The Baby Shower Guide

Right now I have a couple of projects in limbo, so I was looking for some other ideas to post about. I started thinking and realized, that over the past couple of years I have been surrounded by women who have been blessed with pregnancy. I've watched so many ladies go through the wonder of bringing a life into this world, and I know sometimes we all struggle for a really great baby shower gift. How do you pick something really memorable? Something that Mommy, and maybe even baby, will appreciate for a long time to come? What can you give to stand out from all of the little outfits, blankets and toys that will be gifted? Here are a few things that I think were seriously fabulous gifts...

1) Mom's One Line a Day Journal: This is such a great gift. I received one last Christmas from my cousin, and it's been a great way to keep track of each day of our family, and specifically special moments and milestones with Halle. Baby girl will turn 5 by the time this book is done, so who knows, it may even include the pregnancy and birth of a second  baby. What a great thing it will be to share with Halle and any future babies we have! I highly recommend this as a memorable gift for a Mama-to-be!


2) Teethease Teething Jewelry: The one is a two-for! Not only is a great pretty piece of jewellery for Mama to wear, but it's super functional. What a great way to help out a Mama on the go with a teething baby. No more searching for tethers lost in those big ol' diaper bags, it will always be on hand. You can read the full review I wrote up here, but I have to say, I own one and I swear by it. I highly recommend this as a great gift!


3) Baby's First Year Calendar: I honestly think this is one of the best gifts I received! There are so many options out there, so you can find one that suits the Mama to be. Our's was gifted to us by B's Mom, and it was Winnie the Pooh. It was undated, so we filled in the month and dates for each month which is perfect, you can literally use one calendar for baby's entire first year, and it comes with cute little stickers that you can place for big milestones. I loved filling our's out, and it will be a great thing to share with Halle when she's all grown.


4) Jolly Jumper's Pashmama: I bought this for myself after Halle was born and I'm so glad I did. I had a very small bib for nursing her originally, but the Pashmama is large and makes nursing while your out and about so much easier. You can wear it as a stylish scarf, and when needed it completely covers up you and baby. It offers so much privacy, and it made me feel a lot more comfortable when Halle needed to feed right away. This is such a great gift for a Mama on the go!

5) Baby Sling: We didn't have a sling when Halle was tiny, only a carrier which she wasn't a huge fan of. Looking back now though, I do wish we had, had one. Halle wanted to be held at all times, which made it extremely difficult for me to accomplish anything around the house. I honestly think if we had, had a sling it would've made life so much easier. The one pictured above is a Serena & Lily sling, from Nordstrom, but there are so many options out there, so maybe find out if Mommy-to-be has a certain sling she's been eyeing. 


6) Sleep Sheep: We received the sleep sheep at our shower, and let me say it is still one of my favourite things! We use it every night for Halle, and she loves the soft sound of the waves crashing. Even B and I don't mind the sound of it coming through her baby monitor at night - the sounds are so soothing and relaxing and really help a drowsy Halle doze off to sleep. It comes in full size, and travel size, so whatever you think would work best for Baby and Mama, I am sure would be appreciated!


7) Baby Photos!: Halle's baby photo's (pictured above and taken by Nicole of Bittersweet Photography), are still some of my favourites. I honestly cherish them, and have a few displayed throughout the house. I think that newborn photos are so great to have, and if your Mama to be isn't considering getting some done, why not get some family and friends to pool some money together and purchase them a gift certificate for a nice session, and maybe even some prints afterwards. I can't think of any Mom that wouldn't love the gift of memories!


So there you have it, a quick round-up of some of my favourite gifts for new Mom's. What are some of the best gifts you received when you were pregnant/ a new Mom? What are some of the well received gifts that you, yourself have given?


This post was not sponsored and all opinions and thoughts are my own. All recommendations are based on my own experience and I was not compensated in any way for including this products in my round up. 

The Peanut's Day...

