I had a blast helping out with a dear friend of mine’s baby shower last month. And of course, here I am posting about it over a month later! Ridiculous….

The shower theme was Ladybug — and her sisters did a great job putting everything together perfectly. The only thing I did was bake 9 dozen cupcakes and decorate them for the party! They were fun, delicious and oh so cute if I dont say so myself :) Check out all of the fun photos in the following slideshow and I will share a few more details & resources after that!

Shower Inspiration: Baby Room Set from Babies R Us

We were expecting close to 100 guests! So simplicity was key… Margaret decorated the tables beautifully with black table clothes and fun flower pots adorned with ladybug ribbon and cute little ladybug signs! Talk about the perfect find! I think that potted plants/flowers are the perfect centerpiece for a ladybug (or any insect, for that matter) shower. For Favors, she lucked out an was able to get some candy at discount right after Valentine’s day (with almost 100 guests… frugality is key!) and filled some cute little baggies.

As for my cupcake venture — I decided to make them simple and cute. And since I had to make so many, I decided not to try to make them look like ladybugs as many would for the theme. The fun part for me, was hopping onto Photoshop and creating some adorable little cupcake toppers. Contact me if you ever need these, because I LOVE doing them and sell them in my Etsy shop.

I don’t have resources for you, in regards to throwing a ladybug themed shower or products … but for Baby Shower Resources in general, check out my Resource Guide. My main idea is to Google away! Look in the Google images for some great ideas and resources. I also suggest not going too over the top with the theme, to keep it’s elegance versus little girl birthday party style (if that makes sense). We had a great time and hope you enjoyed the photos :)

Baby Felicity was born March 25th, 2010 and both baby and mama are healthy!

This weekend, I threw my handsome hubby a SURPRISE birthday party for his 25th! Some people ask me why I have a party for him (and myself) every single year… First of all, I can rarely resist any reason to throw a party! Second of all, I love him!

This year, I decided on a Mustache Party! Did I know that this theme existed? No. But it sounded pretty hilarious and what better reason to grow a mustache than the fact that it is ‘Mustache March!’ I definitely wanted to share some of the fun photos but also some of my favorite inspirations and products that helped make this party a huge success (see below)! Enjoy!

We had the party Sunday afternoon (and it was the perfect day for a pool party in March! yay!) and had an amazing spread of delicious Mexican appetizers and sweet treats. I made a bunch of milk chocolate and dark chocolate Mustache lollipops (link below) and stuck them into some styrofoam that I had placed in some mini bowls. They were the perfect touch to the chocolate section of our spread (right next to the chocolate covered strawberries!). I also hopped onto Photoshop and created some fun name tags for the drink cups — I simply grabbed some images of different mustaches from the internet and made them gray on the tags, printed them onto mailing labels and chopped em up. Easy Peasy!

Another fun thing I did was I created a few mini signs to place around the house and the food spread to reinforce the mustache theme. The sayings were: ‘Never transport leftovers with your mustache,’ ‘With great mustache, comes great responsibility,’ ‘ Don’t get caught in public with a naked upper lip,’ and ‘Savor the Flavor.’ Simple and fun. I printed them up on green cardstock and matted them with black cardstock — here is the thing though… I NEVER USED THEM! Amongst all of the craziness of preparing and trying to keep everything a surprise, I totally forgot to set them out :(

I know that there are a ton of other fun ideas for a mustache party, but I wanted to keep it fairly simple; didn’t want it to be too childish for my big man! Here are a few other ideas I had (or found):

• Pin the mustache on Burt Reynolds,
• Print names of all of the famous people (list below) that were known for their ’stache and have each person wear one on their back when they get there (everyone has to guess who they are by asking others Qs about their own character — great ice breaker!),
• Play Pictionary with the list of Famous ’stache wearers,
• Mustache Trivia of some sorts (ask questions about different styles, famous staches, etc). Fun stuff!

My Mustache Inspiration:

• Fashion in Motion Mag: Movember ‘09 Post
• Erin Conrad Photography: Stache Bash ‘09 Post
• Hostess with the Mostess: Mr. Man Party
• Deal Extreme: Fake Mustaches
• Bake It Pretty: Mustache Lollipop Mold
• Martha Stewart: How to make a Mustache on a Stick
• How Nice Etsy: Mustache Magnets (photo below)
• LittletJane Etsy: Mustache Stamps (photo below)
• BirdofaFeather Etsy: Mustache Chapstick (photo below)

Fun Garland for an added touch (unfortunately, I ran out of time to make one :(

Fun little saying (again, didnt save the source! To put around the house/food spread!)

Adorable Mustache Card (Sorry, I didnt save the source! Too cute not to share!)

