Neutral Baby Shower Invitations

These are the baby shower invitations I created for my friend Patty's March baby shower. She is expecting a little boy or girl (it's a surprise!) in mid-May. I used a combo of simple dots and stripes along with the neutral colors pale yellow, sage green, and chocolate brown on her invitation; these colors and patterns are similar to the bedding for her nursery. The invites were paired with a chocolate brown envelope to complete the look.

{COMING SOON}

Lauren & Rick's Save-the-Dates

Adrienne & Mohamet's Wedding Suite

Jamie & John's Wedding Suite

Valentine's Day dessert idea - YUMMY!

Updated nursery pics & projects

....and MORE!

My Baby Shower!

My baby shower was today at the Painted Cottage in Collingswood. It was given by my mom and mother-in-law, and everything was so nice! Thank you Mom and Carol - I truely loved every minute of it!

It wasn't a surprise shower because I am always nervous being the center of attention and need to prepare myself a little bit beforehand. Besides, you should never surprise a pregnant woman....it's just not fair! In any case, I had a great time being surrounded by all my family and friends who love me and my husband and our little guy who is getting ready to join the world soon!

While in the initial planning stages of the shower, I asked my mom if I could make my own invitations and all the related goods for the day. At first she wasn't crazy about the idea of the guest of honor making her own invitations; however, she knows I have a passion for this and already had lots of ideas, so she let me proceed.

I was pleased with the way the invitations and all party details turned out EXCEPT for the colors. I printed the pieces at different times, and the colors came out completely different each time. The nerve! I am probably the only one that notices such things, but it still bugs me. I used a baby blue color on everything, and the invitation, thank you card, bookmarks, and cupcake toppers came out beautifully; however, the other pieces came out a teal color. It's a pretty color but not the baby blue color I wanted it to be. Anyhow....there are more important things in life I suppose....not the end of the world!

Check out the details below:

{My invitation: I love the white shimmery paper against the cool blue - perfect for a wintery January shower. The guests were also asked to wear a "touch" of blue and everyone looked so cute today with their blue touches!}

{I made wrap-around labels to address the outside of the envelopes and to compliment the invitation.}

{Thank you cards - I've got to get working on these now!}

{The cupcake toppers I made for the cupcakes. They are a little tough to see but each one says something different: Kate's Baby Shower, It's a Boy, Due February 2010, and Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails. These were placed in each of the cupcakes.}

{The favors were booksmarks with a bible verse - Psalm 139: 13-14. I punched a hole in each and added a matching blue ribbon. These were placed at every guest's seat.}

{I made mini menus for each table. These were 3.5 x 5 tented cards and absolutely adorable because they were so cute and tiny. I also added three small crystals to each one for a little bling. I figured my baby boy needs to know that his momma likes a little sparkle!}

**This is where the color of the products start to change to teal because they was in the second batch of goods that were printed.....GRRRR.**

{These are the candy jars I made. I have tons of glass hurricanes and apothocary jars that I use around my house during the different seasons and fill with decorations and what not. They were perfect to fill with candy for the shower. My mom and I also found some silver scoops at Walmart that I added ribbon to as well. The jars were filled with Hershey kisses, chocolate covered pretzels, M & Ms, and white hearts - YUM!}

{I found little white bags at Michaels that I made tags for that said Little Boys are so Sweet. These were placed by the candy jars for guests to fill with treats.}

{A sign I made to sit next to the candy jars and bags. Crystals were added to adorn the chandelier.}

{I made this tree as a decoration by using real tree branches, crystals, and enlarged birds that I had printed and cut out by hand. I used Christmas ornament hooks to hang the crystals from the tree, and I attached white ribbon to each bird and then hung on the tree.}

{Of course I had to add a crystal on each bird to serve as the eye.}

{I used one of my square glass jars and a styrofoam "thing" from Joanne's Fabric Store to hold the branches in place. I then wrapped the base in white tissue paper and added blue stones from Target to fill in the top of the jar.}

{The sweets table at my shower with the cupcakes and candy.}

{Pictures of my husband and I as babies in small white frames were also placed on the sweets table.}

{My favorite girls and I! - my mom, me, and my sister. Love them!}

Nicole's Notecards {My He'art Project}

{Each notecard has a picture of something that resemembles a heart. There were six different pictures that Nicole sent me to use on the notecards.}

