Weekend Catchup: Scrap Rugs and Birthday Cakes

Thanks to a cast of thousands, I'm pleased to report that I had a very happy birthday this year. Not only did I get the lovely gifts detailed on Friday, I also received...

• A fantastic taco dinner and my very own Foodsaver! You may remember me mentioning my lust over Sherri's... it did not go unnoticed and they picked one out for me, which looks like this:

Oh it's so pretty!

• Dinner out at Benihana, which I love, with the child & Melissa & her son Nick; Melissa also gave me a lovely gift of breathing room for our trip.

Aren't we cute? I lack a scanner, obviously.

• A painting and a cake from my daughter, plus the sweetest note thanking me for being a good mom, and a hand-made card with quilling on it. I've passed on the Craft Crazy. I forgot to take a picture of the cards, but...

Tres moderne, non? It's hanging in my office at work.


Best cake ever. White with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. Please also note that the side reads "You're a star"... and she used "you're" correctly! This is a huge accomplishment, and made my day.

Lest you think I spent the whole weekend basking in my birthday glow, I also got some stuff done... We're leaving for our trip to Chicago this Friday (which oh hooray should involve driving through rain and snow, let me contain my glee), so we finalized a bit of list-making and got a bunch of laundry done and bought provisions and stuff.

Last Thursday, I started a rag rug, and completed it yesterday. It's made from a bunch of The Kid's old tshirts, prompted by this pattern, and it came out pretty well! I haven't blocked it yet, so it's more like a giant misshapen hat right now.


Before!


During! Tiggy was so cute, and I just kept tucking more scraps on him.
The more I piled, the more he purred, so we both won. Tell me that cat isn't smiling!


After!

I also had a lot of tshirt material left, and a 20X20 pillow form that had been hiding out in the Room of Requirement (aka my office) for about a year or so, and had the bright idea of combining them into some soft and tshirty pillowy goodness. The kid loves it, and I got to be all OCD lining it up so it was soothing for me as well!



It could probably be added to with some embroidery or iron-ons or something, but I kind of like it plain.

Plus I'm lazy. You knew that.