Monday, January 29, 2007

happy birthday me!

it's my birthday today. this time last year i was in venice, at the cafe where byron had breakfast, toasting myself with glacee chestnuts. this year i'm in my own little (rented) place (that i share with badly coloured boy), but closer to friends and family. and my new baby. this is mathilda:


she's a bernina 830, bought second-hand to celebrate the anniversary of my birth. the exact same model as my mum has (coincidence. the first second hand bernina we could track down). together we've learnt buttonholes, and tested all the embroidery stitches. in short, everything mum told me not do until i had mathilda serviced. tomorrow me and Tildy are going to try and sew another Simplicity 4111.

and, just as i sat here typing this, badly coloured boy handed me his gift - a copy of this. it's been so long since i've had an art book, and this is just so inspiring. it reminds me of so much i'm forgetting - delacroixe vs david. courbet and the birth of modernism. see, i actually have a degree in art history. i just don't use it for anything other than lecturing bored acquaintance and feeling superior.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

happy birthday! what a wonderful gift!!!!

Anonymous said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Venice!? Oh my, oh my.

Lovely, lovely machine and book, how exciting! Have an awesome day =)

If I had a good memory I could use my art history training to impress people...it helps if you can actually remember some facts though =P

Clementine said...

happy birthday, miss! you should have told us earlier, instead i am going to have to assign you a fake birthday for the birthday knitty thing.

ah yes, art history. i did that once. hmm. i can't remember anything. mind you, i forget how to knit if i stop for more than two or three days, so it's hardly surprising.