on the (clothes)line

i'm in a baby shower shopping kind of mood, since i'm planning one at work and just had the most fun ever perusing the target baby clothes and books sections. for this particular shower, all in shades of pink, brown and cream, we're starting the baby's library with some classic childhood books and doing the clothesline gift too, which will double as decoration. the clotheline gift (pictured here along with a baby basket i made last year) is a great one because in addition to being a great looking gift, it also provides many different pieces and you can be creative with colors and themes.

i'll share pictures after the shower, but in the meantime, let's talk about baby gifts since i know there are so many showers this time of year and we're all sick of buying boppy pillows and diaper genies.

first, to do either a basket or the clothesline idea, i recommend starting with a couple of great base sets (with several pieces each) and adding to them. it's cost effective, and it also bulks up the offerings right from the beginning. for a basket, i always like to add one really special item like this jacket:
both the basket and the clothesline could easily be a joint gift since they look like (and really are) so much stuff! so let's say you start with something like the the sets shown below and then supplement it with just a few other items in the color scheme, you have something that is unbelievably substantial within a reasonable budget.







remember, each piece gets clipped separately to a really long piece of raffia or twine, so it goes a very long way when you have so many pieces, and looks like so much more than if you were to give the set all wrapped up the way it comes.












here's a cute boy combination, starting with two multi-piece sets:
















and even for as yet gender neutral babies, there are cute options, again starting with base sets:







so fun, right?? to string it all up, just take your time and make sure you balance the weight of the pieces well for the whole length of the twine.

to me, this idea never gets old. it's such a dual purpose gift - of course it's useful because you've probably just quadrupled the not yet born newborn's wardrobe, but it's also visually exciting and cheerful, which goes just as long a way.

email me if you need specific links for any other pieces shown here.

stay tuned for more baby gift ideas tomorrow!

clothesline photos from time inc, life of tees and flickr, peace, love and happiness onesies and first neutral base set from babies r us , pink and white leopard onesie set from buy buy baby, all other clothing photos from target