About a year ago I saw a fun idea for some personalized casserole dishes while I was blog hopping. I wrote the idea down in my trusty little notebook, knowing that I would want to make some this spring for our bride and a few other kids who I knew were getting married. Then I promptly forgot about it.
Fortunately, in March, Kairle came along and saved the day. Just two weeks before we had our first bridal shower for SweetiePie, Kairle posted a great tutorial for how to make these casserole dishes. Thank You Kairle — I love this idea! I made one for SweetiePie and one for a shower that SweetiePie and I attended last weekend.
I was very surprised at what a big hit this dish was! This was a really crowded shower and everyone was talking, so you really couldn’t hear much about the gifts when the bride opened them. But when she held up the casserole dish everyone noticed and there were lots of questions about how to get that name etched into the glass. We also got the bride a few other things from her registry at Williams Sonoma — one of which were these dish towels that I personalized for her (I put the “K” in the corner, rather than the middle of the towel, in case she wants to display them without the “K” showing.)
I love going to bridal showers. They’re so happy and fun. I picked up another cute idea — the hostesses put fresh flowers in their gift to the bride — a blender. These flowers were on the food table and they were so pretty, I didn’t even notice that they were in a blender until the hostesses presented them to the bride.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have windows to clean. I spent about 6 hours yesterday cleaning windows inside the house ( I’m blessed with lots of windows LOL.) I still have a few more inside windows (they’re double paned — about every 5 years I clean between the panes and this is the year so it takes longer than non-in-between-panes cleanings) and then I’ll move outside.
I love doing windows outside, especially on a beautiful day like today. (Although, I’m not looking forward to all the mosquito repellent involved — we’ve had so much rain this year, the mosquitoes have run amok.) If you never hear from me again, you’ll know that climb up the ladder wasn’t successful!
Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna
P.S. Oh And happy Father’s Day to all those Papas out there. We’ll be having pies with the men in our family — by request, there will be lemon meringue and I’m trying out a new Strawberry Pie recipe that looks great!
I love that casserole dish idea! I can imagine what a hit it was at the shower. Cute towels!
Lovely windows – I don’t do windows! LOL
Have a great week end!
Love the flowers in the blender idea! That looks like a scary climb up that ladder! Please be careful….
I’ll have to jot down these great ideas for my little bride-to-be’s showers. Can you get to my windows next…that ladder scares me.LOL!!!
The casserole dish looks great! Good job. I love that idea! There was someone selling them on Etsy for awhile, but I think that they’ve stopped. That’s been on my list of things to try for awhile and I still haven’t gotten around to it.
Wow! What lovely windows!!!!!!!
The casserole dish is a fantastic idea too! It’s strange how we just don’t seem to do baby showers or bridal showers over here in the UK (at least not when I was looking!)
Take care on that ladder – and don’t over do the housework Anna – you should only have so much fun at one time you know!
Lucy xxx
You embroidered the initial so beautifully, what a lovely gift.
Love the casserole dish idea – thanks for the link – that has gone on my “to do” list! Your monogramed tea towels look great – you come up with some marvellous ideas!
How cool is that dish? Thanks for passing it along! I happen to have a shower coming up! I love going to showers and throwing showers…they are so much fun! I have to get at cleaning my windows as well…uggh. You do everything with such a happy spirit, Anna. Thanks for sharing!
will you stop showing me such interesting and fun things to do please? I love the idea of the etching, and the flowers in the blender is such a quirky idea!
I have made those etched casserole dishes before, but it never occurred to me to give it as a bridal shower gift. thanks for the great idea!
Okay, I just realized my email address was still messed up … so I am correcting it with this comment! :-)
I have those casserole dishes on my list of things to do! I was going to make one for a shower last month (the one I did the emergency kit for) but couldn’t find a dish without a lot of writing on the bottom. I looked back at the tutorial I saw (which I think is a different on than you linked to) and saw that she used one with writing on the bottom and it didn’t look too bad. I have to get to the store to get contact paper and then I plan on experimenting with one of my own pie plates first. For the towels – did you embroider another fabric and then applique it on?
What great ideas for gifts. I haven’t tried etching but I want to do some glasses that I saw on Martha months ago. The flowers were so pretty and makes the gift extra special. Oh good grief
Anna that ladder made me nervous. Looks pretty scary to me so be careful.
Windows? Have any secrets for cleaning them. I bet you have a special window cleaner. Let’s have the scoop. Mine really need a little TLC.
Loved the casserole dish and your dish towels are superb. You have such great sewing skills. OK, you are great at everything…cooking, cleaning windows, being a great mom, etc. Wonder women strikes again!
Hugs and Kisses, Kim
Don’t you just LOVE the etching on the casserole dish! I saw Kairle’s blog as well. And wrote it down! Such a great idea. The towels! LOVE the K!!! And the flowers in the blender. Oh my heck, why haven’t I seen that before. TOO TOO TOO clever. ~jodi
man, my daughter had better marry your son so you can make her all those stinkin’ cute things!!!! and are those YOUR windows?????? my goodness. what a gorgeous house!!!!! we no longer feel sorry for your “old lady who lives in a shoe” roof shingles. not even a smidgen.
did you embroider the “K” first and then applique it to the towel?
you’re so way out of my league.. i don’t know what i was thinking… i’ll have to find some scummier bloggers to stalk.
let me know how the pie turns out sugar. (this preschool teacher from the south that was just BRUTAL to the kids used to always call my daughter “sugar”. we knew she meant “demonspawn”, but was just acting all nice around us. so it’s a joke when we call everyone sugar, although most people just think we’re weirder than they thought we were before… – and actually, that part is true, we’re weirder than you thought before, but infinitely more interesting than nice people!)
So many good ideas. The beehive cake is such fun, and the quilt simply stunning. Take care on that ladder.
