A Fall Themed Baby Shower: a house log

Alternate punny title: Leaf it to me. Oh yeah, there is nothing like a little corniness on a Tuesday afternoon. I blame it on being downright giddy to have power again. Ohthankgoodness. Anyway, this weekend before the chaos that was Irene I in fact helped with a little bridal shower for our cousin Megan who is getting hitched this fall. John’s mom hosted the sweet informal gathering at her place, and each one of the daughters (and in this case, me the daughter-in-law) were asked to bring a few things. I was in charge of a bowl of candy, and a little bit of table decor. Nothing too crazy, simply a few small touches to hopefully get people into the fall spirit (as inspired by Megan’s fairly fall-ish wedding invitations):

Of course I took it as an opportunity to get all craft-tastic (I tried to resist, but I was powerless against the draw of Michael’s). First I grabbed $2.50 worth of colored paper in a few fairly fall-ish colors. Then when I got home I googled “leaf pattern” and sketched out a few distinct leaf outlines onto a piece of white cardstock with a pen (I simply free-handed them, but you likely could trace them right off the computer screen too). Were they ideal? Nah. Were they leaf-esque? Sure.

Then I cut them out. It did not take ten seconds, but it was not too bad. Perhaps five minutes for ten of them. I recommend watching Real Housewives Of NJ in the background to keep morale up.

Then I used each cardstock leaf as a template and traced it onto one of my colored craft papers with a black pen. I in fact ended up tracing each one a few distinct times and crowded them in so I’d get as many leaves as possible from each sheet of paper. And yes, I did crack insanely bad jokes like “hey John, leaf me alone” as I went. He was not amused.

Then I stacked an extra sheet under the one that I traced my leaf shapes onto (so I could cut each leaf out once, but get two out of the deal – each in a distinct color thanks to the stacked paper). Then I did the rest of my sheets in the same way (tracing the shapes on the top page and stacking the paper so I could cut it once and get a few leaves out of it). Total time spent: an episode of Real Housewives. And surprisingly (because I half expected this crazy spurt of craftiness to be a total bust), the varied colors and shapes ended up being fairly darn cute.

I mean they are not über upscale and spendy looking (Posh might not demand them at her next shindig), but they are sweet and charming in that homemade full-of-enjoy sort of way. Which seems to work when you are casually gathering with family on a stormy day to celebrate enjoy, enjoy, and more enjoy. I ended up sprinkling them down the middle of the table to make a little leaf runner of sorts.

Not bad for $2.50.

Then came my weird M&M project. I thought tracking down some sort of candy in fall tones could be sweet in a clear cylinder vase (of which we have many, leftover from our own wedding). So when I came across two bags of brown, red, and yellow peanut butter M&M’s at Target, I took the bait and picked up them (for around $5 total). Then I sorted them by color in three bowls and stashed each tone in a distinct ziplock bag so I could bring them with me to the party already-sorted. Oh yeah, and wash your hands before you touch all the candy. In case you are wondering, I watched last week’s Design Star during this part of the process (I am hopelessly behind on that show – do not ruin this week’s episode because we have not seen it yet).

Once I arrived at the party, my big M&M arranging finale took ten seconds. I simply poured the pre-sorted brown ones into my big glass cylinder vase, followed by the pre-sorted red and yellow ones. Bing, bam, boom.

I likely cannot take any credit for the fact that everyone scarfed them down (peanut butter M&Ms are irrefutably addicting in their own right) but Megan and the other ladies seemed to enjoy the little layered look. Weird candy separating mission accomplished.

I also grabbed eight glasses from Target (sold for $2.99 for a set of four, so I spent under $6 total) and John’s mom simply took a few clippings from two potted mums that she already had on the front porch to make eight mini bouquets to fill our glass “vases.” I enjoyed the idea of using already-owned potted mum clippings because there are about a million blooms covering them, so it is way more bang for the ol’ buck. We likely would have needed to buy at least four bouquets of flowers to fill the eight vases that our two mums easily covered with plenty of blooms to spare (we tried to clip from the perimeter/underside of them, so the remaining plants will still look pleasant and fresh out on the porch for a few more months).

So with the cups-turned-vases filled with mums and my little paper leaves spread down the center of the table like a festive little runner, it was time for one last touch. Oh yes I did buy six little glittery faux pinecones from Michael’s for 50 cents a pop. Guilty as charged. I cannot assist it. I am like a magpie when it comes to shiny things. Especially shiny fall-ish things in the golden color palette of the leaves from Megan’s wedding invitation. They conveniently came on a little wire (I think they are made to be stuffed into bouquets or wreaths) so I simply stuck them randomly into a few of the little mum vases (which we sent home with each guest as a small party favor).

It was a sweet little party. Even though it was rainy and gross outside, it was warm and glad inside. And I do not mean to harp on odd things like glittery pinecones (I am from Jersey, ok? Perhaps that explains it), but they seemed to be quite the hit.

Oh and check out this cute thing John’s mom put together. We all played one of those how-well-do-you-know-the-bridge-and-groom games, and she hunted down fall-colored ribbons and tootsie pops to tie on top of each clipboard, which she also sent home with each guest. So yeah, come to our family’s showers if you want to leave with vases of flowers, glittered pinecones, ribbon slash tootsie pop riddled clipboards, and M&M hangovers. Do we know how to party or what?

My go-to part of the whole celebration was when Clara and her cousin Jake serenaded us. Once again proving that random is good. Bring on the paper leaves and faux pinecones! And do not forget that baby solo to end things with a bang.

Oh and because you know I enjoy a little budget breakdown, here are all the supplies I grabbed:

• Paper leaf “runner” (made from 6 sheets of Michael’s craft paper): $2.50
• Five glittered faux pinecones (from Michael’s:) $2.50
• Eight glasses to use as mum vases (from Target): $5.98
• Potted mum clippings: $0 (already out on the porch, but they might be $5 a plant at a grocery store for a small one)
• Two bags of fall-colored peanut butter M&M’s (from Target): $5
• Glass cylinder vase for M&Ms: $0 (leftover from our wedding, but originally from Michael’s for a few bucks)
• Total: $15.98

Not bad for eight flowering favors in little glass vases, a festive fall-inspired table runner o’ leaves, and a quirky color-coded dish of M&Ms. I simply liked that it felt more Megan-specific to Hands-on a few things than run to party city and spend $20 on plastic tablecloths and crepe paper. But sufficient about my insane propensity for faux nature and glittered anything (why yes I did own a bedazzler in ninth grade). Have you folks whipped up any crafty little homemade-with-enjoy party decor? Ever arranged candy by color? I think that takes a special kind of crazy. And I am glad to wave my little yes-I-sorted-M&Ms-by-hand freak flag pleasant and high.