This past Saturday was my baby shower - hosted by my wonderful mother and contributed to by my wonderful family and friends! Even more exciting, was B and my parents were able to surprise me with B's wonderful parents and sister, who drove up from Massachusetts to be a part of the special day! It meant so much to me and B to have them all there.

Everyone was beyond generous, and B and I feel so spoiled and so loved. It was more than we expected and we couldn't thank everyone enough for what they did for us and our little peanut! 


It may have been my own shower but that didn't stop me from snapping a few photos (and having my best friend Taylor snap a few of me opening gifts as well) - so let me share...

My talented cousin made all of the tasty baked goods, including the elephant cake that matched the invites my Mom created! It was delicious! Lemon cake (my favorite) with a butter icing (I'm excited to have another piece when I get home tonight! YUM!). She's so good at what she does, and has just started her very own blog! She also made these tasty treats...

Delicious chocolate cupcakes and lemon cake pops! Both were huge hits with all of the guests!

Her little man Parker (who is only 2) was also a big help when it came to me opening a few of my gifts. Definitely a lot easier to have him bending over to pull things from bags than me doing it!

This little girl has a better shoe collection than I do! (Adorable ballet looking shoes from Taylor and her wonderful Mom who drove all the way from Sarnia to celebrate our little girl!)

... and my Aunt brought some tears to my eyes when she gave me a box with a photo of my Nana on it, and inside were nestled a pair of my father's leather baby shoes from when he was a baby. It was so sweet.

Another Aunt (one of my Mom's sisters) bought our little girl her first diamond earrings! (She also bought me my first diamond earrings when I was a baby!)

{L-R Shawna, Elisa, Me, Ashley, Emily}

I was so happy to have a bunch of my favourite girls there to celebrate as well! I've been friends with these ladies for almost 12 years now! I love them!

And even I got a little something from my B! He surprised me with the Kate Spade Date Night Ring that I fell in love with so long ago! I love how bright and fun it is. Isn't he the best?

Not a great photo - but just a little glimpse of PART of what we received! B and I brought home what we could fit into our car on Saturday night. Sunday morning our parents and B's sister came for breakfast and brought over the rest of the gifts that couldn't fit into our car the night before. It took a very long time for the two of us to sort through all of this... and a lot of it is still scattered on our coffee table.

It was such a wonderful day and I can't thank everyone enough for coming and celebrating this little girl that is only a little over 6 weeks away from her due date (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?). B and I feel SO incredibly blessed to be so loved (remember, this is technically our second baby shower! To see what B's wonderful family put together for us, you can check it out here).

There aren't a ton of other details to share - no games, just a lot of time for people to mix and mingle and chat which was so great! I loved seeing friends and family all meeting and chatting and getting along so wonderfully. I wish I'd had more time to visit with everyone... but opening gifts took up a large portion of the shower.

Speaking of baby - there has been some nursery progress as of late! Come back tomorrow to see where we are with the wee one's room... even if it does look a little messy with new purchases tucked into places until we find their proper home.

A Long Distance Baby Shower

This weekend was 100% focussed on my final project. The finishing touches were put on, and I'm looking forward to presenting tonight, and then being off to enjoy this time and prepare for the peanut (a.k.a kick my nesting into high gear). Thankfully, B made some progress in the nursery, so hopefully something to share with you as the week goes on.

In the meantime, I've been meaning to share this great idea with you ever since B's family came up for our 3D ultrasound. With B's family living down in Massachusetts, they knew it would be a bit of a challenge to throw us a traditional baby shower. On top of that, B's lovely Mom was also aware of our limited storage space, so in lieu of the traditional shower she came up with this fantastic idea...

B's Mom and her best friend (B's godmother) put together some little cards to send to family members and close friends, asking them to write a little note to B and I about becoming parents. Whether it was advice or well wishes, and I must say - we got some very sweet sentiments!

Along with the little card, she asked that in lieu of a gift they send along a cheque that we could use towards items we need for the baby.

