DIY Owl Baby Shower

Posted on March 6, 2013 by communidiy

Well, that about does it for my Owl Baby Shower! I have shared with you so many sweet and fun handmade DIY owl ideas. Of course, there was much more, including games, food, and other details galore, which I simply cannot create tutorials for.

So I will leave you with some pictures and descriptions of other highlights at this DIY Owl Baby Shower. Please use them as inspiration for your next creative endeavor!

Menu:

Mommy-to-Be is a nutritionist and eats gluten-free. So, we created the yummiest, healthiest, menu for her baby shower. All of the items were homemade by myself and friends. And it was SERIOUSLY delicious!

Gluten Free Quiche, recipe from Budget Bytes
(My favorite) Strawberry Salad, recipe from Baked Bree
Zuccini and Kale chips, recipe from Mommy-to-Be’s blog Pura Vida Nutritian
Gluten Free Pear and Parmesan Stuffed Mushrooms, recipe from Yummly
Caprese Salad Skewers, recipe from Mimi + Meg
BBQ Chicken and Veggie Skewers
Frozen Berry Skewers, as a garnish for the champagne

Desserts:

All of the amazing desserts were created by my incredibly talented mother, who flew 1000 miles to help out with the shower! She made Owl Cake Pops from Bakerella’s Cake Pop Book with gluten-free vanilla cake mix, lemon frosting, and chocolate candies, as well as gluten-free Black Bottom Cupcakes, similar to these, with buttercream frosting. Then we filled vases with the Mother-to-Be’s favorite candies, such as Swedish Fish and Salt Water Taffy.

Games/activities:

We had a number of fun games and activities at the shower, but there were two that were particularly special, 1) Guess Their Age and 2) Birthday Card Time Capsule.

In Guess Their Age, I collected old baby pictures of the Mother-to-Be and Father-to-Be and had their mothers tell me their age in each baby pictures. In no particular order, I numbered each baby picture on the backside, making a key as I went that stated the picture number with the age of the Mother/Father-to-Be in it. On the day of the shower we strung the pictures up in number order for all the guests to admire. Later we played the actual game where each guest got a piece of paper and a pen and guessed the age of the Mother/Father-to-Be in each picture. The person who guessed the most pictures correctly won!

In the Birthday Card Time Capsule, I created 54 handmade birthday cards with the birthday age on the front of each card. Meaning, I create three sets of cards depicting numbers 1-18 on the front. I did this by cutting out the numbers with colorful paper and gluing them onto blank cards that I purchased at the craft store. Then as each guest arrived, I handed them one card (again in no particular order), asked the to open it, and write a birthday message to the Baby-to-Be for the age depicted on the card. So, when a guest received a card that had the number 10 on it, they wrote a birthday message inside the card for the Baby-to-Be’s 10th birthday. Then I asked each guest to place their card in the envelope, seal it, and write the birthday age on the outside. After all the cards we finished, I collected them and gave them to the Mother-to-Be and instructed her to have Baby-to-Be open and read the birthday cards on her corresponding birthday.

This activity was a special one as the guests were honored and the Mother-to-Be touched to write to Baby-to-Be future advice and well wishes! Really such a great hit!

Thank you all for reading and commenting! And a very special thank you to all who helped out, you know who you are. This baby shower was a collaborative, collective effort of the Mother-to-Be’s friends who helped to make this day so special!

On a side note, the Baby-to-Be is now two weeks old from the date of this blog post, and as cute and sweet as a button!

Monday Mantra- “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world.”

Posted on March 4, 2013 by communidiy

I am reading another powerful book, The Seat of the Soul, by Gary Zukav, who is a Harvard Graduate, Physicist, and (in my own words) a Master of Consciousness.

I was first introduced to the work of Gary Zukav on my favorite inspirational show, Super Soul Sunday, when he was being interview by Oprah. He had some amazing things to say, that were not only brilliant, but also incredibly unique to me; He described life, love, and relationships in a way that I have never heard before. This gave me that same ‘tip of the tongue’ feeling I have felt before; the feeling that the information he imparted I knew all along at the core of my being. You know what I mean????

I wish I could explain this better. There really are no words for it.

Here is a little snippet to show you what I mean…………

So from his book, The Seat of the Soul, I am leaving you with this weeks mantra:

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. You receive from the world what you give to the world.” – Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul

This week, consider the possibility that your very being effects everything in and outside of you AND every single noun (person, place, or thing) and non-noun (spirit, soul, feeling, energy, universe, and everything else in-between) there ever was.

Happy Birthday!

Posted on March 1, 2013 by communidiy

Happy Birthday, communiDIY!

I can’t believe it has been a year since the conception of communiDIY and two years since I originally set out on this blogging endeavor!

I am humbled and so incredibly grateful for this experience and for you, my readers! Thank you for sharing in this experience with me!

Now, since I have been here a year; since we are all friends; since we are striving for connection…….I think it is about time for a plug, social networkly speaking.

Although a part of me hates to do this, another part of me loves it! Yes, its social networking But it’s also human connection

It may seem rather shallow and insignificant, but when I examine it more fully, I can see that is just my own insecurity.

My single goal for this blog, and for living a life of service, is to inspire connection among others. And, I must admit, we have been blessed with the technological capabilities and forums of social networking, making human connection easier than ever!

Please join me on this journey and in celebrating my first communiDIY birthday by following me on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and Etsy.

You’ve got one. I’ve got one. Let’s connect and be inspired together.

Hope to hear from you soon!

DIY- Owl Baby Shower Flowers and Centerpieces

Posted on February 27, 2013 by communidiy

I’m sorry I got a little side-tracked from my DIY Baby Shower posts. I am back to finish them out strong! Today, the flowers!

My favorite part of any fabulous Soiree?

