Thirteen Acres: Ahoy! It's a Boy!

We are so excited about the upcoming arrival of our first nephew in November!! Chad's sister and brother-in-law are expecting their first baby soon, so along with some close friends, we hosted a baby shower for them at my house on Sunday.

Patrick is an avid fisherman and they live in Tampa, so Amy decided on a nautical theme for the nursery. After all, I have a "beach house in the woods" and Beckett's own nursery was "decked out" in nautical decor, so it was pretty easy for me to come up with a theme that we all could agree on!

"Welcome Aboard, come on in!"

I used a little bit of chevron print burlap ribbon and wrapped it around a life ring that once held a place on Beckett's nursery wall.
Burlap ribbon isn't easily glued (since it's like net) so I ended up just using thumbtacks to hold it in place on the back side of the ring.
I attached some scrapbook letters for a quick message welcoming guests.
If you've ever thrown a shower or party where the crowd was relatively big, you understand
how many times the doorbell rings.
This helped welcome everyone in without feeling as though they needed to knock.

One roll of the chevron ribbon went a long way! I cut the burlap ribbon into pieces and
ran a blue ribbon through for a quick banner for the entryway mirror.
I asked Amy to bring the envelopes from the stationery she was planning on using
to write 'thanks yous' and created a station (complete with blue raspberry saltwater taffy) for everyone to fill out their own envelope.

What busy soon-to-be mother doesn't want a little help?!

I can take absolutely no credit for any of this food!
We had a great group of ladies who helped me host and they all came together for
such a lovely display of sweets to celebrate the arrival of the sweet baby boy!

I adore this silver tone tiered stand my friend Lauren gave me for Christmas a few years ago.
It always looks beautiful with fruit!

I turned the buffet into a station for cutlery, plates and napkins.
I covered the back of a shipwheel (another piece from Beckett's nursery) with wrapping paper,
added another small banner, and some more scrapbook letters.
I just propped the wheel on the easel that normally holds a monogrammed platter for
another nautical touch.
They buoys were also from Beckett's nursery.

These were SUCH a hit! Mrs. Beth brought these decadent individual chocolate trifles.
Absolutely delicious!

My mom has a great recipe for a strawberry shortcake trifle, but this time, she made a blueberry one to stick with the shower colors. I didn't think this was possible, but I liked this even better than the strawberry version!
We also served two kinds of pepper jelly (peach and apricot) over cream cheese (in the background)
with wheat Ritz crackers. I've recently become addicted to the salty sweet combo....and so has the mommy-to-be!

My friend Lauren has been planning her little girl's 2nd birthday (which I cannot wait to take pictures of all her craftiness and blog about)! She's recently been experimenting with baking her own cupcakes and offered to bring some to the shower since she was trying out some more recipes this weekend.
Who am I to turn down cupcakes? And they were out of this world good!
We ended up using some anchor toothpicks that were intended for the fruit that were the perfect topper for the cupcakes!

Cutest petit fours ever!!

I've seen sand dollar cookie recipes on Pinterest and thought they would be a great for a nautical themed party.
My mom made these beautiful cookies with almond accents that sat in a bed of brown sugar sand.
They were delicious and tasted like shortbread.