Purplelicious!

No, not the children's story book, but a perfectly purplelicious baby shower! That's what I'm talking about! Last month, I had the joy & privilege of helping to host a baby shower for my sweet friend Jen's fourth little blessing! My friend Jenna & I put our heads together to come up with some ideas for the shower...Jen is having a baby girl & she said her favorite color was purple, so we put those together for a whole girly, fun, sugar & spice & everything nice purple, plum, lavender baby shower! Jenna scoured the web for some great inspiration & the ideas started rolling in...a purple Sugar & Spice sweets buffet for the party favors, big purple tissue pom poms & paper lanterns, sparkle & texture, all perfectly purple & perfectly fun to do! We contrasted all of the purple with a kiwi green & also used circles as part of the theme. 

The fabulous invitation that Jenna designed & hand made!

And the fabulous Mackenzie Grace banner that Jenna made for the window!

It looked so pretty with the banner, tissue flowers & paper lanterns. I made the lanterns in about 10 minutes! They are my new favorite party decoration to whip up, can't wait to make more!!

Jenna also made these adorable monogrammed napkin rings!

We used purple flowers in vases with circle slices of lime! (These smelled SO good!)

I made the purple ribbon topiary for the table centerpiece. 

It started out looking like this...

But a few spools of ribbon & some straight pens are all you need to make a beautiful topiary! I had made a red, white & silver one for Christmas a few years ago, so I just took off the Christmassy ribbon & replaced it with the purple. I also spray painted the pot silver. 

For the food we tried to the theme of purple, green & round!

We had chicken salad sandwiches on rolls; mozzarella, basil & spinach skewers; green veggies with dip served in a purple cabbage; round mini-quiches. 

There were individual glasses filled with purple fruits & topped with a dollop of whipped cream & a kiwi slice!

I even made a purple potato salad!

 Made from actual purple sweet potatoes!

 They were fantastic & SO purple in color!

They cooked up so beautifully!

Instead of a traditional cake, we did brownie bites frosted with purple frosting & topped with cute little flags!

Now for the dessert buffet, YUM!!!

Sugar & spice & everything nice...this table was loaded with sweet treats!

Look at the fancy marshmallows that Jenna dipped in candy coating & then rolled in purple sugar! TOO cute!

 Pretzels dipped in purple chocolate, Jellybeans, M&Ms, and more!

All of the lovely shower guests were able to fill up a treat bag with whatever their sweet tooth requested! 

Oh, we can't forget the punch! I absolutely L-O-V-E punch!!!

One of the reasons I enjoy hosting things like baby showers is just to have a reason to make punch! My basic recipe involves pineapple juice, ginger ale, sherbet and frozen fruit. This time I also added a can of frozen grape juice concentrate to give it a beautiful purple hue. It looked beautiful & tasted SO yummy, too!

Jenna, Jen & I (and Lucy!!)

Sophie & Jen's daughters enjoying some treats!

Present time! 

Of course, my girls were eager to help Jen with the presents!

Jen & her sweet girls, Bridget & Erin! And now she has another sweet girl to snuggle...baby Mackenzie Grace arrived this past weekend! What a joy it was to help throw this shower to welcome baby Mackenzie Grace, now I can't wait to meet her!!