yellow and grey baby shower

I had the lovely pleasure last month of hosting a baby shower for my best friend. I really love party planning and putting a handmade touch on party decor. Here are a few Instagram photos (follow me! my handle is abstractgrace) of the party decor.

I was also happy to find that Kim from The Tomkat Studio, has teamed up with Pottery Barn Kids sharing great party ideas. There are some great video tutorials and free printables for all types of party decor. I took advantage of her beautiful designs and used the Sunshine Baby Shower suite for printable decor and invitations.

I wanted to go with a yellow and grey color scheme from the beginning. I thought that it was a perfect blend of gender neutral (she was having a boy). I didn't want to go to "boy-ish" with the shower. I guess I just like thing uber-girly!

The brunch menu included crepes with nutella, peanut butter, and preserves. We also had  fruit salad, quiche, goat cheese and crackers, and lemon bars (Ina Garten's amazing recipe). Yellow daises in mason jars tied with twine adorned the buffet and tables, and several walls were covered in vertical hanging crepe paper streamers and yellow and grey tissue paper poms.

My favorite part of the shower was the polaroid guest book. We set up a table with several chalkboard props and took pics of guests when they arrived. Then they were able to write a message below their photo to the mom-to-be and baby. Afterwards all the pictures went into a memory book of the shower as a keepsake for mom. 

It was such a lovely day and I got a lot of compliments from guests on how everything turned out. Now onto planning Ella's 2nd birthday!

{ta da!}

Remember the baby shower I helped out with from 400 miles away? Well I was sent a few pics of how everything turned out. Super cute! You can re-read the original post HERE, see the invite, water bottle labels and even download the cupcake toppers for FREE! 

Cute huh?! If you do use the toppers, please send pics! You can email me directly (see contact in the sidebar) or leave a link in the comments section. 

{free download: owl cupcake toppers}

Recently I shared about designing a suite of invitations and decorations for a friends baby shower, with the theme being owls. I thought I'd share how everything turned out with you. I'm not by any means a graphic designer, but I've been having a ton of fun lately designing invitations for friends. In fact this is my 4th! 

The invitation is sized to fit the Costco postcard when printed (4x6). The postcards are a great heavy card stock and are glossed. They really look beautiful and are a great option for inexpensive invite printing. Plus, you can put additional information on the back side (think clothing sizes, or registry information) and you always have the option to put them in envelopes if you don't want to send them out on their own as postcards (which I think is a darling idea). 

Here is the invite:

The details have been changed so don't think about crashing the party. :)

The water bottle labels. I printed these out on full sheet sticky paper and cut them out. They stick right on a standard sized water bottle. 

The cupcake toppers!

As promised, you can join in on the owl goodness and download the Owl Cupcake Toppers for free by clicking HERE. If anyone is interested in purchasing the invites, water bottle labels, and cupcake toppers customized with your child's info please feel free to send me an email and we may be able to work something out. Otherwise enjoy your download, and get to baking some cupcakes!

{baby shower, from far away}

During the short 6 months that I was in Southern California I had the immense pleasure of joining a MOPS group. It's a moms group for Mothers of Preschoolers (children 4 and under), and let me tell you it was a LIFESAVER! 

I met a group of amazing women and we had a great time once a week leaving our little ones in childcare while we listened to a speaker, did crafts, ate brunch and sipped coffee (mostly decaf). Although all of us had kids there were a few special ladies expecting little ones during the time I was there. 

I offered to help design a suite of decorations for a baby shower honoring one of the ladies. I'm sad that I had to move before the shower happens, but I know that i'll get pictures of how everything turn out, and i'll be sure to share them!

This included the invites (they turned out soooo cute!), cupcake toppers and water bottle labels for the shower. I'm going to do a full post soon so you can see how everything turned out and i'm thinking of doing a free download of the cupcake toppers as well, but until then here's a sneak peak the party goodies. Oh, and the theme is everyones favorite, Owls!

{Baby Bird, Baby Shower}

Here are some photos from the lovely baby shower my sister in law hosted for Travis and I. The theme was "baby bird" and it was such a good time with family.

Aren't the nest cupcakes adorable? And the mini bird eggs? So cute!

Love the flower choice...ranunculus right? So pretty!

The yummy sandwich bar, my favorite was the quinoa curry salad. Soooo good!

Me @ 31.5 weeks...my belly is getting HUGE!

{Bebes Pt. Deux}

As promised, here are a menagerie of photos that would be great to base a boy baby shower off of. If any of my currently preggo friends end up having a boy this idea gallery will definitely come to life. My ideas here stem from an outdoorsy-woodland theme. A whimsical forest table with touches of faux bois, polka dots, sky blue, yellow tinged green, brown and grey. There is so much that can be done with texture alone in this category! I thought that bringing in yellowed green and vibrant blue would tone down the "nature" factor while keeping the whole thing fresh and young. I definitely want the whole thing to stay away from having a "camping" feel, but rather am going for an "Alice In Wonderland-foresty-chic" kinda thing...that makes sense right???

{Bebes}

So, I'm not sure what they (whoever "they" are) have been putting in the water, but as of lately there seems to be a lot of people around me either, a.) getting pregnant or b.) having babies. The abrupt news has caught me off guard, and definitely lit a fire under my crafty/sewing little behind.

One batch of baby goodies consisting of: a reversible changing pad, bibs, cloth balls/stuffies/toys, and baby blanket has been whipped up and given to little Jeremiah, the first to arrive, to use.

I also have been doing a lot of scouring on the internet and in blog world for ideas and pics of charming baby shower ideas. I'll be throwing at least one, attending who knows how many this upcoming year and the ideas are endless.

My best friend is expecting her first baby in November, and although there are still a few weeks before the sex of the baby is known I have been compiling ideas for both girl and boy focused showers. I apologize but I don't have references for these pictures, they are a miss-match of photos i've been collecting in a folder on my desktop for a while now.

The collage above is my idea of the perfect outdoor tea and dessert shower for a girl. The pink, white and green colors, as well as subtle butterfly theme would be great for this summer. Lots of color, girly detail, and french macaroons sounds to me like the perfect way to celebrate the mom to be.

Boy shower ideas coming soon!