Happy Birthday, Momma!

Today is my mother's 61st birthday - talk about a day to celebrate!  I know everyone says their mother is the best in the world, but I gotta tell ya, they're all wrong... my mom is the BEST, hands-down, no questions asked!  And I have a feeling if you asked my friends from growing up, my siblings' friends, her friends... hundreds of Girl Scouts across the county... Sunday School students, coworkers, volunteer friends... they'd all agree!  If I can be even half the mother she is, I'll be a success for my children ;)

We had a family dinner at my sister's house on Sunday, to do the traditional corned beef & cabbage feast early, since my parents will be traveling next weekend.  But we want to celebrate on the actual day, so tonight we'll be going to dinner at the Silver Diner (what's up, pancakes for dinner on Shrove Tuesday!) and back to my sister's house for cake & ice cream, and, of course, presents!

I knew I wanted to make something for her, but I also wasn't sure crochet was the way to go... so I fell back to one of my first loves: cross stitch!  I started cross stitching back in middle school, and I've always enjoyed it (something about the pristine, identical stitches, all lined up in perfect rows...).  So I designed a flower picture - using my mom's favorite flower, daffodils - with a quote about what an awesome Grammy she is:

I used plain ol' Excel to make this graph ;)

It worked up quickly, after just a few evenings of sewing while I watched tv.  Once I was done, I folded-in the edges of the Aida cloth, then cut a circle of felt to hot glue onto the frame for a nice, clean finish on the back.

This was such a fun project, which reminded me how much I enjoy cross stitching (and also reminded me that I never made a "birth announcement" for my Leo, so I better get on that asap...).  I'm sure I'll be doing more of these in the near future ;)