A Boy Baby Shower

This weekend I threw a baby shower for my adorable new nephew Jamin Matthew.

I was inspired by this paper:

I have it in some frames in my living room.  It's so fun and whimsical.

I went to the fabric store and bought 4 inches (10cm) of a bunch of fun coordinating fabrics...

Parties aren't quite as easy to execute with 6 kids underfoot.  I take that back, it's the toddler and the two month old that make it a challenge.  I had it in my mind that if I got some cute favors made, a pretty cake and my house clean I'd be happy.  Once I got going, I was able to do a bit more.  I love it when things naturally come together and it's not forced!

The paper inspired this piece of art.

I'll be hanging this in my newly painted guest bathroom.

This painting {and frame} was hideous when I bought it at a thrift store a few years ago.

I painted right over the top of the hideous ocean scene!

Recognize the flowers in the yellow jar?  

Leftovers from Cait's Ducky Party.

The canister is a hot chocolate can covered with cute paper.

The thread was used to make the favors and I just popped them in the jar the morning of the party for a little extra "interest"...love how that worked out!

More randoms from around the house that came together.

Clearly I like that aqua color!

I have a frame obsession.

I also have a spray painting addiction.

frame obsession + spray painting addiction = fun colorful party decor!

The cute fabric flowers are hair clips.

Or broaches.

These were the favors.

 The ladies flocked to the wall to pick their favorites.

I think they were a hit!

A half hour before the party started {and before I had taken any pictures}

I caught my 2 year old eating the decorations off the bottom layer of the cake!

I was not pleased.

After giving my girl a talking to, I took some circles off a few cupcakes and added them to the sparse area.

Crisis averted.

Cupcake cuteness.

For a baby shower I always like to have a designated "area" for the mommy to sit so she can have her diaper bag and all her gear in one place.

Naturally there had to be something pretty near that area!

Food table had great food but wasn't especially pretty.

I was okay with that.

A girl can only do so much!

I used some of the fabric to make this cute banner.

The photos of the baby were a fun touch.

Here's the beautiful mommy with her handsome boy at is first party!

I saw this at Michael's and it inspired me to make this one...

Fun little touch:)

My two older girls decorated the deck without supervision and did a great job.

They were a really big help.  I love decorating for parties but I don't love doing everything by myself.  It is more fun to do it together.  I am really thankful that I have daughters who are starting to enjoy working with me!

{that is, when I ignore my inner "craft nazi" and just enjoy the process!!}

It was a wonderful day.

I love this little boy.

I can't wait to get to know him as he grows!

Rubber Ducky Party

I'm so excited to share the fun photos from Caitlyn's second birthday party.

My girl loves rubber duckies.  She has a collection of duckies so I thought it would be a fun theme.  Having 4 girls, I have thrown a lot of pinkish princess girly parties.  It was fun to mix it up with the aqua and yellow color scheme.

Because I had a baby 2 weeks before the party, I was not able to fuss over this party like I typically do.  I was determined to still make this party special and adorable with a minimal amount of fretting:)

The little ducky display table.

One rubber duck glued onto a glass ornament.

Ducky cake!

Cait was so excited about this ducky cake.

I ordered the adorable fondant duckies from Julie at Sugar Jewels.  She made them quickly and to my exact specifications.  They were the perfect accessories to top my cake.

Cute cute straws from Sugar Divas.

These fun decorations doubled as favors.  Mommies got cute jars with flowers, kids got pinwheels.

I can not take credit for this FANTASTIC idea.  I first saw this ingenious idea over at Joy's Hope...one of my favourite blogs.  So bright, so colorful, always positive and uplifting.  Check it out!

My little birthday girl in her ducky outfit!

I made the shirt.

I ordered the skirt from Sugar and Spice Creations off Etsy.

You can see her blog HERE.

A little ducky coloring sheet.

It was a sweet little party for my special little girl.  

I was really happy with everything and I am now convinced that less fuss can be just as fabulous!!

Purple Party

 My daughter Maddie is in love with purple.

It seemed the obvious choice to throw her a purple birthday party this year!

