01 July 2012

My grandmother would be so proud of me


My friends threw me a not-so-surprise baby shower on Sunday June 17th. And let me tell you, it was a great afternoon!! The reason it wasn't a total surprise was that I knew it was going to happen, on the 17th and at 3pm. I had also provided a list of names/emails of the people I would like to invite, but it didn't mean they would all come. Other than that, I had no idea what was going to happen.


Well, 3pm rolled around and no one had showed up yet. Finally a bit after 3 the first person showed up and after there several more arrived. They brought food, laughter, chatter, gifts and themselves! It was so hard to just sit down and let everyone handle the last minute preparations and what not. But it worked out quite well.

I had school friends, co-workers and my MIL with me on this day.

But the reason I think of my grandmother in all of this is that I sent out thank you cards. I didn't just email everyone my thank yous, or only tell them thank you in person the next time I saw, although I have done that too, but I sent real snail mail cards to every single person who joined in on this special day. Growing up, my dad's mom would always send each of us kids a pack of thank you cards along with the gift she sent us. We were always sure to write her a thank you card, if no one else. But this time around, I felt it very important to let my friends know how much I appreciated their efforts towards me, Mr Siili and Paxlet.

So, I made thank you cards and envelopes. They cards and envelopes aren't anything elaborate, but I totally love them and enjoyed myself making them. Everything I used was something I already had on hand. 

The cards (first picture below) are made with postcard sized (store bought) card stock to which I sewed a same size piece of foam onto the card. I just sewed a rectangle all the way around about one and a half centimeters from the edge. I then used a dot (or two) of double sided tape to secure the handmade paper design on the front (made with cookie cutters I own). On the back of the cards I wrote my thank you.

The envelopes were made with handmade paper (top row) or paper that was decorated by myself. I quickly Googled for DIY envelopes to get an idea of something simple and quick, and the bottom picture is what I came up with.