{Gender Neutral} Fall Baby Shower

Last Fall (yes I know I waited too long) Ashley & I hosted a baby shower for my cousin's wife Jen! My cousin David found out what they were having, but Jen didn't want to know. I think that would be really hard for both of them, but neither caved.

mock up of  cream baby shower invitations I created (not sure why it looks green)

Burlap squares were glued on the back of the invites, giving them a little something.
They turned out perfect!! Sorry that this is the only photo of these, I deleted the actual photo of the invite.

I designed the invites myself, printed them at Vistaprint, and then glued burlap squares to the back. I did have to order bigger envelopes for them to fit into, so that was the only downfall. The invites stuck to the burlap just fine.They turned out just as we had imagined! We received so many compliments on them, and best of all Jen loved them!

While planning this baby shower, we decided we didn't really want to do the traditional pastel gender neutral store bought themed decorations. We wanted to tie into fall colors, keep it rustic, and make it Jen's "style". We had so much fun planning her shower with the help of Pinterest, it couldn't of gone better! We were bound & determined to keep this party to a minimal cost (compared to other showers we've done). We made things, we borrowed stuff, and used what we already had at home. I provided/made most of the decor, and Ashley made all of the food. Here is a run though of photo's from the shower, I hope you enjoy! Sorry, these are pics from my phone; I didn't have my nice cannon yet.

Table set up: Wood slice with burlap wrap mason jar adorned with orange rafia
tree limbs with "advice for the mom to be" cut out onesies
pint mason jars with babys breath
mini pumpkins as guest favors adorned with a "thank you" tag

gift table: vintage suitcases & vintage train case for the Cards
Vase with tree limbs, and pumpkins, burlap & lace table runner

drinks & meat table w/ Baby burlap banner

drinks: Tea, Water, and Apple Cider Punch
This Apple Cider Punch was delish, perfect for a fall shower or fall party!

Plates, napkins, forks (in mason jars of course), cups, fruit & veggie tray, & pickle rollups

Individual potato chip servings in white paper bags, so fun!

Cupcakes: Pumpkin cupcakes adorned with a candy pumpkin, and Vanilla Cupcakes
I used a template to cut out the cupcake liners (sorry, I can't remember exactly what site, but google it and you'll find several)

Guest Thank You favors: mini pumpkins!

the mother to be and all her gifts!

the mother to be

us with Jen

I cut out all of these by hand...omg it took forever!! We used these for advice for Jen

baby shower chalkboard!

Vintage suitcases topped with a vintage train case for the cards

Last January 28th, Jen & David had a very healthy baby BOY!!! His name is Walker, and he is the cutest, chubbiest little thing I've ever seen. He weighed in close to a whopping 10lbs, just like his daddy when he was born.

Linking up too...
4 You with Love
City Farmhouse
Posed Perfection
The Shady Porch

Polka Dots on Parade
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sugar Bee Crafts
BruCrew Life
Craftionary

© [Kayla] and [Small Town Lift], [2010-2014]. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to [Kayla] and [Small Town Life] with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Lauren's Bachelorette Weekend

Well Lauren & Josh have now been married for almost a month (Sept 24th will be a month to be exact), and I'm just now getting around to showing off her Bachelorette Weekend!! Let me just start with I believe our check liver lights came on on our way home Sunday! LOL! We had a BLAST!!

Invitation front (with obvious personal information missing)

Invitation back (with obvious personal information missing)

Friday night we got all dressed up after we all arrived at the hotel, and headed out to the Rascal Flatts/The Band Perry/Kassadee Pope concert. We took the hotel shuttle there, and headed in for some fun!

Bachelorette Party Weekend night #1:
Rascal Flatts, The Band Perry, & Kassadee Pope
Top: The Bride, Most of our group (too many names!)
Center: this was our whole gang that went to the concert Friday night! Cowgirl boots & all!
Bottom: Rascal Flatts, & me & The Bride

The concert was an absolute blast!! We missed Kassadee Pope play, but The Band Perry was amazing, and Rascal Flatts were great! The Band Perry seriously ROCKED IT!! After the concert we walked back to the hotel, ate a little pizza, and passed out.

