Pigs, Pigs, and Baby Showers

There are little pigs and big pigs,
pigs with long snouts and pigs with short snouts,
pigs with ears that stand up and pigs with ears that flop down.
But all pigs are beautiful.

-All Pigs are Beautiful book by Dick King-Smith

My SIL LOVES pigs, so I have thrown some ideas together for her upcoming baby shower.  I am thinking gingham or polka dot silhouettes of blue pigs. Lots of various (navys and baby blue) fabrics, vintage and country fair feel.  As I am sure you can guess, the guest of honor-to-be is a boy!

Love the fabric garland, picnic baskets, and love this animal cracker display!

She adores children's books, so I would like to incorporate this hanging book idea near a bookshelf where guests can place their book gifts.

I am redoing a bookshelf for this purpose. It's primed and ready for paint. Here is the before. I will post the after as soon as I finish it. The amazing Amanda from Our Humbled A{Bowe}d  has shared some tips with me to help me get started. She is an expert with colors and demo! Wait till you see the print Amanda sells in her Etsy shop that matches the color theme perfectly!

Demo started right here with these plastic dividers!

Stay tuned... and would love your opinions and ideas!

Photo Credits:

Pig cookies: sweetopia.net
P is for Pig
Candle, clotheslinem, and paper garland. & animal crackers:
Hanging books: pottery barn
Pig invite:
Invite:
Rag garland: oncewed.com
Picnic basket: delish.com
Gingham Pig: thefairground.co.uk



All Pigs Are Beautiful Baby Shower

All Pigs Are Beautiful Baby Shower

There are little pigs and big pigs,

pigs with long snouts and pigs with short snouts,

pigs with ears that stand up and pigs with ears that flop down.

But all pigs are beautiful.

-All Pigs are Beautiful book by Dick King-Smith

Dessert Table

{No Sew} Onsie Bunting

Lunch menu

Party Cracker Favors

Animal stamps hidden inside the party crackers

Mason jar candles wrapped with fabric

Paper straws and mason jar glasses

Homemade Apple Pie

Personalized place mats for the children's table
Coloring page from Twisty Noodle

Fair prize ribbon cupcake toppers 
and Two Sugar Babies cupcake toppers

 Cake Pops by Terri's Treasures

This weekend I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my future nephew! We traveled 10 hours to get there the day after New England got hit with 24 inches of snow! Luckily the roads were plowed and ready for us and we made it there safely. The shower was so much fun.

Highlights of the shower:

• We asked guests to bring a book for the parents-to-be rather than a card. We included a matching bookplate in the invitation for guests to sign and place inside their book.
• Cake pops from Terri's Treasures were a huge hit!
• Favors were pig shaped gingerbread cookies tied with twine and matching thank you tag.
• A family of metal pig silhouettes greeted guests outside as they arrived (forgot to take a picture!)
• Food included soups, salad, chicken salad, croissants, and homemade country fair bread.
• We set up a children's table with personalized place mats and poppers. Inside the popper party favors were farm animal stamps to take home.
• Mason jar drinking glasses and paper straws
• Mason jars wrapped with fabric used as candle holders
• Onesie bunting hanging in front of the gift opening area
• homemade apple pie
• twine fabric garlands

Special Thanks to the following people:

Invitations and party graphics by Social Butterfly

Cake Pops by Terri's Treasures

Cupcake toppers by Two Sugar Babies

Farm Animal Stamps from Oriental Trading

Fabric from JoAnns

Piggy Banks: Dollar Store

All baked goods: Grandma Jan

Halloween Costume Peg Ornaments

Do you love looking back at photos of your kids'  Halloween costumes over the years?

I do (and tend to get a little sappy in the process).

This year I decided it would be fun to document their costumes as pegs. 

I added a hook and Halloween Divine Twine to transform each peg into an ornament. 

The boys will get such a kick out of adding their Halloween Costume Pegs to our Christmas tree this year!

I even painted pig & skeleton costume ornaments for our next door neighbors and added their names and the year on the back.
Much more fun than candy, right?

