Happy Birthday Mom!

November 17th is my mother's birthday. I don't think she would mind my telling you how old she is but let's just say she looks terrific for someone in her 80's! She was a precious and precocious three year old in this photo. And those cheeks! What a cutie pie! I wonder if my grandmother knitted that hat and sweater for her...

Mom studied fashion design at MacDowell in Manhattan and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and worked a few years before she got married. She specialized in wedding gowns at Fara's House of Design in White Plains, NY. She designed her own wedding and bridesmaids gowns.
When she retired from full time work to raise a family she used her wonderful talents to make school clothes for my sister and me. We always had such a beautiful wardrobe because she would improvise on patterns to make them her own. And Halloween had to be her favorite holiday of the year. She would start planning our costumes months in advance and make unique costumes like the handpainted butterfly wings that spanned about four feet across or the Cleopatra dress with a fully sequinned collar and "golden" headress. Every year my sister and I would look forward to seeing what character we would get to portray.

I am thankful to have a mom with so many talents and blessed that she taught some to me.
Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!!!