bountiful belated birthday

Sunday my mom came up for a visit so we could celebrate her birthday. We had the traditional, delicious, packed-full pita sandwiches for lunch with a strong cup of coffee...and some wonderful key lime pie! The weather was nice and warm so we sat out on the porch to eat and chat while the girls took their naps. Now that she's received all of her gifts I can show you some pictures. Here's a picture of the birthday girl holding her handmade gifts and a couple of shots of the other gifts. As you can see, her main gift was the wonderfully big, bright and cheery, Summer Adventures Bag that I made when I participated in the Mystery Purse Sew-Along hosted by Lola...again. It's a huge bag so I filled it with all sorts of goodies.

I found some great things at Joann's to add to my Mom's sewing stash: an irresistible pink tape measure, self-threading needles with a handy magnet, adorable leaf-tipped pins, a bundle of subtle, yet beautifully beach-y, fat quarters, and some small spools of coordinating grosgrain ribbon. I also managed to make a few things, too. First, I embroidered a bookmark. (the idea for that came from SouleMama, remember?)Yep, that's the one I made when I embroidered the girls' bookmarks. It was so fun I just couldn't resist drawing on fabric and making one for my mom. I was pretty pleased with the outcome, although, there's probably not a line of straight stitching to be seen. The second thing I made was a tea wallet. I saw one over at Creative Kismet. I thought it was such a great idea so I just had to try it. My mom drinks tea at work instead of coffee so I thought this would be a good idea. I used all of the coordinating fabrics that I used for the Summer Adventure Bag. I found a cute teacup graphic online, traced it onto the exterior fabric and embroidered it. I was quite amazed that I had the exact color of embroidery floss that I needed already in my stash. I didn't even realize I had a stash of embroidery floss. It's just the little box I've had since, ahem, middle school when I learned to make friendship bracelets. Sheesh! Do I save everything? Don't answer that! Again, the embroidery...not perfect, but I was pleased and I think my Mom was, too. The third thing I made was a huge pin cushion. I had to have a place to stick all of those cute leaf-tipped pins, right? Anyway, I found a great tutorial at Creative Kismet for the patchwork pincushion. However, I didn't read the directions right so my patchwork pincushion has 8 pieces instead of 6....oh well. I also made it bigger because I traced a small plate....8" diameter instead of 6". I love the way it turned out though. I may have to make one for myself!

Because there were so many pockets on the inside of the big bag I had to fill them. I found some great summery fingernail polish to match the tulips on the fabric, some yummy vanilla mint chapstick, and some delicious pink grapefruit tictacs. I threw in a few magazines for good measure and a great set of coupons for Joann's...if you're gonna buy fabric you may as well get a discount, right? So there you have it...a bountiful belated birthday! Mama, I had a great time visiting! Oh, and thanks for the goodies! (yes, my mom brought stuff for me and the girls...books, fabric, yarn, crochet hooks. I know, spoiled rotten!)

Next up....Mother's Day!