Think pink | printables...

The TomKat Studio created these pink party circles for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Her post truly shows the spirit of why I have been posting so much pink this month. Check it out for the free printable and to read a heart-touching essay from a girl whose mother battled breast cancer.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | and sage green...

Pink and green is one of my favorite color combinations and this might be one of the most beautiful ways I have seen the colors used. The rosy pink and sage green are gorgeous together and the details in this dessert bar are amazing. [Found via Pepper Design Blog]

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | candy buffets...

I love everything about candy buffets - the colors, the containers, the whole display and, of course, the yummy candy. Here are some great candy buffets with lots of pink candy...

[Setting the Mood]

[Thoughtfully Simple]

[Hostess with the Mostess]

I am particularly fond of the navy and pink one, since it is the same colors we used in our wedding and for our candy buffet.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Think pink | birdie baby showers...

Baby showers are the perfect opportunity for adorable pink details. Here are two cute birdie themed showers...

This gender reveal baby shower has the perfect pink details for announcing that it's a girl. Check out the Creative Party Place for more photos and all the adorable details.

My favorite idea in this second party is the use of pink and green colored water to carry out the color scheme. It is such a simple and inexpensive idea but makes a big impact. For more photos, check out the full post at Swanky Tables.

[October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month - Think Pink!]

Couples' shower | wrap-up...

Now you've seen almost everything from the couples' shower we threw Mr. W's brother...

• The invites
• Chalkboard signs
• Decorations and guest tree
• Food and drinks
• Outdoor decorations and games
• The dessert table [including DIY cake stands]
• And even some cute pictures from opening the gifts

But what I haven't told you yet, are all the things that made the shower perfect. And most of those things weren't things at all...

• Drinking lots of wine with Mr. W, because we really needed more bottles to decorate with [or something like that]
• My in-laws coming over early to help with all the last minute setup
• The bride-to-be's face when she saw everything...she was so excited! That is my favorite part of any party - just making the guest(s) of honor feel special and loved. :)
• Mr. W's cutie little brother asking me for more "special" cookies about every seven minutes [The "special" cookies were ones that got stuck together because I was impatient and stacked them before they had cooled. I told him he could have as many cookies as he wanted as long as he ate the "special" chunks of cookies that were too ugly to go on the table.]
• The close friends and family that stuck around late for impromptu s'mores
• Drinking the rest of the margarita punch with the bride-to-be because we certainly didn't want it to go to waste :)

Yep, it's the little things like those that really make a party perfect.

Couples' shower | the gifts...

These pictures of the couple opening their gifts are just too darn cute not to share. Watch as Mr. W's little brother moves into the picture...then closer...then even closer...and then gets really excited about the gifts. He's pretty much the cutest ever. :)

Couples' shower | yummy desserts...

On to my favorite part of any meal or party...the desserts! Yum!

The sign above the table said "just (about) married" [like the invitations]. The table had more chalkboard food labels and chalkboard painted wine bottles like the ones I showed you here. And another spray painted dollar store frame like the one I showed you here.

The dessert menu included...

• Caramel brownie bites [my favorite treat!]
• Mint brownie bites [my even more more favorite treat!]
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Lemon bars
• Pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate and milk chocolate with green sprinkles
• Fruit kabobs [I love the way fruit kabobs look - they make me want to serve everything as a kabob! :)] 

The two white plate stands above started out like this...

I made the cake stands using dollar store plates and dollar store candlestick holders. I stuck them together with Gorilla Glue and gave my weights a workout holding them in place to set them. I figured my weights needed a little use sometime! :) After they were dry, I just gave them a few coats of spraypaint. [Don't worry, I didn't serve food directly on the cake stands. I covered them with scrapbooking paper and the brownie bites were in mini cupcake liners.]

I'm planning to check the dollar store for matching salad plates, so that I can make a coordinating multi-tiered version. I looooove cake stands.

Couples' shower | fun in the sun...

Along the fence in the backyard, we clipped up tons of random pictures of the couple. We strung Christmas lights between the pictures to light them up after the sun went down. We also had games set up throughout the yard...bocce ball, horseshoes and Texas toss 'em [or hillbilly golf or ladder ball or whatever you want to call it].

Rain was forecast for the day of the shower, but we lucked out and there was not a single sprinkle of rain the entire day. It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple.

Couples' shower | bbq & drinks...

Mr. W manned the grill for the party, making hamburgers, hot dogs and brats. We also had Asian salad and a variety of chips. Everything was served on white platters and in big green bowls. There aren't any pictures because I was too busy eating and forgot. :)

Somehow I did manage to get some pictures of the drink table though. We had water, tea, soda and margarita punch [my favorite!]. The big green tub to the right was filled with Boulevard - a must have in KC and the groom's favorite.

