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Birthday happies
Nov. 21st, 2014 12:18 pmMy birthday was Tuesday, and I’ve had a really wonderful birthday week <3 Rachel gave me one of my presents earlier in November, because I was sad and she wanted to cheer me up. It was an exquisite acorn necklace, made out of a real acorn cap with a droplet of amber-colored glass as the acorn itself. Inside the glass, there’s a beautiful metal oak leaf that’s silver on one side and orange on the other. It’s so lovely, and I cherish it <3
My mum’s birthday was the Friday before (November 14th) so we took her to Dobra Tea in Portland on Sunday for our joint birthdays. They moved to a new location, and while it feels a bit smaller, it’s lighter and more airy because it’s right on the street instead of inside another building with no external windows like it was before. The tea, as always, was perfect. I can’t remember the name of mine, but it was from an island in China with a thousand-year-old tea tradition and a statue of Guan Yin that looks out to sea. I also had warm pitas and goat cheese. Rachel had a spicy Middle Eastern tea with honey and almond milk, with rice Casablanca (rice mixed with fruit, nuts, spices, and honey), and my mum had rose tea and a couscous dish with olives and feta cheese. We perused Mexicali Blues in the Old Port and then headed to Whole Foods (the closest one to us), where we bought some sweets and some things for dinner.
For my birthday, my parents got me some cute tree ornaments and a Blu-ray of the Miku concert I went to in Los Angeles in 2011 (gosh, that long ago!). It’s the Western release so it had English subtitles for the songs, which was beyond wonderful. Along with a really skillful, close-up recording of the concert (*swoons*) it also had a “Making of Mikunopolis” short that had snapshots of Miku doing touristy things in California. ADORABLE. My parents also got me a new pair of black and red plaid pants for Aster <3 She's borrowing Taylan's shirt here.
On my birthday, Rachel woke me up by plomping my gift bag down on the bed beside me and going “Happy birthday, daahling!” like Norma Desmond XD I was still half asleep so I just took one of the wrapped presents out and hugged it and laid back down. But I eventually woke up enough to open them :3 She got me the most wonderful present: recent reprints of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies books, where the original watercolors were scanned using cutting-edge technology to show every bit of detail. Unlike one of the more recent collections of the Flower Fairies poems, which doesn’t reproduce every illustration exactly like the original, the books she got me include all the illustrations in their whole, unedited forms. They’re breathtaking – a perfect combination of botanical drawings and fairy artwork. I’ve started to read the poems to Rachel in bed before we go to sleep, because poetry deserves to be read aloud <3 Rachel also sneakily bought me a beautiful amethyst bracelet with a tree charm at Mexicali Blues when I wasn’t looking XD
It was so nice to get so many Facebook wishes on my birthday. My coworkers brought me whoopee pies and a Barnes and Noble gift card, and after work Rachel and I had dinner at the Olive Garden with my parents as another joint birthday celebration. My parents had another present for me: a delicate necklace with a silver Moon Stick pendant (Sailor Moon’s first weapon/purification item). There are tiny clear gems in the pendant, and it’s the perfect size – identifiable but not gaudy. I love it so much!
On Wednesday, we saw![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_melisande_, and she gave me a gift card to Michaels so I can buy more oil painting supplies <3 I’ve been feeling a little trepidation about the coming winter and how it’ll effect my mood, and this all was a lovely bright spot in the cold November <3
My mum’s birthday was the Friday before (November 14th) so we took her to Dobra Tea in Portland on Sunday for our joint birthdays. They moved to a new location, and while it feels a bit smaller, it’s lighter and more airy because it’s right on the street instead of inside another building with no external windows like it was before. The tea, as always, was perfect. I can’t remember the name of mine, but it was from an island in China with a thousand-year-old tea tradition and a statue of Guan Yin that looks out to sea. I also had warm pitas and goat cheese. Rachel had a spicy Middle Eastern tea with honey and almond milk, with rice Casablanca (rice mixed with fruit, nuts, spices, and honey), and my mum had rose tea and a couscous dish with olives and feta cheese. We perused Mexicali Blues in the Old Port and then headed to Whole Foods (the closest one to us), where we bought some sweets and some things for dinner.
For my birthday, my parents got me some cute tree ornaments and a Blu-ray of the Miku concert I went to in Los Angeles in 2011 (gosh, that long ago!). It’s the Western release so it had English subtitles for the songs, which was beyond wonderful. Along with a really skillful, close-up recording of the concert (*swoons*) it also had a “Making of Mikunopolis” short that had snapshots of Miku doing touristy things in California. ADORABLE. My parents also got me a new pair of black and red plaid pants for Aster <3 She's borrowing Taylan's shirt here.
On my birthday, Rachel woke me up by plomping my gift bag down on the bed beside me and going “Happy birthday, daahling!” like Norma Desmond XD I was still half asleep so I just took one of the wrapped presents out and hugged it and laid back down. But I eventually woke up enough to open them :3 She got me the most wonderful present: recent reprints of Cicely Mary Barker’s Flower Fairies books, where the original watercolors were scanned using cutting-edge technology to show every bit of detail. Unlike one of the more recent collections of the Flower Fairies poems, which doesn’t reproduce every illustration exactly like the original, the books she got me include all the illustrations in their whole, unedited forms. They’re breathtaking – a perfect combination of botanical drawings and fairy artwork. I’ve started to read the poems to Rachel in bed before we go to sleep, because poetry deserves to be read aloud <3 Rachel also sneakily bought me a beautiful amethyst bracelet with a tree charm at Mexicali Blues when I wasn’t looking XD
It was so nice to get so many Facebook wishes on my birthday. My coworkers brought me whoopee pies and a Barnes and Noble gift card, and after work Rachel and I had dinner at the Olive Garden with my parents as another joint birthday celebration. My parents had another present for me: a delicate necklace with a silver Moon Stick pendant (Sailor Moon’s first weapon/purification item). There are tiny clear gems in the pendant, and it’s the perfect size – identifiable but not gaudy. I love it so much!
On Wednesday, we saw
_melisande_, and she gave me a gift card to Michaels so I can buy more oil painting supplies <3 I’ve been feeling a little trepidation about the coming winter and how it’ll effect my mood, and this all was a lovely bright spot in the cold November <3
