Pitter Patter in PDX Baby Shower

January 15, 2016 4 Comments A Well Crafted Party

I was absolutely honored when my friend Joan offered to host a sprinkle for me and my newest baby. A sprinkle is similar to a shower, but is designed to be a smaller celebration for a second child because the mother likely has some items from the first time around. I was super touched that she would want to throw me a party in the midst of her own move into a new home. My friend Alicia jumped in to help with the sprinkle and the two of them even outdid the amazingness they pulled off in my first baby shower that they hosted together— A Robot Themed Baby Shower. I offered up my backyard for the party and they based the color scheme to match my newly decorated porch area. This is a LONG post with lots of ideas for hosting a Portland-rain themed baby shower as well as some free downloads! If you enjoy this post, I’d be super duper happy if you PINNED an item to your Pinterest board or SHARED via your favorite social media platform.

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They themed the party around the “Sprinkle” theme as well as my love of all things Portland, Oregon. The Pitter Patter in PDX Baby Shower was born and with it came Food Truck-themed foods and rain drop decorations. We even got to be spoiled with some local gourmet ice cream! I ordered event sized portions of King Creamery’s amazing ice cream flavors. It went perfectly with the theme… also, the champagne pear sorbet was simply the most amazing sorbet I’d ever tasted in my life.

Rain Themed Baby Shower Decorations

Joan is an amazing graphic designer and she created a beautiful rain themed items to use throughout the event including the above Facebook invitation cover. (The image is free for personal use in case you’d like to throw a Portland rain themed baby shower! Just click on the image, right click to save to your computer and upload to your Facebook event cover area!) She built a cloud out of balloons and pillow stuffing utilizing this great “How to Build a Cloud” tutorial from The Farm Chicks.

Baby Shower Party Favors

Joan utilized the graphics she used on the invite on the labels she created for the awesome party favors she put together. Utilizing the same graphics and color scheme in different areas throughout your party can help pull together different elements to make the party look professionally put together! Joan found corn on the cob from a local farm that simply goes into a paper bag with a little oil and is instantly microwave popcorn! How cool is that? I have a fantastic umbrella that has the “Thank You” in several different languages printed on the inside of the umbrella. We added that detail at the last minute because it went with the theme AND was the perfect addition to the favor table!

Baby Shower Beverages

We kept the beverages for this party pretty simple with sparkling waters, coffee, tea and—because it was a Portland theme— beer! Joan created little tags for the coffee cups to make it coordinate with the Portland theme. She named the coffee shop “Bumptown Coffee” a play on words from the famous Stumptown coffee! Seriously one of my favorite details. The coffee cups and sleeves (aff link) were totally affordable from Amazon and she simply printed up her label on round 2-inch sticker sheets (aff link). An affordable and simple way to bring the coffee bar up a notch for a party!

Food Truck Themed Party Food

My absolute favorite detail of the party was the food. Now, that isn’t JUST because I was 8 months pregnant and eating everything under the sun. Though, that helped. The girls came together with different ideas for Food Truck themed food. Joan then made these amazing little food trucks using a great free template sourced from The Fox is Black and an artist by the name of Goopymart. The food trucks included Mac and Cheese, Please!, Sweet Elvis PB&J, Nom Bowl, Taco Taco Taco, and The Waffle Beneath My Wings. The food containers such as the paper food trays with wax paper and the bamboo bowls (affiliate links) added to the whole “food truck” feel. And, of course, we had a REAL Portland food vendor present with the cute little event size King Creamery ice creams. They do home delivery of their monthly flavors with their club membership, but they also cater events.

Baby Shower Activities

I don’t have any photos of the cute little activity that Joan put together for the event. She had hand cut out felt items so that guests could help put together a mobile for the baby. (There is a great little tutorial for felt mobiles over at Craftiness is Not Optional.) I seriously prefer crafts and activities over baby shower games, so this was perfect for me! In addition, she whipped up cute little cards with a link to a meal train that she had set up for me on mealbaby.com. It was amazing to have food delivered those first few weeks after the baby was born.

Joan, who has a rad little business with her husband called Stogle Studios, put together these fun designs for the party’s food trucks using the template from The Fox is Black. You can download them and use for free for your next party! Want to create your own? The template is free to download over at The Fox is Black’s Food Truck Design Contest Post! (Personal Use Only)

Directions for printing and putting together your free food truck party paper food truck:

Click here to download your five free printables, download by right clicking the image and saving the PDF to your desktop.
Print on 11X17 paper — you can also choose to “fit to print” to 8.5X11 paper or 8.5X14 paper, but please know you will have a smaller food truck if you do that.
Cut out along outer edges of design.
Fold along solid lines and glue along flaps. Cut out the window area and put in your food truck window as the pictures show.

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Throw a Baby Shower with Dream Dinners

July 13, 2015 11 Comments A Well Crafted Party

A few months ago, near the beginning of my pregnancy, I had the pleasure of visiting our local Dream Dinners for a blogger dining experience. I had a great time at the event, getting to make the meals was super easy and it was a ton of fun seeing blogging friends and catching up while making the meals. The whole time I couldn’t help but think how the event would have been perfect for a baby shower or baby sprinkle.

The Dream Dinners Experience

When you sign up for the Dream Dinners experience you get the opportunity to pick a date to visit the store, a variety of dishes (the menu changes each month) and number of servings. On the date of your visit you get to join others in prepping your meals. At the end of the two hours you’ll go home with your meals ready to go into the freezer for whenever you are ready for a quick and delicious meal with all the instructions ready to go. You can choose to do this experience on any of the open sessions, invite friends along or schedule a private session for just you and your friends.

