Alice in Wonderland

I love Alice in Wonderland... you know, the Disney version. I've done my daughter's birthday party with the theme, and now I've done a baby shower for my cousin. I love it because it lends itself to anything. It's the theme where anything goes.

So, Children's Literature was the true theme of the shower. We had everyone bring their favorite child's book to share with the new baby. I had a million ideas that would be great under this theme... but we decided to narrow it down to one story, Alice in Wonderland.

This shower was held at a hotel, the day after my family reunion... I was not near my house. So I did a limited number of decorations and tried to make my gifts part of the decorations.


I used wrapping paper for the table runner. It was much easier than making one and you get a better variety of patterns than you would in table cloths. And using a table runner keeps you from having to cover the entire table. My friend Kelly (tomatotomato) helped us make three centerpieces which were pots that she painted black and white and we filled them with fake flowers decorated with googley eyes. Our stacked pots were a little unstable by the time they made it to the shower, so I balanced them on some stacked tea cups.


The center, centerpiece was a topsy turvey diaper cake that I made with the help of my mom and Kelly. This also doubled as a gift for the new parents. Each layer consisted of diapers enclosed in black and white checked ribbon and topped with a round "frosting" snuggle blanket. I trimmed each blanket with pompoms. One side is flannel, the other side a soft minky (I want one for myself :)). I made each layer lopsided by putting a bean bag under each tier. One happy face bean bag, one sad face bean bag. The bean bags have plastic pellets that are encased in a cotton bag and double stitched - making it as safe as possible for a baby. The cake is topped with a soft pocket watch rattle (I realized later that I forgot to embroider the numbers on the clock face). I also added a teething ring to keep the rattle balanced on the top. I was pleased with the result and look forward to the next diaper cake I get to design. I find them addictive as they are decorative and useful all at the same time. I love that!



Because we were no where near a house, we kept the food nice and simple. Fruit, a pasta salad and tea size sandwiches. The flowers under the berries are burp rags made by sewing two pieces of flannel together (we made them thin and long - I think 8" x 18" so that they could be twisted into flowers).

We made a yogurt dip for the fruit and it got great reviews. Simple, simple, simple.

Simple Yogurt Fruit Dip

1 - 8 ounce container cool whip (thawed)
1 - small container vanilla yogurt
1 - small container flavored yogurt of your choice

In a mixing bowl, combine cool whip and both small containers of yogurt until smooth (we tried raspberry for one dip and lemon for another. Both were great, the raspberry got the most raves). You can serve it right away or put in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve. This is easily made a day or two ahead of time.

I'm not big on shower games... so we just had a simple activity of having all the guests sign a handmade baby quilt for the baby. The quilt was made with alternating white squares and flowered squares so that guests could write a message to the baby. Because of poor planning, we used sharpies. These work if you are holding the pen straight up and down, but I recommend using fabric paints to avoid bleeding.

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More Baby Showers!

This past week, I hosted a double baby shower with another mom friend of mine. We decided to keep it simple and hold it at a restaurant. With everything else I had going on... I didn't think I could take on another full party. It turned out to be great. A mom's night out, some yummy food and lots of cute baby stuff!

I decided to make a couple of centerpieces. I thought a diaper cake would be perfect for this occasion. Who doesn't like getting diapers when they are having a baby? Plus, it would be a nice substantial centerpiece for the table (I also found out that they are kind of fun to make!). I figured I'd balance the not so eco friendly disposable diapers with an eco friendly cake topper. So I made each one of them an owl rattle with my scraps (a mix of fleece and cashmere... who knew anyone would put those two together!). I also made each of them a newborn cashmere hat from some cashmere scraps I had. I love how the hats came out!

And look at the final result! Since I had no idea how to make a diaper cake, I was pleased that they were easy to make and came out better than I had imagined. They were also easy to take to the restaurant because I left all the pieces separate. Just stuck them in my Tote2Go!

At the last minute, I also decided to make some favors. I was stuck at home with a pretty bad back and couldn't clean for my daughter's party, so I had to do something to make myself feel useful.

I printed some little wrappers for mini candy bars and put them into an envelope that I made from a paper bag. I love the look for the brown paper with stitches in it. I made tags at Christmas this way and I'm always looking for other things to make.

The shower turned out great. We were a little sad not to have one of the moms there... but contractions called her to the hospital. But we sent it all home with her and she can have a mini shower in the comfort of her own home :)

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