YOU SPOILED ME ROTTEN...

Well, enough time has probably (sufficiently) passed that I can speak about my birthday without feeling like I'm tooting my own horn.  Oh, I hate birthdays...not everyone else's - just mine!  I don't exactly hate them, but get embarrassed by the "hoopla" that I don't think I deserve, I guess...just the passing of another day in my life (another day not spent with a rock star)...another day I am so very happy to be here.  Birthdays are better than the alternative, and I do have LOTS of people in my life to be thankful for - people who evidently love me, and I love them, right back.  My family and friends are the BEST presents I could ever hope for, and ALL that I ever need, so thank you for being you, right off the bat!

That being said, I got a mixture of verbal wishes, written sentiments, and some felt the need to lavish me with gifts (I would say that I really didn't need anything, but The Boss made me "pinky-swear" a while back to accept that which is sent my way, graciously, so here goes).  These are the "Thank You Photos" I should have had on here two weeks ago...this post is about you, and not me (somehow that makes me feel better)!  I tried to post these side by side, but you could only enlarge one or the other, so now they are on top of each other, adding to the incredible length of this post...I do apologize, but felt everyone deserved equal time!

My oldest friend (and by that I don't mean "OLDEST", but the person I have known absolutely the longest since moving here in '94 - within days!), Melanie fed my addictive beading habit with a generous gift certificate, and tickled me with the card; Myler made the cool, slinky copper chainmaille earrings and bracelet; Pattycakes made me her signature earrings and a beautiful, clean, beaded bracelet to match (there is a joke in here about the bracelet, but I really can't post it, so we shall just move on).

Tiny little witch's hat fom June (yeah, there's a very obvious joke there, too); a WICKED, handmade Silver Art Clay bracelet ("Wicked Chica") - bronze bat bracelet with faux ivory carved beads that she whipped together - a second bat to do with as I please, and a stunning bronze medallion, meant for beading around - all from Jackie, or "Happy Chica";  Myler has a bracelet that says "Sassy Chica" - I guess I really AM part of a girl gang, now.

I got the most scrumptious smelling candle and room/paper/hair spray (not really for hair, but if I can catch somebody walking by, WATCH OUT!) from my "sister" in CO, Joleen...they are both Gingerbread Spice and smell heavenly;  the treasured, carved Bakelite bracelet atop the candle is from my parents; the two gorgeous turquoise and silver necklaces/earrings came from one of the "Girls Night Out" gang (I guess I belong to more girl gangs than I realized) - Erinhead, and her darling daughters, Nikkihead and Daniellehead, or "D" as we know her around the neighborhood.

   

From my dear friend (and daughter's phenomenal high school art teacher), Susan Silva, the happy little guy from Peru who seems to have wasted away to just bones, inside his matchbox home (yes, Dias de Los Muertos follows Halloween); b-e-a-uuuuuuuuutiful metal delica beads from my Jaci...such great color sense, that one, and she feeds my addictions, also - she baked me a pretty wonderful birthday cake, too.

A sequined "rock and roll shirt" for the next concert night out, from my parents, as well as a huge book of the artworks from the Leanin' Tree Museum that we visited in Boulder, CO, this summer; more beading gifts in the way of pliers, from my Louie, who also paid for a class I recently took; and a clothes shopping spree that I have yet to cash in, from my husband.  Below that is my new, kick-ass, Lucky Brand purse from Jackie D. - it ROCKS!

 

A soft, beautiful and blingy, Fleur-de-Lis bracelet from The Boss (Colleen, not Springsteen)...check out the buckle on that leather strap - there are tiny Fleur de Lis' on it, as well; and a beautiful framed sentiment about friends, from June.  And last, but not least - my parents felt so bad that I was down in the dumps about missing my chances with ANY rock star, now that another year has gone from my youth, that they sent me one from their back yard.  Yeah, you two are very funny!

The morning before my birthday, Jackie D., Pattycakes, The Boss, and Erinhead treated me to Gospel Brunch at Mandalay Bay's House of Blues - "Hallelujah!"  What fun THAT was...or were they trying to tell me something?!  Old fashioned, Creole Southern cookin' (fried chicken; jambalaya; grits; sausage; red beans and rice; shrimp; and decadent bread pudding, among other delicacies) served up alongside hand clappin', foot stompin', feel good music performed by a very talented local Gospel choir.  Thank you, girls - I had a ball!

To my loved ones, family and friends alike, THANK YOU, A MILLION TIMES OVER - you DID spoil me rotten and I love you ALL!  You shouldn't have, but I'm glad you did...maybe this birthday thing isn't so bad, after all.  If I've forgotten any photos, I apologize now, and will make sure they make it in on a special post, all their own.   For ALL the well wishes these past weeks, that I have no pictures of but carry in my heart, thank you, too!  You guys mean the world to me...yes, YOU ROCK!