Elephant Themed Baby Shower

It is always a joy for me to plan a baby shower for a close friend and this one was no different.  I have known Jessica since middle school and in high school we became close friends.  I always called her my clone because we were very similar: passion for singing, major sweet tooth, cried at the same things, and somehow our senior year our school put us in almost every class together. We have remained great friends through the years (even though we haven't lived in the same city since graduating high school)!

I asked Jessica if she had anything in mind for a shower theme or color scheme and she said she loved elephants and was decorating the nursery in bright green and blue so I took those ideas and went to town. :) I couldn't find any elephant crafting items (stamps, stickers, ribbons, etc) at Hobby Lobby so I bought some printable elephants off Etsy and used them on my invitations, cupcake toppers, favor bags, etc.

Here are some of the details from the shower:

Wreath for the door... I used the twig wreath with my invite, some ribbon and two paper elephants that matched the decor.

The shower was at 10:30am and since I love any excuse to serve breakfast... I made it a brunch!

On the Menu:
Pigs in a Blanket, Streusel Muffins, Strawberry cream cheese danish, Buttermilk Biscuits and preserves, Chocolate doughnuts, Fruit salad, Cranberry Apple casserole and California Egg Puff.

Centerpiece... I found paper tablecloth that matched my invites at Target so I used it as a runner (over some teal tablecloths I own to bring in both colors.  I used some grey fabric to add some dimension and put an elephant I found at Hobby Lobby with a chalkboard sign and some flowers.  Pretty simple but I liked the way it turned out.

Paper products: I love bringing the theme of the party into the paper products and love that Hobby Lobby now has the cute chevron paper straws in almost every color.

Favors: I used Pink Magnolia for the cookies.  Jessica did a fabulous job as always and matched the cookies perfectly to my invites.  I had her make a special one for the mama-to-be as well.  I (when I say "I" and I'm taking about designing something on the computer, what I really mean is...Charlie) made tags for the cookies with the same elephants from the invites.

 And here's one of me with the guest of honor and adorable mama-to-be!

Farewell Party

This post is bittersweet, although I had fun planning and hosting this party for our dear friends... it meant that they were packing up and heading on to new adventures in a new city.  You may remember the "Tiny Dancer" themed baby shower I hosted almost two years ago... that was for our sweet friends who are now 6 hours away! Anyway, I kept this party pretty simple... and kind of went with a map theme for obvious reasons. :)- Here are some of the details.

The food table: Now that my husband built me these beautiful barn doors, I don't need a backdrop to cover the ugly bi-fold doors.  Also, I bought a map from Target to tie in the moving theme.

Centerpiece: I kept it simple... pictures of our friends, a map of Virginia, some dried flowers, the invite, my new little plant from IKEA and pitcher vase from Target.

 The invite (I made these at home using some scrapbook paper that I thought looked kind of like a map, some blue cardstock and a red pen to draw a heart over the current city and new city).

 Other decor (I placed pictures of them around the house):

At the table in our entryway, I put a frame for the guests to sign as a momento for our friends.

 I made a map banner with "We'll miss you" written on it but if I had it to do over, I wish I'd printed the letters on the map pages from the computer in big letters because I don't think it stands out enough.

 Here's a picture of us with the guests of honor.  We sure do miss them already!