Today I am changing things up a bit with a baby shower planning post.  Not the usual travel stuff, but you know, “a change can do you good”… lol  

I always loved doing arts and crafts as a kid and now as an adult, I use party planning to fill that void.  Every once in a while I get inspired and decide to host my friends (or family) for a party where I have taken the time to think of a theme and carefully plan out the menu and the decorations.  In this case, one of my best friend is having a baby and I couldn’t resist throwing together a baby shower.  

Now I am not one for baby blues and pinks, my general aesthetic is always more classic with neutral blacks and white.  However, I do love some gold and so the theme Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was born (ha see what I did there, born… baby to be born…!)  I did think about about doing navy instead of black because it is a baby boy, but I felt I had more black accessories I could use and thus more convenient.

Baby Shower Invites

Even though evites are super convenient and free, given my small guest list I knew I wanted to hand-craft my invites instead.  I looked around on Etsy and Pinterest for inspiration and eventually put together my own idea based on what supplies I had.  I wanted white invitations but the cardstock I bought was too thick and wouldn’t work in my printer.  So in the end I settled with beige paper that I already had.  

My mom sews quite a bit and I lucked out by finding a matching beige ribbon for the invite saving me a few dollars.  The only thing I ended up purchasing was the gold cardstock for the star at Michaels.  I love the way they turned out.  I used envelops from cards I had (and never used for the past 10 years) and formatted the invite so it would fit.

I also had clear labels that I printed the address on.   When I went to the postal office I had to pay a premium because they were too thick because of the bow. Something to keep in mind if you are sending more than a handful of invites.

Decorations

I wanted to keep the decorations minimalistic but classy.  Before heading out to buy anything I like to look around the house for anything I can re-purpose.  I also have a box of decorations from previous events I like to go through for potential ideas. 

One of the ideas I had seen online was to use frames to showcase sayings or pictures.  I found two black frames around the house (incidentally both had been dollar store purchases years ago) and thought they would work nicely. 

In the smaller frame I printed the words “twinkle twinkle little star” like the invites I had prepared.  And in the larger frame I printed a sheet of music of the song.  I loved the overall effect it gave and both frames were used to decorate the food table. 

Table Centrepieces

I found a mason jar filled with clear glass beads and some electronic tea lights that had been used for my 30th birthday.  I placed some of the beads in two smaller mason jars and placed the tea light inside for a very simple table decoration and mood lighting.  I added black ribbon (bought a Fabricville) to tie in with the black details.  I also lucked out with gold star confetti that I happen to find in an old box from my grandmother.

The rest of the beads went in a tall mason jar.  I used wooden skewers to make three stars in different colors and sizes, which I then placed in the middle.  Super easy and inexpensive.

Napkins

I find napkins are such a cheap and easy way to dress up a table and capitalize on a theme. Plus they are functional as a decoration so you can keep using the leftovers in the weeks that follow. I checked out a few places (Dollarama, Party Expert) but finally found some I liked at Micheals. The gold striped napkins were perfect for my cooler scheme and with a 45% off coupon, they were an inexpensive purchase.

Baby Shower Party Favours

I debated between two options for the party favors.  My first idea was to hand out star-shaped cookie cutters. I was considering attaching a thank you note and maybe a mason jar with sugar cookie mix.  But given that there were some little girls also in attendance who would like to get their own party favour, I headed to Etsy to look for something everyone would enjoy.

I was so excited when I found this perfect item that worked perfectly with the theme from Plum Polka Dots (check out her shop here). This set of hair elastics was inexpensive and everyone needs extra elastics in their lives! I also thought they would like very pretty at each place on the table. I customized the bottom message to better fit with the party. I happily got my order in about a week and they were exactly as described. I definitely recommend this shop!

The Meal

It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to serve as the meal. I really wanted something that I could prepare ahead of time and that would be enjoyed by the kids and my pickier friends (you know who you are!). Finally I settled on a classic Italian lasagna.

I had hoped to make my own pasta, but alas I got super sick and couldn’t muster the energy to do it. My lasagna had a ton of ground beef, layered with béchamel sauce, homemade tomato sauce, and of course lots of cheese. It was accompanied by garlic bread and one of my friends kindly brought a green salad.

At the start of the meal, we did a short toast and since it was a ‘dry’ party, I found a really good sparkling cider produced by Michel Jodoin. It was honestly one of the best ones I have ever tried. It almost tasted like iced cider. As an added touch, I prepared two smaller glasses (usually used for port), so the little girls could also get a glass to cheer with.

Baby Shower Cake

When I decided on hosting the baby shower, the most exciting part was deciding on the cake. I saw a few ideas that I liked but finally fell in love with the simplicity of this cake. Basically, an elephant sitting on cloud, fishing for a star. I made the elephant and the stars out of fondant and I am fairly pleased with how they turned out. As for the cake flavour, I went with a simple spice cake filled with cream cheese frosting and caramelized apples.

Overall I was super happy how the baby shower turned out and I was even more proud that I managed to surprise the mother to be! Now I cannot wait to meet the new baby boy in less than one month!