Real Party: Moroccan Baby Shower

My friends Drea and Eddie are expecting a baby girl this fall. 

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you might remember Drea's gorgeous wedding. Or her fun bachelorette party. Or her super stylish bridal shower. 

Anyway, now its time to celebrate the new addition.  

Oh Creative One created the perfect invitation to set the stage for the party. I was so happy with what she designed for us! 

Isn't it perfect?!

I have to admit that I was a little overwhelmed when we settled on this theme.  Jewel tones and metallics are not my typical party looks. Most of my supplies lean more toward the rustic realm.

Amazing how a few trips to thrift stores and garage stores, some spray paint, and some borrowed signature pieces, came together so well to create this party.  I could not have been happier with how it turned out. 

When guests arrived, we had appetizers and drinks out. People mingled about and we encouraged them to sign the guest book. 

I purchased How the Camel Got His Hump from Amazon. I chose it because of the camel, but the colors on the cover ended up being perfect also. (I love that!)  

Some gold doilies transformed an ordinary vase of flowers into a gorgeous vessel that fit our theme.

Lindsay found some yummy brightly colored sodas to serve along with white wines.

Since all of the hostesses have young babies, we had to keep the food pretty simple. We didn't want to be cooking all morning.  I saw this post and we all knew it was the perfect solution.  

Lindsay and I filled a cart with these bowls from Ikea, and we built our own salad bar. 

 This was so much fun! I expected people to like it, but they all loved it! And I'm so glad we used the clear glass bowls because all the different colors of the toppings were beautiful. 

Lindsay and I tossed guests' salad with their dressing of choice in large plastic bowls and then scooped it back onto their plates.

We had seated tables for lunch.  We had alternating red & purple foil chargers over beautiful gold linens.  Lindsay and I scoured thrift stores for candle sticks in the weeks leading up to the shower.  A quick coat of spray paint to turn them old gold, and we had our centerpieces.  I also scored a huge bag of think gold hoops at a garage sale. We used them as napkin rings and sprinkled extras around the tables as well. 
We also placed a large glass vessel with pita triangles and hummus on each table.
Placecards matched the invitation. 

We rented a few umbrellas to scatter between seated tables.  We hung metallic bangle bracelets from the undersides of the umbrellas.  These were the one metallic thing I could find when I started hunting around my house originally! It was an easy touch.

Then it was time for gifts!

We created a cozy little area for gift opening, including large bedazzled pillows and colored glass stars.  We referred to this area as the "Moroccan Oasis." ;)

After that healthy salad lunch, it was time to splurge! 

We stuck with the "bar" theme and had a build your own sundae bar.  Featuring San Francisco's famous handmade Mitchell's ice cream, of course. Yum Yum!

Drea loved the headshots I did at Katie's shower, so we did it again for hers. We encouraged people to wear their big, bright jewelry to the shower and many people did. 
The star of the jewelry show was Johanna's wrist though. It didn't make the headshot collage, but I couldn't leave it off completely.

Gorg.

Congratulations Drea!!
We cannot wait until she's here!!!

The countdown is officially on for these two!

Thanks to the shower crew: Lindsay, Leslie, Deb, & Katie!

Vendors: 

Printables: Oh Creative One
Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals 
Photos by Lindsay Little

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Real Party: Dual Gender Baby Shower

My friends Katie & Casey are expecting their first child. I recently helped to throw her baby shower with 4 of her other girlfriends. 

They have decided to wait until he or she is born to discover the gender.  Katie's bff Sam was determined to avoid the standard "gender neutral" shower. Instead, she wanted to throw a shower celebrating both genders. A dual gender shower. We all had so much fun designing a shower that was 1/2 pink, 1/2 blue; 1/2 masculine, 1/2 feminine. There were so many fun touches! 

Enjoy... :)

Of course, we turned to my go-to invite designer Jennafer of Oh Creative One to capture our vision.  She knocked it out of the park as usual. 

Guests were greeted with the following display:

...and encouraged to "wear their vote" to predict the gender.  Snails for a boy, flowers for a girl.  Sam made the adorable snails with poster board and twine.  Too cute. 

Guests were also asked to sign the guest book. 

I found the perfect book on Amazon to compliment our theme.  The Book of Boys (for Girls) and the Book of Girls (for boys) is a funny kids book full of gender stereotypes.  Ha! It even mentions snails and sugar & spice! I could not resist.  Guests signed the inside cover. 

Then it was off to the backyard, where we had two food tables set up. 

One feminine: 

And one masculine:

For the "girl" table, we used soft pink linen and a lace runner. We used our prettiest serving trays and bowls.  Food labels were pink polka dot labels held by clear glass photo cubes.  Pink and white poms hung above. Food items included green and fruit salads, turkey and vegetarian roll-ups, and a "dessert tower" which featured cream cheese stuffed strawberries, cake pops, and strawberry mini cupcakes. 

For the "boy" table, we used blue a blue linen and burlap runner and pulled out all our rustic serving trays.  Mini chalkboards were food labels. We topped it off with brightly colored party poms and a bunting banner.  Food items on the boy table included pulled chicken sliders, mac and cheese muffins, potato salad, monster cookies, and "dirt" cups. 

We had a seated lunch at tables that continued our theme. 

Two were feminine: 

And two were masculine: 

 We used the same linens as the food tables. 

The girl tables featured clustered flower arrangements, rhinestone napkin rings, silver chargers, and wine glasses.  

The boy tables featured a simple wood centerpiece, mason jar drinking glasses, brown wicker chargers, and burlap napkin runners. 

