So, it’ my birthday tomorrow (Friday). It’s not generally a thing I announce or make a big deal about. I’m such a brat about it; I leave any thought of a party or dinner or whatever to the last minute. I’m not all “I hate birthdays and I’m dead inside! I give puppies the stinkeye! Someone call the WAHHHmbulance!” or anything. I’m just all, if I manage to throw something together that’s great, if not, doesn’t matter (which is basically my default approach to socializing. I’m so bad at it!).
It was my birthday on Wednesday, and I really wasn’t going to make a thing of it, but I got so much unexpected love and such thoughtful and sweet gifts that I wanted to show ’em off a bit.
Birthday Swag From Some Awesome Peeps! ❤
Judith got me a whole bunch of Japanese books she happened across at a thrift store. Some of them are children’s books which are great for reading practice when your kanji comprehension is atrocious (yes, that would be me), and the rest seem like text books for lower grades in Japan rather than actual “Hey foreigner! Learn some Japanese!” books (well, except for one).
Marelle and Kendyl got me some funny stickers and a gift voucher for Minotaur (for non-Melburnians, Minotaur is a shop that is more or less the geek mother ship).
And Jules (of Woollenflower fame) got me two amazing old crochet books, which I’m sure you’ll see more of. “Crochet Sweaters” is a priceless mix of really tasteful and timeless gems (including a couple for gentlemen!) and utterly tragic disasters that makes me laugh so hard that I’m in danger of peeing myself. Not kidding.
"How do you do, Raynor? I'm your new home. Step inside, won't you?"
Meanwhile, my house is slowly, slowly getting sorted out, but I’ve been procrastinating yet again. At any rate, the more time I spend in the house, the more I love it. It has quite a bit of character and I really hope I can channel my interior designer and really make it the cozy home it deserves to be. (Let’s be real though, I kind of just want it to be the same as Katie and Reuben’s place, ala House of Humble. I can’t lie.)
Finally… tomorrow (Friday) is the last day to comment on my other post here to win yourself a squishable, scrummy ball of yarn. So, go do that! I want to share the love.
What’s been the best birthday gift you’ve ever gotten? (Or the most disastrous…?)
It has been very remiss of me for not posting sooner. I have taken on a casual office job on top of my yarn store job, and between those two and teaching, I’ll not have a single day off for two weeks! Eeep! I have many things on the go which I can’t wait to show you, but they had to go on the back burner while I finished off my Pa’s birthday present.
Some background… my immediate family has many in-jokes and sayings that make rather little sense to anyone else, and many of those are what you might say are call-and-response style things in so far as certain expressions require a certain reply. One of these is a farewell that Pa and I often use, usually at the close of a phone conversation. One of us will say “Cheers, Big Ears!” to which the somewhat… colorful… response is “F*$k you, Noddy!”. Apologies for the cussing! I have no idea where the expression came from – I suspect it’s an old pub toast perhaps – but it tickles us. We will often try to incite the other to say the Noddy half of the exchange in the most inappropriate of places (Pa has the trophy so far – he managed to get me to say it quite loudly in the university library during study week).
Noddy & Big Ears (Mr Pod in the background)
And so, in the spirit of Subversive Cross Stitch, I decided that this would be an excellent birthday present for my kooky father (and I will not lie, the ‘sequel’ for his Christmas gift is something I’m looking forward to!)
Poor Noddy...
Next up is Mothers’ Day, but I don’t think I will be making anything for that (I have a gift picked out already), so I will have plenty to show you soon. Until then, hug your folks if they’re there to be hugged!
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