Tuesday, January 11, 2011

B or G...What Will It Be?? Gender Reveal Party

When I found out I was pregnant last year, I knew I was going to have to come up with a fun way to find out the gender of Baby #2. With my first baby we waited until the 7th month to find out it was a girl... Why so long?? Well, that's when our baby shower was. I had my Mom go to the sonogram with me to find out the gender. The Dr. told my mom what we were having and she had to keep it a secret from everyone. Then, when she sent out the invitations for our couples baby shower, the sex was revealed to all of our guests with strict instructions to keep it quiet!! So, when we showed up for our shower we walked into a flood of pink balloons and decorations! It was amazing. Nothing beats this kind of surprise...Needless to say, being a sibling myself, I knew if I did something cool for one baby I would HAVE to do something cool for the other. The last thing I want is one feeling left out 5 or 10 years down the road.. ha ha... I had no intention of waiting a full 7 months this time. So, I decided a separate Gender Reveal Party would be fun. Instead of using the typical baby pink or blue I wanted to go for something more modern and fun. So, my red and turquoise "B or G...what will it be?" party was born. I started by designing this fun invitation.Then, I decided rather than having the party at a house I wanted to have it at one of my favorite restaurants. Almost no time setting up, and the best part....NO DISHES!!! I showed up to the restaurant about 30 minutes prior to the party. They gave me a private back room. All I did was tie red and turquoise balloons to each chair in alternating colors. I made matching place cards for the guests, and the kids had puzzles with crayons to keep them busy during dinner. I had my doctor write on a piece of paper the gender and seal it in an envelope for me(so even I didn't know the sex). I took that envelope to my favorite bakery, Trio Cafe, and had them make up 2 dozen mini cupcakes for me. The filling would be blue or red. This way, when we bit into our cupcakes we all found out together. Some had red sprinkles on top and some had blue. I also made coordinating cupcake toppers for each.To add a little fun and interaction, everyone had one of these little booklets I made folded into their napkins. It asked what gender they thought baby Hutchison was going to be, and what names they would pick out and a couple of funny facts. They ended up being quite humorous to read. I have them all, and are putting them in the baby book for Marshall to see when he gets older. After a fun dinner we passed out the cupcakes. Altogether on the count of three everyone opened up their cupcakes... It was a great party, and a fun way to include family and friends...
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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Merry Christmas!!

Luke 2:8-14
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Baby is here!!!

Just a quick update.... Our newest Hutchison family member.
Marshall Paul Hutchison
12/9/2010, 7lbs 1oz, 4:26pm

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Announcements, Birthdays and Babies...Oh My!!

Well, I said I was busy, and this is why......I started off with a birthday announcement in October. Little Corbin loves everything Elmo, and of course cowboy...So, I had to combine the two for this perfect little announcement that let's all of his out of town family know he is a big 2 year old now!Next, came Meela's Rainbow 1st birthday. Isn't she the most adorable thing ever?? This invite of course inspired a great rainbow party internet search...I will blog those ideas at a later date.Then, came Mycah and Storm's last minute baby shower invitation. The mommy-to-be wanted all pink and princess theme. Since I am unable to help plan this shower(due to baby being born this week), I decided to make it pretty and simple. This way her sister can pretty much go with any type of pink princess decorations.This is a cupcake invitation I just finished last week for my niece, Jenna's 1st birthday party. I just adore the colors, and of course, her sweet little face!
And last, comes one of my favorites!! This is what I am calling "Operation Baby". My brother and his beautiful wife are expecting a baby in 3 months. He is a devoted military man, and they live far far away from her family. With his hectic military schedule, a shower is not possible to plan. So, I am sending out an announcement to friends and family letting them know where they can go to find gifts and necessities for the baby. We are going to send them directly to their home. It may not be a conventional shower, but baby JD will know he is loved!!
I have just finished our Holiday Card/Baby Announcement this week. So, after they are printed and sent out I will post the blog. I LOVE the card this year...It is not the typical bright, holiday colors I usually go for, but very cute still. I decided to do a double holiday/baby announcement card. I just hope the pics of Marshall turn out as great as the family/Catie pics used on the card....

