Okay. So. I'm slated to host a baby shower in three weeks. Since I'm probably not the first person in the blogring to do so, I need some recommendations.
I'm thinking the featured activity will be decorating plain white onsies, booties, caps, and bibs. Like - I'll provide ribbons, felt, fabric pens, needles, thread, and the like and the guests will go to town to create personal and cute (?) wearables for the little one.
Now, here's my concern: some people are simply not crafty (GASP!) and they might feel overwhelmed at a party where craftiness is featured. But I'm in love with this idea because it's a wonderful way to ease any discomfort around not knowing other people at the party (i.e. - put the focus on the crafts and away from the empty chit-chat).
Any thoughts? One thing I'm planning to do is pre-make cute items (thanks to Spice) to attach to baby things for those who lack on-the-spot imagination. But I worry folks will feel separated into those who have natural craftiness in their blood and those who rely on others' natural craftiness.
Am I worrying too much? (The answer is usually "yes".)
And do you have any other ideas from past baby shower successes?
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
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10 comments:
If you are worried about additional entertainment, how about a couple head banging rounds of Guitar Hero?? Perfect for any any baby shower! Huh? Huh? Anyone?
I love that plan! But, uh, I am crafty. I do have one piece of advice, based on the experience of Miss Shirley and Baby Miss, who is a giant - have a variety of onesie sizes. This baby could well outgrow the newborn size in three weeks.
As a non-crafty person, I say YES to the pre-making of as much cute stuff as possible. I always feel lame at this kind of thing, even though I like the idea, because I have no crafting talents. Perhaps make it OK somehow for the non-crafty to opt-out?
I don't know if babies are supposed to wear ribbons and felt unless there's no way they'll come off, even under the most serious baby-tugging. Craft stores like Jo-Ann Fabrics and Michaels have a bunch of iron-ons that might be better. M.Bro and I bought a ton (both traditionally baby-ish and ironically grown-up), and we're planning to RIT-dye some onesies to put them on.
TOWWAS - yes, you are confirming what I've heard for years. Babies sometimes pop out in the 3 mo - 6 mo category and new parents always get tons of newborn crap. So yes, I'm stocking up on 3 mo - 12 mo. range stuff.
Allison - even YOU'D have fun at this party! I'm pre-making some stuff to decorate with, so folks won't feel too overwhelmed.
J.Bro - no worries! I plan to stitch the crap out of anything that might end up in little baby paws using my sewing machine. Those decorations ain't goin' nowhere. And thanks for the Michael's/JoAnn's advice. I went to my local craft store (right across the street from work) and I think they're too urban to stock silly iron-ons. I'm considering making my own - with my home printer and iron-on paper I bought at Costco.
BABIES!
Don't forget to wash all products in Dreft ahead of time, to prevent little baby contact dermatitis!
I never had a baby shower (at my own request, thanks), but had I been presented with the Guitar Hero option, I may have reconsidered.
Machine-stitched little baby-hats? How 'bout you throw a shower for my baby while you're at it?
M.Bro's older sister insisted on throwing her a shower while we were in Nebraska for Christmas. M.Bro was less than thrilled, especially since she didn't know a solid one-quarter of the attendees. M.Bro's sister said things like, "I don't know if you remember your uncle Scott, but his girlfriend is coming! And her teenage daughter!"
It turned out to be just as awkward as she feared. M.Bro's sister had a very rigid seating chart and all the activities were tightly scheduled and structured. She said it was like going to a sales seminar, not a baby shower.
H.Go and I were going to do the decorate-a-onesie deal for the last shower we hosted (and which J.Bro and M.Bro attended), but it turned out that getting that many white onesies (hint: Carters outlet is the place to go to get good ones for cheap) plus all the supplies would cost a hell of a lot of money (we had ~30 guests, though). Also, we were pretty sure that we'd end up with a nearly empty decorating-station - the shower was coed, and I probably qualified as 'crafty' in that crowd.
One thing we did multiple times that seemed to go over fairly well (particularly with a coed crowd) was to ask in advance for all of the guests to give us a photo of themselves as a toddler or preschooler, and then give everyone a sheet of names and a name tag and have them try to match photos to guests. That was also a good way to get people to mingle.
The other game we tried at our first shower was a celebrity baby quiz. But that, as with crafts, shut out a big portion of the crowd (basically, OleNelson walked away with it), so we didn't do it the next time.
The one shower where I was asked to create something (a page in a book for the baby), I was really intimidated by it and disappointed in myself for not being as artsy and creative as everyone else. So I guess for a variety of reasons (time, cost, crowd reaction), I'm kind of against the onesie idea. It could work with a small, crafty group, though.
Also, if you go with the photo idea, make sure one of your guests is a professional photographer who decides to take photos of each guest holding his/her photo. If you look at my photo on my department's faculty directory, you'll notice that there's a baby shower guest visible in the background. The part that's cut out of the photo is my holding a photo of me potty training!
Despite your concerns, Spice, the onsie decoration station is a GO! We'll have no more than 10 guests and I'm a Ross shopper (3 onsies for $5), so we're good to go. Plus, I think CFK needs stuff for 6-12 mo. ... and this is the perfect way.
YAR!
That baby pic idea is really good! I heard that one before too. I hope we have enough guests to make it not too easy.
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