We were kindly invited by the lovely people at Williams-Sonoma to attend an event which explained the launch of a new service that they have to offer which is all about gift registries for newly weds. What interested us the most about this was that it is a foreign concept that we’ve seen in movies, the most prominent movie it has been featured in is 27 Dresses.
Remember this scene? Where the older sister is choosing the home appliances and kitchen ware that her sister would need in her new home when she moves in with her future husband. How she emphasized the importance of the salad bowel that she would serve her husband the first salad in.
Anyhow, back to the wedding gift service. What’s great about it is that it includes a range of different products that all fall under the following categories:
1). Culinary
2). Furniture
3). Bedding
4). Lighting
5). Table Top
6). Decorative Accessories
7). Outdoor
8). Housekeeping goods
They also can personalize the gifts by monogramming on textiles, wood and glass items which is cute. They were also kind enough to give us a little gift, the two glasses monogrammed with Mama’s real name. Why Mama only and not Baba nor Banoota? Probably because Mama was the one dealing with the e-mail and when we “talk” to people via e-mails we do use our real names to make things less awkward. Nevertheless we love the glasses and enjoyed some homemade ice tea in them last night. The second gift was for Mama’s friend who joined her for the event as it was Mamas one day of the month to go out and have some “me” time.
We were shown around the store and ironically the store in the Avenues is the largest one in the world. It seems like we’re breaking some records here in Kuwait. The Pottery Barn Teens store is also the largest in the world. We loved what they had to offer, the colours are so warm and inviting. They also have a promotion on selected pieces so if you’re in the market for some new furniture you could check them out. Also note that majority of the furniture is upstairs and there is a secret elevator in the back left corner of the store for those of us with pushchairs.
The design studio corner.
I’m sure by now some people are wondering what this has to do with children and yahalooo. We thought this would be interesting because we also talk about planning baby receptions and they have some elegant culinary and table top collections which would be perfect for a baby’s reception which can be customized with their the family’s, baby’s or mother name. Secondly, the registry also applies to the following home furnishing stores too; West Elm, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Teens and Pottery Barn Kids. Hence why not create a whole gift directory for your baby’s bedroom and have the design studio help you plan the room. You could also get the in-home consultation team send you a home stylish to have a look at your space to help give you some ideas if you are stuck when it comes to the design. It’s a great way to make sure you don’t get a bunch of things that you don’t need or things that are the same and end up having to return which happened to us.
They also happen to have a nice collection of Beaba products for children, the baby cooker is out of stock but it will be coming to the store soon.
With summer being around the corner, why not encourage your children to have a health snack? Instead of buying ice cream they can make their own popsicles and it only takes 7 minutes. All you have to do is leave the container in the freezer overnight, then take it out pour in the fruit juice you’re like to use, leave it in for 7 minutes and you’re done. Fun, interactive and healthy so a win-win situation. They also have a chocolate fondue makers and cookbook that’s full of fun ideas like watermelon shaped popsicles. We bought this for Baba’s niece as a birthday gift and she loves it.
Ending with another movie reference but we couldn’t help but think of another movie while we were looking at the ground floor full of great cooking items like pots, pans, measuring cups and other culinary. Does anyone remember Julie & Julia? the movie based on 2 true stories of a housewife Julia Young who became a chef after discovering a passion for cooking and then there was Julie who loves to cook and created a blog challenging herself to cook all 520 recipes of Julia Young’s cook book and blog about it. Well, guess what! Turns out that Julia Young and Chuck Williams, the founder of William Sonoma are good friends and most of the cookware in the movie is from this store.