DIY Bridal Shower Gift - Therapeutic Miles

Bridal and baby showers are being taken to the next level these days. Between the Pinterest-themed parties, the chalkboard signs, the color-specific dessert tables, the gold and silver foil letters and number balloons…it’s a serious upgrade from the traditional showers. Now, I am not by any means hating on this shift from basic to bourgeois. Clearly I live for all of this creativity…I mean I have a whole section of DIY projects on this blog, hellooooo!!

So for when I attend these modern-day bridal/maternity celebrations, I try to think of a fun, yet functional gift. For the most recent bridal shower I attended over the weekend to honor my good friend, Miranda, I made a kitchen gift basket. I had seen this idea on Pinterest awhile back. Each kitchen utensil or gadget has its own pun-ny piece of advice about marriage. I love cooking and I love corny jokes, so this was just too perf! I created a similar basket for my sister-in-law a few years ago, but never documented the process. I felt it was good enough to share with all of you, given that wedding season in full-effect.

“Everything I know about marriage I learned in the kitchen”

What you need:

Small kitchen utensils and gadgets. Check the bride’s wedding registry for some inspiration. Otherwise, here are some ideas that work well for the puns:

Strainer
spatula
measuring cups
measuring spoons
Cheese grater
Citrus zester
Citrus squeezer
serving spoons
pizza slicer
can opener
salt/pepper shaker
wine opener
wine stopper

Other items you’ll need:

Basket or bowl to contain the items
newspaper, packing paper, tissue or styrofoam base
clear plastic gift bag
labels with string
string to secure the bag

What to do:

Label each item with a tag. You may want to use something with string so that you can change the location of the tag depending on where it sits in the bowl/basket.

cheese/citrus zester and citrus squeezer

Now comes the creative part. Some phrases I borrowed, others are Carolyn-originals, all are true statements about marriage that I do live by:

Life gets busy, be sure to make time to WHISK each other away for date nights and weekends
You’re bound to have little SPATS, but don’t go to bed angry… have good makeup sex.
Remember, the whole is always GRATER than the sum of its parts
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! And SQUEEZE the most out of every moment together
Don’t ever let other people be a STRAIN on your marriage.
Love is not MEASURED by the length of time together, but by the moments you create
Be sure to take turns being big and little SPOON
No matter which way you SLICE it, marriage takes work, commitment and understanding.

2. Use the basket, serving bowl or mixing bowl to contain all of the items. Use the packing paper, newspaper, tissue paper or styrofoam to make a platform for the items so they rise out of the basket/bowl. If it’s not visually appealing, use tissue or in my case, tulle, to cover it.

Arrange the items from large/tall in the back and smaller in the front. You may need to rearrange a few times depending on how well they fit. It’s kinda like playing Tetris.