A Rustic Baby Animals Themed Baby Shower

It's the year of showers for me - I threw a baby shower for my sister-in-law Claire last month! (I say the "year of showers" because I threw a baby sprinkle for my sister this spring, and am co-hosting a bridal shower for my bff Tracy next weekend!)

Claire and my brother live in South Korea and were in the US visiting for a few weeks, so her sister and I decided to squeeze a baby shower into their schedule. It wasn't originally supposed to be at my house, but you guys know I love to throw a good party, so I threw my place in as an option after our first location fell through. Of course it was about 96 degrees that day (I swear, every time we try to have people over the weather is terrible - for my sister's sprinkle there was an ice storm!) so we couldn't go up on the roof, but we made do hiding inside in the ac.

As far as a theme, I decided I wanted to go with baby animals, but throw in a little bit of rustic chic too - animals and the outdoors go together, right?! I was surprised I couldn't find anything that was even close to what I was thinking on Pinterest, so I just went in my own direction with these cute baby animal prints all over my living space (they're supposed to be nursery prints, but they work right?) and lots of greenery from Trader Joe's. Claire kept asking where I got all of the prints and frames from - I actually already owned all of the frames from the gallery wall in our last apartment! Sometimes my pack-ratting really pays off ;) I also used these burlap runners, some candles, and a whole lot of mason jars.

Just like last time, I designed the invitations myself, so once again no source here! Claire's sister ordered them as postcards from Zazzle, which saved us some money on postage!

This "Oh Baby" sign was a DIY. I found the words on Etsy, bought a hula hoop and spray painted it gold (with leftover gold paint from our wedding!), and attached some greenery with floral wire (also from our wedding ;). I tried hanging the words from the hoop with fishing wire but could not get them to stay, despite my fishing training as a youth and YouTubing fishing knot instructions. So, I folded and attached them to the wall with picture hanging Command strips instead.

As far as food goes, I didn't have enough space for everyone to really sit down and have a meal, so we decided to throw the shower in mid-afternoon and go really heavy on the snacks. Claire's sister brought a ton of cheese and crackers and her mom bought these gorgeous cookies from Custom Confections in Evanston. Aren't they adorable?! Definitely keeping them in mind for future parties!! My mom also brought some chocolate dipped M&M pretzels - another Claire favorite. I added in donuts for the donut wall that we now own from the baby sprinkle and therefore have to use for every party we ever throw, plus my favorite party crackers and this watermelon blackberry salad I make whenever I need to bring a side dish. Claire's sister also made a punch (I have no idea what the recipe was but know it involved cranberry juice, orange juice, and ginger ale) and we put out a few bottles of champagne too in case people wanted to booze it up. Hint: people always want to booze it up ;)

Here's a full list of sources: 

Baby Animal Prints

Burlap Runners

Mason Jars

Wood "Oh Baby" Sign

Custom Baby Cookies

Marble Fruit Stand

Marble Two-Tiered Stand

Similar Marble and Wood Tray

Follow along with everything Kristina does via Bloglovin!

A Baby Sprinkle!

My sister is expecting her second baby (in three weeks!!) so I decided to throw a little baby sprinkle for her. What's a sprinkle, you ask? Well, it's a little smaller than a baby shower, but a way to still celebrate the momma. Typically it's more for family and really close friends, or newer friends who didn't get to celebrate the first time around. I had heard of sprinkles but a lot of my family members hadn't, so you may want to let people know what the expectation is.

Keep reading for pictures, inspiration, and details on everything I made for the party!

I decided I wanted to go all-in on the sprinkle theme, so things got real colorful up in my house haha ;) My favorite thing I made were these giant sprinkle BABY letters. Let me tell you, you may want to warn your significant other if you decide to make the letters, because Jeff thought I maybe had something to tell him when the letters arrived one-by-one in the mail. These were really easy to do. I ordered these letters, some spray adhesive, and an industrial sized container of sprinkles. I poured the sprinkles into a disposable catering tray, sprayed the front of the letters with the adhesive (waiting the 3 minutes for the adhesive to get tacky), and then dipped them into the sprinkles, pressing from all sides. I did have a few sparse patches, so I just individually pressed in a few sprinkles and called it a day. Just a note, you're going to want to protect way more floor or counter than you think you need because the spray adhesive goes everywhere!!

I was thinking of things my sister likes, and duh, donuts totally fit into the sprinkle theme. My dad loves woodworking, so I asked if he'd be able to build a mini donut wall for me, and he so delivered!! This thing is two pieces, so if I want I can remove the base and hang it on the wall instead. I would tell you how it's made, but all I know is that it took him less than one day to make and he got to buy a fun new tool that would drill little holes for the pegs to fit into. Thanks Dad!

I always love to design invitations myself, so sorry, no source on the cards! Err, I am the source ;) Oh and I took off my address and phone number here, so no stalking! I usually order custom invite designs from Zazzle, I like that they have a print custom cards option with choices for sizes and shapes, plus they come with complimentary envelopes.

