Topsy Turvy Peter Rabbit Diaper Cake
Four months ago, Sepi (my sister-in-law’s sister-in-law) invited me to join her and Annica’s friends in organizing a baby shower for Annica. My brother and Annica are due in late April and we are all super excited for the baby to come. It took four months of planning, pinteresting, and crafting between a team of seven girls (Sepi, Mitzi, Laura, Wendy, Janet, Priscilla, and myself) to put together Annica’s baby shower this past weekend. Somehow these talented ladies managed to seamlessly blend together the themes of bunnies and the mint & gold colour theme. Everything from the decorations to the food was designed and handmade with love and care, all expressing the excitement over Annica’s baby-to-be. Here’s a couple snapshots from the day:
Decorations
The gorgeous and glittery curtain of raindrops that was cut out and hand pieced together by Laura was hung up on the front living room window as well as the dining room window. Wendy, Mitzi, and Sepi hung white balloons at the top of the window to make it look like rainclouds. Such a sweet look. And two weeks ago, we all got together over pizza and Skor dip to string together these garlands of dots. So simple but so fun looking! It would be so fun to have these hung up at home all the time. The tricky thing about them is keeping the strands tangle-free!
Food
The spread…
It was an afternoon affair, so we served little finger foods and sweet bites. Priscilla made teeny egg-salad croissants and fruit baby, and Mitzi made the carrot cake cupcakes. I made the salad and brought the Salted Caramel ice cream from Earnest Ice Cream because I accidentally burned the caramel in the batch I tried to make on Friday night. My brother and Annica love the Bi-Rite Creamery in San Francisco, so this was the recipe I was trying to make… if you try it, perhaps you’ll want to stop the caramelization before it gets too “dark mahogany” in colour.
Diaper Cake
I’d only ever seen “exposed diaper” diaper cakes in the past, so I was curious and volunteered to make this one that the girls had pinned to our shared Pinterest board. It’s a topsy turvy diaper cake (using these instructions) made by wrapping receiving blankets around a cardstock frame. Each tier is stuffed full with newborn and size 1 diapers. The carrots are made from washcloths and clear rubber bands. I actually bought the washcloths off Etsy so that I could get the right number of orange and green ones!
Details
Favor Boxes filled with hand-cut tissue paper and Hershey’s kisses, made by Laura
In keeping with the epic level of handcrafted amazing awesomeness, Laura designed, printed, hand-cut, and assembled each favor box, then hand-cut the tissue that went inside each one, and also cut and applied a tiny printed label to the bottom of every Hershey’s kiss that went in the box.
Baby Cardigan
The Tiny Tea Leaves baby cardigan that I knit is done! However, I was so late in finishing it, I didn’t get a chance to even snap a photo before slipping it into the gift bag. And I bought the wrong size buttons and didn’t get a chance to run by the shop to buy new buttons! So… the cardigan can’t actually close. That’s why Annica’s holding it up with the front gaping open. But I’m excited that the baby has a little cardi now for fall. And sometime before then, I’ll go get new buttons.
This past week has been a little crazy, what with the prep for the baby shower as well as getting a mountain of stuff ready to release at and around Fibres West in two weeks. I was feeling quite defeated and buried under a pile of sample knitting that I somehow assumed I needed to do myself. But I sent a call out to our fabulous and enthusiastic community of knitters asking for sample knitters and within mere minutes all that weight was lifted. A couple girls picked up yarn from me or the studio on Friday and texted me that they had finished by Sunday. That is the power of people. I could have never produced a baby shower like this alone. I could have never knitted all our samples alone. It’s times like these that I am reminded of what amazing things can be accomplished collectively rather than trying to push everything along with my hands alone. With the power of people, we can make amazing things.
