A Black, White & Yellow Baby Shower Brunch

Table set, food getting warmed up and ready, dog waiting for crumbs to fall his way and a big proud big brother smile welcome the day and you to this post! (which would be better enjoyed if you go grab your cup of freshly brewed coffee or tea to sip while you read on.  Go ahead, we'll wait :-)

Glad I got to snap this shot before his "Only Child, Big Brother" t-shirt from Cafe Press got all covered up in chocolate.

Yes, I admit it.  I thought about such details as our outfits for the shower...  Got Mr. B this awesome "I Make Great Babies" shirt at Etsy and dressed myself using the colors of the event :-)

This was the first thing I started working on after deciding it was going to be a brunch baby shower.  I grabbed my computer and went on searching and bidding on retro coffee percolators/urns.  Got this lovely vintage art deco coffee urn from eBay and awaited for it patiently (well, not so much, I was checking the tracking number daily until it got here!)

Hot water, milk

Organic Chocolate Milk, Vanilla-Caramel Iced Latte, Cinnamon-Crème Iced Latte

Sparkling fruit juice with the sonogram labels (for more on that, see the previous post, about the "party prep")

My pregnant dress form all prepped up!

Tangerine Mimosas

Passion Fruit Juice

The beverage "bar"

Smoked turkey mini sausages and scrambled cage-free eggs

Pick your weapon!

Homemade Curried Chicken & Prune Savory Puff Pastries

Ricotta & Spinach, Brie & Apricot Pastries

Cinnamon, Raisin & Cardamom-spiced Apple Puffs

I always get asked about this vintage-inspired revolving candy jar from Brasil.  My dear-amazing-super-cool mom brought it for me years ago in her carry-on suitcase. It's a replica, but I'd LOVE to find an original one as well...

Mini (cute!) versions of me and Mr. B.

Cupcake liners waiting to be filled with very tasty tangerine and mixed berries muffins made by my friend Mil

And here they are!!

She is so cute, she even coordinated the muffin flavors (tangerine) to the party theme and décor...

Homemade granola (recipe here) in small spice jars as party favors

My sweet little "laundry" area, where guests could customize baby an outfit using iron-on fabric appliqués.

Take out boxes (from World Market) for extra food to be taken home, as I did for Mr. B's 40^th birthday party.

Now, back to cooking the little bun in this oven here...

    Sorry. Cheesy, I know, but I just had to... couldn't resist :-)

Para uma versão em português da festa, clique aqui.

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Expecting boy #2... Baby Shower Prep

Yep, another baby boy is on its way and it's time for our baby shower...

After our ultrasound appointment, I came home with a few nice 3-D prints of our new baby and started thinking on how I could incorporate them into the shower...  My inspiration for the party invite came from photo booth strips, so I put three images lined in a row and adorned it with a yellow and white polka dot frame. The shower was planned for the spring (although where I live it feels like winter ALL the time!), so yellow was a fitting choice for a fresh and sunny Sunday brunch.

I liked the look of the invitation and decided to carry this black-white-yellow color combination throughout the decoration. I wasn't so sure if it was going to work until I found these great cupcake liners at Etsy.  Happy. Very happy mamma.

I wrapped chocolate bonbons in yellow fabric and tied them with a mix of polka dot, stripe and solid black and white ribbons.

I have this wire "pregnant lady" dress form since my first pregnancy.  Adding a black and white ribbon plus a yo-yo ponytail holder makes it look fresh and new again :-)

These cute paper pinwheels were made using double-sided scrapbook paper, floral wire, buttons and a barbecue skewer. Instructions are at the end of this post.

Developing the (bilingual) menu... 

I printed baby pictures of me and Mr. B in black and white and framed them in yellow polka dots for an eye-catching centerpiece.

 My homemade granola stars in another baby shower brunch.  Recipe here. 

This time around, I will use it as party favors and distributed the granola among small spice jars.  Since most of the guests at the shower will be Brazilian, I made labels saying "Homemade Granola. Thank you!!" in Portuguese and added a small ribbon to each.

Another use for the sonogram prints - sparkling juice "labels", printed on adhesive paper and cut using scallop scissors.

An old and forgotten wood box gained new life after a couple coats of paint :-)

I had some super cute fabric appliqués from Etsy to be ironed on baby clothes and thought it would be a neat idea to have my friends "do the work" for me :-) As I mentioned before, I am not a fan of baby shower games, but in this case, not only I would end up with a keepsake from each of my guests, it would be up to them to customize (or not) a bodysuit or shirt on their own time during the party.  To display the pieces, I wanted to set up a "laundry-like" area complete with an ironing board and clothespins. To go with the event color pattern, I painted the clothespins yellow and added some white dots to them.

As I did for his big brother's shower, I enlarged the print invitation and framed it so guests could write baby (no name yet...) a message.  I gathered colorful markers in a used condiment jar and added a label with instructions both in English and Portuguese.

The buffet ready to accommodate the drinks.  Stay tuned for Part II of this post, with more details of the party. See ya!!

Pinwheels How-To

(adapted from here - with great step-by-step pictures!)

 

You'll need:

scrapbook or construction paper

push pin or other fine piercing object

hole punch

wooden skewers/dowel

scissors

button

floral wire

Directions:
Fold your paper lengthwise, and then again, to make 4 squares. Cut along those lines. Working with each square at a time, cut a slit from each corner, stopping before getting to the center. Punch holes in one corner of each of these "triangles". Use your pushpin to punch a hole in the middle of the square. Fold your floral wire in half and thread a button into it. Start (loosely) folding the paper aligning the corner holes over the middle hole & hold them in place.  Once you have all four folded in, poke the two ends of the floral wire into the hold and pull through. Put your dowel or skewer through the two pieces of floral wire. Twist close to the dowel and then wrap the remaining wire around the dowel.

Para uma versão em português da festa, clique aqui.

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