As the old saying goes: If you have health, you have everything. So my biggest birthday gift came a day early - the doctor said that all my levels (except iron) are back within the normal range and I can try to get on with life. Hip, hip, hooray!! Thank you friends, so much, for your support!

Making much prettier pictures, however, are the BEAUTIFUL gifts I received in the mail from Carol and Isabelle. You guys are just too good to me!!!

Carol sent me the complete kit for Baby Bug Ball, the truly adorable Shepherd's Bush project, with a sweet card telling me that it reminded her of my three wee beasties. This is already very high on the "must do" list, Carol, and if I weren't starting A Pennsylvania-German Stocking next, I would start Baby Bug Ball. Thank you so much!!



And Isabelle made me one of her lovely bags, which she knows I admire tremendously. Not only do I get to enjoy the bag, I finally get to see how they're made so I can make some of my own. I wanted to make a bag like this for Mary Kirby - Home, but I just didn't know how to do it. Inside the bag were two skeins of beautiful overdyed floss from a French supplier. I'm just itching to try this out! Thank you for your lovely card as well, Isabelle. Your kind comments give me a goal to try to live up to!



Tomorrow is the day that my personal calendar actually turns the page. We'll take Max's best friend out to eat at a restaurant that we (as a family) really like. It might not be romantic, but it will be fun - and seeing my kids happy is just the best. I don't know what else Niek has planned. Usually he goes all-out on my birthday, but health uncertainties have made it very hard to plan anything. Just having him and the kids around me will be more than gift enough!

I should have some stash photos to share soon, and I'm also this close to having Annemarie's neighborhood done. I figured out how to make French/Colonial knots today! So the lupins that I "planted" in her neighborhood last night really look great now.