I am long overdue on posting a few highlights from a baby shower I threw last month — so overdue in fact, my guest-of-honor has had her baby girl since the party already! There’s a due-date pun in there somewhere, but let’s get to the decorations and the menu already. It was a brunch, so we set up a champagne bar with several different kinds of homemade simple syrups to mix-up self-serve cocktails. I added a few bottles of sparkling water too so mocktails could be made with the same flavors. There were tons of baked breakfast treats, and one of my favorite parts of the menu was mini yogurt, berry and granola parfaits that I chilled in tiny mason jars — they flew off the table! For decorations I went with a palette of pool blue, mint and peach for paper fans and garlands — all fresh, bright pastels that complimented the Liberty print paper goods I found for the table and pieces from my vintage jadeite collection. I couldn’t host the shower without a few DIY elements, and crafted up some mini “party-animals” out of plastic kids toys, gold spray paint, and party hats made from paper and pom-poms. I used them to decorate cupcakes and nestle in between the food and bar tables — the perfect little details for a festive baby shower! 
My new kitchen is a million times more functional than my old kitchen, cooking is finally fun again. It didn’t start out super functional though, here is what we were working with when we moved in:
The cabinets you’re seeing in that picture are the extent of them — I guess they just gave up and forgot to put one more cabinet in that space next to the sink. Have no fear, after some extensive craigslisting, the perfect stand-alone cabinet was found to fit into that spot. Here is what it looks like now:
The cabinet did not look like that originally though. Wish I had remembered to take a “before” picture, but trust me — It was a 20$ mess that needed a fresh coat of paint, new handles, and a new top. My handy boyfriend popped the dingy old linoleum top off of it and replaced it with a removable butcher block cutting board. Good as new!
I also whipped up a quick valance last night — I’ve gotten sick of staring at curtain-less windows, they were making me crazy.
Recognize the fabric? It’s one of the Liberty of London scarves from Target!
Just need to hang up some artwork over the kitchen table and I can check off this room as complete (for now). I’ll share more soon!
