Wedding shower ideas?

[NEOhiodemocrat]

My daughter is getting married in November. I am thinking of putting together a shower gift along the line of energy efficient or recycling. So far ideas I have came up with are; clothespins, clothespin bag (homemade), clothesline. Make one of those bags to stuff plastic bags down in..or maybe even better, make a couple of material totes. I sew pretty well, any ideas would be appreciate for ways to expand this theme. We are retired and paying for the wedding, so searching for ideas not to pricey. Oh, I also will be hitting the garage sales this summer so could be watching for items there if get any ideas for 'reused' items to fit the theme. Luckily she is not at all opposed to reused items. Thanks for any ideas!

[NMDemDist2]

1. does she garden or do crafts?? what are her interests? n/t

[NEOhiodemocrat]

2. she is starting to sew

other than that she likes scrapbooking. Garden will have to wait a few years as they will be moving into her husbands condo until buy a house. Also she is into small craft items, gets a lot of ideas out of Family Fun magazine as she has been a nanny. She is very child oriented, won't be long until she starts a family, they are 30 and 31 both ready for kids.

[Warpy]

3. A wedding gift I gave years ago

to one of the few couples I knew who hadn't shacked up beforehand was a big box full of kitchen gadgets, cake, pie and muffin tins, and bar towels. It wasn't expensive to put together and I knew they'd use every bit of it. It was very well received and I'd been careful to stick to one brand for all the gizmos that could be hung up so they'd be attractive.

I was very poor at the time, so this delivered a huge bang for my buck. Besides, it was a helluva lot better than another cut glass monstrosity of a candy dish.

[NEOhiodemocrat]

4. Well, they are not living together,

and he loves to cook, so more kitchen stuff would probably be right up his line. She sent some of her stuff for him to put in his kitchen and next time she visited she said he already had the kitchen cabinets all cleaned out and the new things put in places. She is doing live in child care for a friend of our family right now and will live there until the wedding so doesn't use her kitchen stuff, it has been packed at her brother's house. And most of hers is from garage sales anyway. So that sounds like a nice and do able idea...thanks!

[NMDemDist2]

5. there's your theme then, linens and things eh?

the wedding swag never covers sheets, towels, kitchen linens, blankets, bedspreads etc.

build her a 'hope chest' at the shower?

[NEOhiodemocrat]

6. build her a 'Hope chest 'at the shower

oh man, I like that idea. I could be looking for a chest of some type at garage sales and then put stuff in it. I will have enough ideas here for all her showers! Thanks a lot everyone! All great ideas.

[hippywife]

7. Along the lines of the

material tote bags, I love my large, roomy canvas totes for grocery shopping. Maybe throw together a set and then use fabric paint to decorate them with pics of fruits and veggies?

Or a set of large recycle bins? Kinda like the build a hope chest at the shower idea, but rather than just fill one...literally build it at the shower. Have a set of plans ready and everyone can pitch in helping to build them. If you have a salvage yard nearby, you could pick up some reasonably priced pine boards and build a set of recycle bins...one for glass, one for cans, one for plastic, another for newspaper. Make them with hinged plywood lids if you have enough people and if you are really ambitious, paint and stencil them so they look nice.

Might prove to be lots of fun and good memories of the day for years.

Good luck! :hi:

[NEOhiodemocrat]

8. Cool idea

We have a old barn full of lumber from here and there and everywhere. My husband could have things cut out ahead of time, that could be his contribution. Some of the old boards are over 20 inches wide, we could probably make a six board blanket chest. And sure there is enough for recycling bins. We keep ours down in the stalls in the bottom of the barn