happy birthday to me

I've been saving this fabric (Amy Butler's Lotus) and some matching fabrics to make myself a purse.

So, since I turned 40 on Sunday, I decided (on Wednesday) that I should have this bag for my birthday.

No problem, right? I was leaving Thursday morning (at an ungodly hour) for a girls weekend in Florida.

I was very pleased that this journey bag by kati cupcake took only a few hours to complete, including the cutting. 

I didn't have a magnetic closure, so I didn't use it, just left it without.

The grommets are cool and I loved the idea of not having to cut the fabric to make these work

(that always scares me because I'm a bit liberal with the cutting).

It's a really good size bag and it's the small one.

I love the bag but it pales in comparison to the great time I had in Florida with my sister, my mom, my two aunts and my cousin (she's actually my cousin's wife, but it's a heck of a lot easier to say she's my cousin).

Here's a shot of all of us with our leopard print clutches:

We managed to eat out several times, drink a few fancy drinks, get some sunburns 

and use up most of the oxygen by talking our heads off! 

It was the most fun I've had on a birthday since we played 'drop the clothes pin 

into the milk bottle' on my seventh or eighth birthday!

If this is what it's like on the other side of 40, I'm so in! Thanks girls!

For those of you already on the dark side, what's the best thing about it?
For those of you not, what do you fear the most about turning 40, or 30, or the next big age?
Next up: round-a-bout block progress