Okay, okay… so, maybe the idea of prepping dinners doesn’t sound super thrilling to you. I get it. When I have to cook dinner I don’t especially love the process. But, what I do love, is going to a place where everything has been prepped for me and I don’t have to do any of the dishes! Check out the organization skills… gotta love the good use of a label maker.

The cost of the meal includes all of the food items that you can follow to the recipe or decide to customize by leaving out ingredients that picky eaters may not enjoy. It also includes the packaging and cooking instructions. There are additional sides and meals already prepped and ready for purchase in the store as well. I bought a few sides and breakfast meals to throw in our freezer at home in addition to the meals I made at the event.

So, how does it all taste?

It was great! The whole family really loved the meals that we tried and the instructions were super easy to follow. My husband actually made all three meals the days that we ate them and didn’t have any problems following the instructions. He isn’t a novice in the kitchen, but there is no way he’d have been able to whip up the Chateau Chicken with Almond Butter Sauce on his own. In addition to the Chateau Chicken I tried Arroz Con Pollo and Limoncello Shrimp with Coconut Rice.

Note: Dream Dinners does have some availability in customizing a recipe or two by leaving out an ingredient you may or may not like. But, it isn’t super customizable when it comes to items that are gluten, allergy or meat free. Check out the site’s Health and Nutrition FAQs for more info on this. The menus are available on-line as well, so you do get quite a few options in what meals you and your family would like. In addition, the packaging includes lots of plastic bags and aluminum. While much better than a frozen meal at the grocery store, it isn’t the most eco-friendly.

How to throw a Dream Dinners Baby Shower

When I was in my first pregnancy I worked about 25 hours a week and I had maybe a 15 minute commute. I also didn’t have a toddler. I prepped for the baby coming by making a LOT of frozen meals. As a matter of fact, I was prepping large portions of spaghetti and meatballs for freezing the whole beginning stages of labor. The meals were so fantastic the first month of our kiddo’s life.

This pregnancy has been….well, different. I have a full time gig, commute 1 hour each way and a toddler. Not complaining, I love my life. But, the idea of spending my little free time prepping meals for after the baby arrives is not super appealing. A showering of pre-made meals sounds like the perfect baby shower or baby sprinkle for someone who may have most of the baby gear all ready to go.

Read on to find out how to throw a Dream Dinners baby shower!

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Real Party: Opal Apple of My Eye Baby Shower

March 3, 2014 5 Comments A Well Crafted Party

Apple Themed Baby Shower for After Baby is Born

My little sister had a baby in January! Since she lives in Oklahoma and I wanted to meet the baby, I decided to wait to throw her a baby shower until after the baby was born. I’m a big fan of Sip & See parties after little ones are born and ready for company. (Check out the awesome Pumpkin-themed Sip & See my sister threw for me.)

Opal Apples had contacted me a few months earlier about the possibility of throwing an Opal Apple party. After trying out their apples and LOVING them I agreed to throw an apple-themed shindig. Luckily for me, my sister and brother-in-law are both teachers so an apple-themed baby shower was perfect for them! The party decor was all supplied by Opal Apples– they sent fun paper lanterns, fans, and poufs that really gave the whole event a celebratory feel.

We decided an “Apple of My Eye” themed open-house-style sip and see where guests could stop in for a light lunch and tasty desserts while they meet the new babe.

Apple Themed Party Sip & See Menu

We wanted to have a light lunch with healthful options for guests since it was the middle of the day and we were pairing the food with lots of apple-desserts. Our menu included 4 salads, freshly baked croissants, and desserts:

Steak Salad with Arugula & Spinach, Thinly Sliced Red Onions, Blue Cheese Crumbles, Opal Apple Slices, and Balsamic Vinaigrette
Grilled Chicken Salad with Romaine Lettuce, Opal Apples, Dried Cranberries, Parmesan Cheese, & Apple Cider Vinaigrette (check back tomorrow for a recipe!)
Chilled Cucumber and Tomato Salad
Pasta Salad with Ham & Tomatoes
3 Cheese Croissants
Mini Apple Pies
Caramel Apple Pie
Apple muffins
Italian Creme Cake topped with thinly sliced Opal Apples

Shower Activity

We made the event an open house style party so people could come and go so we didn’t plan a lot of activities for the party. I am not a huge shower-game fan anyways. (Check out the post about the robot baby shower my friend threw for me that had GREAT baby shower activities!) We did want a couple of things people could do if they didn’t feel like chatting.

We had a great time celebrating my brand-new nephew and getting to see friends and family throughout the day. A big thank you to Opal Apples for the great party decor and for introducing me to the tasty, yellow apple.

This post was sponsored by Opal Apples. The thoughts and words in this post are my own. More information about Opal apples: Opal is a bright yellow apple that is like none other with its beautiful appearance, distinctively crunchy texture, floral aroma and a sweet, tangy flavor. But one of the most incredible, and natural features of this non-GMO apple is that it does not brown after cutting so it stays crisp and fresh in your salads and your kids’ lunchboxes.

Baby Showers

Rain Themed Baby Shower Decorations

Baby Shower Party Favors

Baby Shower Beverages

Food Truck Themed Party Food

Baby Shower Activities

Directions for printing and putting together your free food truck party paper food truck:

The Dream Dinners Experience

How to throw a Dream Dinners Baby Shower

Apple Themed Baby Shower for After Baby is Born

Apple Themed Party Sip & See Menu

Shower Activity