Thursday, June 20, 2013

Baby Boy Owl Shower

My cousin, Whitney announced she was having a baby boy back in December.  I knew from the very moment she even announced that there was a baby coming to town that I was going to throw a shower for one of my most favorite people in the world.  Whitney decided on a retro owl themed nursery and so sparked my plans for an owl themed baby shower.  I started my search and found that most owl party items are for girls....complete with all sorts of adorable pinks.  That's fine and great, but owls are not gender specific so I decided that I WOULD be making an baby boy owl shower one way or another.  The first thing on my list was an invitation.  Oh dear me.......I found one that made me flap my hands and flush with delight.  (My poor husband was forced to act like he was excited for me as he was the only one to show at that late hour).  I found the invitation on Pinterest, but it is actually made on an Etsy site.  Here is the link and the picture....http://pinterest.com/pin/248683210645809335/


                                                        EEEEEEEK!!!!  Love it!!!!!!!!!!!!



So, after I had obsessed about finding the perfect invitations, I turned my focus to finding the perfect dessert plates.  I knew that once I had that bit of decoration found and under my belt, I could build on it and fill in the other pieces.  I found these darling plates on Amazon, but the company actually has it's own website. http://www.bigdotofhappiness.com/

They were really nice quality and exactly what I wanted......not corny and no writing.  Here's a straight on shot of them.








 
My next step was what to serve for dessert.  I am a cupcake fanatic and so I went on a hunt for owl themed cupcakes.  I didn't have to search long before I found these little cuties.
They turned out so cute and were so very easy to make!  I used my favorite chocolate recipe for my icing and cupcake, but if
you wanted to make your life even simpler, you could just use
a cake mix and store bought icing.  GASP!










 Having my key details in place, I just started filling in all the details.  I love details!  Did I mention that I like details? Since I am obsessed with the fine details of things, I decided that these nocturnal cuties needed to be displayed on a "woodsy" little perch.  There are some wood disc like platters that you can purchase at popular craft stores.  However, those little puppies are $14 a pop and since I needed 3, I wasn't willing to pay $42 for a one time use.  Here's what I came up with.......I had my awesome Uncle wrestle me up 3 different sizes of logs from a wood pile.  (The wood has to be the log type and not split wood).  I asked him to get three different sized logs and to cut them in 3 different lengths, (small, medium and large).  I then found three silver charger plates at Hobby Lobby.  They were on sale for $1.99 each and the wood was free.  I think $5.97 is a much better deal, don't you?  Plus, those silver charger platters can definitely be reused. ;)  Here's how it turned out.....

 The final step for this table was to just add some jazz.  You can add whatever you like, but I always like to incorporate things that add color, make thematic sense and/or have purpose.  I found a clearanced  brown table cloth and got lucky again when my Aunt had a load of burlap material from a previous event.  We cut it in a square and draped it over the brown table cloth.  It really achieved the outdoor, woodsy look.  The green Spanish moss was perfect for the owl them but also helped  hide the fact that we had to shim the underneath of the logs to make them level.  Sneaky-sneaky!  The white platter was borrowed from my Aunt and I simply wove orange, patterned ribbon through the edge and tied it off in a bow.  I used a dry erase marker to write out a message.  You could write all sorts of things, I just chose to go with simple.  The owl plates and napkins served two purposes.  Not only are they cute, but we actually used them! (The napkins are just a blue polka dot and can be purchased at just about any party store).  Two things that you can't really see well in this particular picture are the owl cookies and the invitation.  (I'll talk about those owl cookies in a bit).  I made sure to save one invitation to use as decoration.  It really achieved the outdoor, woodsy look.   It's peeping out behind the cookies in a picture frame. 



 

Here's a nice shot of the whole table and the banner that I LOVE. 








That brings me to that oh so cute banner.  Let me just say that there is an abundance of cuteness on Etsy.  I looked for hours for a banner that was just right to go with the plates.  I couldn't find one that was exactly the color scheme that I wanted.  So, I went out on a limb and just asked a vendor if they could make a custom design for me.  I was so pleased with the work!  You can find a load of cuteness over at her shop.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBannerBee

Last, but not least, (because they took me forever), are the cute 
little owl cookies that are hard to see on that table.!  I got the idea for these cookies on yet another Pinterest board.  http://pinterest.com/pin/350084571003626689/

They were easy enough to make.  I just took many steps.  The first step was finding that owl cookie cutter.  There are many different owl cutters out there, but I liked this shape best.  They sort of remind of Mr. Owl from the old Tootsie Pop commercial.  Don't you think?!

Again, I decided that these cute little delights needed to serve more than one purpose.  They were an added decoration to the dessert table but since I packaged each in cellophane bags, each guest got to take one home as a little party treat.







So, there you have it. We had a "hoot"!  Everyone seemed to have a good time and I had a ball planning it.   Hope some of this inspires you with ideas of your own or gives you things to "borrow" for your own party.  Thanks for looking!



No comments:

Post a Comment