Birthday Bag

Jerika was invited to a cousins birthday party and so after discussing what to give she decided on a purse. The girl is turning 13 so i think that she would love it. She asked her earlier what her favorite color was ---purple. Great!! who doesn't love the color purple?

So i of course went through every piece of fabric i had and couldn't find enough purpley stuff. So we went through the pillowcase/sheet swap. Suprisingly they don't have a lot of purple either. in fact there was one piece that we thought would work.

I had a piece of muslin type fabric that had a little varigated purple to it. Perfect! It is the lining and the outer pocket. I am not sure what happened between measuring the inside lining and the outside fabric, but something did! The outside was bigger :( yikes...what next? well, do a few pinch pleates---that's what. 2 on the front and 2 on the back. It worked. Doesn't look like a mistake does it? We put a little velcro closure at the top to keep everything in. Then found a lovely vintage purple button to do the fake out button closure trick. It matched perfectly!

We of course had to go to the dollar store and pick a few things out to load it with....smelly markers (their back!!!), silly putty, rolled up gum, a purple little mirror, and a box of BOOGERS--- soft goie things---funny there is always room for funny. Hope she likes it!

I thought i would share our little people summer swap package. The recievers have recieved it and they loved it!! yay.....boy i'm always nervous about sending things. I did forget though the sea shells from Bear Lake.....:( but anyways.

We put all of our pictures on cardstock. There were a few empty spaces and i let the kids draw something there. Then we bound the edge. there were quite a few pic's and a map with dots showing where each place we went to was. book was kind of thick. Lots of good memories there. Then we added all the little pamphlets (don't you know there were a ton of them .....4 kids....each wanting one....maybe even two....) a few bookmarks -some stamped from the national parks, a utah magnet, a rock from Crazy Horse ---now don't go crazy...we donated a few quarters each and got us a rock, Rasberry Jam from Bear Lake, and lastly the little guys. they had 2 girls and 1 boy so we sent them --waffle (dog), Polly (kangaroo + babie), and Pinkie (rabbit). The lion- dotty will be going to a friend in Maine later this year with his own package!!

This summer was spec-tac. The trade was a great way to share with others our travels. Maybe i'll host one next year or something. Fun stuff. Oh, hey- why wait for next year. Maybe i'll do a holiday one. See others celebrate their holidays. that would be fun huh?! Giving up another stuffie though......hmmm.....that was tuff.

---secretly even for me.

Yesterday was a real life moment...those things that happen to kind of put you of kilter just a bit. I was out and about and got a call from the daughter saying that brother had 'biffed' it on his bike (what are they doing on their bikes when i am gone?) and was bleading really bad. I was 4 blocks away so drove quickly home to find him in the front room sitting on the couch with a ice pack on his lip. He has another bump on his head (different side from 3 weeks ago) and not so pretty scrape down the tip of his little pointy nose, and his lip totally tore up inside. Those darn new teeth with their sharp jagged edges....ouch. So i washed, hydroperoxided, neosporined, tylonaled...the works. At 7 honey brings home a friend who is a doctor's assistant. OH, he says looking in his mouth....there are rocks....let's rinse...out comes some. Without going into it further...he had more in there. No wonder his lip was still big! dumb mom... :( Needless to say there were more flushing, and whatever else they do to get it all. He of course says he feels better after all that! This is all good since i was laying on the front room couch yelling helpful things while feeling faint myself. You would think that after 4 children (3 natural) that i would be some tough girl. um. no.

Today- much better....good rest.....Still sore, still swollen, but still a boy----just with quite a scrape show.

Back to 'normal' life we go.....

P.S.--remember to comment on Lucky Lucy post to win.