How cute are babies? Everything about Babies is gorgeous! A baby shower is one extra large cute event!

Where I come from, we also have a get together after birth to celebrate the coming of a baby. We call it a “Mubarakeh”, where, usually close friends and family, are invited over to see the mother and baby and give their blessings. It is like a baby shower, but takes place after the birth of the baby.

Traditionally, Mughli or Karawya (A pudding made out of ground Caraway seeds, believed to be very healthy for nursing mums) are served to guests, along with Arabic coffee, and chocolates. Nowadays, hosts would have a Buffet full of other mini bites to offer their guests. Some people would hold a “Mawled” where they recite together some rhymes about motherhood, babies, and recite traditional poetry verses and prayers.

I have never seen a Mawled before, I haven’t been to one until recently. As my sister had just had a baby and in her Mubarakeh my aunts spontaneously carried out a mawled for her. In our modern day, people stopped doing these traditional ceremonies, and so many of us have no idea what they are or how they are done, yet having been to one I found it absolutely fascinating! Kind of like a peek into the old traditions, it created an ambiance and was really entertaining. Seeing these women of all ages, some mothers, some grandmothers, some yet to become mothers, all come together reciting beautiful verses in celebration of birth and motherhood, was to me very warm and inspiring. In a way, it was an act of support, understanding and hope for a wonderful life! This is one tradition that has to be brought back to life!

The whole event of my sister giving birth, to her Mubarekeh had put me in such baby shower mood, that I decided to post some DIY ideas and inspirations for your baby showers here. So here we go some tips and inspirations:

• Whether you are holding a baby shower or a Mubarakeh food is a big part of your event. Whichever way you decide to go, traditional minimalist or elaborate Buffets and dinners, you will want to decorate to a baby theme! Create a buffet that follows the theme you have in mind, use tiered platters, jars, vases and multi level stands to help you acquire height and elegance n serving your foods. Then decorate that Buffet with theme specific pieces.

Here is an excellent video on how to create a buffet table in general: 

• One very easy and inexpensive way to decorate to a baby theme is by using Baby Clothes as part of your decorations. You can mount strings from one wall to another, and hang baby clothes like you would when drying laundry. Every mother has baby clothes, so this is an accessible way to decorate. Baby clothes are so cute and can be very colourful, if you do not wish to stick to the traditional blue or pink theme! You can even place booties, bibs and onesies on the tables as centerpieces. You can use bibs instead of napkins if you wish to go that far! You can place party giveaways in baby socks. You can even have the baby’s name embroidered on these socks. With that said, you can also go for decoration baby clothes instead of the actual clothes. The party stores are full of such decorative pieces.

• What is any baby shower without balloons! I love balloon arches and I think you will love learning how to make them yourself! This video shows you how to do just that!

• I love the tulle puffs in this video. They are really beautiful to add decoration, colour and texture to your theme. They can be made in a variety of sizes and even shades of colour. I think you will love them too. Check it out.

• For the ultimate DIY challenge here are two themes I loved, perhaps you are one of those DIY experts who can pull such themes off yourself, if not then maybe you will find some inspiration for some bits and pieces you can carry out from them, otherwise you might want to hire a party planner to take care of all this for you.

Parisian Outdoors Theme

Garden Lunch Shower Theme

• Click this link for the easiest and yummiest ever Cookie balls, which you can make and wrap with chocolate/candy wrap to serve at your baby shower.

Welcome to Motherhood!