Being a woman in her early thirties, I’ve been to numerous baby showers and no matter the decor, there is always a common theme, duplicate shower gifts. Even those guests that study the mommy-to-be’s gift registry carefully have been in that awkward position of watching as an identical match to her gift is unwrapped.

I absolutely hate this moment. It’s uncomfortable for everyone involved. The guest of honor doesn’t know what to say, the gift givers shout out simultaneously, “I used the registry! Something must have happened,” and the other guests start rattling off bizarre untruths about how great it is to have two mobiles.

I’ve made a solemn vow to myself that I’ll never be one of these unfortunate gift givers who knows, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that after all the time it took to find the perfect present, it will be returned. Still, I’m not a fan of just giving money, because I like the ooh’s and ahh’s my gifts get when their opened and I want the mommy-to-be to know that I gave some thought and consideration to the needs of her family.

The best way to insure that you’re gift will be unique is to give something homemade. Mom’s love personalized blankets, quilts, nursery decor and ornaments, but alas, I wasn’t blessed with gift-quality crafting skills. If you’ve got ‘em, use ‘em!

I have to rely on purchased baby shower gifts to get by, but there are still ways to shop without getting burnt by the “how nice, I’ve got another…” bug. I’ve never liked just giving cash in a card, because while one size does very much fit all, it lacks a personal touch. With this in mind, I generally give the new mom and baby a cute stuffed animal or rattle attached to one of the following gift cards.

Portrait Sitting: Every new mom wants to show her baby off, but once they get a handle on how expensive a new baby can be, family portraits can be hard to squeeze into a budget. You can buy a gift card for a family or baby portrait or photo baby announcements

Restaurant: Those first couple weeks of new motherdom are rough. You barely have time to eat much less make a decent meal. Food gift certificates may seem unorthodox as a baby shower gift, but I guarantee both mom and dad will genuinely appreciate the break

Bookstore: Whether she wants books about parenting, board books for her new little bundle or a great book to read on sleepless nights, because we all know there are plenty in store, she can choose whatever she wants

Spa Package: Nobody, but nobody, deserves a relaxing getaway like a new mom, even if it’s for a few hours

Jeweler: Whether she wants to celebrate her sweet baby with a mother’s ring, locket or charm bracelet, she can pick out the perfect sparkly to match her taste and personality

Choosing the right baby shower gift can be stressful for a gift giver. Giving a special gift card shows you care, but prevents you from any awkward moments when your enjoying some pastel pink baby shower cake.

Jessi Arias-Cooper is the senior writer and an editor for Advice4Parenting.com. She is a work-from-home mother of 3 boys and has been married for 10 years. If she had time for hobbies and interests outside of parenting and keeping house, they would be jewelry making, baking, watching bad B-movie horror flicks and creative writing . If you have a question for Jessi, click here.

Halloween baby shower themes – If you are looking for great baby shower ideas and are due in October, why not throw a Halloween baby shower? Halloween is such a great holiday theme to create a party around, as this combines both creativity and some spooky fun. There are so many ideas that can be played around with which will make this a party that will be always remembered.

At first thought, combining baby showers and Halloween does not seem like a good fit, with freaky costumes and gory monsters combined with cute and sweet baby showers. However, do not let this put you off as there are a lot of Halloween baby shower themes. These themes include a Little Pumpkin Baby Shower, Mommy’s Little Pumpkin, Baby Brewing, or A Cute Lil’ Monster.

The first step is to send out invitations for the party. If you have the time and energy to create your own invitations, ideas include using the shape of a pumpkin or a witch’s cauldron as the shape of the invitation. The witch’s cauldron could be written as, “A baby is brewing! We are having a Halloween baby shower to celebrate our new baby. Join us at (date and time) for a ghoulish time!”

Decorations are an important part of throwing a theme party to create ambiance. Depending on the theme of the party, symbolic candy, witches hats, and pumpkins be used. Pumpkin-related themes can dress up a baby pumpkin in a diaper. A small to medium-sized pumpkin can also be cut out and a bouquet of flowers placed in the middle to create a unique centerpiece. Decorations can be placed on the wall such as moons, witches, monster cartoons, and cute baby monsters.

A terrifying yet delicious menu can also be prepared. You could serve brewed drinks such as hot cocoa, cider, tea, and coffee and a hearty stew placed in a cauldron. Pumpkin bread and pumpkin cookies go great with this. Food can also be labeled with imaginative and scary names such as witch’s stew, Frankenstein’s franks, Dracula’s blood pudding, magic potion, or fright night drink. For dessert trys a cake decorated with chocolate frosting and licorice to make a spider-shaped cake. For an even more creepy effect, colored whipped cream and softened cream cheese can be used to create the effect of a spider’s guts.

Games are always great fun to play at a baby shower. Trivia games about the mom can be played by guests writing down their answers on a decorated piece of paper with ghosts, zombies, and other spooky creatures. A Pumpkin Carve Off can be held, where people are split into groups and they have a specific time to carve their pumpkin into a baby-related theme.

