Back to My Birthday

Remember here and here and here when I introduced you to my best girls as a prelude to telling you all about my birthday trip???  And here where I gave you a sneak peek at my weekend, at the same time I was absorbing the news of my soon-to-be-unemployed husband?  Then life just happened and somehow I never came back to the birthday get-away.  Here today to rectify all that!

I had created a cute little mini travel album before I left for the weekend, via instructions from Ali Edwards' Scrapbook on the Road class (self-paced, immediate download).

 Album closed - I made a three hinged cover.  Used patterned duct tape for my book binding. Not perfect, but I'm embracing imperfection, so it's all good!

opened with front flap still closed.  All the pages are bound together with the bind-it-all and then the back page was firmly glued to the inside of the cover.  It was my first time using the bind-it-all and I made a LOT of mistakes. The pages don't turn well, but the keepsake is still just as precious!

Our destination was beautiful Cape May, NJ.  And it was the only vacation I got this year!

My best girls had set me up with a pin proclaiming my upcoming 50th birthday, a tiara, and a timer.  Turns out every time the timer went off, I was given a gift.  This went on all weekend.  Guess how many gifts I received???  yep, FIFTY!

We started with lunch locally at The Perk.  And of course, they had the staff sing Happy Birthday to me.

Then we hit the road. And the gifting continued throughout the road trip there - nearly 3 hours!

saw these beautiful irises on the second morning after a very early stroll on the beach.

on the left, the pin I wore all weekend.  On the right, our group at breakfast on Day 2.

Me on left.  If you look really closely, you can see the tiara.  My sister Deanna on the right.

Krystal on the left, Rachel on the right.

 The gifts throughout the weekend were each preceded by a note, photo, or small scrappy layout from the giver, telling me something she loved about me.  These all went into a 2-up photo album as received, so that at the end of the weekend, I had a precious album telling me 50 things my friends loved about me!

Deanna's notes were all mini layouts (her first attempts at digi scrapping were fantastic!) and her gifts were charms for my Pandora bracelet - each representing what she loved about me.

Rachel's notes were all photographs with text added and the gifts were fun, quirky, silly things, ranging from chocolate chip cookies to an electric outlet, meant to represent in some way the specific memory her photo described.

Krystal's notes were notes - handwritten little love notes - each accompanied with a gift that ranged from a 3 ring binder full of scrapbook sketches to a camera strap to cute colored binder clips.

When you combine all of their contributions together, the album is one of the most beautiful, meaningful, and treasured gifts I have ever received.

In my little travel album, I jotted notes each day about what we did and how things went. I had created the album with pockets ready to hold my journaling!

Being sung to at dinner. I blush well.

Day Two was crammed with touristy things - a spa massage, visiting the lighthouse, shopping, and some time on the beach.  We finished it all off with pizza and pool (billiards) back at the bed and breakfast.  Maybe someday Krystal will get me those pool photos!

The pockets were also perfect for the memorabilia I picked up along the way.  And knowing that I was creating this quick little album made me more conscious about grabbing the brochures!

Day Three was basically breakfast and heading home. One Crazy, Quick, Exhausting, but truly memorable weekend with my best girls.