Pinterest...

So... I resisted for what seemed like eternity!  Because after all, if you don't know what you're missing out on, than what's to miss? But... when I finally did give in, I fell hard! Seriously! Do you have ANY idea what fantastic ideas people have floating around out there? Thankfully I've had more than a couple excuses to float around on the web looking at all of the crafty people's smart ideas.  Last weekend we had a little party for Madi's birthday, this weekend I hosted a baby shower for a dear friend from church and next weekend we're throwing my sister's bridal shower at my mom's house! Sheesh, right?!?! 

I decided right off the bat that we needed to kill two bird's with one stone, so I went with a "pink lemonade" theme for Madi's birthday so that we could reuse the colors for the baby shower! Now every year we've debated on how to celebrate Madelyn's birthday.  We never had huge "friend" parties when we were little and I certainly can't justify spending tons of money on a child's party (or an adult's for that matter), but we do have lots of wonderful family and close friends that we love to have an excuse to get together with, so for the last two years we've had a small-ish backyard party with food, family and friends.  This year we had homemade pizza and cupcakes (pink lemonade flavored ;) and of course I didn't take ANY pictures (except one of Madi blowing her candles out). *sigh* 

Anyway, I'm about to finally rip down decorations and I took a few pics before all evidence of cuteness was destroyed!

Tissue Paper Pom Poms!!!  So EASY and FUN and CHEAP! I used this tutorial. You can't tell from these pictures, but I made three big ones and three mini ones. 

This is a blurry shot of a name banner (I made one that said "Madelyn" for Madi's party.  This was for sweet baby Devyn Rae). Again, EASY and CHEAP! Inspiration found here. 

For the baby shower we decided to turn into into a "Southern" theme since Sondra's from Georgia (and loves it there).  I borrowed a GIANT bag of doilies that my Grandma has crocheted over her lifetime and threw them around the house and called it good! =) This was the blog I found that got me started on this, although I altered it and used real ones, not paper ones. =) 

This was cuter than this picture is letting on... It was hard to take a picture of the doily swag without the sun glare ruining it...

White lilacs, mason jars and some more doilies! 

Mmm. Possibly my favorite part - Oatmeal Cookie Peach Cobbler in individual jars.  Inspiration here (and from the Pynchs), but the recipe is one I originally got from Ramie and have made a bunch! I did use homemade canned peaches though instead of fresh and I baked them frozen for about an hour and twenty minutes (with the lid on).  Topped them with a dollop of vanilla ice cream and we were all moaning with delight!!! I have one more I have to eat today because my mom needs the jars back from my sister's shower.  And, yes, I did have one for breakfast too...

To finish with a mason jar theme we drank iced sweet tea in these bad boys (pink lemonade at the bday party ;) and enjoyed our afternoon sans boys (except for Em, of course).  

Thank you, pinterest for making me crafty! Hopefully I'll do a better job of documenting Jess' shower while it's all set up!