Happy Birthday to Me

This weekend was my birthday, and what a time it was! We had a three day weekend because my birthday also happens to be a national holiday here, which means The Chemist is always home on my birthday. Such a nice treat, and something I will definitely miss when we return to the US!

The Boys surprised me with a lovely brunch -- chocolate chip pancakes (they crushed a candy bar for the chocolate chips), thick sliced ham, cheddar eggs (yum!) (technically, queijo reino, not cheddar...) and coffee, of course! The pancakes even had whipped cream & strawberries on top --- what a treat!! I love that The Chemist once upon a time started this tradition, originally for Mother's Day, of cooking and serving a special breakfast  on someone's special day. Such a great way to show the boys that acts of kindness & service can be a great way to honor someone, without spending much. That love and gifts and cherishing someone doesn't have to be shown with expensive presents, but that giving of ourselves for the ones we love is what matters.

Not that I didn't also get presents! I do love presents, and the boys picked out some of my favorite treats for me --- cheese Pringles and a Hershey's White Chocolate bar! Both are "splurge" items here and not something I buy on a regular basis, at all. So fun to be treated to those! I only had to share a little bit.....

The Chemist pleasantly agreed to buy some wonderful "out of print" fabric for me, once I discovered it was out of print/production and next-to-impossible to find now. I first saw this fabric perhaps a year or eighteen months ago when it debuted on-line and I knew right then and there, as a "Coming Soon!" ad, that I needed some of it. It's a celestial themed fabric, full of suns, moons & stars. Even purple stars! And turquoise suns!! And dark blue moons!! Absolutely perfect portrayal of the symbols I use for the boys here at home; my moonbeam, my sunshine & my starlight. It is surprisingly rare to find all three symbols in one item; there are many combinations of moons & stars, or moons & suns, but not often do you find all three. So this fabric....delightful! Perfect!! A must-have!! And, sadly, no longer in production -- yikes!! The Chemist tracked it down on the web, though, and bought me some of the last remaining bits of it (per my careful suggestion....). 

Sew Heavenly by Dan Morris for RJR Fabrics
note the purple stars!!!

another fabric in the same line
note the turquoise suns!! and blue moons!!
can you believe one fabric line has the exact symbols, in the exact colors, that I use for my boys?!

It isn't here yet, of course, but he gave me the print outs of the orders/shipping confirmation, and I spent all day Friday "Digital Quilting" -- aka, playing with a quilt design program I have, trying to come up with a perfect quilt to utilize this coveted fabric. I've got it just about right, though I need to add a border of some sort to make it large enough for a throw for the couch. Or accept it as a wall hanging instead....not sure. What do you think? Anything you'd change or add?

Sun Moon Stars Quilt drawing
the background is the blue-on-blue fabric as shown above
the suns/moons/stars will not be solids, those are just rough colorings
(click on photo to see it larger)

Saturday we went hiking with friends, and Sunday I got to do some real sewing. I'm making good progress on The Writer's Comic Strip Quilt -- check back soon for pictures of that!

 What did you do this weekend?