Happy Birthday to the King of my Heart!

Happy Birthday to my Halloween Baby Hubby, David !

(David, earlier this month, with his other favorite girl, Miss Katie !)

I am grateful everyday that you are in my life, and that we have found one another to make this journey with.

You are sweet, funny, caring, brilliant and so very loving.

And I want to thank you for all you do to make our life together so wonderful,

including digging us out from this incredible October dump of the icky white stuff!!!

(Snowtober – images from our house, Saturday morning, October 30, 2011)

Today, let’s celebrate Everything YOU !

I love you more than words can say.

Happy birthday, My Love !

For today, Monday, October 3rd.

FOR TODAY
Outside my window...it is grey, and probably about to rain. The leaves on our maples are still green for the most part and have just started falling…

I am thinking...about next weekend, Canadian Thanksgiving and my BIRTHDAY !!! Mostly I am thinking about the logistics about travel, dog kenneling, where we are sleeping when we get there, where the turkey will be cooked, etc…

I am thankful...that my cruddy cold that lingered all weekend is easing off today and that I have a bit more energy to get some stuff done !

In the kitchen... Mother Mailhot’s kitchen is bare but I am dreaming of chili with tons of veggies in it, topped with sour cream, cilantro and lime.

I am wearing...a blue cotton nightshirt & flip flops.

I am creating...samples of “car jewelry” that I am making for my annual crafty gifts for the staff at my mom’s office, pages in my Creative Sistah Lori’s sketchbook, and a huge mess on my studio table ! Creating is messy in my world !

I am going...to the post office, to the grocery store (chili ingredients !!!), and then to meditation class tonight.

I am wondering...why the days seem to be flying so very, very quickly…it is almost scary…

I am reading...very little these days, other than Facebook and blogs. I am listening to “Something Borrowed” by Emily Giffin in audiobook format before bed.

I am hoping...I can work through is very achy neck and shoulder to keep up with production needed for crafts fairs, Christmas gifts and Rock Fairy demands.

I am looking forward to... doing a photo shoot of myself this week with a very special prop !

I am hearing...the hum of the computer and the distant roar of the garbage trucks. Quiet Monday morning.

Around the house...it is actually pretty tidy, other than my studio table, as David and I tag-teamed it yesterday and captured all dust kangas in the vacuum cleaner.

I am pondering...how it got to be 10:00am and I am still glued to the computer…again…

One of my favorite things...putting clean sheets on the bed and plugging in the twinkle lights in the bedroom last night. Cozy and romantic. Fall nesting, I think.

A few plans for the rest of the week: lots of stuff in the studio, lunch with Lois on Tuesday, a trip to the beach at low tide for some rock gathering and finally, a drive up to Montreal and La Conception for the long (my birthday!!!) weekend.

Here are some pictures I am sharing...

My two pages in Lori’s sketchbook for the month of September. Man, how that month flew !!! It is off into the mail today to you, Jennifer !

Okay, off of the computer and back to the studio table !

Happy Monday, Beautiful Ones !!

October is My Month !

October 1st ?????????

How did that happen ? Time is just going so very, very fast ! The Queen is having a hard time keeping up, guys ! And don't you say it's because she will be 43 on the 9th, either !!!!

Ah well, this is where we are and let's celebrate it !!! October is the best month by far !!! The best colors for a season, especially in the North East. The best smells, wet leaves, carved pumpkins,... The best tasting food, crisp apples, the first stew of the season, orange chiffon birthday cake... And let's face it, the very best clothes and shoes of the whole year ! Cozy sweaters, gorgeous arty scarves, fine leather boots and not a bathing suit in sight !!! And finally, the one thing that always makes October special for me.....

The Kim Birth-Festival !!!!

Okay, so I am very, very lucky to have my birthday on October 9th. It falls around the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend every year and also Columbus Day weekend here in the States. This means that the family always gets together to celebrate and they never forget my birthday. David works for a bank so he always has the Columbus Day bank holiday off to come home with me ! Also, I am so lucky that I have so many wonderful friends and loved ones, and that they all know how much I love to birthdays, (I have told them over and over through the years !) so they all take the time to give me a little token of love or a little special time together. This makes my birth-day into a birth-festival a lot of the time, sometimes lasting for a couple of weeks !

I have to say that I have been the founder of the Kim Birth-Festival over the years. None of this hiding the fact that it is my birthday baloney for me ! Celebrate me, celebrate me !! I love it so very very much ! It feels good !

I even threw my own 40th birthday party a couple years back, just for about 20 of my closest women friends. We had a fantastic October weekend at a condo in Mont Tremblant, Quebec. And yes, I asked them to bring gifts. I asked them to bring something that showed they had taken the time to think about me.

I received some of the most touching and wonderful gifts that you can imagine, like my Aunt Francoise who gave me 40 bulbs to plant in my garden. Or my friend Tracy who has known me since I was 8, and who gave me a cd with songs on it that we used to listen to when we were kids (look up Melanie - "Brand New Key"). Or my two totally un-artistic friends, Barb and Tina, who went to a ceramic painting place together one afternoon and painted an extremely ugly coffee cup for me that I still use many a morning inspite of its ugly beauty. I also made every incredible woman there a gift from me, a hand made book mark and a journal with a letter on the first page from me, telling each one of them how much they mean to me. Besides the gifts, there was love, and laughter, and hot tubs, and yummy food and drink and even dancing, lots of it !!! It was my best birth-festival ever !

Tracy, Suzanne, Francoise, Mom, Natalie, Lise and Cindy at my 40th Party

Darlene, Andrea and me in the bathtub at my 40th Party

While this October may not hold the exact same magic, and while I may be feeling a little rushed into the whole thing, I want push myself to celebrate anyway. Life is too damn short and too damn hard to miss out on any reason to celebrate ! October is here ! It's a great month ! What more do you need ? Get out there and find something to celebrate !