Happy Birthday, mama bear!

Once upon a time, in sunny San Luis Obispo, CA during my junior year of college, I lived in a house with four others, one of which was a SoCal native named Alexa. We bonded over margaritas, ten consecutive days of day & night anti-sobriety, travel stories, running around from house party to house party, and living under a dictatorship of a neurotic, authority-crazed, 18-year-old rental manager who’s parents owned the house. Ugh, drama, drama, DRAMA, that house was! Alexa, being a logical, straight forward, no drama, no bullshit type of a gal, found herself booted out very quickly, only lasting two months under the management’s reign. I was pretty bummed when she moved out. Little did I know, she would become one of my treasured friends, even nine years later.

This past Sunday was Alexa’s birthday. For her birthday, her darling husband ordered a custom Sam bag incorporating the bridesmaids dress that we both wore for our friend’s wedding last September. It’s this thick but super soft, beautifully colored violet textile. A serendipitous trip to SCRAP landed me a perfectly matching violet, yellow and green cotton floral. I lined it with a pair of olive khaki pants I think used to belong to her husband.

I do have to admit, it was one of the hardest bags I’ve made! Having never made this design with burlap, the violet textile being a type of fabric I’ve never worked with before, and not allotting sufficient time flexibility to work on the bag, I found myself in a constant state of nervousness, anxiety and self doubt, making irritating, novice mistakes left and right! After many a redos, re-ripping seams, resewing, remeasuring, whining, angry faces and “WHAAAATTTT the hell are you doing??!!!!” and walking away from it for a couple of days, this pretty baby was completed…with that much more love in it My parents agree that one of my weaknesses is that I put too much pressure on myself, causing more stress than necessary on myself. Yeah, I suppose I can agree with that ;p

…and I paired it with a matching Alexa wristlet. Yep, you guessed it — they’re named after her! And of course some cookies — green tea cookies with dark chocolate morsel, to be exact!

I’m very blessed to have a friend like Alexa. We call her “mama bear” in our circle of friends. She is the responsible, logical, reliable, organized, calming, compassionate, cognizant mother figure of the bunch. She always has the perfect things to say that make all of the worry, anxiety and upset melt away. I have called upon her through many a breakdowns, where her acceptance and guidance empowered me to turn those breakdowns into breakthroughs. Whenever I’m on a fence, she’s always there to push me over, knowing very well that I am capable of taking on whatever challenges I am afraid of. She has been so open to and encouraging of all of the endeavors I weave into my life – the weird, the freaky, the dangerous and the over the top. The dynamic of our friendship definitely feels like a mother/daughter relationship – me being the daughter, struggling with self development and self discovery and her being the mother, throwing wisdom and guidance my way.

I hope everyone out there has a friend half as delightful as Alexa. And if you do, love and cherish and kiss and hug him/her often! Happy Birthday to a great friend – for many more years to come.