The best birthday!

I must admit that I usually have lovely birthdays. They are always a treat, but this year was really splendid. I felt more spoiled than usual, which is quite a feat, considering how much my friends and family pamper me, in general.



I actually saved my presents and cards up until the day of my birthday(something I never do, being the greedy little girl that I am) so they really piled up. I also hosted the most charming little party ever, a get together of some of my favorite people; we just sat around eating delicious snacks and drinking Belgian ales during the late afternoon.



All this added up to make my 27th birthday the best birthday I've had in a long time.

















Honestly, I'm not clever enough to make such gorgeous cupcakes as the ones I've plastered all over this post. These were given to me by a very sweet and talented friend. I must say, I'm so satisfied after this birthday because, I've often given people pastries and other darling little sweets for birthday gifts but they always look at them oddly as though they don't want them(and maybe they don't). Of course, I don't usually make such beautiful pastries as she does(she being a pastry chef and all), but I do buy them from nice little places. So, after years of bringing pastries as party gifts, I finally received some at my party. Anyway, these cupcakes were incredible, the perfect lemon cupcakes. Matthew was even floored by them and he doesn't take to sweets like I do.



So, to everyone I know and love, thank you for giving me a dear, sweet birthday. I loved all my gifts and cards and well wishes.

Little Flapper Girl

For the first time in 10 years, I didn't dress up as a pink fairy for Halloween. This year I decided to dress up as a little flapper girl instead. My costume turned out very well and everybody really liked it. It may be my new standard costume. How sad to replace the fairy costume, but it really is worn and old at this point. My wings are more a dull gray than the sparkley pink that they once were.


The costume idea came courtesy of my cousin, who bought the dress for me to wear at her wedding. As soon as I saw the dress I thought, "1920s...flapper...perfect halloween costume." Really, all the dresses she picked out were cute. They seemed to loosely represent different decades from the 20th century.



Halloween was fun, we passed out 1500 pieces of candy at work and all the children were so cute. I also made cinnamon cupcakes to pass out to the adults that work on our block. They really seemed to enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed making them and eating them as well.

Perhaps even more than in years past, Halloween felt like the last big hurrah! before the christmas season starts. Now it feels like the holiday ball is rolling and it isn't going to stop until the first week in January. There isn't a thing I can do to prevent it. Maybe this year I'll try to enjoy it a little more, sing a few more songs than usual, watch a few extra christmas movies and ignore the hated commercialization of it all.

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone is having a fun and spooky Halloween.

Useful items- Updated

Copper bowl

Mandoline

Suribachi

Fruits Basket
(except volumes 1, 2, 6, 7, 9, 19, 20)

Update:
I received all the useful items on this list. They were all birthday presents. I didn't expect to get them all, but I am far too spoiled; see birthday post for more evidence of this fact.

Fuzzies

This past week I've been getting ready for halloween and by that I mean making small fuzzy creatures.



They are really too cute.

I love fish!

I just love watching little fishies swim around with their adorable lips nibbling at everything they come into contact with.



Last Sunday we celebrated our friend Pat's Birthday by making him go to Seaworld with us. We all enjoyed this cheerful little trip to see the strange little creatures that we don't usually come into contact with. The Zoo doesn't have any fish so we always miss seeing that aspect of the animal world.



We realized half way through our visit that we needed to start taking pictures, so some of the best animals were forgotten, such as the Penguins and the Beluga whales. Quite honestly, penguins and whales are pretty standard photo subjects and my rendition of them through cloudy glass probably wouldn't be worth the space.





Of course, I can't help but photograph all the lovely little pink creatures. They are so unusual looking.

oh, what wee apples!

Last Sunday, Matthew and I took a day trip out to Julian, CA with two friends. It was fun and charming, if a bit cheesy. Julian is an old fashioned mountain town that was originally established as a mining town and now focuses primarily on local tourism.



We enjoyed the usual activities: apple picking, apple pie eating, wine tasting and buying nick nacks. It was a beautiful day and perfect for playing tourist.



The apples cost far more than they would at Whole Foods, and they were much smaller than anything I could buy in the store. Still, it was fun picking them.



Apple collage




Another apple collage(just because they are cute)




An apple towel adds to the autumn cuteness



Three little apples



Five apples, in order of largest to smallest