Monkeying Around Step

As I said yesterday, I have several friends that are now pregnant. Yesterday's rocker baby shower, prompted requests for more shower help. Being here in Chicago I can offer ideas and make suggestions. I would love to see my creations come to life myself but take pride in the fact that my friends look to me for guidance on these matters.

The shower today is based around the theme "Monkeying Around". I actually have two inspiration boards going with this one, as I could not decide between the traditional monkey or the modern sock monkey. The monkey theme can also be carried over to the baby's first birthday; "Our little monkey's turning 1".


Photos From: (top to bottom, left to right) gobblincakes.blogspot.com, bakeitafterall.blogspot.com, northjerseylilmama.com, youreventsltd.com, ehow.com, bellacor.com, proproom.com, cgi.ebay.com, designed2bsweet.com, hippyshopper.com, busybeebirthdayshop.blogspot.com, littleantdesign.blogspot.com, and bisbash.com

For the first inspiration board I went with a classic jungle monkey feel. I would cover tables in jungle animal print fabric (zebra, giraffe, cheetah) or do solid brown with animal print runners. I would also fill the space with LOTS of hanging plants, and various stuffed monkeys (which can later be used in the nursery). As a favor for guests, I would give out mini-Chunky Monkey ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.

While coming up with ideas for the above inspiration board, I began staring at my beloved slippers...the sock monkey slipper (thank you Target). This led me to begin compiling ideas for a sock monkey themed shower, equally as cute but a totally different feel.

Photos From: (top to bottom, left to right) tastylayers.com, slushpot.com, plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com, naptimecards.com, same, handymadeplay.bigcatel.com, sixteencandles.com.au, handcrafteddelighs.com, serenejourney.com, chasing-fireflies.com, radioflyertoy.com, and poshtot.com

This theme is much more modern. I would hang lots of red and white paper lanterns or balloons, in the venue hall, to give it that modern feel. Since the sock monkey is a childhood classic, I would also incorporate some other classics, that actually tie into the red and white theme. To hold the beverages use red and white galvanized buckets. I would also purchase old fashion style Coke bottles instead of cans. Make sure you also include striped straws with your drinks. To hold gifts, and add a little more old school charm to your gift table, get a "Radio Flyer" and place it on the table, stack gifts in and around the wagon (the wagon will come in handy for the proud parents to be). As a favor give boxes of "Red Hots" or package up red jelly beans and place a sock monkey sticker on each bag.

I am still unsure which baby shower I like more for this happy couple, I can see both sooo clearly in my mind. Which would you go with? If help is needed putting together your "lil monkey" baby shower feel free to drop me an email at steppestoneevents@yahoo.com.

A Rockin' Baby Step

It seems baby fever is once again in the air among my friends. While I hold my breath in these times, I do love all things baby, just not for me YET! And with so many baby's on the way to make me a proud auntie, I have begun thinking about shower ideas. When it comes to the baby shower, I do not think they need to be all frilly and dainty to signify a girl or blue driven for a boy. I have a a couple friends in mind with this Rock 'n' Roll theme shower, these girls themselves are too bad a** to follow along with a cookie cutter shower.

Some fun decoration ideas: To really get that rocker feel, talk to a local club about holding the shower there. Get 3 guitar cases (used), if the interior is gross, get some fabric that matches your party decor and tack it to the inside of the case, in this case pink or zebra print, then set 2 of the cases open on top of the gift table to hold gifts, in the middle of the two, place the third case upright and have the baby's name airbrushed to the outside in a coordinating color. On your table tops another fun rock decor idea would be to scatter guitar pics over the table. If you can get your hands on a baby picture of the proud momma-to-be and papa-to-be, photo shop them in white and black and add fun colored mohawks to them, you can blow these up big and put them on the venue doors like rock posters.

I am not a big fan of shower games, but do see how they can be good icebreakers in a crowd of strangers. Here are some, not too corny, game ideas:
1. Match the celeb baby name with the celeb examples: Coco Riley (Courtney Cox and David Arquette), Apple and Moses (Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin), Harlow Winter Kate (Nicole Richie and Joel Madden, you get the idea.
2. Take the label off of baby food jars and see who can guess the most correctly.
3. The tried and true game of guessing the mom-to-be's belly size with a yarn of string.

Another cute shower idea is to have a diaper raffle. Ask guests to bring diaper packages ranging in size from Newborn-2, for every package they bring guests will be entered into the raffle. For raffle prizes you can buy a set of movie tickets and/or gift certificates to area restaurants. This is a great way to get the proud parents a good supply of diapers, which they will greatly need!

And like any great rockin' aunt I had to pass along these shower gift ideas, tooooo cute!




















Photos (from top to bottom-left to right) etsy.com, sublimebakery.blogspot.com, hostesswiththemostess.com, etsy.com, blog.cornerstorkbabygifts.com, rockinmommi.blogspot.com, designdazzle.blogspot.com, cafepress.com, thecelebrationshoppe.com, etsy.com, crookedbrains.net, etsy.com, amazon.com, forum.xcitefun.net