Happy Birthday To Me
So I don't have anything special planned for my birthday today but THE UNIVERSE had other ideas, because I got several completely random super-nice "you rock!" emails from strangers this morning. So thank you, Universe, and thank you, random people who woke up this morning and decided to send me a nice email!
If you wanted to do something nice in celebration of me having been alive a whole 'nother year, I would love it if you decided to pay someone (someone ELSE, not me, I'm over quota on compliments-receiving already and it's only lunchtime) a compliment today.
Go ahead and tell your barista you like their piercings, or stop someone in the grocery store and comment favorably on their shoes. Tell a parent "Your child is so cute, and so well-behaved!" Tell a dog-owner "Your dog is so cute, and so well-behaved!" Tell someone you work with how you've noticed Cool Thing X they've done lately. Go on, be creative! Be profligate, even, with your compliments, because Compliment Someone Because Erin Said So Day comes but once a year.
(Once you've complimented someone, you also have my permission to treat yourself to a cupcake, or other frosted baked good. Have fun!)
Labels: birthdays, cake, compliments
posted by Erin @ 1:43 PM
36 Comments:
At Aug 12, 2009 2:14:00 PM,
Little Hunting Creek said…
Happy Birthday! In your honor, I told my husband he was right about something...little does he know that day when he will be right about something will only come once a year.
At Aug 12, 2009 2:27:00 PM,
Vegan said…
Happy birthday, Erin! And thank you for a fun, interesting, entertaining blog!
At Aug 12, 2009 3:20:00 PM,
Jess said…
It's my birthday too! Happy Birthday! I think I'll go sew now...
At Aug 12, 2009 5:07:00 PM,
lucitebox said…
I saw a darling sundress on a lady on the street and said, "GREAT dress! Is it new or vintage?"
She said, "H&M!" I said, "You look adorable in it. What a cute dress."
But this all happened before I knew about your wishes, so happy birthday! You're an amazing lady with great taste in clothes. Now I will go find someone else to compliment in your honor.
At Aug 12, 2009 6:03:00 PM,
Katherine said…
Happy Birthday Erin! I try to give out a compliment a day, but in honor of you, I'm going to go positively nutty with compliments! Hope you have a great day, and a fantastic year in your new home!
At Aug 12, 2009 6:34:00 PM,
Mimi said…
Happy Birthday!
At Aug 12, 2009 7:22:00 PM,
Nadine said…
Happy Birthday, gorgeous! I'm big on compliments anyway, but I will try to go extra hard today.
At Aug 12, 2009 7:58:00 PM,
Michelle said…
OH! Happy birthday (and I've accidentally already taken you up on your last command there : ) I'm vicariously sharing it with you now : )
I do really enjoy your blog - esp. love the pattern stories!
At Aug 12, 2009 8:34:00 PM,
Birgit said…
Well, Happy Birthday!
At Aug 12, 2009 9:30:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
Happy B-day!!
The best wishes for you. I really enjoy your blog....you inspired me to sew!
At Aug 12, 2009 9:50:00 PM,
deanne said…
Happy Birthday Erin! xo
At Aug 12, 2009 10:25:00 PM,
propriatress said…
happiest b day to you... I was nice all day, tho I wanted to &$(#@%! I just thought...WWDADD...mmm, be nice and casual and cool...and use good language..;-)
At Aug 13, 2009 2:12:00 AM,
xstpenguin said…
Day late - but all good wishes to you. You are a truly generous soul, many thanks for all you do!
Cheers,
AJ
At Aug 13, 2009 5:18:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Happy Birthday yesterday! Aren't us leo's the best?! :-)
At Aug 13, 2009 5:33:00 AM,
oracle said…
Happy Birthday, Erin!
Complimenting people is such an important thing to do. It's related to appreciating people, I guess. When I turned 16 in 1973, a friend gave me a little book for my birthday. It's called, "Living from Within: The art of Appreciation in Marriage, Parenthood, Work, Growing Up, and Growing Older," by Dr. David Goodman. I still have it. The message of the book is that when we appreciate people and things, they grow and become more than what they were. If we belittle them, they diminish and become less. I came from a family where belittlement was the order of the day, so the idea of appreciating someone was very new to me. But I loved it. I tentatively began to try it, like the book said, starting out with just one expression of appreciation per day. So if I thought something good about something a person was doing or wearing or whatever it was, I would shyly voice it. The effect it had on people was amazing. I would watch them transform before my eyes. They might look surprised at first, then pleased, and after that their energy would seem much lighter than it had. I do it to this day. It helps with intimates when the tensions of living together are getting to you; it can help to balance things. Even if you've been tense with each other all day, you can say, "You made a fantastic meal; thank you." What a difference! And it helps strangers. I love to do it when out walking in my local town or in the streets of Toronto when I'm visiting. I'm no longer shy about it and can call out to someone who's walking past me, "I love your glasses!" Or even, "I love your style!" To see the looks on people's faces and the pleasure a compliment gives them makes my day for me. And more often than I might have thought, the surprised look on their face and the smile that grows as they realize that compliment really was for them shows that the person was lost in some kind of darkness in their own life and the random compliment was like a ray of light that somehow got in there and perhaps reminded them that life isn't all darkness. It's amazing what a little compliment can do.
