time for a shower

a sweet baby shower!

I had the pleasure of throwing a pintrest inspired baby shower for my friend Rayna....
she's pregnant with baby boy #2!

yesterday I shared about my cake pops or lack thereof for this shower....

I started pinning shower ideas to my 'party on' board
& was watching Rayna's 'Baby Rush #2' board



She had pinned some shower invites....

source Gatsby.
please read my note below about bringing a book instead of a card

source Mira Greetings

    

...so I looked at them...then went on a hunt for fonts
 dafont, 1001 free fonts & urban fonts being some favorite spots for hunting

then spent about an hour in Publisher making a combo of the 2 invites....

Rayna wasn't looking forward to a shower filled with the same old shower games
she had pinned a few ideas for activities for the guests to do rather than games...

source joy ever after

we went with the "decorate oneies project" that she had pinned....

 some of the shower guests creating onesies...

some of the completed onesies...
look for a BITNF
(blog in the near future) 
with more details on making onesies (for a shower activity or for a gift!)

I also wanted to make something special for the baby's bedroom...
back to pintrest....

source Jennifer J Designs on Etsy

Rayna & I had both pinned some of these fingerprint trees that double as a guest book...

Rayna had a blank canvas
& I had some time to paint a tree to match her nursery
(grey-tree, teal-thumbprints & orange-tiny bird on limb)...
We set up a thumbprint/guest book station in a room off of the entryway
& asked people to leave their mark when they arrived,
& also to sign their name after they left their print.
This is now a beautiful piece of art for the baby's bedroom wall,
I will get a better picture to share...
& I purposely left space at the bottom of the canvas so we can add the baby's birth stats...

It was a pleasure to throw a fun shower for such a great friend.

Two special notes about this shower....
1.  This is my first shower that I've thrown where we did the 'bring a book instead of a card' request...
I was curious how this would work...
it was amazing, she had around 30 shower guest with zero...not one...duplicate book.  Some people just signed their names inside the cover, some on the back of the book, others wrote special messages.  It helped that they have a name picked out for baby, When I do this again I will publish the baby's name on the invite so the book messages can be even more personal.

2.  I was worried not doing a game but a craft instead would make people uncomfortable...but we made it very flexible....everyone was visiting and hanging out lots and lots of chatting...we 'opened' the shower with a welcome and had mother of the mom-to-be say a prayer over mom, baby, and family and then I reminded everyone to visit the thumbprint tree and then told them that we just wanted everyone to relax, enjoy themselves, visit, eat...and that we were having a 'make a onesie' craft in the dining room if they wanted to participate they could, but not to feel the pressure to make one if it wasn't their thing....maybe 1/3 of the ladies participated...but I think all the ladies had a blast.

ladies visiting at shower

 A special thanks to Cara Osborne, Tiffany Jones, Cristine Osborne, Kim Nemchick & Donna Pratt for help with Rayna's shower.