Kristine: Vox Style

birthday fun

nobody@vox.com(Kristine) — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:32:36 -0700

My birthday this year was full of time spent with Eric and the rest of my family, and that really made for a happy Kristine!

I started out the week really excited about one of my favorite knitting authors was coming to town, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot). Eric was sweet enough to drive me there, early even so I could get a good seat, and hung out the whole time I was there. It was sponsored by Blue Moon Fiber Arts, who I had just finished two projects with their yarns, so it was fun to be able to wear that sweater and socks. It was so cool because even though I didn't find friends who had come from my knitting group, I sat with a group of people who were so welcoming and we chatted about knitting and stuff, which made the wait until the talk started great fun. I worked on knitting a new pair of socks while I was there, and there were lots of other socks-in-process around me. The talk was fabulous, I am SO glad I made it to see her this time. It really was a wonderful experience and started off my birthday week with a bang!

On my actual birthday, E and I took the day off, and we went on our now annual Birthday Adventure, which we've done the last 3 birthdays. This involves some driving, some music, some shopping, some walking, and good food. We went to Bridgeport Village, my favorite outdoor mall, and ate at Macaroni Grill including some fun birthday drawing on the table. We found some of the kitchen things I was looking for at Sur La Table, and The Container Store. Browsed books at the giant Borders, which is always fun. From there, we went down to Woodburn's Outlet store, where we went through a bunch of stores and found E some little saucepans. Finally, Fry's was an important stop because E needed a new monitor - and he was happy with my old one, so I got a new one :) They had a special deal with a free photo printer after rebate, which was great because that's what I was missing by having a laser printer. And we got a few other small things we'd had on our list.

Sunday after my birthday, we got together with my family and had a party. I got my choice of food (my dad's rigatoni with cranberries and spinach) and brought my own yummy cake. The whole family was there which always makes celebrating funner. Here's a few pictures:

I got some nice gifts, including a sewing box, crafty stuff, several gift cards, a CD, a knitting book that I was really excited about, paintings, and a necklace. And it was especially nice to see so many nice notes in my comments and facebook wishing me a happy day, that was really a treat - so thanks to you all!

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happy day to me!

nobody@vox.com(Kristine) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:44:28 -0700

It's April 25, which is one of my favorite days of the year :) I've always enjoyed April because spring is such a beautiful time (even though this year has featured a lot of hail and even snow which is odd for our area!). The whole month of April, I get excited for my birthday. It's not because I want presents, or even cake (but yummmm, cake), it's just a fun time to enjoy celebrating my favorite things.

We are headed on an adventure today. This is the third year in a row that Eric and I be spending some time together visiting places and stores we enjoy (here's last years post). I've been collecting a small list on my whiteboard of things I'd like to look at when going to places like the Container Store that we don't normally get a chance to go to. But really, it's about a day with E, I've been looking forward to this :)

This weekend, we'll get together with my family on Sunday and have a party. It's more fun to have the kids around for a party, so we are waiting till Sunday night when they are available, and I couldn't be happier about that.

Update on our "remodeling": I've been slowly working on getting my craft room in order, and I could actually sit in there and do a project now, things are so nice and put together. The office needs decorations still but everything else is done. The blank walls make it hard to take pictures though, so I'm waiting!

Oh, and I put my last year's birthday banner back up on the blog. I didn't get a chance to make cupcakes this week, but we slowly divied up the leftover cheesecake from Sarah's party to last the whole week!

I feel blessed today, and I can't wait to enjoy the coming day.

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taking pictures of cupcakes for my banner

nobody@vox.com(Kristine) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 11:46:19 -0700

On friday night while baking Mac and Cheese for dinner, I decided I needed some cupcakes. I'm not celebrating my birthday with my family until next weekend, and so this would serve as a birthday treat during the week. :) They are just from a mix - Betty Crocker has my favorite cake mixes - in Butter Recipe Yellow with Butter Cream frosting. On a whim, I pulled out the sprinkles, because what makes cupcakes more birthday-ish than sprinkles? These happen to be Easter and Valentine's sprinkle containers, but since I love hearts, and I love springtime, they served more as *my* colors than being easter-y or valentine-y.

I filled up my muffin tin twice and still had a little left over, so I pulled out my mini muffin pans (which I got for Lisa's bridal shower and realized just now I hadn't posted the picture of the cheesecakes! It's up here: Lisa's shower cheesecakes) These are nice bite-sized cupcakes now!

When I saw how pretty these turned out, I knew they were destined to be photographs and turned into a blog banner. I really had fun playing with the macro settings and a variety of different angles.

kristine's cupcake banner

E says "it's just going to make you hungry every time you look at your blog" but ya know, that's okay :) It makes me feel all festive and excited for the week to come :)

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Number one with a bullet

nobody@vox.com(Kristine) — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 05:49:50 -0700

What song was the number one song on the charts the day you were born? How about the day you turned 21? What do you think about the song?

I can't say I've heard either of these!

When I was born, it was Johnnie Taylor's "Disco Lady".

When I was 21, it was Puff Daddy's "Can't Nobody Hold You Down". I probably have heard this in passing but I'm not a big Puff Daddy/P.Diddy fan enough to know which one this is.

There were songs surrounding these that I did recognize, just not the actual ones on my birthday weeks.

Oh, and I'm pretty impressed that all of that info is on wikipedia. What a cool resource, yay for Lilia pointing it out! :)

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wikipedia meme!

nobody@vox.com(Kristine) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:33:21 -0700

me me me! I wanna play :D Seen at Mena's and Kari's and others, too.

Go to Wikipedia.
In the search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
List three events that happened on your birthday.
List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
One holiday or observance (if any)

That would be April 25th :)

3 Events:

1901 - New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates.
1935 - Fire claimed the second capitol building in Salem, Oregon and burned down.
1959 - The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

Nothing too super exciting, but somewhat interesting!

2 3 important birthdays:

1940 - Al Pacino, American actor
1964 - Hank Azaria, American actor
1969 - Gina Torres, American actress

yay, I share a birthday with a godfather, a funny guy, and the beautiful Zoe from Firefly/Serenity!

1 important death:

2002 - Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, rapper (b. 1971)

not that I'm a big TLC fan, but because I recognize her name more than some of the other recent ones.

1 holiday

World Penguin Day

Heh, I can't say I ever thought about celebrating *that* :P

That was quite fun, I enjoyed the look into my birthday!

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