Presentation is Key

Last weekend I celebrated my birthday.  Having a birthday so close to 4th of July is both bad and good.  On the one hand, I always celebrate it on a long weekend, so a lot of people leave town and every year I miss having around some of my close and dear friends who have not been able to make it.  On the other hand, I always celebrate it on a long weekend, so I have more time to get ready and clean up, people can stay longer, and some even come from out of town and stay for a couple of days - it is a long weekend after all.

This year I had a great birthday, it was great to catch up with everyone, hang out and just talk.  I also got great presents (as usual - thank you, everyone) and I wanted to mention some of them here - the handmade ones.

I got a drawing of a rainbow titled FRUMAX from my 5-year-old son.  He is just starting to write and English is not his first language, so this was pretty much the second thing he has ever written without being prompted.  Oh, yes, FRUMAX stands for "From Max" - you know, if you write it as one word, only use 1 letter M and use a U instead of an O ;)

I got a ton of drawings from my daughter, and she also made me a bracelet. My kids and husband also got me flowers and surprised me with a cake early in the morning. They made the cake themselves that same morning by defrosting a delicious chocolate fudge dessert from Trader Joe's and adding whipped cream, raspberries and a candle :)

Tania was not able to come (she lives in AZ), so she sent me a pincushion.  It is so cute that I would never be able to stick a pin into it, I think I will just use it as a wall hanging.  I met Tania on Etsy where she has a wonderful socksandmittens shop full of - you guessed it - hand-knitted socks and mittens.

Yana lives in CA and also was not able to come, but I will see her soon when I go to California in August.  She sent me a card she made - it is truly a work of art.  She actually covertly asked me what my favorite color was - and yes, bottle green is my favorite color.  You can see more wonderful handmade cards in her WineCountryLife shop on Etsy.

My only Etsy friend who lives near me is Iryna.  She made it to the party and I was delighted to open her gift which was accompanied by a hand-drawn card.  Iryna's Etsy shop Modern101 sells most wonderful jewelry, wood boxes and wood panels decoupaged and decorated with her drawings.

A special mention goes to the gift I got from Gregory and Marina, who do not have a shop on Etsy and are not into making any goods by hand, at least as far as I know.  They gave me money as a gift, and so did many of my friends who knew that I would put the cash into my Kiln Purchase Fund.  Gregory and Marina made their present stand out because it did not come in an envelope, but in the form of 18 neatly folded little boats in a lace baggie.  This presentation made me laugh - and laughing really made my birthday perfect.