Fun 21.....

There’s really just one type of gift for someone turning 21 – alcohol – for those celebrants who choose to imbibe, that is.

This past weekend was one of my niece’s 21st birthday – well, she’s not really my niece – she’s the daughter of my husband’s aunt (after 20+ years of marriage she’s my aunt too!) – but because she was born rather late in my aunt’s life, she’s very close in age/the same generation of all the other nieces in my family, so, I think of her as a niece. Besides...I really don’t know what she is...one of those cousin kind of relations… Second cousin or something? I dunno – to me she’s my niece – so there! Anyway… My husband and I knew we wanted to get her a bottle of something fun to celebrate her ‘legality’ and since slamming tequila shots has it’s own little, fun ‘process’ we decided on that.

Now, times are kinda tight so we wanted to watch our dollars – but I was able to put together a really fun gift for a nominal fee and got to get creative at the same time – which helped make the gift a little more fun and personal too. I like to make a gift complete – so we put together a whole straight shot ‘kit’. We got a fifth of Jose Cuervo and got a classic, heavy-weight, plain shot glass at the liquor store as well. A lime at the grocery store rounded out the items we purchased and I already had the arts-n-crafts portion of the gift at home. I’d previously bought a plain glass salt-n-pepper shaker so I could use my glass paints on them for a fun art project on some random rainy day. Well…although we’ve had plenty of rain since the time I bought the set, I’d never gotten around to painting them – so this gift gave me the perfect opportunity! I used just one shaker and used some puff paints to decorate it. I woulda used actual glass paint, but I’d taken them on a summer camping trip and inadvertently left them in our trailer. We don’t keep the trailer at our house so….no glass paints. Improvisation makes you test and push yourself to make do with what you have and I gotta tell ya…I think this shaker turned out better with the puff paints than it woulda with the ‘right’ paint! It had dimension and the colors were great – it had a little personality! I wrote ‘Tequila’ on one side, ‘Salt’ on another and painted little lime wedges accented with tiny yellow and orange dots on two other sides. The colors are ‘citrusy’ and seem kinda juicy and fun.

Now….had I known before the birthday party that my niece doesn’t ‘do’ shots, we’da bought some other kind of liquor! However…maybe she can entertain with this fun, little set. With the way some people started downing shots the night of her celebration, I don’t think this kit will sit idol for long. Anyone recognizing themselves here??? ;-)

Thanks for a great evening AD!!! And happy 21st SRS!!!