God Bless William: Baptism Party {decorations}

As noted in my latest Time Out Tuesday, William was recently baptized which was very special for us. Following the service at the church, we had about 16 adults and 4 children (of eating age) over for lunch. I began thinking about this party weeks and weeks in advance since everything is a bit more complicated now that we have a baby around, and here is what I decided.

My nice blue and green handmade table runner would stay on the table because I was inspired by its colors as well as William's birth announcement which was baby blue and kiwi green. The green is perfect for summer and a bit unexpected since typically it is blue and white that is used (or at least what I have seen).

A few weeks ago while on vacation, I visited Dollar Tree once the little guy was in bed to hopefully find papergoods. Well, I did! I purchased light blue dinner plates, kiwi green dessert plates and dinner napkins and napkins that were green with white polks dots. I ended up wrapping the clear "silverware" in the polka dot napkins, tying them closed with white curling ribbon and standing all of them upright in a square glass container from our wedding:

The train napkins were leftover from another party

At Dollar Tree I also found blue/green/clear glass marbles which I purchased for a vision I had. I have a small glass globe vase as well as one that is a cylinder and I wanted to put the marbles in the bottom surrounding a candle. I also bought plain white candles (in glass votives) at Dollar Tree to prevent wax from dripping on the marbles. It also made assemble quite easy. Place candle in container and surround with marbles...done!

My mom added a few twisted streamers in our dining room with white curly ribbon at the corners to add additional color. Everything came together great!

I hope you'll come back in two days to hear about the food!!!

Thrifty Home

Diaper Cake

This past weekend my mom and sister hosted a beautiful shower in our honor at The Nutmeg near my hometown in Connecticut. My sister contributed two cakes. This edible one that was out of this world!! Red velvet layers with white chocolate "frosting", not fondant and all delicious!

And a diaper cake!!

My sister referred to a site called Plan the Perfect Baby Shower when planning the diaper cake. She told me that she used about 80 newborn diapers (now all put away in the baby's dresser) to make the three-tier cake. The base of each layer was cut white cardboard and the center of each layer used a baby bottle as a support. Using the bottles made the diaper cake weigh less than if a full bottle of shampoo or other product was used.  

While my mom was recovering from surgery, my sister put her in charge of rolling the diapers. They opened the diapers (rectangle-sort-of-shape) and rolled tightly from front to back. Then a rubber band was used to hold it in place. You can see by the indentation in the second photo below that they did secure them tightly!

Then, ribbons were tied around some of the diapers that would be visible around the outside of the cake. She used thin purple and light green ribbon since the gender of our little baby is a surprise.

My sister grouped together several diapers with yellow ribbon when assembling the layers so all the diapers weren't loose. As you can see in the first photo of us with the diaper cake, she used the same yellow ribbon to tie the layers together and attached the plastic bottles, stuffed animal, pacifiers, etc.

Obviously we had to disassemble her masterpiece toget the diapers back to Maryland. What did that look like you ask? I was surprised that I didn't get extra screening from TSA since this was my carry-on bag!

Once home, I had the task of unrolling all of their hard work, which was the easy part. The rubber bands left faint yellow lines on the diapers, but let's be serious...those diapers are going to look much worse once they are put on the baby! The newborn diapers from the cake take up one full small drawer in the top of the dresser - jeez. And I know what all you moms are thinking...these diapers will only last a few days. Iguess the next thing we need to purchase is a trash can!

Fingerprints on the Fridge Feature Yourself, Finding Fabulous,  FFA Friday, http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/01/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-see-kate-sew.html

Fall is Here and So Are My Pumpkins

I know it is already mid-October but this post has been on the back burner until I finished sharing details of our Hawaii trip. When I typed the title above, I automatically thought how next fall we will have a little pumpkin at our house and how I hope he/she will fit into the cute Halloween sleeper I preemptively purchased at a consignment sale a few weeks ago :).

Back to my fall table...This past summer we had a collection of various height cracked glass candle holders as the centerpiece in our dining room. We eat all of our meals in the dining room or at the bar which is between the kitchen and dining room so it is not a "formal" eat-in area, we didn't want that. Well, one day I got home from work earlier than expected and headed up the road to Lewis Orchards for some inspiration. I felt guilty not buying pumpkins from Brad's cousins up at the Gaver Tree Farm, but I didn't have time to drive an hour that day and unfortunately still haven't.

At Lewis I found dozens of sizes and varieties of pumpkins, I was blown away. I kept saying "tabletop" over and over in my head so I didn't come home with some huge 25 pound pumpkin that I can't lift anyway. I started filling my cart with a selection of pumpkins, including a green one, and a few gords. I spent only $10. When I got home, I started placing everything.

I changed out the placemats to more of a fall color and then decided to fold some two-tone brown napkins to make a modified runner for all of the decor. But than I remembered I also had orange and clear glass beads/marbles from my Thanksgiving table last year. Once I added those in, it looked great!

After arranging and rearranging and adding in a wine chiller for height and a candle base for additional texture, I was happy with the way the pumpkins looked.

Linking up at Today's Creative Blog, Just a Girl, and Making the World Cuter