I am a birthday fanatic. I'm not saying I don't occasionally mess up, but typically I'm a pretty big celebrator of other people's birthdays. At least I try to be. I think really hard (perhaps too hard) about gift giving. I have certainly had presents fall flat, but it is not for lack of effort.

I really love birthday themes, and this will sometimes get me into trouble. For my friend Kristen's birthday (I showed a sneak peak of her package here), I went with a Sewing/Irish theme. (I don't recall saying that my themes MAKE SENSE, so just stay calm. "Sewing/Irish" is perfectly legit. In addition to some quilting supplies and pincushion, I sent her these Irish items as we have long been fascinated with Ireland and Irish accents. Ok, truthfully, we love ALL accents. This hilarious Irish Accent breath spray came from Patina.)

With Mr. Bunny Slippers' birthday fast approaching, I am in full scale birthday melt down. I secretly wanted to go with a Pirate theme, but then remembered that he has no real interest in pirates. (Yes, sometimes my themes are purely selfish. I just wanted to put all of the packages in a treasure chest and use treasure map wrapping paper.) He is incredibly challenging to buy for, and I have had to resort to begging for hints. Irritatingly, my dad is like this too. Even when you KNOW what you want to get him, he will undoubtedly want to choose it himself because invariably you will have purchased the wrong size or model or worse yet have gotten the thing at the wrong price.

He is also insisting that he doesn't want a cake which is a huge blow for me as I love to make desserts and really want him to feel celebrated. I had plans this year to attempt a Martha cake (the famous triple chocolate mousse – see more “real life shots” at the Year of Cakes Flickr Pool), but I don't see how I'll have time to make it in secret. And if you're going to spend all day baking an illegal and supremely complicated dessert, you better not do it when the recipient is there muttering about how he didn't want a birthday cake anyway.

And please don't get me started on how totally unfair it is that my mother's birthday coincides with Father's day weekend. Her hints are horrible. She frequently asks for completely dreadful and unselfish presents like a shoe rack or a laundry hamper. As if.