pink and Blue H's on the mantel are from Walmart and I had painted them with acrylic paint from Hobby Lobby.

Pink Oval tray with party favors on them from Walmart!

Are you seeing a theme in my party "vendors"?  Walmart and Hobby Lobby! Ha!  

Also I used Microsoft Word to create all of the signs, banners, gift tags, and invites!  I get all of my fun fonts from FontStock.net

Invites and Announcements

In recent years I have discovered that not only do I love to make invitations and announcements, but that I am kind of good at it too!  It is very time consuming (probably because I create everything myself and do not own any fancy software) and challenging, but I enjoy it so much.  Here are some recent ones I have done.  I have two that I am working on right now that are so awesome but the events haven't happened yet and I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise of getting them in the mail!  So far I have only designed them for my family and close friends but if you would like me to design something for you let me know!

This first one was for a shower I recently hosted.  This darling little owl was placed on top of the actual invite.  You had to slide it down to see the invitation.  I "borrowed" the owl theme from my cousin and her friends who also through a unknown baby gender shower!  I will post pictures of that soon.

I made this for my son's first birthday.  I got a lot of compliments on it!  It took me forever!

I showed this one yesterday, but thought I would put it up again in this post.  Another shower invite for the theme "nesting."

 I love a challenge so let me know if I can make anything for you!

Nesting Shower

Here are the pictures from a baby shower that my good friend Michele and I threw for our good friends Henry and Tyra (the cuties from the newborn shoot I posted yesterday).  The theme was NESTING!  It was right before Easter so it was super easy and cost effective to go with this theme.  I chose to go earthy and natural, yet colorful.  Tyra's favorite colors are green and orange so I tried to incorporate those into the theme.

Here is the invite I designed.  Everything fell into place after the invite...it's where I always start when planning a party. This part below was placed in from of recycled brown paper and I used green envelopes...the color green...I wasn't THAT eco-friendly!

We were originally going to have it at my house, but since the guest list was mostly from our university we decided it would be easier to have it there!  Challenge = changing a classroom into a cute room for a baby shower!  The time was right after classes and before dinner so we just served light refreshments, cake, and punch.  I will try and and remember how much and where I got things from in case you ever need ideas!

Table cloths: Cheap green plastic from Walmart $1, and fabric on clearance at Walmart $10.  I used the fabric all over.  Orange bowl Target dollar section, Green egg bowl Walmart $1, Green plates and utensils Walmart $1-2 each, and the other Green bowl Michele brought.

Michele had the cake made at Target for around $25.  They scanned a different version I made of the invite.  I thought it was really cute!

Another view of the center table.  We put green and orange Easter eggs ($2 from Walmart) in the punch.  It was citrus punch by the way.

I made little nests out of brown grass and put robins eggs in the middle (Brown grass, $1/bag in the floral section at Walmart).  This is one of my son's baskets from his nursery...it matched the theme!

Nest decoration.  I used a twig wreath ($6 Walmart, Better Homes and Gardens brand in the floral section, moss also from Walmart floral section, and the huge green eggs where half off ($0.75) at Hobby Lobby).

Nesting tree.  I cut out eggs using the same recycled paper (got it at Hobby Lobby) and used some raffia that I already have to hang the eggs from branches I cut down in my back yard.

I got these cute flower pots in the dollar section at Target and filled them with moss and all kinds of different egg candy!  We placed them all on the tables so our guests could munch on them during the shower.

Here is how we set up the room.

If you have any other questions I would be more than happy to answer them!  It was really fun planning this shower.  It's so different from what my taste it, but it's always fun to try new things.

Welcome!

Welcome to my newest blog! I really wanted to start sharing all of my "hobbies" and ideas with people, but wanted to keep my sweet family blog, well just a sweet family blog! So here it goes! I am by no means an expert photographer, party planner, or crafter/home decorator BUT I couldn't enjoy doing these things more.

I wrote my first post in December, and then when I found out I was pregnant Baby #2 a few weeks later things kind of slowed WAY down for me! During my second trimester the projects, parties, and photography sessions starting picking back up so I ACTUALLY have stuff to share! I am going to start with a newborn photography session I did a few weeks back for one of my dearest friends, and her beautiful baby boy!

It wasn't hard to capture these two beauties! Is he not so precious! I was so nervous to take someone else's newborn pictures! I had been practicing on my son for a year and half, but still. Luckily, my friend is super laid back and so it was actually really fun. I did however underestimate how long it would take. When I took my sons pictures I would dress him, feed him, change him and then start our session. It wouldn't take me more than 15-20 minutes, but when you go to someone else's house you become a part of all of those processes! I brought my son with me and he did awesome. This pregnant mommy needed a nap after!

Another one of my friends just has a sweet baby girl last week, so I will get to practice on a girl! I am so excited! I just adore newborns!