Let's go shopping!!!
So a couple weeks ago I visited my best friend Haley in Huntsville to work on my wedding registry! Now I know that most couples do their registries together, however, shopping through home décor and cookware seems more of my type of leisurely activity than Johnny's. I'm sure that Johnny is grateful too, for sparing him the giddy high that this girl gets while shopping. I'm even worse with Haley, since we both delight in the prowl of shopping for the newest intrigues. Also, apart from being excellent company, Haley has a wealth of knowledge to impart on anything related to cooking, which made her the perfect partner in crime to help me load up my registry with lots of goodies for an otherwise kitchen and cookware poor moi.The aim of my registry was to rectify this of course and prepare my kitchen for cooking once more. I love to cook and before I moved to Chattanooga I cooked all the time. Sadly, however after moving several times in the last few years around Chattanooga, I have lost most of my cookware, utensils, and appliances. Johnny has had about the same luck during his moves. The few times that either of us have attempted to cook at our houses, we have been thwarted by the necessity of some little thing, whether it was a can opener on one occasion or a pizza pan the next. Sometimes we even had the item, it just happened to be at the other's house. Yet, another less worrisome dilemma is that of duplicates between the two of us, but that problem has a much easier solution; we'll just keep the best of the two and yard sale or donate the other. That being said, I know the kitchen is definitely an area that is lacking a few cooking essentials that I have placed on the registry.
My other aim for the registry was to simplify the clutter. Over the years, Johnny and I have both collected an eclectic assortment of sets of utensils. An example that comes readily to mind are measuring cups. I alone have about three different sets, each missing one or the other and married together to make a complete set of measurements. I can only imagine how nice it will be to have just one complete set that will fit neatly within themselves and diminish the clutter in the drawers. So it's easily imaginable how these small incidences and considerations contributed to the majority of the items on my registry. In fact, I kept the items predominately in the kitchen and cookware department.
For my registry, I decided to register at Belk's. There are tons of places that couples can register and it really depends on your preference. The three stores I considered the most were JCPenny, Belk, and Kohl's. I actually really like the bedding and furniture departments at JCPenny and I even like the diversity of cookware at JCPenny. However, several of the stores have closed in this area and I didn't want to establish a long term registry with a store that might not be around in the future. Kohl's future was less uncertain, but their selection ended up being less diverse when I visited. I had some experience already with Belk. Last year I helped Haley run around the Belk store with the not so little registry gun and gather up items for her wedding registry. So I decided that I'd revisit Belk for mine. Haley was also able to give Belk a positive recommendation based upon her own experiences. It's important to know that items on the registry can be purchased easily if you need to complete any sets later. I also like the quality of the items sold at Belk. You know what they say about quality, "You get what you pay for." Belk's only fault is that they are always busy! The lady manning the registry desk had a couple people in line when we arrived. Luckily, you can register online, so we walked about the store and simply wrote down items that interested us.
Among the items that I wanted to add and that I'll discuss briefly, were pots and pans. There are half a dozen kinds of pots and pans that make it difficult to choose one particular style over another. There are stainless steel, copper bottomed, and non-stick pans. I finally decided on a set of T-fal stainless steel copper bottom pans. My understanding is that a copper bottom distributes the heat quicker and more fully across the bottom of the pan. The only caution is that it usually requires a lower temperature. The non-stick pans were tempting, but I was too afraid they would be easily ruined by Johnny or I using a metal spoon stirring the contents that I decided against it. Other essential cooking instruments that we included were a sauté pan by Calphalon and a porcelain coated Dutch oven stew pot by Cooks Tools. We also added a few items of corningware and bakeware, but I had some of those items already.
For organization, I fell in love with the Oxo brand! I love the design and ingenuity of most of their products. A few of their noteworthy items are the storage containers that have pop tops, angled measuring cups, box grate, and salad spinner. They also have kitchen utensils like pizza wheels, can openers, and locking tongs. I registered for an assortment of those items too.
When I envision my future kitchen, there are several desirable kitchen appliances too. My mom has an immersion blender and Haley demoed her food processor for me when we got back to her apartment to register everything online. When I considered the amount of time these appliances saved during the preparation phase of cooking they earned a spot on the registry. A kitchenaid mixer and a bread machine are the other two items that I've had an eye on for a while. The kitchenaid was one of the first items on my list and it comes in robins egg blue too! Just look how cute it is!
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| Photo taken from Pinterest and contributed by Rachel Best on Flickr. |
Originally, I didn't want to register for china. Johnny and I have had a tendency of eating out a majority of the time and the times that we do eat meals at either of our houses (which is usually cereal or soup,) it is usually with paper cups and bowls. Of course, when it's just the two of you, not having to do dishes trumps trying to be fancy, even it there are only be two sets of dishes to wash. Johnny and I also live life of the go a lot. Between both of our jobs and the activities of ArtsyU we find it easier to eat out than cook. We have both expressed this "norm" part of our lives to change and actually sit down in our own house and share a home meal. This is perhaps my thoughts behind deciding to register for wedding china. When I lived in Huntsville I did entertain more often and it was nice to share a meal with family and friends on occasion. I would like to start doing this again.
That being said, I am also very practical. When I registered for wedding china I wanted it to be functional. I also didn't want anything too expensive that would cause me to go into convulsions if a piece was accidently broken. Buying something less expensive also meant that Johnny and I could complete it ourselves if we didn't get the entire set. Bearing these points in mind, Haley and I dismissed the fine china and decided to look at the causal china. One design in particular seemed to catch my attention as I looked it over. It was an ivory/off white color with a design that wasn't too ornate and could easily be matched with other odd pieces nicely. The design was by Mikasa and called Italian Countryside. It also happened to be microwave and dishwasher safe, but the best part, was that it was on sale and not terribly expensive. I decided that this set of china would meet my expectations and registered for it.
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| Photo taken from Pinterest. Contributed by Dillards. |
Since then, I discovered why this particular set of china seemed to attract me. I was speaking to my mom about my registry and showing her several of the items, when she remarked how familiar the Italian Countryside pattern looked. In fact, she noted how similar it was to the set of china that she gave me and my brother last Thanksgiving. She had found a few odd pieces at a thrift store in both an off white and sage green color. My brother ended up with the green and I took the off white home. I had put them up in my china cupboard and hadn't really thought about it until mom mentioned its similarity. So I checked the name on the pieces that she had given me and wouldn't you know, it's the same as the Mikasa Italian countryside that I registered for at Belk. How cool is that? I couldn't believe it! Now if I had any doubts about getting china before, I certainly don't now. It appears, it was meant to be! What's great is that I already have a set of three! So thank you Mom!
In the end, I believe our shopping spree to be successful. I found lots of goodies for the registry that will both help me become more functional in the kitchen chaos that it is currently and to reconnect with a prior skill and love, cooking, which I know Johnny will appreciate! It was also a lot of fun catching up with Haley and acting like a couple of girls compiling of list of dream items for my future home! When I got home, Johnny and I reviewed the list and added a few more additions. For the most part, he loved (okay, that's a strong word, he liked) most everything I had picked out and was happy that I had enjoyed myself. Although, he did laugh that I registered for china when I told him, because he knew I originally wasn't going too!
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