Monday, November 23, 2009

Dana's Baby Party

Have I ever told you that my dream is to be a freelance photographer for magazines? OK, I said it. That's my dream.

I love to photograph parties, events, places and details. I would love to photograph for Real Simple, Country Living or Cottage Living...if it was still published!! Still mourning the loss of my favorite magazine...

So yesterday I helped host my fabulous neighbor Dana's baby shower with Dana's good friends Diane and Heidi. Dana is having her first baby, a girl, and is due in February. I can't believe I won't be here to meet her, and I won't be here for her to Baby Gus!!!

We hosted it at the Rye Square House Museum, which is one of the oldest houses in Rye, built in 1730 I think. It was a great location, and I had sooooo much fun getting all the decor together.

Check it...

The front door with baby things put together by Diane.


Diane and Heidi also did this this clothespin line filled with baby clothes for Dana. Isn't it adorable?? It looked so great and they had to get Dana's baby a Brooklyn onesie since that's where Dana lived before Rye.


I had a lot of fun doing this setup. I got baby pictures and young girl pictures of Dana and displayed them on my vintage potato chip holder that I snagged for $6 at the Paris Street Market in Denver. This is a staple in my house and holds pictures, Christmas Cards, announcements, vintage postcards....anything that I want to display.

I also framed Dana's ultrasound picture and used my scrabble letters so everyone would know what they are looking at. Idea courtesy of my sister as she always has scrabble letters in her house.


On to the cakes. Oh my. It doesn't hurt that our neighbor across the street (the one whose chocolate shop we went to in Boston a couple weeks ago) used to be a pastry chef. What? You're offering to do a cake for the shower?? Um, let's think about that one. YES!!!!!

Wow, it was good, and Wade is enjoying some of the leftovers.


OK, now this was too cute. Diane and Heidi put together this diaper cake. Every diaper was individually rolled and taped down and set up as a tiered cake. Is this not the coolest thing ever? So it was double duty...decoration and gift. Dana is set for the first week (OK, maybe just the first few days) of diaper changing!


This next project belonged to me and Tyson. We went on a nature walk at the Nature Center and collected sticks, then spray painted them white. I ordered these tissue paper flowers from Oriental Trading Company and displayed them in white vases as the food table centerpieces. Then we pinned extra baby socks and stuff to them.

So each centerpiece cost like $3. Love it!


I love all my enamelware, some of which I picked up recently at flea markets here, and I used them for forks and napkins. White white white was the theme.


There were two fireplaces in the room, so I bought scrapbook paper and sewed a garland of flags to go across the mantels and used my telephone pole glass things that I picked up at Hell's Kitchen Flea Market in NYC as weights. I also used my spinning gourds from that I won from Janna's blog to decorate the mantel.

By the way, the flag idea also came from my sister. She made some for Tyson's shower and we hung them in his room. So Dana took these home and can use them to decorate in her baby room. And again...like $3 per garland.




Dana's mom came up from Savannah, which was so special. She reminds me on my own Mom and I just got attached to her immediately. She helped us shop for food at Costco on Saturday and was such a trooper.

Diane and I had asked everyone coming to write a wish or blessing for Dana that they could read (if they wanted) at the shower and bless Dana and her baby girl.

Lots of tears were shed, and it was one HUGE love fest.









It was such a great and special afternoon, and I'm so glad I had the chance to be a part of it. Love you Dana!!

2 comments:

Marla Taviano said...

Beautiful!! Love it!!

erin said...

Dana is SOOOO cute with her little bump!! Tell her I said so. :)

Also, I am flipping out excited you will be home to help co-host my shower! This looks FABULOUS and I am so grateful you are my friend. Good friend. Great friend. Crafty friend. Lovely friend. Close friend. Mamababy Pregger friend.