{"id":3522,"date":"2009-11-05T00:12:06","date_gmt":"2009-11-05T05:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=3522"},"modified":"2017-05-11T02:20:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T06:20:03","slug":"bridal-shower-party-favors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2009\/11\/05\/bridal-shower-party-favors\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridal Shower Party Favors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bridalshowerfavortray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When the PlayGroup Mamas<\/a> hosted a\u00c2\u00a0bridal shower for my daughter, I assumed my regular assignment–party favors.\u00c2\u00a0 For this special shower, embroidered cross stitch monograms were embroidered on these little Aida gift bags.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u00c2\u00a0 guest party favors were filled with Hershey’s kisses, always appropriate, I think, for engagement and wedding celebrations.<\/p>\n

No one loves a bargain more than I do.\u00c2\u00a0 So when I saw the bags on clearance, priced at $ .25 each, I bought three dozen, the entire lot.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no plan for their use, but I knew that for $9 I had the raw materials\u00c2\u00a0for \u00c2\u00a0something wonderful.\u00c2\u00a0 Little more than a year later, Rebecca was engaged and my PlayGroup Mama friends scheduled a bridal shower for 3 months later.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

This group, PlayGroup Mamas, first gathered one Friday morning in 1976.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We met weekly until the children were all in school.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve always been called PlayGroup Mamas.\u00c2\u00a0 From the time our children could talk, they referred to each of the mothers as “a playgroup mama,”\u00c2\u00a0 each of whom, they\u00c2\u00a0believed,\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0had eyes in the back of her head.\u00c2\u00a0 In our small town hometown, this belief was verified by\u00c2\u00a0multiple, instant, detailed\u00c2\u00a0reports\u00c2\u00a0of any\u00c2\u00a0conduct violation by a PGK (PlayGroup Kid) to the appropriate mother.\u00c2\u00a0 Appropriate wrath ensued, followed by appropriate measures.<\/p>\n

Since the last child went to school (she is now 125),\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0the eight of us\u00c2\u00a0have met every\u00c2\u00a0two weeks for dinner.\u00c2\u00a0 At these dinners we catch up with one another’s news and often plan\u00c2\u00a0bridal and baby showers for each of the 23 PlayGroup Kids,\u00c2\u00a0 as the need arises.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Sometimes we\u00c2\u00a0wish that we had come up with a catchy name like the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.\u00c2\u00a0 A new friend of one of the Mamas asked if we attended plays together.\u00c2\u00a0 But frankly, we are just too busy\u00c2\u00a0living our very busy,\u00c2\u00a0full and rich lives to spend time on the trivial pursuit of a more up-to-date name.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0“PlayGroup Mamas”\u00c2\u00a0stuck and suits us.<\/p>\n

For the showers, I have always\u00c2\u00a0provided party favors.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0So I insisted that\u00c2\u00a0I would do so for my Rebecca’s shower as well. The three month advance notice for the shower gave me ample time to open the seam, do the embroidery, stitch them back together and add nicer ribbon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"bridalshowerfavorsclose\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The machine embroidery cross stitch monogram alphabet\u00c2\u00a0is from Ellen Mauer-Stroh, of EMS Designs.\u00c2\u00a0 The designs are free downloads for members of her discussion forum at http:\/\/www.cross-stitch-board.com<\/a> The bow design below each letter is from her Baby<\/em> set, designed by Ellen and digitized by Sheri Olsen.\u00c2\u00a0 They stitched out beautifully on my Brother ULT 2003D embroidery combo machine.<\/p>\n

Having the bags ready-made with acceptable lace trim was a time saver, but it would have taken not much longer to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

The guests seemed genuinely happy to receive the personalized bags and have since told me that they are in constant use.\u00c2\u00a0 Most are used to keep a lipstick and handkerchief bagged up in their purses while others have told me that they load them with lavender or other potpourri and keep the bags in their lingerie drawers.\u00c2\u00a0 Whatever.\u00c2\u00a0 The bags were well received.<\/p>\n

NOTE:\u00c2\u00a0 You might\u00c2\u00a0have wondered why the bags needed name tags.\u00c2\u00a0 For most guests, the last initial was used, but there were several guests from the same family.\u00c2\u00a0 For multiple family members, the first name initial was used and the embroidery colors for each bag were different, thus the need for name tags.\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t want sisters having identical favor bags.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  When the PlayGroup Mamas hosted a\u00c2\u00a0bridal shower for my daughter, I assumed my regular assignment–party favors.\u00c2\u00a0 For this special shower, embroidered cross stitch monograms were embroidered on these little Aida gift bags.\u00c2\u00a0 The\u00c2\u00a0 guest party favors were filled with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[35,15,18,17],"tags":[297,299,1056,298],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3522"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36926,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3522\/revisions\/36926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}