My Birthday Surprise!

Wow....what a great Birthday I had this year! Sort of my "Golden Birthday" since I was born in '56 and turned 56 with this birthday :-) My family decided to celebrate with a surprise wine tasting (Wines for Humanity), with my closest family and friends. The party was spear-headed by my oldest daughter Libby, who came up with this fun idea! She did all the organizing and work behind the scenes leading up to the party, and then took me out for a "girls' day" with lunch, shopping and a manicure, while my husband and 2 sons cleaned and set up for the party. Sorely missed on this day was my daughter Kristen, who had to stay back in Chicago and study for her grad school final exams: missed her so much, but she was there in spirit!

 Libby told me that we would be celebrating with a surprise with my husband and sons later, so I was thinking reservations had been made for a fun dinner out somewhere. When we arrived close to home, Libby placed a blindfold over my eyes explaining that part of the surprise was something that the guys had done in the yard (landscaping? new plantings, new tree?). I'm pretty gullible and follow directions very well, so I really had no idea when I walked into the house and was greeted by family and friends!

 SURPRISE!

Here we are at the wine-tasting, pre-pour, going over our instructions:

Catering was done by my son Kenny's girlfriend Cassie's aunt, a trained chef. She did such a lovely job, and paired the food offerings with the different wines served. Amazing!

Group photo: what a lovely bunch!

Front row: Barb, Margaret, me, & Libby

Back row: Stacy, Janet, Janice, Cassie, Karen, Angie, Cindy & Kathy.

I really felt like a queen for the day! Thanks so much to my guests for taking the time out of their busy schedules to help me celebrate, and for the lovely gifts that were the icing on the cake.

And a special thank you to my family: no words to say how much you all mean to me!

Terrarium

I've been seeing terrariums all over Pinterest and some of the home design shops like West Elm and Crate & Barrel. I remember making one "way back when" when I was in high school, and wanted to make another. Enter my daughter Kristen, who gifted me with this great glass container for Mother's Day:

I purchased some aquarium stone, special potting soil for succulents, and harvested some moss from one of our shade beds, adding to that four cute little plants.

I love it!

Wordless Wednesday

In the garden

My little gardening buddy....happy to sun himself on a rock while I worked around him:

Simplicity 2369, McCall's 5248: PJ's!

      

Simplicity 2369 is a very popular and often reviewed pattern on the sewing website PatternReview. It's been sitting at the top of my to-do list for quite awhile, so I gave it a try. I had this yellow knit in my stash, so I used it to test the pattern. It really wasn't the right fabric, tho....too thin and clingy. But now I know why this is a much-loved pattern! I did make my usual FBA, and added stretch elastic to the neckline to eliminate gaping.  I'm looking forward to making up the dress, when I find the right fabric.
In the mean time, this will work well as a PJ top. Speaking of PJs, a couple of bloggers like Karen and Barbara have been posting about PJs, so I guess I'm right on trend!     
                                    

The PJs top needed some bottoms, so I got out McCall's 5248 . Not much to say here, just your
basic PJ bottoms with an elastic waist. I did need to narrow the leg width some, the legs were just too
wide and baggy. I  used this stretch cotton....not quite sure why or when I purchased this "loud" fabric,
but it's fine to wear in the privacy of my own home!

                                                         

Happy Mother's Day!

My husband and I are blessed with these amazing daughters and sons.

(Matt-21, Kristen-26, Kenny-24, Libby-28)

Mother's Day blessings to all Mothers everywhere :-)

Alice book bag: Betz White pattern

I wanted to make another messenger-type bag, but without the detail that I put into the last one that I made. Lori posted these projectsof the Alice book bag on her blog, and I really liked the ring detail so I thought I'd give it a try. I like the handle option: it can be opened out full length to be a cross-body bag, or doubled up and worn under the arm. These rings were in my stash.....a little larger than the pattern calls for but they still worked okay:

 

The pattern allows for one interior pocket, and I think if I made this again I would add a zipper pocket inside also.

I added a zipper to the exterior pocket for security.

This is the second bag I made using this pattern. The first one was a fail. I used a very heavy weight Pellon, fusing it to the bag and it was sloppy looking, too stiff and very difficult to work with. I wanted to try something new, but I still prefer using craft fleece, with canvas sewed in for support. The bag above doesn't have the canvas, so is a little 'soft' but I still like it.