My good friend, Becky, is expecting a baby girl this upcoming May, so I decided to throw her a baby shower. Some people thought I was crazy to host a party since I already have my hands full taking care of two children (a newborn and pretoddler) while my hubby is deployed. Honestly, though, I found lots of enjoyment in planning the party for her. I'm not working right now, so perhaps it's because it makes me feel productive. Maybe because it's what I did in my past jobs (corporate events, though). Maybe it's because sometimes I want to be a special events planner. Mostly it's because it's my creative escape. My therapy.
After the initial excitement of hosting the upcoming party, I started wondering what I threw myself into. As I mentioned earlier, now that I'm a stay-at-home mom of two children, my budget is dramatically smaller than what it used to be. Sometimes I think when you don't have the money, that's when the creativity starts rolling out.
To cut costs, I decided to send an Evite to everyone instead of paper invitations. Despite my love for stationary, invitations usually either go into the recycling bin or filed away to be forgotten unless you're the honoree. This is why I always love Evite. It's fast, saves paper (and money!), and I can sweetly remind people to RSVP for the event. And, as a gift for Becky, I quickly designed her a paper invitation for her baby girl's scrapbook based on the Evite invitation.
Living in Japan is wonderful. Shopping in Japan is a bit tricky. Everything is practically double the price, if not more, than the United States. Not something that we were expecting to hit our wallet when we moved here. So I have four options: 1) Shop at the base exchange with a very limited party supplies section; 2) Find affordable stores to purchase items; 3) Shop online; and 4) Do-It-Myself. Well, I was able to do all four options to work with my budget.
Of course the base exchange doesn't have the kind of sign I was looking for--"It's A Girl." And I didn't want to purchase a sign online and pay shipping costs on top of that. So I just designed it and printed it for the party. Very simple! And at no cost! I clipped the letters onto a piece of yarn. This doubled for the first activity, "Who's That Baby?" where guests brought their baby pictures, and, you guessed it, guessed who's who.
I found these cute polka dot water pitchers at the Daiso (where mostly everything is 100 yen, which converts roughly to $1--well, a little bit more with the current currency rate). I bought two pink and one brown pitcher. I then bought a bouquet of these beautiful flowers and stuck them in the pitchers for table decoration. And, of course, everything needs a purpose, so they doubled as the prizes for the baby shower activities. The guests thought this was great! The other two games we played were "Guess the Mother's Measurements" and "Baby Shower Bingo." I've never seen people more excited to play Baby Shower Bingo in my life to win the flower pitcher/vase. It was lots of fun!
The room (free) that I reserved only had two tables to work with. I could have rented extra tables for food and gifts. We had a total of 12 guests, including the honoree and me, so I decided to keep us at one table--it's more intimate that way and then split up the other table with food and gifts. This decision helped me keep costs down.
My menu was simple: Mini Bacon & Cheese Quiche, Deviled Eggs, Fruit (Strawberries, Pineapple, Grapes, and Kiwi), Strawberry Cupcakes (another guest made these), a Giant Dark & White Chocolate Cookie Cake (I baked it!), Raspberry Lemonade, and Water. To be honest, the menu changed a few times. I originally wanted to make bacon & spinach quiche, but I forgot to add the quiche. And I wanted coffee cake (with coffee served as well), but when I forgot to buy the coffee cake, I forgone the coffee as well. It didn't seem to matter, though, the amount of food seemed perfect for everyone.
I love receiving diapers as gifts, and I always found diaper cakes so cute. So I made my first diaper cake as a gift for her. There weren't any cute receiving blankets at the base exchange, so I bought these Carters receiving blankets on Amazon. They matched very well with the theme!
I have a ton of foil wrappers at home, so I decided to design candy wrappers for Mr. Goodbar's as favors. And I found this cute round box at the Daiso for only 100 yen, so I knew it would be a great receptacle for them. And I'm glad that Becky liked it--she's going to use it to hold her little girl's hair bows. I think you're starting to get that I must always have a purpose when I buy something. I always think of Confessions of a Shopaholic when I shop. Not that I'm a shopaholic. Never.
Alright, hope you enjoyed the details of the baby shower as much as I enjoyed planning it!
Congratulations to my cousin Ryan on graduating high school!
My mom, auntie Lyn, and cousin JP traveled to Manila, Philippines yesterday to celebrate his achievement. He graduates tomorrow, March 19th, but since the Philippines is 13 hours ahead, they're celebrating it today!
It still boggles my mind that they graduate high school at the age of 16 in the Philippines and entering college next Fall. Well, I guess it shouldn't since my hubby did the same thing here in the United States (but that's because he's a genius who skipped two grades--go figure).
Wish I could be there...if I wasn't working and Tristan wasn't sick...but I'm there in spirit! My auntie asked me to make candy wrappers for his graduation party. His school colors were green, yellow, and red, and for the wrapper, I decided to stick with the green and yellow (and I was glad to know these were a few of his favorite colors, too!) and gave it a chalkboard theme. I hope they enjoyed it!
My friend got engaged this past holiday season and is excitedly planning her wedding for next year. To my amusement, she places random wedding facts on her profile practically each day. She wanted to ask her beloved ones to be part of her bridal party in a special way, and I was honored to help her do it! She concludes each of her special poems with "Will you be my bridesmaid/maid of honor/man of honor?" At her request, I used colors of expresso, burgundy, and champagne on the candy wrappers.
I've been waiting for awhile to share this post with ya'll as I waited for her to ask everyone, and I'm so happy that I can finally share them! :)
Rachel Ray knows how to end a party in style! She shares these Sweet Talkers for you to customize for any occasion! All you have to do is buy jumbo chocolate bars (5 oz.) and customize your pick with your name and date. Print, cut, fold, and glue. Voila! You just made your own candy bar favors!
These designs are wonderful, and I'm inspired to create more designs! I just need to find the time!
I received my first client! (Yay!) My friend's daughter just turned 16, and is celebrating it with a ball this weekend. I am honored to be a part of it by creating candy bar favors for her big day.
Like my mom says, "don't be in a hurry to grow up." Have fun and cherish these sweet times!
Rather than cleaning up my home, I decided to make miniature candy label favors for a Halloween party. I've found that designing labels and wrapping candies have become a great stress reliever for me lately.
I've been enjoying designing my own invitations and favor labels for my parties--I've only had a wedding and baptism to celebrate so far, though! I've always wanted to give away wrapped Hershey bars; and when Tristan's baptism came around, I wasn't going to pass up working on a new project. Here's the design that I created for his candy wrapper:
And what do you know? It was a hit! I now have two custom order requests (a sweet 16 and a high school graduation)! I couldn't be more thrilled! In fact, I decided to make a company name, Sweet Posy Designs...celebrating life's sweet moments/occasions? All my life people have described me as "sweet" and it doubles for "sweet" candy & sentiments.
I'll probably open an Etsy account with this name--I LOVE that site! I could probably spend hundreds of dollars a day on it.
I have a ton of foil wrappers at home, so I decided to design 
Alright, hope you enjoyed the details of the baby shower as much as I enjoyed planning it! 
