Feathering Kristin's Nest - Part 5: Baby Shower Nesting Theme Misc Decor

It's important to carry your theme throughout all of the decor.  Every small touch makes the difference for an elegant event!


Create an inviting entrance.  At this shower, I used the same chocolate burlap used on the table inside to cover a planter that I used as a "shelf" to raise the lantern.  This Pottery Barn lantern is the larger version of the small lantern used on the table inside.  I also used pumpkins on the front porch steps.  (Small white pumpkins were used inside...)

I also lined the fireplace mantle with cream candles (reused from my wedding!) tied with chocolate raffia:

Candles in glass cylinders tied with brown and blue ribbons were used on the bar dispersed among the coffee, water pitchers, and fruit tea urn.  Liz (one of the fabulous hostesses) had a Southern Living at Home urn that we used.

The back of the piano held a woven tray like this with the favors on it, as well as glass cylinders and candles of varying heights.  The favors were small bags of Kristin's famous "Old Maid (Homemade) Caramel Corn."  She wanted to make something to share with her guests as a thank you for coming, and her caramel corn is FAB.  We tied the cellophane bags with the same ribbon I used on the invitations, and Kristin wrote a note to everyone displayed with it:

One of my FAVORITE elements of the decor was the baby clothesline.  This has been done in so many ways at many baby showers, and it's always precious.  I wanted to keep the baby clothes in line with the theme.  So, I made sure everything was brown and/or cream with small touches of blue.  Everything on the line would be part of my gift to the mom to take home with her.  I also staggered some baby pictures of the expectant parents throughout the sweet little baby socks, onesies and bibs, etc.  In order to get some extra-sweet and special items on the clothesline, I went to JoAnn's with Erin (one of the fabulous hostesses) and we picked out fabric she could use to make little soft caps, bibs, and burp cloths that Kristin could keep after the shower.  We found a soft toile in brown & cream (YAY!!!), and super soft chocolate brown nubby fabric that she used as well, like this:

Here are the images of the clothesline...

 This is the toile fabric used for the bibs and burp cloths.  LOVE!  

THIS organic onesie was an amazing find on Amazon from Apericots.  I couldn't believe how perfect it was for the shower!  

We had a wonderful time celebrating Kristin and the blessing she is to all of us, and helping her "feather her nest" in preparation for the special gift that Kristin & Shayne were expecting with the birth of sweet Jesse.  Amber Beckham wrote a blog about the shower that you can see here.  She is such a gifted photographer and I am enamored with her work.  It was SO wonderful to have her share her talents with us, and I can't wait to work with her again!  Amber also did maternity pics that were stunning.  

Janna, Kristin and me:  

The hostesses!  Angel, Liz, Janna, me, and Erin...

Feathering Kristin's Nest - Part 3: Baby Shower Table Centerpiece

The centerpiece of the table was a painted branch "tree" with paper birds and tiny nests with blue "eggs" in them.  


I spray painted dried tree limbs that were gathered from the yard with Ivory spray paint.  It takes more paint that I thought to truly cover and give a solid finish to the sticks, but the finished product was SO worth it!


Spread a drop cloth in your yard to spray the sticks--let one side dry, rotate and keep spraying until the bark is fully covered.  

Coming together in the vase (I used coffee beans in the bottom of the cylinder to "hold" the sticks in place)

Next, I found a great brown, cream and very light blue Martha Stewart crafts grosgrain ribbon at Michael's:

to surround the tall glass cylinder I bought also at Michael's (using a 40% off coupon).  (Vase is cheaper there when using the coupon than it was at Hobby Lobby even when they were running a 50% sale...)


The birds were made of coordinating paper that went with the theme and clipped to the tree with the tiniest "clothespins" ever...then I bought mini nests in the floral department at Michael's, and for eggs I used Jordan Almonds from the same bag I bought to top the "muffincakes" (see previous blog).  I used my hot glue gun to attach the nests to the branches, and a tiny feather completed the detailed touch to make it extra special.  Here's the finished centerpiece, these amazing photos are by Amber Beckham photography:

Feathering Kristin's Nest - Part 2: Baby Shower Tablescape & Menu

Kristin's baby shower theme was set and I moved to planning the tablescape and other design details.  We (the other hostesses and I) decided to go with a light brunch menu buffet-style.  But this wouldn't be the standard "buffet" line!  


I wanted to keep everything brown and cream, and it just so happened I was blessed with great cream serving dishes from my wedding registry at Pottery Barn.  The Emma Collection serving line looks beautiful on a table, and was a great contrast to the table cover.  (I went with chocolate brown burlap to cover the table.)  I bought about 6 yards of the burlap at Hobby Lobby, using one of their 40% coupons to do it. (a single cut of fabric up to 10 yards is eligible for the coupon savings.)  The shower took place in the fall, so in addition to the birds and nest theme, I wanted to pull in small seasonal touches as well by utilizing the rustic burlap, lanterns with candles, and white mini-pumpkins.  


When setting up a serving table, vary the heights of your dishes to create interest and drama.  This is easily accomplished by using small (but very sturdy) boxes under your fabric covering.  The table was covered with a tablecloth, then the boxes were placed and the brown burlap loosely draped over and around the decor.  


