Winnie the Pooh Shower

Today we had a very special baby boy to be shower celebration. The family was looking to do something similar to my daughter Erin's shower. Below is the link if you are looking for a baby girl shower.

 

http://celebratemywhimsy.blogspot.com/2013/07/baby-shower-styling.html

 

 

As you see, the comparisons were very similar with one being pink and one being blue.  I love the light coming in on the table so we set it up in the same spot for the cake and so on.

When I first heard the mommy Katie, my daughter's auntie, wanted to do baby JD's room in Winnie the pooh, well naturally we thought this little pooh themed party would be perfect.  So we put our heads together and this is what we came up with.

 

I had envisioned Winnie the pooh and the blustery day be the main theme of the shower.  I felt the blustery day was fitting considering the family just suffered the tragic loss of their loving father. This new baby was to be the son shining through the clouds and bringing light into a dark situation, and almost as if grandpa Jeffers was peeking down from the clouds himself and smiling on the celebration of this new little life to come.  The Son, son or Sun has an amazing way of doing this.  That is why you'll see the pooh with the umbrella on the sides in the 100 acre woods, you'll see the yellow burst of son coming through the white crepe paper clouds and the rain dropping in the background.  (Can you tell I'm all about symbolism?)  This little guy, JD, whom is going to be named after his Grandpa, is going to light this place up! What a joy and what a blessing it was for me to be part of this joyous celebration of Love....Lots of Love! 

So here is the lovely family that made this all possible.  Mommy-to-be Katie, sisters Tammy and Teri.

 

And here is my totally amazing daughter that once we thought up the theme, had made a computer print out to show everyone how things would look, how to set up and then she put together a totally amazing food menu. We also hosted this in Erin's lovely home.  I love this girl! 

 

And here is my stinkin' cute grand baby Scarlett, whom of course, matched the occasion with her little bee outfit! Muah! Smooches, grandma loves you...(oh wait, getting carried away with Scarlett and forgot I was blogging.)

So let's talk cake! To make the beehive cake, we purchased a beehive pan.  If you want one cheap...search eBay or amazon.

 After I baked the cake, I assembled it with glaze.  I drizzled some on both sides and put it together over a wire rack. This way drizzle overflow wouldn't pool up but end up on the plate below.
 To make this drizzle~
In a bowl, I put about 1 cup of powdered sugar and mixed with a few tablespoons of coconut milk (you can use water or regular milk too) 1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste, a few drips of honey and a small drip of yellow food coloring.  I wanted this really really pale yellow.  I stirred and added just a couple drips at a time of coconut milk until I had a nice thick, drip able slowly off the spoon, consistency. Then I drizzled on the edges of the hive to hide where it was assembled and then drizzled a little bit over the top.  I set this aside to let it cure and then started on the bottom.

 

I frosted the bottom cake doing a woodsy bark cake style.  Here is a link to how I did it...

http://celebratemywhimsy.blogspot.com/2013/07/woodsy-bark-cake.html.

I then piped on the heart.  Using a technique that Wilton Cake decorator Beth Somers taught me while I was at a Duncan Hines Cake decorating class in New Jersey.  I took a small tip paint brush and brushed from the outside of the heart to the inside of the heart to give it a "brushed embroidery" look.

I then piped on the initials to appear like it had been carved into the tree (cake).

 

I added a sprig of green to give it the woodsy look. I put the beehive in place and it was already so darling!

 

 

When I got it to the shower, I added a little banner that I had made with recycle grocery bags, two skewers and some buttons and bows. 

Once the bees were added, the cake was complete and so sweet too!

 

 

 So here was the beginning of a fun journey.  The table was in place, most the decorations hung and now the beginning of the cake and candy buffet was just beginning. I pulled out every white or blue jar I had for the candy table.

 

For the shower gifts, Tammy, Teri and Erin put together these adorable little honey pots using small Terra cotta flower pots and some paint.  Then they glued little bees onto each one.  They were filled with "Bit O Honey" candies.

 

 

 

 

On the walls, Tammy, Teri and Erin put cute pinwheels and kites up.

Here are some of the amazing flowers Teri did too...

 

 

 Erin's living room also received a makeover. There was plenty of seating after moving the couches to the edge of the room.

 

Teri's handy work.  Gorgeous flowers in Mason Jars for each table.

 

 

 

 There were also cutely adorned mason jars for each guest to use and keep.

