A Pink & Green Welcome

The birth of a baby is an occasion to be celebrated… even if they’re the 2nd or more to join the family. I couldn’t let my little Liv come in without fan fair! We didn’t need tons of new baby items, I wanted everyone to meet our newest addition, and a party should include men, women, and kiddos too. An open house was the perfect solution!

With all the sewing I did in preparation for Liv's arrival, is it any surprise that fabric was the inspiration for the party theme?! Specifically, this bright and cheery Michael Miller print called Disco Dots in Sorbet:


The party was planned for 8 weeks after Liv’s birth, so sending the invites with her birth announcement was perfect timing. GreenApplePaperie designed and made the invitations, favor tags, & thank you notes in the same colors as the fabric.


The decorations were my favorite part! I made the oh so popular and super easy tissue pom-poms (see the tutorial here). My Doug hung them from the ceiling above the food and at the front porch with invisible thread and 3M hooks.

Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts inspired the lime rind candles (I used wax left over from tea pot candles I made for Elle’s party… post coming soon).

I also picked up the quintessential party décor; balloons and crepe paper.

The food was pink and green too. Chip dips were served in huge wine glasses rimmed with colored salt. I made guacamole (get the recipes and the serving details here), a pink potato chip dip, and because displays are always more aesthetically pleasing in threes, I added some store bought green salsa too. I served pink lemonade in a glass jug with lime slices floating in it & cupcakes frosted in colors that matched our theme perfectly (I brought a fabric swatch to the baker… I’m not afraid of being “the crazy lady”.)


Since fabric was the inspiration for the theme it was easy for the girls to coordinate with the party. A simple pillowcase top for Elle and an appliquéd onesie for Liv made for cute pictures.



I made sure we got a picture of each of our guests. A photo album with space on each page to write a little something, served as the guest book and commemoration of the day.

No party is complete without a thank you for your guests. I got a huge container of powdered lemonade mix, poured it into ball jars, and topped them with the theme fabric embroidered with “thank you”.

This isn’t the first party I’ve planned around a color and dots (check out some posts about Elle’s 2nd birthday party here and here), it’s a fun theme and one that’s easy to run with!

I’m always on the look out for great party ideas. Leave me some links in the comments!

An Etsy Party

Have I mentioned how much I love Etsy :) I take nearly every opportunity I can to buy handmade and since Etsy is "The place to buy and sell all things handmade" it's my number one resource. One of my favorite excuses for shopping on Etsy is planning a party. Recently I became an Aunt and had a great time planning a baby shower for my sister in-law. It was the third party I'd planned using primarily handmade items from Etsy for. So here are the awesome shops that helped make the shower and my daughter, Elle's first and second birthday extra special.

I love love love the invitations Serendipity - Beyond Design creates. She made the invites and a CD label for Elle's second birthday party and did the invites, labels for the favors, and thank you cards for the shower (I don't have a picture of those). She is so creative and comes up with unique designs that make the perfect first impressions for the event.

I always find great favors on Etsy too. Fizzy Habit made fizzy bath bombs for the shower favors, they were packaged in cute little brown boxes, the relaxation scent smelled wonderful, and we sealed them with labels that Beyond Design made for us.

For Elle's first birthday, which was a cupcake theme, Soapy Love made cupcake shaped soaps with polka dots.

For Elle's second birthday Naiad custom made clear bars of soap with black music notes in them. They were blackcherry birthday cake scented, and she even made a custom label for them with Elle's birthday info on it.

We also gave CDs in the favor bags for her 2nd brithday. And a shop made adorable covers for them, that shops doesn't still sell through Etsy, but in craft we trust sells something really similar.

Elle even wore a handmade skirt and hair bow made custom for her. Unfortunately, neither of those shops sell on Etsy anymore either, but Ritzy Knits has a similar style to the skirt I bought, and I've bought other similar bows from Lil Bug Boutique and have loved those.

Oh and of course there's the gifts. I made my sister in-law a few Elle Belle favorites and purchased some other handmade items as well. I thought these address labels with the new baby's name on them, from Sweetpaperie were a unique shower gift. I want everything in this shop!

I also included custom book plates from Taylored Arts, one of which was pasted in one of Elle and my favorite bed time reads, Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Handmade touches make a party and gifts so special! Elle's 3rd birthday is 4 months away and counting... A great party is waiting to be discovered in an Etsy search.