Alphabet Baby Shower

My dear friend Alli is having a baby, so a few of us threw her an ABC baby shower. It was, of course, based on a theme I saw in Martha Stewart, whose empire has made it such that creative types need never again have an original idea.

If you have a shower to plan, here’s how it went:

I hung glittered letters over the dining room table. These are from the sign I got at the flea market a while back. If I were buying them especially for the party, I would have just gotten a bunch of As, Bs, and Cs.

We used blocks and vintage ABC books to decorate. These blocks are Hank’s and the book is a damaged version from a thrift store. I use it to “monogram” gifts and cards and such.

Alphabet Baby Shower How To | Mighty Girl

The door sign was a vintage baby sweater on a hanger. This would have been even cuter if I’d been able to track down a vintage baby hanger, but no luck, so I just bent a wire hanger in at the sides.

This is a detail of the sweater sign. Bryan hot glued the wooden blocks together with a piece of string glued between them. (Bryan hot glues things because it makes me hot and bothered. Note to entrepreneurial types: Hunks and Hot Glue site.) The string is looped over the neck of the hanger and hangs down through the sweater.

I used glass baby bottles as bud vases for the peonies. Cutesy genius, I tell you.

We had two relatively mellow games. This is one I saw and loved at another friend’s shower. It’s a handmade ABC book with blank pages. Guests drew in pictures for the letters to make an ABC book for the new baby. Putting it together was a little more complex than I expected (I’ll post a quick how-to soon), but you could easily buy a pretty book from a stationery store and draw the letters in by hand.

For the second game, we had everyone guess how many magnet letters were in the jar, and the winner got a little prize.

The embellishment on the prize package is from the old dictionary book pictured above, which I also used on the gift for the new baby:

I think it turned out pretty cute. And no one had to rub Vaseline on their nose, or sneak into the bathroom to dry heave after being made to sample a jar of pureed prunes. Bonus.

Wardrobe Remix

These are my pink superhero boots, which go with nothing. Nothing, I tell you! But do you see how they make me feel? They make me feel like copping a sexy attitude while posing alone in my living room. So imagine how good they’d be if I were dancing on a bar, my friends.

On a side note, this outfit was $32, if you don’t count the shoes. If you do count the shoes, it was $112. I am a shopping genius.

Anyway, what are you up to? Let’s go dance on a bar.

Feliz Año

We’re officially in Mexico by now, where I don’t have Internet access, and I anticipate it will be like losing a limb. Every once in awhile I’ll get a phantom itch where Post Secret used to be.

I’ve prepped a few posts that will publish while we’re away. In the meantime, the weather’s great, wish you were here, and so forth.

It’s Almost Here!

New Year’s Eve Maggie (circa 2005), wishes you a very happy 2009. Little does she know what the morning has in store for her. Poor little Maggie. Come here, let me pet your hair. Stop whimpering, dear.

As for you, may your evening be memorable, and your morning a small price to pay.

2009? You’re My Best Friend

For some reason, Christmas laid me out this year. Maybe it was because I was shopping for thousands of people. That could be it.

Anyway, by Christmas Eve, I was vibrating with the stress of all the fun things we didn’t get to, and right now I’m all achy and hunched just thinking about it. The smell of peppermint makes me feel violent.

Fortunately, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day turned out to be lovely and surprisingly laid back.

Also, a few weeks ago, I told Jordan that I had wanderlust, but a trip didn’t fit in our budget. She poked around online and found some ludicrously cheap tickets to Mexico, so we’re going there to visit the tequila.

We’ll sit around doing nothing, and then make a Margarita, and then do nothing some more. I can already tell 2009 and I are going to get along great.

10 Ideas for Pretty Alternative Wrapping

Last year, we were in Argentina for Christmas, and couldn’t find wrapping paper anywhere. I did searches on how to wrap with recycled materials, but most of the ideas I found were fugly. This year, I’ve been collecting some pretty, eco-friendly options:

1. Use vintage scarves, and trinkets in place of bows.

This is a gift I wrapped for a baby shower a while ago. It’s in a vintage silk scarf I got for a dollar at a garage sale. I tied it twice over the top of the box and used a pair of baby booties in place of a bow. It’s similar to the furoshiki concept.

2. Try a reusable wrap cloth.

This one is for sale at Rickrak, but you could also try making one of your own.

3. Make bows from recycled plastic bags.

This plastic bow is from Creature Comforts, and it’s made from a recycled Target plastic bag. Surprisingly cute, huh? Click through for directions.

4. Troll flea markets for containers and embellishments.

This photo is from Lil Fish Studios, it’s a simple kraft paper box embellished with an old velvet ribbon and a vintage belt buckle. When I’m at a garage sale, I look for cheap wooden boxes, ceramic powder boxes, or package embellishments that will make my gift seem extra thoughtful.

5. Make your own pretty boxes.

Check out Eco-Artware’s template for making cool pillow boxes out of old cereal boxes.

6. Forget tape.

This photo is an example from an entire article full of alternative giftwrap options over at Future Present. I like the look of packages sealed with utility clips or clothespins.

7. Dig through your donations box.

This gift is wrapped in scraps leftover from a Halloween costume. It’s part of another article on recycled wrapping over at Enviromom. I never considered using old T-shirts or clothing items to wrap.

8. Use old maps to wrap.

Some cute examples here and here.

9. Repurpose magazines.

This is a bow made of recycled magazines, which you can buy from BellyBuzz on Etsy. If you’re feeling crafty, you can make them yourself.

10. Use recycled paper for tags.

I like the idea of using recycled sheet music to make tags, like these from MissingMyCity’s photostream. You could use parts of old cards, maps, or stationery catalogues.

That’s it! Do you have any pretty ideas for wrapping with repurposed or recycled materials? Feel free to leave links in comments.