Happy Birthday Mom!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. You have to understand that my parents love to entertain, and my dad is a great sport, but Mom does not like to be the center of attention. She does not celebrate birthdays - not because she has any hangups about her age, but because she doesn't want anyone fussing over her. Speaking in front of a crowd would about give her hives.

(I remember the year she was the president of her golf association and had to give a speech at the end of the year party. She made my dad come in and do it for her!)

So yesterday she thought she was playing golf with some friends and coming back to the house for a quick swim. She suspected, much to her dismay, that "one of them got a cake." (They did. It was to die for!)

She was having such a nice, low-key time relaxing with her friends that she didn't even notice the husbands congregating and fixing drinks in the kitchen while the ladies swam and had wine out back. She never looked up to see me carrying in catering from EastSide or setting up the buffet. In fact, her only clue that something was amiss was when Gracie appeared with a gift.

But you should have seen the look on her face when the men came out the back door singing "Happy Birthday to you..." and put that hat and glasses on her! Once she got over her shock, all she could say was, "Next year, I'm leaving town!"

My dad gave her a Kindle for her birthday. The parents had all gone in one for my husband for Christmas, and Mom had been eying it. I remembered a cute tutorial at Moda Bake Shop for a Bookkeeper, and whipped one up. My mom is no ordinary mom, so why should she keep her books in a plain gray case?
I used some of my favorite fabrics from my 1 1/2" strip drawer (thank you Bonnie Hunter!) and had so much fun playing with Rene's decorative stitches.
I love the lining fabric that says "P.S. I love you." It is leftover from Gracie's nursery set and is the perfect touch to those special projects.

The one thing Moda's pattern didn't call for but I added was a closure of some sort. You could do whatever you wanted, but I just stitched on a little Velcro button so the Kindle wouldn't slip out of the case and get damaged.

I hope it works well for the Kindle and that Mom gets many hours of reading pleasure with her new toy. I also hope that every time she opens her case she remembers that

I love you, Mom!