What a HOOT!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of planning a baby shower for a sweet young lady. The theme was Owls to help celebrate and welcome a little baby boy. I loved the colors that the mom and grandma to be chose. They were very bright and fun! So I thought I'd share some of my favorite pictures from that day that were taken by Alex Starroff.

My favorite thing decoration wise was probably the tissue paper garland above the dessert table. It added so much to the display.





I also loved getting to make these custom favors. Complete with handsanitizers, tic tacs and candles all with the owl theme on all.

The little touches brought a lot to this event like the center pieces and personalized banner.



The food consisted of finger foods that were bright colors and delicious. There were also yummy cup cakes made by the grandma to be.

 These fruit Kabobs are my new favorite summer appetizer. They add a great pop of color to any buffet table. The dip in the center is made from creme cheese and marsh mellow fluff...to die for!

These spinach, tomato basil and flour tortilla rollers are also a good use of color and healthy too!



The clients let me have complete creative control after they gave me there basic color and theme and let me run with it-which was awesome! It is really easy to come up with ideas when there are little to no restriction. I also get to try out new things that I might not have had the chance to do if the client was super picky. And they ended up loving everything. I was so happy to be apart of this special day for the family and can't wait to meet the little guy when he gets here!




                                                                                                                                                   

The Here and Now

So previously I mentioned I'd be sharing with you things I have been doing over the last few  months...and I'll get there I promise... But for now, I am excited to share what I am doing right now!

I am busy working on a few upcoming events, like a close friend's house warming party, and I am so excited for it. As I am for all events, but I have never been apart of a house warming party before, so I'm a little extra excited for all of the new things we are going to try out.

Recently I have developed a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. I LOVE all of the great event ideas. It's great when I have an idea but need to figure out the best way to do it... BOOM 1,000's of examples in front of me. But then comes the hate part...I just feel totally unoriginal. If you've seen it on Pinterest it isn't going to be nearly as cool when you see it again at a friends event...right? Well I've been battling with this for a little while now but I am also trying to embrace it as well and use it as a resource. Thanks to the Internet in general, I guess, everything has already been done. I still try to put my own spin on things though.

So for this house warming party I am really loving the Ombre inspired details through the use of paint chips. After all what is one of the first things you end up doing to a new space? Painting. I think this is going to be a hit and really put a cool twist on the event.

Like this Silverware set. Simple. Cute. Practical. Check out Newly Domesticated for more great paint chip crafts. With all of these fun ideas I don't know how every home improvement store isn't completely out of paint chip samples. Better get them while we can I guess!

We are also really loving the tissue paper flowers, again simple, cute and very affordable but add a lot of flare to an event. If you want a full tutorial on how to make these charming little things check out Sew Sweet Stitches  or look for one of the many YouTube videos.

That is pretty much where we are at currently in the decorative planning stages. I can't wait to see how all of these details come together for :)

I'm Baaaackkkkk!

     Okay, so I didn't fall off the face of the earth I'm still alive! I've been busy, and boy do I hate that excuse. I mean really, isn't everyone busy these days? But regardless, what matters is I am back in the Blog world and ready to start posting again, hopefully fairly regularly.
     I am excited to share all the wonderful things that have been going on in the last few month with myself and my Eclectic Events business. I have been having a blast growing and promoting my business, it has been a lot of work but very rewarding!
     It amazes me how much a person can change and grow in such little time. But by re-reading previous blog post I had to laugh at just how silly some of the posts were. And honestly how awful most of the pictures were....my sister is a photographer and clearly she got all of the talent in that department. But hey- I wouldn't be where I am with out those first few months of event planning. So the old silly posts can stay up...for now anyways!
     If you'd like to see what I've been up to lately and don't want to wait for the post check out  my Facebook page :)

Hostess With the Mostess

My new favorite hobby has recently become scouring the Internet late at night (while listing to my favorite Pandora stations) for any type of picture and idea for events. So the other night I came across the greatest site yet! And its called Hostess with the Mostess -- cute right! It's totally up my alley, exactly what I was looking for. Anyways you can become a member and view other people images that they post and it had just given me a flood of new ideas and inspiration. I absolutely love it! So if you are curious as well here is there link..http://www.hostessblog.com/ You don't have to be a member to view all of the awesome photos but it seems to be a great networking and inspirational tool.

Now back to scouring.....

-A

This weeks adventure: Diaper Cakes

Sorry for my short leave of absence but I have been one busy lady! Now to catch you up with what has been occupying some of my time....

