Let Them {Wear} Cake!

 

One of my wonderful friends recently had a birthday, and we celebrated at a lovely little pizzeria in Ashland.  I loathe giving store-bought gifts, and I wanted to give her something special.  So I made her a birthday cake hat.  Because I'm that awesome.

The hat is made out of black felt (dinner plate) and white felt (birthday cake).  It has lace around the sides of the bottom (decorative marzipan frosting), and even felt candles with sequins for the flames!  "Happy Birthday" is written in "frosting" (really soutache braid).

I think the hat was a hit!

Frank Palma X

I can't believe I forgot to post about this: I bought another Frank Palma hat!  I thought that the ridiculously over-priced white feathered top hat would be the only one I would get for my birthday (and that was three months early), but lo and behold, ON my actual birthday, I snatched up my tenth Frank Palma hat!!!  Thank you to the Hat Gods for my now annual FP Birthday Mojo.

It is an exact copy of the one that sold off of antiquedress.com for about $800.  The best part?  I only paid $80...I think that may very well be the first time in recent history that I grabbed a FP hat for under $100.  It was also in excellent condition (such a relief).

I looooooooooove it...

Birthday Bookings

It's been a crazy week (ok, it's pretty much been crazy all year...but it was really crazy this past week) here at the inn.  We've had more bookings than normal for May, which has been a pleasant surprise.  The inn was actually completely booked on my birthday, which was excellent for the bank account but kind of put a slight damper on any sort of birthday celebrations.  We did manage to run over to Red Lily Vineyard on Saturday in the late morning, which is one of my absolute favorite places to relax.  

Because it was Memorial Weekend, they had some food platters available - including a delicious antipasta platter and the most amazing chicken caesar salad I have ever eaten!



I wore my 1940s navy blue suit and my ridiculously-expensive Frank Palma hat.





We sat at a table overlooking the property and munched our way through a delicious lunch, while sipping glasses of their phenomenal tempranillo.



CHEERS!

Artie

So, like the true hat addict that I am (why deny it?), I bought myself 3 different chapeaus for my birthday!  Ebay is a bit like the devil for my pocket book, but I have allowed it to steal my soul - putting up only a minimal amount of fighting.  Sometimes, it's easier being bad.  In any event, I purchased two AMAZING Frank Palma hats off of Ebay (one is a "Frank Palma Original" label, the other "Art Bern Hats by Frank Palma"), as well as another 1940s faux birdie tilt hat (this I won by default - since no one else bid against me - for the $26 starting bid!  Some of my favorite vintage hats have been won this way off of Ebay).  My birthday was Saturday, and my family is famous for only giving practical gifts, so I figured that if I wanted some ridiculous hats for my birthday, I needed to purchase them myself (I even bought an adorable vintage polka dot "birthday hat box" to keep them in)!  Frank Palma is "my main man" when it comes to vintage milliners, and to be able to purchase not only one but TWO of his hats was a real birthday wish come true!  I of course decided that I needed multiple birthday outfits to compliment my hats...

This is the first of my birthday ensembles:

 

I have dubbed this hat "Artie."

 

The dress is a gold brocade that my grandmother and I worked on.  It is made using a vintage 1960s pattern.  The dress actually has a removable overskirt, but I didn't have time to complete it before my birthday.  I actually almost like the dress better without the overskirt...

The "Art Bern Hats by Frank Palma" is breathtaking!  This hat is a near replica - with the exception of the color - to one that sold on AntiqueDress.com for over $800!  You can see why I squealed with happiness when I purchased it on Ebay for $99+shipping.  This will always be one of my most treasured hats, I can tell you right now.  It is both incredibly beautiful, and incredibly unique in its design!

 For my birthday, I went to my favorite hairstylist in Ashland for a vintage 1930s cut & style (if you need your hair cut, I HIGHLY recommend Salon Selah V in Ashland, Oregon!).  Then, my darling husband took me out to a lovely Indian restaurant for a buffet-style lunch (yum!).  We went to a couple of antique stores, and then headed home to get ready for the lovely outdoor soiree he was throwing for me on our new deck.  We set up tables, chairs, and tea lights, and had a lovely BBQ (and wine!) with friends.  I could not have asked for a better birthday, and say many, MANY thank you's to all who showed up!  You certainly know how to make a girl feel loved!

The Birthday Hat & The Date That Never Happened

Thursday was my (infamous) birthday, and it appears that I mostly managed to escape my normal bad luck spell: I did not have to work, there were no trips to the emergency room, and there was only one minor instance with a sick animal (ok, I cried for two days straight over that one, but thankfully it happened on SUNDAY, and the animal ended up not being as ill as it could have been!). All in all, not too bad for me!

