A Baby 'Sail'ebration! - Sea Inspired Baby Shower

I had so much fun planning Tatum's baby shower and coordinating all of the details. I might have had a little too much fun because I ran out of time and had to throw out my idea of building a sailboat to put in my living room... It would have been amazing.

Thank goodness for my family who came the night before and helped me with last minute party preparations. We were cutting out banners, framing pictures, and rearranging the furniture. It is amazing the work that goes into getting ready for an event. I like to start planning a party 3 months in advance so I can take my time nurturing a theme and perfecting each and every detail. I slowly work on a craft every night when I get home from work until I get the finished product.

I think my favorite part of party planning is the decorating. This is the time you get to see everything come together and enjoy it all to yourself before the guests come. I love this moment. 

I tried to snap as many pictures as I could before the party people arrived. Take a gander and enjoy. 

THE PARTY DECORATIONS //

Decoration highlights to look out for - silver seashells, kraft paper signs, hand painted rocks, lots of tissue paper tassels, baby picture age guessing game, message in a bottle game, origami sea shells & boats, candy bar, and lots of greens, blues, and silver.

THE PARTY FOOD //

Party food details to look out for - kraft paper labels, lifesaver utensils, lots of twine, pineapple cream cheese dip, sand dollar cookies, pretzel roll chicken salad sandwiches, coconut cupcakes, ocean water, fresh fruit, and milk bottles for glasses.

Ocean Water // {lemonade | hawaiian punch}

Milk Bottles // {ikea vases | paper straws | twine}

Pineapple Cream Cheese // {cream cheese | pecans | pineapple top}

Sand Dollar Cookies // {snickerdoodles | sliced almonds}

Pretzel Roll Sandwich // {costco's pretzel rolls | chicken salad}

DIY BABY LEGGINGS //

My sister Alex is a genius and organized this fabulous DIY baby legging craft. No joke, she sewed about 20 baby leggings for the party guests to decorate. She not only made each legging, but she also cut out and sculpted each rubber stamp! She is so artistic and creative and is seriously always coming up with amazing craft ideas. I get a lot of my ideas from her and that is just one of the things that is so great about having her as my sister. Check out this amazing baby shower craft, by Alex Neff.

THE PARTY PEOPLE //

Check out the rest of the pictures on my Facebook album: j.mp/ShowerPictures

Paddle Board Surprise

Look what James surprised me with! I've always wanted a paddle board and with my birthday coming up James knew it would be the perfect early birthday gift. :) I came home from work with the paddle board leaned next to the garage door. I was so excited and couldn't wait to try it - so we walked down to the water immediately. I've already taken it out on the lake a couple of times and I think that I am going to make this a weekly occurrence. Talk about a perfect way to kick-off the summer (and my birthday month). Thanks James, I am loving the paddle board!

Sea Inspired Baby Shower Invite

For the past few months I have been dreaming up a baby shower for my sister Tatum. To be exact, I have been planning the party since January! Right when we found out she was having a baby boy I immediately started thinking of fun party themes and ideas. The theme for this baby shower came to me almost immediately. I knew it would be such a fun idea to throw a sea inspired party. The tricky part was defining the look and feel of the decorations. I didn't want something too beachy or too nautical but something in between - think mermaid inspired but with a boyish charm.

When it comes to a party, I feel like the invitation sets the tone and is the part that really starts the momentum for the event. I usually will think about the design of the invite first before designing the rest of the party. While designing this particular invite - it took me a little longer than I expected to come up with the right look and layout. I spent hours running thoughts and concepts through my head and even sketched a few different drafts until I came up with an inspired design. I think my favorite part about the invite is how the blue ombre pattern looks like waves on the bottom half but looks like scales on the top half. It really does set the tone and feel for the party. I purchased the kraft paper envelopes from Michaels, and the pearl paper invites from The Paper Store - I love how they go together.

envelopes | printing | paper | crown | bottle | wood vase

While I was thinking up ideas for the invites, I realized that it can be a little tricky planning a baby shower for a boy. I learned that the key is to keep the mother in mind. There still needs to be a feminine touch that makes her feel special (take note of the pearl paper invites). So how do you tie in something girly? I started thinking about this and realized that Tatum needed a mermaid crown for her sea inspired baby shower! It is all about the little details. :)

This is my first time throwing a baby shower for a boy and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Surprisingly, all of the parties I have thrown have been for girls - actually let me take that back, I did throw a Hipster BBQ for James and it was pretty epic.

I will be sharing pictures of the party soon, so stay tuned!