Even the chairs were part of the theme: brown for the boy table, white for the girl. 

Party favors were inspired by something I found on Pintrest.

Lindsay and I made 1/2 pink and 1/2 blue striped pretzels and packaged them up for guests to take home.  Cute and easy!

I managed to capture almost all of the guests with their wearing their gender guess pin. (A couple people managed to escape me & my camera!) 

What a fun record for Katie to have! 

There were definitely more snails... :)

Congratulations Katie!!

I cannot wait to meet him or her!

Resources: 

Invitations: Oh Creative One

Party Rentals: Danny Thomas Party Rentals

Katie's bridal shower is here. 

Katie & Casey's wedding is here and here.

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Real Party: Cowgirl Baby Shower

Several of my girlfriends threw me a Cowgirl themed baby shower a few weeks ago.  It was incredible!

They used this invite from Etsy, but had the colors adjusted to fit their vision for the party.  I was so excited to see what they had up their sleeves after receiving this in the mail!

The shower was held in my friend Lindsay's backyard. 

Two long tables were set-up for a sit-down brunch.  I loved the burlap runners, mason jars holding babies breath, and pink party poms in the trees. 

 

Each seat at the table had a cute little cowgirl boot place card, a pink napkin tied with a gingham swatch, and a card of wishes for guests to fill out. What a wonderful keepsake for me to have!

The food, and presentation of the food, was amazing.  My friends are very good cooks, and everything was homemade and delicious! 

The appetizers consisted of mini croissants, scones, coffee cake, donut holes, and yogurt parfait.  Everything was to die for!

Mason jars served as drinking glasses.  Lemonade, water, and tea were available. 

Lindsay converted an old window into a pin board and used it to display sheriff badges for all the guests.  This served as the backdrop for the appetizer display. 

And a sweet bunting banner hung over the display.  

After guests lingered for awhile, the actual brunch was served.  (After all those apps? I know!)  My girlfriends made a chili cheese egg puff, happy potatoes, turkey sausage, and spinach salad.  Again: YUM!

The recipe for happy potatoes can be found here.  Trust me, this is one you should include in your next brunch. 

The party favors were, of course, Bakerella's famous Cowgirl Cookies.  Too cute!

Thank you so much to all the girls who made this incredible shower happen! 

Lindsay, Janelle, Jeani, Drea, Katie, Leslie, and Deb!

Between this shower, and the nesting shower I shared a few weeks ago, this baby girl is LOVED!

Maybe a new record? For us I think it is: 

8 pregnant guests at the shower! 

I'm waiting for the first one to pop - any day now! :)

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Dinner Party Round-Up

I've attended a few photo-worthy dinner parties over the last few months that I thought were worth sharing.  Either beautiful food or creative menus have earned these a spot on the blog today.  Enjoy...

Leslie hosted a few couples one night for dinner.  We dined on roasted garlic chicken, crusty french bread, smashed potatoes fried in duck fat, green beans, brussel sprouts (my contribution).  Lindsay brought homemade tarts for dessert.  Yum.  I still think about those potatoes...

During Lindsay's first trimester she had crazy cravings for Greek food.  During that time she decided to host "Falafel Fest" at her house.  It was delicious! She fried up homemade falafels, and had all the fixin's to make yummy pitas.  And of course french fries and my Greek salad on the side.  I'm hoping her craving comes back, because this is a party I'd love to repeat!

Lastly, Lindsay had a small gathering where we barbecued several different kinds of pizza.  Not sure how, but Katie, Lindsay, and I ended up in charge of the grilling (I usually leave that up to my husband!), and it was quite an adventure.  We made 3 different pizzas, I brought a salad, and Katie brought a cobbler.  It was really fun to do pizzas this way and the crust ended up very crispy. 

Are you inspired?

Don't forget to enter the giveaway of $25 to Sweet'n Treats! Click here to enter. 

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My Christmas Table(s)

 For Christmas Eve Dinner we will have a full house. So much so that I will have 2 tables. 

My table settings are nothing fancy, but I am definitely in the spirit now that things are set for dinner! 

I am really in love with the brown glass candle sticks I found at the Good Will when I went to get this frame.  I see other bloggers find great stuff there, and I never seem to. Finally I have some great candle sticks! 

 It was fun to use my place cards from TomKat Studio that I purchased last year. And I love the tablecloth I have from Crate & Barrel. 

It looks amazing with my new copper chargers and some of our china. 

My other table  is a little folding table -- a little squishier, but that's ok.

I took a cue from Jackie Fo and went with cranberries for my centerpieces on this one (which I froze after the pancake breakfast, just as she suggests). 

Wishing you all the happiest of Holidays!

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Real Party: Holiday Dinner Party

This past weekend was our annual "Christmas Dinner" with friends. You can read about this tradition here. And see highlights of last year's dinner here. 

Katie's table and mantle were beautiful again this year. 

The table had mercury glass candlesticks and touches of burlap.  

The centerpiece was lovely & simple: a burlap covered box holding a large candle and greenery.  

More mercury glass, burlap, and greenery on the mantle.

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Party favors: bottles of Katie's husband's home brewed beer!

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Real Party: Fall Dinner Party

My friend Lindsay & her husband had a few couples over for dinner this weekend.  Of course I had to snap a few pictures of her cute presentation.  

Homey fall tablescape. 

Love those napkin rings!

Gourds centerpieces!

The delicious spread! Fish tacos, recipes based on those in from Sunset Magazine.

Yummy salsas & sauces.

Individual apple crisps for dessert.  Lindsay used this recipe.

Served with icecream!

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