On February 17, a very special person had a very special day.
My best friend hit a milestone birthday!
I had to think of a gift fitting of a woman who is one of the kindest, most generous people I know. She's always going above and beyond for me when it's my birthday. And while I always try to do something great, I knew this year had to be really great.
This is an insight...into my mind. My crazy, crafty, jumbled up, full of ideas mind.
Initially I came up with the idea of "40 Reasons to Love Stephanie" to do as a card. I would come up with 40 reasons and list them on, and in, the card. I started a list of reasons. When it comes to Stephanie, it's easy to think of reasons to love her. The more I thought about it though, the more I didn't like that idea. I'd need more room than just a typical card size. 40 Reasons needed to be a gift, not a card.
But what could I do?
My first thought - write out all of the reasons on individual pieces of paper and fill a clear glass jar with them. Stephanie could reach in and pull out a reason whenever she needed a smile or pick-me-up.
But I have horrible handwriting. Ok, I'll type out the reasons, cut them up and toss them in the jar. I went window shopping, looking at all types of jars. Twist off lid? Or flip top lid? Round? Square? Tall? Short? I put WAY too much thought into it and stressed myself out.
Next thought - Oh! Hey! What if I make this about more than just my relationship with Stephanie? We have a bunch of mutual friends! Why not ask for their input? They could make this an even greater gift. I sent out a message to our mutual friends asking if they would be willing to give me a (fully credited) reason why they love Stephanie. They didn't know how their Reasons would be used, but there were definitely some willing participants. I started getting some great responses and I knew this was the way to go.
While trying to find cute papers that would make good Reason paper, and look good in a glass jar, I saw some scrapbooking paper that had a road map design. Eureka! That was it! I was getting Reasons from friends all over the U.S. I even had Reasons from Canada and Greece. I would put these Reasons on maps. Not just any maps, though. I took maps from each city/area our friends lived. Voila! It was perfect!
But. Oh, there's the BUT again.
I still didn't have a vessel to put these reasons in.
Well, you're doing maps, I thought to myself. You need a globe! Or at least a round bowl/container/something. I bought a thick, almost card stock paper in blue and green with craft paper brown veins through them. In a clear glass container, it would be like looking at the land and water of a globe.
I typed out each reason on each map - using different colors and fonts.
I printed them out and cut them into rectangles.
I used a heavy duty crafting glue stick to bond the maps to the thick blue and green paper.
I folded each into little cards.
They were ready to go!
But here comes another but.
I couldn't find anything to put the cards in. I went to craft stores. I went to home stores. I went to department stores. I went to little bit of everything stores. I started to give up. 3 more stores in one evening with nothing that fit my vision. I quit. For the night at least.
My husband and I ran to a grocery store for a few groceries before heading home. I was grabbing some fruit when my husband, staring at the floral department, suggested they might have something there. Oh, sure, let's get a container at a grocery store. Nothing says love quite like that. My frustration was getting the better of me.
He was taking awhile, so I walked over there to see him holding it. The perfect "it". The perfect vessel. And the perfect 'so far out of my thought process' item I could have ever hoped for. The floral department had these amazing mini travel trunk looking boxes. There were two sizes. The larger one was way too large for my 40 little cards. But the smaller one? The smaller box was IT! Excitedly I bought that box and went home with a renewed sense of purpose. I emptied the bag full of Reasons into the box and it was kismet. They fit perfectly. And the colors of the cards worked with the color of the box.
I quickly jumped on my computer and created a vintage postcard design to complete the travel theme I had started with the maps. It was like a suitcase that had been around the world collecting stickers of all the places it had seen. I loved it so much.
The only problem? Having to wait for Stephanie to arrive home from a much deserved vacation the week of her birthday. The wait, however, was worth it as the gift resulted in her being "a speechless puddle of happy tears."
Happy Birthday my friend! And here's to many more days and many more Reasons to love you!
