A Sweet Birthday

 One of the fun things about my birthday is that I share it with Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisl.

One of the sweet things about my birthday is that three years ago a sweet young woman whose mother was one of my teaching assistants and whose sister was one of my kindergarten students gave birth to a little girl on my birthday.  She named her Faith, and now Faith is three years old.  She was born in a year that was difficult for me, and although she has never lived closer to me than a thousand miles, she helped sustain my faith.

This year my birthday was marked by some additional lovely things.
Sweet Teen took me to lunch at the Swiss Alps Bakery and Cafe.  I've been wanting to go there since it opened, but we are so seldom in Albuquerque together at a time when we can go to lunch.  We had high expectations, for before there was a Swiss Alps Bakery and Cafe, there was a Swiss Alps Bakery, and on rare occasions during warmer months of the year we would sometimes be fortunate enough to find the Baker at farmer's markets.  There were no disappointments about our lunch at the Cafe.  Well, that's not quite accurate. Sweet Teen tasted the chocolate covered rum ball I selected for dessert and made the most horrible face I have seen since she was a preschooler. I wish I'd managed to take a picture of that face.  She says if she'd ever had any interest in consuming an alcoholic substance, it's definitely gone now!

 The lovelies in these two photos were waiting for me at the post office.  First one of those lovely, ruffled scarves that so many people are knitting.  Now I want to make one.  (Much faster project than socks or shawls.)

 The second is an old silver-plated spoon converted into a tiny pin-cushion by one of the women who was in some of the classes I taught 25 years ago or more at Chandler Fabrics in Dalton, GA.  Doris, who now lives in Ohio, made the pincushion and sent it to my friend Harriet, who sent it on to me.  It's just perfect for pins and needles for chairside when doing handwork.

Harriet also made the tiny tote in the first picture--it's the perfect size for a sock project--although at the moment it's quite happy cuddling my meadow blossom shawl-in-progress.

The magazines below are self-gifted.  I felt they would be perfect to flip through while enjoying a cup, or a pot, of tea.  I've flipped through one, and hope to get to the others very soon!

 I'm one of those people who just loves beautiful magazines.  I come by it naturally.  When I was in 8th grade, we were asked to do a survey of how many magazine subscriptions our families had.  Some families had none.   I stopped counting when I reached twenty-eight active subscriptions for our family!
 Of course, in those days, those 28+ subscriptions undoubtedly cost less than three or four magazine subscriptions today.  I hope to at least look at every page in these beautiful publications within the next week.  Think I can manage it?

Happy quiltmaking.....