Never too old for cake!

Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday to me! Well, it was yesterday! One of the things about working from home on your birthday is you don't actually get any work done because the doorbell doesn't stop ringing from one end of the day until the other! With a family as large as mine, I knew that would be the case, so I spent an hour in the morning organising myself and just as I was putting away the floor wipes (a girl needs a clean floor - even on her birthday!) my doorbell began to ring and from that point on, the kettle didn't stop earning its keep all day. As soon as one member of my family departed, another arrived - my Dad even visited twice! (Not that I can take credit for that, my youngest sister also celebrates her birthday this week, so when Dad heard she and her baby daughter were en route to my house after he had left, he turned the car around and came back for another cup of tea to wish Laura a happy birthday in person too!)

'Brown Betty'

Fay's arty close-up shot of 'Brown Betty'

My kids were both at work during the day, but when they came home in the evening they surprised me with a completely unexpected gift and some lovely birthday cards (to be truthful, my son's card was more cheeky than lovely, but it did give me a good chuckle!) I was absolutely bowled over at how much trouble they had taken to arrange their gift, a wonderful primitive folk art doll. Fay (duly elected 'gift arranger' by her brother, who freely admits to being a little out of his depth with such items!) arranged to have 'Brown Betty' shipped from her creator in America in time for my big day - you can imagine how thrilled I was to receive this special doll giftwrapped for my birthday ... I absolutely love her!

A special chest of drawers for my vintage buttons

This dear little chest was a gift from my sister Fiona and her family, chosen especially for me to store my vintage buttons in those gorgeous ceramic drawers. As soon as I've finished this post, I will be toddling off to my workroom to begin filling those drawers with treasures!

Blowing out my candles (whilst modelling my snuggly birthday robe!)

According to my kids, you can never be too old for birthday cake!

I received so many birthday wishes both in person and through the post yesterday and received such thoughtful gifts from everyone. Fay even arranged a chocolate caterpillar birthday cake, complete with candles! Fortunately she resisted the temptation to light a candle for each of my 46 years and spared us the risk of setting off the fire alarms! Everyone made me feel very loved, so I would like to say thank you to Stuart, my family and my wonderful kids for sharing my birthday and making it so special xxx