boy, oh boy!

It’s been so long since i’ve blogged, I’m not sure there was ever any talk of a baby! My sister in law is due in 3 weeks! VERY hard to believe this time has flown by so quickly! Little Max should be arriving sometime before Thanksgiving, and  we could ‘t be more excited! 2 showers, and lots of love later, its been baby mania around my house! Check out the fun I’ve been having!

First were the invites. Little boys are a hoot, aren’t they? My sister in law LOVES owls, so I thought this was the perfectly themed invite. Although I don’t recommend putting raffia through a button (enough to make you nuts)  the swing effect with the peek-aboo owl added the perfect element of playfulness. I added a chevron liner to  baby blue envelopes, and away we went!

And then there were the centerpieces. These were a bit more challenging than anticipated, but in the end, I LOVED how they turned out! I got the idea from Pinterest – but there was no link for a how to, so I improvised. I started with 3 panels of thinly cut wood from the craft store. I had my brother cut them into even 6″ squares to make cubes. I then glued them together with wood glue and began to paint.

Ater the blue cubes had dried, I cut 3.5″ cubes out of foam board and attached with wood glue. Even though foam board is already white, I like the texture of the paint, so I painted over them with a sheer white (I LOVE to make more work for myself!). Next I found wood letters at the craft store and painted them the same blue as the cubes. I attached when dried to the foam board.

After a day to dry, these baby blocks were all done! I searched high and low to find the perfect vases to put inside of these cubes, but wound up using old deli containers.

After some thought about which flowers we’d use, my mom and I settled on hydrangeas and roses.  We made sure to use big flowers so they would cover up the openings of the cubes – I suppose you could use peonies or spider mums (think pink for a little girl – soooo cute). We added a few extra jars with baby’s breath and roses to the table, and a burlap runner to complete the look!

The best part is, little Max has an awesome decoration for a shelf in his room (from his awesome aunt!). They were a lot of work, but worth every minute!

And THEN, there were the favors. My brother and sister in law really like Garret’s popcorn. Really like it.  Once while visiting me in Chicago, my brother asked me to hold his bag of Garrett’s popcorn so he could go back into another location  to get more.  We figured we’d somehow incorporate that into the favors – and as luck would have it, we found a cute popcorn favor idea from Pinterest (where else?) and began to craft! “She’s ready to pop” Only seemed appropriate!

I had quite a few mason jars laying around, and topped them off with some sweet baby boy fabric! The best way to do this was with a tiny rubber band to keep the fabric down on all sides. I created some labels with the leftover invitation material, and attached with a mini clothes pin and raffia! SO cute! The popcorn was a big hit all around!

All we need now is for that little guy to get here!