Some Birthday Gifties

I had lunch with some lady friends today, and we celebrated all our birthdays - from May, July (mine!), and August. We exchange gifts each year for birthdays and Christmas. This year, I chose to make them each a plastic bag dispenser in some really pretty pink and green fabrics, and I tossed in some gray just for fun.

I used the Moda Bake Shop Grocer Bag Dispenser pattern, but added 1 1/8" lattice between 4 1/2" squares: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2009/06/grocery-bag-despenser-tutorial.html.

I also whipped up a couple of hot pads:

And a couple of my Shoop-Shoop Bags. I added some hexi fun!

I have soooo many hexis just waiting to be applied to something! Maybe I'll work on those today :-)

A Sweet Surprise :-)

I got such a sweet surprise in the mail awhile back. Sometimes, when you are your lowest, little things happen to bring you a moment of joy and remind you you're not alone. My husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, after a very long period of tests and frustration at what they WEREN'T finding. Yes, the diagnosis sucks. But now he is feeling much better with dietary changes and meds. Chemo also sucks, but is really not so bad, because he is pain-free and still able to enjoy life.

Back to the sweet surprise. Way back when...I was SUPER-LUCKY enough to land on Charise Randall's blog, Charise Creates: http://charisecreates.blogspot.com/ JUST at the right time to wrangle a spot on her Crafting it Forward post. I was the 5th (of 5!) to chime in, just under the wire!

Quite honestly, I forgot about it fairly quickly...and time passed. Then just a couple weeks ago, I received an email from Charise saying my goodies would be in the mail! I was so excited! Like a little rainbow-y sunbeam from out of nowhere :-)

And a few days later, a package arrived in the mail, just a few days after we had received the diagnosis. I tell ya...opening that big metal, rural mailbox and finding a package addressed to *ME* made my giggle like a schoolgirl!

Ok, I didn't snap a pic of the package...but I DID manage to restrain myself long enough to get one of the wrapped gifties - and you can be sure I saved that baker's twine, yess-in-deed-y!

And lookee what was inside! A cute little notebook that's going in my purse as soon as I make a little pouch to put it in so it doesn't get all scruffy and pursified. Look at that lovely FQ! One of my favorite colors is aqua! And the potholder...the potholder...will NEVER "know" a pot. Sorry. It just won't. Can't bear the thought of getting that pretty hotpad dirty or worse yet, burnt! It's hanging on my fridge right now :-)

I can't begin to tell Charise how much that little package meant to me - she was lamenting that it took so long for her to fulfill her "forward" but honestly, it came to ME at just the right time :-) It made me smile and lifted me up. Thanks so much :-)

And I will be putting up my own Crafting it Forward post within a week, and the first five Commenters will get some little package from me within the next 9 months, so watch for it!

Now...what shall I make with that FQ?????