Birthdays and Strings

My niece is now officially one year old and running around in dresses with little white tights and black Mary Janes. She wears tiny white clips in her soft red hair that's just long enough to curl out a tiny bit at the ends. She even ate her cake with a bit of grace on Saturday, all things considered. In fact I tried to get a photo of her covered in frosting, but the best I could do was to get a few splatterings of white on her cheeks.

Below is her birthday present from me... The fabric shown here was (and still is) intended for a dress to match, but I haven't even started that yet. Here's the finished baby shrug:

Details here.

In addition to the birthday party, my cousin's baby shower, and a day out with family today, my weekend included a night out with Brian on Friday. My sister had bought us tickets to see Bowfire at The Colonial Theatre, and it was excellent. I entered the theatre in an exhausted haze, beat from a long week with little rest and then from the ride to New Hampshire. Seconds into the show, however, I was wide awake.

I am the type of person who tears up before the second verse of each great country song and gets goose bumps whenever a beautiful voice or instrument breaks a silence. I found this show so entertaining that I felt a bit of both at once. Just when I felt I couldn't be more amazed, I was. Who knew there were so many talented violinists with such diverse styles and techniques, and that they could have so much fun playing together... or that three musicians could play a mean fiddle while step dancing in perfect rhythm? Most of all though, it was the pure entertainment value in the whole presentation. The best part was how much fun the artists seemed to have. The music would be terrific on CD, but no one could experience the same excitement or dazzling of the senses from the music alone. I'm pretty sure most of us pondered the possibility of life in the musician's shoes, dancing and fiddling on stage, before we left - if not after. If you ever have the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend you do.