Nursery bedding inspiration

Last month, I got to act as a baby shower consultant.  A consultant...doesn't that sound fancy?  Actually, a family member was hosting a shower for a friend and needed some ideas.  The shower had to be gender neutral, and the parents-to-be had no preferences for any particular theme.  Since I didn't know the couple, I had to get creative.  How could I pick a theme I knew they'd like? 

The answer came to me in a flash:  the nursery decor!  The couple had registered for the Alphabet Soup line from Cocalo.  When I heard the name of the bedding, the idea for the cake and cookies immediately came to me.  I was familiar with the line, as The Big Guy and I had considered it when we were planning for our baby's nursery. 

I took my inspiration for the cake and cookies directly from the rug of the nursery set. Here's the rug:

And here are the cookies I made for the Alphabet Soup baby shower:

The top of the cake says "Showers of Wishes" in Scrabble-style*.  The stripes along the side of the cake (two chocolate layers) are meant to mimic the border of the rug/comforter/valance/etc. of the bedding set. 

I was a bit worried about the stripes, but as soon as I brought the cake in, and without knowing where I had gotten my inspiration from, one of the shower guests immediately exclaimed that the stripes on the cake looked just like the ones on the bedding...had I planned that?  Why yes, yes I did!

A cute touch to this shower was that the host made vegetable alphabet soup for the guests.  Isn't that darling?  And yes, I'll take complete credit for that idea, thankyouverymuch.

I was so happy to have a helping hand in a shower that I didn't actually have to host. It's nice to be the consultant on occasion.

*The Scrabble-style wording is related to another shower game that I really like, but it only works if the parents-to-be haven't decided, or revealed, the baby's name.  Simply set out a Scrabble board, and have guests use the letters to come up with potential names for the baby.  The results are both neat and hilarious.  It's a fun game and a great icebreaker for parties where not a lot of the guests know each other.