Messes of Various Sorts

[sakon76]

The baby has started getting a couple tablespoons of rice cereal added to his breast milk diet this week. He seems to quite like it, lunging for the spoon as it is offered to him. I estimate about ninety percent of the cereal gets swallowed. The remaining ten percent... around the mouth, on the hands, and anywhere the hands can reach. Eyelashes, for instance. ^_^;; I finally understand why people gave us a couple dozen baby washcloths. Why is it that it only takes three to wash all of him, but four just to clean off the Squiddle's dinner?

Yesterday, I prepared the next bed along in the kitchen garden, digging in blood meal, bone meal, and compost. Today, I went to the Fullerton Arboretum plant sale and got ten tomatoes (two each of Indigo Rose, Green Zebra, Black Krim, Japanese Black Trifele, and Bloody Butcher), two lavenders, two bee balms, and two different varieties of stevia. And this afternoon I proceeded to plant exactly none of them in that bed. Instead I put in the half-dozen jalepeno peppers, Yellow Pear tomatoes, and remaining four potatoes I already had, plus a row of cucumber seeds, and several rows of carrots/radishes and leeks. There's still a block of space left; I'm debating what to sow there tomorrow, but I know parsnips are getting some of that space, as are either peas or beans.

For now, however, I should return my attention back to sewing. I've made a new deadline goal for that 1950s repro dress, which is my cousin's bridal shower on the 5th. I've never been to a bridal shower. Am I supposed to bring a gift? Is it supposed to be any particular sort of gift? Help me, internet friends - you're my only hope!

Comments

[whims-dreams.livejournal.com]

It's actually considered really rude to have a registry with the wedding invite since you are guests of the bride and the groom - but it is considered "nice manners" to bring a gift to the wedding like when you go to a house party & bring wine though obviously more expensive. However, since you are throwing the party for her gifts are expected. So she'll probably include some sort of theme or registry if you don't have any gift ideas.
Generic items like picture frames for wedding photos are usually a safe bet. Some people buy lingerie but I've always thought that was kind of too personal of a gift. Something just for the bride, like her favorite perfume, or a basket with soaps and bubble baths is a good choice unless they are doing one of those couple showers then something for both of them or the home.

[mmouse15.livejournal.com]

Hm, where I was raised, a bridal shower was to shower the bride in things she'd need for setting up a new home. Yes, risque lingerie was also done by close friends, but I got kitchen essentials (measuring cups, spoons, sets of really good wooden spoons and plastic utensils, whisks, sugar/flour/coffee/tea canisters, stuff like that) for mine. Dead useful. Twenty-three years on, I'm still using the vast majority of that stuff.

Or you could ask your cousin? Honestly, a lot of my stuff was hand-me-downs from family and friends, which makes it even more awesome, because I think of my MIL every time I use my salad spoons or the mixing bowl, and my mom when I use the flour canister, and my sister when I use the wooden spoons. Stuff like that has a lot of meaning to me.

[tainry.livejournal.com]

Haha the DMZ around baby at the table! It gets bigger as their reach lengthens...
Yaaay gardening! I've done exactly nothing so far this year. Have kept myself from buying plants with the knowledge that I have Botcon to pay for this year, plus the credit card bill from last year still ticking away... XD At least my taxes are done...

Seconding Mmouse15. I've only been to two bridal showers; one had a registry (so I got her a place setting in the rather nifty botanical print china they'd picked out) and the other - already having the household stuff - instead asked for cuttings from our garden or seeds or things like that. So it's kind of individual, but I do think a gift is usual. Unless the invitation specifically said no gifts. Which I'm guessing it didn't. ^_^

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, bridal shower etiquette. It is to shudder. Traditionally, bridal showers were to set the bride up with all the little things that a bride-to-be, who presumably was still living with her parents or rooming with gal pals, wouldn't know she needed for her new home. That's not life for most of us anymore, so bridal showers need new reasons to happen.

If you're lucky, there's a registry involved. Go look it up, pick something that hasn't been dibsed yet, buy that. (If the happy couple are greedy and think of Their Big Day and the associated parties as chances to pile up lots of expensive stuff, you'll be forewarned by the registry! Don't expect any thank-you notes either.)

If you're lucky, the hostess (who is never supposed to be the bride herself) has announced a theme. Recipes, gardening tools, naughty underthings, whatever.

If you're lucky, you know the bride pretty well, and you know what she might like.

If you're not so lucky, you'll have to guess. Picture frames, nice notebooks and pens (for the stuff she really doesn't want to commit to the Cloud), or some lovely thick towels generally go over well. Avoid gag gifts or super-sexy things unless you know, for an absolute fact, that she will not be embarrassed or humiliated by opening them in public. Hazing the bride-to-be is tacky and mean-spirited. Don't do it!

[okami-myrrhibis.livejournal.com]

I'll echo use the registry or something that fits what the bride likes to do in the home (bake, gourmet cook, entertain ppl, etc)

Otherwise, get general household goods from a "major" retailer, with a gift receipt for ease of exchange for something they do find they need.

We got dupes from our registry, due to ppl not marking when they'd purchased as well as purchasing from elsewhere - a set of 6 wineglasses from registry-JCP vs Target = only need 1 set of 6 wineglasses.