Happy Birthday Eve - Shadow Box of Memories

My older sister has her birthday on New Years Eve. Not the best birthday as it is so close to Christmas, but I wanted to give her something that reflects memories that I have with her.

I found a shadow box a few weeks ago and it had some cute things in it that reminded me of her life. I got an idea to make a shadow box of many of our memories together. 

I pulled some things off the box and then added other things. I went through all of the notions I had and found some others that reminded me of some of our trips and memories.

Our trip to Peru to do service is one of the boxes. The shell is how the natives call the town together, the hat and mittens are things we purchased there and the rest are reminders of our trip. Here is a link to a post about that.

We have gone on two cruises together. One to the Mexican Rivera and the other to the Caribbean.


My sister and I worked at movie theaters and she was working at one when she met her husband who was the manager there at the time. 

They got married over Valentines week and her husband drove a white sports car when they met. 

My sister is a big gardener. I have a few posts about her love of gardening. I couldn't make a shadow box without including that in there somewhere. Our Great-grandmother was a big gardener and we grew up in an antique home that had rose gardens. Here is the main post about that.  
Here is another post about her new garden.

Another square has to do with our New Years sledding party we used to have at our family cabin for years. 

One year, it was getting dark and we decided to take "one ride" down the hill together and I guess the two of us gave it enough weight to get some speed. We went down the hill, hit the barrier at the bottom and went up and over it and landed on the ice on the road. We both broke our backsides and ended up at the ER. They asked if we were expecting as you don't want x-rays if you are pregnant. She thought she could be so they did a pregnancy test and we found out she was expecting that night at the ER. 

I have gotten my sister a few sewing machines over the years. Here is post one about the industrial sewing machine and here is the post about the industrial serger I found for her here. 
 
I laughed when I saw the mouse square. It had a mouse and two mouse traps. Funny story - we went camping and I guess when they unpacked the camping gear, a few mice got into the house. My sister was sleeping in her bed when she felt a mouse crawling on her. 

It was a nightmare and I can't even imagine what that would be like but she slept in the car for a few days until they caught the offending mouse. Her husband killed it with a broom. I had to find a broom to put in that square so she could hopefully laugh about it.

I was excited to find the little printers drawer in the top right corner. We lived in the East for years and I found some old antique printer drawers and we both put them in our kids rooms with little items in them. I couldn't believe I found a miniature one.

I also loved the little sewing embroidery thread box I found. I couldn't believe I found it. It was a great find. The game square was fun. I found a full deck of miniature cards. I also found mini dice which I included as we both started Bunko groups in our neighborhood years ago and we play it for family parties and reunions. Here is a post about that here.


Her kids, for years, have been active in "knights of freedom" and they play sword games and have "battles" with padded swords. I included the swords in the "game" box. 

I included "chicks and eggs" as she has some chickens. Here is post one about that. Here is post two about that. 


There are a few other squares that are fun. My sister taught us how to knit the fun scarves last year that helped Princess four head to Thailand. Here is one of the posts about that.  My sister never knit before a few years ago when she found out she was going to be a grandma. Here is a post about that. There are several squares about knitting.

My sister bakes and is into canning and food storage so there were a few squares about that. 

I gave it to her at the family skating party we have every year after Christmas. Here is a tradition post about that. Here is another post about that here.

I wanted to actually print out little pictures of her and the family to put in the squares of the actual event but my printer wasn't working so I had to go with what I had. 

She seemed to enjoy the trip down memory lane. Her husband commented on it as well and thanked me for making it.
I had fun making it and hope she enjoys it. Happy Birthday Sis. It has been a fun life making memories with you!