Pastel Shower

Welcome to the Jungle Baby Shower review!  We had such a blessed time on Saturday.  The house was filled with a wonderful combination of family and friends.  Healthy Chick, mother-to-be, proclaimed the pom pom filled chandelier was "the bomb."  Fun-Sized Chick was invaluable with the games and extra helping hand.  My favorite things, were the cupcakes and "Poof-elier."  It was a lot of work, but it turned out beautifully!  Warning, long post ahead!

With all of the b-e-a-utiful inspiration on line, I opted to go for a focal serving table.

Healthy Chick's MIL and I co-hosted the shower, we used a tea party with a jungle theme (or a jungle party with a tea theme?) or Jungle Baby Shower.   The baby quilt was used as a jumping off point and Healthy Chick really adores tea.  Cupcake picks were made with my new die cutter (details later!) using cardstock, scrapbook paper with jungle animals, and short skewers.  Cupcake recipe is from Bon Appétit Key Lime Cupcakes. The are not very cake-like and are quite dense, they are also rich, delicious and are a straight-forward recipe to make, with a lot of zested lime. They are a fun bright green because a single recipe (Yield 12) calls for 1/4 teas. neon food coloring. The icing is made with cream cheese and lime zest, Fun-Sized Chick piped it on.  Meringue cookies are a recipe from Joy of Baking (dot com), and are very easy to make, I made my first pink batch for Valentine's Day to use up some egg whites. (Although, judging by the size of this container, I should have doubled the recipe!)

Poofed-up chandelier, there were six large pom poms using two of each color and five smaller lanterns.  Pom poms made using Martha's instructions, the lanterns were from Healthy Chick's wedding (originally ordered from Oriental Trading).

I couldn't decide on a favorite view, so you get kind of a 360^o

The food was served on tiered plate holders on each of the tables, dining, coffee and patio.  The menu was curried chicken sandwiches, an egg salad roll and fruit plates.

Onesie garland from Pinterest inspiration, including the fabric flower clothespins--instructions coming soon.  Looking back at these photos, this garland was probably superfluous.  The patio table (round, seating four) was right under this arrangement.

Plastic ruffle tablecloth (inspiration from Lucy at Craftberry Bush) made for tea table that was stacked with hot water, various teas, and a collection of Fiestaware cups.  Funny, true-confessions story--see the exposed seams on this tablecloth?--they were not supposed to be that way, but I ran short of "fabric" to finish the other side of the table cloth, so I put it on upside down.

~~~ Budget tips and tricks:  ~~~

• Baby headbands (3/$1) from the Dollar Store to decorate glass containers.
• Perrier bottles used as vases (maybe I should have used tea bottles of some sort, but our humble Publix only carried plastic tea bottles) at least the Perrier bottles are green and contained lime flavored water.
• Plastic shirred custom tablecloth ($2)
• Homemade pom poms (a little over $1 ea.)
• Recycled lanterns from the wedding
• Purchased one dozen roses and divided (I wanted Baby's Breath, but at my local florist, it was $30/bunch, my roses were half that.)
• Stacked pedestal plates on top of a platter for maximum cupcake holding
• Tablecloth and runners that I already had.  (I had a gold-ish Ralph Lauren tablecloth that always looked kind of dull to me, but that worked perfectly as a subtle background for all of the decor on the main dining table.)  I ended up not using my previous paper cloth creation as it ended up being too bright.
• Borrowed Fiestaware and glass containers from co-hostess
• Moved patio table indoors to maximize seating.
• Repurposed wreaths for front doors.

~~~ Easy Wreath Update ~~~

Two were used to great guests at the double front door, to introduce the Jungle Baby Shower motif.

First off, I pulled off all of my coffee filter roses (boo hoo, they'll go back on!).  But, you can do this with a plain green wreath from season to season... 

1. Gather your plain green wreath(s)
2. Use a spring floral vine (I used one that I was going to donate), snip it apart after every two flowers 
3. Take the smaller two-flower portion and, using the vine in between them, poke through the greens in your wreath
4. For an event or holiday, either wire or (in my case) tie with ribbon your theme decor.

 ~~~ ABC Banner Game ~~~

This is for a baby shower game that I concocted myself (as far as I know) and thought it was a good one.  This is a baby-advice game with a decorative spin.  (Sorry, I can't pull back on the photo.  Unfortunately, I used masking tape that wasn't covered up with something decorative.  Oops.)  I put Artsy Chick in charge of the letters.  They are pretty, but rather light, you may want to make yours darker.

You will need:

• Note cards, either pastel, brights, or white depending on your shower (ours were 4"x6")
• Hanging cord (I used colored rafia)
• mini clothespins (available in the craft section at Walmart)

1. Before guests arrive, trim cards in banner style you'd like.  I let Artsy Chick do this and she selected a combination of points and dovetails.
2. Decorate the blank side of your cards in ABCs.  If more than twenty-six people attend, you could add small case letters or numerals.
3. As guests enter, have them write their baby advice on the lined side of the card and tell them to remember what letter is on the front.
4. Collect cards and hang on cord using mini clothes pins.  We free-form crisscrossed ours.
5. At the end of your game-playing session, or before guests leave, have the Mom-to-Be (randomly, i.e., instead of "pick a number 1-10," "pick a letter A-?" depending on my many guests have filled out cards) choose one or more letters for a prize.  

A game, decor, and baby tips all in one!

One final note:

The Ready to Pop favors ordered from Jennifer at Scissors and Spatulas, were a big hit!  Jennifer was a pleasure to work with, and I would highly recommend her if you want to order these.  (I used her white chocolate covered popcorn recipe to fill mine.)  She was able to find paper that was in keeping with our jungle baby shower theme, because she's thoughtful like that!

(Notes for next time:  Get additional help, start preparing earlier, or don't have handymen in the space a few days out, or all of the above!  It was quite hectic the day of!)

Two of four Precious Daughters -- Mom to Be, Healthy Chick, and Fun-Sized Chick.

Link-ing!