I finished shopping for Mabel Watson Payne's birthday presents over the weekend. None too soon either, since the big day is rushing toward us this Tuesday (though the party in Golden Gate Park will not take place until Saturday). When asked, Mabel told me and told her parents on several different occasions that she wanted a backpack all her own (Daddy and Mamma share a
nifty blue one and Grandpa is never seen without his
utilitarian big black one – the latter functioning something like Santa Claus's magic sack, as a frequent source of little gifts). This explicit wish on Mabel's part made me very glad to find this quite small blazing yellow lightweight rectangular backpack at
Cliff's this weekend. My favorite Castro variety store was also where I got seduced by the above-pictured toys – to be discovered disguised as tissue-paper bundles inside the yellow backpack when Mabel opens it.
Gifts of clothing predominate this year, as usual, in spite of the backpack-indulgence. And this year I remembered to take fashion-photos just before wrapping, because in the chaos of unwrapping there will be little or no chance to show what the garments look like.
The brightly figured tissue paper, matte blue wrapping paper and tangerine satin ribbon all came from
Flax, as did the blank card with built-in pocket for insertion of personal photograph to define and decorate the front.