Tammy bought a punch and made each of these little straw suns by hand.

 

 Here are the girls making the Sonshine Punch for the little mason jars now.

 

The punch was made with Blue Hawaiian punch (2 liter bottle), a 2 liter of Sprite and some orange sherbet.  It was heavenly delightful!

 

The Candy Buffet

I made some Bee-lue Rasperry cupcakes for dessert. Here is the quick and easy recipe:

http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/cupcakes/lombardi.kimberly/bee-lue-raspberry-cupcakes/

We had orange sherbet popcorn, honey dipped rice crispy treats, rabbit garden cookies, and candy....

 

...and even more candy, 100 acre acorn cookies and tigger tails.

 

For the lunch table, everything had a pooh story themed identifier.

 

I tell you what, Tammy, Teri and Erin worked their bee-hinds off to make everything picture perfect!

 So here is a photo of how we utilized Erin's kitchen to the fullest. With lots of help, and Erin's huge kitchen island, we had plenty of work space. (If you don't have a big island, bring in a large table or use your dining table for space.) This was the orange sherbet popcorn that I made using a Duncan Hines Frosting creation's packet and white chocolate.  Recipe link below but using the Orange creme packet and orange sprinkles instead of the cotton candy flavor:
http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/specialty-desserts/lombardi.kimberly/cotton-candy-popcorn-crunch-munch/

For the 100 acre acorn cookies, we took mini nutter butter bite size cookies and assembled them with dipping chocolate, a Hershey's kiss and a small chocolate chip to resemble an acorn.

 

Here are the tigger tails. They were three large marshmallows on a stick, dipped in melted caramel, then dipped in white chocolate tinted orange and swirled with dark chocolate.  Cute right?!

 

We also had long pretzels that we dipped in caramel, dark chocolate and then swirled with light blue chocolate over the tops.  

 

My daughter put together this adorable sign, diaper wipe contest drop off with raffle ticket draws and some cute little bees for the "don't say baby" game. I hate this game because the whole shower you have to be "On guard" not to say "The Word!" Of course, if I win...I loooove the game!

 

The sweet little bees were made out of clothes pins! A-dorable!

 

They also had a diaper clothes line and guest were encouraged to write a note to daddy for "late night" diaper changes.  Some notes were so funny, that you almost had to change your own diaper after reading them!

 

Here was the match game. When the guest matched a word, they won a coordinating candy prize. Learn how to make this game here listed as Baby word match/ concentration:

http://celebratemywhimsy.blogspot.com/2013/07/baby-shower-styling.html

 

 

And for the final spot, the Thotful spot...well, that was where all the cute baby shower gifts were placed.

This shower was so much fun.  I hope it inspires you to have fun at your next event, shower or party. Any questions or comments for me?  Feel free to leave them below.

Baby Shower Styling

Babies.  What a blessed event. I was even more blessed recently to be able to throw a shower for my first grand baby to be.   Here are a few pictures from our day with some tips to have a super successful event.  Happy Celebrating~

Setting up in Layers~
Everyone that came to my daughter's shower was in disbelief of all the things we had done to make this shower really special.  What sums up this shower for me is the saying..."Rome wasn't built in a day" and neither was this shower.   And as you are planning your next event, ask yourself a couple of questions:
1) How many people are we inviting?  This will help you plan where your event will be.  If it's a small shower, 10-30 people, perhaps you can have it at your home, in your yard (weather permitting) or possibly in a garage.  40 or more, you may need to rent a place, hotel banquet room or possibly host it at a park.  For this shower, we had 79 people and I was stressing to make it work at my daughter's home.  We ended up taking all her furniture out of two rooms to make this possible.  Fortunately for us, she had a new home with not much to move around.   I borrowed tables, rented chairs, but at the last moment, had questioned possibly moving the event if many more people had rsvp'd, but luckily, this all worked out.
2) Financially, what funds do we have to work with?
Plan a budget, map the room, draw a schematic of the tables, write out a quick menu, plan a few games and decide on your favors.  Doing all this from the beginning will keep you close to what your budget will allow and let you make the appropriate cuts and changes as necessary.  For this shower, I had much of the candy buffet jars, had the pink curtains and borrowed all the shabby chic flowers and decor from my sister to keep the cost down.  I decided that most of my table decor would also be gifts for my grand baby instead of  paper decor that I'd have to toss out later or give away.
So let's begin~

