a couple weeks ago i had the pleasure of hosting a shower for my sweet friend joy, who had just welcomed home her 18month old son ezra  from korea!  we had been waiting for him for about 2 years, so this was cause to celebrate!

as soon as we first saw his picture, i started planning his shower in my head, and then on pinterest.  my ideas changed over time, as you can see on my pinterest board, but i am so happy with where i ended up!

because ezra had to travel across the world to get here, i thought a globe theme seemed appropriate ;)

most of the globes were from my collection i keep above my kitchen cabinets and scattered throughout the house, and some were borrowed.

i ran a roll of kraft paper down the center of our big dining room table, and covered the 2 additional folding tables in white sheets.

because joy is so well loved, i had a lot of help with this shower.  another friend of ours and her kids wrapped all the bottles and jars with varying colors of blue and green yarn.

 we originally talked about using a variety of white flowers for the bottles, but there wasn’t much available, then my friend found these feathery grasses on the side of the road and they worked great!  and they were free, which is always good, and added a bit more masculinity to the whole look.

 even though its more work, if i can i love having the tables set for the guests rather than having a stack of plates near the food.  there’s just something extra special about it.

 my friend also cut strips of an old map and wrapped them around the napkins, and sealed it with a little sticker with ezra’s name, his birth date, and his homecoming date.

 ezra came home to 3 older siblings and this is his big sister realizing her baby brother’s name is on a sticker!

 i have been wanting to try making some paper medallions and this was the perfect time to try them out.  they were so easy that even sean and the kids made some for me.  the ones with more intricate designs were from a martha stewart kit i got from consumer crafts (on sale – yay!).

  joy and i always throw showers together since she is so good in the kitchen and i’m… not.  so thankfully, another friend came to the rescue with a ton of cooking experience and organized the whole thing – yay!

we asked several other friends to help out by bringing baked goods and guess what:  they ALL brought scones!  it was pretty funny to have a buffet of scones, but i didn’t complain since i love them!

our friend heading up the food also made some homemade yogurt, topped with fresh berries and sliced almonds, which we kept in a bowl of ice on the counter.

 

 each yogurt was in a tiny mason jar (the ones my kids drink out of) and the lid was topped with a piece of paper and a spoon was tied on with a few wraps of baker’s twine.

i kept the drinks super simple, just water, lemonade and coffee.  these 2 drink containers have really come in handy over the years!  the white one was from pottery barn and the igloo one was from a garage sale, i think.

 one difficult thing about using mason jars at parties is that everyone’s glass looks alike, so adding some simple tags with washi tape (from target, in the office supply section) solved the problem!

 a fun container with crazy adorable paper straws is such a fun touch.

 and i added a little washi tape to wooden stirrers for the coffee drinkers.

 joyful :)

 a couple washi tape banners strung on baker’s twine, hanging from my shelves.

 and i just swapped out a few details on my mantle – added the wrapped jars and a “welcome home ezra” banner.

 one of my favorite details of the shower was that joy’s sister gave the devotional.  joy also was adopted from korea as a baby and her sister was able to share her memories of their mom praying for her baby across the world – it was so sweet!