Category Archives: Party

Baby Shower Tea Party

My dear friend, Beth, had a baby girl in February!

She’s been so loved from the minute we all found out about her existence. Pretty much from the second Beth told me she was pregnant I was planning her baby shower. Another friend of ours from church helped plan it with me & we came up with a theme that we knew Beth would love – Tea Party!

More specifically, Tea for Two at 2:00!

Planning this tea party was so much fun! I even made the invitations myself – inspired by this post from 733 blog.

They were easy to do with Microsoft Publisher & some clip art!

I made the invitations look like tea bags by cutting the top corners & using a string to tie the little tag.

I also made some decorations.

That’s a standard baby shower banner with some added tea cups to go with the theme.

My favorite decoration was a sign I made for the front porch, inspired by this sign I saw on Pinterest.

I took a sheet of poster board, stenciled on & painted the words, & added some cut out tea cups and tea pot. I taped it to a large frame I had & set it out by the front door on a table.

Beth knew we were throwing her a shower, but didn’t know what the theme was until she drove up to the house!

Tea parties mean finger foods, so the menu was pretty easy! Sherlain took care of the tea sandwiches & I did all the desserts (of course).

I got most of the recipes from Pinterest – links below!

Early Grey cookie recipe from The Kitchn

Marshmallow Nutella Cupcakes with whipped cream inspired by this recipe.

These mini cheesecakes are just JELL-O No Bake Cheesecakes with strawberry & blackberry jam swirled in. I made them the night before.

We also had a small cake & fruit salad. There were lots of leftovers!

The drinks were, of course, tea! We had iced sweet tea & iced mixed berry tea. There was also a selection of hot teas.

For party favors my mother in law & I decorated little tea cups with sharpies. I baked them in the oven, but the sharpie still eventually rubbed off of the ones I kept for myself after continual use. It’s OK, at least everyone had a tea cup to drink from at the party!

As a gift & memento for Beth, I bought a plain white ceramic tea pot & all the ladies signed it.

For games we had ‘guess how many safety pins in a jar’, ‘don’t say baby safety pin game’, ‘baby shower gift bingo’, & ‘guess how big the belly is with toilet paper’. I ran that last game by Beth before we played it – she thought it was a great idea & all in good fun!

I made the baby shower bingo cards myself on the computer. It was really easy! I just came up with a basic list of baby supplies for the spaces & copied them in to each block but in a different spot on each card.

Since the shower was in December, we put all the gifts under the Christmas tree.

The baby shower was so much fun! All 15 of us had a great time & everyone made it to my house safely despite the torrential downpour that was happening – it always rains when I throw a party! That’s why the pictures are so dark 🙂

Beth is one of my closest friends & one of the sweetest people I know. Her beautiful daughter is almost 3 months old now!

Zombie Finger Cookies

Makes 24-30 fingers

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
24-30 sliced almonds
lingonberry jam

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with baking spray.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, & salt.
Using a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter & sugar together until light & fluffy.
Add the egg & vanilla. Beat until smooth.
Slowly add in the flour mixture until dough forms.
Using about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough between your palms to form fingers (Giada says about 5-inch-long fingers about 1/2-inch thick). For the knuckles: using a knife, make 1 slit close to the nail bed & 3 slits towards the middle of the finger.
Melt jam in microwave for 30 seconds. Dip sliced almonds in melted jam & then press into the end of each finger to make fingernails.
Arrange the fingers on the cookie sheet & bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until light brown. Transfer the fingers to a wire rack & cool completely.
Dip the blunt ends of the fingers in the warm jam & serve.

Mardi Gras Themed Bridal Shower

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In honor of today being Fat Tuesday, I wanted to do a throw back to the AMAZING bridal shower my BFOTB Frank threw me back in October.

There were games, props, and GREAT food (muffalettas, shrimp po boys, you name it!)

Mardi Gras Bridal Shower Ideas - Mrs. Dessert Monster

Mami & Mom (mother-in-law)

The decorations were great. Even the dogs had beads!

There were Mardi Gras duckies floating in the boozy punch, a wonderful lemon king’s cake made by my mother in law, & pecan pralines to take home. It was one of the best parties I’ve ever been to.