Parties here and there

I really love to throw parties, like really really LOVE throwing parties. I love celebrating life and happiness and I love supporting and celebrating friends and family. I really love just being surrounded by friends and having a good time. I also love the finding a theme and putting everything together part which is weird because I'm really horrible when it comes to fashion and I can't decorate my house to save my life. But with Pinterest and Etsy I feel like ANYONE (if I can then anyone can) can throw an amazing party. All you're doing is pressing Copy and Paste in real life with just a touch of your own creativity. I used to not be creative at all but the more I exercise that "talent," the more it grows and the more I can do on my own without the help of those two glorious sites. Here are some pictures from my past parties, and I'm sad to say that some parties didn't get any photos and some only got one, so here are the ones I found photos for after a quick search.

My very first party/shower was for Elise Hope. She waited until delivery to find out the sex (of her first baby!!) so I kept things gender neutral and themed it "it's the small things in life." I had mini trifle dishes for the frozen yogurt bar, mini muffins, scones, quiche, and fruit tarts, mini jars of honey and tiny silverware. It was a lot of fun!

 I love Terresa Tew and it was so fun to throw her a little shower for baby #5!

 I used to do an annual Spooky Dinner and the 3rd year it got too big for our little apartment and doing it on two different nights was  lot of work so the bishop let me use the Relief Society room.

 Lindsey Tanner's shower was the second one I did. Hers was so fun because Lindsey is such a fashonista, she even made the purple dress I'm wearing! I got to buy super cute designer clothes (I didn't have kids yet, splurging was fun) and make it a clothesline theme. The cakes were from VG's and they did such a cute job! Her mom and sister helped by doing the whole food table and photos.

 For a family history we had for Relief Society I did desserts from all around the world to represent where we all came from. This was huge for me since I've never baked before and in one day I produced all of this. Whaaaaat?! ( I totally dropped the ball on the labels, You live and you learn)

 One of my High School girl friends, Amber Tanner is now pregnant with her first but I got to throw her bridal shower!

 For a Relief Society event in my new ward I planned a gardening party. One of my friends is the owner of Proven Winners (check your local Home depot or nursery!) and she taught a class for us about the do's and don'ts of gardening. She provided flowers and tomato plants that everyone got to plant and bring home. I did appetizers that you would find in a garden, plus sandwiches for substance!

 There is a new sweet girl in our ward, Jan Lee who had her 3rd baby girl. I wanted to welcome her by throwing a shower and thought it would be a great way for her to meet some new girlfriends. I've never done a truly girly party so this was fun to do. I even made a 7 foot tulle tutu to go around the gift table. I  might replicate this for valentines day...

 Jake asked me to help with the decor for Lindsey's surprise birthday party. I made a banner i reused for the movie night and got 4 of these huge balloons and tied streamers to them. They were so cool!

 For another Relief Society event I planned an outdoor movie night and had a concession bar with everything you would get at the movie theater- candy, popcorn, nachos, licorice.

 The latest shower I did was for Leslie Culbertson, a girl in my ward. She's very Anthro and West Elm so I wanted the shower to be earthy and organic. I used rocks for food labels which was super fun and unique (and free!!)

I've decided not to do a spooky dinner this year, my place just isn't big enough and I'm now in a ward with lots of young couples and there's no way I could invite just some without others feeling left out. Maybe next year! I can't wait until the next party. Aidens 3rd birthday is 6 months (and one day, but who's counting) away, and I've already got some ideas. We'll see!

Melissa's Baby Shower

One of my best friends, Melissa Pew had a baby a little while ago and I got to throw her shower with a lot of help from her mom and sister. It was in Arizona and I was so grateful for all they did to make it special and perfect! She loved the owl theme and did it for Ellie's nursery so that's what the shower theme was. I got the cute invite from Etsy, printed it at a local printer and got the envelopes and stickers from Paper Source. We did a diaper raffle which was insanely successful!

The food was soup and salad with bread bowls. There were 3 different soups, and 3 different kinds of salads. Melissa's mom and sister made all of the food and it was amazing!

I had ordered 3 soup tureens from amazon and had them shipped to Melissa's house in Arizona so it was one less thing I had to bring with me. When I got there, two of them were broken. Melissa helped me scramble and found two friends with similar tureens which is great because we spent an entire day going from store to store and not finding any because they were "out of season."

This cute Oh Baby sign was from Etsy, along with the paper straws and straw flags with baby Ellie's name on them.

After a ton of online search I found a reputable bakery in Arizona that could make specialty cupcakes that also tasted great. These turned out so cute!

I got 3 of the most adorable mugs at Anthro for the diaper raffle gifts, I wish I could have won!! And by the way, picking out a gift that's good for all age groups was so hard, now I know what works!

 

Here I get all of my flowers from a local florist, Francos. But I didn't know where to go in AZ so the hubs did some digging and found a wholesale place that didn't need a resale license. We stuck with the shower colors of yellow and pink.

Melissa was one of the most beautiful pregnant ladies I ever did see. She was glowing the whole time!

Baby shower bunco is one of my favorite games at a shower! Which is saying a lot because I really don't like baby shower games. The prizes were goodies from Bath and Body Works.

The one think Melissa had said she loved was a cookie pizza, she even made it for us when we were visiting one time. Her sister made these super cute owl shaped cookies that people could load up with icing and fruit.

That super cute diaper cake was also from Etsy, I really can't survive without other peoples skills!

There really is something to be said about real linens and eating utensils. Plastic or paper plates, cups or silverware drive me nuts. I used to rent all those things but after each party finally invested in my own. It has totally paid off because in between all the big first time mom showers I have 5 smaller 2nd, 3rd, 4th time mom showers that still use them and make a big difference.

 Her mom hand made this mobile for her and I am so jealous, I love it so much! It looks like its straight from Pottery Barn.

 

I am in LOVE with these super cute party favors. Melissa is all about the hand sanitizer (maybe that's why we're such good friends) so this was the perfect party favor.