The moment you have all been waiting for is here…Pictures of the adorable Pearl-themed Baby Shower! Hope they don’t disappoint!

For some background, you can check out my post HERE, but the bottom line is I handled decor and general prettiness for the shower, while the lovely hosts (Kalle (my bff), Staci, Ally and Tess) handled the food, drinks and everything else that goes into a party. We had a low “prettiness” budget, so I had to be creative and stretch our dollars! Thank goodness for Hobby Lobby who had 50% off all of their Bridal stuff. Bridal stuff = Pearls. The Party Gods were looking out for me that day 😉

Party goers were greeted by the Pearl theme as soon as they drove up to the house! I used a hot glue gun to glue the spray painted letters onto a Tiffany blue ribbon (just pretend it was Tiffany blue and not seafoam as Tiffany blue ribbon doesn’t exist… the true Tiffany blue color is probably locked up in the Tiffany vault somewhere… annnnnywho… ) With the help of Kalle’s husband Shawn and a chair to give me the extra foot that I needed (not really), we hung that bad boy up for the whole neighborhood to see. I caught a sneak peak of the mama to be taking a picture in front of it and I got some warm fuzzies … she approved 🙂

Right inside by the door were the party favors… remember the cookies I made in a previous post? Hows this for Tiffany blue Tiffany’s? I don’t need your secret vault … the magic of food coloring will conquer all

For a little activity, the guests gave Denise their “Pearls of Wisdom” …. Get it? PEARLS of Wisdom? (Note to those that will plan my baby shower in the faraway future: I will be needing an Encyclopedia of wisdom… not a tiny little notebook of wisdom)..

The mantel decoration was my favorite part because I made my very own banner for the first time… and it looked like a string of pearls (well that was the intention!) The mantel decorations grew and grew… so I will show you the progression…from just a few flowers… to more flowers, ribbon covered votives and baby pictures of the mama and papa to be… Also, if anyone has any advice on how to let the banner drape nicely in the middle, it would be much appreciated. Kalle tried to be all MacGyver by trying to “weight” the backside of the banner so it would lay correctly. Staci and I just laughed at her. Hee hee.

Now for the food… while I cannot take credit for making any of the delicious food, I did consult with the party host on a yummy but affordable brunch menu … take a look

Food labels made by moi

Eggs deliciousness – I didn’t know the real name so that is what I called it – I think it’s a perfect description as they were DELICIOUS. The “basket” is formed by putting an English muffin in a muffin tin, cracking an egg and adding spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and a few other ingredients. It made for a pretty presentation … if anyone wants the recipe for Eggs Deliciousness let me know …

Coffee cake with blueberries – always a winner… made by Staci

A yogurt parfait bar… the toppings were dark chocolate chips, granola and strawberries, but the possibilities are endless. This is another affordable brunch item that looks impressive and is fun because people can make their own 🙂

Cupcakes – these were kind of intense to make. I know because while I was decorating for the party, Kalle and Staci were making them. The turned out great in the end, but watching Kalle and Staci try to “1 and a half” a recipe was downright painful. It was a Martha recipe so it was already a tad complicated… add in homemade frosting, raspberry filling, vanilla bean paste and use of the words “scant” and they were really having to use their brains. As they kept asking “How do you “1 and a half” a scant” … MARTHA – USE NORMAL WORDS. Being that I was in the same “remedial math level” as Kalle in high school, I am shocked the math worked. (Okay, okay maybe not remedial level, but we weren’t math geniuses if you get my drift. Remember Mr. Boice?! He hated us.) The math gods were shining down on Kalle and Staci because the cupcakes rocked! Again, if you want Martha’s recipe for these cupcakes just let me know and I will have it to you in a “scant” moment.

Here are some detail shots…

Baby pictures and pearl garland on the mantel…

Pearls with the pink silverware…

Grapefruit slices in the water – because they are pink!

Pearl candle rings…

Pearls in the flower arrangements…

Bathroom flower… I love a flower in the bathroom… this should be my trademark…

I had so much fun doing this shower and we made a big impact without spending boatloads of money. It can be done!!

Have a great week blog world!

Football. Beer. Pigs in a Blanket. AstroTurf table. That’s what the Superbowl means to me…

Take a look at our Super Bowl party pics to get an idea of how we roll…

So here’s the thing. Mr. Fo has this ridiculously awesome artistic talent that comes in handy for all sorts of random things…i.e. making our kitchen table into a football table and freestyle drawing the Superbowl symbol … How awesome is he?!

He also made the fleur de lis and horseshoe symbol out of poster board and we taped it to the wall. People thought we had painted our wall with the symbols!! Ummm no… we’re not THAT dedicated….Note the white dots on the Colts symbol. For this detail, we used the always handy “Wite Out” … shh… our little secret…

We bought this LOVELY AstroTurf flooring from Home Depot (yes… people use this for flooring), laid down some athletic tape for yard lines and we had a football field. We even color coordinated the plates and “plastic ware” … There were more Saints plates used than Colts plates- just FYI.

Our end zones rocked…

Food was delish – Chili with a Toppings Bar, Spinach Artichoke Dip – IN A BREAD BOWL, Pizza Rolls and the ever popular, quick to disappear Pigs in a Blanket. Look at them – are they not the cutest things ever?!

You had your choice of Saints Brew (Dixie Beer – made in New Orleans) and Colts Brew (the always classy Colt 45 – YES, they still make this!) I bought small plastic trashcans, wrapped them with construction paper and we had cheap beer buckets!

We also had some non-partisan beer in an adorable Beer Tub… Beer me please…

Mini cupcakes in coordinating colors (well… the Colts turned out a Tiffany blue color – but it was so pretty I left it that way )… and Football Cookies – LACES OUT for those of you that get that Ace Ventura reference. Hee Hee. Note the ADORABLE pennant flags in both the cupcakes and the flowers in the picture below- those are from the absolutely awesome Make Merry blog. They were nice enough to send me the template… I think I put them to good use!

The flower arrangements were at the corners of each end zone in mini galvanized buckets…Very realistic to have flowers in the end zone, don’t you think? 😉

The little arrangement with the floating spider mum was in the bathroom. Nobody ever forgot they were at a Superbowl party!

Mr. Fo even used the extra turf to cover our coffee table. We really loved the built in coaster feature… so much that we are keeping it permanently. (Not.)

Take a look at this – Peyton Manning and
Reggie Bush managed to join us in our
Honeymoon and Wedding photos…

Even though I am always pulling for my boy Peyton, I was happy the Saints won – and how cute was Drew Brees with his little son at the end of the game?
I almost shed a tear… I’m a sucker for a quarterback with a cute baby…

I hope you enjoyed our little Superbowl Soiree – we had a great time although its safe to say I definitely socialized more than I watched the game…

NOTE: Most of these pictures were taken by my good friend Amanda – check out her post about the party at her fabulous design blog, CasaBrasi.