Shopping Bags and Birthday Party

         I finally finished all the shopping bags I had to make from the old curtain fabric.  I got 9 big shopping totes and 2 small totes from those curtain panels.  I gave 4 large and 1 small bag to dear daughter and I kept 5 large and 1 small bag for me.  I use Crafty Gemini's Must Have Tote Bag Pattern as my basic instructions.  The .pdf pattern is on her website and it comes with an instruction video for $7.00.  I've made the tote so many times, I don't even use the instructions any more and you can make the bag in any size.  I did make one change to her pattern, I  eliminated the pocket.  I never used the pocket on the bags I put it on and it's just extra fabric that I could use for the bag.  So I don't even put it on anymore.

         Here is a picture of the bags that I kept.

            Yesterday we celebrated my dear daughter's 45th birthday.  I went to her house to do our usual Saturday meet up.  We walked her dog in her neighborhood, did a run to the grocery store, did some yard work, had lunch and started a movie.  Two friends showed up just about 1:30 p.m. to surprise her.  We shut the movie off and we had a nice visit.  I made her a vegan rum cake.  I used the recipe from Crumbs and Caramel.com.  Here is a link to the recipe:  Vegan Rum Cake.  It was not as easy to make as my regular recipe which uses eggs, instant pudding and cake mix, but it turned out very nicely and dear daughter was very happy with the results.  We pronounced the recipe a keeper.  I bought her the following gifts:

         A manual drill.  (picture borrowed from Amazon)

            In keeping with the tool theme I also bought her a pair of tin snips. (picture borrowed from Amazon)

               I also bought her this fancy tea/coffee mug. (picture borrowed from Amazon)

             I made her more tote bags with this pretty print fabric.  The magnolia flowers were perfect.  She's quite the southern girl.  (This was my secret sewing this year)

         I also gave her some bird and butterfly stickers and a cheap styrofoam toy airplane I found at Five Below because everybody needs a couple of toys on their birthday.

         All in all it was a successful birthday celebration.  There is nothing like a lot of love and a little cake and coffee on your birthday.  

         My next project will be making some embroidered Christmas saying pillows for me and dear daughter to decorate with like I made the Halloween pillows.  I will get my embroidery machine out today and set it up for sewing in the kitchen.  I love having the machine in the kitchen.  I can get to all the working parts easily with it on the counter and I run it while I'm doing other things around the house.   I have to raid my Christmas fabric stash as well.  I have about 9 things on my list to embroider.  I don't know how many I will get done before Christmas, but at least I'll get them started.