Happy Birthday
Happy 30th Birthday my friend Claire (last Saturday). Happy Birthday my brother Ed (last Friday). Happy 30th Birthday to my sister-in-law Brooke (this Wednesday). And, Happy Birthday to my cousin Heather (today)!

Wow! What a great weekend. I spent Saturday up in north Jersey with Claire and Tiffany at a demonstrator stamping event. It was tons of fun - and we got to spend the day with Claire on her big day!!! We celebrated with Ed and Brooke on Sunday. I think they enjoyed their birthday gifts, but even more so, they LOVED the fact that they got their cookbook back. I sat down on Saturday night to fix it after having it for 13 months and 9 days. Three of the recipes were incorrect. One I was able to simply use a pen for. The dumpling portion of my pot pie recipe was incorrect and I no longer had the coordinating paper or the font that was originally used. Those were the two reasons that I kept procrastinating. I wanted the album to be perfect (even though I was leaving the funny mis-spellings - mouse instead of mousse). I just knew that the places that need to be repaired would scream at me from the pages - and they do. But, they're not that obvious. The potpie page just as a slightly different shade of blue paper and is missing a small embellishment. The font is slightly different as well. However, the original font was missing special characters so the "/" was missing from several measurements. The final problem was the Pumpkin Roll recipe. I mis-interpretted my mother's notes and thought you were supposed to use two jelly roll pans when you were really only supposed to use one. That typo was in the middle of the page. Again, I didn't have enough of the correct paper to fix the entire box and I didn't have the correct font. And, I had absolutely nothing close to it. So, I gently removed all of the wording from those pages - doing some damage in the process. I experimented with several fonts and sizes before I found an acceptible replacment. No, I don't like it one bit. But, it worked. I had to hide a few blemishes with some buttons, but they don't look out of place. But, most importantly, the cookbook is back with Ed and Brooke. The excitement on her face nearly brought me to tears. I actually did cry Saturday night when the cookbook was done. Heck, I'm crying here in the office right now! I wish my office had a door. A huge weight has been lifted. Every time I sat down to make a card or project, I thought about the cookbook. Many times because of classes and events coming up, I didn't have a choice to put it off. In the end, it only took about 90 minutes to fix. Something I could have done the day after they gave it to me. But, I wanted it to be perfect and I got just about as close as possible.