a vintage cowboy baby shower

Hard to believe it's been OVER 2 months since I last popped in but summer is always a busy time and more importantly, our little family has grown again... I don't think I'd mentioned that our little Miss Bee and her parent's were expecting an addition in mid-June.  And like babies will do, this one came a wee bit early on June 5th, much to our surprise and delight.  Like our first grand-baby we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl so a shower was planned for after the birth... as you can probably guess by the shower theme, "it" was a boy!

I, as the queen of party themes, was set for a "vintage cowboy" theme for a boy and a "Scandinavian" theme if a girl.  When our Little Bug was about 3 weeks old we had a photo shoot and this photo became our invitation, although the crocheted cowboy hat isn't as obvious in this pic, we couldn't resist the fact that he was looking directly at the camera!  The invites are from Snapfish and are a "flat" card, like a postcard, and are printed on heavy card-stock.  I've used these for invitations before and am always pleased.  The reverse side included all the shower information as well as an additional photo.

My daughter lives about 1 1/2 hours south of me and her request was to hold the shower at her house... as it was going to be the beginning of August when the shower was held I knew we would have it in her backyard.  Her patio is covered and this little area was just perfect for string garlands/buntings back and forth.

In addition to the actual garland/buntings I decided to add a length of pom pom fringe in cream, brown rick rack and a vintage looking lace trim.  This area from the house to a post was about 10 feet and already had a plethora of hooks to use!

An easy project was this torn fabric garland... gingham and some cowboy fabric was knotted onto a length of jute twine.

My original ideas was to make book buntings (like these) and I found a couple of old, beat up cowboy books to use... however a week or so before the shower I was at an estate sale in our local "big city" and couldn't not believe my eyes when I entered one of the bedrooms... a room covered in real, vintage cowboy wallpaper!!

I quickly snapped a few pictures, close up, with my phone but not really knowing what I was going to do with them.

Then I realized I could order the same "invite" styled cards from Snapfish!  I selected rounded corners and to make the "back side" pretty I used a photo I had taken of the end of a building here at Red Gate Farm (more on that later in the post!)... (Of course I failed to take a photo from the other side so you only see one of the "cowboy wallpaper" images here but this wallpaper was featured in another spot so keep reading!)

I love how these turned out and printed on card stock that is pretty heavy they will be durable and ready for another party!

Under the swagged buntings/garlands was the food tables.

Once again my trips to my favorite thrift store paid off in this piece of large red and white gingham.  This must be at least 5 or so yards of fabric at just a couple of dollars, draped over the white cloth covered tables it looks like a western meal is about to be served.

A view from above...

The local thrift store also was the where I found this vintage leather purse for under $2.00!  One of those tooled or embossed leather purses was the perfect vessel to hold paper napkins, in a bandanna print, and the gusseted bottom meant it could stand on it's own.

The metal plates are actually 8 inch pizza pans, found for cheap at a restaurant supply store.

Zinnias from my garden in an enameled coffee pot... along with one of the cards used on the "wallpaper" bunting.

Couldn't resist another zinnia shot... the oranges and yellows really pop against the blue coffee pot.

The center of the food table was the spot for a couple of my vintage tin Marx toy buildings.

A ranch house in the background and a cabin in the foreground.

Although the cabin was a very inexpensive thrift store find a couple of years ago, the ranch house was recent and purchased just in time for the shower.  It came with fence pieces and all kinds of little figures (ie cowboys), a tree, a cactus, horses in many forms and even some furniture!

This roping cowboy seems to have fallen off his horse...

The ranch house has a cute covered porch... just the right spot to sit a spell.

An old soda pop crate was turned upside down to add a bit of height and some needed weathered wood to the vignette.

Love the graphics on the old tin doll houses and building... this one even has stone chimney.

One of my galvanized metal windmills was tucked in next to the tin houses... and galvanized was everywhere in the serving trays/dishes.

A few cowboy hats were spread around...

One from Hobby Lobby but the rest came from my thrift store.

Miss Bee had to try them all on... she makes a pretty cute cowpoke!  I can't believe how grown up she is... and she's really loving being a big sister to Little Bug.

The desert or sweets table was perpendicular to the food table.

I went through my vintage blocks and had enough to spell cowboy!

As well as Little Bug's initials... yep, he has two middle names!

And I promised the other "wallpaper" pic... well this is it!  Old wallpaper is so fun, especially the ones meant for children's rooms!

The sunflowers were a must, from my garden, and the gingham thermos you may remember from last summer's farm themed baby shower.

The back view of the sunflowers... they are especially prolific this summer!

A pot of zinnias was tucked into the corner and a tray of petit fours is in the background.

Another wood crate for height, root beer salt water taffy, hay stack cookies and ranger cookies for everyone to enjoy.

Paper napkins can blow away but a conveniently placed horse shoe keeps them in place!

And no party or holiday is complete without my famous sugar cookies!  I even went the extra mile and cut them out in western shapes and decorated them!  I've been following a new obsession... Jenny Cookies and this is her method of decorating... not bad for my first attempt and now I'm excited to give it a try again... check her out if you haven't, she's a PNW local!

Stars with "S" for Little Bug's name... or sheriff.

As well as cowboy boots and cowboy hats... unfortunately I ran out of the lighter color of icing and used the darker accent color on the remaining boots... then didn't take the time to get a better picture of the nicer boots and hats!  Oh well, they all tasted the same!

A rustic wood desk served as a little drink station... another wood box/crate elevated one of the dispensers.

A few of my left over zinnias and marigolds prettied up the base of the desk.

An oil cloth bunting swagged along the front...

Mason jars and paper straws, it isn't a party unless there are paper straws!

This cute little vintage embroidered pillow case covered a part of the top of the desk... I always pick these up at my local thrift store.  Someone went to a lot of work on these two little ponies!

The cutest little pair of cowboy boots were tucked into an empty spot... only $7.99 on Zulily!  Not sure they will ever be worn but they look pretty good here.

Paper straws... enough said.

Little jars of blueberry jam, raspberry jam and apple butter were placed in market baskets as party favors to take home.

My vintage child's chalkboard served as a reminder... and paper cupcake wrapped were used as jar toppers.

If you've followed me or checked out some of the other shower posts, you'll see that I'm a big fan of making a little booklet for any shower games that will be played and this shower wasn't any different.  The books included clothes pins needed for a game to be played through out the shower... you lost one if someone heard you say "cute"... kind of a hard one at a baby shower!

I almost always use a photo on the cover, this time the photo was one I had take of the end of our chicken coop before my husband added on to it... I thought it would make a good photo for this and I just used picmonkey to add the text... super easy and cheap as I just had a few photos printed and taped them on the books with good old washi tape!

One of the games all lined up and ready to go...

Super easy shower game... each bag holds an object that starts with the letter attached... so "b" could be a bib or a blanket and guests try to guess what the item is.  We allowed folks to pick the bags up and shake them but NO squeezing!  I've also seen this game where you don't get to touch the bags so it's a straight guess as to what's inside.  The new mama gets to keep all the baby items at the end of the shower!

And the star?  Little Bug?  Well he was officially 2 months and 1 day old at the shower... growing like a weed and getting all squishy like babies do.

Although he spent most of the day being passed around and looking like this, after all cowboys work hard and need their sleep!

And me?

In exchange for hauling a packed car of stuff 1 1/2 hours there and back, decorating everything in sight, baking and decorating tons of sugar cookies... well I had the best deal...

Lots of snuggles and kisses to my Little Bug, as well as receiving lots of kisses from my Miss Bee!

Hoping to get back in the swing of things here... I have lots of ideas I'd like to share!

Chris at Red Gate Farm