i thought i'd share some of the decorations i scrapped together....scrapped being code for 'found around the house or made for a total of $10' [not including necessities like some disposable plates, cups, utensils, etc.].
first up: a couple of haute houndstooth takeout containers that hail from my baby shower in february. they were originally used to house game gifts for me like baby cloths + spoons.
some paper tent signs i made to label the desserts....the aqua houndstooth i had from baby shower invites i made earlier this summer, and the aqua + green 'tents' are envelopes that i cut + folded to be propped up by the various platters.
on one counter, i put two framed 8x10 professional photos of H. one is black + white and the other had a beautiful pop of blue that worked with the party's main colors of green, blue + orange. since the party was for H, i thought it was a fun homage and it also meant some more free decor!
also going along with that theme were the orange porcelain koi i pulled from the nursery, and a bit of wild zebra fabric in green + white that i wrapped around a book. i never did end up neatening the edges + getting everything perfectly tucked as i would have liked, but it still provided a pretty punch in the corner.
let me flag the next little details for you. i thought it would be fun to jazz up the labeling of the various soups i'd made so i created these pendant shaped flags to go with each main dish. the paper is more of the aqua houndstooth, and the orange is leftover from the frame project.
i used bamboo skewers from my pantry for the flagpoles + poked them into the back of four little pier one potted grasses [faux, naturally] that rotate around the house on a consistent basis. i first planned to stick 'em smack dab in the middle of each pot but since the bottom isn't really soil it was much easier to dig them into the small space between the 'plant' + pot.
the center of the island held a cluster of items that went with the general color story of blue, orange + green. one of our green vases held another of the orange poufs from my february baby shower [are you starting to see that i don't like throwing things away?]
near the pouf i plopped some of the mini moss pieces from the set that i display in our coffee table insert. the dish is one that my mom gave me for my birthday last year, and the books have no relationship to the party decor other than their cover colors....or in case things got really boring, and people stopped talking + started reading. thankfully, not the case.
the orange tumblers i'm sure you recognize from recent kitchen posts, and that green peacock of a glass out in front is from a colorful set of handmade dishes from mexico that my mom-in-law gifted us with when we were newly married. each of these glasses ended up holding bright beautiful wildflowers that i plucked from the woods near our lot.
oh and this guy? just the star of the show. no big deal. pllllllhhhhhh.
are you wondering where i spent those ten bones i bragged about? ok fine. here is the tissue paper portion of my tale.
for $10, or two $5 packs of tissue paper, i created more poufs like the orange one mentioned earlier that my girlfriend had crafted for me. except in more boyish shades of blue + green mainly, with a few other colors to [a] use up the tissue packs and [b] make things not-so-perfect and coordinated. my attempt at being casual, in other words. i can pretend to not be a perfectionist, right?
although i wasn't as sure how the striped poufs would end up, since i'd never seen them done before, they ended up being my favorite.
i also took a twist on the usual pouf format by mixing colors in each one to give a little more depth of color, to liven things up, and for the practical purpose of having to buy less tissue paper [since each pack had just a few sheets of each shade].
mmmm. love. and for an easy centerpiece on the kitchen table i grabbed the mirrored tray from the sunroom + filled it with reflective items like the votives + coasters so that more of the poufy pom pom color would sparkle. the coasters were also of course for people's drinks who ate there during the fiesta. and the green zeeby fabric is the same as the swatch that wrapped the book [above].
lastly i hung a few poufs in the sunroom....
....and in dedication to my dutch heritage, even used the clippings from the pouf production as a simple display of decor on the mantle. i couldn't let them go to waste, could i?!
i liked how this grouping on the living room mantle carried some of the party colors through from the kitchen, and also how the effect became like a pool of water....with all those blue + green + aqua tones. and yet the decorations didn't scream 'boy' either, with fire truck reds + construction zone yellows. it was subtle speak for 'H is a male, but we are not yet to the disney phase....and thank goodness for that'.
all in all, i think it worked out quite nicely. a lovely time was had by all and it was worth every bit of effort beforehand.
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