Baby Shower!

Everybody loves a baby shower, right? right! I know I sure do, especially if I get to host it and get crafty. And especially if it's for my best good friend Allison and her sweet baby Leah.

Before I can plan anything decoration-wise, I have to have a starting off point, like certain colors or a design. In this case, I already knew that there was going to be pink, but wasn't sure if I wanted to do a soft, baby pink theme or something brighter. Then I saw these fun napkins.

And everything just popped into place! So it became a bright-colored, contemporary-flowered baby shower theme. The invitations I made had cute little 3-D diapers on them, so that was part of the theme too. I also knew I wanted to hang some outfits and cloth diapers on clotheslines as part of the decoration, and as my gift to the mommy-to-be.

Below the invite is the greeting card I was making for the shower. I used some shiny kitchen twine for the real clothesline decorations and I also added it to the card. Don't you just love those tiny clothespins!! Instead of doing my normal, tiered diaper cake though, I decided to mix it up a little (don't laugh too hard) and do diaper bassinets!! I found some really great ribbon that matched the napkins too.

The paper underneath it is a really fun scrapbook paper I found at Hobby Lobby. I used the same paper to make a small banner to hang with the clothesline. I used my scrapbook cutting machine to cut the circles and letters and then tied them together using bright green ribbon. I make these kinds of banners and diaper cakes to sell too, so email me if you are ever interested.

I also used my cutting machine to craft up this cute wreath I got at Michael's.

And more clotheslines!!

When guests started arriving,
(just a few!) presents were added here...

I helped my mom prepare a very delicious lunch. I really liked our menu. I looked at other people's blogs searching for good baby shower menus, so here was ours if you are like me:

hummis with pita chips and real pita slices
fresh fruit salad ( with kiwi-yum!)
asparagus quiche
curried chicken salad in little pastry bowls

And I think most of you know that I like to be green whenever possible, so we went with china plates and silverware. My mom also made that beautiful flower arrangement, isn't she talented??

Here I am doing one of my fav things...napkin arranging! (it's a science, people)

here are the happy hosts with the mommy-to-be

and party pics!


Here is Ali opening one of many gorgeous quilts
made by her talented momma,
Mrs. Clair Russell.

I am quite aware that this is becoming one of the longest posts of all time. I promise it took way longer to post than for you to read! BUT I still need to share that--

A) I knew I could count on my friend Alla to wear some fierce shoes to a baby shower, just like I did:

and B) Allison gave me a cupcake holder as a hostess gift!! SCORE!!! Which was absolutely perfect for the cupcakes I was about to make for Avery's school Easter party!

Of which I will be happy to share in the next post, for this one is quite long enough.