Who knew an anniversary/birthday gift could be so useful?

Twenty-four years ago, when Marty and I decided to get married 5 days before my birthday, I really didn't think anything about it.  Of course, now I realize having an anniversary around the same time as your birthday is almost the same as having a birthday near Christmas.  You may as well combine them both together, right?

Ummmm, yeah, right.

Anyway, this year my anniversary/birthday present didn't come in a cute little box....it came in a big, giant, Fed-Ex delivered box!  This is my gift:

For those of you who don't know what it is, this is a heat press.  A heat press is basically a huge panini press or steam press, without the steam.  In my case, it will be used to apply vinyl to t-shirts (and possibly will now be my go-to iron when I need to get wrinkles out).  It came last week, but I've been just too intimidated to try it out.  Well last night I decided it was time to plug her up and try her out!

I don't know why I was so worried!  Once I figured out the super-simple controls, it was easy!  I already cut the vinyl for several shirts earlier in the day.  Once the heat press was hot enough, I went to work!

I made this Alabama houndstooth elephant shirt for my sister.  Her birthday was Tuesday and I wanted to make her something a little extra to go with her gift!  It is a couple of days late, but I hope she will like it!

This is a Creeper from the game Minecraft.  Jameson is obsessed with Minecraft, so I thought he might like this shirt.  Thank goodness he did.

 

Now this is my absolute favorite shirt.  When I first started talking about making shirts, Jameson he said he wanted me to make him one.  He kept trying to describe what he wanted, and finally I told him to just draw it for me.  I took his drawing and turned it into a pattern.

Everything in Minecraft is made of squares.  LOL

I am SO upset because once I finally finished the shirt, I couldn't find his drawing.  I had it sitting on the table right next to my computer and now it's gone. I am afraid that it fell off the table, into the trash basket sitting right next to the table.  :(  I have checked every single slip of paper in the living room, kitchen, and dining/craft room and it's not there.  I really wanted to be able to keep the shirt and drawing together after Jameson is done wearing the shirt.  I've got to get better organized!

Anyway, Jameson loved the shirt and even likes it enough to wear it to school today!  I guess I did something right!  LOL

I also made a couple of really cute political shirts, but since I don't like controversy, I won't post those here.  LOL 

Earlier in the week, I got an order for FIFTEEN shirts for an Air Force basic training graduation.  I am so glad I've got the heat press up and running because this job is going to take a while to complete!

Who knew an anniversary/birthday gift could be so useful?