For the Treat Yo Self and Sprinkled With Love signs, I ordered from Custom Paper Props on Etsy. I used to avoid Etsy or plan on it only if I was ordering 6 weeks ahead of time, but I'm always amazed by how fast some of the shops ship out these days. They made and shipped out the signs the next business day after I ordered! The Sprinkled With Love sign is here, the Treat Yo Self was a custom banner.

For food, I tried to keep it all sprinkles, but my mom said if we were serving booze I needed some real food too. Gosh mom fiiiiiiine. So I sent Jeff to Donut Vault (and then later to Dunkin Donuts to "get a few prettier ones") for donuts for the wall, made some chocolate dipped pretzels covered in sprinkles, and rice krispie treats with sprinkles. But we also got pinwheel sandwiches from Costco (I'm alllllll about letting someone else do some of the work when throwing a party - no need to do everything yourself!), I added in some white cheddar popcorn because it's also my sister's favorite, and my mom made our favorite seasoned oyster crackers.

Oh, and some of what's on the table are actual sprinkles, but the majority is actually these little craft supply balls that kids melt down to make slime or something. Only adults were attending the party so I thought it was fine to put them out, but if you're throwing a party with kids I would not suggest decorating with them because they definitely look like food!

I obviously had to make some cute sprinkle rim glasses for drinks. These were really easy, I just melted some white chocolate candy melts, dipped the glasses in the chocolate, and then dipped the glasses in the sprinkles. To get the sprinkles off after the party, I just soaked them in hot water.

For drinks, I used this recipe for individual punches, and then put out champagne and vodka in case people wanted to booze their drinks up, or make mimosas or vodka lemonades instead of punch.

Oh, and the sprinkle wall! How have I not mentioned the sprinkle wall?! I followed these instructions to make all of the sprinkle balloons, and used gaffers tape to attach them all over the wall. I was worried I couldn't put them up too far in advance because the balloons would deflate, but that was not the case. Because I loved it so much (read: I was feeling lazy) I left it up for a week after the party and they still looked great.

Two thumbs up from the mommy to be!

Here's a full list of supplies/sources:

Signs 

Straws 

Candy Melts

Napkins

Marble Fruit Stand

Marble Two-Tiered Stand 

Similar Marble and Wood Tray 

B, A, and Y letters

Fake Sprinkles

Sprinkles

Spray Adhesive

Balloons

Balloon Pump

Gaffer's Tape

Are you planning your own baby sprinkle? Check out my Pinterest Board for the party for more inspiration!

Follow along with everything Kristina does via Bloglovin!

My Sister's Baby Shower

My sister and one of her BFF's 

Last weekend I threw a baby shower for my little sister.  I had actually never thrown a shower before, nor had most of the people invited been to my house before, so I was a little nervous about all of the planning and cleaning and decorating and whatnot. Turns out, it's pretty fun! Well, not the cleaning part, I'm not a weirdo ;)

I decided to go with a rustic theme since that's what my sister originally wanted for her wedding (she ended up just having a really small wedding on the beach) and had lots of wildflowers, burlap, chalkboards, and twine.

My sister is not a fan of shower games, so instead I found this cute set on Etsy - it's little onesies for people to write advice on, and twine and mini clothes pins to hang them up with. Like my (admittedly cheesy) sign? I'm making it a free download at the end of this post!

We also had a onesie decorating station. I bought a bunch of plain white onesies in sizes from newborn-24 months on Amazon and some fabric markers, and had guests decorate them however they wanted. Everyone then hung them up with clothes pins around the room so everyone could see what had been made - they turned out so cute! Weirdly we didn't get any photos of those... (ahem, this sign is also available for download below ;)

Of course we had to have a mimosa bar too, because, you know, Pinterest. I found the big chalkboard sign and little tags at Michaels, and the carafes and beverage tub at Target. I also already had about a million mini mason jars (also from Target) and added some fun straws for people to use. Just for reference, there were 24 guests and we went through 5 bottles of champagne and 7 cartons of juice. 

(sorry, no idea where my apron is from - it was a gift from my sister!) 

For food, I may have slightly overdone it, but we had a little fruit salad bar, nutella pancake kebabs, bacon skewers, mini muffins, french toast stick shooters, mini veggie frittatas, mini cinnamon rolls, and mini donut skewers. The plates and napkins were also from Target

(I was wearing Old Navy dress and Wristology watch) 

I was a little worried about not having defined activities at defined times, especially because we didn't even open gifts (my sister requested that everyone bring gifts unwrapped), but it worked out surprisingly well. People saw the signs suggesting things to do, and just went for it. Also, I told my sister to get food so that other people would sit and eat too ;)

Now, do you want some free signs? Here are the links:

Advice card sign • Onesie decorating sign

Linking up with Friday Fab Favorites.

Follow along with everything Kristina does via Google Friend Connect or Bloglovin!