Once everything was back to B's mom, the two of them worked diligently to piece together a beautiful photo album full of family photos and sweet words that we will one day be able to share with our peanut. Almost brings me to tears to think of how loved we both are, and how loved this little peanut is (who hasn't even arrived yet!)

Baby B and his Mommy

Baby B

The time and thought put into it was so much more than either of us ever could of asked, and the generosity from our family south of the border was immense! Rather than receiving all kinds of cute clothes and other little odds and ends, we were able to put the money towards baby's crib, mattress, stroller and car seat... and we still have enough left over to go shopping for a nice chair for the baby's room. YES! I KNOW! We're so incredibly lucky to have such great family and friends.

Oh... and when they presented us with our lovely gift... we were noming some delicious cupcakes that B's sister brought from a bakery called Sugar Bakery.

There WERE six... unfortunately I wasn't fast enough to snap a photo before a certain Man in my life had already grabbed one. Boy were they DELICIOUS! (The top right was my favorite... it was a raspberry flavoured one. You'll always win me over with anything lemon or raspberry!

Have you ever been thrown a shower or party that was a little different than you expected? Would love to hear of other unique shower / party ideas! 

Baby Shower Planning

Aside from working on our renos, there is plenty of other things I have been busy with in the last little while. One project in particular, is planning a baby shower for my friend from University, V. Working with my best friend Taylor, we are trying to pull together a small baby shower, for mid March in Ottawa... on a very tight budget.

As soon as we agreed on a date, my first thought was on the cake. A friend of ours from University was married not too long ago, and his wonderful wife (who we also went to University with) makes beautiful cakes. I immediately suggested that we get her to create V's cake - and to make a long story short, Natalie at The Lush Cake, has agreed to make it. The cake was definitely our splurge item for the shower, but I know it will be well worth it!

Next on our list, was of course, the guest list and invites. After I spotted these beautiful invites in the Etsy shop of modernemotive, I was smitten.

Of course, working on a tight budget, I needed a solution that would cost approximately zero dollars. So I sent my inspiration photo over to my Mom, who worked diligently to create a similar look at no cost. We also lucked out that my Mom works for a printer, so we were able to get our 10 invites printed at no cost. Now that they've gone out in the mail - it's time to start thinking about decoration inspiration!

I know that I don't want to go the direction of store bought decorations that seem to dominate baby showers. Personally, I think they look kind of cheap, and are usually a one off thing that aren't worth the money. With that in mind, I'd prefer to go in the direction of things that can be reused after the shower.

Not too long ago, I'd spotted these adorable floral arrangements over at Life in the Fun Lane, when Holly had her daughter's first birthday party.

Again, it was love at first sight, and I think with an assortment of blue and white flowers, it would look lovely at our little shower. As a bonus, I would most definitely keep those mugs as vases in my own home. I've already hit the thrift store up, and stumbled across something similar to use for flowers, I'm pretty excited to share them with you later on!

I also love the idea of a candy bar for the guests. Glass bowls and jars surrounding the beautiful cake, filled with delicious, colourful candies - what could be better? In my searches for inspiration, I came across this lovely setting from the blog Striving 4 Perfection:

It beautifully captures my idea of the perfect candy bar (mind you, with such a small guest list, ours will not be quite as elaborate), and also incorporates a lovely pennant banner. I hope to create one myself using scrap material in the baby shower colours that Taylor picked out. As for glass jars and containers - we have a ton at home that I can use, or if necessary, I can pick up at a thrift store as well. I always have uses for those types of things around our home anyway!

That's where I am right now, as I begin my search for Baby Shower inspiration. This will be the first place Taylor will actually see all of these ideas - so I look forward to seeing what she has to say about how I plan to baby shower-ify her Ottawa apartment! ;)

Now I'd love to hear from all of you - what have been some of the best and worst things about baby showers you've been to? I want to make it not only enjoyable for our mother-to-be, but for all of our guests as well! Decorations, treats, games & prizes - what is a must, and what would be a bust?