Bridal shower

I attended a bridal shower this morning. It was a lovely brunch with vintage tablecloths, teapot planters, and fabulous food. I really like bridal showers, partly because I love shopping for wedding gifts.



Shopping wasn't easy this time, though. Because of my desire not to buy anything made in China, I wound up being frustrated. I decided to go with a baking/cooking theme since I know the bride is worried about this due to the fact that the groom's mother makes dinner every night. He grew up eating good meals every night, and the bride doesn't consider herself much of a cook. I wound up ordering one of my favorite cookbooks for her: The More-with-Less Cookbook.

I wanted to give her some baking supplies to go with it, and that's where the trouble began. I'd picked out the Pyrex mixing bowl set from her registry. No problem there because it's made in the USA. I thought I'd give her a loaf pan since I was planning to give her recipes for my favorite sweet breads. I didn't like the Pyrex loaf pan because it's a bit small. She'd registered for Wilton baking pans, but they were all made in China. She'd registered for a Calphalon muffin pan, so I checked out the Calphalon loaf pan. Made in China. I looked at spatulas. Every brand was made in China. Ditto her oven mitts and kitchen towels. In fact, every other thing I looked at from the registry was made in China!

I decided that I couldn't buy off her registry and hold to my conviction. It's my conviction, not hers, so I went ahead and bought some towels and a spatula for her. I'm finding that sometimes I have to compromise or completely do without. As this was a gift, I chose compromise.

I wound up making the card for the gift, and I'm vain enough to report that I was pleased with all the compliments it received. It was super simple to make. I didn't photograph the inside, but it's stamped with "Best Wishes."