Birthdays!

I follow in the tradition of all the great Capricorns whose birthdays fall somewhere between Christmas Day and New Year's Day: self-promote, or risk having your special day be forgotten in the fog of holiday madness. My birthday is December 27th (Marlene Deitrich, Gerard Dépardieu) and I have no qualms about shamelessly screaming this from the proverbial mountain top. To help myself celebrate, and to help us all remember that birthdays are fun and special, no matter the time of year, I thought I'd mention the amazing assortment of birthday ideas in the 2011 January issue of Martha Stewart Living. Filled with downloadable clip-art and all sorts of colourful ideas, the feature article is sure to leave you inspired. Happy Holidays. And Happy Birthday. (To me.)

Transform a space in an instant with a series of giant paper globes and medallions. A sophisticated cake and flutes filled with champagne say that this is no kid's party. For sources, click here.

Among the clip-art downloads that are available are these printed numbers. The editors suggest to use them to wrap around chocolate bars as gift favours. Remove the original wrapper from the bar, add a band of plain coloured paper and then another band of paper with the number(s) printed on them. Click here to download the clip-art.Honour the birthday boy or girl with monograms. Fashion them from wire, glitter or wax and hang them on a wall, prop them up on a table, or set them on a cake. Click here for sources. Among the suggested use of letters and lettering are these bold characters: Use them on invitations or string them together to make a banner spelling a name or a word of your choice. Click here for the clip-art.