Thanks Erin, for encouraging us to do this. You are a very generous person.
At Aug 13, 2009 9:38:00 AM,
DragonPoodle said…
happy birthday Erin
and wow to oracle--what a great transformational story
I'm off to look for someone to compliment!
At Aug 13, 2009 10:19:00 AM,
bani said…
Happy birthday Erin! :)
At Aug 13, 2009 10:47:00 AM,
angldst said…
Happy birthday, Erin, and thanks for posting in the past about Spoonflower. I make my husband's shirts for work and he likes 'unique' fabrics. So he's uploaded his first design and a sample swatch is on its way.
-d
At Aug 13, 2009 11:02:00 AM,
Lisa Simeone said…
Compliment, Erin, e tanti auguri!
At Aug 13, 2009 11:18:00 AM,
Anonymous said…
Happy Birthday Erin and thanks for
a wonderful blog - it's the first
thing I read each day before I start working.
Enjoy.
At Aug 13, 2009 2:06:00 PM,
Penny said…
Happy Birthday Erin, just dropping in to wish you another wonderful year full of good wishes, happiness, and another great blogging year to you and your family.. I cannot imagine life without Dress a Day blogging and updated fashion news!!!...
At Aug 13, 2009 7:59:00 PM,
Cookie said…
I told a lady in our mirrored elevator today, "Stop fussing with your SSSSHHHHHIN-YAWWWWN" (overly-enounceated French accent) "You're beautiful enough! And you're making the rest of us look bad!"
She laughed.
At Aug 13, 2009 9:28:00 PM,
India said…
I would have sent you a nice e-mail, but at the moment when I realized it was your birthday, I was in an airport where signing up to get wifi proved impossible. But I saw it was your birthday, and I went all, "Awww!"
Happy birthday, belatedly!
At Aug 13, 2009 10:24:00 PM,
Lisa @ the Vintage Fashion Library said…
Happy birthday, Erin, even if I'm late to the party (as usual). I hope it was a great one.
At Aug 14, 2009 7:51:00 AM,
Scheherazaad said…
Happy Birthday! Thank you for your another year of inspiring blogging
At Aug 14, 2009 10:23:00 AM,
ambika said…
Happy Birthday!
I don't know if there's a lot of crossover readers of Dress a Day and Style Bubble (I hope I'm not the only one) but I thought I'd share this Liberty Print Flash Mob that Susie almost participated in recently:
http://www.stylebubble.co.uk/style_bubble/2009/08/the-curse-of-the-55-busand-some-liberty-print.html
I immediately wondered if you'd known about it!
At Aug 14, 2009 1:47:00 PM,
Ivalyn "Tee" Jones-Actie said…
Happy Birthday fellow Leo...I celebrated on Aug 3...let the compliments begin! Great idea!
At Aug 14, 2009 1:56:00 PM,
Fairmaiden327 said…
Happy Birthday. I am a dress lover and had been reading your blog on and off since about 2006.
Hope you have a lovely day.
At Aug 14, 2009 7:44:00 PM,
natalia said…
Happy birthday!!
At Aug 14, 2009 9:09:00 PM,
Packrat said…
Happy belated birthday. I hope you are settling into your new home.
At Aug 15, 2009 4:01:00 AM,
Nancy said…
Happy belated birthday with many happy returns of the day ... what fun you are having! I hope you don't mind if I put a link to your blog on my blog.
At Aug 15, 2009 2:06:00 PM,
Lizzy said…
I hope you have had a great bday!Love your blog!
At Aug 16, 2009 10:26:00 AM,
Sheila / out of the ashes collectibles said…
Happy Belated Birthday! No cupcake or cake for me I'll toast you with a margarita tonite. Hope you had a lovely birthday in your new home.
At Aug 21, 2009 12:09:00 PM,
Mary said…
I am a bit slow in catching up on blogs. I was gone for my birthday, also the 12th.
SO, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY to us.
I love your blog, very creative and ver prolific. Keep up the inspiration.
At Aug 24, 2009 12:10:00 AM,
MinaW said…
Right now I'm working retail, so I see a lot of people, and I probably compliment 20 or so a day on their dresses, tops, skirts, or jewelry.
Especially dresses. Have all of you noticed how many wonderful dresses there are out there this year?!!
Now, while I wouldn't claim that that is all entirely due to Erin and Dressaday, I don't think that the current renaissance of the dress is coincidence either.
Keep up the good work. (I know you will.)
At Aug 25, 2009 10:44:00 AM,
Eirlys said…
Better file this under 'Belated Belated Birthday Greetings'. Hope you can still remember what you did on your birthday, Erin, and that it surpassed all expectations. D- for punctuality, but I hope to score higher on the compliments assignment. Nice thought.
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