Too dang cute: Mustache Chapstick!!Fun Magnets (or buttons if you want)… I used these as the prize for ‘Best Stache’

Fun homemade Mustache Stamps

‘Stache Character List: (I am sure there are more that you could come up with!)

Yosemite Sam
Captain Hook
Burt Reynolds
Gomez Addams
Mario
Luigi (Mario)
Wimpey (Popeye)
Ned Flanders (Simpsons)
Hulk Hogan
Nacho Libre
Charlie Chaplin
Clark Gable
Jacques Clouseau (Pink Panther)
Adolf Hitler
Alex Trebek (Wheel of Fortune)
Prince
Ron Burgundy (Anchor Man)
Capt’n Crunch
the Burger King
Cheech Marin
Sonny Bono
Albert Einstein
Magnum PI – Tom Selleck
Robin Hood
Wyatt Earp
Teddy Roosevelt
Mike Ditka (Coach for Chicago Bears)
Mr. Moneybags (Monopoly Mascot)
Mr. Potato Head
Zorro
Capt’n Jack Sparrow
3 Musketeers
Walt Disney
Robert Goulet
Edgar Allan Poe
William Faulkner
Freddy Mercury (Queen)

Today I threw my lovely sister in law a Baby Shower! It is my very first shower that I have thrown and I definitely had a blast! I really wanted to make this one super special since it is baby #4 and it may be the last… I guess, we never really know, do we! Anyhow, I did a ton of research and found some great and inspirational Baby Showers! I will share a list of links later in the post, along with our menu.

They dont know if this is going to be a boy or girl (crossing our fingers for a girl!) so I went with a Purple, Blue and Green color theme. Peacock feathers were my initial inspiration, but I never ended up using any in the decor — mind you, I had them, just forgot to use them! Woops! I wanted the shower to be elegant, so I had some fresh flowers, crystal glasses and we even had it outside; what a blessing to have warm weather the week of Thanksgiving! Ever seen anyone use POTS as elegant decor? Well, my dear friend, Karen came up with this great idea to use them to hold the Cotton Candy Cones and the Champagne… all it took where a few extra strands of ribbon and voila! Beautiful!

I couldn’t pick just a few photos to show you, so I placed them in a slideshow below … Enjoy!

The Menu:

Lemon Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Strawberry Thumbprint Cookies
Cafe Mocha Creme Sticks
Cotton Candy in Paper Cones
Cherry Cordials
Grape Mike N Ikes
Blueberry Candy Canes
Sugar Plums
Champagne with Raspbrries
Sparkling Cider with Raspberries

Inspirational & Helpful Baby Shower Sites:

• Lolliblog – Sugar Spice and Everything Nice
• Hostess {with the Mostess}
• Shower Games A to Z
• Create My Event

Thanks for taking a peak at all of the fun I had this weekend! Now off to get into the Thanksgiving spirit!

Many Blessings to you and yours!

I just realized that I never shared any photos of my 1920s style Birthday Party! It was a huge blast and I am thankful for everyone who was there and dressed up ever so wonderfully. (The photo above from the Left: Kate, Me, Grace, Holly, Jenn & baby Noah)

We had a ton of fun and creative ideas that me and my girls threw together for a great party! We had plenty of wine, champagne and sparkling punch to drink (Boxed grape juice for the kiddies)… Grapes, Cubed Cheese, Crackers, Olives, Old-Style Candies all dished up in some beautiful crystal bowls and dishes. We of course had a pie contest and the winner was my Grandma with her Lemon Meringue Pie (which is my all-time favorite by the way).

For fun, we set up some lounge areas complete with a single red rose in a small glass vase and a strand of pearls. The guests enjoyed some night croquet that was lit up by some lovely Mason Jars with candles that lined the whole backyard. My friend Karen and I also created some fun paper lanterns to hang (using white paper bags, stamps, ribbon and fake tealight candles from the $1 store)… template, courtesy of Martha Stewart!

Other decor included some gorgeous long-stemmed ostrich feathers in vases, Dark Turqoise Velvet Draperies, Poker Tables, and we even dolled up the Wine Glasses. I found this absolutely gorgeous gold paper and printed up a bunch of “Important People” of the 1920s (a.k.a. Bonnie & Clyde, Charlie Chaplin, etc), used my punches to punch em out and adhered them on some black squares. I added a couple pearl accessories, glue gunned some gold ribbon so that it would hang around the stem of the wine glasses as a simple name tag. I think they turned out beautifully!

Enjoy the photos :)

Me & My hubs, Garrett …………………….. Our Nephew Ty with Garrett

The boys from the Left: Seth, My Big Bro Tim, Owen, Ty and Dad