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Many Adventures of Catie Turning 2!

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with Winnie the Pooh, so of course that had to be the theme of her 2nd birthday party. We had the party at her Grandparents house in North Richland Hills, TX( suburb of Fort Worth). I went all out to create her very own 100 Aker Wood. All of the gorgeous photos were taken by our wonderful photographers at Nine Photography. We use them for all of our family shoots and parties. You really can't beat the ease of not having to run around all day snapping pics yourself. Not to mention, they are AMAZING at what they do! I designed the invitations myself, using one of the cutest pictures from her 18 month photo shoot. Using a pattern that I bought on ETSY, I made her little tunic top. Which, of course, had all the characters from Winnie the Pooh, and the yellow fabric had little honey bees on it. My friend Tracy made the matching bows! Luckily for me, my in-laws have a completely empty dining room. This was much to my advantage! I used butcher paper purchased from a local teacher supply store to make the trees. My friend Tracy came over and helped me put it all together. These were so easy to do. We just crumpled the brown paper a little and stapled it up the wall to look like tree trunks. Then, we cut out leaves from the green paper and stapled them to the wall and ceiling. I hung a large yellow paper lantern(leftover from her Garden themed 1st Birthday) from the light fixture and used orange and yellow curling ribbon to hang down around it. That was our "sun". We hung blue streamers across the ceiling of the room as our sky, and tied 4-5 white balloons together in bunches and hung them around as the "clouds". I found a big package of cut out bees from the teachers supply store, and hung those all around the room and near the trees. Tracy hand painted the "floating Pooh Bear" on foam poster board for me, and we hung him at the entrance from his little blue balloon. It looked just like Pooh did in the movie, trying to reach his hand into the bee hive for honey! I used red and white gingham fabric as the buffet table cloth, and yellow and white gingham fabric to cover the guest tables.(all bought at Wal-Mart for a few dollars a yard, very cheap) For the buffet centerpiece I bought cheap cardboard letters that spelled Catie at Hobby Lobby and painted them with leftover paints. I hot glued them to wooden dowels and then hot glued the dowels to an old glass shelf that I found in my garage. To give it more height I set the glass shelf up onto 2 glass vases filled with colorful shredded paper. I scoured Ebay for the whole set of stuffed animals, and luckily found one of each character. Even better, I found the Birthday Pooh!! I used them on the buffet as my "food labels". I printed out the name of each food on cardstock and cut it out to look like little pieces of wood. Each character held their sign. I had "Tigger Tail Mix" which was Cheddar Chex party mix and cheese puffs. "Piglets in Blankets" pretty explanatory, and "Rabbits Veggie Garden". I made "Pooh Sticks", which were just pretzel sticks dipped in chocolate. Plus, there were fruit skewers, sandwiches and a chicken nugget tray. For the kids, I took the frozen Uncrustable PBJ sandwiches and wrapped them with a strip of really pretty scrapbook paper. Owl was set up in his tree house(which was made out of a cardboard box) overlooking the drink station. At the drink station there were bottled waters with custom labels(which I designed and printed myself to match the invitations), a kid friendly punch called "Pooh Beary Splash" and an adult friendly cocktail called "Kanga's Kooler". Even the adults need a little something...ha ha Outside we had beer for the guys in a cooler.I bought these amazing vanilla cupcakes from a local bakery called Trio Cafe and Bakery and just dressed them up with cheap cupcake picks bought online. I used my favorite cupcake tower and wrapped scrapbook paper around the middle to give it some color. I bought small flower pots at my local Dollar Tree and painted them to look like honey pots.(previous post here) Using some leftover honey bee fabric from Catie's top, I lined the pots, then filled cellophane bags with honey flavored Teddy Grahams. Those were given to the kids as party favors.Catie had lots of family and friends come to help her celebrate her 2nd birthday. She is definitely a blessed little girl. Here are some great pictures of her guests.Linked to:

Monday, November 1, 2010

Just a little update....