 For me to achieve all the things I had wanted to do for this shower, I had to start a day prior. If you are able, this is the best way to have little to no stress the day of the shower.  If you are unable to do this, make sure you have a few friends to come help you with set up the day of.
The day ahead, I set up the back drop and all of the tables.  I'll list this in order to give you my steps:

 

I set up the curtains first.  I had three polka dot curtains.  I chose the window for my backdrop since it was a  day shower and I would have that fabulous light peeking through.  I hammered three nails into the wall, two at the ends, one in the middle.  I tied a long rope tightly onto the nails.  My curtains had eyelets so I took little strips of material, tied it to the curtains and tied them to the rope. 

I took a long piece of tulle and for effect, I tied it over the top, to just the nails.

From the center nail, I hung a large frame that would appear to frame the cake once it was placed.

From the end nails, I tied vintage flags on little ropes to the frame.

I hung the crepe paper balls.

I set up the tables, little white dresser, suitcases.

I put all table cloths on tables.

I placed all silk plants, dress displays, candy jars and favors on the tables.

I attached a pink tulle skirt to the dessert table (made by tying long strips of pink tulle onto a ribbon made to fit the table and then safety pinned on)

At this point, most of the shower was ready the day before. 

 

I had pre-planned all the desserts I'd make and the candy for my buffet so I set up everything ahead of time.

Here are my little vintage flags that I made out of left over material I had from when my children were babies. It worked perfectly.  I cut it out using a triangle template I had made with cardboard and I cut it with zigzag scissors.  Then I attached them with little pink clothespins and tied little strips of material on it too.

 

I set up a clothes line with clothes pins ( that I painted white and shabby) with some baby items I bought for my grand baby, and I put it above the gift table. I had a little bird cage for cards.  (Yes, I know I went a little crazy with the outfits but I simply couldn't help myself!)

 

 

 

 

 Some of the favors I set up on my grand babies changing table since I had wanted something cute and sweet and this worked perfectly.

 

We made little bags that we printed in a printer with a thank you note.  We placed these in one of the drawers.  These would serve as the bags for favors and candy.

My daughter's mother in law made these beautiful nail polishes as favors for the adults.  The little "it's a girl" tags were purchased at Hobby Lobby. For our little attendees, we had little lip glosses.

 

 

Table Decor~ 

For our little clothing and table toppers, my son in law made these little stands with dowels and bases that I had bought at Hobby Lobby.  For the topper, my daughter bought little knobs from Target and glued them on top. This way, after the shower, she could remove the tops and use them for the babies dresser if she wanted to.

Aren't these just precious!

 

Ooh la la...

 

I also had fresh flowers, little gems and cut out pink crowns to adorn the sides of the outfits.
 

I have a really crafty friend that does flower arranging and she did all my flower arrangements for me.  It was a big help.  Check her out here on blogger too~

http://brierrosedesign.blogspot.com/

 

The day of the shower, fresh flowers and food.

Now that most of the prepping was done prior to the shower, the day to bring all the fresh items was upon me.  Since I had it all mapped out, anyone that wanted to help could just place everything where it was supposed to go.  Easy breezy.

 

For my cupcakes, I added a little tiny plastic tiara to the top. For the little banner hanging behind the cupcakes, I took two skewers, tied a little twine to them and tied little pieces of random ribbon to it.  I thought it added to the charm.

I took marshmallows, dipped them in pink tinted white chocolate and I dipped them into candy pearls.

I chose white, some silver and pink candies for the candy buffet.  In the back, you'll see some popcorn.  I had two types, Bubblegum and Cherry vanilla. I created the recipes for Duncan Hines and I'll post the recipe link here.  The popcorn is delish and easy breezy.  Best of all, it's pink.

 

http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/specialty-desserts/lombardi-kimberly/cherry-vanilla-popcorn

 

http://www.duncanhines.com/recipes/specialty-desserts/lombardi-kimberly/bubble-gum-movie-time-popcorn

Some of the treats that I made were Circus animal cookies (recipe below), raspberry french macarons and sugar cookies.

These are super simple and are created by mixing one can of vanilla or cream cheese frosting with 1 bag of food processed animal cookies. Roll in balls, dip in white and pink tinted chocolate and sprinkle with candies. So cute, so simple and soooo yummy.

http://pinaday100days.blogspot.com/2012/08/circus-animal-cookie-truffles.html

 

On the table, I had purchased little frames at the thrift store and we placed pregnancy photos and ultrasound pictures in them.

