…birthday bag…

There’s nothing I love more than some good secret squirrel shenanigans. Back in The Before, when I first floated the idea of a pouch swap, a certain someone said she would love to be involved but couldn’t manage it with work and family commitments. This certain someone also had a birthday in the last couple of weeks. And if there’s anything 2020 needs, it’s random love bombs, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to pull my partner in crime into some care package creation.

The basis of any good care package? A cute pouch! The birthday girl recently finished a stunning rainbow kaleidoscope quilt, and ever since there has been a tussle on the daily over who the quilt belongs to (me. The answer is me, and that’s the end of the matter). The obvious choice, then, for the pouch was kaleidoscope blocks. I had so much fun pulling a heap of rainbow scraps and building my blocks, using a neutral linen. The only problem came when I sewed them into a strip, and suddenly it was 17″ long! I went back to my Pinterest board, and decided that the Open Wide Pouch would be the perfect solution. It did require a bit of unpicking, and an extra block, but it ended up working beautifully. I paired the rainbow-and-linen blocks with some dark denim for the base – I’m forever a sucker for a good linen-and-denim combo!

Then came the fun of filling it! While child free in Spotlight a couple of weeks back, I found a box of rainbow mini yarns, and a pack of cute heart shaped buttons. In Kmart I found a fun Christmas-themed nail care set. To top off my share of the package, I added some minties, a tiny bottle of Baileys, and a roller blend of essential oils in a pretty bottle. Then into the post it went, for Car to add her touches.

Car’s share of the goodies is where the true genius came into play. There was useful stuff, of course, like a coffee card, and some ink, and there there was the comedy gold. Three little custom dolls (one of each of us), tucked up in a sleeping bag. Then a mini crochet blanket, incomplete of course, and stopped on a green row – Alley is notorious for getting as far as a block of green and then stopping her blankets!

It was such fun putting it all together. Behind the scenes, Car and I cackled our way through the prep and the making and the shopping. Alley loved it, we had fun, on all levels, this project was a raging success!

Today, I’m making the most of the cooler weather, and hooking into the quilting of my 2012 BOM quilt. I’m hoping to get most of the cream background quilted today, and start moving onto the aqua parts. I need to cut masks to match the Christmas outfits I cut yesterday. There’s a red tulle skirt somewhere in the depths of our storage container I want to dig out. My socks are >< this close to turning the heel so that’s on my list too. Advent plus school break equals craftapalooza, and we are head first into the fun of the season. And before all that – coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.