Tea Party Baby Shower

I have this problem with optimism....

Party photo source

Every time I have the opportunity to throw a party of any kind, I cheerfully and confidently sift through Pinterest, saving scores of gorgeous images of professionally planned parties, thinking: "I can do that!! It'll be perfect!"

Then somehow down the line it ends up being blue letters on paper doilies in front of crocheted blankets...hmm.

 Don't get me wrong, the shower could have been much worse. In fact, I might even say it was lovely, in it's quaint little way. But in my mind it was going to be fabulous beyond belief, so, I was a little underwhelmed by the end result. :o)

But! Since most of you probably aren't professional party planners, perhaps you can take away an idea or two anyway.

I used my silhouette to cut the letters for the banner, but you could use stencils, too! I glued them to the doilies and stapled them to antique white lace trimming.

 Side note: I thought I invented this idea, but apparently it's all over Pinterest. Story of my life.

Little paper flags--not a new idea, but nice and easy! We drew "R"s on them for "Ryan". Just cut a long(4"?) rectangle, fold in half and snip a triangle out of the side. Then glue to a toothpick.

We put them in the cupcakes that baby Ryan's sister made. 

To fill a big space on one wall, I tied little blue gift tissue squares to some string and looped my crepe paper into bows. This actually was a pretty good idea, but perhaps a little poorly executed. We did this about ten minutes before the shower started, so they weren't as neat as I would have liked. It's seriously embarrassing to post this photo! But you get the idea.

 And of course, being a tea party, we had our tea things. I didn't get a photo of all the different tea cups, but they were pretty!

 I didn't like the ugly tea bag packaging so displayed the different teas in a cute basket. I used pinking shears to cut fabric labels marked with the names of the different teas and pinned them to the basket with vintage earrings.

 I also printed out a few verses about children to put into frames. :o)

So that's it. Bleah.
The next one will be better, right? Right!! See? My optimism is already back. :o)

I realized the other day that I have never done a girl baby shower. How crazy is that? Every single one I've done was for a boy. Maybe that's why they never turn out as well as I imagine. I am too girly to do boy parties! :o) We have two more pregnant women at church, so maybe if one of them has a girl I can help with that shower. :o)

Anyhoo. Whew! Another week gone, and now we start another. Can you believe it's almost April? I'm in total denial. I've been thinking that I need to schedule at least 5 minutes every morning to sit with Paige and just be still; look in her eyes, talk with no distractions about what she likes and how she feels. Just be in the moment, if you know what I mean. Life is going too fast these days...I don't know if I like it. :o)

I hope you guys are doing ok. I hope you're doing great, actually! :o)

Love you,

-Disney