Hometown Shout-out

Not technically hometown, but Nate brought home an unwanted issue of Southern Living (unbelievable, right?), and there were a few great items featured from WV. It made me nostalgic and I thought that those of you in WV might want to know about it, and those of you who miss WV will have some pride for the Mountain Mama.

The Best of the South spread featured breakfast items "Made by Southern Hands." After having a debate about whether Missouri was "South" and then the arguments for and against WV being considered "South," we agreed that the items from WV were cool nonetheless, and pledged to try to make it to both of these places if we have the chance.

First is Blenko Glass is Milton, WV. The had really cute glass tumblers featured, but I got online and saw that they had lots of great gift ideas: wedding gifts, housewarming, collegiate things for you devoted or wannabe alumni. They have items that you could use everyday, and more artsy things for those of you with formal living rooms (not here!).
They also have demonstrations, which reminded me of going to Fenton with with my grandmother
Some links to my favorite items.
Water bottles
I really like all the colors, but that crystal one at the top looks nice.
These bowls are cool too, the blue is my favorite.
They have lots of silly, other college teams represented, but I know you will all go looking for this one. Maybe this one too. And before this past Tuesday, maybe you would have been jazzed about this one.

The other one featured was from Allegheny Treenware in Thornton, WV. They had a beautiful wooden, handled butter dish.
Again, they had lots of great items, but our favorites were measuring spoons and cups,
kitty paw tongs (duh), and all these gift sets are amazing.

I just thought that both of these sites were worth a look and worth knowing they exist.
It made us both decide to search out local artwork, or artisans in the areas we live and visit. These would make great souvenirs or gifts. Nate's parents and his dear friends are very good at this. We have received some really great really great pottery pieces from all of them, all mostly local to their locations (see this post for bird feeder).

Loosely related ramble...
This made me think about the ole wedding registry. As we received gifts for the wedding, we loved getting the things we had been looking forward to that were on the registry. For me: fiesta, china, silverware!, blender!. For Nate: grilling utensils, knife set, cutting boards.
But those off the registry gifts that make us think of our loved ones are great too. My dear friend gave us two antique crystal with sterling filigree glasses that are on our china hutch. Her mom gave us some pottery made locally in KY that is beautiful. I'm sure they gave it to us both to use and as a reminder of mine and Kelsey's shared taste in old things, to remind us where we met and dated, that they promised to pray for us everyday for the first year of our marriage, and how much we love our former (not really former, you know what I mean) church family. And that's great too! Warm fuzzies always come when we talk about the wedding, and its mostly because of how awesome friends and fam.
But we always come to this realization: I'm never planning a wedding again, Hallelujah! (Nate says, "It was great! I'm never doing that again!)

Now I'm curious,
Did you all get any off the registry treasures for your wedding or baby?