The tables were covered with Kraft paper. And you'll notice two more chalkboard projects - wood circles labeling the food / beverages and chalk around the middle of wine bottles. I made the wine bottles the same way as the chalkboard signs - by painting them with mod podge first. I'm not really sure that step is necessary, but it worked well, so I stuck with it. :) I taped off the area I wanted to paint with painter's tape [and masking tape when I ran out of painter's tape].

Couples' shower | more decor...

As guests came to the house, they were directed to this coffee table in the living room...

The close-ups...

The details...

• The frames were both originally really ugly dollar store frames that I spray painted.
• I made the big tree picture for the guests to add their fingerprints and sign their names. The tree looked great when it was finished. And the bride-to-be referred to it as "the coolest thing ever" the whole day. So, now I refer to her as "the sweetest girl ever." :)
• The vases are the twine-covered ones I made here. The "greenery" in the vases are random pieces I cut off the bushes in front of our house.
• The candle is actually leftover from our wedding. I just wrapped three pieces of ribbon around it and secured them with double-sided tape.

The random story...

The colors for the shower [green and brown] were inspired by the wedding colors. And they worked out very well for a backyard BBQ, because there is already lots of green and brown with the fence, trees and grass. So, when I was looking for pictures of the couple to frame, I wanted them to coordinate with the colors and theme. I thought I found really cool pictures, but Mr. W told me it looked like we thought they were "tree huggers." Haha, oh well, they matched and I liked it! :)

Couples' shower | chalkboard decor

Remember the couples' shower we threw forever ago? Well, it's finally time for a bunch of posts and pictures. :)

I bought dollar store picture frames, spray painted the frames and used chalkboard paint on the glass. The instructions clearly say not to use it on glass, but it totally worked. I painted a few coats of mod podge on the glass first to give it a little texture and then used the brown chalkboard paint.

The first chalkboard frame was hanging by the front door to greet the guests...

I wrote on it to match the invitations. Here's a closer look...

Another chalkboard frame was in the backyard on the food table...

Keep an eye out for more chalkboard decor in the next posts. :)

Baby shower games...

One of my sister's only requests for her baby shower was to not have any "embarrassing games." She wanted fun, quick games but none that were at all "embarrassing." I came up with two games for the shower to fit her requests...

The first was a celebrity baby name match-up...

[Click on the image to make it larger.]

Personally, I'd be hard-pressed to even tell you who some of the celebrities I included are, yet alone their baby's name. But not the shower guests. Two [yes, TWO] of the guests got every name correct and I only gave them two minutes to finish it. I was very impressed! In case you aren't as up-to-date on your celebrity babies, click here to download the answers.

The second game was baby shower bingo...

This game was lots of fun. And just because I'm a nice person, I made a non-personalized version that you can download with all 36 unique bingo cards. [The preview looks a little goofy, but it should look normal when it downloads.]

By the way, I didn't change any of the descriptions on the cards, so some cards still include "Longhorns item". If you're in Texas, you're in luck. If not, whoever gets those cards are out of luck. I thought about changing them, but I'm not quite that nice. Sorry. :)

The baby shower...

It's time for some pictures and details from my sister's baby shower. First, the adorable mommy-to-be...

Isn't she the cutest!? :)

Behind her, you can see part of the food table and banner. I made the letters on the banner using my Cricut. Love that thing! You can barely see them in the picture, but both ends of the banner had cute little jungle animals to go along with the giraffe invites. The animal pictures were cut out of wrapping paper I found at the dollar store.

Speaking of the invites, we displayed one in a frame near the food table...

Back to the important stuff...the food! Here's a closer few of part of the food table...

We purchased a lot of the food from a bakery, Costco, etc. But of course, I had to make my favorite brownie bites made with both caramel and mint filling. Yum! With the leftover white chocolate, we also made teeny tiny little chocolate-covered, sprinkled pretzels. The table also had flowers [obviously], cute little wooden jungle animals and little ribbons sayings "It's a boy!".

I forgot to take a picture...but we also had a mimosa bar at the shower. We had champagne, a few juices to choose from and raspberries, blueberries and strawberries to add. [We also had sparkling water and club soda as non-alcoholic options.]

Wrap labels for you...

Remember these wrap labels from my sister's baby shower that I showed you here?

