A Non Book Club Book Club Event

I thoroughly enjoyed my Sunday afternoon this weekend. 

What was so enjoyable, you ask?

I got to continue to celebrate my birthday by making crafts and hanging out with my dear book club buddies.  As this was not an official book club event (Jane was not invited, nor was she discussed), I was not sure that it warranted a  place on the blog, but here it is anyways.

It was a lovely afternoon- the girls brought some delicious Italian themed food (hopefully they will share the recipes here soon), we got to work on some fun sewing projects (them ruffled pillows and me upcycled aprons), we made plans for a future endeavor (more on that soon), and they brought me some super thoughtful and fun gifts.  Top that off with the great company, and it was hard to beat.

Pictures were taken on various cameras, so I have quite the montage.  The girls will have to post their photos too.  One thing that we forgot to do was take the standard timer shot of the four of us.  But, I guess that it was not an official event :)

Dinner started with us almost polishing off a pan of delicious spinach artichoke dip made by Kayla.  She accidentally put in extra sour cream- like that could be a bad thing.  It was awesome.

We eventually ate real dinner: Caesar salad made with fresh lettuce from Kayla's garden and Betsy and Karla's baked spaghetti.  I understand now why it is a family favorite.

Dessert at the end of the evening was a chunk of rich chocolate cupcake and gelato (!).  I had no idea that you could buy gelato in Peoria. This could be dangerous.

Karla wanted to bring Italian Sodas, but found IBC Cream Sodas, which were sooo good.  She stuck them in the freezer to get them really cold...and we left them in a little too long.   FYI, partially frozen soda + glass bottled = mess.  But it was a tasty mess.

As for the crafting, we were all sewing using one machine, so we had to take turns, but we all finished at least one project. 

Kayla made a fun ruffled pillow with a black and white hexagon print.  It ended up having a really cool effect that unfortunately didn't translate in the picture.

 Betsy and Karla worked together and made this off white beauty.  They also made a couple of simple pillows for Betsy's classroom and have the strips all cut out for another ruffled pillow.

And my projects (which were also worked on before and after the girls were there) were these aprons.  They are made from "upcycled" fabric.  The black and pink one used to be two different skirts and the denim and lavender one is made from two old sundresses.  I really like the black one, but the denim one, eh, let's just say the 4-H judges from my past would not be giving it a blue ribbon.  One outta two in an afternoon isn't bad.

Thanks, girls, for the lovely non book related afternoon!