Heather Bailey Inspired Bunting Baby Shower

Alright everyone, here's my big shower reveal! We celebrated our coed baby shower last weekend (boys were welcome to escape to the backyard where we grilled hotdogs and hamburgers out on the deck) and it all went so smoothly thanks to wonderful family and friends! The theme was inspired by Heather Bailey fabric and bunting! We're having a little girl and so I wanted everything pink, but not too pink. Cotton candy pink and cotton candy blue became my two favorite color inspirations for the party. My hostesses and I took the colors, the fabric inspiration and the bunting clear throughout the party decor from the food to the gift bags, etc. Here's how it all turned out!

To see the full album click here!

Lovely homemade vanilla cupcakes with strawberry frosting and red velvet cupcakes with blue cream cheese frosting - made by my lovely hostess, Krista!

The entire food layout!

Candy buffet compliments of my other hostess - Laura! Complete with blue cotton candy flavored salt water taffy, pink strawberry salt water taffy and pink and blue rock candy sticks!



In the two large jars we have flavored drinks to match the theme - pink lemonade and blue koolaid (Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade Flavor).

Everything matches - even the banner and quilt I made for the nursery!

Homemade pink and blue meringue cookies in waffle cones for guest favors!

Fun and frilly guest of honor name tags - handmade from crepe paper, pin backs and hot glue!

Our invitation.

Getting Things Laid Out

I am getting some of the tables and things set up in the house to see where everything is going to go and it looks good! Not sure how I am going to seat closet to 50 people in my living room but we will see! I have 20 chairs on reserve from a rental facility - but I am hoping that I get enough chairs from family to suffice. I started laying out some of the decor I have gathered over the last month to see how it all fits together.

Made My Cakes!

So, I finally convinced myself that it was getting close enough to the shower date to go ahead and buy more supplies...some of the many things I got today included diapers for the diaper cakes. I have read all sorts of articles on how to make them and Saturday I sat down and put myself to to the test. With a little tape, some twine, ribbon, and wire to make two gorgeous decorative diaper cakes....It was fun! I could do this for a living! Want a diaper cake? Let me know...I would love to make more! Anyways I used the metallic adhesive embellishments from the scrapbooking store and applied it to the ribbon and used my shredded paper as "icing". Looks cute...I would like to make two more and I have enough diapers...but I may need to save them for the Diaper Decorating activity.

I Found Bees!

I had only a half day at work today and since I got off early I thought I would swing by Hobby Lobby and pick up more packets of those cute bees I found there. Guess what? They were gone! Arg! GOT TO BE KIDDING ME. I depressingly walked around the store picking up paint and little wooden eggs to physically make bees and then came the whammer - they did not have any wooden or tin hearts or anything to make the wings. Blah! But my trip to Michaels was much more successful. In fact, I was able to take everything back at Hobby Lobby! I found little flat wooden bees already painted and cute! I also bought wire to twirl and glue onto the backs so that they can stand up and look like they are flying around the table and around the house...cute! Pic soon to follow. And the image below is how my bird nest favors are turning out...quite nicely!

Apothecary Drink Jars

For my husband and I's housewarming party in late April, we served lemonade in a large 2 gallon apothecary jar with sliced lemons and limes inside and ice. It was a hit! Everyone drank it up...the lemons and limes added a gorgeous touch not to mention a great taste to an otherwise ordinary drink. For Laura's shower I am playing off that idea but sticking to our color scheme. I am serving iced tea in one with sliced lemons and whole red raspberries and in another jar I am serving Iced Blue Lemonade Kool-Aid - an old childhood favorite of mine with whole blueberries and sliced lemon mixed in. I am also going to use the jars to hold balled melons with mint garnish!

The Beginning

Well, this all started because our dear friends Matt & Laura have upped and gotten themselves pregnant - God love them! :) To welcome this little one into the world, they have been pretty busy...not to mention going to school full-time on top working. To take a little stress off of her shoulders I am planning her baby shower - which she so graciously bestowed upon me...I am sure she is second guessing herself now that I have gone off the deep end with the idea and have driven her crazy with wanting the "list"!

What I have noticed most so far in planning this is the sheer lack of modern, classy, and chic ideas for baby showers. You would think that in the year of 2008, with Martha Stewart and all her glamor and all the crazy-all-out million dollar 16 year-old birthday party bashes you hear of that there would be a booming market out there for classy - nicely designed baby showers. But no! There isn't I have had to scour the net and the bookstores for anything even remotely updated and modern about throwing a baby shower with glam. I have found some great stuff from a few - there's Martha Stewart of course, Hostest with the Mostest and a few others with great ideas to help me along. But for the most part the pickings have been thin.

So, to lessen my frustration and to keep all my ideas in one handy location instead of on 20 scrap pieces of paper, 2 notebooks and my online google docs account...I thought I would post a cute blog about designing a baby shower. Yes, designing - not just planning a shower...but designing it as an experience. I am after all a graphic designer...nay, that word itself is so constraining...I am what you would call a Visual Communicator. I design mainly print pieces but I believe in total design. Not stopping at the invitation but looking at the minute details to design an experience not just a pretty piece of paper.