I had the honor of hosting my dear friend A’s baby shower. I take these life roles, maid of honor, bridesmaid, god mother, baby shower host seriously. Also notable, this is the first “major” event since I discovered Pinterest. I must say that in a strange way I am glad I wasn’t on Pinterest when I got married almost 6 years ago. It might have just been too much.   Back to shower – the theme needed to be gender neutral. I prefer activities or crafts over games. The mother-to-be was pretty clear that she wanted nothing to do with melting candy bars in diapers or baby food tasting. THANK GOODNESS! I do not like most shower games, but would have 100% made it happen if it was A’s life dream to play said games.

Inspiration: Beehive cake pan (Christmas gift from bro and SIL). Its not every day that I would cook a beehive cake, although I am pretty good at it now…. from here it jumped to alphabet (such a logical organizational thing) and morphed from Bb, Bee to Bee is for Baby. Googling revealed that I was not alone in this idea and it was nice to have confirmation and continued inspiration.  The details:

• Pennants (dying for a reason to make some)
• Yellows, greens, kraft paper brown
• Tissue paper poms (again just looking for a reason!)
• Personal collection of bee themed paraphenelia
• Activities that family could participate in given that they are far away and only able to attend in spirit.

I can’t tell you how I finally arrived at the idea other than the creative process…. but I came up with “your three words” (like GMA) photos and a collection of “favorites” from the guests.  The words have been compiled to create canvas word art for the nursery  and the favorites (e.g. animal, bird, insect, nursery rhyme, advice, kid friendly recipe) for other deliverables. The animals/birds/nursery rhymes were used to create the onsies.  The pictures came mostly from modifying clip art and google. {note: I am NOT selling them in current state}.  The advice and other info will be used to create a user manual of sorts, with pictures of shower and snapshots of the “three words” activity that we captured in a homemade photo booth (ala Sparkbooth). Here is the homework I sent out. Homework – Bee is for Baby!

Food- wanted all the food to start with B. Did require some creativity but ultimately    served up:

• Beecher’s mac-n-cheese (thawed and baked in muffin tins with panko and paprika on top)
• Banana bread (fresh baked)
• Beehive honey orange cake (recipe that came with pan, increased 25% and using orange extract)
• Basil apricot and goat cheese bites
• Butterscotch popcorn (quick and easy, served up in cupcake liners)
• Bacon wrapped dates
• Brie ham puffs (Thank You Trader Joe’s)
• Butter waffle cookies (ditto)
• Bagel chips and baguette slices with baked spinach leek dip
• Buttered popcorn, pear and mango jelly bellies
• Blood orange with basil signature cocktails (vodka) and mocktails (dry soda)
• ‘Berries filled with cheese cake (strawberries with vanilla cream filling)
• Miscellaneous (yes, does not start with B but theme colors or just darn cute): TJ’s meringues, theme color M&Ms, salted caramels etc
• Sweet favors: honey mints, bit’o honey, caramels, M&M and Jelly Bellies, Lil’Debbie Honeybuns

Activities: Eating, laughing, photo booth, Q&A with mom-to-be, gifts and diaper advice.

The Q&A involved A guessing how dad-to-be answered a serious of questions. Turned out to be pretty fun, but I probably could have shared the questions with her in advance. She did great on the spot though. In addition, we all wrote special messages and advice for the expectant father on a bunch of newborn diapers, for those late night diaper situations. Doesn’t matter if you know front from back of a diaper, you can still be witty! Some faves: Duck! Diaper backwards is repaid, .. the pitch, its a line drive and it’s foul… just like this! Potty training is the ultimate goal and many others.

Details: tissue paper poms, pennants, paper garland, utensils, glasses and onsies clothes line. 

I really love the paper poms, I tried them with wax paper and they turned out splendid (would be great for weddings too) and were easy to work with. I also incorporated black and polka dot tissue with yellow and kraft brown tissue to resemble a bee.  These are still adorning my home – too cute to take down.

To avoid  excessive dish washing and accommodate a group of any size, I opted for compostable paper plates, bamboo utensils (also fit right into color scheme) and jars for glasses.  Adornments involved fabric strips, bee shaped and yellow buttons.

I am happy to share more details on the items mentioned.