On Saturday, Dec 5th 2009 at 2 pm I gave my sister Anna and her husband Keith a baby shower
for their first daughter Clara Jo Meffert. The exciting part of this shower was the big reveal of the gender
of the baby. Only a few select people (including myself) knew that the baby was going to be a
girl, so this shower had to be over the top pink and girly! What a fun way to tell the gender of the baby--
just getting to see the looks and reactions from each of the guests as they walked in the
door was so much fun!
We enjoyed a dessert buffet--pink and girly of course!! We had cheesecake with raspberry topping, pink peppermint swirl cheesecake, pink chocolate dipped strawberries and pretzels, cream cheese and cranberry dip with crackers, chex mix (I know it isn't pink, but we had to have something salty to munch on),
pink sherbet punch and these butterfly cupcakes!
These cupcakes make quite an impression
but are actually pretty easy to make. After baking the cupcakes and allowing them to cool, frost them
in the color of your choice. Melt candy melting wafers in the colors of your choice and place
in frosting bags fitted with a large tip. Draw out a loose butterfly wing design with a black sharpie on a piece of white paper. Place the paper on a cookie sheet and cover with a sheet of wax paper. Follow the outline
of the wings with one color of melted candy wafers. Fill in the wings with a second color of candy wafer and use a toothpick to blend the edges of the two colors together. Remeber not to get ANY moisture in the melting wafers or they will be ruined. Also, you have to work very quickly as the melted wafers cool quickly. Once you have finished a sheet place in the refrigerator for about 15 min--then you can remove them easily without breaking them. Place 2 wings in the frosting on each cupcake and use chocolate frosting
to pipe on the butterfly body!!
I wanted baby Clara to have some special things for her nursery so I crafted this monogram. I used heavy gauge wire and bent it to the shapes I desired--Clara Jo Meffert
. Then I tore fabric into long strips and began to wrap the wire very tightly--gluing both ends. Once all of the letters were covered I embellished them with paper flowers and buttons! I wish I had thought to make these for Addie's room about 4 years ago. I think I just might take down her white letters that spell her name and make her a custom monogram as well!!
I have been making these folded paper "ornaments" since last year when my friend Jen passed the idea on to me--but usually I just use them as gift tags or in Christmas colors as ornaments--this time I decided to make a hanging mobile for Clara. If you have a large paper punch that is very handy--if not, just trace and cut out circles--they work just as well. I chose scrapbook paper to coordinate with Clara's nursery and cut out 8 flower circles for each "ornament" Fold each circle in half and start stacking them and connecting them with double sided tape of a glue stick. Once you get 8 in a stack you add your ribbon in and connect the 2 sides together to form a ball shape. For the mobile I used an embroidery hoop that I painted pale pink and cut my ribbon in staggered lengths to make a spiral shape. Super cute!!
A couple of weeks ago I was forwarded a link to make these ribbon wreaths. I, of course, went right out and bought all of the supplies to make my own Christmas wreath--and after realizing how easy and pretty they turned out I decided that Clara needed one for her room or door as well. I used a 10 inch stirofoam wreath foam and cut all of my ribbon lengths to 13 inches. Then all you have to do is start tying the ribbon into double knots around the wreath form in a very tight pattern. I used almost 50 yards of ribbon for this wreath!! The great part about these wreaths is that you can customize them for any season or room in your house!
My daughter, Addison, was at the baby shower of course, in her party dress and hair bow. After watching/helping me make the butterfly cupcakes she could hardly wait to sit at her little cousins table and eat one!! I love this picture of her licking the frosting off of her fingers.
All in all the shower was a great success. Anna got to surprise a lot of people with the gender of the
baby, got a lot of great gifts and had a fun time overall. Even with all of the work involved I loved getting
to throw a baby shower for my first niece! I couldn't have done it alone--thank you so much to my mom, Emma, Grandma, Aunt Nancy, Sarah and little Addie!
