Baby Shower for My Lil' Sis

My oh my.  It's been quite some time since I've blogged.  I really hate when I neglect my blog.

I hope you had a fantastic holiday and a wonderful New Year.  I was very busy - but my busy madness was well worth it my friends, because I got a whole lot accomplished.

Since Dec. 18th my husband and I completely remodeled our Powder Room [that story and pictures is for tomorrow], I threw my lil' sis, Danielle, a surprise baby shower, we spent four days in Florida for Christmas and I enjoyed some good company and a fun night out on my birthday. 

Check out the pictures below from the baby shower.  I made a bunch of tissue paper balls, popcorn cones and homemade favors for the party goers. 

I wanted to keep things simple.  Too many balloons and decorations could have easily made my home look like a decorating disaster. 

I hung tissue paper balls above the dining room table, in the front bay window and above the dinette table in the kitchen. My twin sis and I mastered the art of crafting tissue balls several months ago - Practice Makes Perfect. They were so darn adorable - and elegant!

The "oh baby!" sign was something I whipped up from left over scrapbook paper.  The letters and animal images (on the reverse side) were printed off the internet. 

And of course I had to do something cute on my new chalkboard wall.  I sketched these little guys from the wrapping paper I bought.  Too cute. 

Can you see the animal images on the reverse side of my "oh baby!" sign?

Do you remember the elephant cookie jar that I mentioned awhile back, here? Anyhow, I snagged this cutie for $6 on one of my frequent thrift store visits.  I wasn't crazy about the orange hat so I spray painted it green!
 

Popcorn cones!  These were sooooo easy to make.  Guests enjoyed them and because Danielle loves popcorn, they were a def winner! 

Small colored paper bags filled with assorted chocolate covered nuts made for an easy party favor.



My DIY credenza came in good use as a drink station.  Did you notice I finished the doors?

And the gorgeous guest of honor, Danielle.  The cutest lil' prego person ever.  I hope I have her pregnant gene.  Ya know, the one when you're prego and the only thing on your body that gets bigger is your belly gene? Yup. That one.

Danielle sat on my Aubergine Chaise Lounge (which I scored on QVC's website for almost $100 cheaper than Urban Outfitters' price) while she opened gifts under the umbrella and tissue paper balls that were hung, with care :)

We played a cute game which WAS NOT a snore - I'd never do that to you.

We sat around and had lots of great conversation - and lots of great bubbly, too! 

And after lots of great bubbly, we insisted on rubbing the belly for good luck.  Holy crap - we felt the baby kick.  Oh. How. Adorable.

The baby shower was perfect and the best part about it was that Danielle loved it!!  I hope you're inspired to take an idea or two from this shower and incorporate it into one of your own parties! Good Luck.

Practice Makes Perfect

We're planning a baby shower for my lil' sis!!! I'm pumped! You know I totally claimed the decorations. The small decor joys in life...make me so cheesy happy.

Anyhow, the shower isn't until the end of Nov., but the ideas started flowing immediately. I've always wanted to make those tissue paper balls, which I know you've seen on the internet, so this is a perfect reason to make them. Because I want to master the art of crafting balls before the shower, I got right to work. Luckily my twin popped in with a bottle of wine right as I started.  I put her to work and it's a good thing I did because making them is much easier with two sets of hands.

Here's our first stab at making tissue paper balls: [please excuse the iPhone pics]


If you haven't guessed by the blue and green colors, my sister's having a boy!



Not too bad, right?  It'll look a thousand percent better the day of the party.  The plan is to make a crazy amount, like 40 to 50, in many sizes and hang them at different lengths above the table.  I'd also love to work an obnoxious amount of paper chains into the mix.  I recently made paper chains for a football slash birthday party we had and they were so easy and cheap and FUN to make.  

The theme for the shower is going to be safari animals - with more focus on giraffes and elephants because I think they're cuter than their other safari friends.  So, you can imagine how excited I was when I laid my eyes on this cute cookie jar at my favorite thrift store yesterday - perfect for the baby shower.  And it was only six dollars!