My Sister's Shower!

Cooking has always been apart of my life...now it is my life! I love to cook, try new recipes & eat! Recently I've started throwing parties; I learned that I have a real talent for it. I would love to share the love that I have for food with you as well as my projects that I do for parties! I know how expensive throwing a party can be; hopefully, this will help you cut corners, make your own decorations and stay within your budget. I'll offer other ideas and themes for parties as well...you know NOTHING COMMON!

My last project was a "Baby Shower" I through for my sister; a woman I would describe to have a great sense of fashion, young, fresh & modern. Her theme was "Sugar & Spice..." She decided she wanted her colors to be brown, green, & hot pink. She did NOT want a typical baby shower, since we have been to plenty and they seem to be repetitive...I couldn't agree more! So we decided on lunch and it was outdoors; what do we do for decorations now? I knew that the tables would be important since our guest would be seated the entire time!

We rented tables from a local party rental place, I bought chocolate brown table covers from Party City...good start, but I was stumped as to what to use as centerpieces. It really took me awhile to come up with it but I found pails from Target that were in the dollar bin. I bought five since there were five round tables

I bought ribbon from Wal-mart for like $1 and some change and pacifiers from Party City for $2 or so... it was inexpensive though! I also bought foam letters from Wal-mart that cost about $3; however, I already had the letters from a previous project so I just went through my craft box!

I was very pleased with how these turned out...NOTHING COMMON!

I wanted them to be used as a holder for the one of the party games and pencils as well! I bought the "Its A Girl" pencils at Party City and I believe they were like $2 as well as the games! I got the curling ribbon from Target for a $1.

Okay...so we found the plates, a table cover, confetti, and balloons with the "Baby Theme" from Party City. Now I have to be honest, it was a little pricey; if allowed you can break the bank in that store! But because we were on a budget, I did my best to just get what I needed and get out of that store as quick as I could!

So we had limited room to decorate but I still wanted to make an impact. I believe that its all in the details and its the little things that matter so I needed a game plan...my sister wanted a "Sweet Buffet" and I figured that would be another chance for me to get some decorations in. My sister had these over sized teacups at her place from a previous party and she wanted me to utilize them; I used the same ribbon and foam letters that I got from Wal-mart to create these. She wanted to have a chocolate fountain so we used these to hold food...NOTHING COMMON!

As far as the favors I just purchased tulle from Party City...the cute little boxes were so expensive. I have been to more than one party and remember leaving my favor or if I did take them I cannot tell you where they are today! You don't want to know how many favors I have left over from the shower lol! But thank goodness I didn't spend a ton of money on them! I also got the candy from Party City (by the way not that bad like $6 and I only used 2 bags)...they were in the shape of pacifiers and baby pins! The example of the favor on the package gave me a slight yawn...but I didn't want to spend too much time and energy on them anyway, so I just took the pacifiers and ribbon to accent the bags...this way everything coordinated! Also an important factor when decorating for a party!

A few other projects...we went to the dollar store to get water, printed out labels that said "Sugar & Spice" or "Everything Nice", tore off the label that was on the water and attached our own! They were so cute and unexpected. I used the same concept with candy...little minis from BJ's and letter labels that were printed out with the baby's name, thank you and the date of the shower; another favor!

I found a sign in sheet at Party City but it was COMMON...so we had to come up with something else; we found photo albums from Ross and stickers from Wal-mart and spelled out "Sugar & Spice" on one book and "Everything Nice" on the other, we also passed the books around to the guest and let them sign notes to the baby and once the pictures from the shower are printed out I'll put those in the book! Killed 2 birds with 1 stone and it was NOTHING COMMON!

I had so much enjoyment putting this shower together and letting my creative juices flow! I hoped that I have helped you or at least got you thinking about your next party! Don't forget its in the details and its the little things that matter. You don't have to spend a ton of money to have an awesome party! Try to get as many bargains as you can, you might have to go to more than one store. I have so much more to show you from this event...MORE PICS TO COME! Remember in whatever you do, make sure its NOTHING COMMON!