From:
The Modern Baby Shower
To celebrate the motherhood of two modern women, we dispensed with the fusty color code, invited the soon-to-be dads, and offered zero-prep-time foods instead of the usual tea-sandwich fare. Here, a crib sheet for planning a party that's cliche-free and easy as ABC.
Make It Personal
Our coed shower was born from the individual styles of Kendra and Rachel.
They both love clean, modern design and bold color. Two of their favorite hues, orange and teal, play nicely together, so home editor Page Marchese Norman and senior home editor Rebecca Robertson started there.
On Kendra (left): Alisha Levine Sleeveless Ruffle Tunic, $184, available at Barneys New York and all Barneys locations, 7 For All Mankind Jeans available exclusively at A Pea in the Pod, $215, apeainthepod.com
On Rachel (right): A Pea in the Pod Printed Silk Shift Dress, $250, apeainthepod.com
They whipped up a pair of graphic mobiles (top), made from construction paper and embroidery hoops, which served as the party's decor and as take-home nursery decorations for the almost-parents.The inspiration was clean modern shapes that appeal to young, modern mothers and will later stimulate the baby in the nursery or playroom.
Tools and Materials
Art-quality colored construction paper or card stock (available at art-supply stores)
Embroidery hoops or basket hoops (we used 18- to 20-inch hoops)
Colored waxed twine
Eyelets
Mobile How-To
1. Determine the length of your mobiles. Remember, you want the mobile to have various lengths of circles to make it visually interesting. Cut the various lengths of waxed twine. Double the twine strings (as if you are going to thread a needle). Tie the loose ends in a knot.
2. Slip finished end through eyelet and pull through. This will create a slip knot. Repeat with all other lengths of twine and attach around diameter of hoop.
3. You will want to repeat the same slip knot with the waxed twine to hang the hoop from the ceiling or beam (as we did). Once you have doubled the twine and made a slip knot at three points around the hoop, tie the unfinished ends of each in a knot and then tie all three knots together and hang from a cup hook in the ceiling.
4. For the circles, choose varying sizes and colors and cut freehand; you can also purchase already cut card stock in circular shapes. Use a 1/8-inch hole punch to punch a hole at the top (about 1/2 inch from the rim of the circle). Attach eyelets to circles with eyelet punch (available at scrapbooking sites and art-supply stores).
For the Table
Continue the round theme by laying concentric squares of bright construction paper and top them with vibrant dishes of food. "I loved that it wasn't overly girly-girl, which made the guys feel included, too," Rachel says.
Introduce Solid Snack Foods
Rachel and Kendra love Asian cuisine, so our store-bought bites included nori-wrapped rice crackers (below left), spicy wasabi peas, edamame sprinkled with sesame salt, and Japanese party mix (below middle). Candy-coated sesame seeds and dried sweet potatoes (below right) and a bowl of clementines, kumquats, and tangerines played off the color scheme. JFC "Nori Maki Arare" rice crackers, $3, amazon.com. Seapoint Farms frozen edamame, $2, seapointfarms.com for stores. Eden Organic "Seaweed Gomasio" sesame salt, $2, edenfoods.com. Kasugai nut mix, $2, amazon.com.
Make It Easy
Dumplings are little bundles of joy: portable but filling, adorable on the plate, and pleasing to meat- and veggie-eaters alike. They also satisfied Rachel's and Kendra's hankerings for sushi, which they hadn't been able to enjoy for a while. We ordered chicken, watercress, shrimp, and pork dumplings from a Chinese delivery menu, along with pork buns, pork shumai, and chicken and vegetable potstickers (aim for about six pieces per guest).
Or buy frozen dumplings (we like the Ling Ling brand, available at Whole Foods). For a dipping sauce, mix 1 cup soy sauce, 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon rice-wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1 cup sugar, 2 thinly sliced scallions, and a pinch of dried red chile flakes. One batch serves 8 people
Let Them Not Eat Cake
Mark the specialness of the occasion by avoiding baby-shower staples (cupcakes come to mind). We capped off our party with a few dozen Japanese mochi, which are ice cream wrapped in sweet rice flour ($48 for 16, gourmetfoodmall.com). Dry Meyer-lemon sodas hit the spot (drinkgus.com for stores), and everyone took home a twine-wrapped box of candied nuts ($6 for 4 ounces, translucentchocolates.com).
Kendra and Rachel also left with artfully understated Binth alphabet posters ($69 each, gnr8.biz)
Soothe the Baby
When it comes to gifts, let others buy the burp cloths -- you can supply some of the newborn's first sights and sounds. We compiled custom CDs of nursing and bedtime tunes (get the playlist here). And we made scrapbooks to show the baby who's who in her new world: Grandparents-to-be emailed us family photos (including one of Serge and Jane, Doug and Rachel's pups) and we made color printouts and corresponding labels, sticking them into books using double-sided archival tape. Kolo "Lux Cortina" album, $22, aifriedman.com
Save Mama
The ultimate present for any new mom? Wisdom from those who've been there. We gave Kendra and Rachel each a felt toy basket ($145 each, nettocollection.com) full of things that other Blueprint mothers have grown to know and love.
Clockwise from front corner: The Vibrant Rings dish set ($22, egiggle.com) makes meals a bit more fun. Soft seersucker shoes ($6, pearlriver.com) won't come flying off should someone start kicking and screaming. A multipronged teether by IQ Baby ($5, Heights Kids, 718-222-4271) is vanilla-laced and easy to grasp. Kapla blocks ($32, kidonyc.com) are cool creativity-builders that will entertain for years. Since there's no such thing as too many newborn body-suits, we bought a bunch ($15, buybuybaby.com). Haba's Hugging Sheep teething toy ($16, Heights Kids, 718-222-4271) engages a baby with its movable wooden limbs. The beautifully illustrated "Bruno Munari's ABC" and "The Soles of Your Feet," by Genichiro Yagyu ($12 each, amazon.com), are required reading. These washcloths ($6, Heights Kids, 718-222-4271) are as soft as a baby's face and complement Erba Organics' gently formulated natural skin-care products (from $12, target.com for stores), for babies and moms. The Medi-cube first-aid kit ($25, egiggle.com) is compact enough for a diaper bag.
First Published: July/August 2007