Here is the table.  This is where I put most of my effort and can you believe it, I didn't take any photos of the table by itself!!  I am a little bummed that after all that work I don't have a gorgeous picture to share.  I guess it's a great reminder that the day and the party are really about the person, not the party decor!

Maddie's outfit:

The leggings and skirt are from Naartjie.

I embellished the $6 plain shirt from Wal Mart with fabric flowers like the ones I have been making for Fig & Ruby Kids.  They have been a huge hit.  I was thrilled with how cute they looked on Maddie's shirt!

She was purple!!

These balloons were so fun.  The kids each took one home.  I ordered them online from Bargain Balloons.  They are 36 inch latex balloons.  I took them to the Dollar Store to get filled with helium.

These balloons were huge!  So so cute!

I couldn't resist the purple peeps!

Here's another unfortunate photo opportunity missed.  This is the only shot of the cute chocolate pretzels!

I was pretty excited when our Michaels here in Kelowna finally started carrying the pretzel rods around Christmas.  

The purple foil hearts were a Valentine's Day item that I found and my Mom sent us the purple gumballs from California.  She got them at Party City.

I really wanted to use these adorable cupcake papers but didn't want to add more sugar to the table so I made chocolate muffins with whipping cream.  I will post the recipe over on the sweets blog this week!

**little tip:  Don't bake your cupcakes or muffins in cute papers.  They will get greasy and lose the pattern. Bake them in plain white ones and just plop them in the cute papers after they have cooled.

My daughter begged to have Jello at her party.  I caved and made it.  It was pretty but it all got chucked. I would scratch the jello next time.

I ordered these adorable paper straws from Sugar Divas.  I love them!  I knew I wanted to have glass jars for the girls so I started saving Herdez salsa jars because they are the perfect size and we love the salsa.   Puff painting the girls' names on the bottom was my daughter's idea.

In an effort to keep the sugar intake to a minimum, I made Limeade by squeezing fresh lime into water and adding a bit of Stevia to taste.

Here's a glimpse at the sweet little purple cake with the cute clothespin dolly girl on top.  There are lots more details about the cake over HERE.

Hello pretty little detail:)  Each of the girls got one of these pretty Fig & Ruby hair flowers in their goody bucket.  More about the goodies in another post!

The girls made friendship pins.  

Remember those?  

I was so excited explaining them to the girls.  It may have been a little lost on the 6-7 year old crowd.  Not sure if I rekindled an old fad or not but I certainly tried!!

Purple nails were a must!

This was an accident the morning of the party.  I got the paint chips in every size and shape and shade for a game.  I needed a place to put the paint chips and this mobile was my only option.   A fantastic accident if I do say so myself:)

Before the party I had Maddie pick her favourite shade out of all the options.  I gave each friend a little paper and instructed them to write down their top three guesses of which shade was Maddie's favourite. 

 One of the girls actually picked it!

{it was called Dreams Come True}

Look at their cute printing!!

Another fun game, The Straw Game, as my kids called it.  The girls had a full purple cup and an empty glass jar.  They had to use their long straw to move the water from one cup to the other.  They did a great job and really enjoyed this game!

Little purple party girls.  Aren't they sweet?

Musical chairs.

Classic.

Still fun!

Another glimpse of the cute clothespin dolly!

I was thrilled to see the first tulips of the year at the grocery store the day before the party...and they were purple!!!

These tiny pennants were so easy.  I cut little felt triangles and glued them to the ribbon.  It was that quick and easy.  They were a small amount of work for a big impact.

An hour before the party I realized there was nothing out front.  I grabbed a silver wreath from the Christmas bin in the garage and glued everything purple that I could find on it.  Maddie loved it so I was happy!  

Sometimes the best things happen at the last minute!!

I think I'll let her hang it in her purple room now:)

Big balloons, big impact!  I sent my awesome husband to the dollar store to pick up the balloons.  I had ordered 9 of them and oh my, they took up the entire suburban!!  

The party was a blast and I am happy to have pulled it off with a baby coming in less than a month. 

 I have two more of my kids' birthdays the month after baby comes so I am scrambling to choose those themes and get started on their parties before a tiny snuggle bug comes along and distracts me completely!!

Thanks for looking.  I hope you've found something here that inspires you in some way to celebrate someone or something special in your life!