Raggedy Ann Baby Shower

It's funny the people you become friends with...and stay friends with. Waaaaay back in 1993, my family moved to a new area, and life as we knew it started over. I saw an ad in the local paper about a youth ballet company which was having open auditions, so my 11 year old self called the number listed, found out all the details, and made my mother take me other to the auditions. To this day, I am still an active member of this organization. I have gone from dancer to student choreographer to faculty/resident choreographer.

You make a lot of friendships throughout your lifetime, but it's always interesting to me the friendships that keep over time. On that fateful night back in 1994, I met Rachel. She was already a member of the company, auditioning to go from an apprentice to a senior member of the company. I'd love to say that from that point forward we were BFFs, but that's not the case. For most of our middle school careers, we were acquaintances. In high school, we became better friends, but we didn't get especially close until our senior year of high school. We maintained close contact throughout college-she was an art ed major, while I was a dance ed major. I made a valiant attempt to attend her senior art show; unfortunately, this was before GPS was commonplace. I got so lost and car sick all at once-I never made it there. We were participants in each others weddings, and now, we both teach at the studio where we first met. When she announced she was expecting her first child, I was thrilled to offer to throw her a baby shower. When she announced it was a little girl, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

We danced a piece called "The Doll Shop" for what seemed like forever. We rotated different parts, but Rachel was always the rag doll. That was a signature piece-she loved performing it and audiences loved watching her do it. I was bound and determined to throw her a Raggedy-Ann inspired baby shower. 

 I found these invitations from Nichole at Olive+Star on etsy. I knew they were perfect for my idea. Nichole was so awesome to work with-very professional and efficient.

 Nichole even created these baby wish cards to go along with the invitations. We put them at each place setting.

I was co-hosting with the studio owner, and both of us live a bit away from most of the guests, so we opted to host the shower at the studio. That meant we had a huge open room to figure out how to decorate. We decided to use leftover gingham material from some costumes as table coverings, and in an attempt to avoid watching ourselves eat, we used the creative movement parachutes as a bunting to cover the mirrors.  

We used card tables for guest tables. Center pieces included a small vase of carnations, baby blocks, and glasses of jelly beans and beans on each table.

 

I used scrapbook paper, ribbon, and a healthy dose of rubber cement to create this pennant banner. 

The food table...Raggedy Ann and Andy had to be our centerpiece, backed up by our lollipop favor tree. The banner on the wall consisted of letter templates from Martha Stewart, and more scrapbook paper, ribbon, and rubber cement. 

 Cheese, rainbow fruit skewers (thank you, Pinterest!), crabmeat dip, and yellow cupcakes with strawberry filling.

 Strawberries with sweet cream cheese filling, spanakopita bites, chicken salad cups, veggie platter, and more cupcakes.

 Yummm...Spanakopita bites!

 The drink table. One thing Rachel made me promise was that there would be some sort of wine or alcohol at the shower. In her words, "Just because I'm forced into sobriety doesn't mean every one else should be." Other drinks included coffee punch and water.

 The gift table. We used the creative movement mats to cover the "business" of the studio (i.e. stereo, CDs, portable barres, props for children's classes). This also was the gift table. I wish I had gotten a picture of it covered in gifts.

It was a fabulous shower. We invited about 20 people, and ended up with 15 in attendance. We were all close, and everyone was extremely comfortable with each other. We did not play any games-just lots of good conversation, food, and wine. I was so happy to be able to do this for Rachel, and cannot wait to meet her little girl.