Here is a peg I made for a sweet little girl dressing up as Lalaloopsy Rosy this Halloween!

and of course the trio of SCARE PEGS!

$15 for the set of 3 and free shipping with code: HALLOWEEN12

5 Reasons to Love Tori Spelling {Details of Our Skype Chat}

For those of you who don't know, I won a Skype chat with Tori Spelling. Her website ediTORIal hosted a scavenger hunt contest where you had to watch the season finale of her reality show and answer all the questions correctly. One random winner was picked to chat with the family...

I am still speechless that I won!

I am going to apologize for my lack of decent pictures in advance. Thankfully the hubs snapped a few as Tori and I chatted to show you that it actually happened! Please excuse the mess, the dining room table is my official craft space/ location to chat with celebrities.

1. OUR KIDS are the same age, so it was really fun to watch them chat about their pets, sports, and birthdays. Tori's oldest Liam is a total charmer, outgoing, sweet and silly. My boys loved him. J Bugger asked if we could have a play date at their house!

Fun fact: Their pet pig Hank is over 100 lbs and makes a great pet, who knew?

Hard to see but Tori is holding Hattie in this picture, now 5 months old 

2. Tori is a self-proclaimed CRAFTISTA. She loves fashion, party planning, and crafting with the kids. Her new craft line just debuted on HSN this week (she had just caught a connecting flight home from filming with HSN in Tampa). And she has a DIY jewelry line hitting Michaels and JoAnn's Fabric stores soon!

This is my favorite-- a zippered craft clutch, love it! Image via ediTORIal

3. Liam's SpongeBob beach party is scheduled for Saturday (forecast is calling for rain, boo!). She wanted to make pineapple Bellinis in actual pineapples, however the current price of pineapples is $5 EACH, so that idea got scratched. Doesn't get much more real than that!

Image Source

4. Tori said that as an actor you can feel really separated from people, but the reality show gave them an amazing opportunity for people to see her for who she really is. She said that she went from having fans to having friends. 

5. In the back of my mind I know Tori is a major celebrity, however talking to her feels like talking to another mom from school or finding a new friend with similar crafty interests. She is real, genuine, sweet, and compassionate. Our time went all too quickly.  I feel truly blessed and honored for this opportunity. 

Thank you Tori for taking time out of your crazy schedule and family time to chat with me. It was an experience I will never forget!  

Birth Announcements- So many choices, let's just oogle over cute babies!

Back in January, I threw my brother and sister-in-law a pig themed baby shower. Well, the baby is finally here and I am officially an Aunt. Aidan was born last Friday. Healthy and adorable!

Don't you just adore his zero tee?

My sis-in-law is looking for some birth announcement ideas and we are keeping a reasonable budget in mind since they are both in grad school right now. I know many of us aren't looking for birth announcements at the minute, but it is sooo fun to browse and drool over the cuteness factor here.

Here are a few ideas for birth announcements. The first uses the baby's actual footprints and shrinks them down to fit the announcement.  You could totally make this into a DIY project.

Baby's Footprints
by JoMerryman  Paperie

The next few are options are for printable files:

They are a little more pricey than the average photo retailer's options (around $15), but they are totally unique and customizable. Best part is, you pay for the file and make as many copies as needed. 

Baby Blocks
by Tints and Prints

Center Stage
by Sweet Prints

Erica from Sweet Prints made our 2010 Christmas card, we received an insane amount compliments on it. 

By far our best card!

Simple Blues
by Sweet Prints

Sailboat Design
by Less Ordinary Designs

It's a Zoo Out There 

by Less Ordinary Designs

Up in the Air
by Less Ordinary Designs

Little Slugger
by Less Ordinary Designs


I love everything that Sara makes over at Less Ordinary Designs. 
Her style is so clean and fresh. 


She has about a million awesome holiday cards to check out for next year (no, it's never too early!). 



Here are a few less traditional, 
but oh so cute announcements:

I would take great notes with this style by Parcel Post

Cool and modern from Sycamore Street

An unexpected use for a paper airplane from Bird and Banner

Any favorites? Seen any really cute baby ideas out there? 

Please share!