Baby Shower for a Little Girl

Last summer, I threw a baby shower for a little boy with a space/alien theme.  Now, with the opportunity to throw one for a little girl, I got to go all out in the girliness department – butterflies and flowers all the way.

First project was preparing the decor.  I had seen some giant tissue paper flowers on Pinterest a few weeks ago and fell in love. Probably because they reminded me of an Anthropologie window display, and I love Anthropologie windows.  Actually making the flowers didn’t take a whole lot of effort once I started, but collecting the supplies was a little tricky.  The hardest items to obtain were the right colors of tissue paper.  I ended up buying peach and olive tissue paper from Papermart online.  Then instead of the stucco wire, I bought the more conveniently located chicken wire from Home Depot.  I’m not sure what they meant in the instructions about covering the wire in tape because I bought paper carton tape, but it wasn’t sticking, so instead I wrapped the chicken wire in brown packing paper.  Key to the whole project was the spray glue – made the tissue paper application a lot faster!  Look at the inspiration photo and my version:

With the large decor out of the way, I decided to put my floral design classes to work and create my own bouquets.  Collecting various flowers from the grocery store, Whole Foods, and whatever I was missing from a florist, I was really pleased with the results.  I embellished the arrangements with paper butterflies made using the Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punch and some wire.

Arrangements of “leftovers”

And now on to the food.  For the lunch, I kept things simple:

• Cucumber hummus cups
• Pita sandwiches – vegetarian with Boursin cheese spread and turkey with colby jack cheese
• Mini quiches (from the freezer section – only thing not homemade)
• Roasted butternut squash salad with escarole, pears, gorgonzola cheese, dried cherries, bacon, and a dijon balsamic dressing.
• Mini caprese salads

For my favorite part, dessert, I attempted to make an individual ombre layer cake that I saw on Pinterest.  I’m not terrific when it comes to cake making or decorating (cupcakes are my thing), so I liked these cakes in particular because their beauty came from having the layers exposed, meaning I didn’t have to frost the cake.  Yes please!  It ended up being a time intensive process only because I had to make four different cakes for each of the colors, then cut out the circle shapes.  I was a little disappointed because my lack of cake experience became obvious when the baked cakes came out too thin, so I had to use the brown bottom of the cake to stabilize the cutout shape.  Next time I know to put two boxes of cake mix where it says to use one. Taking the butterfly punches I had leftover from the decor, I wove them onto a toothpick for an accent.

For other sweet treats, I made sugar cookies, cookies and cream cookies, and seasonal cranberry curd with walnut shortbread crust bars.  And for drinks, there’s nothing pinker than pink lemonade!  Plus passionfruit mimosas for those who wanted a little something extra.  

 And finally, the complete spread:

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