Golden Book Baby Shower Copycat

After all the talk lately of the baby shower (which some of you may be getting sick of hearing about), here is the final Golden Book Baby Shower! I was so happy with how it all came together. It simple and small- which for me is the perfect shower!

My sister-in-law is a teacher so I was thinking that it would be fun to have a shower where everyone brought a copy of their favorite book to include with the gift so she can have a great start to her own collection. After looking around for some ideas I came across this blog which I now love- Aesthetic Nest! She had done an entire shower with a Golden Book theme. It was perfect and I just LOVED the classicness of those books that many of us grew up on!

If you haven't seen it yet, you can take a look at the invitation HERE.

I have my mother to thank for at least half of the decorations on the mantle. She kept all of these vintage Fisher Price toys from when my brothers and I were little. Let's just say that I had quite the selection to choose from. She even has the original record player- remember those? For those of you who are wondering, yes, the clown head on the color stacker is original (it was the most commented on at the shower so I asked my mom.)

The final look of the mantle included a pennant banner, original Fisher Price toys, paper flowers, Little Golden Books and fabric bookends!

These book ends were another "saw it on Pinterest" item. I needed some sort of bookends and couldn't find anything remotely as cute as the ones that Anneliese found for her shower so I made these quick and stole some rice from my kids' rice bin for filling.

The center of the table was set very simple just to connect it in with the shower. I made this simple quilted yellow centerpiece and set it with a few blue paper flowers (original idea also taken from Aesthetic Nest)! I wish I had gotten a nice picture without the harsh sunlight coming in but I guess when you're setting up for a shower, there isn't time for a long photo shoot.

This was my favorite Golden Book from when I was little (and this IS my book.) "Where Did the Baby Go?" is about a little girl who finds a picture of a baby and asks her mother who it is. Her mother keeps giving her clues to help her find the baby and you guessed it- she figures out in the end that SHE is the baby in the picture! After we already decided to do a game where guests had to guess baby pictures, I remembered this book and thought it would be a perfect name for the game!

This is where I used the ribbon board. I forgot to take a picture of it during the shower with all the pictures on it but we asked every guest to bring a baby picture of themselves and I arranged all the pictures on this board and attached a number next to each one.

I know that you have the picture by now but everyone then filled out this card with their guesses. I was surprised that my husband's aunt actually got every single name right!

So, if you have looked at Aesthetic Nest where I found all the printables and are wondering how I made this card from her pages, I'll tell you (I did ask her permission first.) I copy and pasted her page with the book labels (with four on a page) onto a Word document and used a text box to cover her words with the body of this card. I know this is common sense but if you do this, PLEASE give Anneliese credit for all her hard work creating these printables in the first place!

The other game we played was super simple- Guess how many Jelly Bellys are in the jar! I have never been one to enjoy lengthy, mind challenging shower games. I believe showers should be a fun time to get together to "shower" the recipient with love, support and gifts to help them start their new life, either as a wife or mother!

So, take a guess, how many Jelly Bellys in this jar? The answer- 1617! I was asked many times and you are probably thinking this yourself- yes, I counted all of them!

Here is the gift set that I created for my sister-in-law!

These cupcakes are a 100% copycat item- they are so cute AND Anneliese basically hands them to you on a platter with THESE printouts so one would be silly to not just copy hers! She adds some really adorable paper cupcake holders to hers but after cutting out about three of them I decided that the yellow with polka dots were just fine for me!

In addition to the cupcakes, I saw these Cheesecakes in a Jar on Pinterest (originally from The Italian Dish) and just HAD to make these! I mean, come on, have you ever seen anything so cute (and delicious)?! They were a hit too! Only one left at the end (oh, and there were 12 cheesecakes and 10 people- you do the math.)

My Mother-in-law made the food-doesn't it look great?! Mini chicken salad croissants, fruit tray, pasta salad, cucumber sandwiches. It was simple and perfect (and delicious!)

One final last touch as the guests left was to hand out small "Thank You's" filled with Jelly Bellys. I thought who on earth needs four pounds of Jelly Bellys at their house? That is a sure way to end up WITH a jelly belly!

I would just like to thank Anneliese at Aesthetic Nest one more time for all the time she put into all the printouts that she provides AND for being so generous as to share them! She has a number of cute printouts for all sorts of parties at her etsy site too!