{On the back of each card is the city, state, and year when the picture was taken and on the bottom is Nicole's logo and website. The logo was created by her friend Michelle who is a graphic artist.}

{I wrapped each set of notecards with a belly band with Nicole's logo on the front.}

These are the notecards I made for Nicole, one of my dearest and oldest friends in the world. We met when we were ten years old and were completely inseperable for years until our interests finally took us to different parts of the country (we are complete opposites but always hit it off!). After living in California and Chicago for a few years, Nicole finally settled in Brooklyn, New York. She's a true city girl! And a fashionista with a creative, artsy, unique style - perfect for her job at W magazine in Manhattan. Anyone that knows me, well, you know I'm pretty much the complete opposite - ha! In any case, she is having a show and asked me to create notecards for her. The theme is "hearts" hence the title of her project, My He'art Project. Check these out!

Name Sign for Avery Brooke

My friend Chantelle is in the process of decorating her two-year-old's big girl bedroom. She asked me to create a sign for the room with her daughter's name on it. A beautiful pillow with many different colors and patterns was the inspiration for this sign. The pillow's colors are apple green, dark and light pink, tangerine, purple, yellow, and light blue. Because of the patterns on the pillow and also throughout Avery's comforter, I kept the sign simple by adding stripes and the vibrant colors used in the room's accessories.

{Maternity Shoot} - Baby Bump Pictures!

This past Saturday I had a maternity photo session done with Melissa of Melissa Stottmann Photography (www.melissastottmannphotography.com). I am just a little over 34 weeks pregnant and had a great time doing these! I'll admit, I was a little nervous going into it, but Melissa was great to work with and made me feel very comfortable. At first I didn't think I was going to show my bare belly, but then I decided I was probably only going to do this one time, so why not? My baby boy is in there afterall! Melissa is also going to do newborn shots of my son very shortly after he arrives in February - I can't wait!

Upstairs Landing Area - Playroom???

This little bench is just that - very "little". Once my husband put it together, I couldn't believe how much smaller it was than I imagined. BUT it will work perfectly in a playroom for my little guy.

I'm in complete renovation/organization/nesting phase over here! During my Christmas break from my teaching job, my husband gave our upstairs hallway a fresh coat of paint, and I ordered a rug and bench from Overstock for the space. I will admit....I'd been slightly unsure about what to do with this space since we bought the house in May. It's a big landing area, almost like another room. I've been kicking around a few ideas and have finally figured out a plan - this is going to be my son's playroom when he gets big enough for one! My downstairs isn't big enough for tons of toys, so this will work perfectly! I'm keeping it simple for now because I'm sure it's going to fill up very quickly with kiddie stuff....

Maternity Shoot Prep

Supplies Needed:

1. Black Bandana

2. Crazy Glue

3. Crystals/Beads

4. Toothpick (not pictured)

5. A LOT of patience

I picked up each crystal with a toothpick with a little glue on the end. Then I added a little more glue to the underside of the crystal and placed each where I wanted on the bandana. It was a bit of a pain but ended up working. I will be tying this around poor Ginger's neck for our pictures.

Ginger's Maternity Shoot Bandana - Finished product!

She wouldn't keep her new pink sherpa on for anything. I might be kidding myself with this bandana idea....haha.

I'm having belly shots taken in about 2 weeks when I'm 34 weeks pregnant. In addition to figuring out what I'm going to wear, I put together a little "outfit" for Ginger. As high maintanence as my girl can be, I love her and she's part of our family now. So since she's going to be in a few of the belly shots, I figured I'd make her a little something special for the photo shoot. With her track record, this is totally a long shot, but I couldn't resist! She's going to look so cute....now, if she'd just cooperate.....

{Baby Boy} ~ Thank You Cards

Happy New Year! I have a feeling 2010 is going to be a great year for my family! I am so excited for my little boy to get here...2.22.10 is the day! Unless he has other plans, my c-section has been scheduled for that day. I must admit, I'm a little overwhelmed at all that I need to accomplish before he arrives. I've been working, working, working over my Christmas break to finish some of the projects I have on my "To-Do" list. In addition to painting, organizing, etc, I wanted to create Thank You cards to have on hand. This isn't something I wanted to have to think about after my little guy arrives, so I made these and had about 50 printed. They are all cut, stuffed in their envelopes and ready to go now!

Now I've got to get working on my nursery projects!