Your Halloween-themed baby shower can be as elaborate or as simple as you want it to be. This is a fun celebration of a new birth so it does not have to be too gory, but rather just the fun and silly side of Halloween so guests can get the mom-to-be ready to welcome her new baby into the world. We hope these Halloween baby shower themes and ideas got your mind going and help you to have a scary-cute shower!

Photo: flickr.com/photos/tomeppy/55047673

When puzzling over the perfect gift for that Mom-to-be in your life, consider the timeless new baby gift basket.

You have myriad options for what to put in it, so your gift can still be uniquely yours even if everyone else shows up to the baby shower with a baby gift basket bundled in her arms.  Just don’t go too crazy with your creativity, since it’s best if you stack it high with gifts the baby will need and want most.  (And yes, stuff to keep Mom sane is great too!)

When deciding what to include, consider whether the baby is already known to be a boy or a girl. If the sex is known, then it’s fine to go gender-based with pink and frilly stuff for girls and tested-and-true blue hues for the boys.  Too boring for you?  Feel free to splurge with other colors sampled from all over the rainbow according to the mother’s personality and personal tastes.  This is especially great for when the baby’s gender isn’t known yet.

As for actual items to include, onesies to wear, bibs and bottles to feed, baby wipes to clean up and teddy bears to snuggle all make good sense.  You’ve got free license to also include some more commemorative items or personalized new baby gifts, like a “first footprint” kit or a gift certificate for photography to capture those special first few weeks out of the womb.

Of course, you may not want to customize and assemble your own gift basket all by yourself.  Instead, you may want something pre-packaged but still sure to please-and that’s where it pays to shop online.  There are literally hundreds of amazing baby gift basket options ranging all over the map in price, theme and items included to choose from.  Just give yourself ample time to sort through them to find one you like and have it shipped over.

With that in mind, I’ll set you free to go begin your search right now.  Trust me….It’ll all be worth it for the expression on Mom’s face when she first glimpses her new baby gift basket.

Click here for more baby gift basket ideas

Perhaps even before wondering how to make a diaper cake, you might first be puzzled over what a diaper cake even is. Granted, it can sure sound rather strange and funny at first.  If that’s where you are, you’re probably also thinking, “Surely nobody would eat a cake made out of diapers!”

And you’d be right.  A diaper cake is just a creative way someone (nobody really knows who) once thought of to give a soon-to-be Mom a whole load of diapers in a way that looks downright presentable at worst and maybe even delightfully stylish if done right.

In fact, they can be so stylish that commercial diaper cakes–the readymade ones you can order up with a swipe of the credit card–often cost a pretty penny.  But you can capture some of that class and add your own twists and accents on top of it if you’re willing to put in some work at home.  You might even have fun doing it if you consider how happy Mom will be when she sees your truly one-of-a-kind creation.

Click here for video instructions on how to make a diaper cake

So how to make a diaper cake?  It’s easy!

Start off by rolling diapers individually and wrapping each with a rubber band in the center.  Make sure that you use thick rubber bands so that they won’t break and undo your hard work.  This can easily happen during transport, so it’s worth spending just a wee bit more money for quality rubber bands.

Alright, once you’ve got seven diapers rolled up, we’re going to put them together into a large roll.  Note that you’ll need an extra large rubber band to hold them together.  Don’t attempt to stretch a smaller rubber band too far, because that again makes the whole cake more prone to falling apart later.  You’ve no doubt heard the sayings about a “house of cards,” and a cake of diapers ain’t much different!

This larger roll can be used as the top, with layers further down being even bigger.  But before you make those foundational diaper cake layers, you can spice things up by removing the middle diaper in the bunch and stuffing in a small gift wrapped in a showy piece of cloth or even an article of baby clothing itself.  This makes for a cool hidden surprise inside each layer instead of just diapers piled on top of diapers.  There’s not much exciting about that.

Once you’ve tickled yourself to satisfaction with your top layer, make another layer just like it.  Then wrap about fifteen diapers around that to make it a bigger circle, encircling the whole piece with a larger rubber band.  You can again add a snazzy hidden treasure into the middle for Mommy to find when she devours her diaper cake.

Finally, we’ve come to the cake’s base.  Make another middle layer as described above, and then pad it with about thirty more diapers to make for a very solid foundation.  You will also want to place the base on some sort of hard material, whether a cardboard cutout, a pizza pan, a plastic tray or whatever else your mind can conjure up.

Let your imagination run wild in deciding on that and any other special embellishments you want to include to make this work of art your very own.  After all, you wouldn’t dream of buying a food cake without frosting and decoration, would you?

That’s really all there is to it. Does it sound easier than you thought? Good!  That’ll give you some good mojo and momentum to take on the task and have fun with it.  And who knows…maybe you’ll enjoy it so much that you’ll think of a design nobody else has.  Then you can create your own tutorial on how to make a diaper cake to teach your “top-secret” techniques.

Click Here for some great training videos on how to make your diaper cake look amazing!