LEAF it to My Sister

Well, the end of January has come upon us once more and I find myself another year older. If you follow this blog, you know that my sister and I celebrate our birthdays with themed gifts and this year she went all out with her selection of "Turn Over a New Leaf" inspired by my resolution word of 2010 which is Turnover.

Each gift had a little leaf tag with written clues as to what was inside the package. For example, the eye mask shown above had the leaf clue of "Turn over a new leaf...rather than turning over in your sleep."

It was delightful to open each package and try to guess what could be inside...I ended up with many items that will help me in my quest to be a better person inside and out for this year of 2011 including brown rice products, leaf earrings, exercise power cords and even a recipe book with 500 low carb selections to prepare. Way to go, Sis! Then we headed out to eat lunch. How perfect was it to eat at the Basil Leaf Cafe in Lincoln Park? The food was divine. Following lunch, we walked over to the Lincoln Park Conservatory (get it? lots of leaves there) and had our own personal docent tour us through the indoor plantings of palm trees, ferns, orchids and special exhibit.

Never before have I gotten so excited about the fiddleheads of ferns about to pop out of the center. Truly a living piece of artwork!

We also learned much about the growth of orchids...did you know that there are more types of orchids than types of mammals? That was certainly the fun fact of the day for me!

It was simply the best way to celebrate the entry into the second half of the birthday decade. Leaf it to my sister to find a way to bring warmth and green in the midst of all this cold and white snow we are having these days. Thank you from the bottom of my bloomin' heart!