boy oh boy! Baby Shower Part 2

My calf muscles are killing me.

Not because I walked a mile in stilettos, and not because I worked extra hard in my flywheel spin class---I am in pain because my sister's baby shower turned into a jump rope-a-thon (I think it may have had something to do with the "non-prego" punch.

I'm not sure how the jumping ensued, but before you knew it, my cousin Marci and I were changing out of our dresses and into gym clothes...and hydrating with a little Sav Blanc in-between acts. Keeping. It. Classy.

Anyway, I mentioned in Baby Shower Part 1 that I took it easy on the DIY decorations this time around...I already posted about the free "it's a boy" sign I made, but wanted you guys to take a look at what else I put together on the cheap...hey, I need something to do while the icy hot soaks in :)

Even though I didn't have one, I had to come up with a plan b for my decorations.

I had pinned this on Pinterest -

-and was so excited to copy the idea using baby photos of my sister and her husband. My mom even bought me a helium tank so that the balloons floated to the ceiling. 30 helium filled balloons later, I attached the first picture to the bottom of a balloon's string- and it sunk to the floor. boo.

I had to improvise seeing as this was really all I had thought of for decorations... I came up with this chandelier mobile...

I used double sided tape to attach a picture of Dave to a picture of Alyssa- this way, no matter where you were looking from, you saw a photo and not an ugly white photo back.
You can kind of see the green balloons floating on the ceiling in the photo above ...I find it extremely annoying when projects don't go as planned...oh well.

No baby shower is complete without a few corny games for guests to play. I didn't stray too far from the norm here...there was some serious "Baby Shower Bingo" competition... and lets not talk about the "How Many Jelly Beans" game... super aggressive ladies.

Just kidding, the games went over well-and, get this, my Granny (paternal) guessed the number of Jelly beans SPOT ON. My Grandma (maternal) was one off...smart genes I have, huh? I made both the bingo board and the "how many jelly bean's do you think are in the bottle" cards in Microsoft Word. Super easy, no template, and once again- free!

The last bit of baby shower pizzazz that I added to the house is this clothes line. It doubled as my gift to my sister, and made for a conversation piece "oh my goodness, look how tiny that bathing suit is!"

Notice the T-Shirt on the far left? Lenny & Joes! Maybe one day my nephew will have enough L&J T-shirts for me to make him a quilt! (if you have no idea what I am talking about, check out this post)

My favorite thing on the clothesline is a DIY piece, but I didn't make it... I got this fantastic burp cloth from a shop on Etsy.com called "Bellabugs Baby Boutique" I apologize to all you Dukies out there (especially my cousin Cameron and Uncle Dave who gave Alyssa the bib she is holding)....

A few more baby boy touches around the house and we were set to go!

This amazing cake was made by my Auntie Di- aka the family cake boss.

And there you have it, Mission Baby Shower : Complete!

boy oh boy! Baby Shower Part 1

It’s a boy!

This weekend my mom and I threw my sister’s baby shower- Watching her open bibs and onesies made  things much more “real” …I  am going to be an aunt in 6 weeks!

It was such a fun afternoon (that turned into an evening for those of us who were drinking the “non-prego” punch).

Compared to her wedding shower, her baby shower was a lot lighter on the DIY side. I know I am singing the same tune over and over, but this new job has taken a serious toll on my blogging time.

I did, however, manage to pull a few things out of my DIY sleeve to blog about- the first being this “it’s a boy” sign. It took me less than an hour to make, cost me nothing- yep $0- and added just enough baby shower flare to my mom’s kitchen.

To make it, I simply used left over card stock, the same punch that I used for here wedding shower invites, string, and my bubble letter skills. If your BL skills are lacking, go ahead and use a stencil (like I did here). 

The sign went in her kitchen window above the sink, but the lighting made it tough to get a good picture. So, here it is post shower…you get the idea.