Thursday was my birthday. Truth be told I have always been weird about my birthday even as a child. I would hide under the table when the kids at my birthday parties would sing happy birthday. My parents used to rent out the skating rink to have my birthday parties, when I was a bit older, and I liked that because everyone was having fun skating and the attention wasn’t on me. One year Donny called ahead to the restaurant we were going to just to make sure they would sing happy birthday. I wanted to die of embarrassment. I’ve been to Kiddie Park in Austin and a night field trip with the kids elementary school on two of my birthdays because that is just how I like to celebrate. I like making sure everyone is having fun and yes, I like doing that kind of stuff myself.

Thursday all I wanted to do was get a head start on the garden and front beds. There is just something about digging in the dirt that makes me so happy. I moved all of the flower pots and got to work digging up the weeds that had started to grow again. Then I used my hand held claw to till it all up.

I pulled out the metal trellis and painted it because I was starting to see rust on it. Donny and I ran to home Depot to pick up the mulch.

I got the cucumber seeds in the ground and planted some lettuce in the bigger pots. I used oil rubbed bronze on the trellis and it looks so much better.

This is not where the pots will stay, but it’s their home for right now. I don’t know if we are going to have another frost or not. I’m hoping not, but you just never know.

Jackson and Olivia gave me a gift.

She wanted to paint something for me and Jackson told her that he knew exactly what I would love and I truly did. It’s my Queso who I miss every single day. She did him in watercolors and I can believe how amazing it turned out. Our neighbor across the street works for a food restaurant supply company and he brought over a 5 lb bag of mozzarella. He didn’t know it was my birthday, but it was a great gift nonetheless.

Hannah has been sick the last few days, so we just got takeout at The Catch. Their seafood is so good. The night ended with a gluten free birthday cake that Donny got me.

Today I had told Donny that I wanted to go to Jefferson, one of my favorite places in the world. Hannah is still under the weather and Jackson was working on something in his room so it was a day date for Donny and me. We got later start than we had planned, but we managed to hit a couple of my favorite places.

We never miss The Old Mill. It’s huge and so fun to look at all the different booths. We didn’t end up purchasing anything, but it was fun to look around.

Next we went to the General Store. They’ve done some renovations and added more rooms since the last time we were there. I loved this groovy room.

They carry everything from old timey candy, novelty toys, goumet food, shoes, clothes and also have an ice cream bar where you can get milkshakes, sodas and food.

We were getting hungry and couldn’t decide where to go so we just went to our fallback, Auntie Skinner’s. The food is pretty meh. I had nachos and Donny got a steak sandwich. My food was okay because how can you really screw up nachos. Donny’s was not as good, so it was a little disappointing.

As we were walking to my very favorite shop in Jefferson we walked by the Jefferson Hotel. It has new owners and they have made this place so gaudy. It’s so sad to see.

Made in the Shade is the best store!

They have a little bit of everything. It’s so my style and I could spend hours in it. Donny found some cute Pol overalls for me. I tried them on, liked them, but just wasn’t feeling the urge to buy them.

It could have been because I felt like a stuffed turkey after eating a plate of nachos. Or it could have been that I was extremely sore from all of the yard work and was grumpy from having to disrobe in the dressing room. The only thing I ended up buying there was some Zum jumbo lip balm because my lips were so chapped. I did try on some Aura Blends perfume oil, but none came close to my Kuumba Made.

I can’t wait to come back during the summer because this courtyard always has so much going on.

It was getting close to 5 when everything closes. We decided to drive around and look at all of the historic houses that are also Bed and Breakfasts. Jefferson’s magic will pull you in and make you never want to leave. I can’t wait to go back. It was a very good way to end my birthday.