Saturday, we all ate breakfast together, and then we separated into groups and went shopping. My friend Jess & I went to the mall, and shopped until we dropped! Came back to the hotel, and we all started pregaming by the pool, having fun! It was time to get ready for the actual Bachelorette Party, which was held up in Lauren's suite. We ate pizza, bread sticks, and wings, drank beers, had her open up gifts, gave the guests their party favors and then we headed out to the hotel shuttle so we could hit the town! We had group shirts made for all that came "Help Us Tank Her Before She Drops The Anchor", and Lauren's said "Tank Me I'm The Bride"! They were so fun!

Top: getting some sun & having some cold ones!
Bottom: The Bride & banner I made, Bachelorette Party Motto
Side: all 3 are The Bride opening gifts

The first bar we went to, we had a free bottle of wine waiting for us, it was at Oeno Wine Bar. It was a neat place, had live music outside, but it wasn't the place for us to hang out the rest of the night. So we walked down to River City brewery, had a couple of micro brews, and waited in line to get up stairs to Loft 150 where there was a live band playing. It was fun for awhile, but it was time to move on. Then we found Pump House, and that's where we stayed for the remaining of the night! We had so much fun dancing, and laughing...just what we needed!!

Top: Brea & Megan, Kaylee & Kylee, Jessica & I
Center: our group of girls at Oeno Wine Bar
Bottom: Lindsey Lauren & Tera, Us girls on the shuttle to downtown

So many memories were made, it was such a fun weekend to celebrate our good friend Lauren!!!

Click here to check out the Bachelorette Party Banner I made.
Click here to see the Dollar Store Bachelorette Party Favors we put together.

Bachelorette Party Banner {Cheers Bitches}

I created another fun party banner using my Cricut, and I have to say this is probably one of the funnest ones I've created! I got the idea from etsy, but I didn't feel like paying so much for something so simple. I knew I could create it for a fraction of the cost!

I bought the sparkly teal scrapbook paper at hobby lobby, then I typed out the letters on CDS, and then cut the letters out with my cricut. I had some bright pink curling ribbon that I taped the letters to. It was a very quick, easy, and cheap project!! And the Bride kept the letters and has them hanging in their garage!


Click here to see the Dollar Store Bachelorette Party Favors we made.
Click here to see the Bachelorette Party photo's.

Linking up too...

Today's Creative Blog

The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple
Lovely Crafty Home 
Polka Dots on Parade
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sugar Bee Crafts
BruCrew Life
Semi Homemade Mom
Craftionary
Lolly Jane
JoJo & Eloise

{Dollar Store} Bachelorette Party Favors

What's a fun Bachelorette Party without some really fun favors?! We just had to come up with something to thank everyone for traveling to Wichita to help celebrate Lauren's Bachelorette Party!

We purchased $1 beer mugs at the Dollar Tree, along with packs of gum, Tylenol packs, and lip gloss. The MOH works at the liquor store, so she also was able to get a bunch of the travel liquors for pretty cheap. I printed up a little saying, cut out a tag shape with my cricut, and then traced the sayings and cut them out. I made a hole punch, and then adorned them with little blingy ring embellishments I found in the scrapbooking aisle.

Raising Hell Before The Wedding Bells!

Each favor cost about $5.25 total, including the little tag that I made and tied on to the cups. Everyone loved them, and it was a little something they could use throughout the night! PERFECT!

Here was our inspiration we found on Pinterest! What do you think?!

Source: Pinterest

Click here to see the Bachelorette Party banner I created.
Click here to see the actual Bachelorette Party photo's.

Linking up too...

