Birthday Present Overload!

As I've mentioned before, I LOVE presents! However, the older I get, the less I feel like I HAVE to have presents. It's not like when you're younger (read: poorer) and you can't just buy stuff you want when you want it and you really build up a list of stuff you're dying for. It gets harder for me to come up with ideas to give my family because if I want something bad enough, I buy it for myself, and my family is against money/gift cards for the most part. This year, the only thing I REALLY told my mom & dad is "Please don't buy me random yarn or knitting needles'. This stems from my mother, trying to be sweet, being totally suckered in by a LYS she went to and bought me Lantern Moon Size 8 straight needles. While they are lovely, I don't use straight needles. . . and I can imagine the other expensive things a store owner could easily talk an unknowing person into!

So, what did I get?

First, from mom. . . new seatbelt bag!

LOVE IT! I love my current bag, which I've had for 5 or so years now, but it's pretty big and thus I fill it with a lot of crap and it gets really heavy. This one is smaller and should help me avoid overload. And now I have a little purse family :)

Then, from Jake's parents, in humor you can only truly appreciate if you know them and Jake, I got a check. (They are not against cash gifts like my family). The humor of a check? The amount of the check was $.01 LESS than the check they sent Jake for his birthday. I thought it was $1.00 less, and I laughed so hard I started crying and gave the check to Jake. He pointed out it was $.01 less and I was laughing even harder.

What will these checks buy? Well, they conveniently pay for my cowboy boots :) And they will also cover the gifts I bought myself yesterday. . . One skein of Noro Silk Garden (bought yesterday on eBay. . . I finally broke down, I need to see what all the fuss is about), some awesome pink & brown sock yarn and some beautiful colored wool that I acquired from Carrie's destash. I'm going to find the perfect felted project, because I think the colors will blend so beautifully! (I'll post a pic when I get it!)

My dad called to tell me he didn't send me a gift, because I didn't give him any ideas, so he's combining at Christmas.

Then I opened my presents from Jake. . .didn't he do a nice job wrapping? All these presents I 'knew', as I went with him to point them out :) They are a 2'x3' cutting mat, straight edge and rotary cutter. I have no excuses to not work on my sewing now. There is also a pressing/blocking pad! Yay! And he did surprise me with a needle gauge :) Zosia enjoys gifts as much as I do, because she LOVEs to destroy the paper! And it NEVER gets boring to watch her open gifts for you :)


The next thing wasn't wrapped, but it was scribbled on a piece of notebook paper. . . . Mama Llama sock & shawl club memberships! VERY exciting! Both fall and spring :) I believe the fall yarn already went out, but Jake asked her to hold it, so now I have to contain myself until Catherine comes back from Brazil! I mentioned this in passing MONTHS ago, I'm impressed he remembered. So then Jake brought out my pie, and I thought that was it. After all, the yarn club was a pretty good surprise, not what I was guessing, but awesome nonetheless. See, I had guessed he had finally made me a yarn swift. . .as when I got home from Nashville I found lots of sawdust in the garage that was very poorly cleaned up. I asked Jake what he was building and he didn't give me a very convincing answer.

Our friend David was over for dessert, after a day of fishing. He told Jake he got a new pole and so they went outside to look at it. When they came back in, Jake asked me to go find a candle to light up his pumpkin for David to see it. I thought that was a bit odd, but obliged, and when I went outside to light the pumpkin, what did I find?

MY SWIFT! (picture obviously not outside!)

It's AWESOME. Quite an accomplishment given it was designed by two mechanical engineers with no real knowledge of yarn and why you use a swift! The design really is awesome, they definitely over-engineered it! It is made out of cedar, so it smells SOOOOOOOO lovely! Two of the legs slide and two have pegs, so it's infinitely adjustable to fit pretty much any skein (may be too big for some really small skeins, but those aren't a pain to wind off someone's hands, anyway). They were very proud of themselves, but a little disappointed when they watched me wind. They said it was 'built for speed' and that the bearing that allows it to spin really moves fast. Unfortunately, I don't need that speed for handwinding :) Maybe when I have a ball winder the speed aspect can be fully appreciated! I like hand winding, though, to feel the yarn while I wind it. (btw, that is me winding a skein of Malabrigo. .. . the green for Jake's hat that I feel compelled to cast on for right away out of appreciation!) The swift breaks down to be flat so it'll be easy to store.

They asked me if they did good, and I said VERY :) Their design is a lot nicer than most of the swifts I see. With a few minor tweaks, I told them they could consider selling them on etsy.

All in all, an AWESOME birthday! Thanks for all the wishes here and on Ravelry :) And if you're interested in a swift, let me know :)

Ooh, and I almost forgot. Dinner was AMAZING! Jake's beef stroganoff was better than mom's, even though it was mom's recipe (sorry mom!). The pie. . . even better! This is the recipe if anyone is interested!