Readers of the blog will recall my good friend and party accomplice, Selina. She is the party planner extraordinaire who has thrown a party for pretty much everyone and every occasion. Happily, Selina is expecting just added now has (sorry, this has been a draft since December) an adorable addition to her little family! Something that fantastic has to be celebrated in a manner befitting a party pro.
Her twin sister, Anissa, our intrepid party coordinator and I set out planning months in advance. My first mood boards reflected the ethnic looks that Selina loves, but we landed at more of a nouveau country mix of pinks, hearts and doilies. And elephants, because who doesn’t love elephants? Pretty, traditional with a twist.
For me, the twist came in the form of ombre vinyl heart walls. If I had a dollar for every time I tried to explain that concept to blankly confused faces, I’d have a lot of dollars. A lot. Now I have a kinda blurry photo, and that really helps. It was overwhelmingly lovely in person, just take my word for it.
I started cutting the hearts on the Silhouette, but there was far too much waste of precious vinyl resources (2 Silhouette pinks and a pink Contact paper). It wasn’t long before I was hand tracing and cutting the hearts to double what I could get out of the rolls. It was definitely worth the hand cutting and application straight off my red-eye flight.
Just to spread the love around, I set my Mom to work creating coffee filter flowers. I dyed a Costco-sized sleeve of them and popped them in the mail to make her task a little easier. She worked for at least a month folding, stapling and fluffing until she had two trash bags full of lovely pink blooms.
They were fashioned into a heart-shaped welcome wreath, giant heart over the dessert table and a lighted garland over the fireplace.
We got busy spray-chalking hearts along the path to the door the day-of, and I also decided we needed a heart welcome mat for the front door. Again, Mom to the rescue. It hardly seemed right to me to pack it in my suitcase, so I sent my Mom to IKEA for a mat that she set to work prettying up. Honestly, the front door became the best spot for photo ops!
The morning of, my sister and I ended up making a swag of ombre pink streamers to cover the entry way. All the staple-gunning was enough to terrify the kids and the dogs, but I think the final awesome effect made it worth all the tears, whether the photos do it justice or not.
What I thought was a sure sign of success, Selina wanted to take home the mat, wreath and giant heart to welcome her sweet baby home for real. Since the shower, the welcome wreath and mat have greeted visitors to the nursery. And, this past weekend, all of the decor was pulled out and used again for her baby dedication. A neighbor then spotted the coffee filter flowers and has claimed them for a future party of her own!
virtuous wrongdoing 
I was hoping to reply when I wasn’t having to type thru tears, but it doesn’t seem possible. :”) I can’t help but think I had the most awesome baby shower ever, along with the most awesome friends. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I knew you would work your magic – because that is one thing we all love you for – but I never would have expected how much work you would put in it all the way from Seattle. I am honored to be the recipient of your creativity, blood, sweat and tears and so, so proud that you are my friend and sister from a different mister. 😉 Love you. So. Much.
Adorable shower. Hey, any chance you could tell me the designer of the red/blue tennis fabric that you posted on your blog a while back? I would be so grateful. Thanks!