Today's Creative Blog

The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple
Lovely Crafty Home 
Polka Dots on Parade
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sugar Bee Crafts
BruCrew Life
Semi Homemade Mom
Craftionary
Lolly Jane
JoJo & Eloise

Lauren's Bridal Shower {tropical flair}

Lauren's Bridal Shower was held last month at our friends pool, so it was a no brainer the theme would be "Tropical". You can read here about our inspiration.

The shower went smoothly, but the weather was terrible. It was so windy and hot, that we weren't really able to do much decorating. The backyard is already like a oasis, so it didn't need much more sprucing up, even though we were planning on it.

The Bride (middle) with her bridesmaids (minus 1).

Food & Drinks: We had Grilled Ham & Pineapple Kabobs, Finger Sandwiches, Meat Roll-ups, Chips, Fruit Kebabs & dip, Veggie Tray, Punch, Mimosa's, and Sangria's. We also had water for those that didn't/couldn't drink alcohol. The maid of honor made yummy cupcakes, that sadly I didn't get a photo of. They were adorable!

The food. However, I didn't get a photo before we started...oops!

Gifts: Lauren received so many nice gifts, she made out like a bandit! Us bridesmaids got her Mr. & Mrs. beach towels, and stuff from her registry. The towels are perfect for them, because they practically live at the lake and pool in the summer time. They will also be great for them to take on their honeymoon! I purchased the towels at Wal-Mart for $13 each, and then had them embroidered for an additional $7 each. Pretty inexpensive for a personalized gift.

her guests watching as she opens gifts

gifts from her bridesmaids! check out those cute personalized beach towels!

Decorations: As I stated above we weren't really able to decorate that much. We put fun colored table cloths on the tables, I made a "She said Yes" bridal shower banner, and I made little printable's for the drink dispensers. We also had a little sunscreen station set up just in case someone felt the need to use it. I created a little chalkboard out of tile from Home Depot for the menu, and also used our large chalkboard to direct the guests out to the pool. Everything was very simple!

She Said Yes bridal shower banner

It's always 5 o'clock somewhere, right?!

Favors: We put together little goodie bags for the guests filled with a lei, paper fan, and a hair clip flower. We ordered the fans & clips from Oriental Trading, and picked up the lei's from a local party shop. It was something fun to get everyone in the tropical mood!

Now we are preparing for the bachelorette weekend that is taking place Aug 9th-11th! I'm so excited, I can't wait!! Here is a peek at the invitations that I designed for it:

Front

Back

Linking up too...

Today's Creative Blog
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple
Lovely Crafty Home 
Polka Dots on Parade
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sugar Bee Crafts
BruCrew Life
Semi Homemade Mom
Craftionary
Lolly Jane
JoJo & Eloise

{She said Yes} Bridal Shower Banner

I created another banner...yep, I might have a slight obsession with making banners! :) This one was for my friend Lauren's Bridal Shower that we had last month. We did a tropical flair (inspiration post here, and actual shower post here), so I used my cricut to cut out the flower shapes in 2 different sizes. And on the patterned paper I also cut the letters out in the middle of it so the plain paper would show through. Can anyone catch my boo-boo? Ok, well don't pay too much attention to the direction the stripes are going...oops! I just noticed that myself. I then glued them together, and taped them to some fishing line. You can always use fun ribbon, but I forgot to pick some up, so I just used what I had on hand. Again, these are so inexpensive to make, and so easy to put together!

UGH .... the darn wind that day was terrible.

As you can guess, I'm creating one for the Bachelorette Party that is coming up in a couple of weeks!! I told you I might be obsessed!! :)

Here are a couple other banners I've done in the past:

Scalloped Birthday Banner for Maycee

Miss to Mrs bridal shower banner I created for Aimee. Click here to see the rest of her shower!

Actual post for the Miss to Mrs banner I created for Aimee!

Linking up too...

Today's Creative Blog
The Shabby Chic Cottage
Somewhat Simple
Lovely Crafty Home 
Polka Dots on Parade
Ginger Snap Crafts
Sugar Bee Crafts
BruCrew Life
Semi Homemade Mom
Craftionary
Lolly Jane
JoJo & Eloise