Butterfly Baby Shower- Decorations

This will be my final post on the baby shower. It was two months in the making and I am really pleased  with the way everything turned out.  Since Lee Anne's nursery theme is Butterflies, we wanted to carry that over into the shower. I search Pinterest and Etsy for various invitations that could be customized for a baby shower. I narrowed it down to three and then let Lee Anne choose. We ultimately ended up purchasing this party pack from Pixels N Ink's Etsy shop. Melanie, the owner,  was VERY helpful and offered suggestions on wording since Lee Anne did not want to disclose the baby name at the shower. I would highly recommend purchasing from her! 

We printed everything on card stock with the exception of the candy bar labels ( we just used regular computer paper for that). Every night while watching TV, I would sit with my cutting mat and X-acto knife, cutting everything down to size. There are several different ways to construct the banners. I originally purchased brads and then thought about using the double sided tape method. Ultimately, I used ribbon and a regular old hole punch ( as demonstrated here) to hang the banners.

The party pack also came with several "signs" ( Food, drinks, gifts, etc). I planned on using 4 of the 6 signs in the pack. I just purchased $1 8X10 frames from the Dollar Tree. They only came in black so I simply sprayed them either white or pink to go with the corresponding sign.

This punch was AWESOME! Recipe found here. 

The gift bags were also fairly simple. I purchased small gift bags in mint and pale pink at Iparty. They were on sale for .53 cents each. I also picked up some hot pink tissue paper. Our party pack came with "Thank You" tags. I simply used my 2-inch punch to cut them to size and attached them to the front of the bags using glue dots. Inside the bags went..chocolate bars, hand sanitizers, mints and a homemade pink and green cake pop.

As for games, we played two free games I found online. First we played a game called "Baby Sweets". Someone reads out a common pregnancy word ( ie: Baby Giggles) and the guests have to come up with a candy for that particular phrase. So the answer in this case was "Snickers". The prize? You guessed it. A snickers. We played this with about 10 different candies.

The second game is a free online printable Celebrity Baby Name Game. Its was harder than we thought for most of the guests. I think the most anyone got right was seven. In sticking with our theme, First place got a Butterfly Plug and Sweet pea air freshener from Bath and Body Works.

The last little thing I put together for the shower I used both as a decoration and a gift. I know that the "monthly onesie stickers" are very popular. Well I wanted to do a clothes like type of decoration at the shower. So I decided to combine the two. I found this adorable monthly onesie printable ( for FREE). I mirror imaged the numbers and printed them on transfer paper. I then purchased 12 onesies and adhered the decals onto the onesies. I hung three up at the shower and wrapped the remaining as a gift for the mom-to-be.

A few other pictures from the shower I wanted to share before wrapping up. We actually ordered this cake from Sam's Club and they customized it to our theme for no additional cost. It was only around $17 for half a sheet... it was both beautiful and delicious!

I used the labels in the party pack to label the food ( types of sandwiches, dressing etc). 

The water bottle labels...Call me a ditz but I struggled with this one. I made water bottles for my wedding and purchased the expensive water bottle labels you print on and adhere. To keep costs down, I didn't want to order more supplies. Then it hit me...Contact paper. I picked up one roll at the Dollar Tree. I cut the contact paper slightly larger then my label(again just printed on card stock) to form a water proof seal when adhered to the bottle. Worked out perfectly... no leaking and the labels stayed attached!

I just got this "cooler " of sorts with a Chrsitmas gift card and coupon to Pier One!

I promise this is the last Baby Shower post... I think I have over shared enough for everyone! :) 

9 Weeks

Pardon the dirty mirror!

+ Starting to feel better. The little nausea I had seems to have subsided.
+ Made it to the gym three days in a row, a first since the start of this pregnancy!
+ Had second doctor's appointment: Everything looks great and Baby H is measuring at 9 week, 6 days!
+ Actually down a few pounds from my first OB visit!

