Just a quick check-in to say, “Hey, how are you?”
See that cute li’l girl up there? She’s 14 today. Fully a teenager, mature as all get-out, yet still a little kid in so many ways. This is what quarantine birthdays are looking like:
(A little overexposed, but I love this hasty snap taken just a few minutes ago. It’s so very her)
K has a few of her closest friends over right now, enjoying a social-distanced hangout session in our yard. I can hear snippets of their conversation and it’s like I’m listening to a foreign language. No clue.
I was looking through some old photos with a vague notion of creating a little digital card for her, but it turned out to be a dangerous time-sucking activity and I was lost in a swirl of nostalgia for hours. I mean:
I remember I got that comforter set from Anthropologie on mega-sale and even though I didn’t love the print, I felt so fancy that I bought something from that outrageously expensive store.
We used to go to the Olympic Sculpture Park with friends all the time (oh how I miss museum outings!):
And this one just kills me:
I can’t remember what she’s “reading” but M puckers a lot when he reads, and I guess that trait is genetic.
Right now, I’m making her a Japanese style birthday cake and am waiting for the sponge cake to cool:
It’s a recipe from here, and I didn’t wait long enough to let the meringue create peaks, so it may not be as spongy as I’d like. Nothing a ton of whipped cream can’t fix.
Last week was M’s birthday and the cake I made was a huge success:
M loves spice cakes, and the magic was in adding some dark chocolate chips. The cake disappeared so fast, it was as though it was a figment of our imagination. Here’s the recipe I used, though I ended up tossing in some Pumpkin Spice from Trader Joe’s instead of measuring out all the different spices. Worked like a charm. It was, as promised, moist and dense and full of rich flavors. Thumbs up!
Alright, I better get back to the sponge cake. Hope you’re all hanging in there. This month has been rough for us, so it’s been nice to have these celebrations to remind us of the good things in life. Fourteen! I can’t believe it….
No wonder you got sucked into a trip down memory lane, a beautiful Birthday Girl and photographs.
I have been going through a tough time this year, but have found much comfort and motivation in ‘Sewing Happiness’. Thank you and best wishes.
Thank you for your kind words, Julia!
This is an interesting time we’re living in. So glad you can enjoy a birthday celebration and a walk down memory lane. I’ve been rereading Sewing Happiness and focusing on the joy of crafting.
Yes, VERY interesting times…I’m so glad that Sewing Happiness is part of your days, Tammy. Thank you!!
I only just read this post – lovely to see photos of K as a baby, and today. I wish K a belated happy birthday, and a big congratulations to you, because I do believe birthdays belong to mothers as much as to their children
Thank you, Marisa! Time flies…
I missed this one too, probably because I was camping. Happy Birthday K!!! My Allie is also 14 now. I hope you pay more attention to your mom than she does
Somedays I think her headphones are surgically attached to her head. However having a real conversation when we go for a walk is something I love about her being a bit more grown up. I hope your Birthday was super, even in isolation.
14 year olds are quite magical and mysterious, don’t you think? I feel like I’m dealing with an endangered creature sometimes: rare, constantly on alert, doing all they can to survive, and of course, extraordinarily valuable. I guess that’s true at any age…Thank you for the well wishes, Tracy! Hope you had fun camping!