The September Girls Celebration

Along about the year 2000 four good friends, all with birthdays in September started meeting together one day in September to eat, exchange gifts and have a great time celebrating our friendship and birthdays. We became The September Girls. After a few years one moved away and after that two others were added to the group.  It has become a very special time for all of us. This year we chose to meet for lunch at The Cheese Cake Factory. Today was the day!

 

We have all moved towards selecting several little gifts for each other instead of one bigger gift. That is not a rule or anything, it has just worked that way. Most of those have ended up being Fall themed.  I am showing what I selected to give this year. I won't go into all the details but this was not my best year for 'gathering and presenting'!! Have you ever started a project and sort of had a plan and nearly nothing works like you had hoped?  Many weeks ago I purchased four of the flip top boxes showing above. I thought it would be nice as part of the gift but, planned to find two or three things to go inside. And, I would use the boxes instead of bags. While in the same store I bought Fall sprigs to dress up the top of the box. And, a different ribbon to replace the one that looked like it didn't belong on the box.

 

 

 

I tried to remember each time I was in a store to keep this project in mind. Nothing was jumping out at me as a good thing for the boxes, nothing! Except a few things that were way too expensive. As the time got close I started really searching. I think I went to about every store that I ever go in around here and never found anything I wanted to give. Finally ......

 

....just last week while leaving JoAnns I grabbed these bird towels from the "as you wait in line, be tempted by some of these items" display. It is really prettier than the picture shows. Later in the week I was in another store and settled for one quilted, red, leaf shaped, placemat for each. I could think of several ways to use just one.  I didn't get a picture of it but you can see a little bit in the above pictures . After that I decided to bake some of the cute little pumpkin cakes I have made for Thanksgiving for the last two or three years and place them in a nice cellophane bag - tied with a pretty ribbon.

   

 

One of the ladies does not have a house of her own (lives with her sister who is part of the group). I don't give her household items but try to find something more suited to her interest and life. She loves to read and likes novels about the Amish. I selected one of those and also found the little crocheted dog ornament. And she got one of the pumpkins. The book turned out to be about a quarter of an inch too large to fit in the box - aaaaaargh!

 

 

Then early this morning I realized my cellophane bags were the wrong size - two small for the pumpkin cake! Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I had plain white Styrofoam bowls and used those instead - not the look I had envisioned. Was out of saran wrap! Aaaaaaaaaaaargh! Used foil. The bowl didn't fit into the room left in the boxes so I had to mash two sides and force them in! Aaaaaaaaaaargh! None of the lids were now lying down flat! Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Remember I am that lady who is very visual - I want to do things that look pretty or at least look like some planning and design went into it. 

 

 

 

Oh well, I didn't take the dead ends and detours too seriously, and I am sure it didn't matter to any of the other ladies. We met and had another good September Girls Celebration! We sure filled in our space around the table with sixteen big gift bags (I ended up stuffing my unclosed boxes in mismatched bags with no ribbons)  and five celebrating women! And, look! The Cheese Cake Factory saw fit to design our little curved off-set with a bunch of mirrors to magnify the color and celebration! I came home loaded with some of the neatest things! And, the words in the cards that these friends truly mean - priceless.