Butterfly Baby Shower- Pomanders

Way back on my 2012 Projects list, I mentioned wanting to a add a window seat in front of the windows between the Master bedroom and the kitchen. For once, my lack of motivation ( and finances) to complete this project paid off! See right when we decided to have the baby shower for my friend Lee Anne at my house, I knew it would be the perfect place to set up a gift table. It is about a 10 foot stretch of wall with two large windows taking up most of it. I had an 8 foot table that fit perfectly in the space and that could serve as our gift table.

I also knew that I wanted to make some of the ever popular tissue paper flowers/ pom poms for the shower. I got the idea to hang pomanders at various lengths along the ceiling above the gift table. So, I got creative. It started with a trip to the best store ever: Hobby Lobby. This is what I brought home in my first round of shopping.

I decided to use different every day craft supplies and varying size Styrofoam balls to make the pomanders. I purchased: streamers, felt, tissue paper, tulle, cupcake wrappers and scraps of fabric. Oh and sewing pins.... lots and lots of sewing pins.

I picked up these pink and green cupcake liners at Joann's. They ended up making adorable pomanders that were super easy to construct. I used a 4 inch Styrofoam ball ( A 6 pack at Hobby Lobby will run you $4.99 before a coupon). And one pack of cupcake liners covered the 4 inch ball perfectly. I simply pulled the bottom into a point and pinned then into the ball.

 Leaving me with this. I also completed a 2nd one with the green cupcake liners.

Pink Cupcake Liner Pomander 

By far the most tedious and painful pomander was the one I used as my center. Part of the problem was I used a HUGE Styrofoam ball so I am convinced it wouldn't be so bad if I had stuck with a 4 inch ball. I purchased come scrap fabric and fabric quarters.

I cut them all into 12 inch strips and assembled flowers from each one. Very similar to the method Katie Bower posted yesterday. Only difference was that I secured mine with hot glue since I already had the hot glue out to glue the assembled flowers to the Styrofoam ball.

I attached the ribbon with a BUNCH of sewing pins due to the weight of the completed pomander. While I love the finished product, my glue burnt finger prints were singing a different tune!

The felt and tulle pomanders were all assembled the same way. I cut circles out of the material and pinned them onto the ball.

I attached ribbon at varying lengths after  I completed each pomander. You could hold off on that step until you are ready to hang them. Luckily, my method worked out fine for me and hanging them up was a breeze!

So how did the finish product turn out?

I did end up picking up a three pack of pink lanterns ( $5.99 before coupon at Hobby Lobby) to throw into the mix. I LOVE it so much I want to leave it up. Of course, Tim vetoed me on that one. Here are a few more close ups.

I attached them all to the ceiling using thumb tacks. Everything stayed in place and we had no issues, even with my heavy centerpiece! Oh and I constructed the tissue paper pom poms using the method outlines in this tutorial. 

Now, someone else I know needs to have a little girl so I have an excuse to reuse these decorations! ;)

Butterfly Baby Shower- Diaper Cake

I am so excited to share some of the projects I have been working on! I mentioned here that I was one of three hostesses planning a shower for our friend, Lee Anne, who is expecting a sweet baby girl this April.
We had our first "planning" meeting back in December where we picked the "Butterfly" theme to match the nursery. Being the overachiever that I am, I immediately set to work on various projects knowing how quickly the time would pass with the Holidays in between.

I knew I wanted to make a diaper cake. I kept an eye on diaper sales and ended up getting a great deal on Pamper's Swaddlers at CVS. Because of the sale, the were pretty wiped up so I went with size 2 diapers, which actually ended up being ideal for the diaper cake!

Here are the supplies I used:
- 75 Size 2 diapers
- Cake Base ( I used 12 inch)
- LOTS of rubber bands
- Glue dots
- Ribbon and/or head bands ( I used both)
- 4 oz baby bottle
- Large bottle of Baby Powder
- Decorations

To start, I rolled all 75 diapers and secured each one with a rubber band around the center. This is mindless and I did it while watching TV. Make sure you open the diaper and begin rolling design side in, so no design is visible on the outside of your cake.

