This is a sponsored post for Tommee Tippee Miomee.
Last weekend my little family of three celebrated that we are about to become a little-bigger family of four in a matter of months {weeks even, eek}. I’ve talked about it before, that I don’t like a lot of fuss about me, so I didn’t want to have a baby shower but I did want to have a little Before Baby Party with our close friends and family. Tommee Tippee kindly offered to help throw us the party. You might remember this planning post I wrote a few weeks back.
There were strict instructions that no one was allowed to buy gifts, but everyone just had to bring their appetites. I love little details, and putting things together like I did on the weekend is my favourite thing to do. As my Big Sis said on the weekend, “You do all this stuff so quickly and easily, where this would take anyone else hours.” I truly love making and creating things, it makes me happy.
Of course, the night/morning of the party the pregnancy insomnia kicked in, plus Lacey was sick too. So it meant that I got just under 3 hours of broken sleep. I think I’m going to be well-rehearsed at this sleep deprivation thing when the baby arrives. Thank you baby.
I’m a list writer, so I worked off a list as I always. First thing in the morning I headed to the markets to pick up fresh fruit and vegetables. They have the best strawberries there. I didn’t realise but a few were stolen by little hands before I took the photo. They’re so good that they couldn’t resist, apparently.
I ordered the cookies in my current favourite colours {yellow, pink & aqua} from Blissfully Sweet. Jacki kindly sent them via mail to me as I couldn’t find someone to make them locally.
Lacey and I spent the night before making up the lolly boxes. The control freak in me had to let go a little {other control freaks will know how hard that can be} and let her go crazy with washi tape, and stickers to make them all fancy. I bought the boxes from Lark, washi tape from Little Paper Lane, as well as some stickers from my newsagent. Inside I just put a whole heap of lollies that I got from a confectionery store near home. I’ve just discovered a new company that does lollies for parties that you can buy from online, Big Lolly {in case you don’t have any lolly shops nearby}.
And now is when I ‘fess up about the cake. I know that a cake can break me. Yes, I’ve made cakes before… but I knew that baking it and decorating it could really bring me undone. So… I bought some plain, un-iced sponge cakes from the supermarket, threw some aqua icing on them and put a little decoration on top. The decoration is from Potter + Butler. The BABY wooden letters are also from Etsy, I’ll use them as a decoration in the baby’s room soon.
I made my favourite, tried and tested recipes for the rest of the finger food. I’ll share those recipes in another post. They’re all stuff I’ve been making for years, and know that I can make {to keep the stress-factor low!}. The small drinks were more for decoration {I forgot to think them through!}, so they’re just water with a little of the colouring that I used on the cake. The big drink was pink grapefruit drink with some lemon slices, mint and ice thrown in. Delicious!
We all hung out, the kids played, we laughed, the weather was beautiful, I showed off the almost done baby room and then later in the night we had some food delivered {from a local spit company}. After dinner I put on an ice cream buffet. I chopped up a selection of chocolate bars, and lollies and everyone served themselves. It was a huge hit. I love seeing the adults almost get more excited than the kids with those things.
I didn’t have a baby shower when I was pregnant with Lacey, and I’m so glad that I managed to have this little get together with our friends before we welcome the baby. It was such a fun day, and although I crashed and burned at about 7pm… it was worth all the fuss, creating and making.
Thank you so much to Tommee Tippee for being so generous. I wouldn’t have thrown the party without you guys… so thank you from us three {and a half – I think the baby liked everything because it kept kicking throughout the day, or it might have just been the sugar intake!}.
Don’t forget, if you’re having a baby, had one or know someone who has, I’ve put together a sweet starter bundle of goodies over at Tommee Tippee Miomee. You’ll need to create an account to purchase the bundle {and log in}, one offer per customer, not valid with any other offers or coupons, and the offer ends on August 31st 2013 at 11:59pm. Use the code FMSBabyShower to get 20% off too, and shipping is free. I bought one for my Lil Sis {who is due SO very soon} and she loved it. I think you will too. x
Oh, it looks so wonderful! I am SO glad you got the chance to spend that lovely quality time with your close friends and family before the special day arrives 🙂
And you’re right, sometimes it is hard – but you just need to let the control freak have a day off!
Wow it looks amazing!! I love the colour combination of aqua, pink and yellow. They go together so beautifully! I
I hope you include the recipe for the grapefruit drink when you put the other ones up. It looks delicious!
Will do. Thanks Erin. 🙂
Looks absolutely amazing….love your attention to detail….I love making things just right for parties and the like!! Oh and I still have trouble relaxing the control and letting the girls do parts….have to refrain from making adjustments !! Such an exciting time….I love newborn babies !!!
Ha, we’re SO the same. 😛
Wow what a Beautiful Set up. Looks Perfect.
Looks gorgeous – will be hanging out for the finger food post Telle!
Gorgeous! Lacey’s washi tape decorations are really cute on the gift boxes.
Looking forward to your tried & tested recipes for the finger foods – got a kids birthday party to put on in a month and savoury foods always seem to be the hardest snacks. (I do not want to serve mini pies or sausage rolls from a packet, and although i am a better savoury than sweet cook, making it in big quantities for a party always seems difficult, especially when I want it to appear effortless.)
Yeah, sweet seems easy – but savoury is harder. I just didn’t want us to be filling up on sugary things – so these were healthier and delicious.
Recipes coming soon. x
You are such a talented party planner! It all looks amazing – can’t wait for those recipes! And I love the idea of an ice cream buffet, right up my treat street!
It was so good. Naughty, but good.
The spirit with which you approach everything you do just amazes me! Lacey and ‘bump’ are the luckiest little people on the planet to have you as their Mama! All looks BEAUTIFUL
You are an amazing woman Chantelle…your drive and energy astound me. What a wonderful party you put on and what a fantastic job you and Lacey did on decorating those beautiful boxes. I wish you lots of luck in the future with your new addition to the family xx
Thanks Deb. xxx
gosh you so could be a party planner – you have done such a good job with your food, decorations and how good it all looks!
Congratulations on having a before baby party – did you paint your belly? I have heard that is a lot of fun 🙂
Aww thanks. Oh, no belly painting. That’s not for me. 🙂
Its always nice to be reminded that I’m not the only control freak in the world, and reading your comments…. There is a lot of us out there!! The whole party looked amazing Chantelle. I love the colourful cookies… they would have to be my fave!
It is just gorgeous Chantelle – ALL of it. You clever chick. I am sooo excited for you hun and cant wait to hear some exciting news soon xx