If it wasn't already apparent, I am extremely fortunate and grateful to be surrounded by people who value celebrating birthdays. They really are the best holiday, in my opinion. They celebrate the existence of a person in an individual and personal way. For the record, I like other people's birthdays as much as I like mine.
This here is the lady who gave birth to me, so of course we celebrate the occasion. This year we shared a delicious lunch at Gardens of Salonica. If you love olive oil, this is the place for you! I had a hard time choosing what to order since there were so many vegetarian-friendly options. I am glad my mom insisted we get the mushroom saganaki as part of our meal. It was superb! And now I have had the maitake mushrooms that I was intrigued by at the market in San Francisco.
And....drumroll, I was gifted my first all-clad pan by my mom! Yahoo! There will be a learning curve, for sure, but I am ecstatic to be able to slowly swap out my non-stick pans for a mixture of all-clad and cast iron pans.
To round off my birthday weekend, I shared a sunny lunch with my friends-since-elementary-school pal Jamie.
We met up at Ngon Vietnamese Bistro to share a meal and catch up on each others' lives. Jamie is mother to two little ones, so I definitely appreciate and cherish that she makes it a priority to set time aside for our relationship. We also made plans for doing more things together that involve her daughters. I am looking forward to that, too!
In addition to being a lifelong friend, Jamie has been my lifelong crafting buddy. We started with friendship bracelets, moved to jewelry making for a decade-plus, lingered in knitting and are now on to sewing and canning together. She sewed a few birthday presents for me, including this perfectly hued jersey scarf. Apologies for the dramatically lit photo. I am sure the scarf will appear again in future photos since it has already been worn a good amount.
Gratuitous macro shot:
And, with that, my 34th birthday is a wrap!
First of all, Happy "belated" Birthday and so nice of Mom to buy the All Clad. FYI.. Twice a year, All-Clad has their factory seconds, 2 day sale. Saving you a bundle.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to more gratuitous macro shots! Hooray for new lenses and All-Clad!
ReplyDeleteMary Lynn,
ReplyDeleteThank you! It sounds like you might be an all-clad user. Do you have a favorite pan? Which line do you like the best?
I will keep my eye open for the factory sale. Those beauties are spendy, so I plan to amass my collection through sales.
Junebug B,
ReplyDeleteI am certain there will be more where that came from (gratuitous macro shots, that is)! Hooray, indeed! I am experimenting with the macro as portrait lens. Maybe I will have to email you to pick your brain about that.
Hi Trinity,
ReplyDeleteI was the one who told you about the All-Clad sale and you know what, I don't even own one pan of All-Clad. Shame, Shame on me. I refuse to pay full price and I always miss out on their factory sales. If you are ever in Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh area) let me know and we can go to the sale.