LITTLE MAN BABY SHOWER {Party}

Decorative items for this shower can be purchased HERE.

Well, the shower went off without a hitch.  I will admit it was a TON of work for me….much more than I anticipated.  I was exhausted by the time the party started!  But I think all the guests had a nice time and enjoyed themselves and hopefully my sister was happy and felt loved. 

So, I am just going to post a ton of pictures from the shower.  I had some trouble taking some of the pictures due to the time of day and lighting in the room.  Hopefully you will still be able to see all the little details.  In the coming days I will post recipes for the food.  Enjoy!

How to make this printable HERE

I wanted to do something a little different with the cupcake toppers than I have seen before.  So instead of just scalloped circles I did scalloped squares and pinked circles, each in 3 different colors.  I love how they turned out! HERE is my tutorial on making cupcake topper graphics.

Cupcakes made by my sister Melinda.  We use an icing coupler to pipe the frosting because we could never find a big enough tip.  The coupler is the little white thing that makes it so you can switch out the tips on your pastry bag.  You have to find one without a little notch in it though.

CUPCAKES!! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Garland inspired by THIS party.

The onesies were made with heat transfer vinyl I cut on my Silhouette.

GARLAND VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

These hanging garlands spun around slowly all night.  Here you are seeing the back side of several of the circles.  I connected the shapes using clear fishing line and clear tape.

This was a fall colored wreath that I had spray painted white.  I added the ribbon and fabric rosettes to match my color scheme.  The twinkle lights gave a nice effect during the shower.

FOOD TABLE VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Vinyl mustaches on plastic cups.

Stamped paper plates…how to HERE.

Black Bean and Corn Salsa (Made by my sister Molly)

Homemade Chips (made by my sister Molly)

Italian BOWTIE Pasta Salad (Made by my sister Laura)

Cucumber Water (SUPER refreshing!)

Oreo Truffles

Pretzel “Cigars”

Bowtie Sugar Cookies (made with a homemade cookie cutter)

Triple Dipped Strawberries (made by my sister Maggi)

Baby Caleb all dressed up + the favors.

Chocolate mustache molds can be found at Bake It Pretty

Four of my cuties in disguise!

To purchase some of the decorative items from this shower, please look here

Chicken Salad Sandwiches-The BEST!

This is my favorite chicken salad recipe.  I thought I would share it

Recipe: Oriental Chicken Salad Sandwich Filling

Yield: fills 40-50 small croissants or (1/4 recipe=10-12 small croissants)

Ingredients:

• 6 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled and diced (1.5 lbs. chicken=2-3 breasts)
• 32 oz. Mayo=about 4 cups (8 oz. Mayo=about 1 cup)
• 8 oz. Water chestnuts, drained and chopped (2 oz. Water chestnuts)
• 1 ½ -2 cups sliced celery (½ cup sliced celery)
• 1 bunch green onions, finely chopped (3 green onions)
• 3 ¾ -4 oz. soy sauce=about ½ cup –add this to the mayonnaise (1 ½ Tbsp soy sauce)
• pepper to taste

Directions: The ingredient amounts in the parentheses make one quarter of the full recipe. Mix the soy sauce with the mayonnaise and then mix all the ingredients together. Serve in the mini croissants. This is really delicious and everyone loves it. You could add some grapes sliced in half if you wanted to have a little sweetness in there!   Or you could add some chopped apple.  This is a great shower food, but you will want to have it more regularly than that!

I sprinkled some chopped chives from my garden on it for a garnish.

Here is a way to make the recipe healthier and less caloric.  Instead of the 2 cups of mayo (nearly 3000 calories) use 2/3 c. mayo, about 2 c. lowfat plain yogurt, a splash of milk and a splash of buttermilk.  It tastes pretty much just like the regular recipe but the calories of the dressing were about 1600 instead of 6000. 

Let me know how you like it!

Garden Tea Party Baby Shower

Here are some pictures from a baby shower I threw for one of my girlfriends who was having a girl!  It was fun to get to do girly things and use PINK!!!  The shower came together beautifully.  See the green tablecloth??  I got it at Goodwill for a few dollars!  The quilt you see on the food table was made from designer fabric samples I got from my design job.  I actually made (with help) 9 of them in all different colors and we used them at a picnic for the family and close friends on my wedding day.  I love to pull them out and use them for different things all these years later.

Banquet tables with chairs arranged casually around them

Pink Tulle anchors the centerpieces

Wheat grass grown in square dishes (I think I started them about a week before the shower).  Ribbon wrapped around and secured with tape.  There is an upside down baby food jar holding up the tea cup.

Tissue paper pom poms create great ambience!  You can find the simple instructions all over the web.

More wheat grass planted in my favorite footed bowl.  Ignore the slide in the background and pretend I don't have kids:)

How nice of my rosebush to bloom just at the right time!

Limeade Punch

Iced Herbal Tea

Cucumber Water

Finger Foods: pesto cream stuffed tomatoes, asparagus wraps, bacon & cheddar pinwheels with avocado, cucmber tea sandwiches

Finger Desserts: Spritz cookies, key lime tarts, chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting.

Chocolate covered strawberries