I have been celebrating! First I enjoyed Valentine's Day sharing hearts and flowers and a few sweets with my family. Then Friday through Sunday I joined some friends at a house near the beach in Lincoln City, Oregon.
During the weekend I enjoyed seeing the sea, eating lunch at Mo's Restaurant and visiting with friends while I completed an album for my eight month old granddaughter. For each of my grandchildren I have made little story albums for the first year of their lives. The pages present the alphabet, numbers, pictures of them, and a bits of stories about them.
In 1955 when I was nearly five years old I moved with my family from Massachusetts to Missouri many miles from grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins. Boxes of gifts were mailed back and forth through the years, but one of my most treasured gifts was a scrapbook my Nana Bradstreet made for me. She took plain sheets of gray cardboard and cut bright colored pictures from magazines and catalogues, then glued the pictures on the cardboard pages. She punched three holes in the left side of the cardboard pages and threaded bright red yarn through the pages to bind them together.
While the style of the albums Nana and I made are very different, the message of our books were identical; I love you :-)
Sunday night when I got home my family greeted me with flowers, balloons and presents to celebrate my 62nd birthday! Among the wonderful gifts I received was the stack of books pictured: three about crochet and one, the Essays of E.B. White, best known as the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, but he was also a respected essayist. He defined an essayist as, "...a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Could he have paved the way for blogging?!?
Among the items of mail that arrived while I was at the beach was a packet from Mellie Moo! She and I are among the bloggers who signed up to participate in the Grand Tea Swap kindly organized by Lucy. Mellie sent me five bags of Twinings tea, a pretty pink coaster she crocheted, and a charming little black and white felt cow. Mellie is working on the International certification for Crochet and I enjoy visiting with her through her blog Mellie Moo Crochet. I have a lovely pot of tea beside me made from the English Breakfast tea bag Mellie sent, and I am sipping a cup of it while composing this post for you. Thank you, Mellie!
Are you registered to participate in any swaps?
xx,
Gracie