I found a carved brown bird at Hobby Lobby that was dusted with a light blue paint in some of the grooves and I was SO excited.  It fit in with the table decor perfectly.  I used a small lantern on the table (again, a wedding gift from Pottery Barn) and votive candles dispersed throughout the table as well.  


The menu items were: 

• Chicken salad rolls (yummy super-simple recipe: chicken breast--shortcut is to use canned chicken breast, finely chopped celery, chopped pecans, Duke's mayo, fresh ground pepper...and my special touches are finely chopped green onions and a dash of garlic powder--mix well and use just enough mayo to achieve a semi-stiff consistency.  Serve on fresh baked Sister Schubert's parker house rolls or fresh croissants) 
• Breakfast Casserole (hostesses Liz & Angel both made delicious breakfast casseroles!)
• Turkey pesto spinach wraps (turkey breast, pesto, baby spinach and cheese on tomato basil and wheat wraps, rolled then sliced into "pinwheels" held together with toothpicks)
• Fresh fruit with yogurt dip
• Fresh veggies with ranch veggie dip
• Hot spinach dip with pita chips
• Assorted muffins -- some with homemade icing to create "muffin cakes." Flavors:
• Pumpkin Spice with homemade cream cheese icing
• Cinnabon
• Banana Nut
• Double-chocolate with homemade cream cheese icing, topped with toasted coconut and blue jordan almonds to mimic "nests."  (The inspiration for this came from Martha Stewart's website, but hers were cupcakes with birds made of icing.  They are absolutely adorable but much more labor-intensive than the modified version I made.  I iced the muffin then topped it with toasted coconut and used a dot of icing on the jordan almond to attach it and create the bird's egg.)  
• Fruit tea (Liz Young's fabulous recipe), coffee with pumpkin spice and vanilla latte creamers, water with fresh lemon & lime slices, and regular tea. 

Take a look at these pictures of the table (the centerpiece and the cupcake tower assembly "how-to's" will be covered in additional blogs)...photos are courtesy of Amber Beckham Photography.

Feathering Kristin's Nest - Part 1: Baby Shower Invites with Bird

In November of 2010 I designed a baby shower theme for my amazing friend Kristin.  I came up with a few ideas and she loved the "nesting" theme for the decor.  Erika White is a fabulous hostess and she inspired me with some tips on decor that I ran with.  Kristin has awesome taste and her home is decorated beautifully so I wanted to make sure a baby shower in her honor was something she would love and that would fit her.  


Once I determined the theme and color scheme (brown and cream with small touches of blue), I started doing some research for invites.  I ended up deciding to go with a handmade custom invite.  For the look I wanted, it was incredibly expensive to order invites from a stationer.  We needed 60 invitations...I don't think I realized at the onset just how long that would take!  However, the design was relatively simple to assemble.  I started with cream card stock (8.5x11 sheets cut to two invitations--each one was trimmed to 5x7 in order to fit in a standard 5.25x7.25 stationery envelope).  Then I bought chocolate brown card stock and did the same except I cut that into 1x5 strips to put at the bottom of each invitation--all of the paper came from this place.  I found a great robin's egg blue small grosgrain ribbon at this place with chocolate stitching along both sides of it that I glued along the "seam" created between the cream and chocolate card stock.  


The chocolate card stock was also used to punch out small birds, and light blue card stock was used to punch out small hearts.  The birds...oh, the birds.  I looked everywhere for a craft punch that was the right kind of simple, small bird.  But in the age of Sizzix, Quickutz dies, and especially Cricut machines and cartridges, it's nearly impossible to find.  Who knew the world of scrapbooking had exploded into such sophisticated (and PRICEY) gadgets to get the shapes you want?!?  All I wanted was a little bird.  But the only punches I could find were Christmas doves or soaring birds, not what I was looking for.  


I was browsing through Hobby Lobby and found this Quickutz 2x2 die for under $5:

It was perfect.  It's a small plate that will press into paper and essentially "punch" the design into it.  The only problem is, you have to have one of these to make it work properly and press the design into the paper:

And these are not exactly cost efficient...honestly, they're expensive for something you'll use one time!  If I were going to build a collection of die cuts maybe...but I digress.


I have a friend who has a Sizzix lever press, and I thought I'd give it a shot.  It was incredibly tedious because that machine doesn't work with a Quickutz die.  However, by stacking an inch of scrap paper with it to create a thicker pad we were able to get enough of them to make it work.  (I probably won't ever do it again, but it worked!)  It would be worth it to have the right machine if I were going to regularly use the die.  Because the bird was so labor intensive, I used a small craft punch I had from years ago for the heart instead of trying to punch them out with the die plate.  


I hand wrote the invitations and assembled them with an Elmer's craft glue stick.  (Archive safe)

Each invite was hand-assembled and hand-written, so no two were exactly alike.  (That could be good or bad as not all were perfect!)  I did the branch by hand and glued the card stock bird and heart to it.  The writing was done with a brown fine-tip Sharpie pen.  I used a corner round punch to create a softer overall look.  


The bottom line:  any great event starts with an invitation to set the tone and excite your guests about attending.  Evites and other email invitation tools are useful for some things, but there's really no substitute for getting a beautiful invitation in the mail whenever it is feasible to go that route.  I'm pretty traditional when it comes to that.   


This was the finished result, photos courtesy of Amber Beckham Photography: