Warm and fuzzy

My husband spotted this made in USA twin/full blanket at our local Big Lots for just $5.
Great for adding that extra layer of warmth to your bed this winter, putting in your car to take to football games or in case of emergencies, or just cozying up on the couch with.

Spotted

My husband spied these made in USA Fisher House kneepads at Lowe's recently.
The package reads "kneepad supplier to the US Army.
They could make a nice stocking stuffer for the do-it-yourselfer or contractor on your gift list.

Y'all want pie?

While shopping at a local kitchen store last month, I ran across this colorful selection of Haeger Natural Stone deep dish pie plates made in the USA.
The plates are oven, microwave and dishwasher safe and are lead free.
Haeger makes a wide variety of pottery items. Visit their website for more information.

For the birds

On a recent visit to Sears I saw a nice selection of bird feeders made in the USA. One of the brands was this Wild Delight model.
I got a bird feeder for Christmas a couple of years ago and my husband and I really enjoy listening to the birds and checking out the various species that visit our feeder.

Athletic polos

A few years back I found some made in USA women's polos on Athleta's web site that I really liked. The material is a blend of polyester and spandex.
The style is nice, too, because it has some darts sewn in and looks nicer than your average unisex polo.
Recently I noticed that the same style polos in their catalog and on their web site were labeled imported, so I hadn't bought any more.
I found some similar looking polos labeled made in USA on Sierra Trading Post's web site and ordered three of those to replace mine, which were wearing out. Originally I had brown, white and light blue, and this time I ordered a coral, a white and a yellow.
When they arrived, I discovered that they were the Altheta polos. The good news is, I got a great deal. The bad news is, they are most likely being clearanced out through Sierra Trading Post and perhaps other outlets.
If you are in need of a nice athletic polo made in USA, give them a look before they are gone.

Keep it contained

Food storage containers that are made in USA are actually fairly easy to find. Have you noticed any?
There are several made of clear glass, and even some plastic ones like these I spotted at a nearby Dollar Tree store.
Next time you are in the market for some, give the label a look to see where they are made.

Menards

Menards makes it somewhat easy to find made in USA products in their home improvement stores.
Every few weeks they run a made in USA flyer that lists pages of products made here.
They also have some labeling on the shelves for items made in USA.

I know they carry several rugs and door mats manufactured here, but I was delighted to find this fun number with an owl on it during my last visit.
When in the store, you can also find American-made toys, housewares and more. I recently even saw an apartment-sized stove in the store with a made in USA label on it.

Harbor Freight Tools

 If you are familiar with Harbor Freight Tools, you might think of it as a place that sells a lot of cheap tools made in China. And you might be correct.
However, in just a short minute I managed to find two products made in USA in the store, which made me wonder how many more items stocked there might be made here.
Harbor Freight currently has more than 350 brick and mortar stores.
While shopping at our local store last weekend, I noticed a toy called the Arrowcopter Toy, touted as being able to soar 300 feet. On the front of the package was a U.S. flag under which appeared Made in the United States.
At an end cap display I also noticed a two gallon plastic gasoline can with a U.S. flag on the label with the familiar Made in USA text appearing underneath.
Many times while shopping in so-called "dollar stores" I have also seen merchandise made in USA. It just goes to show, it pays to check labels no matter where you go.

Sock it to me

Just a quick note to say that I found a few offerings of both men's and women's socks made in USA at Dunham's Sports store. I got some women's bamboo socks in a couple of colors and some men's in white cotton.
I used to be able to find a great selection of socks at TJ Maxx, but have been striking out there lately. Heck, even about four years ago I could find them at Target and Kmart.
Speaking of made in USA shopping, I also saw quite a few women's tops at Bergner's last night. My only issue with them was that they were the baggy 1980s styles, but it's great to see a larger selection of made in USA stuff on hand.

Cunningham's Puzzles

In searching for made in USA gift items for my nieces, I discovered Cunningham's jigsaw puzzles.
The puzzles are hand made out of wood in animal shapes. They carry jungle animals, farm animals, water animals, dogs and more.

My niece is currently a fan of farm animals, so I decided on a pig puzzle for $30.
My order arrived shortly, packaged in a padded envelope proudly decorated with a made in USA sticker. And yes, even the sticker was made in USA.
The puzzle was of very nice quality, complete with curly tail.
I gave the puzzle to my niece last week as a birthday gift and hope she has fun with it and that it will make a nice long lasting keepsake.

The letdown

I've always found it exciting when I actually find a web site that returns search results for made in USA or even has a section of made in USA merchandise. Otherwise, I end up spending hours combing through page after page and looking for country of origin information.
It's nice to see some sites make the effort to help customers find this information.
I would have to say, however, that many times I've anxiously awaited a new made in USA purchase to arrive then excitedly cut open the package and taken the items out, but had my victory dashed by the familiar "made in China" words clearly printed on the item.
In April I placed an order from REI's made in USA section on their web site. The order was for a shirt and a kite, both of which I was excited about. The shirt was a very attractive style and the kite was an Easter surprise for my husband.
When both items arrived, neither one of them was made in the USA. Upon contacting REI, they were very apologetic and sent me a coupon. I did return the shirt because I don't need to pay $50 for cute imported shirts. We ended up keeping the kite, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Yesterday I received another supposed made in USA clothing item from yet another company. It was labeled made in China. My other item is on backorder, which is also supposed to be made in USA.
As I had received an email from the CEO of the company thanking me for my business immediately upon placing this recent order, I replied to that email and explained my dismay. That was about 7 hours ago and I have received no response.
I will give them a few days to respond, and I will also anxiously await my other item to see if it is also misrepresented on their web site.
Today I was also looking for a made in USA sundress to wear on vacation this summer and checked REI's web site. I see they still have both the kite and the shirt I originally ordered from them labeled as being made in USA almost two months after I placed the order.

Shorts weather

With shorts weather on the way, I knew I could use a new pair. The majority of my shorts predate my relationship with my husband, so we're talking 10+ years here.
I found the Kevin's Catalog web site in my collection of links, which had some women's safari-style shorts made in the USA and ordered a pair. They arrived within a week and were quite attractive.
Kevin's Catalog site search actually works like I wish other sites did: you type in USA in the search box, and whammo, you get pages of relevant results. Many sites will only return items with USA in the product name, which many times are made in China.
Right now Kevin's Catalog has made in USA leather goods, apparel, furniture and accessories.

Spring has sprung

The arrival of spring spurred me to put away the flannel sheets for the season.
When I got out the spring sheets, I remembered that this was a new set I bought last year from the Luxe & Liberty site, a site that carries a variety of made in USA gift and home goods.
The sheets I selected are called DreamFit, they are made in the USA, and their trademark says they are "The World’s Strongest & Best Fitting Sheet".
The fitted sheet has elastic straps to better hold on to the corners of the mattress. I have to say that I no longer have any problems with the sheet coming off on my husband's side of the bed, which used to happen quite often.
You can view the rest of the details on the DreamFit bedding on this page of Luxe & Liberty's web site.

Down on the farm

Maybe you've heard of farm-to-table restaurants. Farm-to-table dining is inspired by a direct relationship between a farm and a restaurant.
In central Illinois, we have dined at June (Peoria Heights), an upscale restaurant that uses local and seasonal products from a network of farmers. From their web site, I also learned that "the chefs stretch the season by canning and preserving seasonal items; all breads are baked in-house; and all butchering is done in-house".
We have also discovered the Harvest Café in Delavan. Here they use use products such as cheeses from Prairie Fruits Farm (Champaign), and meats from Meadow Haven Farm (Sheffield).

On our most recent breakfast at the Harvest Café, I tried the eggs Benedict, made with local eggs and home made Canadian bacon. The fried potatoes, which I think were fingerling, we crisply and delicious.
Not only are these great restaurants supporting local farms, they are also able to reduce some of the cost associated with transporting food from out of state and provide you with a meal that contains fresher ingredients than some establishments serve.

