My Continuing Carrot Collection

I love this time of year: carrots galore in every store as the Easter decorations come out!!

I, of course, am adding to my carrot collection whenever I can and Michele and friends are lovingly enabling me.

These carrot chocolates are from Michele - they are
actually hazelnut and chocolate and are carrot umbrellas, which really
adds to their coolness. I have to say that they will not last long enough to
be added to the collection, but I LOVE them!

In addition to the carrot chocolates, Michele has recently given me other consumables, like carrot hair conditioner, bath wash, body butter, and carrot lip balm. I'm carrots head to toe, inside and out.

My friend Carole, an art teacher, found a stack of carrot-themed creations
from a long gone student as they were cleaning out cabinets at her school.
She gifted me these beauties! I hope that Nate is somewhere and I hope he's famous!

This makes me think of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Attack of the Killer Carrots!!
I should be scared, but am not at all.

Could this be more perfect for me?

I would love to ride a carrot train . . .

. . . to this carrot hotel.

And to cap off this phase of my collection, a gift from the lovely and talented painter and sculpter Randy Duncan, husband of the awesome and talented crochet artist Karen Duncan:

An Original Randy Duncan work of art! How I love this! There are no words!

My collection is growing by leaps and bounds and I feel so loved when friends remember this quirky obsession of mine and gift me carrot-y lovelies like these. I'm truly living the dream! :)

The Best Weekend Ever, Part 3 (The Final Chapter)

Today marks the end of my amazing birthday weekend. It was just the best weekend ever, truly! Yesterday was the height of  fun. I hosted my first ever brunch with two very good, very sweet friends, Jena and Sarah (Bad influence Sarah of football and sledding fame). It was such a treat having them over!

Then, that afternoon when I opened my gifts from Michele, I got the best surprise! OK, first I've got to tell you the back story: every six months, at Christmas and my birthday, Michele heads to the local Lindt store and buys me six months worth of chocolate. Well, the local Lindt store closed and the closest ones were in Niagara Falls and Syracuse - both about an hour and a half drive from us! And my extra special birthday surprise, you ask? Michele, sweetheart that she is, drove to Niagara to buy my birthday chocolate! I felt so touched and so bad at the same time - I mean, she drives for a living and the day after she got home, she turned around and drove to Niagara just to make sure that I would have my favorite chocolate for my birthday! I'm still overwhelmed! It is such a blessing to have such a wonderful partner and such wonderful friends and family (both here in Rochester, around the world, and in cyberspace) to spend this special birthday with! Thank you everyone for you lovely birthday wishes!