It all looks so perfect, Anna. Personalised items are always a hit. I’m itching to try out that tutorial now. I can see clear jars of sugar, coffee & tea being etched on the side. That’s so cool!
That is a great idea! I’ll put it on my mind!
oh Anna! what wonderful ideas – the etching, the flowers-in-a-blender AND the notebook idea. I’m going to start one right away!!
Your house must be lovely if the windows are any indication. :)
melly~
What a wonderful gift idea!
And while I don’t envy you the cleaning, your windows are gorgeous.
Cool ideas! I hope the ladder climb went well…. what a pretty window!
the casserole looks like it would be fun to make and great to own. You didn’t tell us you live in a castle!!
I love the etched glass dish…what a great idea! The towels are darling too.
I like the personalized shower gifts–you did a beautiful job on the towels, Anna.
Goodness! I hope to hear from you soon. That ladder looks steep!
XO
Anna,
We are having a Super Saturday in my ward in August and one of the things that we are making is the Casserole dish! Woo-hoo! I’m excited, especially now that I’ve seen it. I’m going to copy your picture to show to the ladies in charge! Thanks!
This is such an awesome idea – I have got to try this!!
Those windows look sparkly but that ladder looks a little scary!!
WOW..you are one brave chickie…no way would I climb up that ladder. Please be careful.
The casserole dish is a great idea and your towels the perfect addition. Its not wonder your gift was such a success.
could you please quit your job and stay home and make cute backpacks, and toiletry bags, and etched glass, and knitted socks, and we (all of your fans) will purchase them from you on your etsy site. i’ve got one all set up for you. i made it so i got a notification of new postings and got first dibs before anything was actually for sale. it’s a small price for my countless hours of setting it up. there is a blank spot for my backpack, my toiletry bag, my new socks, my felted wool bag, those other quilty peep bags…. oh oh, my embroidered towels, and bees embroidered on all sortsa stuff.
whenever i don’t want to go to work, by bf emails my boss a note. it goes like this:
dear neil,
please excuse brigette from work today. she has some pressing matters to attend to. thank you for your kind understanding.
most sincerely,
j.b.
she has notes for headaches, too much housework, bad attitude, mad at him for being a jackass… i have many to choose from, so if you would like me to write a note to your boss and let him know you need to stay home and sew for us for peanuts instead, just give me the word!!!!
could you please quit your job and stay home and make cute backpacks, and toiletry bags, and etched glass, and knitted socks, and we (all of your fans) will purchase them from you on your etsy site. i’ve got one all set up for you. i made it so i got a notification of new postings and got first dibs before anything was actually for sale. it’s a small price for my countless hours of setting it up. there is a blank spot for my backpack, my toiletry bag, my new socks, my felted wool bag, those other quilty peep bags…. oh oh, my embroidered towels, and bees embroidered on all sortsa stuff.
whenever i don’t want to go to work, by bf emails my boss a note. it goes like this:
dear n.
please excuse brigette from work today. she has some pressing matters to attend to. thank you for your kind understanding.
most sincerely,
j.b.
she has notes for headaches, too much housework, bad attitude, mad at him for being a jackass… i have many to choose from, so if you would like me to write a note to your boss and let him know you need to stay home and sew for us for peanuts instead, just give me the word!!!!
Hello…? Are you still up there or have you come down? Hope you can hear me, the casserole dish looks fab, as do the towels. (Don’t let Martha see). My goodness you’re going to have muscles on muscles after cleaning all those windows!
Kimx
The embroidered initial on the towels is beautifully stitched, they look so nice. The strawberry pie sounds delicious too, hope everyone enjoyed all the pies, it’s a really good way to celebrate Father’s Day.
Great dish and towels, Anna! College Girl has a friend getting married and asked if we could make a peronalized dish for Nellie’s shower. Cabana Boys nephew is getting married as well. Now that I’ve started giving these dishes to nieces and nephews, there’s just no stoppin’. As a matter of fact, I’m sure they’re all getting married just so that they can get their own! LOL!
Oh, did I tell you that there is a small fee for using the link to my tutorial? Come on over and wash my windows and the debt will be settled. ;-)
Wonderful shower gift! I love the initial on the towels – very pretty, Anna. The flowers in the blender is such a clever idea, too.
You are a wonderful woman for washing ALL of your windows! Would you like to do mine when you’re finished? I’ll pay the airfare to get you here!
I am so in awe of people who have schedules and such for cleaning and who can embroider a picture of my mother on my backside if i wanted it done and then etch a little glass casserole before they make some yummy thing to put in it. Girl, you got it going on x 10.
Cute idea with the pyrex! I might have to make one of those for my grandma for her birthday. She’d love it!
You know the commercial for V8 juice when they get hit on the head for not having one – well hit me – why didn’t I think of a notebook for marking down ideas I come across on blogs. I’m forever wondering where the heck I saw something. Leave it to my Anna for being so smart and passing it on. Very cute idea with that dish. I have a wedding shower coming up later this summer. I might give this idea a whirl and I will remember where I saw it, LOL. Love the towels also. Now those high windows – not so much. Mrs.Farmhouse isn’t fond of heights.
Hugs – Karen
Hi Anna! What a wonderful gift idea! One of my nieces is getting married in a few months. . . & this would make such a wonderful shower gift!. . . I’m off to go through my Mom’s recipes. . . all those favorites. . . ! Thanks you for sharing this! (Love your blog!)
xo, Bren
I really like the personalized casserole. Will be useful when she takes it to a potluck someday. And love the dish towels too. You’re so clever!
Happy Window Cleaning!
Jody
Ack! You’re shaming me. I have easy windows to clean and not too many of them and I’ve been putting it off. :-P
what great personal touches at the bridal shower!