The flowers.

We had so much fun checking out the LA Flower Mart for wholesale flowers for our handmade centerpieces.

I have lived in the LA area for over 10 years and I finally made it to the flower mart! On a side note, I have already been back!

When it came to the flowers, I did quite a lot of research when preparing for this baby shower. My inspiration started with this picture from Ella Bella Floral Design:

I mean, those colors! Simply gorgeous.

When I originally began looking for a florist to help me with the centerpieces, I was rather disappointed.

First, when you go to a florist they want to know exactly what type of flower, what color, and the exact number you will need.

Secondly, they basically charge you an arm and a leg.

Lastly, once you give them all of this specific information and payment, then and only then will they order the flowers for you. So if you planned to be able to see the flowers before hand, too bad, so sad. They don’t have them.

So, a few weeks before this baby shower was underway, I decided to wing it! I said goodbye to all the florist options and set my sights on the LA Flower Mart. We made arrangements to leave super early in the morning the day before the baby shower to handpick the flowers for our centerpieces. And I am so happy we did!

(FYI- when planning a trip to the LA Flower Mart, go early! They open at 5am to members, and 6am to the public. First come first serve, and one they are gone, they are gone. To get the best, go early and thank me later.)

Not only does the Flower Mart have a huge array of flowers, even if they don’t have the exact flower you imagine, you will undoubtedly to find something comparable.

Since my inspiration image is a rather tropical bouquet, I knew we would have some difficulty choosing flowers in the middle of December. However, with rows and rows of gorgeous and fresh flowers, the LA Flower Mart certainly proved to be the best option.

We were able to find many of the same flowers, as in my inspiration image, and many more comparable flowers that were also also more affordable. All in all we bought about 8 different bunches of flowers, including white stock, bright yellow spider mums, coral roses, orange ranunculus, tall bells of Ireland, and willowy green amaranthus.

The best part? All of these flowers were amazingly affordable. In fact, had we gone with a florist instead, the same flowers would have cost at least double, if not triple, the price we paid at the Flower Mart!

The day of the baby shower, we took the buckets of flowers and the hand-dyed assortment of vases and mason jars and haphazardly placed flowers inside, creating non-uniform and random assortment of flowers for the center of each table.

Might I say, it was one of my most favorite parts of designing this baby shower! See for yourself……

(My lovely and helpful co-party planner)

As you can see, keeping with our owl theme, we added numerous owl tchotchke’s, and homemade paper peonies, and framed owl invites, to add fullness to each of the table’s centerpieces.

What do you think?

Monday Mantra- “Please Take Responsibility For the Energy You Bring Into This Space.” My Stroke of Insight

Posted on February 25, 2013 by communidiy

After some research, I found that this weeks mantra comes with a free printable, all thanks to Kind Over Matter! Click the link to print yours!

This weeks mantra is one that I found while watching Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday, as I usually do on Sunday mornings. While interviewing Panache Desai, she shared about this quote from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, author of My Stroke of Insight.

Admittedly, I have not read the book, but her story sounds incredible. Dr. Taylor is a Harvard Neuroscientist who suffered a significant stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. Afterwards, she could not walk or talk and she had no memories of her past. She placed a sign outside of her room as she was recovering from her stroke that said, “Please take responsibility for the energy you bring into this space.”

Watch and be moved by her retelling of her story here on TED Talks:

You may have not had the ‘stroke of insight’ to feel what Dr. Taylor is explaining, but you may believe in the power of “energy,” and how it is carried and presented by each individual.

Now, you and I both know that we can’t control the energy of others. You can feel one’s energy when they enter a room….. whether it is joyful, angry, distracted, or anxious, you know it. When they leave the room, sometimes their energy lingers, leaving you feeling much of the same. You find that your energy is now mirroring theirs, and you present as such.

This can be a bit of a vicious cycle if that lingering energy is one that you perceive as negative. However, what if this individual came into your space with positive energy?!

And what if you can enter your space, or any space for that matter, with the same kind of positive energy?; keeping in mind that only YOU are responsible for YOUR energy.

Better yet, what if you could really KNOW that your energy was connected to the energy of others? What if you could really KNOW what this meant?

Try it out this week and see how it feels.

Try to place the free printable sign above in your livingroom, cubicle, or car and see how it changes the energy around and within you.

Have a good week!

One Second of Love

Posted on February 21, 2013 by communidiy

It’s finally here!

Hope you all had a great and LOVEing Valentines Day! Thank you to all who participated in the making of this handmade, community video project, One Second of Love video! All your LOVEs and beautiful and, well, LOVEly!

Also, thanks again to Cesar Kuriyama for the inspiration!

Now, without further ado…..

Reminder- One Second of Love

Posted on February 13, 2013 by communidiy

Don’t forget about this LOVEly community project inspired by Cesar Kuriyama’s One Second Every Day!

A little refresher…….

Step 1: Anytime between now and February 14, 2013 (tomorrow), AKA Valentines Day, I want you to video record a very small snippet of something that inspires LOVE in you. Please make sure that the video recording is no more than 30 seconds in length.

This can be anything at all; a smile from a LOVEd one; a leaf dancing in the wind; a newborn baby; a warm cup of copy; your favorite pair of shoes; a good hair day; a LOVEing embrace; a beautiful piece of architecture; jumping in a rain puddle; arriving at baggage claim; riding a bike; helping a stranger.

Step 2: Email your video recoding directly to me at communidiy@communidiy.com

When I have received all your LOVEly video recordings, I will cut the videos down to one fabulous second each and edit all of them together to create one LOVEing little film that I will post here on February 21, 2013.

I do hope that you send in a video and take part in this creative and kind opportunity to showcase your LOVE!

communiDIY

Where social responsibility is handmade.