3 Party Planning Hacks – Baby Shower Ed.

This past weekend was my sister-in-law’s baby shower and I was lucky to help with the planning and was in charge of the decor.  I love a good party, and I love a good party with a theme.  The theme for K’s shower was Woodland, and as I worked through the decor it quickly morphed to a Woodland Glam theme especially once we learned the baby is a girl. So instead of breaking everything down, I wanted to share a few hacks I did for this baby shower that made a statement and helped pull everything together.

Framed Art: One easy way to help decorate and pull the theme through was with framed art of little Woodland animals with flower crowns. Since Woodland was also K’s baby room theme, I wanted to get prints framed that could work for the shower and that could then be hung in the nursery for room decor! It was a fun conversation piece during the shower as party guests spotted them throughout the house – plus I think N&K really liked them. I purchased 6 Baby Animals with Flowers Crowns and these 11×17 frames from Michaels Craft Store.

DIY Floral Letter: This was another piece that was used as decor at the shower and will now find a home in the nursery as well. The muted colors that were picked out play into that glam, Woodland and romantic feel.  Not to mention this was super easy and an affordable DIY that made a huge statement as part of the main centerpiece in the opening room as guests came into the baby shower. Read the full Floral Letter DIY how-to by click here.

Dessert Table:  A dessert table has been my must-have staple for all the parties that I plan.  This is an easy way to make a great statement, while having a lot of yummy treats, lots of options and it’s another way to help pull in a theme.  There are a few pieces to mix and match for your dessert table, my go-to’s are at least one cake, maybe two depending on the size, cake pops and chocolate covered pretzels. Designed sugar cookies are another great addition to a dessert table too! Displaying everything at various levels helps give another wow factor to your sweet treats and finishing off with greens and a table runner pull it all together.

A few other must-haves at parties are balloons and the way we pull this off is by buying those personal sized helium tanks – these make it so easy and transportation a breeze. Depending the occasion, fresh flowers are always a nice touch especially if it’s a baby or bridal shower.  I also love making sure napkins, plates and glassware are on theme and compliments to the entire party.  I love how everything came together for K’s special day, it was exhausting pulling it all together, but definitely worth it!

DIY – $25 Floral Letter

This is a DIY I have had my eyes on for a long time and I finally got around to grabbing the supplies and giving it a try!  A floral letter can be perfect for hanging on your door in the spring with you’re families last name initial, hanging in a living space, bedroom or for nursery decor.  My initial inspiration for baby shower decor, with it doubling as nursery decor after the shower! The theme of the baby shower was Woodland glam, so I went with a bit more muted colors for my floral color palette.

What You’ll Need:
– Hot Glue Gun & Glue // Mod Podge would probably work well too
– Letter of Your Choice – I grabbed this 13″ B from Michael’s for $4.99
– A mix of florals – grab smaller filler flowers & larger florals
– Shop my Florals: Hydrangea & Rose Bundle ($6) | Green Wild Mum Stem ($5) | Toast Strawflower Bush ($6) 
– Ribbon for hanging or clip

Step-by-Step:
1. When shopping for your florals, grab a good mix of size, color accents and potential filler pieces, you’ll definitely want more than not enough! I bought 5-different stems/bunches.
2. Start by de-heading your faux flowers from their stems and start playing around with placement on your letter.
3. I put larger/heavier flowers in the bottom corner to help anchor the piece and also did this in the top of the B to help add some equal weight.

4. From there I filled in with smaller flowers and use my smallest flowers to really fill in smaller spots and make it feel lush and full – while still holding to the shape of the B.
5. As you work in sections and get areas figured out, cut underneath of flower stems as low to the flower as you can in order to keep it somewhat flush to the letter. Then, begin gluing your determined sections into place – I was very generous with the hot glue around the stem area, and even onto the underneath of the leaves to help secure in place.
6. Continue adding florals until the top part of your letter is completely filled! Let dry a bit to ensure florals are completely secure. Then you’re ready for decorating/hanging!

Don’t forget to have fun, get creative and use other pieces of your flowers like some of the leaves to help fill in the space – I was nervous I wouldn’t have enough flowers to fill the space and this helped even everything out.

Since I was making this as a gift, I’ll definitely be making one for us next to keep and use on the front door.  I can see this being a new go-to gift for a people this upcoming holiday season or would be an awesome housewarming present! A few other ideas for your floral letters would be spelling out smaller words like MOM for Mother’s Day or just using the same flower and color to really create a bold statement – this could also be done with numbers for a milestone birthday.  I also love how this completed a centerpiece statement at shower and can’t wait to see if in the finished nursery!

