Handy Tool

For all of the brides out there, and planners too, theknot has this wonderful tool for budget planning.  Do check it out.

"Green," Pink, and Lots of Black

This weekend was a baby shower given by one of the partners of ele3.  The honoree is a woman whose favorite holiday is Halloween, and favorite color is black.  Now, I would NOT call her Gothic by any means, her preference in black is tasteful, and is shown by the adorable little baby clothes that she registered for, and the baby room, done in pink and black polka dots.  She was given 5 black onesies, with the saying "my little black dress" in silver.  She also received hand sewn blankets and other hand made clothes that were black, but with the accent color pink.

For the color scheme we used lots of black, a touch of pink, and going "green", and what's the golden rule of going "green?" That's right!  Renew, reuse, recycle, and supporting Michigan businesses, I like to throw this one in for good measure.  

To support our local businesses we purchased food from nearby farmers, and food from Meijer, a Michigan based grocer.  I would have liked to tell you that we picked fruit and veggies from out back, but we just started here, so maybe next year we can have an ele3 garden.  We wanted to keep with the black theme, so we chose black magic roses from family owned and operated, The Flower Garden, a florist in town.  We reused pink, and black polka dot cardstock, glass bowls, linens, and borrowed dishes from family, as it is better to use real dishes than paper, in the "green" world.   Lastly, we found a very cool organic ribbon that we used to tie the napkins and silverware together.  This wonderfully rip, tear, and curl ribbon is from Cream City Ribbon.

And the present from the hostess was a book called Raising Baby Green.  

Ahhhh, a happy mommy-to-be, and a happy earth.