A special day

Recently I helped my sister in-law organise and celebrate her baby shower. It was a great team effort by myself, Kelly, Cara and Lauren, the guest of honour.

The venue was a little church hall in Sydney's inner west; perfect for an afternoon of friends, family and food. We celebrated, chatted and crafted.

The craft kicked in with a crafternoon at mine a few weeks prior. One of the joys of DIY decorations and favours is the coming together to 'make'.  The crafternoon was a mini gathering in itself, we had lunch and cakes and catch ups - a crafting coven of sorts - making is made better when you can share it!

We started with a lose dandelion theme based on the way they softly grant the wishes we make. The colour palette was yellow, green, creams and whites. Going DIY meant we were able to personalise the day in some lovely ways. The ideas are not ours as such - they are gathered from various blogs and the web - then reinvented. We pulled them together in this pin board which is something I share so you can link through to our inspiration sources but also find inspiration yourself for your next party.

Here is what we did:

From the rafters

Pom poms, bunting and lanterns, a combination of bargain store and party supplier lanterns and paper bunting and home made tissue paper pom poms Martha Stewart style

On the tables

We made our own table runners with craft paper and paper doilies - over yellow spotted fabric it was just so pretty. Other tables were covered with a selection of my vintage tablecloths, sheets and fabrics in the yellow and greens of the day. We hung hand made pin wheels from windows and pews and topped the tables with paper wrapped jars of carnations and daisies.

In our tummies

There is no point in an afternoon tea looking this pretty if it didn't taste so good - it did. I had fun making the layer cake topped with meringue icing (Martha Stewart again) and coconut. I made the mini cake bunting using scrapbook papers, skewers and twine, I am delighted to say it now hangs over the lamp in the nursery.

And gifts for everyone

As a party activity and a keep sake we bought a beautiful bound blank book which we covered to say "Wishes come true" then we provided guests with a crafting table full of an array of cut outs, paper, pens and washi tape and let them go wild decorating a page each with a message for the parents to be or the baby that's nearly here. This lovely excerpt above is, I believe, from one of the grandma's to be.

Lastly, with our dandelion theme in mind, we hand made pom pom flowers for each guest as a take home reminder of our lovely afternoon.

A special day for a very special person in my life and a very special person soon to be.