presence over presents

So I know you're probably getting a tad sick of these longer than looooong posts and I know I promised to give you a peek into my beyond fabulous presents, so I'm going light on the words and heavy on the pics in this birthday present update.

Here's what came to me for my 26th:

These J. Crew beauties in red

These little babies ready to rock my wardrobe 

You can't go wrong with Benjamin

1

Some tantalizing Tory Burches,

which you may have seen here

A delightful new cookbook addition

Harry & David Pears

so delicious, and so decadent

A beautiful new teapot,

complete with two types of delicious tea
(Yes, that's me VERY excited.)

A gorgeous bouquet of blooms 

fresh from the farmers' market

Oh how I love J. Crew

Unbelievably practical lululemon gym bag

(in red)

A divine and uber classy 

leather Ralph Lauren belt

An awesome new EOS Rebel T3,

which I could not be more excited to put to good use

snapping awesome shots for this blog

A birthday treasure hunt from my soon-to-be hubby

(More on this another time -

there are some secrets I can't share quite yet)

Better than my plethora of presents, however (and this is only a subset of the splendorous stuff I received), was being able to celebrate my birthday with all my favorite friends, who were generous enough to come out here from NYC.  

Now I know in today's world of wireless, paperless everything, thank you notes seem to be much out of style, but with this, I am still a traditionalist.  I can't resist the urge to tell those who do something nice how very much I appreciate it.  

Especially with note cards as adorable at these:

Seriously Paper Source - 

do you produce anything not worth purchasing? 

Ready for some old-fashioned stamps!

They're on the way, folks.  Be patient.

But know right now: I am VERY APPRECIATIVE!

xoxo

KK