What a wonderful and fast weekend we had! I drove across the country with my car loaded with two dogs, a toddler and trunk full of aqua & orange dishes, decorations, crafts, material ... you name it! You can imagine why the officer who pulled me over for speeding was wondering were in the helk I was going!
I had a baby shower to throw. We hosted this beach side function in the middle of Kansas at my mom's house - and we had non-stop couple days turning her Midwest home into a sea-side retreat. Our little guest of honor is now a Florida Native and is having a little boy and her nursery will be orange, aqua & lime green. We had a theme ladies and gentleman!
It started with a cute little invite I made using my cricut and blank invites from Paper Source.
Our list of craft projects for this function was long! But little baby stuff is so much fun to do - that we just kept adding things.
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| Inside #1 |
For the fireplace - we bought some cool frames on clearance from Hobby Lobby - I spray painted them black. Backed them with a sand/pebble fabric, added the strip of orange burlap (which was also the table runner) and a cute sea creature picture we found on the internet. I made the little garland hanging from the cricut and sewed it with invisible thread. The little glass bowls are full of orange binkers (pacifiers) and starfish. The little pails came from target during Easter!
My Mom is a master at making little collections of things - she did her entire hutch with basket, shells, glass vases - some she had, the rest TJ Max! Next to the hutch we hung the "bib" garland from the windows. I used my cricut to cut fabric and iron it onto the bibs and finished them off with little matching buttons. I do not care what the websites say - cutting fabric with your cricut is a HUGE pain.
We had several small guest in attendance so to make like easy - we packed them a lunch. Threw down huge lime green blankets in the back yard and let them go to town.
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Inside #2
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The window arrangement was another little work of art from my mom ... it was full of candles and tropical plants, little tray of sand and a cute little metal sign about seahorses. We served lunch from the table and desert from the island. My mom has a gas stove that we covered up with a huge cookie tray and made a little sand beach on. The diaper cake is one of my favorites. I covered each layer in tulle. I stitched on the little star fish. Added some sea creature bath toys and a few paper pics to match. It looked like it had been frosted!
Lunch Menu:
Summer Tomato Pasta, Cesar Salad Wraps, BLT Wraps, Basil/Onion Peach Salad, Steak Salad.
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Outside #1
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We turned the back patio into our seaside haven. The fabric pennant hanging was a breeze to make. There are a million tutorials on the web - just search around and see which one works for what you need. I sewed all my triangles - leaving the tops unfinished, turned them right side out - press - slip them inside seam binding and sewed. Very easy. The onesie clothes line was a mix of carters and wal-mart. They had little sea creatures on them, so I couldn't not pass them up!
The garden in the back we took large pieces of cardboard (our friend was nice enough to cut them all out for us, she is a cardboard wiz) I spray painted them dark blue, light blue, white and then glittered the tips. Added all the creatures (cut out from the cricut) some we stuck right on the waves, some we stuck on sticks. We just taped garden sticks to the back of the waves and stuck them in the ground.
We did not want a "formal" feel to our beach side shower - we gave each guest an orange pop up chair (or a camping chair) for their thank you gift and had them pop a squat any place in the yard! We got a great deal on the chairs and they were cheaper than renting tables and real chairs!
I made moma a mobile for her nursery - all sea creatures in her colors. We made all the wooden signs - they turned out so cute! We painted boards - cut out letters/signs from the cricut - modge podged them onto the wood. (not sure I would leave them outside) how cute would they be in a nursery or bedroom!
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| Outside #2 |
More cute stuff we did outside! My om made the wreathe out of geo-mesh (that stuff is a mess)
This was one of the funnest (yep I am using it as a word) showers we have done in a long time! I think the moma had a good time and I know my mom and I had a blast!
I always believe in making the guest of honor thank you cards - if she is a bride or a baby moma - she is awfully busy - it makes for a nice little gift!
