So I turned 41

last Sunday. It’s funny, and I’ve heard others who had the same experience that after the long anticipation of turning 40 last year the actual event seemed quite anti-climatic. It felt like something just clicked into place. And so the 41 felt uneventful too.

Which is good. These days I like uneventful. So, on Sunday I got up after having slept enough, made breakfast, and we had the traditional “Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte”. Well, apart from my husband who has turned out to be lactose-intolerant so he had lactose-free homemade cherry pie. We had a really nice relaxed Sunday, smoked salmon for lunch, and went out to a new Indian restaurant for dinner.

In fact the day was so relaxed that I spent hours on the computer, gazing longingly at spinning wheels. Because that’s entirely reasonable, a) to start spinning when you’re life is already bursting with things that you love to do, and b) decide on which spinning wheel you want to buy on looks alone even when you don’t have any intention of buying one. At least I didn’t have that intention until after I had looked at spinning wheels for a couple of hours. Ahem.

I also did spend a bit of time with my family. And I thought about the fact that the kind of birthday I had this year would have felt like a disappointment to me just a couple of years ago. I would have wanted to have a big party. I would have wanted to be treated like a queen for the day. But then I changed a bit and for now it feels better this way.

I did get presents though. I like presents. But I always feel a bit self-conscious writing about them in my blog. I fell like I’m bragging but then it’s just that they make me smile. Even though most of them haven’t arrived yet.

My son got me some flowers from the garden which my mother-in-law arranged into a very nice little bouquet. (He told me that he chose to give me flowers because it was less work than drawing a picture…)

My husband got me a very nice surprise:

It’s a Vietnamese cookbook that has a lot of marvelous pictures, recipes, and essays about Vietnamese culture, and history. I have been reading and looking through it daily since I got it. I remember telling my husband that I wanted a Chinese cookbook some time ago but I forgot all about it. He went to the bookstore, and this book was much more appealing than the Chinese ones. Well, as far as I have had the chance to try it I really love Vietnamese food.

My sister got me a very considerate Wollmeise gift certificate.

My parents and my mother-in-law contributed to the things I had wanted, with my parent’s present I ordered an array of pressure feet for my sewing machine (a walking foot! a button food! an overlock foot! an invisible zipper foot! (For those of you who can’t get that excited about sewing machine accessories that isn’t an invisible foot which would be impossible to keep track of but a foot for putting zippers into garments so that you don’t see the zipper all sticking out.))

In anticipation of my mother-in-laws gift I had ordered two drop spindles and some fiber, and now she has been so generous that I may even place yet another order with u-handbag and get myself a Sofia pattern. (And the Weekender bag pattern, and interfacing, and handles, and, and, and – I better put a stop to this immediately. First I’ll sew what’s already here taking up dresser space. Then I’ll place an order.)

I’m really most excited about the drop spindles because after resisting for months and restraining myself I finally gave in and allowed myself to try spinning again. And I ordered a wooden spindle for starting out again because I’ll certainly drop it a lot, and a very, very pretty one that’s very lightweight because I remember that when I first spun more than twenty years ago I was totally disappointed because I couldn’t spin finer yarn (and that was before I discovered lace knitting). Nowadays I know that the spindle I had was too heavy for that.

I can’t show you pictures of these though since they haven’t arrived yet. So, now I’m waiting for the packages… Instead I’ll show you how I look at 41: