Baby Shower for Eli

Last weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Seven of Courtney's closest friends and I co-hosted a shower for my sister's first child, Eli, at my house. The next day Joe hosted a shower for one of his best friends who is getting married in a few weeks. Our house was rearranged, cleaned, styled, and rearranged all over again but it was worth it. 

 I am now sitting with my family in a beautiful home in Seaside, FL watching the rain beat down and flood the streets but knowing that I have help keeping the baby entertained and all I have to do is sit here and take the time to just relax.  What better time to catch up on my blog!?

Planning this shower was so fun. I asked Courtney for color and style inspiration and I got with the girls about food and themes and we chose to go with mint, light blue, gold and silver. The invitation I chose explicitly said this would be a brunch so we could budget off less expensive breakfast foods and have a little champagne without any guilt! 

I wanted to make sure the decorations would look good in a boy's room but also wanted the shower to be visually pleasing for all of the ladies in attendance! 

After the shower was done, I wished I could have gone back in time and save myself a lot of trouble with redundant trips to Hobby Lobby, Michaels, bakeries and 3 grocery stores but all the work and errand-running was worth it to see all of the different projects come together so cohesively. 

Some of my favorite crafty things that also had a big 'bang for your buck' was painting paper letters , mason jars and plastic animals gold. I used Martha Stewart's gold metallic paint (only at Michaels or maybe Home Depot but NOT Hobby Lobby). I used gold glitter paper from Paper Source ($4 for a huge sheet!) and flowers from Whole Foods. I had Joe drill holes in the animals to make little signs for the food but that may have been a little overzealous since everyone pretty much knew what they were getting. 

This shower was also the first time I've ever had every.single.person RSVP. Regrets and confirmation poured in almost every day and I had an exact count of guests which basically never happens, even in the south where etiquette and manners are essential parts of lady training! 

This was about the best picture we could muster with Emmy refusing to stand or let me hold in her a more appropriate way. At this point I really didn't care much. Everyone had such a great time and Courtney got so much of what she needed for Eli so the shower was a definitive success. 
There were also 2 Etsy finds that I didn't manage to get pictures but I received loads of compliments on so I've uploaded small thumbnails of their products to hopefully encourage other people to use these sellers as well.  Guests placed gold thumbprints as little "fireflies" with the names underneath.  Print found here. 

For the front door, I chose this monogrammed wooden cross. There is a sweet inscription around the edges with Eli's initials and it came in much larger than I had expected for the price so I was very pleasantly surprised! You may want to scoop one up if you're in the market, $35 is such a great deal! Cross found here.   

the toddler room

As soon as I found out I was pregnant with a girl I started planning her room. 

I knew I wanted her to have a place that encouraged imagination, creativity and playfulness.  I wanted space for reading and I knew it should be girly but not too delicate. In some ways, I wanted to pour all my inner child into my daughter's room. A place I secretly wanted our whole house to be but the grown-up side of me just won't allow (and well, the husband won't allow either).

Unfortunately, reality set in and the cost having a baby, with all of the items we needed and wanted and daycare, and hospital bills, etc., we had to put the nursery dreams on hold.  I chose bright colors for her crib bedding and then decided to wait and see who my daughter was and what her personality was like before designing her whole room. I'm glad I did this because although Emmy loves all things girly and pink, she loves reading more than I could have hoped and she loves music and bright colors and making HUGE messes. 

I have also spent hours and hours going through pinterest and blogger websites looking for fun and creative ideas to decorate a whimsical and modern nursery that also has to work on a tight budget. As soon as I saw this rug from Ikea on Candy Kirby Design's instagram feed, I knew I had to have it. I mixed it with one of Emmy's favorite books, "The Cat at Night" would be my inspiration for her room. I love the way bright colors contrast with black and white. I also really, really wanted this crib sheet. But it just doesn't make sense now that Emmy is nearing the end of her crib days. I'm eyeing the blanket now, with hopes of matching it with a stark white bed and bright pillows.

I purchased almost everything for Emmy's room at Ikea and Paper Source. Birmingham doesn't have an Ikea and Joe and I didn't want to spent a whole weekend traveling to Atlanta so I've spent months tracking craigslist and online trading sites looking for Ikea's expedit. Then, I read that it was going to be discontinued and I panicked. Thanks to one of those trading sites, I found a service called The Wishing Truck. Two local college students travel to Atlanta's Ikea every other weekend and bring back your Ikea goods. They charge a fee but in our case, it was less than a tank of gas and some of their proceeds go to charity so we figured it was a win-win-win. 

All of the frames are Ikea Ribba, the shelves are Expedit and the rug is Lappljung Ruta. The total cost for 5 frames, 2 picture ledges, the shelving units and rug came to $196 including tax. How can you beat that?! The ombre and flower prints are wrapping paper from Paper Source and the donuts print is from their annual calendar which is currently 75% off! I also picked out some greeting cards designed by my favorite, Rifle Paper Co. and printed my alphabet printable which you can have as a free download here.  I have found so many fun prints that I want to use so I'll probably be switching out her pictures regularly. 

The only real "splurge" was the tassel garland. The colors were too perfect and it added so much whimsy to the room. I am so proud of Emmy's room and more importantly, Emmy loves it. She can easily get to all of her books and toys and she loves to dance on her rug. I think this room will have lots of space for her to grow up.  Joe likes it too, his first comment was "why don't you do something like this for my man cave?" which, of course, sounds like an invitation to do more shopping!