yay for birthdays!

Thank you for all the happy birthday wishes! I had a very happy (quiet) birthday celebration with my mom yesterday, and a very lively and not-at-all-quiet celebration with some friends on Monday. (Also, it was St. Patrick's day. Which might account for the raucousness of everybody else in the restaurant, but I choose to believe that they too were celebrating my birthday. Pre-gaming, as it were.) And some people brought prezzies! For me! I was flabbergasted. I have such sweet, thoughtful friends.
Princess Jana Banana-Hammock brought me tons of gifty things, including, but not limited to:

stitch markers and a cute pin with kitty beads that she made herself
(because we all know how I feel about kitties)

a kickass candle holder that she made herself
(how do I find such talented friends?)

Here it is bringing light to a very grey and cloudy/rainy/miserable day;
just what I needed!

Along with a Knitch gift card (!!!!!!!), and a kickass birthday card, and a cute birthday girl button that has become official birthday accoutrement of these crazy folks I roll with, and I can't even remember what else, I was so gobsmacked.

The Foxy Yarn Pusher brought me sock yarn. She knows my weakness. This is Knitting Notions Supersock in Deep Blue Sea. It's a lot bluer than it looks in the photo. It is so beautiful I just cuddled it for a while. I couldn't even put it down, it is so lovely.

And THIS:

is a birthday present to myself. It's Wupatki, by Reporebo. Funny story. I was sitting at the computer, surfing the knitblogs and eating my breakfast one morning on my day off, when I noticed that Ms. Reporebo had posted some of her new yarns. I moseyed over (metaphorically speaking) to check it out and saw this. I gasped in stunned amazement at the beautifulness of the yarn, grabbed my phone, (thankfully) checked the time and realized it wasn't an ungodly hour to call someone demanding yarn, called her up at work, and shouted, "I NEED THAT YARN!" She thinks I'm insane, but I think she likes that about me. And the yarn is mine, so my method was successful. Go me.

I feel so loved!