I saw these adorable diaper cakes when I was searching the Internet for the actual cake idea for my upcoming Safari Shower and I knew I was going to need to make a few! I found a very helpful video on YouTube that kind of broke it down for me with some step by step guidance but it was fairly simple and didn't take more than an hour.

First order of business.....getting the supplies. The video instruct to get 56 diapers, now shame on me because I bought huge box from Costco and didn't really keep track of how many I used but I'd say 56 is about right. Next you need 6 large rubber bands. 2 8oz baby bottles. Then decorative things like ribbon, a topper and whatever else you might want to add.

So first you start by simply rolling the diaper from the opening end in. That seems to work best, and the tighter the better because they come a little loose as you go on.

Once you have one rolled you will tuck it between the baby bottle and the rubber band. Keep repeating this until yo have a nice snug layer. I'd say maybe 6-8 diaper depending the size. I used newborn ones because I wanted the mom to be able to use them soon.

Once you have finished your first ring you repeat the rolling and tucking into the rubber band until you have 3 rings on the bottom tier.

Once you have three on the bottom you proceed to the next tier. This level will have 2 rings. Then the top will have only one. Like so....

Now comes the fun part with the ribbon and decorations!

These are the different ribbons I selected

I attached the ribbon with safety pins but you could always tie a cute bow or use hot glue depending if you will be using the diapers or not.

Then you get to add your cute topper! I chose a Giraffe of course...

And you thought Ty beanie baby's had no use anymore these days, pssssh.

And Wa-lah! Diaper cake! So excited to have this to add to our collection of decorations :)

-A

Favorite Favors!

I have never been a huge online shopper, I'd rather go to several different stores looking for that one thing for the best price. But with this baby shower I've been working on I have done quite a bit of online shopping and I'm constantly surprised by how easy it is! I guess that's why so many people do it, duh. So since I've placed a few orders over the last few weeks I just feel like a little kid waiting for the mail man to come each day or run to the door when I get home from work to see if there is a package waiting for me. This week was basically like Christmas because I got several packages and I was so excited.

The first item to come in the mail was from a place called Nashville Wraps. Here I bough baby blue and leopard pint tissue paper. I am going to use the light blue paper for wrapping the party favors in and stuffing the bags, also I will be making tissue paper flowers with the light blue and leopard print paper. From this vendor I also got the party favor bags. Now these aren't your typical 4x4 mesh baggies, oh no these are so awesome. They have leopard print on two sides and zebra print on the others, they are cellophane and 8.5 inches tall by 5 inches wide and 3.25 inches deep. I am so pleased with the items I got from this site.

These are the variations of sizes of tissue paper flowers I will be using to decorate with.

The next item I received is I think my favorite party favor of them all. These I found on a site called Bunny Prints.

I got 60 of these 2inch candles and I think they are just awesome with the custom text and blue leopard print image, so perfect for our event!

For some reason I thought they would come like seen in the above photo but no such luck.

They came with no stickers on them but 2 sheets of 30 stickers to apply my self. Yay another project of 60! But really it was quick and painless, no cutting gluing or measuring so I was quite alright with this project, and the end result is just awesome!

I have a  few more things coming to go in the party favor bags but so far things are looking great!

-A

Everything Comes in Groups of...60?

     My cousin has found out the sex of the baby and it is...drum roll please...a BOY! Boy oh Boy, we are so excited! So now I can get going on all of the other party decore and plans incorperating the blue theme. And now that I am offically done with my buissness AA I sure do seem to have alot more time on my hands!         

     One of the ideas I came up with for party favors is mini water bottles. I just think they are cute and kind of different. So I started out with your basicl small 8oz water bottle. I purchsed 5, 12 count cases for $2.97. After I peeled off the original lable I measured and cut the appopriate animal print paper, which I got on sale for $.25 a sheet (12 sheets total). Then taped it on like so:

Next I added a bow to each of them. Using left over ribbon from the invitations that cost 3.99 a roll.

Then using mounting tape a placed a small square on each bottle.

And finally added the personalized thank you!

I really love how these simple favors turned out but after making 60 of them I can hardly stand looking at them for a little while. That's right...60 I'm pretty sure every female she knows is invited but hey the more the merrier! But that alos means 60. Of everything!

So including the mounting tape and the other nessisary supplies this whole project only cost me about $27 which is really only 45 cents a bottle. Now thats what I call a good deal! There are several more things I am working on. I tell ya the list keeps on growing. We've started joking how this is going to be the social event of the season. But really.

I can't wait to share the rest of the fun stuff I have in the works. Now off to tie 60 blue ribbons to the invitations!

-A