Gift wrap

There comes a time in every woman's life when she is faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, a problem with no clear solution, and she must look into the farthest reaches of her soul, take a deep breath, and ask herself one question.

What would Martha do?

Jen B's bridal shower was yesterday. Since lemonade is her *favorite* beverage, and she is a soon-to-be Southern hostess, I thought that I'd give her a lemonade set. In fact, I *created* a lemonade set, searching high and low, online and off to find just the right serving tray, glasses and pitcher. And I threw in some super cool screen-printed lettuce and tomato dishtowels from Crate and Barrel (because you can never have too many dishtowels).

The problem was this: how do you gift-wrap a pitcher, four glasses, dishtowels and a serving tray in a way that is neither cumbersome nor ugly (hello), that won't keep the recipient occupied for a decade unwrapping stuff in order to figure out just what in the hell you're giving her?

And so I sought intervention from Michael's. I found an oval box in the boxes-to-decoupage section, and with a little kraft brown wrapping paper, scissors and PVA, I lifted that box from a humble ready-to-decoupage box, to THIS:

A decoupaged box.

The four glasses fit inside *perfectly* (woohoo!), and after stuffing it with yellow tissue paper, I put the lid on and was ready to add some pizazz with ribbon and raffia.

Eh. It needs some OOMPH, I thought. A lemon perhaps (real, of course)? With a bit of mint? Attached with floral wire to the raffia?

Mmmm. Delectable.

Tout de même, there was still the stupid pitcher, towels and tray. Or at least the pitcher and towels, because I figured the tray could just function as a tray and be used as a device to both contain and carry whatever clever solution I came up with.

I tried stuffing the pitcher with yellow tissue paper and draping the towel over the edge of the tray, in a casual sort of way.

No, no, no. Martha would definitely NOT do THAT.

And then I remembered the Blue Wind Gourmet, a local restaurant that serves the most delicious chicken tortilla soup -- AND sends your carry-out with you in plain brown, but sturdy, paper bags, which I save because they make perfect gift bags. So smart. So, so smart. :)

The pitcher fit in the bag perfectly. Regrettably, I did not take a picture of the pitcher before I wrapped it all up, but here's what I did: I placed two lemons inside the pitcher, along with a sprig or two of mint, then placed the lemon-filled pitcher in the yellow-tissue-lined bag. I added some extra yellow tissue on top and VOILA! A gift-wrapping job to arouse ample curiosity, speculation and admiration.

I think Martha would be pleased.