I want to ride my bicycle

We went to our local bike shop over the weekend to drop my bicycle off for a spring tune-up.
While browsing in the shop I noticed this Genuine Innovations CO2 tire inflator with a made in USA emblem at the bottom corner of the package. Next time we need one I know which one we will buy.
We went down to the basement to scope out the bikes and ran across a Worksman bike, also made in USA, marked by a flag sticker on the bar several inches down from the seat.
I remember finding out about Worksman bikes when I first started researching made in USA products. Worksman has been manufacturing bikes in the United States for more than 110 years. From their web site:
"Back in 1898, in the back of a retail store in lower Manhattan, Morris Worksman started to develop specialty bicycles and tricycles that would be useful for local merchants to use. He saw a need for conveyances that could take the place of the horse and buggy."
And in case you were wondering, they do make other styles than the three-wheeled model.
In the 10 years we've been seeking out American-made products, we've seen the number of such bikes in stores drop dramatically. It's good to see one company still carrying on.

Soft AND doughy

Looking for Christmas gifts for some wee ones last year I discovered Mary's Softdough. It's a non-crumbly modeling dough packed in a recyclable plastic tub made in the USA in rainbow hues of red, yellow, green, blue and purple. The product is made by Terrapin Toys designed and manufactured in Eugene, Oregon.
If you can't find it in stores, I have seen it on Amazon and Nico & Zoe Toys, which, by the way, has a made in USA toy section on their site. Look for a link in their sidebar.

I put some new shoes on

Many years ago when we first started seeking out made in USA products we found out about New Balance shoes. I'm happy to say New Balance still produces several styles of shoes right here in the US.
I've had a pair that's probably eight years old now. I started walking during lunch recently, and found that my shoes no longer fit my feet very well, and paired with some bad socks gave me a killer blister that kept me sidelined for a few days.
I hopped on the trusty Internet once I noticed that not only were my shoes kind of old, they were also size 6 1/2, and for the last few years I have mostly been buying size 7.
I checked out the New Balance tennies at Sierra Trading Post and Zappos, both of which display whether the shoes are made in USA on their site. I have also found New Balance in some brick and mortar stores including TJ Maxx.
I picked out a pair that received good reviews and ordered them from Sierra.

The shoes arrived within a couple of days and I was pleased to see that rather than putting a box of shoes into another box filled with peanuts, as has been the shipping method of many a package I have received over the years (not specifically from Sierra), Sierra had simply taken the shoe box, put it in a bag and sent it on it's way. It arrived fully intact.

I took the shoes out of the box and checked the tag on the tongue for the familiar made in USA designation, which you may be able to make out on the top line of the tag in the photo here.
I put my new shoes on Saturday for a breakfast outing to a local farm-to-table restaurant and a day spent enjoying the great outdoors to break them in for a few hours, and I think I managed to step in sheep poop, dog poop and some thick mud, so I now call them properly Christened!

A stylin' lid

My husband likes to wear some sort of straw hat while boating to keep the heat off his bald head.
For Christmas 2009, I was on the hunt for a nice made in USA hat for him. In my searches, I ran across MyCubanStore.
I picked out a great looking coconut fedora with a jaunty ribbon featuring several colors. It's a very nice looking, well made hat.

Etsy

If you like to buy items made in the US, Etsy is a great resource.
I have purchased several items from Esty including two purses, a wallet, a dog collar, a shirt and a wooden spoon, all made by artists and craftsmen from the United States.
The sellers are not limited to the United States. I also bought a fun iPod case made by a lady in the Netherlands.
You can find tons more things on Etsy as well, including jewelry and furniture.
Want to buy things locally? Etsy is great for this. You can narrow your search to items near where you live by using the Shop Local link, and you may even be able to pick your items up rather than paying for shipping.
Concerned about wastefulness? You can even find vintage and upcycled items on Etsy.

