Monday, November 23, 2015

A Simple Sprinkle

Happy Monday!  Are y'all ready for Thanksgiving?! Or are you making last minute preparations and trips to the grocery store like me?!  I'm not hosting Thanksgiving at my house, but I can tell you I'll wait 'til the 9th hour to head to the grocery store and grab everything I need for my dinner contributions and then I'll be saying all sorts of unkind words about the insanity that is the market the day before a holiday.  Whew.  

In other news, this is my current view...


The boys have the week off, my baby niece arrives in the morning, and I'm going to stuff my face FULL on Thursday.  You could say I'm JOLLY as all get out :)

The house is officially decorated and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Since we spend quite a bit of time out of town over the holidays I love to decorate early so we have lots of time to enjoy it all.  Last year at this time I was hosting Christmas Week here on the blog.  I posted some of my favorite Christmas traditions, some Elf on the Shelf Ideas, Christmas decor, and a little Gift Guide.  Since my mind is focused on my new niece (arriving tomorrow morning!!!!) and Thanksgiving festivities, I'm going to hold off on Christmas Week and wait until Monday, 11/30, to start.  Here's how we'll kick off the holiday season...


If y'all are planning on doing some shopping this week, I'll be back with a few gift guides on Wednesday.  I think this is the first year I have lots of gifts already purchased.  The women in my families are all taken care of and Mr. Spouse will tackle all the men.  We haven't started shopping for the boys yet, but that won't take long.  We like to go by this gift rule:  something you want...something you need...something to play with...something to read.  Plus a few stocking stuffers and a traditional Christmas Eve gift from mom and dad.  Our families always do so much for the kids so Santa only delivers a few things.  Nothing crazy!  

In honor of my sister who is currently in her last few hours of pregnancy, I wanted to share with you the shower I helped host for her at the beginning of the month.  The theme was "Sprinkled with Love" because we were really just giving her a "sprinkle" and not a full blown invite everyone kind of baby shower.  She already has one little man so she didn't need anything huge, but since she's having a girl this go-round we did want to sprinkle her with a few girly things she doesn't have already :)


As you can see, the decor was super simple.  Her sprinkle was a week after Halloween and I didn't have time to decorate for Christmas, so I took down all the Halloween, kept all the white pumpkins out, and then strung together the pennants for baby Olivia's banner and hung it from the mantle. 
You can't really tell from the picture, but in the middle of the mantle is a set of 4 candle holders (from the Dollar Tree) filled with sprinkles and a tea light.  Couldn't have been easier!!!

Hobby Lobby carries the wooden pennants by letter.  I think they come in black and white, too.  They're $2 per pennant, but only a dollar if you wait 'til they're marked half off.  #winning

This is the table you see when you walk in the front door and we kept that as simple as possible.  I did a little chalk art and then set out a couple more sprinkle filled candle holders with tea lights.



Speaking of "sprinkle", here's what we did for the statement decor.  I made those very sad looking tissue paper clouds and the raindrops (using a pack of assorted pink cardstock).  I hung the clouds using fishing wire and did the same for the raindrops, too.  I wish I would've gotten a picture of the table completely decked out with food and whatnot, but this is as good as it gets.


I tried to mimic the same feel in the kitchen next to the drink station using balloons (for clouds) and those same raindrops.  I just taped the balloons and strands of raindrops to the curtain rod.  I'm not ashamed to tell you that there's still a rogue strand hanging from the curtain rod 3 weeks later.  #lazy




You might be able to see a chalkboard display in the picture above.  Here's how that looked up close


I just strung a few pieces of jute around the chalkboard and then attached mini clothespins to it.  I found those little kraft envelopes at Hobby Lobby and then cut the white pieces of cardstock to fit.  I set out a little pitcher of pens and labeled all of the envelopes with baby Olivia's name.  The idea behind this display was to have each of the guests write a little love note to Olivia...maybe a favorite scripture, a piece of advice, or whatever they wanted.  Then they put their notes in the kraft envelopes and hung them on the chalkboard using the clothespins.  After everyone had a chance to write a note to Olivia, my sister chose one note off the board, read it aloud, and then that guest got to take home a door prize (a chalkboard with the verse, "every good and perfect gift is from above" and a $5 Starbuck's gift card).  I wanted all the envelopes to have matching handwriting so that it would be fair :)

Speaking of gifts, here's what we gave to our guests....

These darling little test tubes full of "sprinkles" :)  We tried to find bath confetti, but dear Lord...it was an exercise in futility.  I couldn't find any anywhere.  Even Amazon failed me.  Instead we used the chiclets gum for the sprinkles and it was a perfect fit.  And let's be real...there probably wouldn't have been many party guests who would actually put the bath confetti to good use, so I think the gum was a great substitute!

Last but not least, we decorated my little buffet with a "Ready to POP!" bar.   I found the cutest little confetti sprinkled goody bags at Hobby Lobby and set those out so that our guests could fill their bags with whatever they wanted....popcorn with sprinkles, blow pops, ring pops, and bubble gum. 
This was a hit with the kids (are you surprised?! Ha!)


The shower/sprinkle was at 1 in the afternoon, so we served a light lunch and drinks.  Here's how the menu panned out...

DRINKS
Iced Tea


LUNCH

Aunt Gina's chicken salad served with crackers and croissants




Fruit Salad
Chips and Spinach Dip

DESSERT
Cupcakes with Sprinkles
Donuts with Sprinkles
Sprinkle Cookies


Hard to believe that I'll be holding that sweet little sack of sugar by this time tomorrow!!!!  My heart is full!!!

14 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness- I want you to co-host every party I throw! Everything is adorable! Do you have any suggested website tutorials for how I can practice different styles of handwriting? I'm so jealous and want to learn how to be better!

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    1. Thanks!!! I honestly don't know of any website tutorials for lettering although I'm sure there are tons. I just don't know what they are!!!! GAH!!! I know that a friend of mine recently bought a "how to handletter" book from an artist she found through IG, but I don't know which one it is. I'll try and find out for you!!

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  2. How exciting! Congrats on being an Auntie to a new bundle! The shower was amazing looking! I came home and decorated for Christmas too! #twinning Mine is NOT blog worthy but I can't wait to see your Christmas week posts! :)

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    1. I love that we're #twinning. Let's do some more of that in NOLA this week :)

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  3. Happy Thanksgiving week! Could you please tell me where you got the On Christ the Sold Rock I Stand sign in your gallery wall? Thanks so much!!

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    1. Happy Thanksgiving, Emily!!! I got the sign at Hobby Lobby!!! Hope that helps :)

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  4. Oh my! Pink perfection! Love it!

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    1. I don't know what to do with all this pink, LOL!!

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  5. Everything looks AMAZING!! I love the balloons and raindrops. Too cute!

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    1. Thanks, Jodi!!! And your little man's 1st birthday party was absolutely PRECIOUS!!!! SO cute!

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  6. I love all your decorating ideas!!! I agree please post tutorials about handwriting!!!!! I would love to experiment with it different styles.

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    1. Thanks, Adriana :) So sweet! I'm not 100% sure about tutorials, but I'm SURE there are some out there. I know that a friend of mine recently bought a "how to handletter" book from an artist she found through IG, but I don't know which one it is. I'll try and find out for you!!

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  7. Hi Cara,
    Which font did you use for the "Christmas Week" and the dates? Thank you so much.

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    1. Hey Kate! The font is "Ink Blossoms" ! Hope this helps :)

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