To celebrate my soon to be here nephew and his mommy, my youngest sister Angela, my sister Heidi, Angela's friend Julie and myself planned a shower. We moved up the date a month because of Angela's bed rest for placenta previa, not knowing when Mr. Baby Gill would be making his entrance. Thankfully, as of today, he is still cozy and growing where he needs to be.
We started with a color theme, gray and blue, based on Angela's modern nursery colors.
This is how I like to work, crazy messy, bounding from project to project and highly caffeinated and sugared up.
My talented graphic designer sister Heidi Jantz made the invites for us, as well as the Prayers for Baby sheets for guests to fill out and for the mommy to be to keep.
Theme in hand, I set to crafting...
baking,
frosting, and sprinkling.
I drew from my collection of vintage and modern pieces for display, stamped out placards for the food, painted chipboard letters and ate a few (too many) blue themed candies along the way.
The larger donuts were made gluten free and allergy friendly for those in our life who needed;
the baby donuts were store bought because while I am creative, I am not that good.
Baby forks and doilies made eating even prettier...
and the painted doilies doubled as decoration on the table covering.
We (meaning my husband and I late at night) traced the chipboard letters onto paper to add to a banner I found at Hobby Lobby. (Note to self, must stay out of H.L. Spend too too much.)
I had so much fun creating for Angela's shower, finding ways to give her a pretty day in the midst of her first time through, as well as challenging high-risk pregnancy.
For drinks, I made it easy, and of course fun for all by providing stripy straws (from Unexpected Necessities(http://www.unexpectednecessities.blogspot.com )-who I also found the baby forks from!)...and Diet Hansen's soda, found in the natural section of the grocery and good for my expecting sis...
and placed them in a retro refrigerator drawer that I had found on my friend Molly's property and scoured out. It is headed to my scrapbook room now! Vintage Birley's bottle is a junking find kept.
Our vintage family squeaky Stork stood watch over snack bowls filled with baby portions of organic blue tortilla chips to balance our donuts...
and the balanced baby cupcakes! Two of my antique blue canning jars helped pin up a mini clothesline banner hanging across the cupcake tower. I used two cake stands, one vintage, one modern. And those clock faces? I picked them up last year at Junk Bonanza last fall http://www.junkbonanza.com and have found endless decorative uses for them.
To create a nest, I went on a twig gathering expedition in my back yard with my then 3 year old and constructed it in a retro glass candle bowl and nestled my glittery bird among the branches.
Underneath sat a mini vintage porch bench gathered from my friends Nancy and Sally in Coeur d' Alene, a scrapbook tag, and antique baby bunny shaker toy.
Against the blinds my sister Heidi fashioned a B out of a bendable ruler...
and she helped me create our entry table with fresh flowers,
vintage finds,
and complete with an ultrasound picture of the little man.
Thank you to Pinterest pin from http://www.gardengrandmaw.blogspot.com for the take away treat idea for our guests. This. took. forever. But I loved using the back side pattern from Heidi's designed invites to make the covers.
And my treat stand? A retro wood trivet set on a vintage light fixture!
Thank you so much to Angela's friend Julie (and her sweet mom) for traveling across the state to be here for her friend shower and for creating fun and normal games for us to play, as well as the generous game prizes!!! Thank you to Angela's friends for coming to make her day special and for all of your prayers and ongoing support.
And thanks to the mommy to be for hosting in her home! (And to the daddy to be for cleaning the house for us, before and after.)...
We are so excited to meet your son...
and praying for you as you wait to hold your sweet boy in your arms...
In the meantime, (pray for her to make it 10 more days!!) I'm going to have another cup of coffee...
Oh, by the way, I used the chipboard letters to repurpose a retro wood tray into a sign for her family shower gift, and tied it with vintage white ribbon onto her retro wrapping paper clad gift. (A super cute, soft, warm woodsy earflap hat from Gymboree. Not on her registry. I know, I broke my own baby shower gift rule. It is just so cute.)
I hope this week finds you able to pencil in some time to shower someone you know with love, including you!
Hollie Joy
