Today my hubby is 70. I can’t believe it… We have been married for 33 years (wedding anniversary next Friday) when we were both in our 30s! I don’t know where the time has gone.
We spent the day at the home of his twin brother (his birthday too, of course!), and their older brother and his wife came, and also all the nephews and their wives/girlfriend and the little ones. It’s a small house and there were a lot of us! Thank goodness for their conservatory and being able to be outside for the BBQ. A really wonderful day. It did rain on and off, but they have a large patio umbrella and we didn’t get wet.
Our sis-in-law presented him with a wonderful album full of photos (one of those printed photo books) – she’d had one done for his twin (her hubby) as well. Last week she asked me to send her lots of photos of my hubby to add to the ones she’d got, so it was a good collection. My hubby got quite emotional over it! It is so beautiful, and a really special keepsake for a special birthday.
I had asked him several weeks ago if there was anything special he would like, and he said, “I’ll think about it,” which is usually his way of saying, “I’ll forget about it”!! but I managed to pin him down. It was quite hard to decide on something because he said he’d really got quite a bit of stuff and couldn’t think what else he wanted or needed, and then he had a brainwave: “What about a watch?” He loves watches, and so do I, so this was an ideal choice. I asked him to find one he liked, because I didn’t want to get him something he’d be disappointed with, and what he chose, I think I would probably have chosen myself. It’s a Rotary, but a model which is no longer available. It was new, but an ex display one so it was a very good price. It came complete with the box and instruction manual etc.
It is a skeleton watch, with a mechanical movement, so it is really intriguing to look at, and see all the intricate little gears working away. Quite steampunky really! My dad used to mend clocks and watches and it’s always amazed me that people can actually construct something so delicate and tiny. The back is transparent as well, so you can see everything working.
It’s a lovely warm rose gold colour with a nice clear dial. The later model has a much wider chapter ring and it isn’t nearly as attractive, so we were very pleased to find this particular one. Of course, the photo doesn’t really do it justice – it’s so nice and shiny and bright! I have been winding it regularly since it arrived. He loves it. I know how thrilled he going to be, wearing this, and he’s promised to keep it for best, which means not in the workshop or going boating! (It is water resistant, though.) Everyone admired it today and said how cool it was.
This is what it looked like wrapped.
Now for his card. A few weeks ago, he told me he had had an extraordinary dream, that Lily had gone hang-gliding! He said he was very worried about her floating away. I decided to depict this strange event on his birthday card. At Easter time we were given an Easter egg that had a rather nice pattern of clouds and balloons on the box, and I kept this, thinking it would be really good for the background of this card.
In my stash, I have quite a lot of sheets of A4 paper printed with a cloud design. I very rarely use it, but occasionally it comes in handy, so I cut a couple of sheets down to size, one for the front and the other for the inside of the card. I fussy-cut some of the clouds from the Easter egg box, as well as some of the balloons, and the little bird, and assembled these on the card front.
I mounted a few of the elements on foam squares to provide a bit of dimension.
The front of the card complete.
After this, I forgot to photograph the different stages, so here is the completed inside of the card.
I drew the cats on heavy cardstock and coloured them with watercolour pencils, and then cut them out. They were embossed from the back with a ball-ended embossing tool and Ruby at the bottom was stuck down with Pinflair gel glue. I added the remainder of the clouds and balloons and drew on the balloon strings.
I cut Lily and the hang glider separately, and bent the hang glider into a gentle curve. Lily was attached to it with a short strip of acetate, and I used another to attach the hang glider to the card, so they move independently of each other. My hubby had done a sketch of his dream for me to see, and I took the design from this. As soon as he saw it, he was delighted, and said that was exactly how he’d dreamed it!
I’ve not been feeling too well lately and also I’ve been busy with other things, so this was the first time I’d been in my studio for weeks. I made it yesterday. It was nice to get back in there and actually make something, and the whole thing was completed in a single afternoon. I’d already told my hubby I thought it was unlikely I’d be able to make him a card this year, which he quite understood, but in the end, I couldn’t let this milestone birthday go by without making an effort and producing a unique card for him!
Our other sister-in-law had made a beautiful cake with 7 candles on it (not 70 unfortunately!!) and on the top of the cake there were photos of them! I’m not sure how this was done but you could eat the icing complete with pictures. I asked if I could eat my hubby lol!
It was really great to have the whole family there, all together. This is a fairly rare occurrence because at Christmas various members have to go to their in-laws, and at other times of the year they have different work commitments etc. Being a special birthday, and also their elder brother having just had his 75th, they all made a special effort to be there, and we had a really great party.