Weekend Recap – April Showers

This past weekend was definitely the definition of ‘April Showers’ … the rain honestly reminded me of our wedding day, just nonstop and a complete soaking! But despite the rain, we had a pretty great weekend.

Saturday started with the new norm, waking up, a quick cup of coffee and then heading out to bootcamp, with B in tow.  He’s strong into his second month so it’s been fun having a workout buddy especially on Saturday’s!  We reluctantly pulled out from the white wicker for the front porch – but I figured maybe it’ll help the weather figure it out! We had a low key night in after church and watched the start of the NBA playoffs.

We packed all our fun into Sunday! The morning started off with a celebration for our dear friend, E at her baby shower! It was ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ theme and I was lucky enough to be asked to help with some of the decor. I made a wooden sign with the theme’s slogan and then some fillers for the floral centerpieces – the whole room turned out great and was so E.  The food, sweets and company were all a perfect combination to celebrate the mom-to-be! We can’t wait to meet Baby T!

From the shower I made a quick stop at home, then B and I were headed downtown to go to the Cavs first playoff game! We had scored some awesome seats during the ticket pre-sale (before the game schedule was even set), although, the game was a bit rough as a fan. We saw a few clearings of hope, but never gained the lead.  Being our first playoffs game the crowd was electric and the energy throughout the game, even during the hard parts, was incredible.  Apparently, we just had to get some of our bad playing out of the way!

How did you spend your weekend?!

Weekend Recap – First of March

Happy March! For avid Bee readers, you know it’s my favorite month *smiles* and the first weekend of March was a busy but good one.

It started out Friday afternoon, volunteering with my company at a local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. If you’ve never been or heard of one of these, see if you have one near by and check it out. As they explained it, it’s like a Home Depot meets Goodwill store. They offer way more than your typical thrift store; it’s a DIYers dream or perfect for furnishing your first apartment. Not to mention you help the greater cause shopping in these stores! It was a nice way to kick off the weekend.

Momma Bee came into town, so she was at the house by the time I got done volunteering! We were in the mood for meatless tacos for the first Friday of Lent, so we ended up at a nearby spot and ordered a tray full of tacos and a few mojitos. It hit the spot!

Tacos!

At our wedding venue

Saturday dinner & drinks!

Saturday morning we got a jump start on some wedding activities. First and foremost on our agenda was seeing our finished venue.  We first saw it in September, under construction, dusty with no walls or electric and we fell in love. Seeing it again brought back all the feels. It’s so stunning, I can’t imagine a place more perfect! From there we headed to see the hotel and met with a DJ! It was a very productive morning.  After church we headed to one of our favorite spots for all night happy hour, yup, all night. We enjoyed cosmos, dirty martinis, and more delicious food.

Sunday’s highlight was celebrating a dear friend’s baby shower! It was a beautiful afternoon celebrating with her family and friends, and seeing all the adorable little boy outfits and stuffed animals. I can’t wait to meet her little boy.

Celebrating Bekah!

Great friends<3

It’s always hard when these fantastic weekends come to an end, but it’s these fantastic weekends that get me through the work week for more!

Baby Shower: Gift Guide

Sooo I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of babies coming into my 2017 world. Like a lot. And now that more friends are starting to have babies, I’ve started to think of more ways to give a special gift beyond the registry.

Sources: Woodland Prints | Made in Cleveland Onesie | Tiffany’s Piggy Bank

Here are some different ideas to get you inspired to share the love and excitement for a sweet miracle coming into this world!

Nursery Decor: Figure out the theme for the babe’s new crib and find some wall art, clock or decor that’ll fit the space. A friend of mine is going for a woodland theme, so these watercolor animals from Society 6 are the perfect addition!

Local Onesie: This will be the perfect addition to this little ones new wardrobe and first clothes! Check Etsy if you don’t know any near you.

College Fund: If this is a close family member or friend, it might be great to go-in with some other family members and open up a college fund or get some savings bonds for the little one. Having this be an option for upcoming birthdays and holidays will not only help you but other family and friends in the future!

Of course buying a ton of adorable clothes, stuffed animals and cute little shoes, never gets old, but it’s fun to get more personalized, unique pieces that can make a personal touch to the space.