All good birthdays should have a ...........

....."pin the tail on the donkey"....shouldn't they?

Yes, it was my birthday on Saturday and Melissa sent me this vintage Pin the Tail on the Donkey game but inside the box was this -A button necklace made out the best vintage buttons - Melissa is the "Queen" of button jewellery. Have a look at the card she made, there is the tiniest cruet/salt spoon attached to the top corner - love it!We went to Adelaide for the weekend so the boys had party hats ready for breakfast time and they had also blown up funny shaped balloons and decorated the loungeroom. In the afternoon, we went to the Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide. We had a wonderful time wandering around and I was very impressed with it. Much better than I thought it might be!Then we went to see the movie "Hotel for Dogs" and I am pleased to report that it was 10 times better than "Bride Wars" that I had seen previously.

I was spoilt with some other presents from friends - Erica attempted her first Fraktur painting and I think she did an excellent job (she doesn't think so!). She has suggested that if I want to, I can take the painting out and use the frame for something else but that won't be happening. But there was more - she also did this wonderful cross stitched sampler. It is a Stacy Nash design and I have to say it is the best cross stitching I have seen - it is backed with a lovely old styled fabric and hanging from the twig with a wire hanger, just topped it all off. I felt very spoilt!

Leanne has a wonderful memory and she remembers things that I have mentioned years ago - even when I don't! She knows my love for magazines and she did a great job getting me one that I didn't have - "Cloth, Paper, Scissors - Studio's" - full of ideas for organising your studios to optimise the space and to be more workable. (I'll show you some things from there another day) Leanne had also made a great little pouch for keeping my punchneedle and threader in, and room for some threads too. And she must have read (& remembered!) on a previous post how much we love Ginger Bears, so there was a bag of them - yum.

Tea sent me a parcel of supplies - there were a few rolls of braid and ribbon, a tin filled with wedding themed brads and supplies, a lovely little papermache box, a Stacy Nash pattern, some vintage coasters and a book of Fraktur drawings suitable for stitcheries or painting etc

This lovely metal tealight candleholder was part of my present from Marion - isn't it precious?

These books and magazines were from husband and the cherubs - so the pile next to my bed is almost as high as the bed now! Which is OK as I don't have to stretch my arm out so far to get one!!!!

Millie from The Laurel Hedge recently celebrated her birthday too and she had the wonderful idea of reversing your actual age around and being that age, this year. What a fun idea, I thought until I realised that I would be in my 70's - so I think I will stay as I am, thank you Millie. You can enjoy being 35 though!

On Sunday afternoon, we went to see Le Grand Cirque at the Entertainment Centre. We had front row seats and this was the first 'live' show that the boys had been to other than The Tweenies, Bob the Builder etc. As they said, it was 'awesome' and 'sick'

We had a lovely weekend away and then it was back home to get ready for school, and with covering school books and labelling all their stationery etc we have really come back to reality with a thud!