Baby Girl Owl Shower

So you've seen the baby boy shower that I attended for my friend Allison. It was beautiful and only got me more excited about  the baby girl shower for my friend Katie.  

Katie's only request was that I use this super cute pink and green invite she found online at Cutie Patootie Creations.(click the link to see the invite - I didn't take a picture!) 

I loved the invite too so I decided to create her shower around the invitation theme.  Who (pun intended) doesn't like some sweet pink and green owls?  And who doesn't go to Pinterest for all sorts of creation imagination!!!!

Here's the lovely mommy to be Katie.  She's such a sweet friend and I was so excited, along with a couple of other college friends, to be able to give her a shower to welcome baby Raylyn to this world. 

 So here' the shower for that little sweetie to be!

The decorations:

Outside to direct everyone to the correct house was our owl baby banner - 

It didn't last long after the shower started as it really started showering after the party started. 

Paper + Rain doesn't blend so well.  

For the hearth - A banner made from my Cricut and tied together with tulle and a laundry line with owls, onesies & bibs that I made for baby Raylyn.

 

 

All the ruffles are a result of me learning online how to make a ruffle.  I had no idea all I had to do was turn my thread tension up.  There is a GREAT tutorial at Super Mommy or Not.

 It was so easy.  The monster bib is from  Stubbornly Crafty which I frequent often for her tutorials and free patterns. 
Ladies - that is how I learned to sew - from the free patterns online.  These ladies are my sewing heros!

On to the party table - a green mason jar with pink and green daisies, bingo gifts, wishes for baby cards, bingo cards and an instruction sheet with owls.  

 

I made the Bingo Cards and Wishes for Baby in Microsoft Word and then converted them to PDF's.  I took them on my flash drive over to Office Depot and had them printed on a card stock.  Three of the wishes for baby were on each sheet and two bingos on each sheet.  I cut them at home with my paper cutter (they charge $.07 a cut - so I did it myself).  This made the bingo cards about $.30 each and the wishes for baby about $.20 each.  I uploaded all these pdf's to an earlier blog entry.  This way you can use them too. 

 

 All the owls were all cut on my Cricut using the Create a Critter cartridge (actually my friend Stacy's cartridge - then I went out and bought my own).  

The mason jars (with handle already attached) came from Old Time Pottery and they had several different colors.  

The daisies came from Joann's.  I used some in jars and the remaining ones we pulled from the stems and used as table decor (you'll see that further down). 

We also had a late night diaper table.

  We used Sharpies to write on the diapers.  I didn't realize how hard diapers were to write on.  I hope that Katie and Chris get a good laugh during those late night diaper changes.  

The metal owl on this table came from Old Time Pottery.  The fabric owl is one that I have made.  I love sewing these little owls.  It was one of my first sewing projects and still remains a favorite. 

The Food and Drinks

We kept it simple - tea, water, pink lemonade, cupcakes, chocolate dipped preztels & oreos, sausage balls, little wienies, & pasta salad - but delicious. 

 

The yummy cupcakes came from The Sweet Stash and The Cupcake Collection which are both in downtown Nashville and have phenomenal cupcakes.  The Sweet Stash's almond wedding cake are my all time favorite.  Teri and I made the rest of the food and it was tasty even if I say so myself.  

We had water, pink lemonade, and sweet tea out of pint mason jars.  My hubby drilled holes in the lids so that we could thread our drink straws in and not worry about knocking them over.  Bright green tags let us know who's drink was who's.  

The Photo Booth

Out on the back porch we set up a photo booth.  It's pretty easy to do with a few cut out props on bbq skewers, a cheap flat grey sheet from Walmart, my camera on a tripod and a camera remote.

We had too much fun.   

The Take Homes

I wanted everyone to have something to remember their time celebrating baby Raylyn so I thinned my hens and chicks to plant these baby pots of hens and chicks for everyone to take home.  

I hope that they grow well.

Thanks to my sweet friends Teri and Kristie for making this shower one that Katie will remember.  

They made food, took pictures, moved gifts, motivated game plan...and had crazy fun with me in the photo booth.  

Other than the photo booth pictures Kristie took all these wonderful pictures to show what fun we had.  

  

Last plug (but definitely not least)...that adorable chalk board that you keep seeing in all these pictures came from my friend Cari Deer Owl Designs.  I sent her a copy of the invitation and told her I needed a chalk board.  She had this made up in no time flat and it was perfect. 

Hope that you thought Katie's Owl Shower was a Hoot.  We did!

Stacey  

 

 

A little bit of Halloween

Last night I finally finished my Halloween craft for the church auction (and one for me too)

I found the instructions for this at Keeping It Simple.  The author of the blog, Kaysi, does 

a great job of giving simple instructions for this craft. 

Here is my rendition

I purchased a 10 foot 2*4 and that is long enough to make two of these crafts.  

The super nice guy in Lowes looked at me a little funny when I carried him 1 piece of wood and asked him to cut it into 10 pieces.  But he complied.  

I sanded the ends good to decrease the chance of splinters and then I got to work spray painting.  

 I didn't have any craft paints on hand so I bought outdoor spray paint when I purchased the 2*4.

The spray paint was easy going.  I painted one wide side plus both skinny sides of each block one night (2 coats) and then flipped them to finish the other sides the next night.  

Kaysi used vinyl for the hair on Frankenstein's monster.  I taped off my hair line and spray painted the hair.  

My way - was the wrong way - I should have either a.) used vinyl like the instructions said or b.) used paint marker for the hair.  Lesson learned! I did however use spray paint for the black behind the mummy's eyes instead of vinyl and that worked fine.  

I painted the face on Frankenstein's monster with a medium tip black paint marker.  I replicated from the blog because I have no imagination when it comes to drawing.  The paint marker was very easy to work with. 

As per instructions (didn't I say I love easy peasy instructions) I ordered vinyl from Expressions Vinyl to use for the facial features of the ghost, pumpkin and mummy.  I was scared.  I cut out with punches or scissors all the facial features.  I have never used vinyl with my Cricut but I knew that I had to in order for my wording to look like anything.  I had heard of Cricut Craftroom where you can design your image or wording on an online "cutting mat" and then send it to your Cricut to cut.  I decided if I was going to do it I was going to do it all in.  No need not to jump in with both feet.  I downloaded the Cricut Craftroom software to my laptop - it did take a while - and upgraded the firmware to my Cricut and I was on the go.  Doing the vinyl transfer was super easy.  I can't wait to order more vinyl and do more vinyl crafts as well as using the craft room to make scrapbooking tags and background easier.  

YAY for Halloween crafts and all the good new things I tried and loved.  

Thanks again to Kaysi at Keeping It Simple for doing just that.