Those pesky unmentionables

The year we celebrated Christmas with only gifts made in the US, I ordered my husband some Wickers brand underwear, which we had not been familiar with before. They were a huge hit!
Wickers uses a silky moisture-wicking fabric and they make underwear, t-shirts, thermal underwear and more for men, women and children.
I've bought them from both Sierra Trading Post and Wickers web site, t-shirts and underwear both, and we've never been disappointed. If you sign up with Wickers email list, you can receive notices about sales.

A new sweater

I recently became aware that Urban Outfitters carries several items made in USA. I've ordered a few things from them off the web, and when I am near a store, I try to stop by and check it out.

On our last visit, I found this sheer black and brown roll cuff sweater by Sparkle & Fade. It looks great over a flesh-toned tank top.
The sweater also comes in cream, orange and black.
If you are searching their site for made in USA items, type "made in usa" in quotes into the search box. Once you receive your results, you can narrow down by category if you prefer.

May, 2011 - Urban Outfitters made in USA web search has stopped working.

New duds

Yesterday I had two made in USA clothing orders arrive.
First I ordered the Perfect Companion Pants in navy from Monterey Bay for $69.99. They are a nice, stretchy cotton/spandex blend (the fabric is imported) and I've got them ready to go in the wash to decide if I want to have them hemmed a bit.

My other purchase was a pair of pajamas. I used to have some old soft cotton striped pj pants that I would wear all the time. They had kind of a beachy feel to them, and they were great, but eventually I had to let them go, and haven't had any true pajama pants since. They were probably made in the US due solely to their age.
I did some research last week on made in USA pajamas and came up with BedHead and The Cat's Pajamas. Both of these brands of PJs have been featured on several TV shows.
I ordered a pair on sale for $45 from The Cat's Pajamas. They are made in San Francisco of poplin, which is imported.
The packaging of the pajamas was great, and now I have some fun, coordinated lounge wear.

Here comes Peter Cottontail

I don't have cravings very often, so when I do, I try to indulge them.

Recently I've had jelly beans on my mind. And what better time to dream of jelly beans, but on the cusp of spring, when Easter is just around the corner?
My cravings are rather specific, though. What I have a hankering for is some Jelly Belly assorted jelly beans, AND some plain old Brach's jelly beans like I used to get in my Easter basket every year. My dad and I were one of the only few who would even eat the black ones.
Jelly beans are not something I would have thought one should inspect for country of origin, but apparently this is now the case. While trying to determine if the Brach's jelly beans (which were labeled "Classic" and "Jelly Bird Eggs") I saw at CVS this weekend were the variety I remembered from childhood, my husband noticed a made in Mexico tagline on the bag.
Inspecting a few other brands, some of them were not clearly labeled. We did find some Russell Stover jelly beans that looked very similar to the Brach's I remember, and they were labeled made in USA.
I'm going to give the Russell Stover brand a try.

The toaster

Let me preface this first post by saying that my husband and I have made great efforts to support made in USA merchandise since about 2003.
One Christmas all the gifts we bought each other (and yes, we came up with several) were made in the US.

We've had our toaster for a few years. It was a hurried replacement for one that broke, and we did check the labels in the store and there were none made in USA, so we bought this cheap white toaster.
Recently the toaster has started acting flaky, which led me to search for a toaster made in the USA. Barring that, perhaps one made in Italy or something like that.
So far I have struck out, but I did run across an interesting thread on a forum where someone mentioned a guy who restores vintage toasters.
"Why not buy a vintage toaster," I thought? I could have a made in USA toaster with great style, would be reusing an existing item and wouldn't be creating any demand for another made in China toaster that would last a couple of years.
When I brought it up to my husband, he mentioned his grandma's Toastmaster toaster that lowered the toast automatically, and got excited about the prospect of owning one.
So, the quest is on. I did bid on one on eBay and got outbid, but I am on the hunt now, and know we will soon have one of these beauties on our kitchen counter.