So, its been a while....I KNOW! But in my defense, I have had some very busy months go by. I thought I would just post a quick update for everyone. I haven't just been sitting around on my bum, I actually have quite a few new invitation designs to post, PLUS Catie's Winnie the Pooh 2nd Birthday Party. I have them uploaded, I just need to add the finishing touches. Finding the time is proving to be quite hard, though. I will do it, I promise!!!
Let's start off with our family costumes this year. As you can probably tell, we went as Winnie the Pooh(perfect for my baby belly), Piglet and Christopher Robin. I have to give my husband props for being such a good sport(after a little coaxing). It just wouldn't have been this great without him. I made the Pooh and Piglet costumes, of course. I just can't bring myself to buy pre-made costumes anymore. These took one day to sew using my favorite material of all time...Fleece! You just can't mess it up! It really is the most forgiving fabric.I have also gotten a new camera in the last few months. So, of course I have been playing around with that a lot! We went with the Nikon D3000. I am just getting used to it, but I think I am going to love it. I have been messing around with an old dress pattern that I have, trying to find new ways to "spruce" it up for Catie. This is the Fall themed dress I came up with for her. I added the bib front and ruffle along the bottom. A BIG thanks to her Nana for crocheting the awesome flower that's in her hair. I have an order in for one in EVERY color imaginable. I might get those in a year or so...ha ha My mother is a much bigger procrastinator than I am!!Last but definitely not least, the NEW MAN in my life.... Yes, I said man, as in male gender!! Our little surprise has turned out to be a boy. Yay! 1 girl, check! 1 boy, check! Procreating finished, check! In as few as 6 weeks we will be welcoming our little one, Marshall Paul Hutchison, to the world. I am truly blessed to have a healthy baby on the way. Here's a little smile from our little guy.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Mati Grace Turns 1

Yesterday, my dear cousin Ceresa called me up to ask if I could put together an invitation for her daughter's first birthday. Of course I said yes. I finished this adorable garden party invite today, and just HAD to post it! I am so in love with the colors and obviously that beautiful little face!!Below are some inspirational party pics from every one's favorite hostess.... Martha Stewart of course!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Mary or Jane or Jill is Having A Little Lamb....

Aaah baby showers!! They seem to be in high demand these days. Especially in my life! 6 people, including myself, are pregnant right now. So, what better way to get me back into blog mode than a beautiful baby shower? My sister-in-law is hosting a shower for her friend Liza Lam. She asked me to come up with a theme and an invitation for her. After much thought, here is what we decided on:Very pretty colors of pink, coral and light blue make it super girly and frilly. I am really into the cherry blossoms right now, so I wanted to incorporate some into the invitation. This way she can use them to decorate with along with the Lambs.
Below are some inspirations I pulled from the Internet to help give Emily an idea of great simple ways to decorate around this theme.
Clockwise: Cherry Blossom Cupcakes(Hello-Naomi via Flickr)
Lamb Diaper Cake(Diaper Cakes Mall)
Blue and Pink Tissue Poms(Sweetpoms' Shop via ETSY)
Cherry Blossom Cupcake Wrappers(Nanalulu's Linen Closet)
Here is a beautiful shower with similar colors from a site called The Sweetest Occasion. I love the tea favors and 3 tiered floral centerpieces.
To go along with the girly aspect of this shower I would do a simple tea style buffet with yummy finger sandwiches, fruit tray and cheese board. Use tea pots to serve coffee, tea and water in pretty tea cups. I love the idea of using lettuce cups filled with something as simple as a store bought chicken salad. We have all seen the soup shooter appetizers that are so popular. Well, what about a crudite shooter? These are very cool, and can be found at Hip Hostess!