Gifts from afar

Not to be overly dramatic, but The Girl may as well live on the other side of the moon.  Waco was a 1 1/2 hour stroll down IH35.  But Houston is a hateful 3 hour trek down 290 and I10.  She declined to meet us here which is about halfway, but we can plan that again for the future.  She had subversive plans to get a dog as a birthday gift to herself.  And I had subversive cross stitch to give her:

 

I'm having a lot of fun with that book, though I kept running into trouble trying to design my own. (much ripping out of mistakes!)  I stitched a little sign that may be exactly what she needs to hear, considering the stressful time she's had lately.  I found a pretty frame at JoAnn's with a white mat, rubbed a little glue stick on the back of the mat to lay it on the fabric (my design was almost too big!), trimmed the fabric off around it*...

...and there you have it, ready to frame.  Yes, I realize it looks like I wasted a lot of fabric.  But truly, the fabric was 25 cents at a thrift store and the scraps will be used to cross stitch bookmarks or small signs for magnets and such.  Starching and ironing the reverse of the fabric helped me get it neat looking and centered in the mat.

 Seriously, girl.  Settle down.

I like how it came out - just the right size for the top of her dresser..  I added a note to the back reminding her to breathe deeply and try to reason through all of the crises she's sure to encounter in the adult world.

But, because I also wanted her to have something to remember her 24th birthday by, we bought her this pretty from James Avery.  Everything got boxed up with some Cashew Crispix Mix, and some Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies.  

A lot of love from afar, AKA Home.

******

 It feels weird to "mail" a birthday gift to one of my kids - I never really imagined there would come a day when I wouldn't see each one of them in person on their day.  But just because she's far, doesn't mean I can't keep her near, in my heart...