Next, place the bottle of baby powder in the center of the cake base. Begin placing rolled diapers around the powder and secure them all with a rubber band, like so.

Continue adding diapers around the existing row of diapers, securing each with a rubber band. You will keep doing this until you get to the edge of your cake base.

Next, secure the bottle on top of the powder...use double sided tape or glue dots. Then begin adding diaper rows around the bottle, securing each row with a rubber band.

You do not want to go out as far, as you want the tiered effect. Two rows is ideal. You should have just a few diapers left to add one row around the top of the bottle for your third tier.

Now for the fun part...decorating! I picked up some green polka dot ribbon and a solid pink ribbon with white stitching. I used glue dots to secure the ribbon to hide the rubber bands on the bottom two tiers of the cake. For the top tier, I used a hot pink baby headband with a pink ribbon clip.

Butterfly Diaper Cake

At the very last minute, I ended up add a few more butterflies I picked up at the Dollar Tree. Here it is the day of the shower.

What do you think of my first diaper cake? I am really pleased with how it turned out. I think they make great gifts and are relatively easy to put together.

Clearance Valentine's Day Decorations

Since it is officially February, I felt like it was acceptable to take out a few Valentine's Day decorations. I still have more to do but this is what we have so far.

I picked this up  90% off at Joann's after Valentine's Day last year. This year, it found its home on the front door. I think it ended up being around $2.90.

I also picked this up after last season at Kohls. I think they were also 80-90 % off. I think they were $1 each?

And because my dogs wear bows everyday, they too got into the Valentine's Day spirit!

Cracks be Gone

The tile installation process began the Wednesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 23rd. I knew that it was only going to be prep work due to the unlevel, cracking surface of the "basketball court". Here is a a flashback to what it looked like before:

After the first day of prep work, thinks were looking like this:

Honestly, I was a little surprised at how little got completed on the first day of work but since I had seen their work before, I wasn't concerned. Day two brought an end to the preparation stage of work.

Since Friday began the tile laying, we had to move all the tile into this area Thursday night. We stacked it inside the gate so that they could work there way out. Friday, I came home from work early to check on the progress. This is what I found...

I know its hard to see with the shadows from the house but very little was done. I got home from work before 2 and the workers had already left for the day. We weren't sure if they were planning on showing up on Saturday or not but they arrived exactly at 9 am to continue laying the tile. They did get a bit further this day.

At this point, I went ahead and paid them for the prep work and also picked out a grout. We chose a darker grout similar to the tone running throughout the tile.

Monday morning, they arrived for their 5th day or work at 8 am.  I thought for sure they would finish laying tile and was surprised to find they didn't.

He did tell me that he needed my gate removed by the following day, Tuesday, so that he could completely finish. So that night after work, my dad came over to help me remove the gate (Tim was tutoring). Tuesday morning they arrived at 8am. I told them to make sure they did not cover my gate holes with tile and they promised to be finished by the end of the day.

Well that didn't happen. They called me around 11 and said their supplier gave them the wrong color grout and that they needed to go to Home Depot to pick out something else. I thought I would be coming home to a finished job but I arrived home to a partially grouted patio. I am not sure what the original  grout looked like but I really like what they selected.

They did end up finishing around noon on Wednesday. I met them that evening to pay them and was given instructions not to walk on the tile for at least a day. Although it took them much longer than I expected, I am in LOVE with the finished product!

The patio is just under 640 sq feet and we bought just enough to cover cuts and leave us with a box and half left over. The tile was very reasonable priced (.99 cent sq foot)  and the installers charged us 1.50 sq foot to install plus all materials. It definitely wasn't cheap but was much more reasonable than pavers. It's really hard to believe it is the same area. Here is a little side-by-side for comparison.

That before and after is totally worth the price in my book!