Thursday morning began with the normal family breakfast and packs of marauding kittens demanding food crumbs and attention. After which, I raced off to the local Aveda salon for a cut 'n' color. I have missed being a "true" redhead so much, and I decided it was time to lop off my long locks and go for something far shorter and much redder. I jokingly call it "Channeling Joan." After my appointment, Ryan and I had drinks & lunch with Friend David at 38 Central. We wandered around a few antique stores and bought Ryan a new old "toyl," and on the way home we decided to stop by a new-ish antique store in Jacksonville that we hadn't been to in months. Well, it was there that I discovered The Hat. And not just any hat - my super-awesome, totally borderline, ridiculously-feathered, BIRTHDAY Hat! I had been yearning for a hat worthy of a good birthday, and this was it! At first, I had been occupied with a silly (but somewhat beat-up) 1940s black velvet tilt hat with an ostrich feather. It was fun, but at $65 it was a bit expensive for something that had seen better days (and I have never been a fan of ostrich feathers on hats). Well, I set the hat down and was pondering it when I looked across the shop. There, at the very top of a display cabinet, I saw MY hat. It was gorgeous! I asked Ryan to get it for me (thank goodness for tall husbands), and when I tried it on we both looked at each other and said, "This needs to come home with us!" The shopkeeper had told us it was more expensive than the other hat I had just been looking at, so as I reluctantly turned it over to look at the price tag, I was expecting something in the $120 range...instead, the $75 price tag seemed like an answer to my prayers! Yippee! So, of course the hat came home with me! It even matched my outfit!

Later, Ryan and I got all dressed up to go out on an evening date, but we were still SO full from lunch at 38 Central that we ended up canceling our reservation, changing into sweatpants, and hanging out at home. I know, we must sound pretty lame, but it was the best way to end a wonderful birthday that I could think of! We did make sure to take pictures of us dressed up though...just to have as proof that we DO clean up well! *grin*

Birthday Celebrations & A Bite of History


I normally have horrible birthday luck. And I mean horrible. In years past, I have had beloved (pregnant) animals die on (or around) my birthday, lost my job, had all of my friends completely forget to show up for my birthday party, had to go to the hospital, or had been working in the middle of nowhere and completely out of cell phone range. I have begun to actually dread my birth date with something akin to superstitious paranoia. I don't think you can blame me... This year, my darling husband decided to banish my birthday bad luck! Secretly, several months earlier, he had sold off some stock at the height of its value, and squirreled the money away for my birthday celebration. On the morning of my birth, I was awakened by happy kisses from my excited husband (and thankfully not from either wet-nosed kitten). He presented me with gifts from himself (a book on herbal veterinary remedies) and my mother-in-law (a vintage hair piece and antique Wedgwood cameo brooch).


Then, he did morning farm chores and milked the goats, and took me out for coffee and breakfast at the Good Bean in downtown Jacksonville. After breakfast, we wandered over to Harry & David to browse the wine section while we waited for stores to open. Once 10 am hit, we visited numerous used book stores around Medford. My favorite was the one located directly next door to Harry & David. They were a bit expensive, but they had a very good selection, and I managed to find an informative herbal that I did not yet own (rather difficult to do these days!). After hopping around to all of the bookstores, we went walking around the Main Antique Mall (one of my favorite places and where, tellingly, they know us by face). I had a feeling when I entered the store (a place where I have scored many previous amazing finds!) that I needed to carefully browse through all of the books, and lo and behold! I was correct! Amongst the dust and books, wedged in a forgotten corner of the store, I found a gem: an 1882 2nd edition of "Gardening for Profit."


Why am I so excited about this? The book not only talks about the basics of gardening (preparing soil, conrtrolling insects), but lists popular commercial vegetable varieties (along with woodcuts of some of them) grown at the time. Thus, not only can I research heirloom (or extinct) vegetables grown in the past, but I can identify unknown heirlooms if any ever fall into my collection! I am so excited to begin my research!

After the antique mall, Ryan took me out for a sushi lunch at Bonsai in downtown Medford. Then, we headed over to the Madrone Mountain tasting room in Central Point, where we were treated to a complimentary birthday wine tasting!

After wine tasting, we went home to relax before beginning evening chores and milking (a bit early in order to make our dinner reservation). Dinner was a lovely little candlelit affair over at friend David's 38 Central. We had a delicious little Prosecco to start while our main red (an absolutely spectacular '08 Baco Noir by Girardet Wine Cellars) aired. We both ordered steaks, which paired grandly with the tobacco, leather, and berry notes of that big, bold red wine! For dessert, a lovely chocolate pot de creme! Thank you, David and the staff at 38 Central, for a very enjoyable evening!


Ryan and I drove home, slipped into our jammies, and curled up in bed with an old edition of "The Velveteen Rabbit." Ryan read out loud to me until neither of us could keep our eyes open.

And that concluded the happiest birthday I have ever had.