Hey Ya’ll! Time is flying by with this pregnancy. Only 2-3 weeks to go! I think I can squeeze one more chalkboard post in this week so stay tuned for that along with all the good, bad and the ugly that goes along with being 37 weeks pregnant. =)

This post however is dedicated to my recent party for Baby Girl! I know now why you are supposed to let your friends throw you a baby shower. My oh my it was a lot of work! Of course though, as usual, I like to go slightly overboard and make more work than necessary. It all paid off though in the end. All the little details made it absolutely perfect. Here are some fun details that all of you event planners and DIY-ers will appreciate.

The Menu:
Savoury – Chicken Salad on mini croissants, Pulled Pork on mini bread & butter rolls, Halibut Chive & Onion Cakes, Tortilla chips with salsa and guacamole, vegetable platter and Everything Seasoned Pretzel Crackers with hummus.
Sweet – Mini Red Velvet cupcakes, Italian Waffle Funnel Cakes, Anzac Cookies (One of many traditional recipes Here – YUM!), fresh fruit with caramel dipping sauce, Rachel Ray’s Yellow Cake (recipe Here) with Cream Cheese icing and pink sprinkles, and a beautiful professionally made cake delivered by one of my girlfriends – it was gorgeous with pink rosettes and quickly put my homemade cake to shame. (Secretly though, I think mine tasted a teensy bit better!)
Beverages: Lemon Water in a giant vintage drink dispenser was the BEST idea as everyone could help themselves. In my large Mason Jar Dispenser I concocted my favourite – White Cranberry Juice, Ginger Ale, Soda and floating cranberries. If you have not tried this I want you to leave your computer right now, get on down to the supermarket and get yourself all of those ingredients. Game changer!

For those party throwers out there, I learnt two things with the menu here. When on a tight budget, making everything from scratch actually saved me money. Everything tasted amazing too. Home cooking’ is the way to go! It just requires a bit of extra work in the days leading up.

Decorations:
We went with a theme of shades of pink, white and gold. I started collecting bits and pieces from Party City in North Vancouver a little while ago. For the server-ware I went with white and pink obviously, crystal and some antique silver I sourced out at Value Village. I must admit I have a slight new obsession with silverware. I am now using the smaller one in the photographs below for my rings and earrings in our master bathroom. The larger one holds a vase with flowers and is a good base for any centrepiece. Upcycle when you can right?!I created a beautiful garland in my colour scheme which was a teensy bit of work but it turned out quite perfectly. I love these tassel garlands! I used the HGTV Tutorial however there are tons out there. If you click on that link you will also see the little circle garlands. I made some of those too and had them all over the kitchen and dining area. I used gold cardboard and a circular du-cut from Michaels. They looked fantastic except I cheaper out on double sided tape. This meant I spent more time picking up tiny gold circles off the floor as they kept falling everywhere! Lesson learned. If you are going to all the effort on it, buy good tape.

Goody Bags were my last crafting effort for this event. I had gorgeous pink and white polkadot bags. Each contained a giant Anzac Cookie to take home with a twine wrapped bow to seal the deal. Everyone absolutely loved having a little treat to take home so it was time well spent.

We did a Jack and Jill baby shower and I must credit Megan Kroutil for the invitations. I found her shop Silver Line Design on Etsy. She was efficient and professional and so talented! I adored the invitation she created for us and have included the photograph below. The chalkboard theme really tied it all together and all of my friends and family know that I love a good chalkboard! With it being a Jack and Jill shower, we had a large mix of our friends, family, spouses and kids. It was awesome! More like a party with a ton of fun people and good times than your usual baby shower. I am not one for all of the baby shower games so this was a little bit more my style. We did play one game – guess how big the belly is! The prize was a giant piece of salmon that Henry caught fresh up North. We had many disappointed faces who didn’t win and one friend who was delighted that she guessed bang on! All in all it was one hell of a party and Baby Girl was extremely spoilt.

Momma-To-Be was very tired after………