Milk and Cookies Shower - Decorations

I know I said I would talk about the rest of the food today, but I still need to get the rest of the recipes from my friends, so I will tell you about my decorations instead.  I was browsing through blogs and I came across the cutest cookies and milk first birthday party http://apartystyle.blogspot.com/2010/02/milk-and-cookies-party_10.html, then I found these cute baby showers: http://designdazzle.blogspot.com/2009/05/milk-cookies-party-baby-shower.html , and just knew I had to throw a cookies and milk baby shower for Kristi!  It was so cute!  I was going to do brown and white, with the tissue pom pom balls and everything.  Then two things happened:  1.  I found these plates,  2.  I found out how expensive the pom pom balls would be to make (a dollar a ball), and when you  are paying for most of the shower, that is just too expensive.  I really liked the paisleys and wanted to go with that theme and cookies and milk.   I looked in the scrapbook paper section at Hobby Lobby and found paper that matched exactly - it had to be made by the same company.

 I took two different size circles ( a glass and a small bowl) and traced out the circles on the scrapbook paper.  My DH sat there and cut them all out for me.  (Isn't he a sweetie?) I must admit that while I was cutting out all of this stuff for the shower, I was desperately praying for a Cricut!  That would have saved a lot of time!  :)  I then cut out different lengths of brown ribbon between 2 - 2 1/2 feet long.  I taped ribbon to the back side of the paper and then glued another piece of paper (the same size, backs together) onto the front.  This made my ceiling decorations and was a lot cheaper than the pom pom balls.

As you can see I did have some help with cutting out the ribbon!,  Squeeky had a blast with the one she stole from my pile!  LOL!

 I hung them above the tables, cookie buffet, and the "refreshment bar".
 I wish I had made just a few more, I had to get skimpy above my food areas.  I did not want to use plastic tablecloths because I thought they would look cheesy, but I could not find brown tablecloths anywhere!  This is a brown curtain, you can use anything for double duty, you just need to think outside of the box, and be creative!

My friend Pam, who was kind enough to open her home and let me host the shower there, had two blue tablecloths and was able to find two brown tablecloths at Ross.  This worked perfect since I had four tables!  In my sewing box I had three pieces of material that my friend Susan ironed under the hems and we used them as table runners to bring the colors together!  On the cookie buffet, I used brown valances to wrap around my cake stands and hide the purple and greens that would not have matched!  I would love some white cake stands!  We used my white dinner plates to serve the cookies on (thank you freecycle!).  I figured we always serve cookies on plates at home, so why not on the buffet? 

For my centerpieces I wanted to stick with the brown and blue theme, and cookies and milk.  (You can tell the second picture is at my house because of the penguins in the background!)  I couldn't find any flowerpots or buckets that were brown or blue.  I bought cheap 89 cent flowerpots from Target and covered them with brown tissue paper.  It took one sheet for each pot and I just centered the pot on top of the paper and pulled up all sides.  I used double sided tape sparingly on the top of the outside and inside to attach the tissue.  I wanted to be able to reuse the pots later.  I bought a lot of ribbon, some it was brown with white polka dots, some blue with brown polka dots and my husband bought me a bigger one that was reversible polka dotted brown and blue.  I used these ribbons on everything to bring the colors together, and they sort of matched the trim on the plates.  I gave the pots to my friend Chrystal and she made the cookie bouquets for me.  She used the no-fail sugar cookie recipe for the bottles http://cakecentral.com/recipes/2055/no-fail-sugar-cookies these are the best cookies ever, I make them all the time!  She bought a big baby bottle cookie cutter from Hobby Lobby and I love the way she made each bottle different!  She did need to use two sticks for the bottles.  For the giant chocolate chip cookies she used the round cookie pop pan from Wilton.  She used moss to top the cookie pots with, but some of it stuck to the cookies, so next time maybe just use tissue paper.  We handed the bouquets out as prizes also.  Double Duty!

 For the refreshment table I bought a huge ice bucket (I splurged on this because I knew I could use it again) and put my ribbon and bow around it using double sided tape for easy removal.  This way I can make it match any color scheme!  I had wanted to use glass milk bottles everywhere, but they are impossible to find without paying an arm and a leg.  Chrystal found some at a yard sale she let me borrow.  We put tea and water in those bottles and used my white pitcher (I have started buying everything in white so I can use them for any occasion) for the strawberry milkshakes.  (Thank you Cynthia and Renee, they were delicious!)

 I did find one brown bucket at goodwill for a dollar.  I decorated it with ribbon and put blue straws (I found them in the dollar bin at Staples) and forks in it.  I did snag the forks from church rather than buying matching forks.  You HAVE to have straws to drink milk shakes don't you?  Notice the scrapbook paper I put underneath?

 We had a hard time finding a place to put the banner, but a lot of time and effort went into this banner, so it was gonna go up!  We tried to put it on the fireplace but it wouldn't stick to the brick.  I had Susan cut the circles out of paper bags (another money saver!), then Chrystal and I drew the chips on them, and Cynthia crumpled them up to make them look like cookies.  My husband helped me figure out how to print the letters out on the computer then helped me cut them out (what can I say?  God gave me a great hubbie!  Do you think he might buy me a cricut now?  maybe - if they weren't so expensive!)  I glued them onto the cookies, then I was running out of time and Cynthia took them home and put the ribbons on for me.  That is what I call team work and some great friends!  :)

I also put small bowls with tea lights and chocolate chips on the table and cookie buffet.  I used the large part of the bowls to cut out circles of my paisley paper and then put the bowls on top. 
Wow, makes me tired thinking about it all again.  I think it is obvious that I even though I was hosting the shower, I did a lot of delegating and had a lot of help!  Don't be afraid to ask for help, that is what friends are for!  Thank you everybody who made this happen!  Tomorrow I will tell you about the games we played, and boy do I have some funny pictures!
If you have any questions or suggestions, please drop me a note, I would love to hear from you!
Thanks,
Missy