Finally a finish...for Sara's birthday......

Today is a day we celebrate..it's  my Sara's birthday.  One of the gifts she asked for

was a gift certificate to Air Tran (she and her family go to Jamaica every

year).  As with all things we do....this became a problem.  I googled Air Tran and found that they had been purchased by Southwest....didn't see a problem yet.  Then I read that Air Tran was not issuing gift certificates anymore...makes sense since Southwest bought them.  Then it said, "Southwest gift certificates were not interchangeable with Air Tran flights.  Uh, O.K., so Mary called Southwest for me and they are not issuing certificates for their flights to Jamaica.  What the hell???  So I had to go to plan B.  Since they go with another family, all together, I decided to make a gift certificate and when they book I'll just pay for her flight on whatever plan they get on.  So...problem solved.  Then I thought about how to present the gift certicate to make it unique and what you see is what I used.  This is a Jeannette Douglas piece, "Isle of Hope" Accessories.  There is also a beautiful sampler which can be personalized with your families name and it's about the immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island as they began their new life in America.  Anyway....I loved the smalls, mainly because Jeannette used a Hobby Lobby suitcase box.  I actually had the stitching done over a year ago, right after 2013 Nashville Market.   But finishing everything, including the box was daunting and I just kept putting it off.  But I decided last week to paint the box and get moving on it and then I could give it to Sara for her birthday.  I had multiple issued getting the smalls finished (let's not even go into it), and the box....well I finally painted it (not that big a deal except the hinge pin was missing so the lid was wobbling and of course I couldn't leave it like that so around 4:00 a.m. this morning (think I waited too long?) I decided it was go time.  I finished painting the box, sanded it and then Bri waxed it.  As I was putting the brown ribbon on it (the straps) I looked at the hinge and since I had my pins sitting there I took one of them, stuck it through the holes where the missing pin used to be...yeah it fit..., got my wire cutters and cut the pin down to size and voila....the hinge was back in action.  Once I got the ribbon on, the suitcase started to look good.  So I got out the stickers I was using as decoration on the box.  If I had known when I purchased the stickers that it was going to end up the gift box for her ticket to Jamaica I'd have found stickers for Jamaica...but anyway, as I was coming into work today thinking I had to get a card to put the gift card in I had a light bulb moment and thought I should use the suitcase box for the airline gift card.  My brain cells are clicking ...well they were in that moment because for the rest of the  morning I've called all the men working here by the wrong name.   Fortunately they just look at me, smile and I know eyes roll when I turn around.  Anyway, I lined the box with scrapbook paper (I'm sorry I didn't use newspaper) and then just put the smalls in.  I found a little 3" wooden ruler at Hobby Lobby and I stuck that in there and I love the finished product.  So stinking cute.  Tonight I go back to Welsh cottage and Shepherd's Fold...oh and I've started Renee's birthday gift.  Anyway, that's all the news I've got.  Hope all the mothers had a wonderful relaxing day.  I got wonderful gifts including a Roomba so I can sit longer now and let it vacuum my carpet....more stitching time.