My Homemade Birthday Present Streak Continues...

Curly J was back from her honeymoon just in time to celebrate her 30th birthday this weekend.  Of course I had to attempt to make her present since I made that goal of making all birthday presents this year.  Plus I wrote about that goal on my blog and she reads my blog. 

I kind of took the easy way out and made some earrings.  It's just too hot for any more t-shirt scarves at this time and I was drawing blanks on everything else.  I also gave her a bunch of photos from her wedding shower, bachelorette party and wedding and an album.  I had big plans to make an album but they fell through.  So, earrings it is.

Plus I made her a birthday cake.  It's my go-to chocolate chip poundcake which I have finally mastered over the years.  And by mastered, I mean it actually came all the way out of the pan instead of getting stuck in there and ripping apart.  Yay me!

The evening started with dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant followed by game night at her house.  B and I were victorious at a game of LCR and scored $7 in prize money.  Have you ever played LCR (left, center, right)?  I was pretty skeptical at first but it ended up being pretty fun.

So in conclusion, Mexican food and cake are good, LCR is fun, and I'm still doing ok on my handmade presents. 

Bridesmaid Jewelry aka Will Work for Nut Butter

This weekend I went to the awesome wedding of Curly J.  I will give you some more details about the wedding later this week.  But first, let's talk about my big project...

J decided she wanted some "fun" jewelry for the bridesmaids to wear.  She showed me some pictures of things that I didn't really know how to make but I said if she picked out all the beads, I would string them together for us.  She had some flower beads made by a seller on Etsy (whose name I cannot remember right now).  Then we selected other beads that we thought would go well with them and then I attached everything together.  I though they ended up looking pretty good.

Each necklace was little different which I thought was nice.

As my reward for being a jewelry consultant, Curly J got me this awesome gift basket filled with some locally made nut butters and accompaniments (crackers, apples, chocolate, etc).  The nut butter was made by Big Spoon which is a local roaster and nut butter company in Durham.  This stuff was good.  We had cashew, almond and peanut.  I enjoyed the peanut the best.  It was just a little sweet and had a great nutty texture.  I liked putting some of the peanut butter and some honey on a graham cracker as a snack.

I'm still recovering from all the food and dancing this weekend, so I will get back with you on more details of the wedding soon.

What do you think of the bridesmaid jewelry?

Have you ever had fresh nut butter?