Weekend Project: Surprise Parties!

There is no surprise so wonderful as the surprise of being loved; it is God's finger on man's shoulder.

Charles Langbridge Morgan

It has been a wonderful week of surprises and feeling loved! On Friday, my friends at work held a potluck lunch to celebrate my birthday. Considerate of the fact that I am trying to watch my calories, they all selected healthy recipes, and we had a wonderful, guilt-free feast!

Then, on Sunday afternoon, I showed up at Ana's house with my ironing board under one arm, prepared to sew - and found another surprise! Ana and Juana had a small party for me - with pizza and a decorated Tres Leches cake! They sang the Mexican version of Happy Birthday for me (it's much longer than ours) and we told stories about various birthday traditions from each culture.

I told them about Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey (well, some demonstration was involved, but if you can't get up and make a fool of yourself spinning around in a room with your eyes closed, pretending that there is a picture of a donkey on the wall on your birthday, then when can you?)

They told me that in Mexico adults often stuff their faces into the cake and eat with their bare hands. They encouraged me to participate in this tradition, but I declined and shared my suspicions that perhaps this was a joke. They thought that was pretty funny! (Or maybe they were still laughing over my mime version of PTTOTD...?)

So, we didn't do any sewing together, but Ana has mostly finished her bathrobe by herself and showed me her progress. Isn't it great? They are both really doing well!

On Saturday, members of the Sew Much Comfort organization were participating in an event at one of the big hotels in Orlando, and I stopped by to introduce myself to my regional coordinator, Joy Campbell, and one of the co-founders of the organization, Michele Cuppy.

I haven't heard yet about my quality check item, but I did learn that the current pressing need is for full length pants made with flannel - like lounge pants or pajama bottoms. Prints (masculine & adult, of course) and plaids are acceptable. I signed on to make 6 pairs (2 with right leg openings, 2 with left leg openings and 2 with double openings). Joy provided me with velcro, snaps and labels for the pants and I'm looking forward to shopping for the flannel!

So, that's it for this weekend - we'll return to posts with actual sewing content next week!