Well, now you can make your very own! I'm not exactly the fanciest blogger in the world, but if you click here you should be able to download a PowerPoint template to make these wrap labels.  The template should look like a little something like this:

All you have to do is download the template, enters the addresses, print 'em out, cut on the little marks, fold them over an evelope, and then send the pretty envelopes to lucky recipients. :)

For my sister's shower, I printed them on green paper that matched the invitations. It was actually just a happy coincidence that I happened to have the exact same green paper at home as the cardstock I bought for the invites. [I'm pretty sure it was left over from my days in the sorority house...gotta love the craft closet!]

Anyways, the labels would be fun printed on any color of paper and you can switch up the outline and font color too. Totally customizable. :)

Baby shower invitation...

Last but certainly not least in the series of invitations are the invitations for my sister's baby shower...

The theme for the nursery is jungle animals and the parents-to-be particularly love giraffes. Again, this invitation was actually three pieces of paper - the white with the words, the green and then the blue.  The invitations were mailed in white envelopes with these wrap labels...

I had never made [or used] wrap labels before and am now completely obsessed. They are so simple, but look really classy and fun. It's a good thing Mr. W generally handles the bills in our house, or I am quite sure I'd be mailing them all in with cute wrap labels. ;) If I can, I'll try someday to post a template for easily making your own wrap labels. You can also look forward to some coordinating paper products from this shower in the future.  :)

Couples' shower invitation...

Tons of exciting stuff is going on in our family right now, which means...tons of fun parties! Today I'll share the invitations I made for three parties over the past couple of months. And soon[ish], I'll be back to share more fun pictures from each of them.

First up is the invitation for a couples' shower / BBQ for my brother-in-law and his fiance... 

The invitation was actually three separate pieces of paper - the brown with the words, a white/cream paper, and then the green background. Their wedding colors are green and brown, which were really easy inspiration colors for a mostly outdoor shower. Stay tuned for lots of photos...

Backdrop genius...

Isn't this backdrop gorgeous?

[from Holamama; found via Celebrations at Home]

It definitely proves that by spending a little time crafting you can make a huge impact with very little money. We all know how to make paper chains. And who doesn't have colored paper around their house already?

Simply lovely...

I would love to have an ice cream social and these would be a great addition: Free "Love and Ice Cream" gift tag printables from Eat. Drink. Chic.

This is one on the sweetest baby showers I have ever seen. How precious! I am filing this idea away in my mind for someday when I am hosting a baby shower.

"Sip and See" library baby shower from Swanky Tables

Recipe ideas...

Okay, so I am definitely not an expert (or anywhere close) on cooking or baking, but I'm going to pretend to know at least a little for a few minutes. :)

After my bridal brunch baking bonanza, I got a lot of compliments on the food I had made so I thought I'd share. First, the Rachael Ray's monkey bread minis were awesome! And if I can make them, so can you! And most of the ingredients were things I had at home, which always makes me happy. Of course, I didn't notice the recipe called for buttermilk until I was halfway through, but Betty Crocker told me I could substitute milk with lemon juice and it worked. :)

Another favorite at the shower were the caramel brownie bites. My mom made these a couple months ago for our family reunion and I finally had a reason to make them. Check out the really easy recipe I put together here.

Everyone at the shower also thought all of the muffins and breads were made from scratch...but I was actually a cheater and used box mixes for all of them. I did make some kind of topping for each one though that give them that homemade-feel. Most of the ideas came from my Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook: Bridal Edition (awesome, by the way!), but I adapted them to be all things I already had at home. Check out these easy ideas here.

I'm done pretending to be some kind of master baker now. Thanks for hanging with me on that one. :)

Bridal shower advice cards...

Everyone has heard of or been to a bridal shower with cards that say "advice for the bride". So, I thought I would expand on that idea and make cards with a variety of different questions. I made stacks of the cards and bundles of pens and tied them together with ribbons. We then put them on each table and had each guest fill out as many as they'd like. The bride read them aloud at the end of the shower. Here are the various questions and my favorite answers:

• The best marriage advice is...hire a housekeeper & eat out.
• The best description of love is...finding the person who makes you want to be an even better person, but they love, accept and support you as you are!
• The best tradition to start is...picking a day & alternating houses & family members and cook (anything) to keep the family connected. Get out the good dishes - it makes for magical memories!
• My best date night idea is...remember to have one, even after 25 years. Everyone needs romance!
• The best part of a wedding is...seeing love in each others' eyes and feeling love in each others' hearts as you say "I do."
• The best part of marriage is...looking forward to coming home to someone who will stop the earth from spinning for you!
• My best memory of Nicole and/or Drew is...There was a comment from the bride's brother's girlfriend that she didn't let us read out loud, so I'll be nice and keep it to myself. :)

I am going to put all of the cards and pictures of the shower in a scrapbook for the bride. I guess I should be working on that now instead of writing 42 blog posts, but it's my day off so I'll do whatever I want. :)