And once we placed the beautiful cake, the shower had begun.

Games~

Diaper raffle and late night diapers

For the diaper raffle, if someone brought a bag of diapers, they received a raffle ticket for a large prize.  My daughter ended up with about 30 bags of diapers and the prize cost about $20.00.  Now that was a great idea. We had also, for fun, had diapers on the table.  We called it late night diapers. It was a cute idea for attendees to leave a sweet, cute or witty saying for the mommy and daddy to read while changing baby after midnight.  A few samples she received:

Ipoo'd

Toxic Waste

It'll be over soon.

Surprise inside.

 

 

 Don't say baby game:
Everyone was issued a necklace.  If they said baby, someone was able to steal it.  At the end of the game, the person with the most necklaces won. Then that person gave back all the necklaces and everyone had a cute little crown necklace to take home, courtesy of Erin's talented mother in law.

Baby word match/ concentration
I bought a board at the 99cent only store. On it I drew 20 squares.  I randomly picked two spots and wrote in a saying.  The person that matched both squares won the coordinating prize. (What I learned~ when you have 40 or less people, this would have been perfect, but for 79 people, I needed 40 squares, not 20.  So not everyone ended up being able to guess.)
This is what I wrote in the squares and the prize they won:
Baby daddy- won the Big Hunk candy bar
Diaper Surprise- won the "Big Swirl" sucker
College fund- won the 100K bar
Sweet Girl- won a Baby Ruth
After pregnancy- won thin mints
Up all night- won the laffy taffy
A hungry baby- won Cry baby sour gum
Breast feed- won a Milky way
Sweet newborns- won Sugar babies
preemies- won runts

 

Rice with small safety pins was another game we played.  What I also learned is that a large party is handled differently than a small party. For 79 people, you need at least three bowls filled with plain white uncooked rice and safety pins.  You will also need three friends with cell phone timers to help.  Have the attendee wear a mask, and time them for 30 seconds to see how many pins they can get out of the bowl. The person with the most...wins.
 

Bubblegum babies

Bubblegum babies was an easy game to play with a lot of people.  It is timed but everyone plays at the same time.  We passed out paper plates, two tooth pics, a piece of bubblelicious bubblegum and told everyone at the same time to chew their gum.  After a few minutes, they all placed their gum on their plates and only using their tooth pics, had to make a baby in 1 minute.  Then my daughter walked around a picked out the cutest baby to win a prize.
 

 

Suitcase dress up.

In the back of the room, I had set up 3 cute vintage suitcases.  They weren't just for looks. Inside each case was a cabbage patch doll, a onesie, an outfit and a diaper plus a blind fold. I set it up so I could have three people play at the same time.  We ended up running out of time for this game but I was prepared in case we needed more games.

To play this, each person is blindfolded and has to dress their babies with all items in the luggage.  Time each round and the person with the best time is the ultimate baby dresser and wins the prize.

 



 

In the kitchen~

 

The glasses and bottles were not only for our guests to use, but they also served as party favors for them to take home.  For the little girls we gave baby bottles and the adults, jelly jars.  My son in law drilled holes in the tops of the lids and then sprayed them with pale pink spray paint.  For the bottles, we tied the bottle lids on so that when they were done with the drinks, they could use their bottles for their dolls at home.

Each person wrote their name on their bottles and jars.  That's me...Nonna (grandma in Italian).

 

We made crib and baby carriages out of watermelons. They were a lot of fun to make and super cute.

 

As far as a menu, I kept it really simple with croissant sandwiches, two salads, chips and fruit.

 

Pretty in Pink Pins

Some of the little extra details I did for this shower were gift pins for the mommy, Nonna, Mimi, great grandmas and great great grandmas. These sweet pins were made by Collette at Brier Rose Design.  Check them out on Etsy.  They're made to order.

 

http://www.etsy.com/listing/123696721/custom-baby-or-bridal-shower-custom-pin?ref=shop_home_active

 

...and the afterglow of wonderful memories with a beautiful backdrop left us filling wonderful and giddy.

 

Photo credits~

Alison Whitsell photography

 Aliwhitsell@yahoo.com 

In the Big Bear, California area

&

Katie Jeffers photography

In the High Desert and Victorville, California area

(leave me a message for contact info for Katie until her website is built)