Delayed Birthday Gratification

I love it when my birthday lasts for weeks!  Today I received a cupcake from Jilly's cupcake bar on my porch from Shawnee!  It was a "Missylicious" cupcake, which I believe is vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream.  Shawnee is living in Kalamazoo, Michigan and orchestrated this cupcake delivery from afar.  Thanks, Shawnee!

Last Friday night, Katie took me out for a fancy dinner for my birthday!!  We went to a swanky restaurant in Clayton called Araka.  We ordered a couple glasses of wine.

Katie ordered butternut squash soup with a balsamic dribble on top to start:

I got a ceasar salad with "potato croutons" to start:

Then, I got a butternut squash-filled ravioli with a parmesan foam and crispy fried sage:

Katie got a pork dish with some apples and sweet potato gnocchi:

Me with my food (and my really cute new dress that I got from H&M, too bad you can't see the whole dress):

I'm also wearing my brand new necklace custom made by none other than Katie of Scarlett Garnet.  I will have to take another photograph of it for the blog, but it's a metal cutout of a turtle (my request, as the turtle is a Native American symbol of fertility).

Here is the lovely Katie:

Thanks for making my birthday stretch out over a week girls!!  It's more fun when you have little surprises to look forward to over a period of time!