What's on My Birthday List?

Next month is my birthday month! Growing up my family always made a big deal about birthdays and of course, I always loved it! I think that birthdays are a big deal and I love making other people feel special for their own birthdays. When celebrating birthdays, I usually send a card to friends (and of course to family).  I pride myself on being the friend with birthdays written down in my agenda each year and addresses saved in an excel sheet so that I can mail a proper card to people for their birthdays. I sit down each month and look ahead to the next month so that I know whose card I need to purchase for the next month. In this day and age, I find that people really appreciate a real birthday card!  And while the expense adds up over the year for all my friends, the expense per card is usually around $4.  Since I rarely have the budget for a gift for all my loved ones, cards work best for me!

That said, for my birthday I would love to receive a call, card, tweet, email greeting, or text for my birthday from my friends and family.  While I do really appreciate facebook greetings, there's just something special about hearing more directly from the people you love on your birthday!

But, of course I do have a few "things" in mind for my birthday as well.  My family members usually ask for a birthday list and I've learned that it is better to oblige and let them treat you to some things you normally wouldn't treat yourself to.  Am I right?

Here goes, my incredibly exciting birthday list.

First up is a new electric toothbrush.  My old sonicare has been around since my high school days and frankly, it is kaput. It only works about 25% of the time these days despite being fully charged.  

This is the model I'm opting for. The Oral-B Professional Care SmartSeries 4000.  It is pricey at $90, but the company is currently running a 50% rebate. So all in all, that's not a bad deal! I've also asked for some replacement brush heads.  By the way, the "wish list" function on amazon.com is quite handy!

Second on my list is a new trivet.

I do not have any trivets and I find myself using pot holders when I need one.  This is quite effective, but I also thought I'd like to have a trivet so I told my dad that I would like one for my birthday.  Imagine my surprise last week when not one, but TWO trivets showed up on my doorstep from Williams-Sonoma!  I was honestly expecting him to pick up a trivet at Target.  But check out what he sent instead:

This is the Le Creuset trivet in Dijon. I honestly could not believe it when I opened these! What a lovely surprise and definitely something I would never treat myself to or even ask for, but I will enjoy them so much!  And of course they match my one Le Creuset pot. Yay! 

I've also asked for a painting of my childhood home.  My brother has a beautiful pen and ink drawing of the home he grew up in (he's quite a bit older than me, so we grew up in different homes) that has become a family heirloom.  I've found a great artist on Etsy to create a drawing of my growing-up home for me.  I haven't ordered it yet. Unfortunately I do not have a digital picture of the home and the artist works from pictures. I also do not have a hard copy that I can scan. Ironically, I need to go to my childhood home to find one of those. But once I order and receive and frame and hang that picture, I will be sure to share it! I am very excited about having such a special piece in my apartment.

I'm also hoping that I might get a little birthday money this year.  With that, I plan to buy a new pair of boots for the fall!

I am still lusting over these boots from Duo.  I think I've posted about them before.  I think it may be time to pull the trigger, so to speak.

Not that I need anything else to add to this list, but I am also always lusting over things at anthropologie and new jewelry.  I'm loving these coasters from anthro right now.

The only problem is picking my favorite color.  I'm thinking perhaps it'd be best to trek it to the store in Georgetown so I can mix and match colors.

I also plan to buy a new water bottle. I know that may sound lame (I mean definitely not as lame as my toothbrush, though) but my current water bottle leaks like MAD and it is super annoying! Hopefully I will have better luck with the next one!