baby shower – AT-AT Everywhere

Hot Air Balloon Baby Shower

I am prefacing this post with an admittance that this is over 3.5 years late. As Kev and I are on the brink of welcoming our own little one into the world, it seems that we’ve got all things baby on the brain these days. I realized I never shared this project when the baby being welcomed at this shower started preschool a couple of weeks ago!

As I perused Bernie’s baby registry (yes, in 2014), I noticed a really cute hot air balloon crib sheet set and immediately scoured the internet for some ideas to theme a work shower around. Bernie and Ben wanted the gender of the baby to be a surprise, so I wanted to keep the the decor gender neutral. I found an AMAZING set of printables and a Hot Air Balloon Diaper Cake tutorial (to the right in the photo below) on Hostess with the Mostess, with blue, yellow, and pink. Perfect!

I used the patterned paper downloads that Hostess with the Mostess provided to create a bunting and some additional signage for the room.

I also sketched out a cloud shape, cut it out, and used it as a stencil. I cut that same shape into a few sheets of letter-sized paper, cut them all out, and sewed them down the middle. Boom – a quick cloud centerpiece! I used some streamers in coordinating colors with the theme to make a starburst, tying the colors back into the clouds.

To provide the treats, I enlisted the well-loved (and now sorely missed!) Cookie Casa to create mini cupcakes and cake with sprinkles that matched our color scheme, and used the small decorative flag downloads from Hostess with the Mostess as as miniature cake toppers.

For the cake, I cut a few circles out of the decorative paper and sewed them down the middle to create a dimensional paper hot air balloon, cut out a couple paper clouds, and used one of the larger decorative flags to create cake toppers.

I also found another centerpiece tutorial on Weddings Illustrated for a centerpiece using a styrofoam ball and paper, and picked up some coordinating scrapbook paper from the craft store to create it.

Here are some more snaps from the crafts and the party!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes with Coconut Whipped Cream

Where does the time go?

As promised in my last post, here are the Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes I made for Crystal and Dave‘s surprise luau-themed Sho-Yu baby shower.

Being the meticulous direction-reader that I am, I purchased double the ingredients knowing I’d need enough for the shower as well as Leslie’s birthday.

Can You Spot the Lorax Cupcake? — Can You Spot the Lorax Mustache Cupcake?

However, I failed to notice that the recipe called for muffin tins, which are much larger than cupcake tins. So in actuality, I ended up having enough batter to bake 5 dozen upside down cupcakes. #fail

I found the cupcake recipe by doing a google search that led me to Family Fun’s recipe, and found a really simple recipe for dairy-free coconut whipped cream on The Kitchn.

Coconut Milk, Cinnamon, Vanilla, and Powdered Sugar

The cupcakes had a great crumbly top thanks to the brown sugar and butter, and the cake was deliciously moist. The coconut whipped cream was mild enough to compliment the flavors in the cupcake – not too coconut-y nor to sweet.

Here’s the final product!

Pineapple Upside-Down Cupcakes with Coconut Whipped Cream

Congratulations to Crystal and Dave! Can’t wait to meet baby Preston and welcome him into the Sho-Yu family! Puahahaha…xoxo

Brown Sugar and Butter – Reverse Topping

Baby Gift Set

It never fails to surprise me when my peers get hitched and then have kids – I guess I’m just getting to that age where everyone is really settling down. I think I’ve gotten over the once-frightening idea of marriage, but children are a whole new ball park. I’m sure the fear of bearing a child stems in part from seeing fellow females go through the various stages of pregnancy – the complaints about morning sickness, the high-running emotions, the uteral kicks, and (dare I say, in some cases) the cankles. Then, there’s the whole birthing process which I won’t delve into. We haven’t even gotten to “poo’splosions” (as one coworker so fondly calls it) and the overarching daunting task of raising a child. And once you’ve made it that far, you are still doomed to be that person at Target whose child is screaming at the top of their lungs over not getting that one toy that they won’t even remember the next day at LEAST once in your parenting career. However, in the end, I’m sure it’s worth it when your kid is starring in videos like this.

Back to the subject of this post. Playing on the theme of “B” for “Baby”, I made a Bib, Blankie, and set of Booties and threw it all in a drawstring Bag. I got the instructions and pattern for all parts of the project from One Yard Wonders. I’ll keep this post short, so here you go!