Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words may be encouragement to them. Ephesians 4:29b

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Little Birdie Told Me...

My BFF Leah welcomed her precious baby girl Hannah Ruth on February 2nd. In January, I hosted Leah's and Sweet Hannah's well-deserved celebration as "Fairy Godmother" as she and Daddy Jeff call me. With the awesome help of co-host Fiona (a college bud of L's), here is some "Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo" created especially for Leah and sweet Baby Hannah.

The Inspiration...
It took me no time to find my inspiration for the shower. Leah chose the Hayley Pottery Barn nursery bedding, which is crazy cute! :)

My love of polka dots and bright colors instantly drew me into this little cutie who
became the inspiration for the invitation and much more. Isn't it tweet? ;)


The Invite...
I love the dimension that PB's fabric and stitching give its bedding. This gave me the inspiration of putting textures into the invitation. In my quest I found a cute green bumpy textured cardstock and a hot pink felt - two great textures! I freehanded a stencil of the birdie shape for the green cardstock and added a the hot pink felt wing. The invitation text was created in MS Publisher and printed on white cardstock. Pink cardstock was added as a pink border backdrop making the card ~5x7in. The birdie was glued to the left of the text and a brown eye, beak and stick legs were hand drawn with a thin marker. (FYI: Drawing the beak/feet prior to gluing avoided bleeding on the bird.) My good friend Deb blessed me with an invitation assembly night. Without her help, these would've WAY late - Thanks, Deb! :) This scanned jpg of the invite actually captured the textures almost better than my camera did!



The Decor...
Leah is simple, laid back gal and I knew she wouldn't want anything too frilly or busy. Simple, cute and relaxing were my thoughts. Shades of pink and green with some dark brown were the colors chosen. Fiona got cute pink and green partyware for the festivities and I ordered a few balloons to match. I also made a little stenciled "B-A-B-Y" banner with birdies hanging on ribbon from the fireplace mantle. I put a little pot of flowers for Leah next to the sign-in area for her baby book and thank-you addresses on the bar. I made little pink and green corsages for Leah, her mom, mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I used little pink wired flowers from Hobby Lobby's wedding aisle. I had glued some Congrats ribbon to the back with a green letter on the top (a-aunt, g-grandma, mom-mom) on each. This little project was a cute, cheap and easy way to have family corsages that the ladies could keep as a Baby Hannah keepsake. Here's a glimpse of some of the decor:


The Food...
Since it was a 2:00 shower, we kept the food light light with a fruit tray, a veggie tray and cracker and cheese/ball trays. There were also wine glasses filled with milk and white chocolate-covered pretzels and valentine colored M&Ms (cute idea by Denise!). I ordered a cupcake cake from Randall's leaving them with the invitation in order to attempt the birdie shape. Overall the cake turned out (not perfect, but) pretty cute! The diaper cake was the non-edible centerpiece for the food table. (For you newbies, diaper cakes are a big hobby of mine - check out my Sweet Cakes!) I enjoyed the topper that included a pink tutu swimsuit rolled up into the top of the cake with the the tulle serving as a "nest" for a birdhouse and stuffed birdie on top. The cross on the front is kind of special. I bought it a couple of years ago as Leah and Jeff very patiently awaited God's timing for this sweet child. I am humbled by how humbled they were in this (longer than expected) time. The cross appropriately displays 1 Samuel 1:27 - "For this child I have prayed."


The Celebration...
The shower was a hit! Me, Fiona and fellow friend Denise set up. The most important preparation (outside of food) was...wait for it....the birdhouse painting station!! Fiona gets all the credit for this one! I suggested decorating with a few birdhouses and Fi suggested that guests paint birdhouses for Hannah's nursery! Priceless! So, we purchased little $1wooden birdhouses at Michael's (in 5 styles) and Fi and Denise set up the cutest station on my kitchen table! The guests each painted a house and then voted on their favorite one created by another. Leah's friend Amy won the most votes with her cute house front and center of the collection shown below:


Fiona also printed up some fun trivia questions about Leah, hubby and baby and Cousin Ellen won the prize for most right answers. Winners Amy and Ellen each got little makeup pouches of treats as a prize. The spent the time chatting, eating, doing the trivia, painting each at their own pace. Everything was nice and laid back with no schedule. As a hostess, this was divine. Baby Hannah got many wonderful gifts by these blessed friends. Here are some gift and girl time shots. :)


The Favors...
For favors, I got cute treat sacks from Hobby Lobby and filled them with pink and white (Valentine) peanut M&Ms, milk and white chocolate-covered pretzels, and mini Baby Ruth candy bars since all the women in Leah's family pass down the middle name Ruth!  (Thanks, Fi!) I somehow missed getting pics of the favors - doh! :(  To give you an idea, the left photo below is the sack and the right shows how they looked filled.  My good friend Kelly helped make and stick "Thank You For Coming!" printed (address sticker) labels. I stacked the favor bags in my iron and rattan weave magazine holder by the front door with a "Thank You-Take One" sign on the handle.

After initially receiving her invitation, Leah envisioned a framed a Bible verse for Hannah's room inspired by the invitation. So, at the shower, I gifted her with the framing/supplies to make this happen. She chose Psalm 91:4. We formatted the verse, font and same little birdie, and framed it in a white 8x10 frame with a 5x7 chocolate brown matte. I still need to take a photo of it.  All I have to date is this sad iPhone photo Leah sent me. I think she's added bird feet since we made it. :)  I included the verse below so that you can read it clearly.  This verse is a reminder of a very comforting truth given only by our Heavenly Father.

This was definitely my favorite baby shower.  I may be a little biased as the hostess and it being for my BFF and all, but I just LOVED everything about it.  And this beautiful verse perfectly completes the celebration of welcoming sweet Baby Hannah.

Showering love, keeping Him in mind,






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3 comments:

  1. I love the idea for framing that verse in a little girls room. Can you post a picture of the final project maaaaybe with instructions on how to do it? pretty please?

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  2. On it, Candy! Just sent L a text to send me a photo when she gets home today or tomorrow (she's in MFalls).

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  3. Very cute baby shower! I love the painted bird houses! Stopping by from Tip Junkie... hope you'll stop by my blog too! I'm your newest follower.
    xo,
    Laurie :)

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