“Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.”
Psalm 127:3
Growing up, I thought the nurturing gene may have somehow passed me by, because although I thought babies were cute, I wasn’t drawn to them. I didn’t flock like the other girls to new mothers, oohing and ahhing, asking to hold their babies.
And then I had a baby girl.
Having children changes everything, no lie. It changes your perspective in so many ways. I love babies. I still don’t rush over to new mamas, but I crane my neck to get a look at the tiny hands and feet, the tufts of soft hair on their heads, smile and offer congratulations or some sentiment about the precious bundle. And every baby makes me think of my own children, how small they once were, how quickly they’re growing up. While the urge to have another isn’t as strong now as it was when I only had one, I do sometimes feel that longing to hold my own baby again. *sigh*
So, what’s the next best thing to having a baby? Your best friend having a baby! Nikki gave birth to beautiful Liberty Rose on July 1st, a name she’s had picked out since the first time around.
While I love to be organized, ambitiously plan, I’m not very good at planning parties. I get into the details, the food and decorations, but not all the other stuff – contacting people, figuring out how many servings we’ll need if “x” amount of people show up, narrowing down a time and place that’s suitable for everyone involved – gah, it gives me a headache! But I’ve been wanting to throw Nichole a shower for a while, and with the help of a few friends we pulled it off.
I’m still waiting for Becky to show off some of her party shots on How-To Hospitality – and I’m sure she’ll make sure to include at least a couple endearing hospitality fails from the afternoon – but for now I’d like to regale you with the lovely Pink and Green Tea baby shower that Becky, my sister-in-law Jenn and I put together to welcome Liberty.
Becky remembered Nichole telling her she loved the combination of pink and green, so when I told her that Hostess {with the mostess} had some great party ideas, she looked around and thought it would be neat to go with their Sunny “Lemonade Stand” theme and substitute lime instead. Of course, this was just a starting point, and the end result was totally different. I decided to google pink and green baby shower, pink and green party, you name it - and yikes! – the ideas are endless and overwhelming. We narrowed down our list of ideas to a few favorites.
Decorations
Of course, we tried to stick with shades of pink and green. We went for the more muted colors, but there were some bright pops here and there.
Handmade paper circles like the ones in this beautiful Bump Smitten: Pink & Green Garden shower were meant to be a backdrop the a dessert table, but since the weather was worsening due to the impending Hurricane Irene, we moved the festivities inside and had to change the original set-up. Alas, I don’t think I ever got a shot of these, but Becky did a great job accordian-folding scrapbook papers for these. We ended up hanging these in a window, along with strands of silver beads.
Somewhere I had seen a tutorial for tissue paper pom poms, and they made festive many of the occasions that popped up on my goodle search. I thought, these would be easy enough! I found a great assortment pack of white, pink, and green tissue papers at Target, and armed with good ol’ Martha Stewart’s Tissue Papar Pom-Poms How-To – and laughing at this tutorial (yes, we braved the green ones) - we folded and scrunched and fluffed away. It gets easier after the first one.
We made a few big ones for hanging, and some smaller ones to double as flowers on the table. The effect was gorgeous, nixing the need for fresh flowers (even though fresh flower are always nice, but one must make these decisions when working with a budget).
Pooling our resources and dishware, we came up with some elegant settings of white china and pink glass. The centerpieces, along with the pom pom flowers, were silver candleholders and vases in varying heights.
Menu
We rearranged some of the furniture to suit the flow of guests, and ended up putting a dining room sideboard out on the porch to serve as the food table. It echoed the elegant simplicity with white and glass plates; pom poms and silver beads brightended up the area.
My mouth started watering as I saw the spread for this Pink and Green Baby Shower from Heather Christo Cooks. I was immediately drawn to the lime bars with macadamia nut crust (I always go for desserts), and was trying to figure out how I could alter a recipe for lemon-raspberry bars when I discovered that Heather Christo was nice enough to share her recipe for the lime bars! I think the only changes I made were using white whole wheat flour for the all-purpose, and rapadura sugar for the white. They tasted great, but it was humid and the sifting of confectioners’ sugar dissolved on top of the bars so they didn’t look as nice as the original version.
Among some of the other “savory tastings” and “sweet somethings” were chicken salad with grapes wrapped in lettuce, cucumber tea sandwiches, multigrain chips with hot artichoke dip, strawberry cupcakes, and strawberry scones with lemon curd and jam on the side.
Pink lemonade and limeade were on top of the list, and I lucked out with Martha Stewart’s recipes for Mint Limeade (using chocolate mint from my own garden) and Pink Lemonade with cranberry juice – yum!
We served these beverages – along with ice water – in canning jars that doubled as place card holders. I had seen these whimsical striped straws among other party ideas, and found a green and pink straw combo pack along with some pink plaid cupcake liners at The Bakers Confection’s Etsy shop. We also served tea for those brave enough for a hot drink.
Think Outside The Box
A fun little idea was to set up a photo booth where people could have their picture taken. When we moved the shower inside, there wasn’t really a good spot for this. While setting up for the party, this old couch of my grandmother’s sat on the porch, and it was too big to move out of the way. I decided to dress it up shabby-chic style so it would blend in, and we ended up using that as the photo booth. Think outside the box, and work with what you’ve got!
We had a lovely time, I ate way too much sugar, and I was so glad to be able to welcome this little life and bless a friend.
