Christmas Presents for My Sister-in-Law

...or one of them, at least.  I have several sisters-in-law, and they all are fantastic, wonderful ladies.

The sister-in-law being highlighted for this particular entry, however, is the wife of my husband's oldest brother.  (Don't worry--there won't be a pop quiz!)  

She is also a dear friend--a fellow artist and writer, a painter and a poet.  In fact, I was friends with her long before I became related to her.

Heh.  You know what this sounds like?

Story time!

Color!
She is in the middle of redefining her style, and is currently in love with
color.  And, you know me--I love to oblige!  :D

You see, this sister-in-law is also one of the original Penpals.  

What does that mean, you ask?

A couple of entries ago, I talked about how I exchanged letters with my mother-in-law while I was in grade school.  (Check it out here, if you haven't read it.)  You know, before she was my mother-in-law.

Well, said future-mother-in-law-of-awesomeness also formed a small group of people around my age to exchange letters.  We called ourselves, you guessed it, the Penpals.  

This group of letter-writers consisted of her two oldest sons, me, and the daughter of one of her friends (who was also a friend of my mother... yeah, it gets complicated).

The full necklace...  bright, lightweight acrylic beads strung randomly
on strong beading wire.

The four of us young'uns dutifully wrote to each other, starting in middle school and going through college.

And, well, you can guess what happened.

We paired off.

While I ended up marrying the second son, the other young lady ended up marrying the firstborn.  Imagine my delight when one of my really good friends growing up ended up being my sister-in-law!

Heh--does it get more sappy than that?

Another close-up...  Because I like this picture.

So, yes.  

Today my fellow Penpal is my sister-in-law--and still a very good friend.

She is also a mother of three--all young and relatively close in age (and I'm the bad aunt who can't actually remember their ages, because as soon as I get it straight they have birthdays and get older and I have to start all over again).

With her little ones, having jewelry is a bit of a challenge, especially since her youngest is still nursing.  And so, in addition to making her a bright colorful beaded necklace (shown above), I also really wanted to make something light-weight and crocheted.  Something that could be pulled on by the kiddos, and not snap--but still be colorful and happy, and make her feel pretty.

And so, I also gave her this:
 

More color! 

It is a simple long crochet strand, gathered into loops and then tied off.  The bow can be worn in the back, or on the side--depending on her mood.

Close-up of the bow...  Nothing special, just double-knotted so it
won't easily come undone.

Now, I know that the chain stitch isn't that neat (crochet and I are still getting to know each other), and the design is rather simplistic...  But when she opened her present, she almost started crying.

You can see where I wrapped the yarn ends around the strands,
before I tied them off.

...And now, writing this, I'm starting to tear up.

It is a very, very special feeling--knowing that I was able to make exactly what she wanted, what she needed, when not even she knew what it was.

Sometimes, in my drive to do things bigger and better and more complicated and more innovative, I feel like I'm not good enough.  

But then I remember the joy on her face--and there is no arguing with that.

I am glad I could use my talents to be a blessing to her...  There is no doubt that giving her that gift was a blessing to me.