HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZANNE ! !

Not often do you find friends when you are very young and, after you go through all the things and stuff that life throws at you, they, amazingly, are still friends when you are very old! The Keetches are friends like that! We met Brent and Suzanne when we lived in our first apartment in Orem after we were married and while I was still in school. We invited them for Chinese New Year and the rest is history!

This year Suzanne (right) was the last of us to hit the big "50" so Suzie wanted to do something special to celebrate the mile stone. As part of her "photo organizing project" Suzie sorted through 25 years worth of pictures to find the best our history as friends had to offer. From dinners, holidays, vacations, and parties she published a photo book from mypublisher.com that was truly a treasure! Of course a special gift deserves special wrapping.....

This is the final result, but it was a project getting to this point. I thought it would be awesome (well, 'neat' since I don't really use the word 'awesome') to make custom wrapping paper! Think of the possibilities! Monograms, special events, holiday's. We have this amazing machine called the CRICUT from Provo Craft. It is designed to cut all kinds of paper, vinyl and fabric projects with patterns that are generated from computer cartridges. Every time I cut a project with our CRICUT machine, I think that there is so much more that can be done...

So, using the 'CELEBRATIONS' cartridge, rather than cutting gift tags like the ones you see below, I modified the design to create a stencil. With plain paper and a little spray paint I created a custom wrapping paper. I won't tell you how many test runs I had to do to get a good sheet of paper but I think the effort was worth it.

Next was the challenge of selecting the proper ribbon to go with the new paper. So many options! So many patterns! Such a selection! (By the way, that 'selection' can be a topic for an entire blog entry in the future!)
With so much effort and planning on the outside, it was important that the inside be color coordinated as well. Did you know that tissue paper comes in an almost unlimited amount of colors and patterns and they are easy to find on the internet. Let your fingers do the shopping....

Obviously all of the effort was worth it. The package was smashing, but the book inside was the real hit! What a great history we have shared as friends and to have it documented, collated, captioned and bound was great. Suzie did such an amazing job and it was so much fun watching her put it together. Seriously, the book could be a best seller!

And what birthday celebration would be complete with out great food. We had dinner at the 'BLUE LEMON' in Alpine. Delicious food, freshly prepared and always with a twist of lemon. I had the Cusabi Shrimp Salad. It was iron-seared sugarcane shrimp skewers served on tossed house greens, with jicama, fennel, cucumbers and a grilled lemon. It was topped with nice creamy cucumber-wasabi dressing. Excellent! However, I must admit that the sugar cookies for desert were really the high light of the meal. I am such a sucker for a good sugar cookie and these really are excellent!

This is the new 'fifty-something' gang! Brent and Suzanne Keetch and the Draper's. You know, life is all about things and stuff, but the BEST things in life really are not things. The best things in life are great friends who have shared the good and the bad and still love you for who you are.

Happy Birthday Suzanne! And many more to all of us! The best is yet to come!