bebe shower

Bonjour bebe Steele!  Our dear friends are expecting their first daughter, here's a little shower I threw in their honor.  The theme was parisian and the colors were pink and black.  Check out my pinterest board used for inspiration. And as usual pretty much everything was upcycled (its merely an obsession on mine)!

eiffel tower from target

french macarons from triple cream bakery, madelienes from trader joes

straws from grown up kid

pink eiffel tower from pier one

succulent favors by outside the bloom

Photos by JHRoundy

harry potter shower

Woo hoo its a harry potter themed baby shower!  I was honored when asked to help out with decorations for a coworkers baby shower.  Keep in mind, I've never read the books and can barely stay awake during the movies (sorry mrs. rowling and, weird your initials are the same as my hubby and I, jkr).  Huge props to pinterest for the ideas!!

hogwarts express platform 9 3/4

I swear that owl was more popular than the mommy

heh a fireplace!

ollivanders printable from dirt & sunshine

printable label from dirt & sunshine

printable label from dirt & sunshine

"they're not birds! they're keys! winged keys." harry potter

It wouldn't be a baby shower without a diaper cake!

Interestingly enough I did most of the decoration "shopping" in my own home.  Who knew I had so many potterish items?  Everything else was either upcycled or purchased at a thrift store.  I was super stoked when I found the flying broom at my favorite thrift store ($4 score!).  And when the mr. was trimming the trees in the backyard I snatched them up before he could use them for kindling.  Also big thanks to the friend who let me borrow the very popular owl.

white sangria

I thought you all might like to have the recipe I used for the white sangria at the baby shower.  I have a feeling this could be a real hit at summer parties.  It's also easily doubled to fill up those larger sized containers.  And as the case is with any sangria, the longer it sits the better it is.

{peachy white sangria}

ingredients

1 bottle white wine {I used pinot grigio}

1/2 cup peach Schnapps

1/4 cup sugar

2 sliced peaches {I used one bag of frozen}

1 sliced orange

1/2 mango peeled and sliced

1/2 liter ginger ale

steps

1.  Pour wine and Schnapps in the pitcher and add peach, orange and mango.

2.  Add sugar and still gently.

3.  Chill mixture for at least one hour.

4.  Add ginger ale just before serving.

cupcake in a jar

At the time I made these cupcakes it was late to bed and early to rise for a whole week.  I'm surprised they even turned out, they were quite the chore.  But when my husband came home and said they were really cute all the hard work paid off.  Here's the inspiration...

my cakies

my cakies

Although the Paula Dean recipe for red velvet cupcakes as you see above sounds delicious, the mommy we threw the baby shower for loves funfetti cupcakes so I opted for them.  I used leftover mason jars from my wedding {more on that later}.  And I was too frugal to buy bakers twine so I found a similar yarn option at Michaels.  And this is what I came up with...

The process...

Using a circle Marvy clever lever mega craft punch {2.5"} I punched out the message I printed on card stock paper.  In this case my message simply said {thank you}.

The next step was to add the message card to the lid of the jar.  I decided to hot glue the pieces together, so when the recipient opened their jar the lid would be one piece.  I don't know it seemed like a good idea at the time...maybe it was an unnecessary extra step?

Next up is placing your cupcake in the jar.  For my test run I followed the directions on my cakies blog.  Unfortunately during the taste test phase I found the funfetti cake and vanilla frosting were just too sweet to layer.  So I decided to place one cupcake in the jar with an appropriate amount of frosting on top. Be sure to fill the cupcake pan no more that 2/3 full, any bigger and you will have a hard time pushing them through the opening of the jar.  With that said, use a smaller jar!  I was determined to recycle the jars from my wedding but there is no need to use the pint size for this project.

After the cupcake was in the jar, I used my Ateco reusable pastry bag without a decorating tip {just the coupling} to apply the frosting. This was relatively easy. I finished off the cupcakes with blue sugar sprinkles.

The final step was to add a spoon and attach a bow using the bakers twine look-a-like yarn.  Again the frugalista in me didn't want to spend the money on the disposable bamboo spoons so I opted for a compostable corn spoon {don't worry, I didn't order a thousand of them}.

shower success

One more item checked off the bucket list; throw a baby shower!  I was very happy with the way everything turned out and most importantly my sister-in-law {the mother} loved everything.  I enjoyed experimenting with some new-to-me crafts for this shower, I will highlight some of them in future blog posts.   Here are a few photos the mr. snapped before the guests arrived and he started his grilling duties.

welcome table

diaper guestbook

food buffet {pre food}

white sangria

diaper cake

answer:109

living room

button flowers

Malakai blocks {diaper wreath in the background}

pennant banner

diy applique onesie

onsie fabric

cupcake in a jar {favor}